Western Reserve chronicle. [volume] (Warren, Ohio) 1855-1921, 1866-10-10
MURDER In
An Old Man Kills his wife.
An, tbo NIoraIo,5 HoroA &c Mo,doy

An Old Man Kills his Wife.
From the Cleveland Herald of Monday.l
A Coroner's Jury, basing their decision
upon evidence given before Coroner Shenck,
this morning (Saturday,) have decided that
the blood of another w-oman-maklng the
fourth that has been brutality murdered in
Cuyahoga County within fourteen months
has been shed by the hands of one who
ought to have been her protector. The man
charged with this terrible crime-John II.
Vordenfelder-is about sixty years old, and
the victim, his wife, is nearly of the same
age. They owned and lived in the back
part of a small house on Vaga avenue,
Brooklyn, just beyond the western limits of
the city. The front part OF the house was
occupied by VIM. Hess and his wife, an
Irish family recently from Youngstown
The hand Of penury has afflicted both fami-
lies, each having nothing but the most rick
city furniture imaginable, but their condi-
ton may be attributed to their love of whls-
XIV. The women were not any better than
the men in this respect, and the evidence
was conclusive on the point of their con-
slant inebriety. The Hess family have been
living in the front part of the house about
five weeks. During that time the women of
each family alternately had quarrelled and
become friends, the q~uarrels generally SPRING
ing out of difficulties traceable to the inf1u-
ence of whisky, until it was difficult to as
certain whether they were bitter enemies or
firm friends. The quarrels were frequently
settled by each taking a drink from the same
bottle, the whisky being furnished, according
to her own story, by Mrs. Hess. A few days
before the murder, Mrs. Vonderfelder COM
planned to her husband that Mrs. Hess had
beaten her that day, and desired him to turn
the Hess family out of the house. He re-
plied-'1ou rented the heuse to them, turn
them out yourself" The frequent Difficult
ties between the women furnished a ground
for ~quarrels between them and their hus-
bands, and in those q~uarrels of the two men,
Vordenfelder was the most tyranical, espec-
tally when intoxicated. He would seize his
wife by the hair, kick her about the room,
and out of the house in the most violent
manner. Last Tuesday evening after COM
ing home from work, he commenced quar-
Ielling with his wife about a sale of some
tent cloth she had made, to the Hess family,
for the trifing sum of fifty cents, and also
charged her with spending the money for
whisky. From words they got to blows,
and before the first struggle ended, he had
beaten her so terribly that she was perfectly
helpless, after which he kicked her out of
the house. The little children, three in
number, commenced screaming for help,
when the brutal old sinner pushed one of
Them over the cook stove, another into a
corner, and the baby, ten moths old, was al
lowed to 'scream its eyes out" on the bed.
An old man named John II. Causing,
who boarded with Vordenfelder, finally
quieted the latter and then retired to his bed
in the loft.
Soon after Vordenfelder went out side of
the house, kicked his wife down into the
cellar and attempted to burn her alive but
was prevented from doing so by his little
daughter, Eliza, who quenched the lire be-
fore it was fairly kindled in her clothing
The old monster then seized a heavy stick OF
wood and pounded his wife until she was
sneechless. He then dragged her out of the
cellar, carried her into one corner of the
house and dropped her on the floor as though
she was a log of wood.
Wearied out with his hendish work he
prowled about the house for some time, pant
ing like q tiger after having a deadly conflict
with some monster of the forest, until, by
accident, he put out the light. He then
opened the door leading to the apartment oc-
cupied By the Hess family, asked MI. Hess
for some coal oil and also desired him to
come in and say what he thought about Mrs.
Vordenfelder. Hess went in after the lamp
was lighted and what passed between them
could not be definitely ascertained from the
evidence given before the Coroner. AT least
he returned to his own room, leaving the wo-
mon on the floor. the husband seated in an
old rlckety chair, and the children huddled
in one corner, fearing to speak least their
father should give them another tumbling
over the stove aud chairs. AT two O'Clock
V~ordenfelder again called for Hess, who en-
tered the room a second time and placed Mrs.
Vordenfeianr on n lounge In his testimony
before the Coroner, Hess stated that he
thought she was dead drunk when he lifted
her on the lounge.
At five o'clock on Thursday morning YOr-
denfelder again called Mr.. Hess in and asked
what he had better do, saying that his wife
had remained motionless on the lounge all
night, and that he believed she was dead
Hess advised him to send for a physician,
which he was about to do when the neigh
bors, hearing of the circumstance, had him
arrested. He has remained in custody ever
since. He was present when the inquest was
held, and stated that his wife was constantly
intoxicated, which made 1t difficult to live
with her in peace. During the inquest he
was permitted to see the corpse and looked
upon it unmoyed, while his little children
were there weeping over their dead mother
IN the most h~eart-rending hammer.
Mrs. Hess, probably to wipe out all re-
membrance of her connection with the affair,
or, perhaps, to give effect to the scene, re-
sorted to the bottle early in the morning and
was gloriously drunk in her own room while
the inquest was being held.
A post norton examination was made by.
Drs. n. B, Prentice and G. Schenek, to-day
They found q o~oagulation of about four
ounces Of blood, with emulation Of fluid in
the Lateral ventrieles of the heart, caused by
external violence.
The Coroper's juryreturned a verdict, that
the deceased came TO her death by F~ioleace
from the hands of her husband.
The husband is a German and a stone ma
son by occupation,
In a dispatch to parties in Ohio, under