The Bennington evening banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 19??-1961, 1909-10-26
GEBHARDT ADMITS
He MURDERED
ONE WIFE
Had Married Woman Whose
Skeleton Was Found at lslip
MADE SIGNED CONFESSION
Anna Luther Shot Because Blgamist
Wanted to Return to His First
Wife

half ago a friendless girl was murder
ed in a forsaken patch of woodland
near Islip, l.. l. A week ago her
bleached and charred skeleton was
found, with nothing to Indicate its
identity but her jewelry and a bill of
sale from a German shop; three days
later, through the police at Ham
burg, Germany her identity was es-
tablished as Anne Luther. though the
cables, first carried the name as Lat
er; Monday night her husband Fred
erick Gebhardt, was caught in AS
toria, l.. L., by photographers flash
light, and last night he confessed
over his signature that he is the
murderer Gebhardt married Anna
Luther under the name of Otto
Mueller
The confession is as follows:
About December, 1907. first met
Anna Luther We were married i'm
February, 1905, and went to Europe
TO live. We returned April ., 1908.
She went to Henry Wertupps in
Newark n. j., to spend a day or two.
On the pretense that | was going to
rent an apartment for us to live in,
! returned TO my home and wife in
Astoria | met Anna again on April
s in Newark, and we went to an adj
dress in Thirty-fourth street. New
York, and then to jamaica h. l. We
stayed at Jamaica until next day.
April 9 we went to Bay Short and
we walked about, and showed her
some property. | got into an argu.
ment with her about some money
matters and | turned away and want
ed to so back. She followed me IN.
screaming, and l shot her in the
head. | didn't look at her, and did
not know whether | shot more than
once.
After that went to Islip depot
| and took train for home IL was
nearly dark. On the way home on
the train | threw the revolver out of
the car window.
Il want to state that did not kill
Anna Luther for her money, as the
newspapers have stated. My original
reason for marrying Anna was that
didn't care to live with my first wife
any longer, but as she-my first wife
had given me a child. my desire to
NStA'h SNN my Nuliu IduS6u me 10
want to get rid of Anna Luther and
return to my first wife and child.
This is the reason why | shot
Anna Luther, and ! told her in Bay
Shore that | was married and had a
wife and child and must leave her.
She screamed and ran after me, and
kissed me and wanted me back and
| shot her
This confession is made of my
own free will, without any hope Of
recompense being offered me-"
Given verbally the confession as
related was even more shockingly
brutal, the police say, than it appears
in the formal language of the police
officers, whose version Gebhardt
| signed
Il had to get rid of her." he said,
but | didn't mean to kill her. |
thought at first | could get her to
give me some money for land | did
not own, So took her down to Long
Island near some lots did own TO let
her see the land. She wouldn't come
to terms, and | told her then that |
| was already married and had a child
] loved, that | was tired of her and
wanted to go back to my wife. She
began to cry and plead and scream
and run about. She told me she loved
me and kissed me. AS she put up her
face to kiss me again, | shot her in
the head"
Gebhardt told the police he never
thought it worth while" to go back
and bury her. Instead he wrote let
ters to her friends in Newark and
Germany telling them that Anna was
IN poor health and had gone to Flori-
IA Then he quit "bothering about
her"