I, Henri Young, voluntarilly make this statement to Leslie Cooper and George Nelson on the thirty-first day of December, 1943, at Alcatraz Island, California.
On the twelfth day of October, 1934, I was released from Walla Walla Prison. From there I went to Chelas Washington and met Juanita Breham, the wife of a prison acquaintance whom I had met there. This woman bought a 32 automatic pistol for me in a hardware store at Centralia Washington. I used this gun in the holdup at Everett, Wash. in which I killed a man.
The events leading up to this crime are these: Sherman Baxter, Jack Baker and I were in Spokane, Washington. We decided to steal a car so as to get to Lind, Wash. I myself held up and kidnapped a cab driver later to pick up Sherman Baxter and Jack Baker outside of Spokane. It was dark and raining.
Jack Baker drove us through the night by way of Waterville to Wenatchee Washington. From there we went to Chelan Washington and slept in the car the remainder of the night. With morning we turned back to Wenatchee and got on the main highway towards Seattle. As I recall I wanted to go to Everett to steal some guns I had previously seen in a hardware store window there. We went through Chellum, on over a mountain, and down into a valley highway. After travelling along this highway awhile we saw a mass of signs directing travellers in two directions to the surrounding towns. Instead of holding to the main highway we turned off onto a pretty well cracked-up one and eventually came to Everett Washington. The car we used on this trip was a 1934 (?) Chevrolet.
Once into Everett we went down to this hardware store. But as the man had removed the guns from the window, we did not hold him up. We returned [page 2] to the main district of town and sat in the car until dark, all the while waiting just for dark so as to hold up some store for much needed money.
After dark I directed the others to drive down to 2514 Rockefeller Street in order that I might see a woman whose son I had known in Walla Walla Prison. I had offered to help with money to get this woman's son from prison. Once before when I had been in her home and had eaten dinner there, I told her I had a gun on me and asked her to let me put it somewhere while we ate. But this night I gave her some excuse as to why I had no money for her. It was raining. I did not go into the house but talked to her at the door.
This woman's daughter and a man came from the house. I offered to take them uptown. They accepted. We let her and this man out at the mainstreet crossing of Everett. Immediately we turned to the right (Jack Baker driving) and went down the street looking for someplace to hold up. We turned off this street at a corner where on one side was a bakery and on the other side a filling station. I told the men with me that we would pass up the filling station and hold up the bakery.
Jack Baker remained in the car. Sherman Baxter and I left the car and went towards the bakery door. But a small boy was approaching close. We passed up the door and went on down the street until the boy was beyond the street crossing. Then we returned and entered the bakery, I leading.
I walked the full length of the counter, turned into a narrow passageway, then turned left and I stood into a doorway that led into an office. A short, chunky man confronted me. Through a door to my right I saw a white coated baker removing pans from an oven. This man before me told me that he had no money when I demanded that he get back into the room. I had a gun trained on him. Again he told me that he had no money, then he slapped my gun-hand down. I shot into the floor once, raised my gun and shot into [page 3] his chest. He said, "Oh, Oh", and fell towards me. I turned and fled. The only object I remember seeing on my way out was the brass handle on the door. Idid not see Sherman Baxter until I reached the car.
On getting into the car I believe I lost my cap. The driver (Jack Baker) had started it too swiftly and I bumped my head hard against the door.
We went straight down this street for five or six blocks. During this short drive Sherman Baxter dumped the money on the back floor of the car and counted it out with the aid of a flashlight. There was either #12.60 or $7.60.
I asked Jack Baker how loud the shot sounded. He said that it sounded as if some pans had fallen.
We turned onto a main highway soon to come to a viaduct. Here we turned again, towards Seattle, and stopped aways out to procure gasoline and some candy.
In Seattle we got a room in a hotel on a hill above the main depot. There I believe that I registered under the name of George Barksdale.
Here at Alcatraz Mr. Leslie Cooper and Mr. George Nelson showed me a cap which I identified as the one I wore during that Everett holdup. It was a checkered blue-black and gray cap.
The following morning after this holdup, Sherman Baxter went out to buy a newspaper. There I saw where I had murdered a man. We left the hotel -- a Japanese Hotel -- and ate. Then we got the stolen car from the garage where we had left it. From Seattle we went to Portland, Oregon.
The taxi we stole at Spokane, Wash. was driven to Waterville, Wash. where we stole some license plates off a car and placed them on the car we had stolen.
Sherman Baxter also confessed. To read his account, click here.
[NARA-SB:RG-129:244-AZ]