Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 19, Number 2, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 September 1897 — IS THE WOMAN DEAD? [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

IS THE WOMAN DEAD?

LUETGERT’S LAWYERS CLAIM IT CANNOT BE PROVEN. Upon that Point Hinges the Fate of Chicago’s Rich Sausage Maker, Who la Being Tried for a Most Hideous Crime. Case of Great Interest. Not since the celebrated Cronin case has Chicago had a trial which promised so much in the line of sensation as that of Adolph Luetgert, the rich sausagemaker who is accused of murdering his wife. The trial, which is now on, will probably continue two months. The long trial ami the extraordinary features- inVolved will give the case a plabg'among, the most famous crimes of the century. The theory of the prosecution, represented by State Attorney Charles S. Deneen, is that Luetgert, who was not on good terms with his wffe, murdered her and disposed of her body by dissolving it in a sausage vat filled with caustic soda and crude potash. The defense will set up the claim that Mrs. Luetgert is not dead, that she wandered away from home while demented and is still alive. The strength of the prosecutor’s case depends upon the ability of the attorneys and police to prove that Mrs. Luetgert is dead. The difficulties involved in establishing the corpus delicti gives the case a resemblance to the Park-man-Webster murder in Boston half a century ago. Luetgert is about 50 years old. He used to be a saloonkeeper, but after his marriage to 18-year-old Louise Bickner

aboqtetwenty years ago he went into the sausage manufacturing business. He had a knowledge of chemistry, and by using it in his business produced a superior article and rapidly accumulated money. He was once worth $300,000, but his fortune has dwindled somewhat. During the last few years he and his wife lived unhappily, and though he ate at home he spent his nights in the sausage factory, which stood in the rear of the house. At 10 o’clock Saturday evening, May 1, little Louis Luetgert bade his mother good-night and left her sitting in the back parlor of their splendid home.

Her husband was, as usual, spending the night in the factory. When Louis and the other children came down to breakfast the following morning their mother was missing. Luetgert was informed, but remarked that she would turn up all right. Days passed, but Mrs. Luetgert did not return and finally her brother notified the police. Luetgert suggested suicide. The river was dragged and the country round about searched, but no trace of her could be found. Accused .of Murder. Finally Inspector Schaack grew suspicious and when the night watchman and engineer at the sausage factory told him that the night Mrs. Luetgert disappeared, Luetgert had been doing unusual things at the factory his suspicion grew into a belief that luetgert had murdered

hla wife. The engineer saidthat, contrary tn the usual order of affairs, Luetgert had 'him keep the fires at the factory going that night and that he saw Luetgert moving around the place til 3 o’clock Sunday morning. Luetgert was arrested and his factory was searched. One of the sausage vats showed evidence of recent ttse. At the bottom was found, in a very much diluted form, a solution of potash and caustic soda. There were also found two of Mrs. Luetgert’s rings, several piece* of bone, an artificial tooth which a dentist identified as one he bad made for Mrs. Luetgert, and, in the

catch basin of the sewer which drained the vat, several pieces of bone and a small tangleof hair. It was the theory of the police that Luetgert had enticed his wife to the factory, killed her, possibly by strangulation, and that he then immersed her body in the diabolical solution in the vat, turned on the steam until the solution boiled, and calmly watched and

stirred the contents until disintegration was complete. To this awful charge Luetgert entered a calm and complete denial. He maintained that his wife was still alive, that she would eventually appear, and that the alleged evidence of the police was a mass of fabrication. Nevertheless he was held for murder. A few days later a young man said that he had met a demented woman in Kenosha, Wis., who answered Mrs. Luetgert’s description and who said that she had a sister in Chicago named Mueller. Mrs. Luetgert has a sister by that name. Subsequently it was reported that Mrs. Luetgert was seen in New York and that she had sailed for Europe. Luetgert’s lawyers claim that these reports are true and that the murder theory is an outrage. In the course of preparation for the trial, and for the purpose of demonstrating that it is actually possible for a human body to have been entirely disintegrated within the time limit set by the police in their theory of the crime, an experiment was made at Rush Medical College a few weeks ago under the supervision of Profs. Haines and Delafontaine, and in the presence of State’s Attorney Deneen and representatives of the police department. The body of a pauper who had died at the hospital, weighing about 130 pounds, was dismembered, placed in a boiler containing a strong solution of caustic soda and potash and’ boiled for three hours. At the end of that time pra"cticaliy' nothing was left except a few pieces of bone, which easily crumbled under pressure, and the bottom of the boiler was found to contain a thick brown ooze, sim’lar in composition to that in the bottom of the sausage factory vat. To offset this experiment the defense ask to be permitted to make an experiment in court. The cadaver used by the State, say the attorneys for the defense, was several days old. In It there was not the resisting power of nerves and muscles

that a body from which life has just passed would offer to the action of the solution. Acting upon this belief the defense wants to conduct experiments with a fresh body.

ADOLPH L. LUETGERT.

LUETGERT’S BIG SAUSAGE FACTORY.

MRS. LUETGERT.

THE LUETGERT HOME.