Americus times-recorder. [volume] (Americus, Ga.) 1891-current, 1920-07-11
Slew WIFE AND
MANHEENTICED
In FOR EXCUSE
Former Army Officer,
Confesses, Says He's
Ready To Hang

CHICAGO, July 1O.-Carl Wand
erer, former army lieutenant and
self-confessed slayer of his wife and
an unidentified stranger. was order
ed held to the grand jury on two
charges of murder today, by a cor
oner's jury.
In his confession, police said,
Wanderer declared he had deliber-
ately shot to death his bride of few
months in the hallway and that he
also shot an unwilling victim of his
planning, a man unarmed, whom he
enticed there so he could kill him and
then accuse him of having tried to
rob him and his wife, who in two
months would have become a mother.
The unidentified man used by
Wanderer to pose as a robber and
then slain was partially identified as
was employed by the Gentry Broth
ers circus while in South Bend, Inc.
eve shall go before the grand
jury and ask his indictment on a
charge of MURDER" States Attorney
Hoyne said. ''It is one of the most
cold -blooded and revolving crimes in
Chicago's history. We shall ask an
immediate trial and the rope"
81 want to be hanged" Wanderer
commented. 81 hope to join her in
death. | wonder if she will forgive
me. Well, I loved her too much to
l didn't want her myself"
let another man get her. But /
Army Life Called.
The motive for the murders was
first given by Wanderer as a desire
to go back into the army free from
marital ties. 1t was later revealed,
according to the ploice, that he wish
ed to inherit her estate and did not
intend to rob her.
Wanderer said he did not wish to
desert his wife and join the army,
but wished to be free"
! He was moved from the cell ne
occupied in the detention home yes
terday to the death CELL" from
which several murderers have gone
to their fate.
81 like the cell all right, but
can rest on these board, he de-
clared Get my blankets from my
old cell" This was done.
He continbed: 81 certainly Will
sleep much better now. l feel bet
ter with that off my chest. l had
bad dreams, and the picture of the
hallway with my wife lying there
came back once in a while. | feel
like a new man and I'm ready to
kick off whenever thev want to take
me-"
A Model Husband.
| One of the anomalies of the case
which misled the police for weeks
was the romance of the couple and
their happy married life, supposedly.
| Wanderer, who had never smoked
chewed, drank or INDUCED in slang
had but one love affair, tn one with
Ruth Johnson, who became his wife
at the conclusion of the war romance.
"She was the only oirl l ever
kissed" he told the police. He took
| her to church every Sunday. They
married after the eX-lieutenant re-
turned from France.
While the police were investigating
! the double killing, the family of the
dead wife insisted on accepting
Wanderers story of how it occurred.
Wanderers story of how the rag
ged stranger was hired to be the un-
whiting victim of the double murder
was told by him in the same cold
blooded, Unconditional way he related
the details of his wife's death.
He picked up the man on the West
Side on the day of the murder by Of
fering him a job as truck driver.
An engagement was made for the
evening. Wandered told the man he
wanted him to stage a fake hold-up.
When Lieutenant and Mrs. Wand
erer returned from the theatre in the
evening the man proceeded to carry
out his part. He was Immediately
killed by Wandered, who then turned
upon his wife, firing two shots into
her body.
Her only words were: THE bly,"