Wednesday, September 21, 2011

Mary T. Godau, Alabama Black Widow - 1912


FULL TEXT (Article 1 of 4): Mobile, Jan. 1. – Mrs. Mary T. Godau is in one cell, her son, Willie Green, in another, and her daughter, Theresa Virginia Wasserleben, is in still another at the county jail, charged with murder, the victim being Fred Wasserleben, husband of the latter, and for some time a member of the Mobile police department. The body in police uniform was found in a pond some distance from the house in Mohawk avenue, where it had been hauled and thrown after the crime was committed on Saturday night during a heavy rainfall. Inspection of the home after the crime disclosed blood marks in the floor of the room the man had occupied and signs of a struggle. In the bath room was found freshly washed clothes with bloodstains, and beneath the house in a fresh made hole, bloody effects in which the body had been wrapped before removal. Arrest of the three then followed.

This morning Mrs. Godau confessed to killing her son-in-law, claiming he tried to assault her in his room, and after she beat him off, he fired at, but missed her, he then threw his pistol on the bed, and falling on it, told her he didn’t care if she killed him. Seizing the weapon she fired a bullet into his forehead. When the body fell on the floor she sent two other bullet into his body. She then claimed, after her children had gone to bed, to have tied a rope around the man’s neck, dragged the body down stairs, placed it in a wagon, carted it to the pond, and threw it in.

Returning, she tried to wash away the tell-tale blood stains. Nine years ago Mrs. Godau’s husband was killed on a rainy night in his home at Cottage Hill, and his body was found in a lot nearby. His life was insured. A previous husband, Charles Stein, was mysteriously killed, as was a son-in-law, all at the homes of Mrs. Godau. Wasserleben has $75,000 insurance. It looks like a second Gunness farm tragedy.

[“Woman Conducts Murder Farm – Two Husbands and Two Sons-in-Law Are Mysteriously Slain. – All Were Insured,” Trenton True American (N.J.), Jan. 2, 1912, p. 2]

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FULL TEXT (Article 2 of 4): Mobile, Ala., July 12. – Mrs. Mary Godau, charged with the murder of her son-in-law, testified on the witness stand to-day that her confession made at the Coroner’s inquest last December was procured by the State through promises of immunity for her daughter, wife of the slain man, and for her son. This confession was admitted to the jury to-day after a tilt of more than an hour between counsel for the State and for the defense.

In her confession Mrs. Godau stated that she, a cripple, shot and killed her son-and-law, Fred Wasserleben, when he was drunk in her room. She claimed that she slew him because he had made an attack upon her person.  Her confession says that she dragged the body of the dead man a mile and a half to a pond, where it was found the following morning. The State has brought charges against the dead man’s wife also. She will be brought to trial next week.

The jury in the Godau trial was secured to-day after four panels of 100 veniremen each had been

[“Mrs. Godau Disavows Confession of Murder – Says Admission Procured By Promise Of Immunity For Children.” The Courier-Journal Louisville, Ky.), Jul. 13, 1912, p. 1]

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FULL TEXT (Article 3 of 4): Mobile, Ala., July 13. – Mrs. Mary T. Godau, who confessed killing her son-in-law, Policeman Fred Wasserleben, last December, asserting that he had threatened her, was found guilty by a jury today and and sentenced to life imprisonment.

Mrs. Fred Wasserleben, wife of the slain man, will be tried next week on the same charge.

Mrs. Godau is a cripple. She says she killed Wasserleben in her room. The body of the policeman, who was unusually large in stature, was found on the morning after the killing wrapped in the gunny sack in a pond a mile and a half from the Godau residence. The woman stated on the witness stand that she dragged the corpse down the stairs, rolled it in a basket and hitching a horse to it, dragged it to the place where it was found.

[“Life Imprisonment – Mrs. Mary Godau is Found Guilty of Murder and Sentenced,” The Bennington Evening Banner (Vt.), Jul. 16, 1912, p. 3

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FULL TEXT (Article 4 of 4): Mobile, Ala., March 22. – Mrs. Theresa V. Wesserleben has been convicted of murdering her husband and was sentenced to life imprisonment. Unless the supreme court interferes she will join her mother, Mrs. Mary T. Godau, in the Alabama penitentiary, where Mrs. Godau is serving a life term on conviction of implication in the murder of Wesserleben.

The victim, Fred Wesserleben, a policeman, was shot to death in his home the night of December 31, 1911. His body was found next day in a pond nearby. The state contended the women killed him to obtain $7,000 life insurance Mrs. Wesserleben had on her husband’s life.

[“For Slaying Husband. – Alabama Woman Sentenced to Life Imprisonment.” The Evening Star (Washington, D. C.), Mar. 22, 1913, p. 1]

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FULL TEXT: Montgomery, Ala., Jan. 22. – Mary T. Godau, a white woman of Mobile, must serve a sentence of life imprisonment

PRISON. Mary Godau, a white woman, of Mobile, must serve a sentence of life imprisonment for the murder of Frederick Wasserleben, her son-in-law, according to a decision handed down by the supreme court of Alabama Tuesday, in affirms the judgment of the city court of Mobile.

Frederick Wasserleben was a policeman and the husband of Virginia Theresa Godau, the daughter of the accused.

The crime was committed in February, 1912, and a few days following the killing, the body of the deceased was found, dressed in his uniform, in a pond a short distance from the home of his mother- in-law.

A chain of evidence fixed the crime on Mrs. Godau, and the city court of Mobile, in July, last, sentenced her to life imprisonment.

[“Mrs. Godau Must Serve Life Term – The Supreme Court Affirms Judgement of Mobile Court in Murder Case.” The Huntsville, Al.), Jan. 22, 1913, p. 1]

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FULL TEXT: Mobile, Ala., March 24. – Mrs. Theresa V Wasserleben, who was convicted of having murdered her husband, Fred Wasserleben, a policeman, on Dec. 20, 1911, declares that a spirit known as J. H. Smith rapped on her cell and told her that she would get a new trial and go free.

Mrs. Wasserman has requested her attorneys to move for a new trial as the result of the spirit message. She is a spiritualist. Her mother, Mrs. Mary T. Godau, has been sentenced for life as an accomplice.

[“Spirit Raps For Murderess. – Tell Her She Will Get New Hat and Go Free.”  Plainfield Courier-News (CN. J.), Mar. 24, 1913, p. 7]

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FULL TEXT: EVERYBODY who knew him in Mobile, Ala., agreed that Fred Wasserleben was a fortunate man. In his forties, working only at odd jobs, he appeared to have captivated a 19-year-old beauty with money.

Theresa Virginia Stein and her mother, Mrs. Mary Stein, had not been long in town that summer of 1910 when Theresa married Fred and he moved into the large home the women had purchased.

Mrs. Stein, whose late husband apparently had left them with considerable wealth, even et Fred Wasserleben up in the saloon business.

His sudden good fortune wavered when the saloon failed, but he had made friends who got him a job on the Mobile police force. For several more months, he seemed happy with his pretty bride and new position and then luck vanished with a vengeance.

On the Sunday morning of Jan. 1, 1912, the body of Patrolman Fred Wasserleben was found floating face down on Hairs pond in an isolated section of his beat.

Police Chief Richard Giblin, Detective Lt. Aleck Rondeau and Sheriff Tom Palmer were cold with anger as they examined the corpse.

"Fred cleaned up a lot of crooks in this section," Giblin said. "I'll get the one who did this if it's the last thing I do."

~ 2 Bullets, Blow On Head Did It ~

Wasserlebcn had been slain by two bullets fired through his head and he also had been struck on the forehead with an Instrument. The fact that a bruise was left showed that the blow had been struck before death.

"Here's his gun," Sheriff Palmer said, recovering the weapon from the ground some 15 feet away. He broke it open. "One shot fired. But he was hit two times."

The discrepancy invited several theories. The fact that the gun had been found some distance from the body indicated that Wasserleben's weapon somehow had been wrested from him and then used to slay him.

But now they wondered if he had been shot with another revolver and had managed to fire his own weapon once. Had the killer been wounded?

They were quite certain that the body had been thrown into the pond in the hope that it would sink, but air captured in the ballooning uniform had kept it afloat.

GIBLIN snapped his fingers in sudden thought and the others looked at him quizzically. He said, "In the excitement, I forgot but I'm pretty sure Fred was off duty last night. Now what would he be doing out here on his beat in uniform?"

Seeking the answer to that question, ss well as so many others, the officers girded for the tragic task of facing the young widow and the victim's mother-in-law.

They were met at the door by the girl, herself, when they arrived at the house and as gently as they could they broke the news. She was deathly pale and seemed to be having difficulty understanding their report.

But as they continued their talk, the women answered questions which were puzzling the Investigators.

~Went Out to Aid Short-handed Force ~

"Fred had promised to take us downtown last night to see some of the New Year's celebrating," the attractive Theresa said. "But at the last minute he said that he was worried about conditions on his beat on such a night and thought he would go out and look it over. He said the force was short-handed so we went out alone."

"That's true enough," Chief Giblin admitted. "We have several men out sick. One thing more. Did Fred take his nightstick with him? It wasn't with his gun and we haven't been able to find it."

The women looked at each other thoughtfully and the mother-in-law said, "I'm positive I saw him with it as he went out the door."

They added that while Fred had made many enemies by his conscientious arrests, he had never spoken of a particular person who had threatened revenge.

THERE seemed nothing to do 1 but continue the Investigation elsewhere and the probe soon turned up additional interesting facts. For one thing, the genial Fred Wasserleben was extremely popular with women housewives, widows and maidens along his beat

So much so that he seldom ate the lunch prepared at his home, but dined on warm meals provided by his admirers.

"He usually passed out what was in his lunch box among the boys in the station,” a sergeant reported.

"Said he didn't want to hurt the feelings of his wife and mother-in-law by refusing what they fixed, but he couldn't resist those hot meals the other ladies offered."

The officials pondered this information.

Giblin said, "Fred was a good officer but I can't believe that he would voluntarily go out on his beat on his night off especially without reporting at headquarters. There must have been another reason."

~ Police Quizzed His Neighbors ~

The hint of popularity verging on the romantic opened a new vista. Had Patrolman Wasserleben run afoul of an enraged husband? Had he told his wife that he was going on extra duty merely as a ruse to gain a rendevous?

Unable to prove a definite connection between the victim and any woman on his beat, the officers questioned Wasserleben's neighbors.

An elderly spinster said that she had noticed lights in the victim's home until very late on the murder night and near midnight had distinctly heard two shots.

"I thought it was just some foolish celebrating to welcome the New Year," she said.

"It might have been a reveler," Giblin told Rondeau later. "Or it could have been the shots that killed Fred. Do you think he returned after the women had left and his killer came to the house?

"Rondeau admitted the theory was plausible but he pointed out that there was no evidence the patrolman had been philandering. And if Wasserleben had been slain in his own home, someone had gone to considerable trouble to transport the body to the pond and simulate a murder on duty.

STILL at sea, they continued their questioning and a man w-ho lived directly across the street put them on new trail. He said he had seen a slim, dark man with a trim mustache call at the home on a number of occasions when Wasserleben was away.

He also had seen Theresa talking with this man in the lobby of a hotel, he said, naming the hostelry. Their manner had aroused his curiosity.

"It arouses mine, too," Giblin said. "Let's trace him."

The hotel clerk was able to identify the man as an insurance salesman from New Orleans. Found in that city, the frightened agent soon gave the officers information that shed surprising light on the murder of Fred Wasserleben.

~ Wife, Her Mother Confronted in Home ~

They raced back to Mobile and the Wasserleben home. The mother-in-law was alone at the moment and she watched them stonily as they searched the victim's room and noted bloodstains on the mattress.

Giblin and Rondeau waited until Theresa returned in her flashy runabout, then searched it. On the floor they found more bloodstains and far beneath the seat, where it had rolled, was the patrolman's missing nightstick.

"All right," Giblin said, facing the women.

"Mrs. Stein," he told the mother-in-law, "you are using the name of your first husband, who died mysteriously a long time ago. Your second husband, William Green, disappeared soon after he married you."

MRS. STEIN'S third husband. William Godeau, also had died suddenly in another town and several years before mother and daughter had moved to mobile.

"You collected insurance on all of these men," Giblin said.

"You were getting a bit old to catch husbands yourself so you had your daughter marry Fred Wasserleben and you took out $7,500 insurance on mm split among three companies."

Giblin charged that the women had tried to poison Fred's lunch but he had inadvertently foiled their plan by distributing It among fellow officers, who later became ill. When he did not get sick they had taken desperate measures.

~ They Found Only One Extra Bullet ~

Waiting until he was asleep, they had struck him with the nightstick, then shot him with his own gun. After firing two shots they had to reload the weapon but could find only one extra bullet.

They had then dressed the body and together dragged it to the car for the after-midnight drive at Hall's pond.

They failed to notice that the nightstick was missing, marring their false picture of a man slain on duty.

Theresa Stein Wasserleben and her mother were found guilty of murder in the first degree and both were sentenced to life imprisonment.

[Fred Dickenson, “The Case of the Missing Nightstick,” Sunday Press (Binghamton, N. Y.), Jan. 25, 1953, p. 4C]

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For links to other cases of woman who murdered 2 or more husbands (or paramours), see Black Widow Serial Killers.

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