THE CASE OF BECKER.

Auckland Star, Volume XXX, Issue 213, 8 September 1899, Page 8

THE CASE OF BECKER.

BUTCHER WHO BOILED DOWN HIS

WIFE TO KE HANGED

The completion of the Becker case in Chicago the first week in July excited considerable interest. August Becker was on trial for the murder of his wife. He had twice confessed to the crime, but afterwards repudiated his confessions entirely. Becker was a butcher whose wife, Teresa Becker, mysteriously disappeared on 27th January last. Two weeks later he married a young girl, Ida .Sutterliu, 17 years old, the daughter of a saloon-keeper. To neighbours he said that his first wife had left him of her own accord, and to some he claimed that he had never been married to her. The first person to notify the police of tlie woman's strange disappearance was the letter-carrier on the street, whose suspicions had been aroused by the neighbours' gossip concernig tho man's second marriage. Becker was therefore placed under arrest on 21st February, and inquiry brought out the facts that he had courted Miss Sutterliu a year before his wife's death, representing to her and her family that he was an unmarried man, and that the woman who lived in his house was his housekeeper only.

Becker, after being arrested, made three confessions. First he said that, as he found his wife was determined to leave him, he had allowed her to go to Milwaukee ova boat with a man named '-Mike." Later he said he had pushed her into the lake during a dispute at the foot of Randolph-street. Finally he admitted killing her at their home and boiling the body. When the time of his trial came on he declared that all his confessions were false, and that he was entirely innocent of the death of his wife. When he- took the witness stand he tried to fasten the crime on George Sutterliu, father of the young girl he had married.

After Becker's arrest his premises were thoroughly examined, and some bones were found buried in the yard, which it was believed were those of his unfortunate wife. Pieces of cloth, identified as part of a dress belonging to the woman, all charred and burnt, were also found. Also, live artificial teeth that were supposed to be hers. In a jar in the house a substance was found which, on being submitted to a physician, was Identified as part of a human lung.

During the trial a woman, Mrs Manthey, living next door to the Beckers, testified to the butcher's repeated cruelty to his first wife. She said Mrs Becker had told her that, if she ever disappeared, she wished Mrs Manthey to notify the police. Wheu Becker announced that Ills wife had gone to Milwaukee with a man named Mike, Mrs Manthey told him what Mrs Becker had said about notifying the police. Becker replied, "You belter not do that; you'll get yourself into trouble. My wife is alive."

I'rofessor George Dorsey of the Field Columbian Museum, was called as an expert on the bones found at Becker's home. He identified as the right humerus a bone which he had examined for several days. The witness said he had carefuly examined the humerus bones of 125 skeletons, ami had fouud marked difference between similar boues in the sexes. He was therefore able to say with some degree of positiveness that the hone in evidence was the right humerus of a woman. On cross-exa-mination Professor Dorsey said he would not swear positively that the piece of bone exhibited was from a human body,but from the- researches of natural history and his experience of nine years among bones he could not, he said, see how it could be anything else than what he described.

Although Becker's different "eoufcssions" had been put in evidence by the prosecution he was allowed, when testimony for the de> fence was called for, to testify in his own behalf. He went on the stand primed with another story, this time declaring that Mr Sutterlin had loug owed him a debt of £00, and that ou 27th January, when at his (Becker's) house, this man and Mrs Becker had a quarrel over the debt, aud that Sutterliu, becoming angry at some expressions used by the woman, had seized an iron bar that huiig in the kitchen and struck her on the head witli it, instantly killing her. Becker claimed that he was not in the room at the time, that the suggestion to destroy the evidence of the murder came from Sutterliu —who performed the horrible task of cutting up the body—and that he (Becker) aided in boiling and burning the pieces because he did not know what else to do about it, fancying himself in Sutterlin's power. That for the same reason he consented to the sa-loon-keeper's demand that lie should marry tho lattor's daughter without delay. Of course, this story was denied by the Sutterlins in toto. George Sutterliu, being put upon the stand, testified that, he had not been at Becker's homo on January 27. Ho said he had called there the first Friday in February for the first and last time. When asked if he had killed Mrs Becker he shout-

Ed "No."

The closing scenes of the trial were full of dramatic interest. Assistant State's Attor-

ney Pearson, with the iron bar in his hands

with which Becker said Jjis father-in-law, George Sutterliu, sen., killed the first Mrs

Becker, declared his belief that Becker himself had struck down his wife with the weapon. He turned towards Becker and shook the bar of iron at him as he branded him a wife-murderer.

The case was given, to the jury in the afternoon, with the usual instructions to decide it strictly according to the evidence. The members of the jury spent some time after they retired in inspecting the exhi. bits. Then they took a vote as to the guilt or innocence of the accused. The result was unanimous as to his guilt. The man's story, in which he charged the crime on his father-in-law, was regarded as too transparent a fabrication for any consideration. After deliberating an hour and ten minutes they returned to the court-room, and the foreman handed the clerk a sheet of paper from which the latter read as follows:—

"We, the jury, find the defendant, August Albert Becker, guilty of murder in the manner and form charged in the indictment, and we fix the punishment of the said August Albert Becker at death."

Becker received the verdict stolidly at first, but after he left the court-room he vented his fury in savage curses on the jurymen. It is probable that Becker and Rollinger, both being under the death penalty for wife murder, under similar circumstances, will be seutenced to expiate their base crimes on the same gallows.

"You wouldn't think to look at that little man across the street that he was especially brave, would you?" "No. What has he ever done that was so brave?" "Married a widow whose first husband committed suicide."

Showman: "Now, then, ladies and gents, don't delay if yer wants to see the fat iady in her prime. She's just been jilted by the skeleton gentleman, an' is taking on so that she's losing weight hevery hour. To-mor-rer she won't be worth seein'."

Judge (to man up for having five wives): "How could you be so hardened, a villain?" The Prisoner: "Please, your Honor, I was only trying to get a good one."