The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1897-08-23
Who is Accused of Numbering
His Wife Three Months Ago
And Destroying the Body in a
Vat of Caustic Potash,
is CALLED UP TODAY.
May Be a. Week Before a Jury
Can Be Secured.
Defense Still Maintains That
Mrs. Luetgert is Alive.

Chicago, Aug. 23.-After two prelini-
nary hearings and three months con-
finement in the county Jail, Adolph L.
Luetgert, the rich sausage maker was
put on trial charged with the murder or
his wife, before Judge Tuthill in the
criminal court today. The big sausage
maker has declared to his attorneys,
ex-Judge William A. Vincent and Al
bert PhaIen, that he desires no further
delay. Both the state and defense
prophesy that 1000 yeniremen will be
examined and that a week will pass be-
fore IL men who are acceptable to both
sides are found. Then the trial will be-
gin in earnest.
The theory of the state is that Luet-
CERT induced his wife to accompany him
to his sleeping apartment in the factory
Office and there strangled her. Then he
is thought to have taken her body to
the basement and to have immersed it
in a vat filled with a solution OF cauStlc
potash heated to the boiling point. what
remained of the body after this process,
it is alleged was gathered together and
thrown into the furnace of one of the
factory boilers. The fire had been kept
up under one of the boilers, upon e2S-
press orders given by Luetgert to MS
watchman Frank Bialk-
The state has made several expert
ments in support of this theory.
Luetgert's attorneys will also expert
ment with crude potash. With the re-
suits they hope successfully to combat
the testimony to be introduced by the
state regarding the disintegration of a
cadaver in a solution similar to that
found in the vat in the sausage factory
in which Mrs. LuetgertS remains are
alleged to have been destroyed.
The cadaver used by the state say
the attorneys for the defense was sew.
erai days old. In 1t there was not the
resisting power of nerves and muccles,
which body from which life has just
passed would offer to the action of the
solution. Acting upon this belief the
defense has employed experts to con-
duct experiments with fresh body and
the defense processes the utmost conf
denee that the results viii utterly dis
prove the theory of the prosecution.
While the trial is in progress detectives
all over the country and Germany will
be searching for Mrs. Luetgert who has
been reported to have been seen in var
ious places since her husbands arrest.
All of these have been run down by the
police who claim to have proved they
had little foundation. Nevertheless it is
said the defense hoped by the reitera-
ton of such stories to raise the question
of doubt in the minds of the jurymen.
Long before the case was called, the
corridors of the criminal court building
were packed with people anxious to
get into the court room, and special
detail of police was necessary to keep
them in order. When the case was
called, the court room was filled to suf-
location, a remarkable feature being
the number of women present.
Luetgert sat close to his attorneys,
unusually pale. The GOODNESS which
has characterized him since his arrest,
has forsaken him, and he showed un-
mistakable signs of nervousness. He
was dressed neatly in black. Imme-
diately after the court was called to or
der States Attorney Deenan an
nounced that the prosecution was
ready to proceed with the trial. The
attorneys for the defense made a sim
liar announcement, no application for
a change of venue being made. A con-
troversy then arose as to the manner
of drawing the jury, the prosecution
contending that it should be drawn un-
der the new jury commission law.
After some discussion this was agreed
to, Attorney Vincent for the defense,
however, noting an exception for the
purpose of test as to the constitu-
tionaIity of the law. Court then ad-
journed until tomorrow