Thomas A. Ruppert, the 17-year-old youth who was arrested last Friday in connection with the fire at the Yonkers Jewish Community Center in which nine children and three adults were killed, was continued in $50, 000 bail today after a preliminary court hearing. Judge Gilbert N. Landy is expected to give a preliminary ruling in the next few days.
During the hearing, a police detective said that the youth confessed to setting the fire and later repeated his confession twice. The detective, Brendan Magner, said that Ruppert, a part-time employe at the Jewish Center, told him he had poured a can of “something that smelled like alcohol” over some construction debris in the building and then left it burning.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
