The Owosso times. (Owosso, Mich.) 1897-1926, 1897-10-29
CRIME OF A CENTURY
Review OF the Celebrated s-uet.
CERT Murder Trial al
Chicago.
SCORES OF WITNESSES EXAMINED

State Weaves q Net of Circumstantial Evi
dence About the Expert Testi.
mony ON Bones Found In the Middle Vat
of the Sausage Factory-Alleged Appear.
ance of the Missing Woman I'm Various
Places-Personality of the Prisoner.
On the night of May 1 last Louisa
Luetgert disappeared. At s o'clock
Mary Siemmering, the servant girl, re-
tired for the night, leaving Mrs Luet-
CERT still about the house. A little later
the boy Louis returned from a circus
which had been exhibiting in the neigh
borhood and found his mother sitting in
chair. 1t was then about 10 o'clock
and he was sent to Bed, having seen the
last of his mother, perhaps forever. Mr..
Luetgert came into the house little be-
fore the boy went to bed, and the latter
left husband and wife together. At this
point the story DIVORCES and the most
serious trouble of A. L. Luetgert's life
begins. AT what hour Mrs. Luetgert
left the house no one, save possibly her
husband, knows. The following day
Sunday-members of the family knew
that its mistress was gone. On the 18th
day Of May the climax came The saus-
age maker, who had been almost king
among his neighbors, was dragged up
the steps Of the East Chicago avenue
police station at about o'clock in the
afternoon.
Luetgert's preliminary examination
began before Justice Kersten on May
~. Bickepese, Mrs. Luetgert's Lsother.
told OF Luetgerts indifference, old
Frank Bialk told how Luetgert had
spent the night on which his wife dis
appeared cooking something IN the mid
die vat, and the police disclosed the
rings. Mrs. Agatha Tosch, Luetgert's
warm friend and proprietor of the sa-
loon which he patronized most, declared
to the police she believed him guilty
OF wife murder, and Unexpectedly went
on the stand and told how Luetgert had
rallied about his wife to her, and had
said he wished she were dead.
The only person from whom the no.
lice could not extract a word was I,uet-
CERT himself. Sweatbox, persuasion.
threats and coaxing had no effect on
him.
One Week to Get Jury.
The trial was begun eight weeks aro
on Aug. %. One hundred and forty ven
iremen had to be summoned and one
week consumed before twelve jurymen
were secured. On Monday, Aug. 20.
Diedrich Bicknese, the first witness for
the prosecution, was put on the stand.
Louis Luetgert, the 12-year-old son
or the prisoner, was one Of the states
earliest witnesses. He recited the oc-
currences Of the night of May 1, and
told a powerful story for the prosecu-
ton, on cross examination there was a
for the state. The boy an
nounced that at 2 o'clock in the morn
ing of May 2, when, according to the
state, Mrs. Luetger''s body was being
destroyed in the vat, he heard rust
ing In the house, and a voice which
he believed was his mothers. Young
Luetgert acknowledged he had suddenly
recollected this in the office Of Luetgert's
attorneys, and the state fatty charged
That Luetgert's attorneys had manufact
ured the evidence.
Luetgert's threats, his statement that
ne would like to crush his wife, and that
ne regretted calling a doctor for her
when she was ILL., that the dead. rot
en beast would have croaked," were re-
counted by Mrs. Agatha Tosch. Frank {!
Bialk told of Luetgert's unexplained |
actions the night his wife vanished and |
hen the state disclosed how the potash |
'ame in the vat
Frank Odorofsky and Jacob Lavan- |
lowsky, two laborers about the factory.
old startling stories Of breaking potash |
nto small pieces burning their hands |
IND. faces, and putting 1t in the vatsun- |
Ter Luetgert's orders. They described |
he sticky, Shiny stuff on the basement |
loor the morning after the alleged muir
Ter, when Luetgert had partly flushed |
he vat by means Of hose.
Had Bitter QuarreIs.
Neighbors and relatives of the I,uet-
,erts testified to the bitter uuarrels he
ween them, and Luetgert's EMPLOYEES
elated how Mary Siemmering. his serv-
mt, had visited him at the factory at |
hours. 1t was known that
Vhen Luetgert sent old Frank Bialk TO
distant drug store for Hunyadi water
1hile he was busy at the vat there were
fly bottles Of Hunyadi water in the
actory.
Emma and Gottliebe Schimpke. two
iris living across the street from the
~ "SAe Oa thC StduQ ana told
seeing Luetgert and his wife going
a the direction Of the factory at 10
clock on the night Of May 1. Luet-
erts attorneys succeeded in frighten-
ig them on cross-examination. There
'as second sensation when Nicholas
aber testified that on the night of Nav
he had gone to Luetgerts house to an
ly for work at the factory, and that he
lso had seen Luetgert and his wife 90
lg down the alley toward the factory
Dor.
The gold rings, with Mrs. Luetgert's
litials, were regarded as the strongest
whence the state produced. Numer-
rs witnesses, some of whom had worn
he rings, positively identified them as
lrs. Luetgerts, and but one witness
as ever produced who doubted their
lthenticity.
The state began by showing the feel
g OF Luetgert toward his wife, Then
lie prosecution traced her from the
ouse on the night Of May almost TO
lc door Of the factory with her hus-
IND. 1T was shown that the basement
'or was barred, and that Bialk, the
lily person in the factory that night.
nd been sent away NJ about tta t,,,,o