Wilkie Fails To Post Bail Of $50,000

Camden Courier-Post, December 24, 1953

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Wilkie Fails To Post Bail Of $50,000 Probe Still Open; Will Confer On Funeral Sgt. John V. Wilkie, Camden's "notebook cop," was transferred from the city jail to the county jail late Wednesday when he failed to raise $50.000 bail under which he is being held during the investigation of the fatal shooting Sunday of his son, James, 17.

Camden Courier-Post, December 24, 1953

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The $50,000 bail was ordered by Prosecutor Cohen after Wilkie confessed shooting his son in the head accidentally during a struggle for the policeman's service revolver in their Princess ave. home. Coroner John A. Healey, however, has listed the death of the youth as a suicide. Will Confer on Funeral "There are many discrepancies in the various versions Wilkie has told me and there have been changes in the story itself," Cohen said in commenting on the suicide report. Robert J. Blake, funeral director, said he planned to confer with the elder Wilkie today in the county jail on funeral arrangements for the youth. Blake said there had been no change in the position of Catholic officials, who have refused to permit burial of the youth in consecrated ground, in accordance with canonical law prohibiting such burial to suicides, except in cases of insanity.

Camden Courier-Post, December 24, 1953

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Prosecutor Cohen said he would permit the release of Wilkie, under guard, to attend his son's funeral. The prosecutor today said the investigation is still "open." Cohen questioned two surviving Wilkie children Wednesday on the events of last Sunday when James is said to have come home under the influence of liquor and got into a quarrel. The other children are Richard, 16, and Teresa, 14, both of whom seemed numbed by shock when they appeared in the prosecutor's office on the sixth floor of City Hall. According to the story told by the children and Paul Ragone, 15, of Moorestown, a friend, James came home at 1.30 a. m. Sunday and after words with Richard went upstairs and then reappeared with his father's service revolver. The others fled from the house and quoted James as saying: "If you don't come in, I'll shoot myself."

Camden Courier-Post, December 24, 1953

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Will Go Over House A minute later, they said, they heard a shot. Cohen said he had ordered an inspection of the entire house, as well as ballistics and chemical tests on the Wilkie revolver and the bullet which pierced the young man's head. The prosecutor said he had nothing to say on a psychiatric report by Dr. H. E. Yaskin, county consulting psychiatrist, who examined the policeman. "That is a confidential report and certainly nothing is going to be made public about the doctor's findings of the man's personality," the prosecutor said. Wilkie walked into the prosecutor's office shortly after 1 p. m. Tuesday and "confessed" he killed his son accidentally during the struggle for the gun. There is a belief among some of the investigators that the policeman, who has been on sick leave, concocted his story in the hope Catholic Church officials could be prevailed upon to allow a Catholic burial for the son.

Probe Still Open; Will Confer On Funeral

Sgt. John V. Wilkie, Camden's "notebook cop," was transferred from the city jail to the county jail late Wednesday when he failed to raise $50.000 [sic] bail under which he is being held during the investigation of the fatal shooting Sunday of his son, James, 17.

The $50,000 bail was ordered by Prosecutor Cohen after Wilkie confessed shooting his son in the head accidentally during a struggle for the policeman's service revolver in their Princess ave. home.

Coroner John A. Healey, however, has listed the death of the youth as a suicide.

Will Confer on Funeral

"There are many discrepancies in the various versions Wilkie has told me and there have been changes in the story itself," Cohen said in commenting on the suicide report.

Robert J. Blake, funeral director, said he planned to confer with the elder Wilkie today in the county jail on funeral arrangements for the youth. Blake said there had been no change in the position of Catholic officials, who have refused to permit burial of the youth in consecrated ground, in accordance with canonical law prohibiting such burial to suicides, except in cases of insanity.

Prosecutor Cohen said he would permit the release of Wilkie, under guard, to attend his son's funeral.

The prosecutor today said the investigation is still "open." Cohen questioned two surviving Wilkie children Wednesday on the events of last Sunday when James is said to have come home under the influence of liquor and got into a quarrel. The other children are Richard, 16, and Teresa, 14, both of whom seemed numbed by shock when they appeared in the prosecutor's office on the sixth floor of City Hall.

According to the story told by the children and Paul Ragone, 15, of Moorestown, a friend, James came home at 1.30 a. m. Sunday and after words with Richard went upstairs and then reappeared with his father's service revolver. The others fled from the house and quoted James as saying: "If you don't come in, I'll shoot myself."

Will Go Over House

A minute later, they said, they heard a shot.

Cohen said he had ordered an inspection of the entire house, as well as ballistics and chemical tests on the Wilkie revolver and the bullet which pierced the young man's head.

The prosecutor said he had nothing to say on a psychiatric report by Dr. H. E. Yaskin, county consulting psychiatrist, who examined the policeman.

"That is a confidential report and certainly nothing is going to be made public about the doctor's findings of the man's personality," the prosecutor said.

Wilkie walked into the prosecutor's office shortly after 1 p. m. Tuesday and "confessed" he killed his son accidentally during the struggle for the gun.

There is a belief among some of the investigators that the policeman, who has been on sick leave, concocted his story in the hope Catholic Church officials could be prevailed upon to allow a Catholic burial for the son.