The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1899-08-03
QUEER CASE OF wAcKERLE
Courts Say Hels Dead, But Government
Is Still Paying Pension.


This government with quarterly regu-
larity, says the St. Louis Globe-Democrat,
is paying pensions to a man who has been
declared dead by a United States court,
and whose life insurance has been paid to
his widow-that is, his widow de jure.
The Wackerle case is stranger than fic-
ton William Wackerle of Company H,
Ninth regiment, Minnesota infantry, still
lives, in the opinion of the pension bu-
reau William Wackerle, same company
and same regiment, was killed in rail
road accident as long ago as 1872, accord
ing to the verdict and the decision in the
United States circuit court at st. Louis 70
years ago.
Basing her claim upon the evidence and
the finding of the court that her husband
was dead, Walberga Wackerle, the widow
de jure has been trying to get pension:
The case has been investigated again and
again. Special examiners have visited va
rious parts of the country and have col
lected Voluminous testimony. The con-
clusion arrived at is that William Wack-
erie still lives, and the government con-
tinues to pay the pension to him, denying
the claim of the alleged widow A de-
cision to this effect was made on July l,
1896 The persistent widow has continued
to nress the matter, appealing the case
through all of the stages provided by law.
She carried it to the assistant secretary of
the interior, Webster Davis, and he has
declared that William Wackerle is still
living.
Her husband ;, said Mr.. Davis, sis now
on the rolls as a penSioner. Before his
name was restored his case was specially
examined, and his identity as the soldier
who served in said company and regiment
was satisfactorily established.
THE soldier" continued Mr. Davis,
gives satisfactory account of himself
and his whereabouts, and the date of his
earliest recollection up to 1888 and SUISSE
quently. He bears a good reputation for
to his application for pension, May Y,
1854, to the various vouchers for pension,
to his pay roll service, to his two applica-
lions for life insurance in 1876, and to his
subsequent afidavits and pension applica-
ton have been carefully compared, and
shown to be the signatures of the same
person. am of the opinion that the evil
dence in this case fails to show the death
of the soldier
Notwithstanding this final decision in
the case, Mrs. Walberga Wackerle has
continued to insist that her husband is
dead and to press her demand upon the
pension bureau. Letters of as recent dates
as January of this year are included in
the great bundle of records pertaining to
the strange case. 1t is a matter of con-
siderable relief to the officials to learn
that Mrs. Wackerle has been taken into
custody in ST. Louis as a person of I'M
sound mind 1t is matter of not much
establishment to them that the squalid
room in which she lived was found to be
safe deposit for government bonds, gold
and silver to the amount of thousands of
dollars. There has been amazing method
In Walberga Wackerle's madness. She put
the government to great expense to prove
that her husband was alive after the
court had decided that he was dead and
had rendered judgment against the life in
surance company in which he held a
policy.
The pigeonhole of the pension office de-
voted to the Wackerle case contains
enough material to fill large book. In
the great mass of testimony there is an
affidavit from man living in Napa
county, Cal. This witness formerly lived
in Carver county, Mimi, from 1856 to 1856
He testified that he knew William Waek-
erie in 1856, and that two or three years
later ne became acquainted with Wack-
erle's wife His acquaintance continued
until the Wackerles left Carver William
Wackerle, while at Carver, enlisted in
Company H of the Ninth Minnesota The
witness moved from Carver county to
California in 1866. He saw this same
Wackerle in San Francisco on June "a
1875 In company with Wackerle was a
former lieutenant of Company II of the
pers is the deposition of this lieutenant
that he saw Wackerle in San Francisco in
June, 1873, and recognized him as the Will
liam Wackerle who was a member of that
company.
One of the curious exhibits in the case is
the photograph of Wackerle. On the back
Of 1t is this Endorsement:
This is my photograph, taken in 1s7s.''
William Wackerle."
The date is subsequent by six years to
the time Wackerle was killed on the rail-
road as established in court, yet the sig
nature on the back of the photograph is
Identical with the signatures of William
Wackerle to the pay rolls while he was in
the army previous to 1854 and also with
the signature of a pension application
which he made in 1864.
One of the special examiners who trav-
eled through the west to determine the
question whether William Wackerle, the
applicant for a pension, was the William
Wackerle proven dead in his Widows suit,
said in his report to the commissioner:
Il have taken the testimony of some old
neighbors acquaintances and associates
Every one whose deposition is submitted
is an honorable man, well acquainted
with all of the parties and the facts In
addition TO these dispositions which / have
obtained l interviewed many other per-
sons. The answer was invariably the
good neighbors to prove the identity of
The pensioner, but / selected some of the
most prominent and reliable men from
among those who were in a position to
know all of the facts
Mrs. Wackerle, in her suit for the insur-
ance at st. Louis, produced skeleton
which her witnesses said was that of VIII
liam Wackerle, killed on the railroad in
1872. She had much other evidence which
was sufficient TO satisfy the jury that her
claim against the insurance company was
just
Mrs. Wackerle not only got the insur-
ance money but she collected damages
from the railroad for the death Of her
husband.
Today she is a widow de lure and her
husband is living pensioner de facto