LIFE SENTENCE

Waipa Post, Volume 36, Issue 2144, 14 April 1928, Page 6

LIFE SENTENCE

In ten minutes Adolph Hotelling, a carpenter and church worker, who had confessed at Flint (Michigan) to the murder of a five-year-old girl and the dismembering of her body, was tried and sentenced by the judge and sheriff. It is the quickest murder trial recorded, and took place in secret. The sentence passed upon Hotelling—life imprisonment with hard labour and solitary confinement —was the maximum penalty. He escaped the gallows because the law of Michigan forbids the capital punishment. Only six days elapsed between the murder and the passing of the sentence.

Hotelling was indicted for the murder of Dorothy Schneider, whose dissected body wab found in a wood. In the ten minutes occupied by the trial the court listened to evidence from both sides. It was considered advisable to hold the trial in secret because of the feeling against Hotelling. It was desired to prevent another attempt at lynching similar to that on the Monday previously, when 15,000 men and women stormed the gaol. Hotelling, until a few days previously was considered one of the best type of citizens. He was a hypocrite of the worst sort, who confessed of the murder of two other little girls. He actually took part in the hunt which followed the crime, demanding that the murderer, if caught, should be shot. Only three days after killing Dorothy Schneider he attended church where he presided as an elder.