Caught in attack attempt, confesses murder

International News Photos (New York, N.Y.) · August 2, 1947

Arrested by police after a roof-top chase that followed an attempted attack on a girl in the basement of a McKeesport house, John Henry Fay (right) is shown as he was questioned by District Attorney Artemas C. Leslie (seated) and Chief County Detective Joseph Stack. Fay sprang a surprise by confessing the murder of five-year-old Carol Ann Thompson in Norristown, Pa., last May. Fay said he lured the five-year-old girl into an auto he had borrowed. "I put my hand over her moth until she was unconscious... I attacked her." Fay said he became panicky when he discovered the child was dead. He tossed her body into a well. It was found hours later by a small boy.