Another Life

New York City's teen-aged thrill killer of 1945 was Lena Theresa Nienstedt, a whisky-drinking factory girl of 16. She carried a small hatchet in her handbag because, she said, "some guys get fresh." After a few drinks one evening, she used the hatchet on a 71-year-old tailor, picked his wallet and went home. "I felt easy and happy and calm." she said later. "Then I remembered I had left my hatchet in the shop. I dressed and went back . . . He was still gurgling. I hit him on the head some more until he was quiet."

Last week Lena Theresa Nienstedt was a free woman.

After her crime, doctors had labeled her "a psychopathic personality with an episode of excitement." She was sent, without trial, to Matteawan State Hospital for the Criminal Insane. There she worked in the laundry, and made a resolute effort to cure herself. A truant who never finished school, Lena studied and read avidly at Matteawan. In nine years her I.Q. rose from 66 to 127. This year she was found sane, but still faced trial. "Her entire personality is changed," said Matteawan's Director John F. McNeill, "as is her outlook on life."

In court, Attorney James D. C. Murray* brought out her story. She had a careless mother and no father. When Lena began going out with boys, her mother, as a dire warning, told her she was illegitimate. Lena sought out the man adjudged her father in a paternity suit years before, but he repudiated her and sent her away. Lena began carrying a knife, then the hatchet, for protection on her way home from work. She said that the old tailor, whom everyone called Pop, tried to fondle her. As she hit him, she kept calling him Pop.

The prosecution settled for a plea of guilty to second-degree manslaughter. Last week when Lena came up for sentencing (maximum term: 15 years), Queens County Judge Peter Farrell paroled her until Feb. 18, with the prospect of full freedom thereafter. She gasped. Outside the court demure Lena Nien stedt, beginning a new life at 25, smiled radiantly. "It's wonderful to see the open sky," she said. All she wanted for the present was a juicy steak, for the future a secretarial job and peace of mind. Then she saw her estranged mother standing near by. Lena's soft brown eyes hardened; abruptly she turned and walked away. Said Attorney Murray: "The one person who should have been nearest her, her mother, should be farthest away from her now."

* Brother of Archbishop John Gregory Murray of St. Paul, Minn, and one of New York's leading criminal lawyers (about 300 murder cases). Attorney Murray has been retained to defend one of the Brooklyn teen-age thrill killers (TIME, Aug. 30).

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