On the 27th of July, 1886, the citizens of New Albany, were startled by the news that Prof. Ira G. Strunk, on one of the public streets of the city, had shot and killed Charles V. Hoover, and seriously wounded Dr. Charles L. Hoover, the father of the deceased. The fatal shot was fired a few minutes after twelve o'clock, and was the culmination of a tragedy that had been gathering force for years; and which in the development of its successive acts and scenes, surpasses in tragic interest all the literature of Sophochles or Shakespeare.

Prof. Ira G. Strunk, the defendant in the cause celeb, an account of which is given in the following pages, was born in Jacksonville, Pa., March 22, 1846. He received a liberal education in the public and normal schools of his native State, and in the University of Kentucky.

He came to New Albany, Sept. 2, 1872, and in the following November, he became the Principal of the New Albany Business College.

For fourteen years, he devoted himself to his chosen field of labor, with such industry and zeal; that at the time misfortune, like a pall, over-shadowed his hitherto happy life, he had made for his College, a reputation of which he and the city of New Albany, were justly proud. In 1876, Prof. Strunk married Myra Sullivan, a beautiful and talented lady, and never did a youthful pair seem happier, nor the future more inviting.

Prof, and Mrs. Strunk, were members of the Episcopal church of this city, Mrs. Strunk being the organist in the church choir. The leader of the choir was Charles V. Hoover, an unmarried man, of thirty-eight years of age, pleasing in address, and attractive in appearance. As organist, and leader of the choir, Mr. Hoover and Mrs. Strunk were frequently together, and to the frequency of their meetings, and the intimacy of their association there seemed to be no objection. Mr. Hoover was a frequent visitor at the home of Prof. Strunk, and was always treated with the freedom and cordiality due a trusted friend.

The business engagements of Prof. Strunk as Principal of the Business College, required his absence from his home during the day, and until late at night, with the exception of meal time. Having made some investments in Florida, he was occasionally away from the city for some weeks together. Returning from one of these trips, his attention was called to a squib in one of the city papers, hinting at a questionable intimacy existing between a single gentleman and a prominent married woman.

Resenting the intimation that the lady referred to was his wife, Prof. Strunk made inquiry of the editor, with a view of proving false the rumor that had been set afloat,

It was at once established that the newspaper notice had no reference to Mrs. Strunk; but Prof. Strunk, to his horror and amazement, was informed that for some years Charles V. Hoover, had been making visits to his house in his absence, and both publicly and privately had given undoubted proofs of an undue intimacy with his wife. Upon further inquiry these reports were verified ; the trusted friend had proved false in his pretended friendship, and violated the confidence reposed in him.

On the 22nd of December, 1885, Prof. Strunk left his wife and home, and took rooms at the Occidental Hotel. Some time in April, meeting Hoover in a clothing store, Strunk attempted to shoot him, but the pistol missed fire. Strunk now disposed of his interest in the Business College, and determined to quit New Albany forever.

When just about to leave for Florida, he was arrested and held to answer the charge of assault and battery, with the intent to kill Hoover.

Having furnished bond for his appearance, he went to Florida, where he remained some months, returning in July. On the 27th of that month, he was seated before the Windsor Hotel in this city, when Charles V. Hoover, and his father passed up the street in full view. Strunk after gazing at them a moment, arose, followed them, shot and killed Charles V. Hoover, and by accident seriously wounded the father,

Immediately after the shooting. Prof. Strunk walked quietly to his hotel, and there surrendered himself to the authorities.

On Thursday, the 29th, the prisoner was arraigned before John J. Richards, Mayor of the city of New Albany, and the State not being ready for the preliminary examination, the case was continued till the 3rd of September, and Prof. Strunk, was taken to the county jail, and remained in the custody of Sheriff Jacob Loesch, at whose hands he received all possible courtesy due the prisoner, and not inconsistent with his own duties as Sheriff.

During his imprisonment, Prof. Strunk received letters and telegrams of sympathy from all parts of the Union. The young men, whom he had trained and fitted for business life, scattered as they are all over the land, did not forget their friend in this trying situation.

Friends from the city of New Albany and vicinity, were unceasing in their efforts to render the long hours spent in the jail, as free from unpleasant associations as possible. Scarcely an hour of the seventy- three-and one half day's of his confinement, was Prof. Strunk left without a visitor. More than fifteen hundred of his friends and acquaintances called between the time of his arrest and acquittal.

On the 3rd of September, at the preliminary hearing, upon the reading of the indictment. Prof. Strunk, pleaded not guilty. And by his attorneys, as required by the statutes of Indiana, he entered the special plea of unsoundness of mind at the time oi' the commission of the alleged offense. He was then remanded to jail to await the action of the grand jury.

On the 8th day of September, the Grand Jury, after an inquiry into the facts presented the following indictment.


STATE OF INDIANA, Floyd County.
In the Floyd Circuit Court, September Term, 1886.
The State of Indiana, vs.  Indictment No. 1, for Murder.
Ira G. Strunk. J


The Grand Jury of the County of Floyd, in the State of Indiana, upon their oath do present; that Ira G. Strunk, on the 27th day of July, 1886, at said county, feloniously, purposely, and with premeditated malice, unlawfully killed and murdered Charles V. Hoover, by then and there feloniously, purposely, and with premeditated malice, shooting and mortally wounding the said Charles V. Hoover with a certain pistol, which he, the said Ira G. Strunk, then and there had and held in his hands, and shot off and dis-charged at, against, to, and upon the said Charles V. Hoover, and which pistol was then and there loaded with gunpowder and leaden bullets. Frank B. Burke, Prosecuting Attorney,

By Jacob Herter, his Deputy.

The trial was set down for September, . The case for the State, was conducted by Prosecutor Frank B. Burke, assisted by LaFollette & Tuley, of the New Albany bar, and Major Kinney, and Col. Caruth, from Louisville. For Prof. Strunk, appeared, A. Dowling, Kelso & Kelso, Jewett & Jewett, and Chas. F. Coffin, all of New Albany.

The trial was a memorable one, and was watched with interest by the citizens of Floyd County, and of the cities and towns for miles around. As the evidence for the defendant, began to develop, public sympathy for the accused increased to such a degree of intensity that it visibly affected the business of the whole city. And the verdict of the jury was received with such demonstrations of approval as had never before been witnessed in Indiana.

CHARLES P. FERGUSON.
Judge's charge to the jury.
State of Indiana, vs. Ira G. Strunk,
Floyd Circuit Court.

The indictment in this case charges that IraG. Strunk, on the 2f7th day of July, 1886, at the County of Floyd, feloniously, purposely, and with premeditated malice, unlawfully killed and murdered Charles V. Hoover, by then and there feloniously, purposely and with premeditated malice, shooting and mortally wounding the said Charles V. Hoover, with a certain pistol which he, the said Ira G. Strunk then and there had, and held in his hands, and shot off and discharged at, against, to, and upon the said Charles V. Hoover, and which pistol was then and there loaded with gunpowder and leaden bullets.   The offense so charged, is murder in the first degree.

Homicide is defined to be, "the killing of any human being," and every felonious homicide is either murder or manslaughter.

By the laws of the State of Indiana, murder is of two degrees, and there are also two kinds of manslaughter.

If the killing is done purposely and with premeditated malice, the slayer is guilty of murder in the first degree.

If the killing is done purposely and maliciously, but without premeditation then the crime is murder in the second degree.

If the killing is done unlawfully without malice, express or implied, purposely, but upon a sudden heat, the crime is manslaughter, generally designated or voluntary manslaughter.

If the killing is done unlawfully without malice, express or implied, not purposely, but in the commission of some unlawful act, then the crime is also manslaughter, and known as involuntary manslaughter.

To constitute either degree in murder there must be a malicious inten-tion to kill. Because the killing is done maliciously and purposely, it does not necessarily follow that it was done with premeditation.

"Premeditation" implies that the slayer had time and opportunity for deliberate thought, that after his mind conceived the thought of taking the life, he meditated upon it and formed a deliberate determination to do the act. After such a determination is so formed, then no matter how soon afterwards it is carried into execution, when it is done it is murder in the first degree, but if no previous determination was so formed it is not, and the premeditation must be proven as any other fact.

In murder the killing is done maliciously, in manslaughter it is done without malice.

While the term "malice" in its ordinary sense means anger, hatred, and ill-will, it has an additional meaning in law, and includes every unlawful and unjustifiable motive. It means the willful doing of an injurious act without any lawful excuse for so doing, and is implied from any cruel act unless extenuating or mitigating circumstances appear.

If a man slay his victim purposely without lawful excuse for so doing or mitigating circumstances he is regarded as doing the act, maliciously in the meaning of the law, although he had no feeling of anger, hatred, or revenge toward the person slain. Implied malice is such as is presumed from the act itself.

Express malice is such as may be shown by the actions and expressions of the party charged, prior to the commission of the act, such as threats or lying in wait and preparation to commit the act.

Under the indictment in this case you are authorized to find the defendant guilty of either murder' in the first degree or manslaughter, if the proof authorizes such finding according to the definitions I have given you. But before you can find him guilty of any offense, you must be satisfied beyond a reasonable doubt that he is guilty of such offense, and in case of doubt as to which offense, if any, the defendant is guilty, it is your duty to convict him of the lowest degree of offense in regard to which the doubt exists.

Homicide is sometimes justifiable and sometimes excusable. It is justifiable in an officer who takes life pursuant to a warrant issued to him from proper authority commanding him to do so, or when in making an arrest it becomes necessary by reason of resistance or attempted flight; and it is sometimes justifiable for the prevention of an atrocious crime attempted to be committed by force. It is excusable when life is taken by accident, and unintentionally by a person while doing a lawful act; and itis excusable in a man to take a life in self-defense when he is in imminent and manifest danger of losing his own life or of suffering enormous bodily harm, or has reason to believe, and does believe that he is in such danger; and under no circumstances other than those so enumerated is a sane man justifiable of excusable in taking human life.

In the case on trial the defendant has pleaded not guilty to the charge alleged against him in the indictment, the effect of which plea is to throw upon the State the burden of proving every material allegation contained in the indictment/ It is material for the State to prove, and it must be shown that Charles V. Hoover is dead, and that he came to his death prior to the indictment by the hands of the defendant in the county of Floyd, in the State of Indiana, in the manner alleged in the indictment, and of these ! facts, and of each of them the jury must be satisfied from the evidence beyond a reasonable doubt before the defendant can be convicted of the offense charged, for in this as in all criminal prosecutions the defendant is presumed to be innocent until his guilt is established by the evidence beyond a reasonable doubt.

A reasonable doubt arises when the evidence is not sufficient to satisfy the minds of the jury to a moral and reasonable certainty of defendants guilt.   The jury must be so convinced, by the evidence, of defendants guilt that a prudent man could feel safe to act upon that conviction in matters of the highest concern and importance to his own dearest personal interests under circumstances when there can be no compulsion to act at all, otherwise there can be no conviction.

If the jury find from the evidence that Charles V. Hoover came to his death by the hand of the defendant while of sound mind, and by the means stated in the indictment, they are bound to presume that the act was done maliciously unless such presumption is overthrown by other evidence.

In addition to the plea of not guilty which throws upon the State the burden of proving every material averment of the indictment beyond a reasonable doubt, the defendant by his counsel, has set up the further defense that the defendant was of unsound mind at the time the offense charged in the indictment was committed. If that plea is true the defendant must be acquitted even if the fact of killing as alleged in the indictment is clearly proven by the evidence, and before he can be convicted it must appear from the evidence beyond a reasonable doubt that at the time of the com-mission of the act the mental condition of the defendant was such as to render him criminally responsible for the act if he committed it.

Our law defines the term "persons of unsound mind" to mean idiot, non competes, lunatic, monomaniac, or distracted persons. If upon the evidence in this case you have a reasonable doubt that at the time of the act charged in the indictment, the defendant was a person of sound mind it is your duty to find him not guilty upon the ground that he was insane.

The test of responsibility for criminal acts when unsoundness of mind is made a defense is .the capacity of the accused to distinguish between right and wrong at the time and with respect to the act which is the subject of inquiry, and tho sufficiency of his mantal will-power over his actions. Whether or not the accused possessed this power, and to what extent, if any, it was impaired by mental. diseases, are purely matters of fact to be determined by the jury from the evidence. In a case like this when the plea of insanity is in, the question of sanity or insanity of the defendant is before the jury, and is to be passed upon by them. It is the duty of the jury to consider not only the evidence directed to the mental condition of the defendant, but also all circumstances developed by the evidence bearing upon that question, and upon the consideration of the_ whole evidence if a reasonable doubt exists in the mind of the jury as to defendants sanity at the time the act was committed he is entitled to the benefit of the doubt. If defendant committed the act charged, and at the time he did so had mental capacity sufficient to fully comprehend the nature and consequences of the act, and unimpaired will power strong enough to master an impulse to commit a crime there is criminal responsibility, otherwise there is not, for there must be present both the mind to judge and know, and the will to govern and control to constitute criminal responsibility.

The opinions of medical experts have been given in evidence touching defendants soundness or unsoundness of mind. Such opinions are to be considered by the jury in connection with all the other evidence in the case, but you are not bound to act upon sueh opinions to the exclusion of other testimony. Taking into consideration these opinions and giving them just weight yon are to determine for yourselves from the whole evidence whether defendant was or was of sound mind, giving him the benefit of a reasonable doubt, if a reasonable donbt arises from the evidence.

In this as in all criminal cases the jury have the right to determine the law and the facts. They are also the exclusive judges of the credibility of the witnesses. In determining the weight to be given to the statements of a witness, the jury have the right to take into consideration his manner on the witness stand, his intelligence, his means of knowledge, his interest in the case and prejudice, if any be manifested, and any contradictory or inconsistent statements in his own testimony, and if the conflicting statements of different witnesses cannot be harmonized, it is for the jury to decide between them, taking all the testimony into consideration.

If the jury find from the evidence that the defendant did unlawfully kill Charles V. Hoover, and have no reasonable doubt of defendants soundness of mind at the time he did so, then they must determine the grade of homicide of which he is guilty. If the jury find that the killing was done purposely and maliciously, and with premeditation, then the verdict should be murder in the first degree, and in such case the punishment in the discretion of the jury may be the death penalty or confinement in the state prison during life.

If the jury find that tire killing was done purposely and maliciously, but without premeditation then the offense is murder in the second degree, and punishable by confinement in the state prison during life.

If the jury find from the evidence that the killing was unlawful and purposely, but without malice, express or implied, in a sudden heat, then the offense is voluntary manslaughter, and may be punished by imprisonment in the state prison for a period not less than two years nor more than twenty-one years.

If the jury find the defendant not guilty of any offense whatever they will uy their verdict say so and no more.

If the jury find that the defendant should be acquitted on the ground of unsoundness of mind alone they should state that fact in their verdict.

Charles P. Ferguson.

The case was given to the jury at 6:4-5 P. M., and at 7 returned the following verdict.

Oct. 9, 1886.

We, the jury, find the defendant not guilty, and acquit him upon the sole ground that he was insane at the time of the commission of the offense charged in the indictment.

Samuel C. Miller, Foreman.

By the time the jury was ready to report, the Court House and the streets were filled with people anxious to know the result. When the verdict was read, the multitude gave expression to their feelings and approbation in a shout never before heard in this city.   Prof. Strunk was conducted to the residence of Sheriff Loesch, where he and the jury took tea together. After supper it is thought five thousand people called to congratulate him. Such an expression of sympathy and interest was never before extended to a prisoner in this county.

It was the intention to have given the portraits of the Counsel, Jury and Mr. C. V. Hoover, but the Counsel being modest men, declined to allow it, and in respect to the feelings of Mr. Hoover's friends, his is withheld.

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"Sixteen-year-old Fritz R. Marshall has been charged by New Albany Police with first degree murder in connection with the stabbing death of his mother, Alicine Marshall, 3131 Beacon Dr. Also charged with first degree murder is Steven R. Mack, 18, of Hammond, Ind. Prosecuting Attorney Joseph Earl stated the boys will be arraigned tomorrow in Floyd Circuit Court.
The two juveniles were arrested Tuesday in Salem by Washington County Police on a charge of theft.
New Albany Police were contacted and asked to notify Mrs. Marshall of her son's arrest, but officers were uinable to get an answer at the door. At 10:13 a.m. on Wednesday, still without answer at the Marshall home, police forced the door and discovered the woman's body on a bed in the back bedroom.
An autopsy performed in Floyd Memorial Hospital by Floyd County Coroner Dr. Daniel Cannon and a pathologist, revealed that Mrs. Marshall suffered 17 stab wounds inflicted by a household butcher knife "approximately six inches long." She reportedly died of shock and bleeding.
SEQUENCE OF EVENTS
Voluntary statements signed by the juveniles outlined the details of the sequence of events leading up to the murder on Saturday, July 21, and later arrest at Salem.
Statements by both boys concurred on the fact that the boys left the Fr. Gibaudt School for Boys in Terre Haute, and were arrested in Prattville, Ala. July 5 in a truck which they reportedly admitted stealing.
Mrs. Marshall flew to Prattville on July 21, Saturday, the day of her death, and picked up the pair and returned to Louisville by bus. They took a cab to the Marshall home.
Later that evening, mack got into an argument with Mrs. Marshall over his impending return to Fr. Gibault School.
The statement reads further that both boys took part in stabbing Mrs. Marshall. They then gathered up some clothes and set out in the marshall car..
SEARCH FOR PURSE
The boys reportedly went through Mrs. Marshall's purse while traveling north on I-65 and threw it out somewhere near Austin. Police are conducting a search for the missing purse.
The boys were caught on a country road near Salem by rising creek water from excessive rain and were forced to abandon the car. They reportedly stole a boat and spent two nights on farms near Salem before their arrest.
Indiana State Police assisted New Albany officers at the scene of the murder."
New Albany Tribune. July 26, 1973. Page 1. Column 5.
Contributed by Gregg Seidl

Personal Notes from Gregg Seidl
I first met Fritz Marshall in the summer of 1969, the summer after my grandparents moved from their older bungalow on Morton Avenue in New Albany to a more elegant and spacious home on Hickory Grove. They also bought two lots adjoin their property when they purchased their new house, and I could see the back of the small white home where Fritz lived with his mother, Alicine, and his father, Eldon “Huggy” Marshall.

I thought Fritz kind of a jumpy kid when my friend, Dana, who visited his grandmother’s home across the street from my grandparent’s house about as much as I visited mine, introduced us, and if the story that soon made the rounds in the neighborhood is true, then the kid had every right to be what the detectives used to say on those cop shows in the 80s when describing someone nervously and purposefully avoiding eye contact or switching their weight from foot to foot—or both—“hinky.”

Not long after our initial contact, I didn’t see Fritz riding his bike around the neighborhood at his usual break neck speed. I didn’t see him riding his bike at any speed. In fact, I didn’t see him at all. When I asked Dana why, he told me that Fritz wanted to play football for his junior high school team that fall, but when he approached his mother about getting a physical so he could join the team, she refused. I know more than a few mothers are initially quite hesitant to let their sons participate in such a violent and oft times bloody sport, turning practically paralyzed by fear at the thought of their sweet little boys slammed to the ground and trampled into a sticky purplish pulp by the feet of some hulking brute twice the size of their dear little boy. I’m a parent myself, and therefore understand their rejection of the game is a natural reaction. It’s a mother’s instinct to protect their children from harm, and this makes what Dana told me next so shocking an act.

Dana claimed Fritz kept insisting his mother sign the papers allowing him to play. His father, small, quiet man, who kept mostly to himself and enjoyed drinking beer until he achieved a state of smiling happy oblivion when off work, made his living as an “engineer,” (really just a fancy title for a mechanic), on a tugboat on the Ohio and Mississippi rivers, and was gone more than he was home. Huggy loved life on the water. As a young sailor, he’d been in on many of the amphibious landings made by the Marine Corps during the deadly island hopping campaign against the Imperial Japanese military, naval, and air forces in the Pacific during World War II, piloting the landing craft that carried the Marine infantry men from the transport ships through the hail of gunfire and artillery shells to the landing beaches. Every so often, when he was fairly drunk, but not enough to pass out just yet, he’d talk about his experiences. Unfortunately, I didn’t discover this until not long before he suffered the onset of Alzheimer’s disease, and so I missed out on many of his stories. But, I’ll never forget the ones he shared with me over beers in his kitchen one night.

I don’t know what type of schedule he worked in 1968, but when he eventually became my step father’s step parent, Huggy usually worked on the boat for most of the year. We used to joke behind his back and my step-grandmother’s that he probably had another family he spent time with somewhere along the Mississippi or one of her backwaters instead of coming home to our kooky family and all its troubles and issues, which we were sure was the only family forced to endure such suffering. But, I digress. Most of the men and women I’ve known who worked on the powerful river tugs worked for a month on duty on the boat and away from home, and enjoyed two weeks off at the end of their tour. I’m sure the times varied from company to company and from position to position within the companies. Huggy was an engineer, keeping the huge diesels humming and moving the massive loads the barges carried upstream and down, so his duties likely kept him on the water for longer periods than the average deckhand, and he probably wasn’t home much that summer as Fritz continued to pester and annoy Alicine. If he had, maybe we wouldn’t know anything about any of them.

Alicine finally snapped. I never met her, and from what I gathered listening to the women of the neighborhood talk when they thought I wasn’t, Fritz’s mom wasn’t the most pleasant person to be around. Some whispered she’d had some mental problems, but I have no idea if the woman did or didn’t and don’t to this day. I didn’t even know her name until researching this story. I did hear through my family that there was a possibility that Fritz wasn’t really Huggy’s son. That Alicine had gotten pregnant back in a time when single young women did NOT get that way; not if they expected to ever live a respectable life and marry a decent man. It was one thing to wed a war widow with another man’s child, but no virtuous fellow would ever say "I do" to a gal who already did with someone else. I don’t remember hearing how Alicine and Huggy knew each other. I only remember hearing Huggy agreed to marry her in order to preserve her dignity and public standing in the tiny town of Palmyra, Indiana where they both grew up and lived at the time of her “unfortunate incident.”
I’m sure she had no idea then how truly unfortunate her pregnancy would be for her, but the rumor that spread amongst at least us kids in the neighborhood that summer was that when Alicine snapped, she snapped Fritz’s leg bones, ensuring he wasn’t going to play any football that year and ending the discussion once and for all. He couldn’t get out of bed, so there wasn’t any reason for him to bother her anymore about playing football, and she could finally have some peace and quiet.

I have nothing to verify that this actually happened. I never saw Fritz on crutches, but I never saw Fritz at all again until the fall of 1979, and a lot had transpired between our last meeting and our unexpected reunion in the living room of my mother’s house. We’d barely known each other the last time we’d talked and now we were related. Fritz was my step father’s step brother, so he was some sort of convoluted form of uncle and I the nephew, and I’m still not sure how I feel about the connection in light of exactly what had happened in the intervening years.

For now, you should know that "Uncle Fritz" is somewhere in the United States, free, married, and last known to be deeply religious. His partner has been out longer than Fritz has.

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JANUARY 24,1926
Daniel Alonzo Mayfield was killed by robbers after a hold up at the Lanesville State Bank. Dan was a Deputy Sherriff at the time. The following account was given of his death in the New Albany Tribune.
Dan, with his sandy ruffled hair, his keen eyes sparkling, and his wiry close knit body in action, went down with the colors flying and gun in hand ready to continue the battle with two cars containing desperate robbers just before dawn on West Main Street last Sunday Morning. He stood side by side with his superior Jake Yenowine and policeman Elliott, Fisher and Wilson who were beaten to the stone bridge at the entrance to the city by a fraction of a minute. Dan never shirked a duty or evaded a danger, He was nervy from a drop of a hat. Many a time he was faced with precarious situations without winching. Others have marveled at his nerve. Dan didn't know any other thing but to be brave, and yet he was congenial. He was also of retiring, unaspiring nature. But at his death, in the hottest gun fight ever known in the streets of New Albany, he became the big hero and the honor of the forces of law.
Side by side, after a thrilling race to beat the robbers to the entrance to the city and the daring effort to block the crime cars as they tore along Main Street, Dan stood with the other brave men but fortunately in the rain of bullets from the two robbers cars only Dan was hit. He died without a murmur when shot through the head by a German gun after he had time to fire but one shot, which lodged in the cushion and inch from the driver of the first car. Friday morning three suspects were picked up in Louisville and arrested and expected momentarily various clues are being run down. Today a Lanesville boy was brought in to the city by Corydon officials who is understood to be able to identify the robbers positively. One bullet ridden car, the first big car used by the robbers, was wrecked on Main Street and is in the hands of the law. It was visited by thousands of interested persons last Sunday. This car has been identified as the one used by the robbers of the White House Department Store in New Albany just a week before the Lanesville Bank Attempted robbery. It claimed to have been stolen from the Borgending Garage.
Not in years has New Albany been more greatly aroused as it has been with the cold blooded murder of Deputy Sheriff Dan Mayfield. Rewards totaling $1900.00 have been raised for the arrest and conviction of the robbers. Countless clues are being followed by officials of New Albany, Louisville, and Jeffersonville, while nets have been thrown around the city and all of Southern Indiana. Each and all the robbers will face the Chair.

DEPUTY SHERIFF KILLED BY GANG OF BANDITS
New Albany, Ind.. Jan. 24
Five bandits, fleeing from Lanesville, where they had tried to rob a bank early today, were engaged here vainly by a posse formed after local police had been advised of their approach. In a brief gun fight, which ensued, Daniel MayfIeld 58, a deputy sheriff, was shot and killed.
Date: 1926-01-25;  Paper: Omaha World Herald

Bank Robbers in Running Battle
The Associated Press
New Albany. Ind.. Jan. 24—Five bandits escaping from Lanesville, ten miles west of here, where they had tried to rob a bank before daylight this morning, later were Intercepted to the streets of New Albany by a posse formed after local poIice had been advised of their approach.
In a brief gun fight which ensued. Daniel Mayfield 58 year old. a deputy  sheriff, was shot and killed. A bullet fired by a member of the posse struck the driver of the first of two cars in which the men traveled. The machine shewed sharply colliding with a tree. Two men jumped from it into the second bandit car and escaped toward Indianasapolis.
Date: 1926-01-25;  Paper: Times-Picayune

FUGITIVE IS RETURNED
Suspected In Connection With Killing Goes for Trial as Theater Breaker
(By The Associated Press)
Newport.    Ky.   Feb.   12.—Clarence Moore, 35 years old, who was arrested here on the charge of being a fugitive from justice in connection with killing of Daniel Mayfield, deputy sheriff of New Albany, Ind., after an attempt had been made recently to rob  the Farmers' State bank at Lanesville. Ind., was taken to Louisville today. Police say he will be arraigned in Louisville on the charge of having broken into a theater.
Date: 1926-02-13;  Paper: Times-Picayune

Abstracts: January 24,1926, Floyd County Deputy Sheriff Daniel
 Mayfield was shot and killed
 A major break in the investigation came on February 4, when workmen discovered the body of James P. Murray in a culvert near Rising Sun ... he was a member of the gang and the driver of the car, which was  later found abandoned on E. Main Street on the morning of the shooting On January 17, the White House had been robbed, suspects were Frank Taylor and James Forrest Norris, who were later arrested ... Frank implicated Emmet Snyder, Phillip Strack and his son Jack ... Phillip had been a politician and a former New Albany police officer, he was  appointed in January, 1926 to a "secret undercover" role with the city  police department
 Witness, Mildred Norris was the wife of James and the granddaughter of Phillip March, 1926, Glen was on of the eight members of the gang whe were indicted, Emmet & Bernard were also indicted for Daniel Mayfield's murder ... sentencing information is given in the article, excluding the outcome of Emmet & Bernard, who were in federal prison in Atlanta, Georgia

Federal Prisoner in Atlanta Identified  As Indiana Slayer
Atlanta Ga. June 28 Earl A. Kerrigan, inmate of the Atlanta federal penitentiary was Identified at the prison today by C; V. Lorch, prosecuting attorney of New Albany, Ind., and W. I. Lipscomb,  detective of Louisville, Kentucky, as Emmett Snyder, wanted in Floyd county, Indiana, on a charge of killing Deputy Sheriff Daniel Mayfield.
Kerrigan or Snyder is charged with killing Mayfield last January 24 during a running fight between county officers of Floyd county, Indiana, and a bandit gang, which had attempted to rob the Farmers' State Bank at Lanesville, Ind.
Lorch identified the men from photographs and fingerprints. Lipscomb said the prisoner was the man, who as Snyder he had brought to Louisville from Camden, N. J. on a previous occasion.
When brought into the presence of the officers the prisoner refused to utter a word, and the Louisville officer said the men would not speak for fear his voice would be recognized.
Lorch said he would make efforts to have the man pardoned on the federal charge and transferred at once to the state penitentiary of Indiana. He said he would communicate the facts to Attorney General Sargent at Washington with the request that the prisoner be pardoned and delivered to Indiana authorities.
The prisoners, identified as Snyder entered the federal prison here about a week ago to begin a term of nine years for stealing government property of which he was convicted In Cleveland, O. Shortly after entering the penitentiary the prisoner was seen by D. C. Hopkins, a guard, walking Inside the prison wearing his cap, an infraction of regulations. When he removed the headgear the guard recognized him as Snyder—a prisoner he had seen in the Indiana, penitentiary—and gave the first Indication of the man's commitment under a fictitious name.
Lorch said four accomplices of Snyder, three men and a woman had been convicted In Indiana, and sentenced to from 10 to 25 years.
Date: 1926-06-29;  Paper: Augusta Chronicle

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Louisville. Ky., Feb. 25. 1800.—While a thunder storm was at its height early this morning  a horrible tragedy took place In the Northern Cemetery of New Albany just across the river in Indiana. A party of grave robbers were surprised in the act of desecrating the resting places of the dead and one of them was instantly killed. Three others were arrested and placed in jail, but a fourth man escaped. The party consisted of three Louisville physicians. Dr. J. T. Blackburn and Dr. W. E. Grant, another whose name is thought to be Graham and two colored assistants. They had gone over to rob the graves of Thomas Johnson and Edward Pearce, who were buried in the cemetery last Sunday.
They had deliberately planned the affair, but a little carelessness on their part spoiled everything and led to the death among the graves.
Dr. Blackburn went over to New Albany late yesterday afternoon, he had evidently heard of the two recent funerals and went straight to the Northern Cemetery. As It happened he could not locate the graves, and calling William Deeble, who lived near there, he tried to obtain the desired Information from him. At first Dr. Blackburn offered the boy $2 to point out the grave of Johnson, and then increased the bid to $20. Deeble took the bribe and pointed out the graves. Dr. Blackburn then added a careless word or two, and cautioning him to say nothing, drove back to Louisville.
Deeble did not intend to keep the secret, how ever, for he had guessed the Intentions of the doc tors, he went at once to Daniel Shrader, the sexton, and told him every detail of the conversation.
THE OFFICERS WORRIED
Boiling over with indignation, Shrader in turn went to the office of Major McDonald and explained the matter to that official. Mr. McDonald resolved to catch the ghouls In a trap, and sending for Chief of Police Stonecipper they quickly arranged their plans. It was decided to keep everything quiet, but when night came on to station a guard In the cemetery and await the coming of the grave robbers.
Officers Hennessy and Cannon were selected for this duty, and were given as assistants Nathaniel and James Johnson, brothers of Thomas Johnson, whose body was one of the objects of the proposed raid. Elwer Hopper, a friend of Edward Pearce, the other dead man, was selected as a fifth.
Major McDonald and Chief Stonecipper Instructed the guards to arm themselves, then go to the cemetery and wait the approach of the marauders. The party went to the cemetery soon after dark. It lies a short distance out of New Albany between East Eighth and East fourth streets. It is a spot that has frequently been visited by medical students from the Louisville schools during the last few years.
The guards divided Into two squads. One party concealed themselves under a tarpaulin by the cemetery gate, and the others went on a short distance beyond the grave of Edward Pearce. The grave of Thomas Johnson was near the cemetery gate.
Nothing was heard by the watchers until about midnight. A storm of wind and rain had been prevailing most of the evening, and at this time the rain was coming down in torrents. There were frequent flashes of lightning and peals of thunder reverberated over the hills back of the sleeping town. New Albany people keep early hours, and hardly a soul was abroad when the stillness of the night was broken by the sound of wheels. A wagon was being quietly driven out Eighth street. It had come over the bridge, and was being drawn at a leisurely pace by the two horses which a negro was driving.  Five men were in the vehicle.
THE WATCHERS  ALERT.
The wagon stopped at the cemetery gate and the occupants alighted, leaving their team hitched to the fence, and came on into the cemetery. The watchers, alert to every noise, had concealed themselves, and the grave robbers passed the first division and proceeded to the Johnson grave. They had barely reached it when the Johnson boys and their friends broke from their cover and called out, "Throw up your hands."
Taken utterly by surprise the men started to run and as they did so there was a volley. One of the men fell and as he dropped to the ground the lightning flashed on a pistol he had half drawn, but he had not tried to use it, and he died with scarcely a struggle.
The other men stopped, with the exception of one, who broke away and scaling the low fence of the cemetery, got into Eighth street in safety. A minute later be was heard to drive madly away in the direction of the Kentucky and Indiana bridge, over which he soon escaped.
The ball struck the negro who was killed in the back under the left shoulder blade and passed entirely through the body, piercing the heart and coming; out just below the left nipple. The negro straightened himself to his fullest height and throwing his arms above his head fell a corpse across one of the graves just as the rain poured at its heaviest, the wind blew its fiercest and the unseasonable thunder and lightning made the hour hideous in its fitness for such an occurrence.
The guards closed around their prisoners. One of them had a hatchet in his hand, the terrible use for which it was designed being easily guessed, but he made no attempt to use it He was one of the physicians and both he and his companion carried revolvers, though neither made any attempt to use a weapon. The third man caught was a young man who was terribly frightened.
READY TO SHOOT
The guards examined the body of the one that had been killed. He was a mulatto, apparently only about eighteen years old. He was neatly dressed and be held a revolver fast in his stiffening fingers. To the excited questions of the officers the two white men answered calmly that they were Dr. J. T. Blackburn and Dr. W. E. Grant. They admitted that they were from Louisville.
They were taken to Jail with the colored man. and refusing to answer any questions were locked up. The body of the young negro was taken to an undertaking establishment and Coroner Starr was summoned, he viewed the remains, and will hold an inquest tomorrow.
The name of the dead man is George Brown, and he was assistant Janitor of the Kentucky School of Medicine, of which Dr. Grant is demonstrator of anatomy and Dr. Blackburn is his assistant.  The captured colored man was William Mukes, head janitor of the college.
Dr. Grant is one of the most prominent physicians in the city, and is about forty-five years old and unmarried, he has a very large practice. Dr. Blackburn is a young man Just beginning practice.
PLACED IN DARK CELLS.
The New Albany authorities were so indignant at their action that the two doctors were treated with the utmost rigor. They were shut up in dark cells and not allowed to see any one until about nine o'clock this morning, when Charles L. Jewett. who had been engaged by Dr. Grant's partner as counsel, arrived. Upon advice of Mr. Jewett the prisoners refused to talk. They admitted that they had been in the graveyard, but will not say for what purpose.
Owing to the fact that the body of President William Henry Harrison was stolen from its grave, the Indiana Legislature enacted a law dealing very strictly with grave robbers. The law upon the subject is as follows:—
Any person who shall, without due process of law or the consent of the surviving husband or wife or next of kin of the deceased or of the person having control of such grave, open any grave for the purpose of taking there-from any such dead body or any part there of buried therein, or anything Interred therewith, shall be deemed guilty of a felony and upon conviction thereof shall be imprisoned in the state prison for not loss than three years or more than ten years.
Louisville is a great centre for medical schools and there are about twelve hundred; students here. For this reason it is often hard to get subjects for dissection, and recourse has frequently been had to the cemeteries on the Indiana side of the river. This has made the people over there very indignant, and it is likely to go hard with the Louisville physicians.
The indignation is increased by the fact that the graves which they proposed to rob were those of two well known citizens of New Albany. Thomas Johnson was formerly ticket agent of the Louisville and Nashville Railroad and Edward Pearce was once a policeman.
THE PRISONERS INDICTED.
Their relatives have engaged prominent lawyers to assist in the prosecution. The Grand Jury of Floyd county was in session today and Investigated the matter returning its findings about six o'clock this evening. All three prisoners were indicted on two counts—one for attempting to rob a grave, the other for conspiring to commit a felony.
The law punishing grave robbing has already been given. The one for conspiring to commit a felony fixes the punishment at a fine of not more than $5,000 and Imprisonment in State prison not less than two nor more than ten years.
The prisoners waived arraignment, but will appear for their examining trial tomorrow, when they will give bail and be released.
Threats of lynching were made against them at New Albany today, and to avoid any possible trouble they were removed to the Indiana State
Prison at Jeffersonville tonight. There they are safe from a mob. The other doctor, whose name is supposed to be Graham, has not been found and is in hiding.
Date: 1890-02-26;  Paper: New York Herald

Body Snatchers Let Off
Louisville Ky. April 4
In the cases of the alleged grave robbers. doctors Blackburn and Grant and the Negro Mukes, who have been on trial at Jeffersonville, Ind. since Tuesday, the jury returned a verdict of not guilty.
The residents of New Albany and Jeffersonville are greatly displeased with the result of the jury's deliberations, but are  somewhat comforted in the knowledge that the doctors were put to great cost and trouble, which should be a warning to Louisville doctors that they must not invade Indiana and purloin departed hoosiers for dissecting, or other purposes.
Date: 1891-04-04;  Paper: Aberdeen Daily News

ALLEGED GRAVE-ROBBERS FREED.
Conclusion of the Trial of Drs. Blackburn and Grant of Louisville
Jeffersonville, Ind., April 8-—The celebrated grave-robbing case that startled the whole country In February, a year ago, came to an end this morning, the verdict being an acquittal of  the accused, Drs. James T. Blackburn and William E Grant, and a colored wagon driver named Mukes. The case was called in the Circuit Court of Clark County. Indiana, Wednesday. It was given to the jury Thursday evening.
After being out ten hours the verdict of acquittal was returned. The attempt to rob the graves occurred in New Albany on the night of Feb, 24, 1890. the bodies the physicians were  after were those of Thomas Johnson, who died in Chicago, and Edward Pierce. Shortly before midnight Drs. Blackburn and Grant. with two Negros and a spring wagon went to the cemetery. The two graves to be robbed were identified and the men prepared for work. Just as they were about to stick their spades in the new mounds there was a flash and the report of a gun from behind a monument only a few yards away. One of the Negroes threw up his hands and fell back dead. The two doctors and their companion started to run, but were overtaken by men in watching and arrested. It appears some one had got wind of the plan to rob the graves add a posse had collected in the cemetery to prevent the desecration. Three separate indictments against the alleged participants were returned by the Floyd County grand jury, charging each man with attempting to rob the graves, entering into a conspiracy, and conspiring to commit a felony in the night time.
A change of venue at the May term was taken and the cases were transferred to the Clark Circuit Court. The cases came to trial at this term of court and the verdict was obtained on a technicality. It was shown that the defendants had not even touched the earth of the graves and therefore it was alleged that they had committed no crime.
Date: 1891-04-04;  Paper: Chicago Herald

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Charge Preacher with Murder Accused of Causing Death of His Wife Woman Found Hanging From
New Albany, Ind
May 15. — The Rev. Ulysses G. Sutherlin, formerly pastor of the Park Christian church in New Albany, was arrested at his home In Silver Grave, a suburb of the city, by Sheriff Morris of Floyd county, on a charge of murdering his wife, Mrs. Geneva L. Sutherlin, last October. . ,
Mr. Sutherlin expressed surprise when taken into custody, saying that while he had understood that the last errand jury had been Investigating the case, he did not anticipate that an Indictment would be returned against him.
FOUND DEAD
Sutherlin's wife, who was a daughter of John Scheller of Sellersburg, a former member of the board of commissioners of Clark county, was
found dead In her home in Silver Grove on October 12, 1904, Coroner Starr's verdict, after Investigating, was suicide.
About two years and a half before that Mrs. Sutherlin filed suit for divorce alleging cruel treatment.
A few weeks later the couple became, reconciled, and the suit was withdrawn. Sutherlin resigned his pastorate, and since that time he has been engaged in evangelistic work.
PREACHER'S STORY
On the afternoon of October 12 Sutherlin left home to take a horse to a blacksmith shop. According to his story he left the house about 1 o'clock and returned shortly before 5 o'clock. When he reached the house he found all the doors locked and the windows closed. He effected an entrance through a rear door and found his wife hanging from the transom, between the parlor and sitting room. He cut the rope with his pocket knife and then ran to the door and sounded an alarm. Efforts to resuscitate here were unavailing. She had evidently been dead for at least an hour.
The body was taken to Mrs. Satherlin's former home at Sellersburg for interment. The feeling against Sutherlin there was so strong that he did not attempt to enter the home of Mr. Scheller to attend the services, although he went to Sellersburg on the day of the funeral.
FATHER INVESTIGATES
Mrs. Sutherlin's father was not satisfied with the coroner's verdict and began an investigation on his own account. As a result Sutherlin was indicted.
Sutherlln protests innocence and says he is being persecuted. He says that his wife was subject to periodical spells of melancholy and that she had been under treatment by specialists.
Coroner Starr is still of the opinion that it was suicide, Sutherlin is thirty-five years old and has been married twice. His home was formerly in Orleans Ind. He married his second wife about years ago. He Is now secretary of the Christian church societies of the
Fourteenth Indiana district, which Will hold their annual convention at Lexington, Ind., next week.
Date: 1905-05-15; Paper: Evening News

New Albany Ind March 17 - In the trial today of Rev. U Sutherlin, charged with wife-murder,
Mrs. Laura Whittingill  testified to seeing Sutherlin drive away from his barn two hours before Mrs. Sutherlin's body was found. Lee Pennington testified to finding, the body of Mrs. Sutherlin in the house with a rope tied around her neck and the other end tied to a transom, There was no evidence of a struggle. A rope swing had been taken from the barn and it was this rope that was tied around the dead woman's neck.
Date: 1906-03-18;  Paper: Charlotte Observer

Sutherlin Must Answer
New Albany Ind Oct 26 -  The supreme court, reversing a ruling in the Sutherlin murder case, revived the case and Rev, Ulysses G. Sutherlin
former pastor of the Park Christian church in this city, will be forced to answer the indictment charging him in four counts of murder of his wife, Mrs. Geneva Sutherlin.
Date: 1905-10-26;  Paper: Elkhart Daily Review

Preacher Found Guilty Of Murder  (they apparently left out the NOT here)
LOUISVILLE, Ky., April 9.—The jury in the case of the Rev. U. G. Sutherlin,
on trial at New Albany, Ind. charged with the murder of his wire. Geneva L. Sutherlin, today returned a verdict of not guilty.
The jury had been out since Saturday morning, but did not decide upon the verdict until 8 o'clock this morning.
Sutherlin received the verdict with composure and was congratulated by a number of physicians arid several hysterical, women who were in the court-room.
Date: 1906-04-09; Paper: Salt Lake Telegram

Minister Acquitted Rev. U. G. Sutherlin Found Not Guilty by Jury of Murder of His Wife
NEW ALBANY Ind. April 9.—The Rev. U.G. Sutherlin was acquitted of  the charge having murdered his wife here, this morning. The jury, which took the case Saturday morning at 11 o'clock reached an agreement at 8:20 this morning, but did not report for some time.
When the men filed into the court-room  and  announced that they had reached a verdict
Sutherlin displayed less emotion than the attorneys and court officials who composed the  assemblage, the spectators having been barred.
As the foreman read the verdict which lifted the charge from Sutherlin, an expression of  satisfaction passed over his face, but he manifested no excitement whatever.
He shook hands with each member of the jury, thanked his his attorneys, and then received the congratulations of his friends.
Mr. Sutherlin. wife was found hanging in the Sutherlin residence. At first the  Sutherlin residence. At first the suicide theory was accepted, but after many months a charge of murder was preferred  against Mr. Sutherlin and special  counsel were employed to prosecute him. His defense was that Mrs. Sutherlin undoubtedly committed suicide.
Date: 1906-04-10; Paper: Lexington Herald

MINISTER  IS ACQUITTED
Accused Wife Murderer Congratulated by Hysterical Women
Louisville, April 10—The jury in the case of Rev, U, G. Sutherlin on trial at New Albany, Ind. charged with the murder of his wife, Geneva L. Sutherlin,  has returned a verdict of not guilty. The jury had been out two days. Rev. Mr. Sutherlin  received the verdict with composure and was congratulated by a number of friends,  including several hysterical women who were in the courtroom
Date: 1906-04-10;  Paper: Aberdeen Daily News

Pastor on Trial for Life.
New Albany. Ind. March 15.—The selection of a jury in the Sutherlin wife murder case has been completed and the taking of testimony has begun.  The prosecution will attempt to prove that the minister choked his wife to death shortly after dinner on October 12. 1905 after which he hanged the body to a transom in a doorway and started with his baby for a drive. If was on his return that the lifeless body of the woman was found and the neighbors were told that she had committed suicide.
Date: 1906-03-16;  Paper: Elkhart Truth

Evidence in the Sutherlin Case.
New Albany, Ind.. March 19. — In the trial of Rev. U Sutherlin charged with killing his wife. Mrs. Laura Whittingill testified to seeing Sutherlin drive away from his barn two hours before Mrs. Sutherlin's body was found. Lee Pennington testified to finding the body of Mrs. Sutherlin in the house, with a rope tied around her neck and the other end tied to a transom. There was no evidence of a struggle. A rope swing had been taken from the barn, and it was this rope that was tied around the dead woman's neck.
Date: 1906-03-21;  Paper: Elkhart Weekly Review

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Mrs. Pearl Armstrong was late today charged with the murder of her husband,  George Armstrong, who died last night of carbolic acid poisoning. The woman was placed In jail.
Conflicting statements made by Mrs. Armstrong and Florence Harris, a girl who lives at the Armstrong home, concerning Armstrong's death, caused the arrest, of the two today. After a severe cross-examination the. girl declared, according to the police, that she saw Mrs. Armstrong give her husband six capsules filled with carbolic acid. , The Harris girl, according to the police, said . Mrs. Armstronh wore gloves while handling the capsules to prevent the acid from burning: her hands.
Date: 1909-12-21; Paper: Duluth News-Tribune

New Albany, Ind- Dec 21—Mrs. Pearl Armstrong was to-day formally charged with having poisoned her husband, who died yesterday. Armstrong: had been ill some time, and it is alleged, his wife began administering small doses of poison last Thursday. He held a $1,000 life insurance in the Modern Woodmen.
Date: 1909-12-21; Paper: Daily Register Gazette

Mrs. Pearl Armstrong, charged with the murder of her husband, George Armstrong, was bound over to the grand jury without bond. today. The report of the chemical analysis of Armstrong's stomach was not offered at the hearing today.
Date: 1909-12-31;  Paper: Duluth News-Tribune

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New Albany Ind. September 25- Mrs. Catharine Reutter was found with her skull crashed in her partially burned cottage. Her divorced husband was found in the yard with his throat cut. Reutter, who had the delirium tremors, was sheltered by Mrs. Reutter.
Date: 1875-09-26;  Paper: Augusta Chronicle

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The Ritter family is prominent in New Albany’s history. New Albany native Joseph Ritter, born in the city on July 20, 1892, the son of Nicholas and Bertha (née Luette) Ritter, was ordained a priest in the Catholic Church on May 30, 1917. The newly appointed priest moved to Indianapolis where on February 3, 1993, Father Ritter became the Auxiliary Bishop of that city. He served the church in that capacity until March 24, 1934 when he was appointed as the Bishop of Indianapolis, a title he held until Pope Pius XII named him as the Archbishop of St. Louis on July 20, 1946. Archbishop Ritter did such an outstanding job in his position that on January 16, 1961, Pope John XXIII appointed him the Cardinal Priest of Ss. Redentore e S. Alfonso in Via Merluna. When Ritter died of a heart attack on June 10, 1967, New Albanians mourned his death, and in August 2009, the city named a vacant piece of land on 13th Street behind the S. Ellen Jones Elementary School and across from Ritter’s childhood home “Ritter Park” in honor of the city’s famous son. The passing of two other infamous Ritters, however, elicited no such memorial.
The first Ritter to sully the name came to America from Germany sometime in the middle of the 19th Century. Jacob Ritter made his was from his homeland to New Albany, though exactly when he arrived in the city remains unknown. What is known is that on April 30, 1861, a little more than two weeks after the commencement of hostilities in the American Civil War, Jacob Ritter married Catherine Mensinger, daughter of a middle class respected family in New Albany. Ritter, described as an “industrious stonecutter,” worked hard at his craft, and his steady labor soon enabled the couple to purchase a small home where “peace and prosperity reigned” for a number of years.
After a long day at work, like many working class men and women, Jacob enjoyed an adult beverage, (or two; or more), after his supper. Pleasantly buzzed, satisfied with his life, Jacob and his wife spent most nights enjoying a quiet and uneventful evening. At least they did for the first few years of their marriage until Jacob’s drinking grew out of control. Then, according to the byline in the New Albany Daily Ledger Standard, the Ritter’s “Happy Home Converted Into a Hell by the Demon Whisky.”
Jacob began neglecting his business and his wife, spending more and more of his evenings in the local saloons instead of at home with Catherine. He soon gained a reputation as a loafer and a drunkard, and nights formerly spent in the company of his loving spouse turned into nights spent in the company of thieves, scoundrels, and other less desirable elements of New Albany society. Jacob spent many nights lodged in the Floyd County jail on charges of drunkenness…and cruelty toward Catherine. The once happy marriage turned into a living hell for her, a tortured existence at the hands of the man she’d once loved with all her heart, until finally, in 1873, unable to endure any longer the nightmare that her marriage had become, and she filed for divorce.
Catherine remained in the once happy home she’d shared with Jacob, while he slept wherever he passed out. Her neighbors helped her when and how they could. while many of the city’s merchants, aware of her “unapproachable character” and the unfortunate turn her life had taken because of her husband’s uncontrollable drinking, furnished her with enough work sewing that she was able to maintain a meager, though comfortable existence. The “humble, yet honorable manner, in which she was trying to obtain a livelihood, rendered her an object of pity in the eyes of all well-disposed people.”
Despite the divorce, Jacob continued to abuse his former wife. Drunk out of his mind, he’d return to his once happy home and mistreat Catherine in “a manner to terrible to describe. The scenes enacted would make angels weep, and the very hosts of hell rejoice. His soul seemed possessed by a thousand devils, and every demon was busily at work in changing a happy home from a paradise to a hell.” Jacob “seemed to take delight in this nefarious work, and it seemed as though he wanted to drive to destruction the being who has used all honorable means to rid herself of his fiendish grasp.” Catherine, still in love with Jacob, despite his cruelty, tried desperately to calm her out of control former spouse, but when she’d withstood all of the abuse humanly possible, she’d finally call the police and cry as she watched the officers carry him off to jail.
Jacob Ritter, continuing his descent into madness, became convinced that his wife was a witch. In a later interview with Father Doebbner of St. Mary’s Catholic Church, Ritter stated, “I have been for one year troubled with witches, and during that time they drove me from one place to another, and they wouldn’t let me work.” Believing several other New Albanians were witches, he left the city for Cincinnati, Ohio, where he stayed for several months, and his wife “did trouble me the whole of nights with her witchcraft.” He continued his heavy drinking and wrote several letters in his native German to many of New Albany’s residents, including Catherine, but most of the missives, upon interpretation, were the incoherent ramblings of a mind gone insane. In one, he claimed Catherine and her brother, Gotleib Mensinger, wrongfully blamed him for the couple’s troubles, and said his former wife cursed him, stating that, “as long as I lived I must have witches or become a witch. I didn’t want that.”
Another letter, though obviously the work of an insane mind, was lucid. The letter, addressed to New Albany Mayor William B. Richardson, informed the mayor that he, Ritter, intended to return to the city and that he requested Mayor Richardson to keep the town’s “little witches and devils” from bothering him upon his return. There remains no record of the mayor’s reaction to this, but we can assume he likely notified the police department of the lunatic’s impending return before tossing the letter aside.
Ritter made his way back to New Albany, walking from Cincinnati to Louisville, Kentucky, and finally arriving in New Albany sometime during the evening of Wednesday, September 22, 1875. He went to the home he’d once shared with Catherine, and she apparently let him stay, though he later testified she told him upon his return, ‘I can do nothing for you.” He claimed they talked about their situation, and that he told her she had “bewitched and bothered him for a long time,” and that he asked her to “let me go.” He stated she made no response to his request, but at some point, according to Jacob, Catherine said that the value of their home should go to her sister’s children, and we are left to wonder what circumstances compelled her to make such a request. Had he told her he planned to kill her, or had he already started beating her so badly that she expected the attack would eventually result in her demise?
At some point that Friday, either he left of his own accord or she convinced him to leave. Strangely, Catherine didn’t call the police or ask any of her neighbors for help. He returned later that night, “crazed with rum,” around midnight. One neighbor, Oliver Cassell, later testified that when he returned home, he saw Jacob at Catherine’s house, but Cassell didn’t say what didn’t mention if the couple argued, though they must have been because when Jacob returned, Catherine refused to let him in the house. Ritter, “being a powerful man,” despite his intemperate habits of the last few years, finally forced his way in. Her neighbors in the heavily populated neighborhood of moderate houses built close together claimed they heard her scream several times during the night, but no one apparently investigated the reasons for her cries, nor did any of them call the police, at least not until the first of them smelled smoke around 6 a.m.
We have only Jacob’s account of what happened that terrible night, and the account in the New Albany Daily Ledger Standard, to picture the horror Catherine certainly endured in those last final hours of her life. Jacob “first commenced his fiendish work by beating the unfortunate woman in a manner most terrible.”According to the newspaper, “Judging from the time the neighbors first heard the screaming until the alarm of fire this morning, he must have been several hours inflicting the punishments.” We can only imagine the horror and pain she suffered.
Neighbor Cassell’s wife testified she heard Jacob speaking in German around 5 a.m., and that though she didn’t speak the language, he sounded angry. Her husband, Oliver claimed he heard the couple talking around 5:30 a.m., and we can only assume that shortly after the Cassells heard the couple, Catherine went to bed. Shortly after he heard the steady breathing that indicated she was sleeping, Jacob wrapped a strip of bleached muslin around his former wife’s neck and strangled her. However, he didn’t quite complete the job.
He may have thought she was dead after his strenuous exertions, but something convinced him she still lived. Perhaps she gasped as she struggled to get air through her crushed windpipe. Maybe she moaned in agony. Whatever she did convinced him that she wasn’t dead yet, and so, according to the newspaper, Jacob, “…then took some heavy instrument, probably an axe or a hatchet, and beat her head into a perfect jelly.” Catherine’s skull had five large holes and her face “was mutilated in a most horrible manner.” When he was done, she was finally, mercifully, dead.
Satisfied he’d finally killed her, Jacob sat down and wrote the following in a “large, coarse, German, sprawling hand…” Adam Werner, editor of the Deutsch Zeitung, translated the letter.

“I have killed my wife because she is a witch. She persecuted me for eleven months. I have burned her up because burning shall be the reward of all witches, which was the rule when the human race was wiser. At present we claim that we have so advanced and are still so ignorant as not to believe in witches any more. Gotleib Mensinger is a witch also; he was with the whole compoodle. There is a good many more witches in New Albany yet. The half of the city is full of them. My wife cheated me, and her brother was the whole cause of it. Don’t want any of my wife’s bones laid by the side of mine, for she is the biggest witch in New Albany, and her brother, Gotleib Mensinger, is also a great witch. Witches would even follow me to St. Louis and wherever I go. When I traveled from St. Louis to Cincinnati and Covington and from there to Louisville on foot, my intention of coming back to New Albany. Jake Herter is a witch also. I will close my letter with the hope that God Almighty will forgive me, for I have never wronged anybody yet. I ask all honorable and Christian people for forgiveness. This is the whole truth and the way the witches have persecuted me. This is all true – as true as there is a God in heaven. John Rippberger and others are witches. I, Jacob Reitter, testify in the name of the Trinity Gods herewith, that I will not speak else but the truth, so help me God. These are the names of the witches: Catherine Reitter, born Mensinger and two of her brothers, Gotleib Mensinger and frow and Catherine Mensinger, a widow woman and Taylor Belzar, wife and daughter. The daughter is married to a carpenter by the name of Rickey. Belzar’s father-in-law, old man Bergley and wife and four great grand children, Bunkle wife and son, Shoemaker, born Trinler and son, a man named Sass and son, Theobold, stonemason, shoemaker Esbach, John Rippberger and wife, Theobold, frow and son. The man that finds this give it to the officers of the court.”

Jacob placed the letter in an envelope, along with his fire insurance papers, and before tucking the package in his pocket, wrote on the back of the envelope, “ German Mutual Fire Insurance Company, of Indiana; Policy No. 1414, to Katherine Ritter, $550; commences Aug. 28, 1878. John Horn, agent.” On the front of the envelope, Jacob directed “in a large sprawling hand, words to the effect that the package be returned to the proper authorities.” He then turned his attention to his wife’s still warm corpse, lying on the bed where the pair had once shared their intimate moments. He arranged her body, and then set fire to the house in an attempt to cover his crime. On his way out the back door, he stopped to grab her pet canary.
Neighbor Nick Clouse was the first to arrive in the scene. He’d been awake about 15 minutes when he smelled smoke. Quickly putting on his clothes, he ran to the house and beat upon the door. Receiving no answer, he broke down the door and saw Catherine lying dead upon her bed. By this time, two other men had arrived, one of them Henry Walter, and the three men carried Catherine’s lifeless form out of the smoke filled house. According to the account in the New Albany Daily Ledger Standard, “her flesh was burnt to a crisp in many places, and she presented a scene that beggars description. She was placed on a bed in the street and covered with a rough blanket, and hundreds of spectators stopped to behold the scene, and then turned away heartsick.”
Jacob wasn’t far away from the commotion, though from his hiding spot in the chicken yard along the right side of the property in the back yard, he likely didn’t see anyone carry is wife’s mutilated body from the house. He placed the cage holding the canary next to a fence post, along with a pocket book holding several letters before secreting himself in the chicken yard. Maybe he spied the activity in front of the house, or maybe he simply lay still in his hiding place. We can’t be sure as he made no mention of his activity during this time, but what we do know is that at some point during all of this uproar, guilt over what he’d done overcame Jacob Ritter. He pulled his old Barlow pocketknife out, and then slit his throat.
Some of the old determination to do a good job that he once showed in his work rose briefly to the surface through the alcoholic haze that had so clouded his thinking in recent years as he pulled the sharp blade across his throat. The cold steel sliced deeply through the soft flesh of his neck just below his larynx, the deep gash partially severing his windpipe. According a physician who later examined him, Jacob suffered the following injury:

“The left ala of the thyroid-hyoid cartilage was fractured longitudinally one-third of the way from the median projection, completely shutting off the rimatid glottis. The platysmo myoides, the sterno cleiodo-mastoid, the anterior belly of the omo-hyoid, the stern-hyoid, and the sterno-thyroid muscle were completely severed. The trapezius muscle was not examined.”

This is where one would expect the story to end. Anyone suffering such a horrendous wound even with today’s modern medical techniques would likely die from such a catastrophic injury. However, the Fates hadn’t finished with Jacob Ritter.
Police Officer Peter Weber found Ritter lying in the filthy chicken yard. The murderer lay on his right side in a rapidly expanding pool of his own blood. Weber assumed Ritter was dead, and we can imagine the officer’s surprise when he rolled Ritter over on his back…and the supposedly dead man spoke to him! Weber looked at Jacob and said, “This is a nice fix you’re in.” Jacob tried to speak, but the officer couldn’t understand what the wounded murderer said, so Ritter motioned toward the fence. Weber walked over to the spot indicated and found the package of letters. Officer Weber then called for assistance. A crowd gathered in response to Weber’s call. Jacob motioned them away and “glared at them like a gladiator.” Jacob Ritter, his throat slashed open, blood pouring down his chest from the wound, was bound and taken to the county jail.
Doctors Easley and Lemon, summoned to the jail, found Ritter “struggling for breath and floundering around in his own blood.” The physicians sewed hut the gaping wound, and determined that death would occur within the next few hours. Following their Hippocratic Oath, did what they could to make their patient comfortable before leaving their patient to attend a hastily summoned coroner’s inquest into the death of Catherine Ritter.
Coroner Pennington called the jurors—John Saunders, Adam Lambert, John Hoffman, Tobias Schmadel, Frederick Newhouse, and B.J. Sheppard—along with several witnesses, including officer Weber, the Cassells, Nick Clouse, Mrs. Catherine Belvis, and both doctors. The inquest determined what happened in the hours leading up to Catherine’s death, as well as a cause. Dr. Easley concluded she died of strangulation, a finding later over-ruled.
The doctors returned to the jail expecting to find their patient expired, but were surprised to find him resting comfortably; at least as comfortably as could be expected of a man with such a severe wound. Though he could speak in an almost inaudible whisper and had taken several small swallows of water, both doctors assured those in attendance that their patient had no chance for a recovery and would likely not survive the morning. Everyone appeared certain that before lunch, “the wretch will appear before a just God to atone for his terrible crime.”
Doctor Easley left the jail to perform a more thorough examination on the body of Catherine Ritter. This time, he concluded that Jacob had strangled her almost to the point of death while the victim slept, and then killed her by striking her repeatedly about the head with the unknown blunt object.
This is where the story would normally end for anyone with such a terrible injury, but Jacob Ritter surprised everyone by living through what must have been an agonizing day for him. Two days after the murder and Ritter’s attempted suicide, the New Albany Daily Ledger Standard reported:

“During the day Reitter (sic) has at times showed symptoms of recovery, and at other times he has suffered the most intense pain. A LEDGER-STANDARD reporter called at the jail just before going to press, and the miserable man was in a sitting posture, trying to swallow some nourishment. His breathing is heavy and his pulse irregular. If the distorted features of all the fiends of the infernal regions could be combined, they could not possibly present a scene more terrible. His face and neck is very much swollen, and his skin has become very dark. As he rolls his large white eyes, half in pain and half in horror, it naturally causes a person to shrink from his presence as from the evil one. He does not seem to fully realize his terrible condition, or if he does, he cares but little about it. The physicians say he may survive through the night, or possibly two or three days, but death is certain in a very short time. May God have mercy on the soul of the blood-stained wretch.”

Amazingly, the next day the paper reported: “Reitter‘s (sic) condition is improved to-day, and the probabilities are that he will not be planted. He took in two square meals today, and is able to walk around the hall of the jail. There don‘t seem to be much the matter with him at first sight, but when he throws his head back, you can see that his neck is half cut off.” However, the paper gave a rosier picture than was the actual case. The following day, the paper printed a correction: “We are informed that our report of the condition of Reitter, (sic) published yesterday, is calculated to create the impression that he would recover. He did not, as stated, ?take in two square meals and walk around the hall of the jail. Likewise we were in error in stating that the ?probabilities were that he would not be planted. On the contrary, his condition has been from the first, such as to preclude any hope of recovery.” Still Jacob Ritter lived.
He continued his suffering for the next several weeks, fading slowly away in his cell. New Albanians eagerly read the daily paper for accounts of the prisoner. Six days after the murder, they read the following account of Ritter’s existence:
“If there is a miserable wretch between earth and eternity, his name is Jacob Reitter, who has been languishing in the county jail for the past week. The triple crime of murder, arson, and suicide rests upon his guilty soul. He neither lives nor can he die, but is suffering all the agonies of death and hell combined. Our reporter called at the jail this afternoon and found him sitting in a chair, nursing his head over a bucket of water, looking the picture of despair and wretchedness. He cannot talk, but his look indicates that at last he has come to a full sense of his awful crime, and if there is any such thing as preparation for such a sinner to visit the world beyond our vision, he is studying the matter most intently and prayerfully. He is tired of this world of sin and sorrow, and desires to be delivered of its cares and torments as he realizes them at present. Yesterday he begged for a knife to complete the job he undertook a few days ago, and intimated that if he could secure a weapon he would make sure work of his earthly existence in quick time. Though hardly ready, he is willing to take the chances of the dread hereafter. A Catholic priest was sent for at his request, but the Rev. Father could not be found. Reitter wants his sins forgiven and has full confidence in the saving power of the priest. How a man with his head partly severed from his body can live is more than the doctors can solve, and the general opinion is that he may die at any moment, and yet he may exist for days. Reitter has made it known that he cut the gashes in his wife‘s head with an axe, and choked her to death, commencing his hellish work about 3 o‘clock in the morning, and when he found she was dead beyond a doubt, thought to hide the deed by burning the house over her head. He was perfectly sane, though pretty drunk until after daylight, and when he saw the fireman removing his wife‘s remains from the burning building, the thought flashed over his mind that his only escape was by suicide. He says he became too weak and was too drunk to complete the work, and gave up in despair. Reitter says his wife wrote him a letter while he was in Cincinnati, stating that she would like to see him, and that is what brought him here. When he knocked at the door she admitted him, but refused to give him all he asked for, and then he concluded that she was tampering and coming her witchcraft over him, as he states.”

On October 1, the paper reported:
“Reitter still lives. He suffers in the flesh for the terrible wrong he committed some days ago, and though he is near eternity, he has not become penitent enough to enjoy the bliss of the good and perfect in this world beyond the grave.
RECLOSING THE WOUND.
Dr. Easley called upon this miserable man last night, sewed up his throat again, placed a tube in his windpipe, to assist in prolonging his life as long as possible. The flesh about his throat and windpipe is very much mortified, and in places is perfectly rotten and will not hold a thread. A powder was given at bed time, and the sufferer rested well through the night.
“The left ala of the thyroid-hyoid cartilage was fractured longitudinally one-third of the way from the median projection, completely shutting off the rimatid glottis. The platysmo myoides, the sterno cleiodo-mastoid, the anterior belly of the omo-hyoid, the stern-hyoid, and the sterno-thyroid muscle were completely severed. The trapezius muscle was not examined.”

This is where one would expect the story to end. Anyone suffering such a horrendous wound even with today’s modern medical techniques would likely die from such a catastrophic injury. However, the Fates hadn’t finished with Jacob Ritter.
Police Officer Peter Weber found Ritter lying in the filthy chicken yard. The murderer lay on his right side in a rapidly expanding pool of his own blood. Weber assumed Ritter was dead, and we can imagine the officer’s surprise when he rolled Ritter over on his back…and the supposedly dead man spoke to him! Weber looked at Jacob and said, “This is a nice fix you’re in.” Jacob tried to speak, but the officer couldn’t understand what the wounded murderer said, so Ritter motioned toward the fence. Weber walked over to the spot indicated and found the package of letters. Officer Weber then called for assistance. A crowd gathered in response to Weber’s call. Jacob motioned them away and “glared at them like a gladiator.” Jacob Ritter, his throat slashed open, blood pouring down his chest from the wound, was bound and taken to the county jail.
Doctors Easley and Lemon, summoned to the jail, found Ritter “struggling for breath and floundering around in his own blood.” The physicians sewed hut the gaping wound, and determined that death would occur within the next few hours. Following their Hippocratic Oath, did what they could to make their patient comfortable before leaving their patient to attend a hastily summoned coroner’s inquest into the death of Catherine Ritter.
Coroner Pennington called the jurors—John Saunders, Adam Lambert, John Hoffman, Tobias Schmadel, Frederick Newhouse, and B.J. Sheppard—along with several witnesses, including officer Weber, the Cassells, Nick Clouse, Mrs. Catherine Belvis, and both doctors. The inquest determined what happened in the hours leading up to Catherine’s death, as well as a cause. Dr. Easley concluded she died of strangulation, a finding later over-ruled.
The doctors returned to the jail expecting to find their patient expired, but were surprised to find him resting comfortably; at least as comfortably as could be expected of a man with such a severe wound. Though he could speak in an almost inaudible whisper and had taken several small swallows of water, both doctors assured those in attendance that their patient had no chance for a recovery and would likely not survive the morning. Everyone appeared certain that before lunch, “the wretch will appear before a just God to atone for his terrible crime.”
Doctor Easley left the jail to perform a more thorough examination on the body of Catherine Ritter. This time, he concluded that Jacob had strangled her almost to the point of death while the victim slept, and then killed her by striking her repeatedly about the head with the unknown blunt object.
This is where the story would normally end for anyone with such a terrible injury, but Jacob Ritter surprised everyone by living through what must have been an agonizing day for him. Two days after the murder and Ritter’s attempted suicide, the New Albany Daily Ledger Standard reported:

“During the day Reitter (sic) has at times showed symptoms of recovery, and at other times he has suffered the most intense pain. A LEDGER-STANDARD reporter called at the jail just before going to press, and the miserable man was in a sitting posture, trying to swallow some nourishment. His breathing is heavy and his pulse irregular. If the distorted features of all the fiends of the infernal regions could be combined, they could not possibly present a scene more terrible. His face and neck is very much swollen, and his skin has become very dark. As he rolls his large white eyes, half in pain and half in horror, it naturally causes a person to shrink from his presence as from the evil one. He does not seem to fully realize his terrible condition, or if he does, he cares but little about it. The physicians say he may survive through the night, or possibly two or three days, but death is certain in a very short time. May God have mercy on the soul of the blood-stained wretch.”

Amazingly, the next day the paper reported: “Reitter‘s (sic) condition is improved to-day, and the probabilities are that he will not be planted. He took in two square meals today, and is able to walk around the hall of the jail. There don‘t seem to be much the matter with him at first sight, but when he throws his head back, you can see that his neck is half cut off.” However, the paper gave a rosier picture than was the actual case. The following day, the paper printed a correction: “We are informed that our report of the condition of Reitter, (sic) published yesterday, is calculated to create the impression that he would recover. He did not, as stated, ?take in two square meals and walk around the hall of the jail. Likewise we were in error in stating that the ?probabilities were that he would not be planted. On the contrary, his condition has been from the first, such as to preclude any hope of recovery.” Still Jacob Ritter lived.
He continued his suffering for the next several weeks, fading slowly away in his cell. New Albanians eagerly read the daily paper for accounts of the prisoner. Six days after the murder, they read the following account of Ritter’s existence:
“If there is a miserable wretch between earth and eternity, his name is Jacob Reitter, who has been languishing in the county jail for the past week. The triple crime of murder, arson, and suicide rests upon his guilty soul. He neither lives nor can he die, but is suffering all the agonies of death and hell combined. Our reporter called at the jail this afternoon and found him sitting in a chair, nursing his head over a bucket of water, looking the picture of despair and wretchedness. He cannot talk, but his look indicates that at last he has come to a full sense of his awful crime, and if there is any such thing as preparation for such a sinner to visit the world beyond our vision, he is studying the matter most intently and prayerfully. He is tired of this world of sin and sorrow, and desires to be delivered of its cares and torments as he realizes them at present. Yesterday he begged for a knife to complete the job he undertook a few days ago, and intimated that if he could secure a weapon he would make sure work of his earthly existence in quick time. Though hardly ready, he is willing to take the chances of the dread hereafter. A Catholic priest was sent for at his request, but the Rev. Father could not be found. Reitter wants his sins forgiven and has full confidence in the saving power of the priest. How a man with his head partly severed from his body can live is more than the doctors can solve, and the general opinion is that he may die at any moment, and yet he may exist for days. Reitter has made it known that he cut the gashes in his wife‘s head with an axe, and choked her to death, commencing his hellish work about 3 o‘clock in the morning, and when he found she was dead beyond a doubt, thought to hide the deed by burning the house over her head. He was perfectly sane, though pretty drunk until after daylight, and when he saw the fireman removing his wife‘s remains from the burning building, the thought flashed over his mind that his only escape was by suicide. He says he became too weak and was too drunk to complete the work, and gave up in despair. Reitter says his wife wrote him a letter while he was in Cincinnati, stating that she would like to see him, and that is what brought him here. When he knocked at the door she admitted him, but refused to give him all he asked for, and then he concluded that she was tampering and coming her witchcraft over him, as he states.”

On October 1, the paper reported:

“Reitter still lives. He suffers in the flesh for the terrible wrong he committed some days ago, and though he is near eternity, he has not become penitent enough to enjoy the bliss of the good and perfect in this world beyond the grave.
RECLOSING THE WOUND.
Dr. Easley called upon this miserable man last night, sewed up his throat again, placed a tube in his windpipe, to assist in prolonging his life as long as possible. The flesh about his throat and windpipe is very much mortified, and in places is perfectly rotten and will not hold a thread. A powder was given at bed time, and the sufferer rested well through the night.
The article then continued:

“The LEDGER-STANDARD of Thursday contained a notice that the poor sinner, Reitter, had sent after a Catholic Priest, but that none could be found. As there is but one German Priest in New Albany, and as Reitter is a German, so it was certain that Father Doebener was meant. It is true the Reverend Father was, from Monday until Wednesday absent from home, having gone to Terre Haute, to assist at the funeral of the very Reverend Father P. Bede O‘Connor. But during his absence he was not sent for by Reitter. When Father Doebener read the notice in the LEDGER-STANDARD he went to the jail at 9 o‘clock Friday morning, accompanied by Mr. Joseph Kistner, and obtained admittance to the prisoner. Father D. asked him if he was a Catholic. The poor man shook his head, indicating that he was not. Thereupon Father Doebbner gave him paper and a pencil that he might write what he wished. He wrote quite a long time, saying that he had sent after a Protestant minister, as Mr. Lyman Davis could witness, but he had not come. At last Father Doebbner addressed some earnest words to him, that soon he must appear before his Lord, before Him who had given him life, that he should endeavor to prepare himself for that appearance, that Christ had pardoned the murderer on the cross assuring him ?this day shalt thou be with me in Paradise.? He was also a murderer for he had killed his wife, and then attempted to take his own life. He should therefore go to the cross with this repentant sinner and seek remission of his sins. The murderer then burst out in tears. As he was not a Catholic, Father Doebbner could not administer unto him the holy sacrament and the last rites. He could only move him to repentance and recommend him to the mercy of God.”

Jacob Ritter finally died on November 23, 1875, almost two months after killing his wife and attempting to end his own by slicing his throat in a manner most painful. The New Albany Daily Ledger Standard reported his passing with the following comments:
“The lights are out, the curtain has fallen; the last actor of the terrible tragedy enacted a few weeks ago has crossed the boundaries of the wonderful beyond. Jacob Reitter, the wife murderer, the incendiary and suicide, is dead. The pale, sickening light, as it found its way into the hall of the jail this morning, disclosed the sallow features of the dead murderer, as he lay stretched upon a rude pallet surrounded by a crowd of curiousity-seeking spectators. His head was thrown back, which plainly revealed the terrible wound across his throat, which had been self-inflicted, and which caused his death. The same grim, stolid look of determination, that was noticeable on his features in life, marked them in death. Long hours of pain and anguish had reduced the powerful man to a mere skeleton – haggard in its appearance and bearing the outward marks of long suffering and sin. His Herculean strength was all that prolonged his life, which only made the punishment for his bloody crime more severe. We know but little of his mental or physical sufferings, and can only judge by the deep, dark traces that they have left. The wound in his throat never became entirely healed, and from the first his physician said it was only a matter of time in regard to his taking off. He had a bad cough, and at times was unable to expectorate. His voice was gone, and the last act of his life, while sitting in a chair, at half-past 9 o‘clock this morning, was to write the following, in German, which being translated, reads: “Give me some more of those brown powders, so that I can get relief in breathing.” He had hardly finished writing the words, when he dropped from the chair and died without a struggle. We understand that a post mortem examination will be held this evening, which will probably demonstrate the fact that he died from suffocation, occasioned by the wound in his throat. Thus has passed away one of the most terrible actors that has ever figured in the annals of crime. The details setting forth the horrors of that crime have been read and reread, and to-day the miserable wretch has been called hence to account for his crimes in the presence of a just God. Neither time nor eternity will obscure his sin, and it is useless to give an account of it now. All that was mortal of the murderer has passed from earth, and we have no right to judge of the soul. All bitter feeling should now be banished from our breasts, all utterances of censure should now be hushed, for the guilty being who sinned, struggled and suffered is no more. The jury summoned to investigate the causes which lead to Reiter‘s death, after having heard the evidence and examined the body, decided that said deceased came to his death from fatty degeneration of the heart, superinduced by wounds inflicted upon himself.”

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New Albany  Ind. March 15.—Henry Ritter, a bad character of this city, was arrested Friday morning' on the charge of murder One hour before his arrest Mrs. Ellen Wheelon, his sister-in-law, was found clubbed to death, lying on the
Jeffersonville, Madison & Indianapolis railroad track. The supposition is that Ritter killed the woman at her residence a short distance from the railroad and placed her on the track to make it appear that it was suicide, with a view
of hiding the crime. The web of circumstantial evidence that was adduced at the inquest was damaging in the extreme. Ritter denies all knowledge of the tragedy. The victim was twenty-five years old and was amongst the best
known ladies of this city. There is talk of lynching. . Later developments show that Ritter attempted to outrage Mrs. Wheelon. but she resisted and he brained her with a hatchet and carried the body to the railroad track, where it was found.
Date: 1890-03-15; Paper: Jackson Citizen Patriot

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Cold-Blooded Murder - The New Albany (Ind) Ledger has learned of the murder of Mr. D. Ed. Smith, who for more than a year was an officer in Hospital  No. 8 in New Albany, and was a young man of more than moral rectitude and uprightness.  He had been residing in Ohio since the war. Some few weeks ago he left his home to visit some relatives in Pennsylvania, and during his stay among them was requested by his sister to call upon a young lady friend of hers as he returned home, who resided at Gallion Ohio, The young lady In question had a few weeks previous to Smith's arrival, refused to receive the calls of a young maniIn that town who was deeply in love with and anxious to marry her. This young man took an oath that he would kill any man who might visit the lady,
Young Smith arrived in the town, andhad called upon the young lady, in pursuance of his sister's request, during the afternoon, and left an engagement to call again in the evening, By some means the discarded lover learned that
Smith would call, and armed himself with a revolver, and taking a position a square or two from the young lady's residence, waited for Smith to leave the house. Smith remained until about nine o'clock, and then left. When he reached the place where the discarded lover wss standing, the desperado suddenly rushed upon him, and shot him through the heart, killing him instantly,
The murderer gave no one any intimation of his intention to commit the deed, and young Smith was entirely  unsuspecting of danger until the fatal shot was fired. The villain was arrented, and will doubtless suffer the extreme penalty of the law for his crime. Young Smith, during his residence in New Albany, was a member of the choir at Wesley Chapel he was highly esteemed
by all who Knew him, and had an unblemished character.
Date: 1866-11-29; Paper: Patriot

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WIFE .In Custody Pending Inquiry Into Death of George Armstrong.
PECULIAR FEATURES CAUSE SUSPICION.
Mrs. Pearl Armstrong and Her Niece, Florence Harris, Tell Conflicting Stories.
NIECE IS ALSO BEING HELD BY POLICE.
George Armstrong, aged forty-four years, and an employe in the Ohio Falls rolling mills for a number of years, died suddenly about 12 o’clock last night at his home, 47 West First street, under circumstances that caused suspicion that his death was due to foul play, and his wife, Mrs. Pearl Armstrong, and her niece, Miss Florence Myrtle Harris, were taken into custody by Chief of Police William Adams under orders of Coroner Will Richards and Dr. C. C. Funk, secretary of the city board of health, to await the result of an autopsy which will be held on Armstrong’s body at Lottich Brothers’ undertaking establishment this afternoon.
The women have told conflicting stories regarding Armstrong’s illness and while Mrs. Armstrong insists that her husband’s death was due to carbolic acid taken with suicidal intent there were indications that his death was due [to] strychnine poisoning. Suspicion in the case was first aroused when Mrs. Armstrong urged that no mention be made of carbolic acid in the death certificate. Armstrong was a member of New Albany Camp, Modern Woodmen of America, in which he carried a life insurance policy for $1,000.
Last evening about 7 o’clock Mrs. Armstrong telephoned to Dr. H. B. Shacklett that her husband had taken carbolic acid some time before. When Dr. Shacklett reached the house Mrs. Armstrong told him that her husband had been taking calomel for several days. Armstrong also told the physician he had been taking calomel but said nothing about having swallowed any carbolic acid and Dr. Shacklett was unable to detect any trace of the fiery fluid. About 11 o’clock last night Mrs. Armstrong called Dr. Shacklett’s home again and said that her husband had taken another dose of the acid but as the physician was absent on another call he did not go to the house and an hour later Armstrong died. Before Armstrong died his wife notified her parents, Mr. and Mrs. James Sullivan, who live on West Eighth street, and also several neighbors. Armstrong’s mother, Mrs. John Gaskell, living at 409 Culbertson avenue, was not notified and did not learn of her son’s death until this morning.
Shortly before his death Armstrong suffered from several convulsions and after his death his muscles were rigid and his limbs were drawn up. The police learned of the peculiar circumstances surrounding the case and Chief of Police Adams and Prosecuting Attorney Walter B. Bulleit closely questioned Mrs. Armstrong and Miss Harris, a sixteen-year-old girl, and their conflicting stories convinced the officials that the entire truth about the affair had not been told and they were taken into custody. Mrs. Armstrong was placed in a cell at the police station and Miss Harris was allowed to remain in the private front office.
Mrs. Armstrong said that her husband poured carbolic acid into capsules and swallowed them. She said that he made six of them and swallowed all of them at one time. No trace whatever of the acid could be found in Armstrong’s mouth or throat or on his fingers. There was also no trace of the phial in which the acid had been kept.
Miss Harris, who has been staying at Armstrong’s home for several weeks, disclaimed any knowledge of the affair. She denied a statement of Mrs. Armstrong that she also saw Armstrong swallow any capsules. Miss Harris is sixteen years old and her home is in the French Creek settlement, west of the city. It is said by Armstrong’s relatives that he was opposed to her staying at his home but his wishes were not regarded by his wife.
Armstrong, besides his mother, leaves two sisters, Mrs. Jessie Weber and Ida Goulding, and one brother, Charles Armstrong, all of this city. Mrs. Armstrong is his second wife, his first wife being a daughter of Jacob Bloat, of this city. His relatives are not making any accusations of foul play but they believe the peculiar features in the case and the unusual circumstances attending the death of Armstrong demand a thorough investigation by the officials.
It is feared an autopsy will not reveal the cause of death as the body had been embalmed early this morning before there were any suspicions aroused that foul play might have cut a figure in the case. Embalming fluids used by undertakers are made of ingredients that are deadly poisons.
It was stated this afternoon by Chief of Police Adams that convincing evidence had been secured that Armstrong’s death was not due to carbolic acid self-administered and further questioning of Mrs. Armstrong and Miss Harris is expected to bring out the straight story of the manner of his death.
New Albany Evening Tribune 20 December 1909, page. 4 col. 3

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Case Is Continued.
New Albany, Ind.; Jan. 10.—When the case of Rev. U. G. Sutherlin, of this city, for the alleged murder of his wife, Mrs. Geneva Sutherlin, was called for trial in the circuit court on motion of the prosecution a continuance was granted on account of the absence of important witnesses.
Date: 1906-01-10; Paper: Elkhart Truth

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