Palestine daily herald. [volume] (Palestine, Tex.) 1902-1949, 1906-02-22
BLUE3EARD H0CH
DOOMED TO DIE
EVERY POWER OF THE LAW HAS
BEEN ExHAUTEp TO SAVE
HIS NECK.
snecial to the Herald.

prieve or Communication of sentence
there remains but one chance to saw
Johann Hoch from the gallows anC
that is an act of clemency by Cover
nor Deneen. The execution is SEIZED
uled for tomorrow moring in the Cool
county Jail. A story is in circulation
that plans have been made by friend:
of Hoch, if he has to go to the scat
fold, for a sensational appeal to tbs
law at the last moment before the
drop. According to this report mar
will dash up to the gallows and ask
delay on the ground that he has con
elusive evidence of Hoch's innocence
If Hoch is guilty of but small pro-
portion of the crimes with which he
has been charged he is undoubtedly
entitled to be called the modern Blue
beard In the fifteen years that have
elapsed since he arrived in this coun-
try from Germany he is believed To
have married from ten to thirty wo-
men without regard to the laws in
such cases made and provided, and
he is also suspected of having caused
the death of a number of women who
placed their trust in him. His object
IN each case is believed to have been
to obtain the small savings or insur-
ance of the women.
The crime for which Hoch was
tried. found guilty and sentenced to
death was the alleged murder of Mrs.
Mary Welcker Hoch, who died in this
city January II, 1905. An analysis
of her stomach showed traces of pols-
on said to have been administered
by Hoch. The woman died within
of hnr Hoo IN
Hoch, and a month later the smooth
talking German married the dead
woman's sister, Mrs. Emile Fischer.
After getting hold of $50 which the
latter had saved from the washtub,
Hoch fed the city 1t was then that
suspicion was first directed toward
him and the subsequent investigations
of the police revealed a career be-
lieved to be without parallel in the
criminal annals of America.
The investigation tended to show
that Hoch had at least fifteen wives in
ten years, and among that number
there is evidence that at least six of
them died under circumstances re-
garded as suspicious. The man did
not always succeed in disposing of
his wives without attracting suspic-
thoroughly as to escape serious inves- |
tigation.
The method pursued by the man |
was practically the same in each |
case He rented a fiat or a house, |
had it furnished on the installment |
plan, and on this front maze love to |
women whose acquaintance he made |
through the medium of newspaper |
advertisements. He represented TO |
them that he owned the furniture, |
and in some cases the property as |
well. He posed as a man of means, |
and his professional air, well-dressed, |
well-groomed appearance served him |
in good stead in bearing out the as
sumption. Having induced his vic |
tins to marry him, his smooth man
ner with women enabled him, with |
the assistance of plausible lies, TO |
persuade them TO give him their money |
appear or the wife would suddenly |
sicken, and in a short tIme ole.
His operations extended to Indiana,
st. Louis and Milwaukee, but for the
most part were confined to Chicago.
Besides the woman of whose murder
he was convicted, and her sister,
whom he subsequently married, Hoch
is known to have hao eight or ten
wives in Chicago. One of them was
Mrs. Hoyle Hoch. She died within
month after the marriage, under cir
cumstances that aroused the suspic-
ions of her relatives While the funer-
al procession was on the way to the
cemetery the coroner stopped it and
was about to hold the corpse for an
autopsy. Hoch produced a physicians
certificate and talked glibly to the cor
oner, who then allowed the burial to
take place. Shortly afterward he mar
Tied Mrs, Marie Steinbrecker, and
this marriage netted him $1,000 Her
death excited some suspicion, but
Hoch managed to elude investigation.
In 1898 Hoch fitted up fiat in West
Fifteenth street Here he installed
another. wife and like her predeces-
sors she died within a few weeks
after marriage. In 1903, Hoch, under
name of Schmidt, married Mrs. Mary
Hendrickson. He left her, he says.
and after lawyers told him she had
obtained a divorce he married Mrs
Welcker. Mrs. Welcker died month
after the marriage, and IL was her
death that brought Hoch to the end
of his rope.
Another one of the disappearance
of women credited to Hoch is that of
Mrs. Mary Schultz of Argus, Ind.
whom he is said to have married in
1900 and killed or deserted after OBJ
tanning the money she had come in
to through the death of a former hus-
band. Another of the women whom
Hoch is thought to have disposed of
was Mrs Mary Becker of St Louis.
Circumstances indicate also that two
sisters living in Milwaukee were
among the victims OF the arch-biga-
mist
Hoch's methods with such of his
wives as he did not find IL necessary
to otherwise dispose of is illustrated
in the case of Mrs. Anna Schmidt
Hendrickson HOch, one of the women
he deserted. He married this woman
in Hammond, Ind, in 1903 Two days
later he fed with $500 which she had
saved. The day after the marriage
he told her he was heir to an estate
in Germany. A few hours later he
hurried in with a fake cablegram
which read: Father is dead. Your