Les MacDonald

  

 

Here is a chapter list for you to check out. It is followed by the chapter on the Sausage Vat murder.

 

 

1.) The Great Chicago Fire of 1871

2.) The Chicago World’s Fair

3.) The Murder Castle

4.) The Murder of the Mayor

5.) The Sausage Vat Murder

6.) The First Fingerprint Case

7.) The Thrill Killers: Leopold and Loeb

8.) Capone: The St. Valentine’s Day Massacre

9.) The Murder of the Reporter

10.) Public Enemy Number One

11.) The Lipstick Killer

12.) What Happened to the Grimes Sisters?

13.) Triple Murder at Starved Rock

14.) Speck: Born to Raise Hell

15.) The Elk Grove Murders

16.) Killer Clown

17.) Justice Denied

18.) Free to Kill Again

19.) The Shot That Brought Down Cabrini-Green

20.) Murder at Lane Bryant

 

 

The Sausage Vat Murder

 

 

 

   We stay in the last years of the 19th century for the story of Adolph Luetgert aka the Sausage King. Adolph

was one of eleven children born to Christian Luetgert and his wife Margreta in Germany. He left school at

the age of 14 and began an apprenticeship while learning the tanning business. From there he spent an unsuccessful six months in London and then a short time in New York before settling in Chicago. Adolph

was just 20 years old and ended up working in four different tanneries over the next few years. It was

during this time that he met and married Caroline Roepke. The couple had two children before Caroline

passed away in 1877. By then Adolph had used the money that he had been able to save to get himself

started in the sausage business.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                                                                                  Adolph Luetgert

 

 

  

Louise Bicknese, like Adolph, was a German immigrant. Louise wan an attractive woman who was 10 years younger than Adolph. She was working in Chicago as a domestic servant. Adolph was smitten. Several

months after Caroline’s death, Louise became the second Mrs. Luetgert. Adolph gave his new bride a solid

gold wedding ring with her new initials LL engraved on the inside. The couple had four children together

but only two survived past the age of two.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                                                                                             

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                                                                                  Adolph Luetgert's Sausage Factory

 

 

 

 

   

 

The sausage business was treating Adolph very well and he soon needed to move into a larger building on Diversey

Street. Luetgert’s sausages were being shipped all over the United States. The business reached its peak in 1893 when it

suppliedthe frankfurters for the Chicago World’s Fair. However, the good times were not going to last. The rest of the

country was in a depression which Chicago had managed to stave off with the income generated from the Fair. When the

Fair ended, Chicago was hit hard. Several Chicago banks went under and Luetgert lost everything. When Adolph attempted

to sell, he was the victim of a swindle. The losses created tension between Adolph and Louise. Mrs. Luetgert had become

accustomed to the perks that came with success. Loud arguments were overheard by neighbors who would later claim

that Louise was about to leave Adolph and hit the road. The arguments became so intense that Adolph set up a bedroom

for himself in the sausage factory. The gossip mills were working overtime when word got out that Adolph was doing more

than just sleeping on those long nights spent at the factory. There was a rumor that Adolph, who had let himself go a bit,

was entertaining a young lady by the name of Mary Snelling. Mary was one of the household servants and just happened

to be Louise’s niece.It all came to a head on May 1, 1897.

 

  

 

Louise simply vanished. Well, maybe sot so simply. Adolph told his sons that Louise had gone out the night before to

visit her sister but had not returned. He did not file a missing persons report. Louise’s brother Diedrich did. He also

personally took his concerns to the police. Police Captain Herman Schuettler and his detectives immediately launched an

investigation and search for the missing woman. The investigation revealed that Luetgert had ordered 378 pounds of

crude potash and 50 pounds of arsenic and the order had been filled on April 30, 1897…the day before Louise had

disappeared.Captain Schuettler was beginning to put two and two together. By now the gossip about the arguments had

reached hisears. He had also chatted with Wilhelm Fulpeck who worked at the factory. Fulpeck remembered Louis going

into thefactory at 10:30pm on the night of May 1. That story was confirmed by the night watchman. Schuettler was

convinced that Louise never came out of the factory and gathered his detectives to do a thorough search.

 

 

 

The detectives finally approached a sausage vat in the basement. It was located right next to the furnaces that were

used to smoke the meat. Schuettler figured that on the night of May 1 the furnaces had been used for a much different

reason. The vat was filled with thick grease that the detectives slowly drained. Wouldn’t you just know it? One of the

detectives found what appeared to be a piece of a skull and other small bone fragments. A gold ring was also found.

The inside was engraved with the initials “LL.” They had just found Louise Luetgert’s wedding ring. Rumors had it that

pieces of Louisewere shipped out in sausages all over the United States. Despite the lack of a body, prosecutors thought

that they hadenough evidence to arrest Adolph Luetgert. He was picked up on May 7 and charged with murder.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                                                                                      

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                                                                                                    

 

 

 

 

  

  

 

    The prosecution believed that Luetgert had murdered Louise, boiled her in acid and then disposed of the

remains in the furnace. If Luetgert had drained the vat himself, he might have got away with it. The defence

cast doubt on whether or not the bones that were found were human. Still, there were people who believed

that Louise had been ground into sausage. It has been said that sausage sales declined by quite a bit in the summer of 1897. On October 21, the trial ended in a hung jury. One juror had held out believing that it was

possible that Luetgert was innocent. The same jury also failed to agree on a sentence. They were split

between the death penalty and a life sentence. A new trial got underway in January 1898. This time the prosecution left no doubt as to the origins of the bones found in the vat. George Dorsey, an anthropologist

from the Field Museum in Chicago, testified that the bones were indeed human. This time the verdict was unanimous. Adolph Luetgert was found guilty of murdering his wife. He was sentenced to life in prison. Life

did not turn out to be a long time. Luetgert died of natural causes on July 7, 1899. He was 53 years old.