Edith Perchman

Edith Perchman was killed at 12 years old on August 18th 1974 in Highland Park Michigan delivering newspapers. The murderer, Rudolph Acosta was "scared for his life" when he fired two fatal gunshots at the newspaper delivery girl thinking that she was a "hit man". Three newspapers articles have the sad details about the incident and the trial further down this page. It's a truly tragic story. Edith had routinely delivered newspapers with her father every morning and was her way of working to earn extra money. She was just completing her deliveries at approx 5am when she was shot after going onto the porch of Rudolph Acosta's home to deliver his newspaper. Edith was about to flip the newspaper onto Acosta's front porch when a shotgun blast from a window in the house sprayed her in the face. She fell in the yard, but pulled herself up and was stumbling toward her father's car when a man appeared on the porch with a pistol and began firing. Police later said she was hit in the face with shotgun pellets and 15 pistol bullets. Her father, Marion, who was a delivery truck driver for the Free Press newspaper and waiting in the truck with Edith's 11 year old sister and friend, pulled Edith into his truck between the sidewalk and the curb as she stumbled away from the home and sped away. However the car door flew open as Rudolph continued to open fire at the family and he lost control crashing his vehicle into a house and injured himself. She died after being admitted to a local hospital. Rudolph was initially charged with manslaughter and let out on a $2,500 bond. However, the community was outraged so police changed the charge to second-degree murder after either hundreds or a couple dozen (reports conflict) marched on city hall and demanded his arrest. Rudolph was eventually sentenced to serve seven to 21 years in prison for the the killing of Edith. It turns out that Rudolph, then age 24, was involved with drugs.