JOHANN HOCH, WIFE-SLAYER

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVI, Issue 259, 31 March 1914, Page 7

JOHANN HOCH, WIFE-SLAYER

BUSINESS OF MARRYING AND KILLING WOMEN. Jacob Schmidt was bom and rcare.l near Horweiler, Bingen, Germany, 'n 1800. He was educated for the ministr?. His father and two brothers before him had preached the gospel. Jacob, however, hearkened to the tempting stories his fellow townsmen sent back to Horwciler from the fabled land of America Here, they said, men, grew aflluent overnight, riches came unsought, fortune needed no wooing. His father and brothers .had devoted theilives to religious uplift and their effo, is had been but poorly rewarded. Jacw rebelled against the prospect of a lifetime of pulpit service, which promised to yield but a scant livelihood. Money bo came his god. its accumulation his creoJ. He decided to abandon preac.vug! A few years before lie had married pretty little Christine Raub, -who hi J borne him three children. Schmidt found little difficulty in persuading the good wife that their future welfare and "happiness depended upon the outcome of'» visit he proposed mal-ing to gold glittering America.

1 NOT AS HE HAD DREAMED. Schmidt came to the United States in 1895. His dreams of prosperity were quickly dissipated. Wealth, he learned, ordinarily was the growth of close application to unending labour. As lie had rebePed at Horweiler against the prospect of unremunerative labour, eo he now rebelled against an indeterminate siege of working for a, living. Shortly after coming to America he met a widow named Mrs. Martha Stcinbuoher. His conscience had not altogether forsaken him at this time. He shielded the honoured name of Schmidt and assumed the name by which the world now remembers him-Johann Hoch. HU conquest of the wealthy widow's heart was short and successful. He led her to the alter. After, all, he concluded, wealth did not come easily in the United States.

Mrs. Hoch, however, while loving her husband, loved her inheritance -with ft deeper passion. She would spend her money herself. Hoch found this policy embarrassing. He had no love for his bigamous wife, but her fortune appealed to him strongly. Having entered upon a career of crime, Hook put the finishing touches to it. Murder suggested itself to him. He gave it an attentive ear, and four months later a little v arsenic started the foundation for one of the greatest murder reputalions ever built by man. "I've been poisoned l !" shrieked Mc«. Hoch on her deathbed. "She's deliriousi!" declared Hoch. "No doubt of it!" agreed the atteiiing physicians.

So, unbelieved, and unmourned, Mrs. Hoch passed out of the life of her bigamous husband, leaving him in sole nojsession of her estate, which he sold for -WOOdol.

Four thousand dollars wasn't enough to satisfy the greed of the graspin;; murderer. There must be other wome-i in the world who would appreciate beeaming Mrs. Hoch and the pleasure of handing their money over to him. So Hoch inflicted his highly undesirable presence on fair, Chicago. Mrs. Stein-hucher-Hoch hardly was buried when Hoch, in November of the year of grace 1895, came to thta'citv and met Mary Uankin. Mary had a little monev —very little, in fact—but lloch wanted

it. So lie told Alary alio ought to marry him. Mary Rankin thought the idea a trood one. And so they were wedded. What? Marv had onlv a trifling sum of money! Mr. Hoch swallowed his sorrow, annexed Mary's paltry savings, and disappeared in less than twentv-four hours after they were "married"! MARRIES AND VANISHES.

Then came wife No. 4.. Martha Hertziield had COOdol. Well, if Mr. Hoch couldn't get a big fortune ho simply would .have to content himself with small "pickings." Six hundred doibis wasn't to be sneezed at. In April, 1100, she and Hoch were married. Voor months later Hoch vanished. ■

At Wheeling, W. Va.. Hoch be'it me acquainted with a namesake, u .Mi-ry Hoch. Nobody knows just how muc 1 of this world's goods Mary Hoch liu.l, but. it probably was enough, for rto"h married her: This was in Au n iist, 189(1. and within a few days Mary Hcj'i was buried.

The following month found Hoch in San Francisco, where for three rt'.vs 1 he wooed Widow Barbara Brosseht. He then was known as Sehmitt. The widow had a vast fortune—something like 14C5d01. Hoch wanted it. li return for the honour of becoming Mis. Schmitt the woman gave him her life savings. Hoch tarried but for two days after the wedding ceremony. Desei t" 1, penniless, unfit for hard work, Mrs. Brossert, Hoch's sixth victim, worried herself into the'grave. Six days later lie. appeared in Ciiv cinnatti Clara Bartel, an unsop.iiitiated "working girl with a meagre savings account, found Hoch irresistinie. Her dreams of happy wedlock were soo<i shattered. Within three months she died.

In January, ISO", Hoch landed in' Hamilton, O. He learned that Julia Dose, a young woman with whom he became acquainted, had "OOdol. The temptation was too creat, so Hoch contracted his seventh bioamous lnnrr'uige disappearing immediately after srettin" possession of the woman's nionev on their veddinf? day.

lie then returned to Chicago and for two years was unable to add to his fortune or to his list «of wives. Foolishly, he sold, a little furniture on which a mortgage had been taken, anil for this offence served two years in the house of correction. Within a short time after heinir liberated he asain began the operations which obsessed him.' He thoughl Anna Boehrkc. had a little money, x> he proposed to her. This was in November, 1901. It transpired, bowevr, that Anna was practically a "aupcr. Not knowing this, lloch nitirrieil her. only to desert her immediately. St. Louis was the next 'cene of his undertakings. He married there early in 11)02, and on April S Mrs. Mary Becker became Mrs. Hoch. She lived less than a year.

'A YKAR UNACi'OI'XTEI) VDlt. V'ov over a vcar and a half nothing was hoard of Koch. What he did from •\pril S li!f>2. until dannarv 2. VMU. is l,„t a. thread of the fa.bric of which the mystery of bis existence was woven. o,'i' the hitler dale ho again visited (Vieivo. Airs. Anna lloiidriekson listened to, his avd"ul declarations of love. «he welcomed Hooh as the one man in Hie world who could make hrr haimv. Her hanpiness la-ted eighteen da vs. During that neriod Unci. on OOfl-101. nf her money. \\ ith it I"' made his getawav. Kive months claused and then I'och found a Wn.lro-1 son' with n V-nlred name in Milwaukee. Lena ft«-V_ » .Tune became a blushing bride Within three. «-ecks alio was n corpse and

Hoch was the possessor of her 1500dol,

On that much money a man can travel a considerable distance. Hence Hoch lied to Philadelphia, where he met a middle-aged widow known as Caroline Streielicr. Hoch thought she had money. Whether she bad or not never has been determined. The murderer took a chance and annexed his thirteenth bigamous wife. With this woman he lived for eleven days. Then his passion for money prompted him to return to Chicago.

A week later he met a man named Vail at the Chicago City Bank.. Vail owned a cottage at 0225, Union Avenue, and Hocli desired to Tent it. He told Vail he was holding down a responsible position with a packing company. He and his wife, lie declared, wanted the cottage. He got it. Early in December be inserted an advertisement in a Chicago German newspaper:

"Matrimonial—German; own home; wishes acquaintance of widow without children; object, matrimony." At 12, Willow Street, Marie Walcker conducted a little candy store. She had divorced her first husband. She was forty-six years old and was known as a hard-working woman. She read Hoeh's advertisement. Tired of drudgery, she decided to meet Hoch, and in pursuancp of ,tbis decision had her sister answer the ad.

GIVES UP LIFETIME SAVINGS.

Fresh as a daisy, neatly dressed, exuding smiling gladness from everv pore, Hoch presented himself at the candy store on December H. He had a long talk with Mrs. Walcker. His wife had been dead for two years, he told her. Also he had 8000 dollars, owned the cottage (which he rented from Vail) in which he lived, and several vacant lota in close proximity to thecottage. He informed her that his father was eighty-one years old, lived in Germany, and was in feeble health. When he died Hoch, a* the only son, would inherit 15,000 dollars.

This glittering prospect naturally made its impression on "the toiling woman. Her barque, she concluded, tempest tossed, at last would cast anchor in the harbour of love and peace. They were married within a few days after the first visit from Hoch.

Hoch unblushingly told the "bride" that his money was tied up temporarily and he needed funds with which to prepare his home for occupancy. The good woman promptly sold her candv store for 75 dollars, and outting H •with the savings of a lifetime, amounting to 350 dollars, gave the entire sum to Hoch.

It was a disgustingly small amount, but Hoch yearned to stav in Chicago for a while, for he had met Mrs.. Fischer, his bride's widowed sister, and learned that the widow had a savings account amounting to 893 dollars—decidedly worth going after. But in order, to marry the widow for the fourteenth bigamous wife would have to be disposed of. On December 20, therefore. Mrs. Hoch was taken with violent' pains, accompanied by a horrible thirst and a tingling sensation in the extremities, a feeling akin to the crawling <-f thousands of ants over her bands and feet. Hoch sent for Mrs. Fischer. She cmc and did what she could. When she left for the night Hoch accompanied her to the street car, declaring it was a shamo that he didn't meet Mrs. Fischer four weeks earlier. Mrs. Hoch died on January 12, ino.">, the physician certifying that" her'death was due to nephritis sinu- cvstitis. Mrs. Fischer -was present at the time her sister died. Within an hour after the woman's death lloch had proposed to Mrs. Fischer. "It's altogether too sudden, this proposal!" declared Mrs. Fischer, and to nrove her -point she went with Hoch to Joliet three days after her sister's funeral, where they were married.

Hoch lost no time in gettinp hold of her savings. ",We ©ifcrht to spend our honeymoon in Germany," he declared, "for it's advisable that I we my aged and wealthv father. Before going, _ however. I'll , nee* lOOOdol. to straighten out my business affairs in \Ohicago." The trusting woman drew 75fidol. from the bank and gave it to her "husband." HIS LAST GETAWAY. ,

They then went to a, house at 372, Rest Street. They were met bv a woman who informed Mrs. Fischer-1 loch that the sister who diad answered Hoch's advertisement in the German paper was in the kitchen denouncing Hoch as a murderer anil l a swindler. "Go out and pacify her" urged Hoch. ''l'll stay in the parlour."

Tile woman left him alone. Returning a few moments later, thev found Mrs. Fischer-Hock's husband bad departed. Mrs. Fiseher-Hoch.immodintolv hecame convinced there was something to her sister's denunciation. She said as much to Inspector Shipoy. The chief took immediate action. The body of Mrs. Walcker-Hoch was exhumed. A post-nfortem examination resulted in the discovery of>4.(i grains of arsenic in the woman's stomach ami IV, grains in the liver.

Suspicion immediately fastened upon the bigamist-murderer. His picture was published broadcast, and on January 30, 1005, a woman who kept a hoarding-house in New York, notified the police that a Henry Bartells was rooming in her house, and this man she firmly believed was Hoch. Tlnw was she sure? Why, twentv minutes

after becoming her roomer, Tloeh had suggested that he help her peel potatoes; and in less than a day he proposed to her.

Hoch was arrested and searched. A fountain pen without a gold nib was found in one of his pocket*. The reservoir was tilled with fifty-eight grains of powder. "It's tooth powder," said (loch without a moment's hesitation. "Tooth powder, bell!" cried the

chief. "When it's analysed we'll find it's arsenic. A man ' doesn't carrv tooth powder in the barrel of .' fountain lien."

On February Si the coroner's jury returned a verdict in which Hoch was accused of the murder of .Mrs. Walekerlloch. He was indicted by th» grand jury and on May f>. lOn.'i, win placed on trial. Found guilt v. be was sentenced to be hanged on June 2.1.

All appeal was taken to tin- {Governor. Tile Covernor Mused to grant a stay. On th" morning of'.Tunc 2.'!. desiring that lie lie given ever.- possible ojipoi-tun-iiy for proving hi* innocence. Miss Com' Wilson who conducted a fur store i\t (Hi, Wabash Avenue, tiilvn ni-ctl the funds necessary to aime'il tlio ease to tlie Supreme Court. Tlie governor then postponed the execution pending a review of the case liv the higher Court. The finding of the lower Court was sustained, and HocVs execution set for August 2j. On August 24 th« condemned man was granted another conlineau"o until the October session of the Supremo Court. This Court refused to intervene and on February 23, mm), a ye-r to th" (lav after being found gniltv, Uoph naiil the penalty for his long list of crimes.