Fort Worth Gazette

BOY MURDERER
Ralph Ray, Who Murdered His Mother in Colorado, Captured—His Story of the Inhuman Crime.
DURANGO, Col., Sept. 28.—Ralph Ray, twenty years old, murderer of his mother, was captured Saturday evening in Canyon Largo, N. M., by Sheriff Longenecker, and returned to this city to-day. He made a confession to the sheriff last night, in which he gave the particulars of the crime. He said that after he and his mother had eaten breakfast last Wednesday morning he went to the barn and took two drinks of whisky from bottles he had hidden in the hay. Returning to the house, he informed his mother that he was going to Farmington, N. M., to attend the fair. Mrs. Ray remonstrated, not desiring to be left alone. This angered him and as his mother passed him for the door with a pan in her hand he struck her a terrible blow on the back of the head with a hatchet, sinking the iron into her head to the handle. She fell to the floor without a moan. The son then plunged his hunting knife into her breast three times, wrapped the body in a quilt, mounted his horse and started for Mexico. The father returned from his mine that night and the crime was discovered sooner than young Ray had expected, or he would have successfully made his way across the border. The murderer was arraigned this morning and without a tremor or the slightest indication of remorse pleaded guilty. Mr. Ray, the gray-haired father of the young murderer, has gone insane over the terrible affair, and his life is despaired of.