Sadie When She Died

3

Ralph Corwin made his confession in the presence of two detectives of the 87th Squad, a police stenographer, an assistant district attorney, and a lawyer appointed by the Legal Aid Society. The man from the D.A.’s office conducted the Q and A.

Q: What is your name, please?

A: Ralph Corwin.

Q: Where do you live, Mr. Corwin?

A: 894 Woodside Avenue. In Riverhead.

Q: Will you relate to us, please, the events that took place on the night of December twelfth. That would be last night, Mr. Corwin, Sunday, December twelfth.

A: Where do you want me to start?

Q: Did you enter a building at 721 Silvermine Oval?

A: I did.

Q: How did you enter the building?

A: First I went down the steps from the street, where the garbage cans were. I went in the basement, and through the basement and up the steps at the other end, into the backyard. Then I climbed up the fire escape.

Q: What time was this?

A: I went in the building at about ten o’clock.

Q: Ten P . M .?

A: Yes, ten P . M .

Q: What did you do then?

A: I went in an apartment.

Q: Which apartment?

A: Second-floor rear.

Q: Why did you go into the apartment?

A: To rip it off.

Q: To burglarize it?

A: Yes.

Q: Had you ever been in this building before?

A: No. I never done nothing like this in my life before. Never. I’m a junkie, that’s true, but I never stole nothing in my life before this. Nor hurt nobody, either. I wouldn’t have stole now except this girl I was living with left me, and I was desperate. She used to give me whatever bread I needed. But she left me. Friday. She just walked out.

Q: Which girl is that?

A: Do we have to drag her in? She’s got nothing to do with it. She never done me no harm, I got no hard feelings toward her, even though she walked out. She was always good to me. I don’t want to drag her name in this.

Q: You say you had never been in this building before?

A: Never.

Q: Why did you pick this particular apartment to enter?

A: It was the first one I saw without no lights inside. I figured there was nobody home.

Q: How did you get into the apartment?

A: The kitchen window was open a tiny crack. I squeezed my fingers under the bottom of it, and opened it all the way.

Q: Were you wearing gloves?

A: No.

Q: Why not?

A: I don’t have no gloves. Gloves cost money. I’m a junkie.

Q: Weren’t you afraid of leaving fingerprints?

A: I figured that was crap. For the movies, you know? For television. Anyway, I don’t have no gloves, so what difference does it make?

Q: What did you do after you opened the window?

A: I stepped in the sink, and then down to the floor.

Q: Then what?

A: I had this little flashlight. So I used it to find my way across the kitchen to the dining room.

Q: Would you look at this photograph, please?

A: Yeah?

Q: Is this the kitchen you were in?

A: I don’t know. It was dark. I guess it could be. I don’t know.

Q: What did you do in the dining room?

A: I found where they kept the silverware, and I emptied the drawer and put the stuff in this airlines bag I had with me. I had to go to Chicago last month because my father died, so I went by plane, and I bought this little airlines bag. My girlfriend paid for me to fly out there. She was a great girl, I wish I could figure why she left. I wouldn’t be in this trouble now, if she’d stayed, you know that? I never stole nothing in my life, nothing, I swear to God. And I never hurt nobody. I don’t know what got into me. I must’ve been scared out of my wits. That’s the only thing I can figure.

Q: Where did you go when you left the dining room?

A: I was looking for the bedroom.

Q: Was the flashlight on?

A: Yeah. It’s just this little flashlight. A penlight is what they call them. A tiny little thing, you know? So you can have some light.

Q: Why were you looking for the bedroom?

A: I figured that’s where people leave watches and rings, stuff like that. I was going to take whatever jewelry I could find and then get out. I’m not a pro, I was just hung up real bad and needed some bread to tide me over.

Q: Did you find the bedroom?

A: I found it.

Q: What happened?

A: There was a lady in bed. This was only like close to ten-thirty, you don’t expect nobody to be asleep so early, you know what I mean? I thought the apartment was empty.

Q: But there was a woman in bed.

A: Yeah. She turned on the light the minute I stepped in the room.

Q: What did you do?

A: I had a knife in my pocket. I pulled it out.

Q: Why?

A: To scare her.

Q: Would you look at this knife, please?

A: Yeah, it’s mine.

Q: This is the knife you took from your pocket?

A: Yeah. Yes.

Q: Did the woman say anything to you?

A: Yeah, it was almost comical. I mean, when I think back on it, it was comical, though at the time I was very scared. But it was like a movie, you know? Just like a movie. She looks at me and she says “What are you doing here?” Which is funny, don’t you think? I mean, what did she think I was doing there?

Q: Did you say anything to her?

A: I told her to keep quiet, that I wasn’t going to hurt her.

Q: Then what?

A: She got out of bed. Not all the way, she just threw the covers back, and swung her legs over the side, you know? Sitting, you know? I didn’t realize what was happening for a minute, and then I saw she was reaching for the phone. That’s got to be crazy, right? A guy is standing there in your bedroom with a knife in his hand, so she reaches for the phone.

Q: What did you do?

A: I grabbed her hand before she could get it. I pulled her off the bed, away from the phone, you know? And I told her again that nobody was going to hurt her, that I was getting out of there right away, to just please calm down.

Q: You said that?

A: What?

Q: You asked her to calm down?

A: I don’t know if those were the exact words, but I told her like to take it easy because I could see she was getting hysterical.

Q: Would you look at this photograph, please? Is this the bedroom you were in?

A: Yeah. There’s the night table with the phone on it, and there’s the window I went out. That’s the room.

Q: What happened next?

A: She started to scream.

Q: What did you do when she screamed?

A: I told her to stop. I was beginning to panic by now. I mean, she was really yelling.

Q: Did she stop?

A: No.

Q: What did you do?

A: I stabbed her.

Q: Where did you stab her?

A: I don’t know. It was a reflex. She was yelling, I was afraid the whole building would come down. I just . . . I just stuck the knife in her. I was very scared.

Q: Did you stab her in the chest?

A: No.

Q: Where?

A: The belly. Someplace in the belly.

Q: How many times did you stab her?

A: Once. She . . . she backed away from me, I’ll never forget the look on her face. And she . . . she fell on the floor.

Q: Would you look at this photograph, please?

A: Oh, Jesus.

Q: Is that the woman you stabbed?

A: Oh, Jesus. Oh, Jesus, I didn’t think . . . oh, Jesus.

Q: Is that the woman?

A: Yes. Yes, that’s her. Yes.

Q: What happened next?

A: Can I have a drink of water?

Q: Get him a drink of water. You stabbed her, and she fell to the floor. What happened next?

A: There was . . .

Q: Yes?

A: There was somebody at the door. I heard the door opening. Then somebody came in.

Q: Came into the apartment?

A: Yes. And yelled her name.

Q: From the front door?

A: I guess. From someplace at the other end of the apartment.

Q: Called her name?

A: Yeah. He yelled, “Sarah!” and when he got no answer, he yelled, “Sarah, it’s me, I’m home.”

Q: Then what?

A: I knew I was trapped. I couldn’t go out the way I come in because this guy was home. So I ran past the . . . the woman where she was laying on the floor . . . Jesus . . . and I tried to open the window, but it was stuck. So I smashed it with the airlines bag and . . . I didn’t know what to do . . . I was on the second floor, how was I going to get out? I threw the bag down first because I figured no matter what happened I was going to need bread for another fix, and then I climbed through the broken window—I cut my hand on a piece of glass—and I hung down from the sill, scared to let go, and finally I let go, I had to let go.

Q: Yes?

A: I must’ve dropped a mile, it felt like a mile. The minute I hit, I knew I busted something. I tried to get up, and I fell right down. My ankle was killing me, my hand was bleeding. I must’ve been in that alley ten, fifteen minutes, trying to stand up, falling down, trying again. I finally made it. I finally got out of that alley.

Q: Where did you go?

A: Through the basement and up to the street. The way I come in.

Q: And where did you go from there?

A: I took the subway home. To Riverhead. I turned on the radio right away to see if there was anything about . . . about what I done. But there wasn’t. So I tried to go to sleep, but the ankle was very bad, and I needed a fix. I went to see Dr. Mendelsohn in the morning because I figured it was like life or death, you know what I mean? If I couldn’t get around, how was I going to make a connection?

Q: When did you visit Dr. Mendelsohn?

A: Early. Nine o’clock. Nine A . M .

Q: Is he your family physician?

A: I never saw him before in my life. He’s around the corner from where I live. That’s the only reason I picked him, because he was close. He strapped up the ankle, but it didn’t do no good. I still can’t walk on it, I’m like a lousy cripple. I told him to bill me for it. I was going to pay him as soon as I got some bread. That’s why I gave him my right name and address. I wasn’t going to cheat him. I’m not that kind of person. I know that what I done is bad, but I’m not a bad person.

Q: When did you learn that Mrs. Fletcher was dead?

A: I bought a newspaper on the way home from the doctor’s. The story was in it. That’s when I knew I killed her.

Q: You did not know until then?

A: I did not know how bad it was.