Jennie May Lepper was a 21-year-old showgirl and stage actress from Providence. She lived with her parents, woodworker William Lepper and his wife Alora (Beattie), while her infant son, Arthur Edward Lepper, lived with George and Sadie Evans on Laurel Hill Avenue in Cranston.

 Arthur was born to his unmarried mother on Feb. 14, 1909 in East Providence. Although he was taken into the Evans home shortly after his birth, no proof of legal adoption has been found. George Edward Evans, an ice wagon driver, was 30 years old at the time of Arthur's birth. His wife, Sadie Alice, was 32.

At 9:45 on the night of March 13, 1926, 17-year-old Arthur came out of the Park Theatre, across the street from the Mayflower Store, owned by Herold Hillman. A boy standing near the Mayflower called out to him, “What are you doing?”

 “I’m going to get a cross-town car and go home,” Arthur told him.

 At 10:00, Hillman locked up his store. His wife Pearl, who had brought supper to him around 6:00, just as she did every night, was expecting him to come straight home that evening to 38 Francis Street. When he hadn’t returned by midnight, she called police and a search was conducted. It wasn’t until the following morning, however, that a man discovered Hillman lying on his back on St. James Avenue beside his two-door Ford Sedan. He had received a blow to the right side of the head, two and half inches over the ear, and a bullet to the same area. Police had no idea who killed Hillman or why. Rewards for information leading to an arrest soon totaled $3,500.

Arthur had previously worked at the gas station of his foster grandfather, 71-year-old John Evans, on Park Avenue, not far from Hillman’s store. He and John didn’t get along very well and he was accused of stealing money and breaking a window. John eventually let him go and, shortly after the Hillman murder, Arthur left the ocean state for Penn.

 In April, knowing the trail leading to Hillman’s killer was still cold, John went to the police station and informed them that  he had seen Arthur in front of Hillman’s store on the night of the murder and that, if they could find him, he undoubtedly knew something about the crime.

 “You’re just sore on the kid and want to get something on him,” the police officer responded.

Before long, the foster family heard from Arthur. Having been arrested and incarcerated under the alias “John Hoyt”, he wrote from prison in York, Penn. asking for $412 to pay court costs and fines that had incurred from his stealing a car. The family refused to send him the money.

Written confession

 In Oct. 1927, the prison warden there contacted the RI Attorney General to inform him that “John Hoyt” had confessed to killing Hillman in 1926. A detailed, handwritten confession by Arthur reached RI detectives and they traveled to York to bring the prisoner back. Standing at 5’7 and weighing about 140 pounds, the blue-eyed brunette was pale-skinned and smoked incessantly. Known to friends as “Red,” Arthur talked freely and wrote out yet another detailed statement, explaining what he did, how he did it and why.

 According to Cranston police, he told them, “I didn't mean to kill the man. I never held a gun in my life before." When asked why he did it, he allegedly replied, “Because I wanted some money." According to the report, he claimed to know that Hillman took the money home from the store on Saturday nights.

Police took Arthur to the scene of the shooting where he reenacted the crime. He said Hillman’s car was parked across the street from the Mayflower Store and that he hid in the backseat. During the investigation, police had found the rubber band which had held the $150 missing store money as well as Hillman’s billfold, a short distance from his body. Arthur allegedly described to police how he had taken "a couple of dollars" from the billfold.

Proclaims his innocence

On March 14, 1929, after being found guilty of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison at hard labor, the judge asked Arthur if he had anything to say. He replied, “The only thing I have to say is that I’m innocent.”

 Arthur had recanted his entire confession. He explained that he had been sentenced to serve six months in York and that he feigned appendicitis to get out of the cell and into the prison hospital. There, he said some other inmates were talking about a prisoner who confessed to a Boston murder he didn’t commit just so he could go back home to Boston. Later, when they realized he was innocent, they allegedly just let him go. Arthur said he then decided to claim he was guilty of this crime he had read about in the paper just to get back home to RI. To prove he had made it all up, he explained that the first time he told the story, he had confessed to bashing in Hillman’s head with a wrench, but later changed it to the butt of a gun. “I don’t know any more about the murder than anyone else,” he said.

“Did you hit Hillman over the head?” he was asked in court. “I never hit anyone in my life,” he testified.

“I never had a gun.”

According to his written confession, he had bought a revolver two weeks before the murder and had decided that it was Hillman he would target just four days prior to the crime.

 In the courthouse, Arthur was not a likeable person. He seemed unworried, sitting with one leg thrown over the arm of the chair. Many times he took his comb out of his pocket and carefully ran it through his hair. He went out of his way to engage in gay small talk with anyone around him and made faces at reporters. He lazily rested his chin on his hands, staring blankly at the ceiling and fidgeted with anything around him as if bored. To many questions, he replied, “I don’t remember.” When asked if he recalled a previous line of questioning, he answered, “I didn’t pay any attention to him. I’m not interested.”

 But the defense wasn’t there to make people like him. They attempted to prove that a man could not physically fit behind the front seat of Hillman’s car and that although 24 witnesses had been called, there was not a single piece of irrefutable evidence linking Arthur to the crime.

The judge responded to Arthur’s final words. “As far as human agencies can determine, you are guilty of murder. If you are not guilty, a justice higher than ours will take care of you. And if you are innocent, this higher justice may provide ways for determining your innocence. And if that day comes, I'll be only too happy to help you prove your innocence."

Most people expected that Arthur’s biological mother would attend the hearing but she did not and no one seemed to know where she even was. Records show that Jennie was still in East Providence, living on Bullock’s Point Avenue. She was no longer a starlet, having married night clerk Howard Everett Anthony on May 18, 1916.

 His appeal for a new trial was denied but Arthur never stopped fighting for his freedom. On Jan. 28, 1966, he filed an appeal, stating that his detention was unlawful due to his not having been advised of his right to counsel prior to making a confession while in the custody of Cranston police. The record showed that he had voluntarily made the same confession to the prison warden in York.

 No record of his release has been found, however he left the confines of the Rhode Island Prison sometime during the late 1960s or 1970s because he died in Missouri in June of 1979 and is buried there in Memorial Park Cemetery. Jennie died in July of 1970. It isn’t known if they ever saw each other again after that day she placed him in the care of George and Sadie Evans.

Kelly Sullivan is a Rhode Island columnist, lecturer and author.