Peggy Markland

In 1949 16-year-old Peggy Markland was brutally beaten in her Upper Merion (Hughes Park) home.  Her attack was one of a string of crimes committed in Montgomery County over a series of months.  Elmo Smith was apprehended by law enforcement who claimed to have followed tracks in the snow from the Markland home in Hughes Park to the home of Elmo Smith in Bridgeport.  Following the apprehension Smith was taken to Norristown State Hospital and administered sodium pentothal "truth serium"...after which he was told by authorities that he had confessed to all of the crimes (exception: 6-year-old Carol Ann Thompson abduction & murder) committed in the time period of months. He later claimed he was coherced into the confessions.