A triple killer by the tender age of fourteen years, Santo was jailed in Norwood, Massachusetts, during June 1908.

Authorities from Brooklyn questioned him about the deaths of two young brothers, James and Frank Marino, murdered three months earlier, and Santo readily confessed. A jack knife had been used on Frank, while James was beaten with a rock. A sidelight of the questioning was Santo's startling confession to another homicide in Dedham, Massachusetts. 

Young Louise Staula was found dead in a field, on May 11, but the case had baffled local officers before they spoke with Santo. "When I saw her," he said, "I had a mad spell. I struck the girl once. Then I picked up a rock and she jumped when I threw it. When I struck her with the rock she fell. I thought she was dead. I started to pray to help her and make her get better." 

The interrogation solved three crimes, but it would not result in Santo being sent to jail. According to investigators, recent illness had affected Santo's mind, and he was found incompetent for trial, confined to an asylum for the criminally insane.

Michael Newton - An Encyclopedia of Modern Serial Killers - Hunting Humans

SEX: M RACE: H TYPE: N MOTIVE: PC-nonspecific

MO: Murdered younger children during "mad spells"

DISPOSITION: Ruled insane; committed to asylum for life.