FULL TEXT (Article 1 of 4): New York. – Horrified by the
alleged business of their mother, two daughters of Wilhelmena Eckhardt, of 126
East Ninety-third street, are said to have given to the police information
which has landed her in the Tombs without bail and the authorities say she may
have to face charges of murdering a dozen babies and destroying their bodies in
her kitchen stove.
The daughters of Mrs. Eckhardt are Mrs. Wilhelmena Ihrig, of
East Ninety-ninth street, and Mrs. Marie Shock, of Worcester, Mass. It is said
that they gave a clue to John S. Cooper, attorney for the county medical
society, which was followed by Assistant District Attorney Pinchot and led to a
raid on the house of the woman by detective and the police.
Affidavits are said to be in the hands of the authorities,
made by one of the daughters, charging the mother with destroying children to
the number of at least twelve, within the last four months. It is said that the
daughters revolted when the old woman wished one of them to engage in the
business with her.
Mrs. Eckhardt was arraigned before Magistrate Walsh in the
Tombs court yesterday. She denied the charges and declared her daughters had
turned against her for reasons other than they gave. Saul J. Dichhauser, her
attorney, says the allegations are only the result of bitter family
animosities.
[“Murderer of Infants Charge Against Woman – Grave
Accusations Against Mother by Her Two Daughters, Who Caused Her Imprisonment in
Tombs.” The Washington Times (D.C.), Nov. 21, 1906, p. 8]
***
FULL TEXT (Article 2 of 4): New York, Nov. 21. – The
spectacle of two women denouncing as a murderess the woman who brought them into
the world, but whom they refused to call “mother,” was witnessed in the office
of the district attorney today. The women are Mrs. Wilhelmina Ihrig of this
city, and Mrs. Marie Schoch. The mother whom they accused is Mrs. Wilhelmina
Eckhardt, who was arrested yesterday on a charge of having performed an illegal
operation.
Both Mrs. Ihrig and Mrs. Schoch asserted that they did not
wish to be known as the daughters of Mrs. Eckhardt, who, they said, is not
worthy to bear the name “mother.” Both declared they had seen Mrs. Eckhardt
kill hour-old infants and dispose of the bodies by burning them in her kitchen
stove. They said also that they had seen Mrs. Eckhardt perform criminal
operations upon women in her East Ninety-third street home and Mrs. Ihrig declared
that her mother had quarrelled with her, because she refused to assist in
burning the bodies of babies.
Mrs. Schoch told the district attorney that when she was
three days old her mother wrapped her in a bundle of rags and cast her into the
street.
~ RESCUED BY GRANDMOTHER. ~
She was rescued by her grandmother, who raised her, and with
whom she remained until she became a woman. When she came to this country she
found her mother conducting a disorderly house and she declared that her mother
sought to have her become an inmate of the place. She refused.
The first she knew of her mother's present occupation, she
said, was when Mrs. Eckhardt's little adopted son made a discovery in the house
which led to the exposures and Mrs. Eckhardt's arrest. When she learned of the
discovery made by the little boy, Mrs. Schoch said she went to her mother about
it and she declared Mrs. Eckhardt proposed that they go into partnership. This
she did, after consulting with a representative of the county medical society, and
with a view of causing Mrs. Eckhardt's arrest. It was while occupying this
position in her mother's house, she says, that she procured evidence which
resulted in Mrs. Eckhardt's arrest. She declared that she i saw her mother
perform an operation on Anna Jackson, otherwise Sally Brown, a colored woman,
to whom a child was born in the house and her mother told her how easy it was
to kill a child and to dispose of it by burning the body in the stove. She
declared that “her mother actually did kill the baby by twisting its neck, and
that afterward she burned it.
Mrs. Ihrig came here four months ago from Regensburg,
Germany. She testified that she lived with her mother after coming here and
that in August last she saw her mother burn the bodies of infants. She says
that she quarreled with her mother because the latter wanted her to burn the
bodies in the stove. She told the district attorney also the name and address
of another woman who. she said, had seen Mrs. Eckhardt burn the bodies of
infants.
[“Babies And Burned Them - Revolting Occupation Of A New
York Woman. Daughters Denounce Mother As Murderess. - Saw Her At Awful Work - Twisted Necks of
Hour Old Infants. - Bodies Then Burned in the Stove.” The Topeka Daily Capital
(Ks.), Nov. 22, 1906, p. 2]
***
FULL TEXT (Article 3 of 4): New York, Nov. 22. – That Mrs. Wilhemina Eckhart,
accused by her own daughter of having snuffed out the lives of many infants and
of afterward burning their bodies slew a man in Germany a number of years ago
by cleaving jus head with an exe, in the latest charge made against the woman
imprisoned in the Tombs on complaint of her eldest daughter, Mrs. Maria Shock.
The murder charge was made before Assistant District
Attorney Piachot [?] yesterday by Mrs. Shock while supplementing her previous
testimony in the County Medical Society and the district attorney’s office,
which had caused her mother’s arrest.
Disowned by both Mrs. Shock and her other daughter. Mrs.
Wilhelmina Ihrig, the hawk-faced old midwife loudly protests her innocence of the
hideous crimes with which she is accused. Mrs. Eckhardt bears every evidence of
unusual physical strength. The hands which are supposed to have strangled
scores of babies are large, prehensile and covered with cheap gold and silver
rings. Her nose is hooked, her eyes are black and bead-like. She is broad and
squat and wears a reddish brown wig.
The district attorney’s office appears so certain of its
case against the woman that it is probable that it will immediately be laid
before the grand jury, with the intention of having her placed on trial at the
December term of court. At the present time it is not believed that the new
charge of murder will be preferred against her. The offence was, if at all,
committed long ago in Germany, and the investigation mow under way will hardly
be concluded before her case goes to trial.
~ A MOST INHUMAN MONSTER. ~
“Mrs. Wilhelmena Earhardt is
the most inhuman monster alive,” said her daughter. Mrs. Maria Shock in her
statement to the district attorney. “I refused to be known as the daughter of
such a woman. She was never a mother to me. But a short time after I was born.
In Germany, she wrapped me in rags and threw me in the gutter. I was found by
my grandparents and reared.
“I know positively that she
has slain babies born to women unfortunate enough to apply to her for
assistance.
“She even asked me to go into
partnership with her, and told me that there was much money to be made. She boasted
to me that she could always successfully make way with a baby’s body. I went to
her home on Nov. 18. Two women were then in the house.
“I asked what she did when
children were born alive,” and she said:
“That is a question easy to
answer. You just give them a twist of the neck and then you burn them up. That prevents
any evidence against you!
“She then told me that on the next morning she would start a
good fire in the kitchen stove and burn up the body of a baby that lay dead in
the room. She said she did not want to start a fire that night. After she was
arrested she told me that she had burned the baby’s body and destroyed the
ashes, and that the police would not be able to find something.”
The significance of the latter statement of Mrs. Shock was
proved when Detective Sergeant Flood, from the district attorney’s office, made
a search of the home of the midwife, and reported that had been unable to
locate any of the remains of the child victims of the woman. Ehen Flood
examined the cellar of the house he found that the floor was concrete.
Testimony as grewsome as that of Mrs. Shock was given the
district attorney’s office by her sister, Mrs. Wilhelmena Ihrig.
In her affidavit Mrs. Ihrig says: “I quarreled with my mother
because I would not burn children. She burned them in the kitchen stove. There is
another woman, Anna Fuerst, who has seen my mother burn babies.”
Mrs. Ihrig also says that she has only been in this country
four weeks, and that when she first arrived she went to live with her mother,
who desired her to participate in her nefarious occupation. When she refused
she was turned out of doors.
When seen in the Tombs Mrs. Eckhardt said: “The charge that
I burned twelve babies in my kitchen stove is absolutely false, and I will
prove it when I am tried. This whole charge is a conspiracy of my two
daughters.”
[“Mrs. Eckhardt Slew Man With An Axe –Is Latest Charge
Against Woman Accused – Of Killing Many Infants – Act Occurred in Germany Some
Years Ago – Still Protests Her Innocence, Although Daughters Reiterated Former
Statements Against Her.” Wilkes-Barre Times (Pa.), Nov. 22, 1906, p. 1]
***
FULL TEXT (Article 4 of 4): New York. – Wilhelmena Eckhardt,
an aged mid-wife, who was arrested a few weeks ago charged with mid-wifery,
baby farming, the murder of infants by burning in a stove and several illegal
operations, one on her own daughter, was to-day sentenced to two and one half
years in the penitentiary. Clemency was asked on account of old age.
[“Light Sentence For Baby Farmer,” The Pensacola Journal
(Fl.), Dec. 22, 1906, p. 1]
***
***
***
For more cases of “Baby Farmers,” professional child care providers who murdered children see The Forgotten Serial Killers.
***
[1093-1/3/21]
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