See main page: 1912 – Louise Lindloff – Chicago, Illinois, USA
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June 16, 1912
FULL TEXT: Charged with the murder of two husbands and three
children, Mrs. Louisa G. Lindloff, “seeress,” in a cell at the Filmore street
police station, yesterday “gazed into her $500 crystal” and received a message
from her alleged victims.
“I communicated with my son Arthur, and he told me that with
the aid of the spirits I would be exonerated,” said Mrs. Lindloff. “I have not
been able to convey a message to my husband, William Lindloff, but Arthur will
find him. My son declared the police had made a great mistake and that the
spirits will punish Capt. Baer for his part in my arrest.
“My method of
divination gets me into direct communication with my children and I talk to
them by means of written characters which are invoked by the spirits into the
crystal.”
~ Crystal Contains Cleopatra’s Tear?
The crystal is a large piece of globular glass and is
commonly used by Spiritualists. The police assert it is not worth more than 50
cents, even though it is said to contain the tear of the ancient Queen
Cleopatra.
Mrs. Lindloff kept up her nerve during the day and denied
having poisoned members of her family. Capt. Baer found two kinds of poison in
her residence at 2044 Ogden avenue. One contained a brown powder, another
powder was mixed with arsenic and vermin. A dozen bottles containing liquids
will be examined tomorrow by city chemists.
~ Tells Coroner He Lies.
Mrs. Lindloff was grilled by Coroner Hoffman. The coroner
looked into the crystal.
“Can you see anything?” she inquired.
“Yes,” replied the coroner.
“What do you see?”
“I see your two dead husbands and your three children
standing at your right side. They are accusing you of killing them.”
“You ti,” cried Mrs. Lindloff. “They are standing to my
left, and they are saying that I am innocent. If they were at my right I would
be guilty.”
The coroner then questioned Mrs. Lindloff regarding the
crystal. She could not tell its history except that it contained a tear of
Cleopatra.
Mrs. Lindloff was booked on a charge of murder.
Henry Kuby, a boarder at the Lindloff residence, was
released by Capt. Baer.
[“Seeress Invokes Help of ‘Spirits’ – Mrs. Louisa G.
Lindloff, Alleged Poisoner of Five, Says Dead Son Exonerates Her. – Uses “$500
Crystal.” – Calls Coroner Hoffman a Liar When He Professes to See Guilt.”
Chicago Tribune (Il.), Jul. 16, 1911, p. 7]
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June 21, 1912
FULL TEXT: Bodies of two husbands of Mrs. Louisa G.
Lindloff, Spiritualist, held in the county jail, suspected of poisoning five
members of her family, will be exhumed from Milwaukee cemeteries by Coroner H.
L. Nahin of Milwaukee within a few days.
District Attorney W. A. Zabel of the Wisconsin city prepared
the formal order yesterday. It will direct the coroner to perform post-mortems.
The contents of the stomachs and livers will be sent to Prof. Walter Haines,
Chicago, who discovered poison in the bodies of two Lindloff children which
were exhumed in Oak Ridge cemetary on Wednesday.
Investigation of the deaths of members of the Lindloff
family so far has not frightened the accused woman. Her $500 crystal has been
taken away from her by the police and until she can consult the glass she
refuses to make any statements.
[“Bodies Of Seress’ Husbands To Be Exhumed In Milwaukee.”
Chicago Tribune (Il.), Jun. 21, 1912, p. 11]
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June 29, 1912
FULL TEXT: A letter received yesterday morning by Capt. Baer
of the Fillmore street police station has started the police on a new trail in
the Mrs. Louisa G. Lindloff poison case. As a result the police will
investigate the deaths of three women. They were:
Mrs Eugenie Clavette,
1313 South Western avenue, who died on July 19, 1909. She left considerable
property and $1,000 insurance to her daughter, Mabel. She was attended by Mrs.
Lindloff constantly before her death.
Miss Tessie Fugel,
2722 South Western avenue, who died a few days before Christmas in 1911. She
was 10 years old and a friend of Alma Lindloff, who died a year ago.
Mrs. Katie Asoman
(?), of Appleton, Wisc., who disappeared in July, 1911. She had been a visitor
at the Lindloff home.
This information was in part given to the police by Mrs.
Mary C. Nelson, 1313 South Western avenue, a sister of Mrs. Clavette.
~ Will Tell Story to Prosecutor.
Mrs. Nelson wrote to Capt. Baer and will repeat her
testimony today to Assistant State’s Attorney Claude Smith, who will prosecute
the case.
“I have known Mrs. Lindloff for several years,” she said.
“When Mrs. Clavette, my sister, was taken ill with liver trouble three years
ago, Mrs. Lindloff paid her daily visits. She insisted that Dr. James A. Way,
the attending physician, was not treating my sister properly and wanted to
superintend the case personally. I refused to listen to such talk.
“Mrs. Lindloff became angry with me on account of my refual
to allow her around the house. When Mrs. Clavette died Mrs. Lindloff tried to
induce Mabel Clavette, the only daughter, to live with her. Maybel received a
farm and $1,ooo insurance from her mother’s estate. Mabel and Anna Lindloff were good friends.
Alma repeatedly asked Mabel to come and live at her house. It appeared to me
then, and it certainly appears to me now, that Mrs. Lindloff intended to get
Mabel at her house.
~ Celebration After Girl’s Death.
“When Frieda Lindloff died four years ago there was a great
celebration after the funeral. Mrs. Lindloff took a party of six to a north
side amusement park and spent considerable money. She then asked Mabel Clavette
to come to her house and live.”
“Among other strange things I noticed was one day when Mrs.
Lindloff strangled a little dog to death in her back yard. Mrs. Lindloff seemed
to enjoy killing the dog.”
Mabel Clavette corroborated Mrs. Nelson’s statements.
Miss Tessie Flugel was a friend of Alma Lindloff and
information regarding her death is expected to be disclosed today.
The mysterious woman who lived at the Lindloff home at 2044
Ogden avenue, and believed to have been from Michigan, was positively
identified yesterday as Mrs. Kate Asoman of Appleton, Wa.
[“Hint New Deaths In Lindloff Case – Police Investigate Fate
of Three Women, Friends of Spiritualist. – Sister of One Has Clew. – Says
Accused Poisoner Wanted to Take Charge of Relative’s Final Illness.” Chicago
Tribune (Il.), Jun. 29, 1912 , 4]
***
July 6, 1912
FULL TEXT: Capt. Baer of the Fillmore avenue police station
yesterday came into the possession of information which has led him to revise
his theory of the motive which, it is claimed, prompted Mrs. Louisa G. Lindloff
to poison a number of the members of her family.
The original theory of the police in arresting Mrs. Lindloff
was that she committed the murders in order to collect insurance on the
victims’ lives. Captain Baer, as the result of the disclosures he says were
made yesterday, modifies this by the declaration that vanity contributed to
urge the woman to her crimes. He asserts that she deliberately planned her
poisonings so as to fit in with her predictions as a seeress and that she
killed her victims on a schedule which she made up at her clarvoyant séances.
~ Woman Tells of Seances ~
The police captain’s informant is a woman whose name he
declines at this time to divulge, but who, he says, was a constant attendant at
Mrs. Lindloff’s clairvoyant séances during the period of the murders of which
she is accused.
“According to what I have learned,” said the police
captain,” Mrs. Lindloff would give her ‘weekly circles’ to the unsophisticated.
At these meetings she would tear up a handkerchief and scatter a piece of it in
front of each person attending. Then she would pretend to go into a trance and
do some predicting. These predictions proved fatal in several cases.
“Persons who attended the Lindloff séances have promised to
testify in the case, and their testimony will show that most of the poison
deaths were premeditated. Bot Coroner Hoffman and myself are busy on the case
every day.”
~ Lindloff Guests Taken Ill. ~
That Miss Sadie Ray and Mrs. Katherine Dwyer, both of whom
will be the state’s witnesses, became after ill after eating a meal at the home
of Mrs. Lindloff developed yesterday in the state’s attorneys inquiry. The
accused woman is said to have gone so far as to predict that Miss Ray, who was
formerly employed at her home, would die on a certain day.
The meal in question was eaten several weeks before the
death of Arthur Lindloff. On her way to her home at 1253 West Madison street,
Mrs. Dwyer was seized with nausea and pains in the stomach.
~ Mrs. Lindloff Plays Football. ~
Apparently oblivious of the fact that additional evidence
was piling up daily, Mrs. Lindloff spent part of yesterday playing soccer
football in the yard of the county jail.
The other players included women accused of crimes ranging
from shoplifting to murder. One of the latter was Mrs. Florence Bernstein, who
surrendered herself Wednesday after an indictment had been returned charging
her with the murder of her husband, George Bernstein.
[“Lays Murders To Vanity - Mrs. Lindloff Suspected of
Killing to Aid Name as Seeress. - Victims Die On Schedule. - Woman Who Attended
Seances Said to Have Made Disclosures.” Chicago Daily Tribune (Il.), Jul. 6,
1912, p. 3]
***
October 27, 1912
FULL TEXT: Milwaukee, Wis., Oct. 26. – Another death – the
seventh – was laid at the door of Mrs. Lindloff tonight, Mrs. Bertha Hall of
this city accused her of causing the death of her 6 months old baby. Mrs. Hall
made the charge of the examination conducted at the St. Charles hotel here
tonight by Assistant State’s Attorneys Claude F. Smith and Frank Noyes and
Capt. Baer of Chicago.
Eight witnesses besides Mrs. Hall were examined. Mrs. Hall
said she lived next door to the Lindloff home here. When absent from home, she
asserted, Mrs. Lindloff offered to take care of the baby. Once the baby was
taken suddenly sick.
“The child grew worse gradually and afterward died,” said
the witness. “I never thought of the possibility of poison then, but afterwards
when several of Mrs. Lindloff’s dogs died I became suspicious. Afterwards many
of my neighbors told me Mrs. Lindloff had used the baby to experiment uopn to
find what she could do with arsenic.”
Dr. Franks, who attended Otto Frank Graunke when he was
dying, repeated his former testimony at the examination and said he still
believed Graunke died of arsenic poisoning.
“Through my power I was able to see that my second husband.
William Lindloff, and my children, Alma and Arthur, were going to die. I saw
three caskets. In one my husband lay and in the other was Alma. I could see
both their faces plainly, but the third was rather indistinct. However, I could
see part of the features of my boy, whom they accuse me of murdering.
~ Murder Trial Predicted.
“Did you also predict the death of your first husband?” was
asked.
“No, I did not,” she answered. “But a spiritualist the
Milwaukee did. She also told me I would only live a couple of years with my
second husband, whom I had at that time not married. All that she said came
true.”
The accused woman then related how this clairvoyant in
Milwaukee fifteen years ago predicted sometime during her life she would be
placed on trial before a jury for murder.
“The medium did not give the day or month, but said she
could see plainly I would be placed on trial sometime,” Mrs. Lindloff
continued. “The medium said she could see the scene in the courtroom, with me
sitting before a jury. She also told me all my relatives would die and that
finally I would be alone in the world.”
MRS. LINDLOFF FORSEES FATE.
In her cell in the county jail yesterday Mrs. Louise
Lindloff, accused murderess and seeress, said she could forsee her acquittal.
It was through spiritualism, she said, she made the forcast of the jury’s verdict.
Fortune telling, she insisted, is a gift and should be
termed “a practice.” She declared her powers along this line resulted in her
being chastised by her mother on several occasions.
“I was working in a cornfield near Berlin, Germany, with my
mother when the power was first vested in me,” she explained, “I was about 8 or
9 years old. I could see that a neighbor of ours was going to die. I told
mother his name and just how the funeral plans could be arranged. As a result,
I got my first whipping.
“My prediction came true and some time later my mother said,
in discussing my power with a neighbor. ‘Well everything she said came true,
but I can’t see how she did it.’ She asked me how I was able to tell, but I
could not explain.
“Through my power I was able to see that my second husband,
William Lindloff, and my children, Alma and Arthur, were going to die. I saw
three caskets. In one my husband lay and in the other was Alma. I could see
both their faces plainly, but the third was rather indistinct. However, I could
see part of the features of my boy, whom they accuse me of murdering.”
~ Murder Trial Predicted.
“Did you also predict the death of your first husband?” was
asked.
“No, I did not,” she answered. “But a spiritualist in
Milwaukee did. She also told me I would only live a couple of years with my
second husband, whom I had at that time not married. All that she said came
true.”
The accused woman related how this clairvoyant in Milwaukee
fifteen years ago predicted sometime during her life she would be placed on
trial before a jury for murder.
“The medium did not give the day or month, but said she
could see plainly I would be placed on trial sometime,” Mrs. Lindloff
continued. “The medium said she could see the scene in the courtroom, with me
sitting before a jury. She also told me all my relatives would die and that
finally I would be alone in the world.”
[“Another Murder Laid To Seeress – Milwaukee Woman Accuses
Mrs. Lindloff of Causing Death of Baby. – Seven Now On the List. – Wayman’s Aids
question New Witnesses at Night Hearing in Wisconsin.” The Chicago Sunday
Tribune (Il.), Oct. 27, 1912, p. 3]
***
March 16, 1914
FULL TEXT: Mrs. Louisa Lindloff, who last autumn was
convicted of murder and sentenced to twenty-fife years in prison, will not have
to wait for the Supreme Court, where her appeal is pending. She died last night
in the hospital of the county jail of cancer.
The woman reached the jail weighing over 200 pounds. When
she died her weight was less than 100 pounds. Dr. Irving Barnett asked her
whether she had anything to say.
“No,” she said wearily. “I’m going, and I’m going happy.”
The woman was convicted of murdering her son, Peter. She was
convicted of murdering her son, Peter. She was suspected of complicity in the
death by arsenic of other children, but these charges were not pressed.
Attorney George Remus had defended him.
[“Mrs. Louisa Lindloff Dies; Convicted of Son’s Murder. –
Woman Who Scattered Poison from Pepper Box Does Not Last to See Result of Her
Appeal.” Chicago Tribune (Il.), Mar. 16, 1914, p. 1]
***
Chicago Tribune articles on the Louise Lindloff case (27
count):
Jun. 16, 1912, p. 7 –
Seeress Invokes Help of ‘Spirits’ …
Jun. 20, 1912, p. 13 – Find Poison in Two Lindloffs ...
Jun. 21, 1912, p. 11 – Bodies of Seeress’ Husbands to Be
Exhumed in Milwaukee …
Jun. 23, 1912, p. 8 – Examine Body of Husband of Seeress;
Find No Poison
Jun. 25, 1912, p. 8 – Hunt Woman in Poison Case
Jun. 26, 1912, p. 6 – Calls Mrs. Lindloff Wooer
Jun. 29, 1912, p. 4 – Hint New Deaths in Lindloff Case
Jul. 1, 1912, p. 6 – Surprise in Poison Tangle
Jul. 6, 1912, p. 3 –
Lays Murders to Vanity
Jul. 7, 1912, p. 3 – Baer Scores Mrs. Lindloff
Jul. 8, 1912, p. 11 – Sees Plot in Poison Trial
Jul. 11, 1912, p. 8 – Poison Case True Bill Near
Aug. 1, 1912, p. 10 – Mrs. Lindloff Invokes Aid of Col.
Lewis and Spirits
Aug. 22, 1912, p. 5 – The Woman and the Jury When Murder is
the Charge
Aug.23, 1912, p. 3 – Bernstein Jury Overrules Court
Oct. 25, 1912, p. 3 – Lindloff Murder Trial On
Oct. 26, 1912, p. 3 – Lindloff Trial Tears Open Past
Oct. 27, 1912, p. 3 –
Another Murder Laid to Seeress
Oct. 29, 1912, p. 3 – Poison Net Fails to Move Seeress
Oct. 30, 1912, p. 3 – Seeress Moved by Evidence
Oct. 31, 1912, p. 3 – Seeress May Testify Today
Nov. 1, 1912, p. 3 – State’s Witness Helps Seeress
Nov. 2, 1912, p. 3 – Louisa Lindloff Tells Own Story
Nov. 5, 1912, p. 1, 7 – Find Mrs. Lindloff Guilty; 25 Years
Mar. 1, 1913, p. 3 – Seeress Sentenced 25 Years In Prison
For Slaying Son
Mar. 8, 1914, p. 3 – Woman in Cell Loses 100 Pounds
Mar. 16, 1914, p. 1 – Mrs. Louise Lindloff Dies
***
Oct. 3, 1912, p. 13 – (in passing)
Oct. 20, 1912, p. 6 – (in passing)
Apr. 9, 1914, p. 22 – (law technicality)
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