Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1894-05-23
LIFE TERM FOR MEYER.
The New York Prisoner Convicted
of Murder in the Second
Degree

in the second degree, punishable by
imprisonment at hard labor for life.
His crime was long series of murders
for the insurance on the lives Of the
men marked for victims. The testi-
mony at the trial revealed only por-
ton OF what is alleged to be a career Of
crime unmatched in the records OF the
Newgate calendar and unrivalled even
by the most gruesome imaginiDgs Of
Edgar Allan Poe. The proceedings
were plicated by the introduce
ton of expert medical and chem
ical testimony, and the jury was per-
picked by course of contradictory IN
struction as to the use and effects Of Dr.
Meyers drug which outdid even the
labyrinthine expert intricacies of the
Carlyle Harris and Buchanan trials.
DR.. Meyer had the benefit of the strong
est defense that the skill and expert
ence of veteran criminal lawyer and a.
well-trained doctor-lawyer can suggest.
His conviction was had Oh a second.
trial, the first jury being discharged
after one Of the jurymen had been TAX
Ell Ill and the court had decided no
trial.
The number of people said to have
been sacrificed by Meyer is not known,
but the indications are that score OF
men and women have been his victims.
Meyer is supposed to have poisoned his,
first wife, his OWE child, an alleged wife
in Toledo; Henry Gildeman, of Chi
cago; and Ludwig Brandt. He is also.
under suspicion OF having administered
poison to his second wife (Gildeman's
widow, in Chicago; an old woman in
Chicago, and Mary Neiss, now the wife,
of Carl Muller, alias August Winners
The Winners and Mullers were the.
mostimportant direct witnesses against
him.
Meyer was born in Minden, Prussia,
about forty years ago. He began to.
practice medicine in Chicago in 1878.
He got into trouble there over the sus-
picious death of his first wife's son alter
he had married the widow of Gildeman.
He was arrested, but was discharged
for lack of evidence. About 1888 he
married his present wife, the daughter
of man named Gressen. Soon after
this Meyer was arrested on the charge
of forging his father-in-law' name to
heavy life insurance policy. He was,
tried and acquitted. 1t became known
during the trial, however, that the old,
gentle man, who had been in very bad
health, recovered after Meyers arrest,
and Meyer became popularity known in
Chicago as "Gift Meyer" which means
''Poison Meyer"
During his detention in jail, Meyer
made the acquaintance of Ludwig
Brandt, who, like himself, was locked
the son Of general in the Norwegian
army When both had been released.
Meyer resumed his practice in Chicago
and employed Brandt as his collector.
In 1891 Brandt was insured under the
name Of Gustav Maria Joseph Baum IN
the following com anies and for the fol-
lowing amounts: Washington Life, of
New York, $1,000; New York Life,
$1,000; Etna Life, $1,000; Mutual Life,
s., 800.
Brandt agreed to help Meyer in maxi
ing little money out of the insurance
companies. Brandt was to feign sick
ness, corpse was to be secured by the
doctor and passed off as that of Brandt.
Brandt's death was to be reported and
certified, and when the assurances were
collected the spoils were to be divided
Meyer persuaded Brandt that it was;
necessary to the success of the plot
that Brandt should pose as the husband
of Mrs. Meyer. A marriage ceremony
was actually performed on February IT,
1892, and Brandt called at the insurance
offices and had his policies made paya-
bic to his "wife." Four or five days later
York with a man who then used the
name of August Winners, who had
served two years in Joliet for using
the mails in the distribution Of fraudu-
lent matrimonial advertisements A.
fiat was rented at No. $50 West Thir-
teenth Street. The landlord was told
that his new tenants were Mr.. and Mrs.
Joseph Baum, and that they had two
dodgers with them to help them out
with the rent. One of the dodgers was
Winners, the other was Meyer, who
called himself William Reuter-.
Baum, or Brandt, began rapidly To-
poor, misguided wretch for a while de-
ceived himself thinking that the symp-
toms which he did not regard as serious,
were capital help to his plan to sham
severe illness. They would give real
istlc touch to his performance. It is.
charged that ne had been dosed by
minute but continuous doses Of anti
mony, whose effect is slowly but surely
to produce a fatal dysentery. It is also,
charged that to dull the pain and dis
guise some other symptoms he was,
simultaneously dosed with an opiate.
On March 80, 1892, five days after the
ly fooled out of his existence. DR..
Minden gave death certificate, stating
chronic dysentery as the cause The
widow applied for her insurance money
with such indecent haste that the sus-
picions of the com panies were aroused
Winners and the Meyer couple scent
ed danger and left town in hurry.
The doctor and his wife were heard of
after that at Chicago, Milwaukee, To-
ledo, Detroit and South Bend, Ind.
Detective I'll. G. Julian, Of the Mutual
Life Insurance Company. was detailed
to run down the criminal. 1t was q long
and difficult chase. Meyer changed his
name and his residence so often that he
continually threw his pursuer off the
track. The chase lasted some twelve
months, and finally ended in the capture
in Detroit.
When DR.. Meyer was brought into.
court this morning, just before the hour
of opening. mis- face had yellow, sickly
hue, as it has always shown, and there
was look of sleeplessness in his
eyes. DR.. Meyer, who, in accordance
with the rules Of the court, was
standing facing the jurymen, furtively
scanned their foOQS If 4r,r