(seq. 2)

Friday, April 7, 1950
-ROCKY MOUNTAIN NEWS-6

Baby-Slayer
Paroled From
State Prison
By JACK MOHLER
Rocky Mountain News Writer

Bernice Williams is a free
woman today - free except for the
memory of five years behind the
grey walls os State Prison at Canon
City and the never-ending torment
of a tragedy-ridden past.

Four years, 10 months and eight
days ago the stately brunet entered
the penitentiary to serve a 10-to-
15-year sentence for slaying three
new-born children - all born to her
out of wedlock.

Parole Become Effective

At midnight last night, Bernice's
automatic parole became effective.
She was a "model prisoner" ac-
cording to Warden Roy Best and
her good behavior and work as a
trusty served to work for her re-
lease in minimum time.

A passionate appear by Bernice
last fall "to start 1950 in a free
world" failed to being a commuta-
tion of the sentence from Governor
Knous, who once ruled against her
in an appeal to the State Supreme
Court - of which he then was a
member.

The grisly details of the triple-
slaying unfolded in Denver 0 and
across the country - for week
after April 1943, when a janitor in
Bernice's apartment house found

Bernice Williams

the tiny, mummified bodies in a
basement trunk. Questionad by
police, Bernice readily admitted
drowning the infants in her bath-
tub, minutes after each birth.

Couldn't Care for Them

She told detectives she killed
the babies - born between 1941
and 1943 - because she could not
properly care for them and feared
for the future. The father or
fathers of the infants never were
named.

The bizarre case held the na-
tion's attention for many weeks.
These were some of the startling
disclosures:

Bernice had given birth to each
of the babies unattended in her
apartment bathroom. She had
worked steadily until within 24
hours of the time of delivery of
each child. Her co-workers - even
her own mother - never became
aware of the condition. She re-
ported back to work within two or
three days following each birth.

Bernice was an honor student at
North High School in Denver -
turning down a scholarship to a
nearby college upon graduation.
She evinced no obvious interest in
men and devited much of her
spare time to writing poetry. After
graduation, she held several re-
sponsible jobs - each one better
than the one before. At the time
of her arrest she was a buyer for a
large Denver department store.
Her emplyers were enthusiastic
about the tall and beautiful young
woman.

Free to Leave at Midnight

All these facts came to light
seven years ago but the details
mentioned here still can be re-
called by thousands of newspaper
readers and radio listeners.

With the coming in effect of her
automatic parole yesterday, Ber-