The Owosso times. (Owosso, Mich.) 1897-1926, 1897-05-21
MURDER CHARGED.
Chicago Sausage-Maker Accused
Of Killing His Wife.
HE IS ARRESTED AND PUT In JAIL.
Officers Claim That He strangledHis
Wife and Threw Her Body Intoa
Vat to BE Eaten Gradually
by Powerful Acid.


by Powerful Acid.
Chicago, May 1s.-Adolph L. Luetgert,
a rich sausage maker, Is a prisoner in
the East Chicago avenue police station
on the charge of strangling his wife,
boiling her body in vat of diabolical
fluid and then throwing the few re-
naming bones upon the red-hot steam
pipes Of his big factory smokehouse.
This is the story of the police. Luetgert
maintains stolid Indifference, and says
he is innocent, but the police have
woven around him chain of circum-
stantial evidence which they claim will
convince any jury of his guilt.
The story of the alleged murder, as
told by States Attorney McEwen, In
spector Setback, Capt. Schuettler,
Sergt. Spengler and Detectives Qualey
and Dean, if true, is almost without
parallel in the annals of Chicago crime.
Theory of the Police.
It is claimed that the woman was en-
ticed from her home May last. She
had lived unhappily with her husband
for as many years as the neighbors can
remember. There were frequent quar-
rels. The husband was vexed by finan-
cial troubles. He was scolded by his
wife for things which had been the
talk of the street. Luetgert resolved
to stop the whole matter. 1t is insisted
by the states attorneys force that he
planned for a week to put an effectual
end to the family row. Summarized, the
evidence which the police claim to have
unearthed Is that Mrs. Luetgert &C
companied her husband to the factory
at ten o'clock ON Saturday night, May
/, and was then strangled or overpow-
cred.
Body Eaten by Chemicals.
It is proposed to show that Luetgert
had all the details fixed for nearly a
week in advance. There was vat in the
basement. 1t was used for boiling meat
for sausage. It had not been used for
ten weeks, due to dull times. This vat
is 10 feet long, three feet wide and five
feet deep. 1t is made of wood. This
vat was filed with a satanic solution a
week before this night. It was such
powerful bath that it takes the skin
from the finger the moment it touches
it. This sort of a bath has no use in
sausage making, and the men who work
in the factory claim they never saw
anything like it in the vat. 1t appears
that after Mrs. Lxetgert was possibly
strangled in the apartment of her hus-
band. the body was taken into the base
ment and dropped into this bath.
It is claimed further that Luetgert
stood beside thisyat for two hours and
watched the effect Of the chemicals
iuponsthe body Of his wife. It is evident
itwas expected the bath would wipe out
all traces of her being. The solution
seems to have failed. It worked sue
cessfuIly uponthe small bones, but left
the large joints andra part of the skull
intact. Euetgert watched the dissolu-
tionaof the body until he imagined the
work was. complete. He calculated al
most accurately. but he did not figure
that the rings ON the woman's fingers
would stand the chemicals. The rings
Were left in the vat, and there they
were found by the detectives. They
have been positively identified. This is
where thenan failed in his plan.
He. waited two hours or more for the
flesh and bones 10 dissolve, and then
seems to have become discouraged. He
gathered together the larger bones, it
would appear, and threw them on
steam pipes'in the smokehouse which
were made red-hot, figuring on thus de-
stroying them. In this he failed. The
officers have found parts of human
bones. 1t does not take an expert to
show that the bones are from human
skeleton. There are pieces of skull.
These are the main portions Of the evil
dence upon which he has been arrested.