The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1905-02-09
3 WIVES? MAYBE;
not /, SAYS H0CH
5Gaily the Chicago Bluebeard
Owns to Bigamy, but Only
Once. i
New York Sun Special Service.

New York Sun special Service. -
.Binghampton, N. Y, Feb. 9. Admit
ting that he had possibly married more
women than the law allows, Johann
to face an indictment for bigamy de-
clared to a reporter who rode with
him from New York to Binghampton
that he had no fears as to the more
serious charge Of murder being made
against him.
MAYBE, = said Hoch, in parting
with the reporter, /" was little care
less when | married Mary Welker, the
dead sister Of my present wife, Emile
Fisher. but I really believed that Mary
Hendrlckson, my first wife, had got "a
divorce from me two or three years
ago: "
There Is humor, albeit a rough kind,
in this German Of AZ, who halls from
Stuttgart in Wurtemburg, or perhaps
from Herrweiler, a hamlet near Bingen
on the Rhine. Johann Hoch is no
mans fool. He said that more than
once today in a vainglorious way, but
he is pleased to have one take him for
a woman g fool.
Admission by Hoch.
The maze Of his speech about women
Is bewildering, but out Of it came the
only admission that has ever fallen
from his own lips that there was some
truth in the things the Chicago police
charge against him, concerning biga-
nous practices. And that admission
covers his marriage with Mary Hen
Erickson, who went from Chicago to
New York last week and at police
headquarters there identified him as
the man who married her in May, 1904
| If my lawyer finds that Mary Hen.
erickson is telling the truth about not
getting any divorce from me,'' said
Hoch, squirting his blue eyes, "well
then, am abigamist and will plead
guilty and take a year in jail.
- Come One, Come All.
1T am not afraid to 70 back. Let
them come on, all these other women
twenty-five, forty,two, hundred and
| two. Let them all come who have beer
deserted and robbed by me, and once
they take a look at me they will say
am not the man. Z want to meet al
these women. la.-s.l-g
| What about the arsenic, then, tina
the Chicago police say they have dis
covered in the stomach Of your deat
wife, Marie Walker7' .o--
Hoch fdgetted in his seat and locke,
out Of the car window before h
answered. .-
| "Arsenic, pooh!. It was her kidney
that killed her. She was sick. -
The tentative record Of marriage
held against Hoch covers the periot
from 1881 down to the present time, bu
he declares that he did not arrive il
this country until 1895. 49,. :... w..
Poison Ring His Weapon.
Chicago, Feb. 9.-Curare, the mos
! subtle and deadly poison known to mod
ern science, is believed by. DR.: JOSEPH
! Springer, formerly coroner g physician
to have caused the death Of johann
| Hoch IS wives. Il.
DR.. Springer is. convinced the, fata
drug was administered by means of en-
gagement or wedding rings.
| "By turning the inner edge of tn
ring,'' said DR.. Springer today, go
making it rough or sharp in any man
nor, applying the curare on the sTougl
/ edge and then slipping the ring on tn
finger so as to cause the slightest Abra
sion of the skin, death would follow.
cit would only be necessary for tn
slightest quantity Of the poison to Ereacl
the blood. One sixtieth Of grain O.
4 curare is fatal -........
! Another. Wife Found.
Mrs. Leo Prayer, who lives in thi
! city, is believed to have been a victim
4 Of the bigamist. According to Detec
tive Baer, this womanw as married t
4 a man some time ago who closely re
sembled the description and pictures 0
/ err. Mrs. Prayer had secured $3.50
thru the death of her former husban
and shortly after the marriage to 'tPrs
oar,, ahe Gave, him AZ 500 Money an