This is the final installment of Erna Janoschek in her Own Words. Click here to begin at Part 1.

Erna’s narrative of the murder continues, picking up on the night of the murder. Erna is alone with the girls.

“It was not until the last pot and pan was in its place, and I was shining the stove that an alien thought rushed to my mind. From where did it come? Why? How?

“I attempt no conjecture. It remained and I didn’t endeavor to get rid of it. Scarcely was the thought born before I was planning to act upon it. Within a half an hour I found myself sitting by Tee Tee’s bed writing her a farewell poem.

“While thus engaged, Mrs. Liliencrantz’ mother dropped in to see how the children were. I tucked the sheet of paper in my blouse and rushed to the front hall to welcome her. After scanning nearly every room in the house and giving me a strong reason to believe that she knew about my intending to leave, she left.

“’‘She doesn’t know the half of it!’ I laughed. I pulled out my half-formed poem and continued to scribble. I smiled as I reread the gruesome lines. I could hardly make up my mind whether I was serious. Not once did I feel the pricks of a better nature. I doubt I have one. My conscience was callous.

“As soon as the poem was written, I disarranged the kitchen. God only knows the reason for this erroneous procedure. I scattered oranges about the room, threw out a cake and a quantity of salt, inverted the fruit bowl; and was on the verge of breaking some of the dishes, but I decided not to be destructive. Oh, mad hour! Where was God?

“I returned to the bedroom, regarded the sleeping children again, stifled a mad variety of thoughts.

“I chose for my victim the one I loved. ‘More dramatic,’ I said. I laughed as the scripture came to me ‘Two shall be sleeping in a bed. One shall be taken and the other left.’

“Little Tee Tee blinked as I carried her gently upstairs. I marveled at my own adeptness as I quickly pulled the towel about her throat. One moment she looked into my eyes and cried. In another moment she was unconscious, I continued to pull even after she had ceased to writhe, to make certain that she was dead. Still doubtful, I slipped a bathing cap over her face and head. With all air excluded, it would be impossible for her to live long. I looked to see if she was heaving. Once I imagined that I discerned a twitch of the hand.

“For the first time I grew a bit nervous. Recklessly I pulled the towel tighter and then slipped the body between the mattresses. After kneeling on top for five or ten minutes, I left the room. Within 15 minutes I gave the body a final inspection. Only a lifeless mass remained.

“I phoned to the City Hall, and as I awaited the officers, I took out the little death poem again. I planned to pin it on the baby, but an afterthought prompted me to keep it in my possession. I folded the sheet into as small a bulk as possible and slipped it at the back of my cheek where jail matrons would never think to look.

“Thus, serenely I folded my hands and waited for fate to take its course.”

“ERNA JANOSCHEK”

Erna displayed some odd behavior in court. She laughed when she saw the cameras outside, then she cried. She smiled as she listened to the testimony of the father of the slain baby.

Dr. G. R. Chamberlain, one of the court-appointed alienists, testified Erna confessed to a prior impulse to kill. “Long before the present crime,” he said, “she stood in the basement of her school looking out at the playground and decided to execute the perfect crime. She’d kill a child, do away with the body, and escape detection. Something deterred her. She didn’t carry out her scheme. She is slightly abnormal, but not enough to disturb her responsibility.”

Dr. Sydney Smith said when Erna was at school, she washed her face obsessively, “upwards of 100 times a day.” Once she used Clorox.

Dr. Robert Richards testified, “This defendant fully realized the nature and quality of her act. Her habit of smiling while discussing her crime is emotional stress. She’s an unusual child—secretive, dramatic— inclined to exaggerate her own importance.”

The defense staked everything on the insanity plea but the experts were unanimous in declaring Erna sane.

Inspector O’Donnell testified that when the defendant called the police, she said, “The maid at 1109 Mandana Boulevard strangled a baby.” Ignoring his questions, she said, “Send your men and you’ll find out!”

When the police arrived,  Erna told them she was the maid who killed the baby and that Mr. and Mrs. Liliencrantz were away. “They took a ferry to San Francisco and left me in charge. I began thinking about the heavy work Mrs. Liliencrantz was putting on me. She deliberately mussed up the house so I’d have more to do. She used to leave money around to see if I would take it…I decided to kill one of the babies. I thought I’d kill Francora but she’s three. She’s too big. I hated to kill Diana because she was my favorite, but—well, it was easier.” The officers asked why she killed Diana, but Erna said she wasn’t sure “except I didn’t like her mother and her mother didn’t like me.”

Erna’s mother refused to blame her daughter. Mrs. Janoschek told reporters, “Erna didn’t have to work, she wanted to. She started when school let out. Erna told us her work was awfully hard—almost 15 hours day. Oh, she’s just a child. She should not be punished like a grownup if she has done this thing.” Her daughter was very fond of Diana. In fact her only fault was a tendency to become melancholy. “She loved the baby so much,” Mrs. Janoschek added. “There must be another side to this–my daughter’s side.”

When Erna took the stand, her voice was natural and she was relaxed. At times she smiled pleasantly in answer to her attorney’s questions. “Mrs. Liliencrantz quarreled with me that morning,” she testified. With a casual glance at the jury, she said, “I was cleaning the stove when the idea popped into my head to strangle the baby. I killed the one she loved most to get even. I don’t feel any remorse. I don’t feel at all.”

“Didn’t you realize the consequences?” the DA demanded.

“I saw everything that would come, except I didn’t think my sanity would be brought up.”

The DA was curious. “Do you think you are insane?”

“No,” the girl answered.

Judge Fred V. Wood declared Erna guilty of murder in the first degree in his Oakland courtroom on September 24, 1928. The defendant’s crime was “abnormal, deliberate, malicious and premeditated.”

The judge sentenced her to life in prison in San Quentin. She later spent some time in the asylum, but the majority of her sentence was served in prison, where she passed her time writing poetry.

She was transferred to another prison and in 1940, she was released and placed under lifetime parole, after serving 12 years. She got married at age 29 and moved back to Oakland, where she studied music. With a new name the newspapers did not disclose, no one connected her with her infamous crime.

Erna didn’t want to be on parole. She sent a plea to California Governor Earl Warren to commute the rest of her sentence. Her wish was granted in October 1953 and her sentence was commuted to time served. At age 42 and no longer on parole, Erna was eligible to regain her civil rights.

That’s the end of this dreadful story! I think it’s the worst crime we ever covered on Old Spirituals.