Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 39, Number 69, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 May 1907 — CHICAGO FAMILY POISONED. [ARTICLE]

CHICAGO FAMILY POISONED.

Father and MMher Die and Others Are Made. 111. Deadly poison administered by a person with intent to annihilate an entire family has llready filled Chicago graves. Three attempts withiii three weeks were made, two of them while police were on the case. This is the terrible fate of the Mette family, hounded by a mysterious, daring twentieth century adept, who baffled the police and coroner's forces. Food—the home prefood, of the Mette family—eaten unsuspectingly and with all confidence, has been the medium of the murders and attempted murders. Last March 30. the entire family, consisting of Frank Mette, his wife, daughter and three sons, was stricken after eating fruit cake made by Mrs. Mette. Mrs. Mette died. It looked suspicious to the attending physician, and the police were called in. Arsenic was found in the Spur. The only other woman in the household, the daughter, Mrs. Mary Sladek, whose husband had just left her after a quarrel, and who was said to have twice attempted suicide recently, was closely questioned, taut nothing developed. Two weeks after the first illness and after all the survivors had recovered; one of theta, the father, was again taken ill apd died the next day. On the day following Mary Sladek became ill and was taken to the hospital, when the police again questioned her repeatedly without”cferelopTng'a - clew. This time poison was found in the flour bin. And two days after that, with the father dead and sister in the hospital, the boys, Joseph, Rudolph and. Charles, were again poisoned by eating oatmeal in which poison had been placed. The persistence of the poisoner made the police frautic and terrorized the Mette family. ”