of "Virgil Wilson," fingerprints forwarded to Winnipeg from the San Francisco Police Department from his earlier arrests confirmed his identity as Earle Nelson. Nelson's fingerprints matched those left behind at several of the crime scenes, and his teeth matched marks found on victims. Initially, Nelson admitted to his crimes, bluntly telling reporters: "I only do my lady killings on Saturday nights." However, he would subsequently retract his admission and claim he was innocent. Upon an interview with the Manitoba Free Press shortly after his arrest, he said: "I'm charged with two murders. But I'm not the one who done it." When asked about the various persons in the U.S. and Canada who had positively identified him as the "Strangler," he simply responded: "All of 'em are wrong." Despite attempts on part of both U.S. and Canadian law enforcement agencies to elicit confessions, Nelson refused to admit to any of the murders of which he was suspected or accused. Trial and execution At the time of his arrest, Nelson was wanted in six U.S. cities, and was held to be tried in a Manitoba court for the murders of both Cowan and Patterson. He was also charged with two counts of attempted molestation and one count of burglary. Nelson's trial was scheduled to begin June 27, 1927, but postponed at the request of his attorney, and instead began on November 1 at the Winnipeg Courts Law Building. The case was prosecuted by R. B. Graham, and overseen by Justice Andrew Dysart. Nelson was defended by court-appointed attorney James H. Stitt. Nelson's ex-wife Mary Martin testified against him, claiming that he was "absolutely insane." Additionally, over sixty individuals from both Canada and the U.S. testified, many placing Nelson at the scenes of the various crimes or linking him to property stolen from victims' homes. A jail guard who oversaw Nelson throughout his trial noted that he had become particularly obsessed with a certain Biblical passage from the Book of Proverbs, which read: Closing statements in Nelson's trial were completed on November 5, 1927. After forty minutes of deliberation, the jury found him guilty of murder and he received a mandatory death sentence. Relatives of victims McConnell and Cowan visited Nelson in prison after his conviction, and he continued to proclaim his innocence. In late December 1927, Stitt submitted a thirty-page document to Minister of Justice Ernest Lapointe, petitioning for clemency on the