The Bismarck tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, N.D.) 1916-current, 1923-11-06
WOULD MURDER
CHILDREN FOR
LOVE OF MAN
-
Becomes Faint Hearted as
She Sees Offsprings Eat
Poisoned Candy
COINFESSES TO POLICE
Nan Involved Denies Guilt;
Says He Did Not Kill
Husband
BY George Britt
NEA Service Writer

Whitewater, Wis, Nov. 6.--No
man. not even her husband, ever
paid flattering attention to Myrtle
Schnude before Ernest Kufahl came
TO room at her home.
These lines, perhaps, furnish the
explanatory background and motva-
ton for the incredible mystery
tragedy resulting in the woman be-
ing held on charges of giving q dead
ly sleeping draught to her husband
and attempting to poison her four
children.
Characters in the drama:
Mrs. Schaude, SO, pretty, capable,
ardent, suppressed.
Edward Schaude, SO, hardworking,
conscientious, phlegmatic.
Kufahl, 20, prim and restrained.
And the Ihildren--Ralph, 16; Del
bert, 12; Mae, 8; Lawrence, 5; all
well-behaved and well-liked, help
less, police say, in woeful innocence
In her cell in the county Jail at
Elkhorn, Mrs. Schaude constantly is
pleading to see her babies.
81 can't bear the thought of being
sent away from my children" she
walls again and again.
Pleads For Children
..--- Yet, according to the authorities,
if she had not faltered some weeks
ago in sacrificing them, the children
now would be in the cemetery beside
their father.
= This, the police declare is the story
they've pieced together bit by hit:
.; For Is years Mrs. Schaude drudged
through her married life. Her neigh
. bors regarded her as model mothe r
: and standby in her church. On
the faXm, she helped her husband in
the fields
When the family moved to town,
she began keeping boarders. Kufsh,
came to room at her house. He vol
unteered to help Mrs. Schaude wash
the dishes and tidy the house.
Drinks and Dies
In the spring, Schaude became ILL.,
His wife was exhausted from nursing
him, so Kufahl offered to take her
place at night.
Kufahl, according to Mrs
Schaude''s purported - statement
agreed to mix drink that would
quiet the patient. Mrs. Schaude OBJ
iected. But she says Kufahl insist
cd he knew what he was doing ana
she believed him.
She placed the glass beside thu
bed. During the night Schaudt
drank and died.
Kufahl threatened her with ;
similar fate. Mrs. Schaude maintains
if she should breathe the secret.
The Auto Ride
Last summer, dressed in her wi
dow's black, Mrs. Schaudc visitet
Kufahl on farm near McGrath
MINI. They talked of marriage, SIT
says. but he objected that she coult
not take the children with her.
On a September evening she Dor
fowed a neighbours automobile an,
took the children for a ride.
3 fore reaching sharp turn Ill
the road, she produced bag o
l.8dy, Strychnine had been place,
in advance in each chocolate drop
Ralph, the driver, would be stricke
first, and the car would plunge owe
an embankment. The deaths woul
appear accidental.
But mother love conquered owe
clandestine infatuation. Mr.
Schaude's heart fluttered warningl
as her offspring tasted.
Kufahl Denies Chilli
'Spit them out" she screamed
They'll poison you"
And with her own fingers she re
moved sticky wad from Baby Law
rence's mouth.
~. Ralph refused to be scared. H
swallowed his candy. But the mothe
r rushed all back to town and called
physician. Ralph took sick, but re
covered.
District Attorney Alfred L. Goo
frey stepped into the case and be
gan asking questions. Twenty-fou
hours later she made clean breas
: of it all, Godfrey declares.
Kufahl, also in Elkhorn Jail, IL
boriously denies Mrs. Schaude's II
eliminating statements. And of he
heswill not talk. &
,AI'm not going to injure her." h