Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1906-11-22
VU0uA W uAUvDv
Awful Acts Imputed to
New York Woman.
Daughters Accuse Her Of Com
hitting Heinous Crimes.
Disposed Of Babies by Wringing
hecks and Burning Bodies,

| New York, Nov. 21.-The spectacle
of two mature women denOuncing as
| n murdereSS the woman who brought
| them into the world but whom they
refused TO call mother was witnessed
| in the Office of the district attorney
| today. The women are Mrs. Marie
| Schoch, recently q resident of Mas
| sachusetts and Mrs. Wilhelmina Ihrig
| of this city. The mother whom they
| accused is Mrs. Wilhelmina Eckhardt,
who was arrested by representatives
| of the County Medical Society yester-
day and is held on charge of having
performed a criminal operation. The
arrest was made upon information fur
| nished the society by the daughters
and the two younger women appeared
voluntarily at the district attorney
office today to amplify the testimony
they already had given against their
mother.
Both Mrs. Schoch and Mrs. Ihrig as
serted that they did not wish to be
known as the daughters of Mrs. Eek
hardt. who they said. is not worthy Ia
bear the name mother" Both declar-
ed that they had seen Mrs. Eckhardt
Kill hour-old infants and dispose of
the bodies by burning them in her
Kitchen stove. They also said that
they had seen Mrs. Eckhardt perform
CRIMINAL operations on women in her
East SD street home and Mrs. Ihr;g
declared that her mother had quarrel
ed with her because she refused to as
slst in burning the bodies of the ba-
bies.
Mrs. SchOch told the district attorney
that when she was three days old her
mother wrapped her in a bundle of
rags and cast her into the street. She
was rescued by her grandmother, who
reared her and with whom she remain
ed until she became a woman. When
she came to this country, she said
she found her mother conducting a
disorderly house and she declared that
her mother sought to have her become
an inmate She refused. The first
she knew of her mothers present occu-
patton. she said, was when Mrs. Eek
hardts little adopted son made a dis
covery in the house which led to the
exposure and Mrs. Eckhardts arrest.
Mrs. Schoch said she then went to
her mother about it and she declares
Mrs. Eckhardt proposed that they go
INTO partnership. This she did after
consulting with representatives Of the
County Medical Society and with n
view Of causing Mrs. Eckhardt's ar
rest 1t was while occupying this 20
Sltlon in her mothers house, she saws
that she procured the evidence which
resulted in Mrs. Eckhardt's arrest.
She declared that she saw her mother
perform an operation on Anna Jack
son, otherwise Sally Brown, the color
cd woman to whom n child was born
in the house. and that her mother told
hrr how easy it was to kill child
and to dispose Of it by burning the
body in the stove. She declared that
her mother actually did kill the baby
by twisting its neck. and that after
ward she burned it.
Mrs. Ihrig came here four months
ago from Regensburg, Germany. near
Berlin. She testified that she lived
with her mother after coming here
and that in August last she saw her
mother burn the bodies of infants. She
says that she quarreled with her moth
er because the latter wanted her to
hurn the bodies in the stove. She told
the district attorney also the name and
address of another woman who, she
sail, had seen Mrs. Eckhardt burn the
bodies Of infants.
A detective Of the district attorneys
Office reported tonight that he made
an investigation at Mrs. Eckhardts
house on East 93d street, but had dis
covered nothing further. He said that
he would continue his search tomorrow.