Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1897-05-22
FOUL CRIME. SUSPECTED.
wealthy ChicaEonn In Jail Charged
with Wife-IHurder.

with Wife-Ihurder.
Chicago, May 1S.-Adolph l.. Luetgert,
n rich sausage maker, Is prisoner in
the East Chicago avenue police station
on the charge of strangling his wife,
boiling her body in a 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 a stolid indifference, and says
he is innocent, but the police have
woven around him a 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 McEwcn, In
spector Setback, Capt. Schuettler,
Scrgt. Spengler and Detectives Qualey
and Dean, if true, is almost without
parallel in the annals of Chicago crime.
1t 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-
| c!al 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 ac-
companied her husband to the factory
at ten o'clock on Saturday night, May
| /, and was then strangled or overpow-
cred.
| 1t 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. 1t had not been used for
| ten weeks, due to dull times. This vat
is 12 feet long, three feet wide and five
feet deep. 1t is made of wood. This
vat was filled with satanic solution a
week before this night. 1t was such a
powerful bath that it takes the skin
from the finger the moment it touches
it. This sort of 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. Luetgert was possibly
strangled in the apartment of her hus-
band, the body was taken into the base
ment and dropped into this bath.
1t is claimed further that Luetgcrt
stood beside this vat for two hours and
watched the effect of the chemicals
upon the body of his wife. 1t is evident
it was expected the bath would wipe out
| oil trncaS of bor heipu Tho solution
seems to have failed. 1t worked sue
cessfully upon the small bones. but left
the large joints and part of the skull
intact. Luetgert watched the dissolu-
tion of 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 the man failed in his plan.
He waited two hours or more for the
flesh and bones to 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 a skull.
These are the mnin portions of the evil
dence upon which he mas been arrested.