Case Name: THE STATE vs. JOHN and CATHARINE BENTZ
Court: Supreme Court of Missouri
Jurisdiction: Missouri
Decision Date: 1847-10
Citations: 11 Mo. 27
Docket Number: 
Parties: THE STATE vs. JOHN and CATHARINE BENTZ.
Judges: 
Reporter: Missouri Reports
Volume: 11
Pages: 27–27

Head Matter:
THE STATE vs. JOHN and CATHARINE BENTZ.
The wife, as well as the husband, may be indicted for keeping a bawdy house. They may be jointly indicted.
ERROR to St. Louis Criminal Court.
Stringfellow, Attorney General, for State.
No pretence of objection can be had to the mere form of this indictment. 2 Ch. Cr. Law, 39. Two persons may be jointly indicted for a misdemeanor, and the wife may be indicted as well as the husband for this offence. 2 Ch. Cr. Law, 39, and notes; 9 Mo. R., State vs. Harrison and others.
Holmes, on the same side.
That where several keep a common bawdy house, they may be jointly or severally indicted.— 1 Chitty’s Cr. Law, 268; Thatcher’s Cr. Cases, 19; Rev. Stat.,p. 869, sec. 14; Arch. Cr. PL, 54.

Opinion:
Napton, J.,
delivered the opinion of the Court.
This was an indictment against John Bentz and Catharine Bentz for keeping a bawdy house. The indictment was quashed, on motion of the defendants, because they were jointly indicted. It was held, -in Queen vs. Williams, (1 Salk., 384) that a wife, as well as her husband, could be indicted for keeping a bawdy house — because the wife, as well as the husband, might have a share in the management or government of a disorderly house. They may he indicted jointly. 2 Ch. Cr. L., 39; State vs. Harrison, et al., 9 Mo. R. Judgment reversed.