Ralph Corwin was apparently a rank amateur.
His name was in the phone book, and the address he’d given the doctor was as true as the day was long.
They kicked in the door without warning, fanning into the room, guns drawn.
The man on the bed was wearing only undershorts. His right ankle was taped. The bedsheets were soiled, and the stench of vomit in the close, hot room was overpowering.
“Are you Ralph Corwin?” Carella asked.
“Yes,” the man said. His face was drawn, the eyes squinched in pain.
“Police officers,” Carella said.
“What do you want?”
“We want to ask you some questions. Get dressed, Corwin.”
“There’s nothing to ask,” he said, and turned his head into the pillow. “I killed her.”
3
R alph 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?