The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1897-06-22
MURDER OF SUSIE BECK
NOTED CRIME RECALLED BY THE
ARREST OF REV. II. A. WEST.
Indiana Preacher Who Is Alleged TO
Girl and Poisoned Her in st. Louis.

marshal Of Sequin. Tex, stating that there
| is man in that town going under the name
of Williams who is supposed to be Rev.
Thomas Abbott West, a Methodist minister
of Chesterton, Ind. who eloped from
there with Susie Beck and, it is charged,
murdered her in St. Louis in June, 1887.
Chief Harrigan has requested the city mar
shall of Sequin to hold Williams or West
for further orders. If West is proven to be
| the man for whom the police of this and
half dozen other cities have been looking
for decade he WILL in all probability, be
brought back to the scene of his crime and
tried This, however, is a matter of some
| uncertainty.
When the reverend murderer admins
tered to his victim the dose of arsenic
which caused her death Anton Huebier was
chief of police. This West case was some
thing of a hobby with ex-Chief Huebler,
and he strained every energy TO catch the
he that on his desk, where his eye rested
upon Il continually, was a paper weight
made OF heavy piece of glass, on the bot
tom OF which was pasted so that the hand
some, evil face OF the poisoner showed
plainly through it, picture of West. Soon
after the crime Captain Hueblers connec-
ton with the office OF chief of police was
severed. Coroner Frazer, who conducted
the inquest, died some years ago, and most
of the witnesses who wove the chain of
circumstantial evidence which marked
West as murderer are scattered While
the police want" West the official records
do not show it-that is, the records which
are now in use. Somewhere in a dusty
store room on the third floor of the Four
Courts there is supposed TO be among the
crime. but to find it would be an almost
endless task In the coroner's office is a
record of the testimony in the case and of
the verdict which the jury returned, in
which the jurors unanimously agreed that
West killed Susie Beck. But ten years ago
records We're not kept as they are now by
al hn 10 Nnl hn g ha owl
dence against West was circumstantial,
and as memories are dimmed by the lapse
of decade, 1t might be found difficult to
convict the reverend murderer after he was
returned to this city. And besides the $500
reward offered by the Governor of Missouri
for the capture of West does not hold good
The Annie Abbott case had unique
atrocious and mysterious features, such as
history as great" crime. 1t was one of
the most notable murders ever committed
in this city, and not the least OF the re-
markable features of the crime will have
been developed when the Texas suspect is
identified as the perpetrator, after having
eluded justice for ten years. While most
the case, few recall the details, and for
this reason the story is well twice told.
William Thomas Abbott West was a ma
tive of London, Ontario. He was educated
for the Methodist ministry, but was not a
scholar in the real sense of the word. There
was d coarseness in his makeup, combined
with cunning, which made him an adept
in u way, at half a dozen trades. Where
he met or married his wife is not known in
this city. But it is known that by her he
had six children, and when the first scene
of the tragedy was enacted, was living with
her in Chesterton, Ind, where he held the
pastorate of a Methodist Church. Shortly
before the last child was born, Susie Beck
the pretty daughter of one of the deacons
in Vests church, was employed as ser,
want in the preachers household. The girl
was young, inexperienced and soon fell a
victim TO the Establishments of her minister.
One day one of Vests older children dis
covered his father and the pretty servant
in criminal situation and told his mother.
Just what happened is not known, but the
next day the preacher and the deacon s.
daughter disappeared. 1t was supposed that
they had left Chesterton together. A few
days later Mrs. Beck received a letter from
made no reference to West The preacher
also wrote to his wife from Chicago, most
of the letter being devoted to a hypocriticai
screed on the beauties of heaven.
On the morning of July / w. II. Clark,
station agent at Woodawn. st. Louis coun-
ty found a jaded pair on the platform as
he went to open the station house They
looked weary. and explained that they We're
Thomas Abbott and wife and had broken
man said they had no money, and that he
and his wife had slept in wheat field the
night before A. r. Heusekamp, dry,
the pair TO reach st. Louis, and told his
foreman to give Abbott job.
West proved to be good workm ian With
jefferson avenue, and there they lived APP
parently happy and in a way that aroused
no suspicion until the middle of July. Then
the girl was taken sick. DR.. E. r. Albin was
called, and he thought she was suffering
from heart disease; superinduced by cholera
morbus. On the 18th she dies. West at
the time was working Tor M, D. Degge, an
electro platter, at 113 South Eighth street.
He borrowed 500 from his employer, and
CANT grief. The day after the funeral he
disappeared. few days later arsenic was
md iRnf no loo xhn ST hod lFnh
although he had no use for 1t in his trade.
Then the neighbors began to talk, and the
mans record was Investigated The mat
ter was brought to the attention of Circuit
Attorney Glover by persistent newspaper
reporter, and, after Investigating the facts,
Attorney Glover ordered the coroner to
viscera submitted to Prof Charles Luede-
king, of Washington University for cnemi-
found. But stranger than this, Was found
a newborn babe. This had not been in evil
dence when the body of the woman had
been prepared for burial, and the theory
Immediately suggested itself that West had
given the girl arsenic under pretense of ad-
ministering an abortive drug, that it had
had the effect of producing abortion after
death and that after the neighbors had
prepared the body for the grave West had
removed the coffin lid and thrust into it
the material evidence of his guilty relations
with the girl. This theory was in part sub
stantiated by the discovery of the fact that
a few days before he had bought two and
a half pounds of-arsenic from the Mallinck-
rodt Chemical Company.
Then the search for West was started.
Nine days after the coroner's jury had re-
turned it's verdict in which West was
charged with numbering Susie Beck, De-
tective Charles Archambeault was detailed
to find the fugitive. On the theory that he
would return to his home in Chesterton the
detective proceeded at once to that place
For four days and nights he lay in corn
field watching the home of the deserted
woman, but the husband did not appear. AT
the end of that time Mrs Vests brother
came from Canada and took her and her
children home with him On the same train
was the detective. Mrs, West left her chill
dren at London, Ontaria, and started out
apparently to meet her husband From
town to town she was followed, and at To-
ronto Archambeault thought she would
surely meet her husband, but he was disap-
pointed. West while evidently in communi-
cation with his wife had been SyStemau-
cally misleading her But the trail was
finally struck, and West was located at
Cinema. The chief constable of this town,
a man named Mcdonald, was West S
cousin, and while the latter was a MS
house a circular asking for Vests arrest
for murder was received by the constable,
derer fled, and traced TO Port STANLEY,
where the detective was informed that
there was no appropriation with Whlch 10
prosecute the search further, ana was re-
called.
Since that time the ST. Louis police have
heard from officials in different parts Of
the country stating that they nelieVed they
had caught the murderer, but investigation
always proved them 20 be mistaken. For
several years the case was pracucalIy
cer75ed If the Texas report proves to be
correct renewed interest VIII be given TO
one of the most sensational crimes in the
history OF st. Louis.