Mildred Schueler's Brutal Murder of Her 8-Year-Old Stepdaughter - 1935

FULL TEXT: Bridgeport, Conn., Sept. 9 – An alienist’s examination was ordered today to probe the mind of phlegmatic Mrs. Ann Schueler, who kicked her stepdaughter to death, police charged, in jealousy of the first Mrs. Schueler.

Mrs. Schueler was coldly indifferent when brought here from Stamford for an inquest into the death of 9-year-old Marilyn Schueler, daughter of Oscar Schueler, wealthy brewer, by his first marriage.

Coroner John J. Phelan heard only four witnesses – Dr. Ralph Crane, medical examiner, and three detectives – and then ordered her back to jail at Stamford without announcing his decision. She will be arraigned in City Court at Stamford tomorrow on a charge of murder.

Meanwhile, State’s Attorney William H. Comley said he would have Mrs. Schueler examined before the Grand Jury meets Sept. 18. She is 25 and was married to Schueler two years ago after he divorced his first wife.

Mrs. Anna Erwin, the child’s mother, still was under the care of a physician today at the home of a friend at Stamford. She collapses yesterday at her daughter’s grave.

[Frank Walton, “Stepdaughter’s Killer Faces Mentality Test,” Daily News (New York, N. Y.), Sep. 10, 1935, p. 39]

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FULL TEXT: Stamford, Conn., Sept. 8 – Nine-year-old Marilyn Schueler’s lovely black curls and long silky lashes – which she inherited from her real mother – were the goad that drove Mrs. Ada Schueler to kick her little stepchild to death, police investigators believed today.

They declared that the 25-year-old murderous stepmother, whenever she looked at small Marilyn, was reminded of the woman who had preceded her in the affections of Oscar Schueler, her brewer-husband. Schueler had custody of the two little girls his first wife bore him – and left Marilyn at the mercy of a stepmother who hated the child, police said.

~ Real Mother Collapses. ~

Mrs. Anna Erwin, the real mother of the murdered Marilyn, collapsed at the yawning grave of her child today. The final prayer over the little white casket was not finished when Mrs. Erwin’s outcries became so shrill and violent that Dr. George V. Hamilton, pastor of North Stamford Congregational Church, deemed it best to end the tragic scene.

He abruptly closed his prayer and the body was lowered.

Schueler, the father, glanced coldly at his former wife. He made no move. His brother, Martin Schueler, grabbed his former sister-in-law as she began to fall, he half-carried her to an automobile.

Police, who obtained the youthful Mrs. Schueler’s signed confession of murder-in-a-rage, declared that the mother’s prostration from grief was in strong contrast to her actions three years ago. At last time, police declared, she left her home, abandoning Schueler, Marilyn, and the other child, Marjorie, 12.

~ Divorced for Desertion. ~

Schueler divorced the children’s mother on grounds of desertion, after she had absented herself from the family fireside for three or four years, authorities pointed out. She took her maiden name, Elkin.

Today as she sat at the services conducted at the Covery and Hanley funeral home in Stamford, the fatal resemblance of the mother and daughter was obvious. Mrs. Erwin’s black hair, above the black dress with its white collar, was of the identical raven shade as that which fell over the neck of the child in the coffin. In other features their likeness was marked.

It was Mrs. Erwin’s positive assertion that Marilyn was never subject to epilepsy that forced the stepmother to confess. Mrs. Schueler told police that she struck Marilyn, “harder than I intended” because the child would not hurry with her lunch. In her preliminary sparring with officials, the stepmother had stuck to her original story – that Marilyn had had “a fit.”

Police investigators revealed today that Mrs. Schueler, calm and self-possessed in Stamford jail, also was a divorcee. Records at Bridgeport, Conn., showed that she was formerly a Mrs. Hughes, and that Hughes divorced her in 1930 because she ran away with the milkman. Her maiden name was Metcalf.

Mrs. Schueler was a nurse in Stamford Hospital for three years. Officials are checking her record her record there. It was while there that she met Schueler, a lonely man with two small children – already deserted by his own wife.

Schueler married her in 1933.

The children’s mother will not be a witness when the coroner’s inquest is held at Bridgeport, at 11 A. M. Tomorrow. Originally, officials had expected to call her to disprove the stepmother’s assertion that Marilyn suffered from epilepsy.

Ample testimony on that point will be given by Dr. Ralph W. Crane, Stamford Medical Examiner. He will appear, bulwarked by data from his two autopsies.

One shows that no evidence of any ailment was found during his examination of the brain. The other will detail the cause of death – internal injuries resulting from the terrific beating and kicking to which Mrs. Schueler subjected the child.

~ Doctor Has Records. ~

In addition, records of the doctor who supervised Marilyn’s health at school will show that she had no epileptic tendency.

This morning, Mrs. Erwin told officials: “There was never anything wrong with Marilyn.”

A score of Marilyn’s former classmates at Belltown grammar school attended her battered body to its resting place.

[Francis Walton, “Slew Child, 9 in Hate For Real Mother,” Daily News (New York, N. Y.), Sep. 9, 1935, P. 3]

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FULL TEXT: Bridgeport, Conn., Sept. 26. – Shaken by hysteria, Mrs. Ada Mildred Schueler, 25, sobbed "not guilty" here today to a second degree murder indictment. She is to be tried Oct. 15 for stamping her stepdaughter to death in the Schueler home at Stamford on Sept. 6.

Mrs. Schueler, pretty former nurse, required the support of attendants today as she entered ' Criminal Superior Court for the formal pleading. Her step faltered. Tears rolled down her pale cheeks. She was unable to stand as Judge John Rufus Booth asked her to plead. She was helped to her feet and held upright as she whispered: "Not guilty." She was returned to the county jail.

Mrs. Schueler, after her arrest, confessed she had beaten her stepdaughter, Mildred, 9, because "she did not her lunch fast enough." An autopsy revealed that the child was stamped to death, her body bearing the imprint of high heels. Mildred was the daughter of Oscar J. Schueler, vice president of a Stamford brewery. Mrs. Schueler's defense will be based on insanity.

[“Stepmother Sobs Plea In Kicking Death,” Daily News (New York, N. Y.), Sep. 27, 1935, Final, p. 17]

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FULL TEXT: Bridgeport, Conn., Oct. 17. – The right of a stepmother to punish her husband s children for their misdeeds was advanced today as extenuation for Mrs. Mildred A. Schueler, admitted slayer of her 9-year-old stepdaughter, Marilyn.

When Mrs. Schueler beat the child so severely, for refusing to her luncheon, that Marilyn died of a ruptured a kidney, she was within her step-maternal rights, Hugh J. Lavery, her counsel, said. But he staked his main appeal on a plea of insanity.

Eight married men, all fathers, and one bachelor, were accepted as members of the jury when court adjourned today.

Thin to the point of emaciation, Mrs. Schueler hid her face behind a heavy mourning veil when she was led into Criminal Superior Court this morning. As she faced Judge Rufus Wood she threw back the veil and bared a pallid face and Mrs. Mildred Schueler very, her counsel, said. But he staked h i s main appeal on a plea of insanity. Eight married men, all fathers, and one bachelor, were sunken eyes.

No member of her family was in the courtroom. Otto Schueler, wealthy brewer of Stamford, who is expected to aid the State, was not present, nor was his former wife, the dead child's mother, Mrs. Anna Urwin Schueler.

Apparently on the point of hysteria, the accused woman wept as the child's death was described by District Attorney William H. Comley.

[Norma Abrams, “Stepmother Pleads Right to Punish Child,” Daily News (New York, N. Y.), Oct. 18, 1935, p. 20]

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FULL TEXT: Bridgeport, Conn., Oct. 18. – The petulant, childish refusal of 9-year-old Marilyn Schueler to eat luncheon fired her stepmother’s smoldering hatred to such a rage that she killed the child, 25, admitted to police in a signed confession.

The confession read to the jury today before which she is on trial for Marilyn’s murder caused the slender darkeyed stepmother slumped in her chair, her face hidden and her shoulders shaken by sobs.

~ Brutalities Bared. ~

The child’s death was the climax of a black chapter of brutality extending over more than a year, and had been concealed by a fiction of epilepsy woven to explain brutal injuries, according to the confession. The same fable of epilepsy was brought into use to explain the child’s death until an autopsy ordered by suspicious officials revealed a ruptured liver. As the cause of death.

“Marilyn told me that she wished her father would die so that she could do as she pleased,” Mrs. Schueler told police in her confession to explain to explain her hatred of her stepdaughter. “It was at a time when he was sick. I had never forgiven her for that.

~ Hurt Child With Beating. ~

“I recall that she had so infuriated me I lost control of myself in chastising her and injured her,” the confession stated.

Sep. 6, according to the confession, Marilyn and her older sister, Marjorie, had luncheon together. The older child ate her food and left the table but Marilyn dallied. The City Prosecutor E. Gaynor Brennan of Stamford testified that Mrs. Schueler told him:

“I told her to drink her milk but she just sat there. I was infuriated. I grabbed hold of her – I don’t know where. And I remember nothing from that time on until I say her lying unconscious on the floor. I cut some strings which were tied about her wrists and ankles but I don’t remember putting them there. I had no control over myself. I didn’t mean to kill her. I think she was all right when she sat down to lunch. There was no one else in the house that Marjorie and I.”

~ Father in Court. ~

Oscar Schueler, father of the dead child, sat in the courtroom as the confession has read. He is expected to testify against his wife.

Dr. Bruce Weaver, Stamford Hospital pathologist, who performed the autopsy, told the jury that the child’s death was caused by a ruptured liver and that it was seemingly made by a heel. Her body was  a mass of welts and bruises, he said.

Trial of the case was adjourned until next Tuesday by Superior Court Judge John Rufus Booth.

[Norma Abrams, “Girl, 9, Wouldn’t Eat, Stepmother Slew Her,” Daily News (New York, N. Y.), Oct. 19, 1935, p. 6]

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FULL TEXT: Bridgeport, Conn., Oct.22 – Love – mother’s, husband’s, self – was mustered threefold today to save Mrs. Ada Mildred Schueler from life imprisonment for murder.

In Superior Court here, each took the witness stand in turn to get to the jury’s ears words to open the door to freedom to Mrs. Schueler.

The woman is on trial for beating her stepmother, Marilyn, 9, to death. She is charged with second degree murder.

~ Fight to Save Her. ~

Oscar Schueler, brewer husband, laid bare his love to save her. Mrs. Thomas Metcalfe, 62, socialite mother, confessed her martinet strictness to swing the tide in her daughter’s favor. Mrs. Schueler herself revealed a trying career as stepmother to acquit herself.

“She was a good wife, a good housekeeper and an attentive stepmother,” Schueler testified. “The happiest moments of my life were those spent with my wife.”

It was Schueler’s own daughter who died. But, he insisted, he never had known his wife to strike the child. The State charges she burned the girl. But Schueler swore he believed his daughter was frostbitten, as his wife told him. The State says Mildred Schueler broke the child’s arm. But he took his wife’s word she had fallen at school.

~Tries to Uphold Wife. ~

First a witness for the State, then for the defense, Schueler spoke what he could in defense of his wife. Yet he could not meet her eyes as he sat in the witness chair. He cast them down or looked on the lawyer.

Marilyn and his older daughter, Marjorie, 12, loved their stepmother, he said. He told about a domestic quarrel. There was talk of a separation.

“I asked the children whether they wanted to stay with me or their stepmother,” he said. “Both clung to their stepmother.”

~ Mother Admits Mistakes. ~

Mrs. Metcalfe, prominent White Plains matron, cast aside the reserve of a lifetime to speak for her daughter. Boldly she confessed her mistakes to free her child.

“I was too strict with her,” she said. “I couldn’t see it then, but I know that I was.”

“Dis you spank her?” she was asked.

“No. I didn’t spank her. I slapped her more. I’d slap her across the face and over the month.”

Mildred Schueler was her only child, born when Mrs. Metcalfe was 37 after sixteen years of marriage.

~ Lacked in Affection. ~

“I was cold and unaffectionate,” she admitted. “I was not like the mothers of today. My family are not of an affectionate type. People say we’re cold.”

“Was there any affection between you and Mildred?”

“No.”

Mrs. Schueler herself pictured her bleak life. It was in a home where she never had friends; where her father had to have his after-dinner smoke in the cellar; where she never knew mother love.

Mrs. Schueler was pale and faltering as she testified. She had to be supported as she walked to the witness stand.

~ Tells of Child’s Troubles. ~

Ever since she married Schueler four years ago, she said, she had had troubles with Marilyn. The child stuffed food in her mouth and wouldn’t swallow. She had a childish kidney trouble that cause d endless difficulty.

In detail she described her ministrations to Marilyn when she had a frostbite. She dressed the sore many times a day, she said, and sometimes two or three times a night.

“She didn’t seem to want to obey,” Mrs. Schueler testified.

The trial was adjourned until tomorrow with Mrs. Schueler still on the stand.

[Norma Abrams, “Kin Fight to Save Accused Stepmother,” Daily News (New York, N. Y.), Oct. 23, 1935, P. 11]

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FULL TEXT: Bridgeport, Conn., Oct. 24. – Mrs. Mildred Schueler, 25, was found guilty today of murdering her 8-year-old step-daughter, Marilyn, after two hours deliberation by the jury. Five minutes after the verdict was announced, Superior Court Judge John Booth Wood sentenced her to life imprisonment.

No sound was uttered by the prisoner. Led into the crowded, tense, courtroom by a matron, Mrs. Schueler stood to face the jury. Her face was pale and her eyes were dry. She stated steadily ahead as Foreman Leslie Gilbert pronounced her guilty of brutally beating her small charge for a childish disobedience until she died.

Thomas Metcalfe, her aged father, a traveling salesman of White Plains, was the only member of Mrs. Schueler’s family in court. Her mother, Mrs. Ada Metcalfe, who was waiting in an anteroom, collapsed. A physician was called to attend her.

The jury, which has listened for four days to the talk of the attack upon the child, never gave a thought to an acquittal, the foreman revealed. Four ballots were taken, but only two of the twelve stern New England farmers voted for a manslaughter verdict at any time.

Oscar Schueler, wealthy Stamford brewer and father of the child, who testified against his wife of two years, was not in court.

~ Arrested After Autopsy ~

Mrs. Schueler was arrested on Sep. 6 after an autopsy upon the body of her stepchild showed death had been caused by a ruptured liver and livid bruises on the body.

Questioned by police, she abandoned her claim that the child had died in a convulsion and admitted she had become enraged when Marilyn refused to eat, and had been bound. The mark of a heel appeared upon her left side over the lower rib.

Later, Mrs. Schueler insisted to police as a witness in her own defense that she had no memory of what she had done to the child. She admitted that the fatal attack climaxed a year’s siege of terror during which she had brutally mistreated Marilyn.

~ Begins Sentence Today. ~

The memory lapse was advanced by defense medical experts as evidence that the 25-year-old stepmother was an “idiopathic epileptic” and that the assaults were equivalent of equivalent of epileptic seizures during which she was unaware of her acts.

Tomorrow, Mrs. Schueler, a former trained nurse and one-time student at Skidmore College, Sarasota Springs, will be taken to the Connecticut Prison Farm for Women at Niantic to begin her sentence.

[Norma Abrams, “Mrs. Schueler Gets Life As Girl’s Slayer,” Daily News (New York, N. Y.), Oct. 25, 1935, p. 3]

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For more examples, see Step-Mothers from Hell.

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[838-7/23/21; 2088-10/5/12]

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Step-Mothers from Hell

The orthodox myth about female violence is that it is: a) a response to male violence, or, b) a result of what social constructionists call “social stressors.” The myth is false. This selection of cases provides examples of female violence directed, in most cases, towards female children. (For a discussion of the feminist “belief in the inherent-non-violence of women” see: The central myth of MISANDRY: “the inherent non-violence of women”

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1860 – Elizabeth McCraney – Medford, Otsego, N. Y. (Serial Killer)

"Mrs. Elizabeth P. McCraney, the third wife of Mr. Mc. (who was also her second husband,) is accused of poisoning her husband's daughter, Huklah, a beautiful girl of 17, and now that this murder is out the people believe they shall trace no less than seven mysterious deaths to her agency, including her former husband."

1873 – Mrs. Deaten – Manchester, Kentucky

“murdered her step-daughter, aged 10, in a horrible manner”

1872 – Wilhelmin Woltmann – Stade, Germany (Serial Killer)

This serial killer of seven persons was executed by beheading. She murdered the parents of the man she loved because they objected to their union. Four other adults she murdered before she married a widower, murdered his children and was finally brought to justice.

1884 – Maria Bruce – Raffahannock, Virginia

“After slapping the girl, this act seemed to work up her fury to a still greater heat, and, setting the iron poker from the fire place, she beat the skull of the little girl to a jelly.”

1887 – Ellen Jones – Little Rock, Arkansas

“[S]he would beat the little child until it would be convulsed with spasms and then strip its clothes off, tie its hands behind it and leave it a prey to the flies for hours.”

1898 – Mrs. Edward Smith – Bergen/Passaic, New Jersey

Inez Smith, 15: “My sister and I have laid awake all night crying over the whippings she has given us. She began to whip us as soon as she came to the house. She has often grabbed my hair and thrown me to the floor, and when I was lying flat upon my back she beat me with a rope and stick until my back and legs and arms were black and blue. Then she pounded me with her arm until I was so sore I could not move.

I saw her grab Alice and put her hands in boiling water. Alice cried, but my step-mother kept her hands in the water. Alice fell to the floor, and the skin pealed off her hands when my step-mother let go of her. Another time I saw my step-mother put Alice’s hands on the table and hold them there. Then she took a hammer in one hand and pounded Alice’s  fingers until Alice cried and fainted away.

My sister Katie is six years old and a cripple, and could not walk when my step-mother came to our house. Once she grabbed Katie and swung her around the room with one hand and beat her with the other hand. She struck Katie over the arm awfully and my father said that she broke Katie’s arm.”

1898 – Martha Place – New York, N.Y.

Murdered her step-daughter, throwing acid in her face and then smothering her. After this she stabbed husband. A famous case. Executed in 1899.

1898 – “Obecse Step-Mother” – Obecse, Hungary [present Serbia]

The stepmother hanged her step-daughter, a little girl of four years of age, on a tree in the garden. She then ordered her stepson, aged ten, to say he had murdered his little sister. The boy refused, whereupon the inhuman stepmother seized him and placed him in a large oven, where she baked her bread. The boy was roasted to death over a slow fire. She then suffocated a third stepchild, aged nine, with a pillow, and strangled the fourth, aged seven, with her own hands.

1900 – Annie Grabant – Chicago, Illinois

One of the atrocious crimes in the police annals of the city have just come to light. Mrs. Annie Grabant confessed that she murdered her two stepdaughters, who were burned to death in the home, No. 136 Homan avenue, Wed night. Mrs. Grabant is at a hospital being treated for her injuries which are severe, Frederick Grabant, the husband of the woman, was a widower when he married her six years ago. He had two daughters from the first the second Mrs. Grabant was jealous of the girls and the neighbors say, abused them. She not only beat them, but would, it is said, sear their bodies with hot irons; make them take nauseous concoctions and whip them till they fainted if they made an outcry, thrust them out of doors with little clothing on in the winter time and subject them to the tortures of hunger by making them sit by unfed while her own four children ate their meals.

1901 – Mrs. Stallion – Aurora, Missouri

Mrs. John Stallion and two sons by a former marriage murdered Alice Stallion, her step daughter, aged sixteen. The boys held Alice while her mother broke her skull with a poker. The body was then thrown in the James river.

1903 – “Prenzlau Step-Mother” – Prenzlau, Germany
The woman tortured her five-year-old daughter to death in a series of unbelievably cruel acts.

1904 – Rae Krauss – Hartford City, Indiana

Rae Krauss murdered her stepdaughter Crystal, and forged a suicide note.

1906 – Stella Brennan – Minneapolis, Minnesota

Murdered three step-children by shooting them, blaming a fictitious burglar, one child survived and testified against her. A baby was born to her in prison.

1906 – Jennie Anderson – Youngstown, Ohio

The stepmother broke bottles on head of children. She killed one by beating the girl with a nail-studded club.

1909 – Ruth Rendell – Perth, Australia

Murdered four step-children by poisoning. Executed.

1913 – Ellen Etheridge – Waco, Texas (Serial Killer)

“Slew Four Step-Children. – Woman Says Jealousy of Her Husband’s Affection Prompted Her to Act.”

1913 – Hennie Yates – Troy, Tennessee

Mrs. Hennie Yates, thirty-six, and daughter, Floy Farris, fifteen, charged with the murder of Ligon Yates, twelve, and Ida May Yates, ten. They were the step-children of Hennie and the half-siblings of Floy. Children drowned in creek near home at Troy, Tenn.  Mrs. Yates will give no other reason for committing the crime than: “They made my life miserable.” The woman is apparently rational, realizes the enormity of her crime, but does not in any way show that she is remorseful. . The little girl cowered in a separate cell as far away from her mother as she could get. She declares she is afraid of her mother and assisted in the murder only after she had been threatened with death by her parent if she refused.

1915 – Evelina Steele – Muskegon, Wisconsin

Mrs. Albert Steele, of Muskegon, Wisconsin, murdered her 11-year-old step-daughter out of jealousy for her husband’s love for the child. The murder took place in 1915. Other women have done such things for the same reason, but Mrs. Steele went about her business in a fashion that was unusual. She tied the girl to a chair, blindfolded her and then poured acid down her throat. Then, in an effort to simulate a botched abortion in order to give an explanation for the death as well as providing support for a false allegation of incest to be used after the “abortion” was discovered, the step-mother, mutilated the corpse and threw the naked body in an alley, partially covering it with sand. Mrs. Steele was convicted and sentenced to life in prison.

1920 – Marie Anne Houde Gagnon – Quebec, Canada

“The girl, 16, after being beaten, was burned with a red hot poker and made to walk barefoot in the snow was forced to drink poison, the evidence disclosed. The post mortem Examination of the body revealed 54 wounds.”

1923 – Eliza Potegian – Fresno, Ca. (Serial Killer)

“I’ll make ashes of them.”

1924 – Annie Hauptrief – San Marcos, Texas (Serial Killer)

Poisoned four step-children, who died, and husband, who survived. Murdered previous husband.

1925 – Birdie Strome – Springfield, Ohio (in progress) (Serial Killer)

Step-daughter had predicted own death, died of strychnine poisoning. Mrs. Strome was suspected of being a serial killer (former husband and sister-in-law died of “mysteriously”). She was convicted of the girl’s murder and died in prison not long afterwards.

1925 – Marie Maharies – Waterloo, Iowa (in progress)

“‘Yes I killed him [her 6-year-old stepson]. I didn’t love him and I hated his father.’ … ‘No, he wasn’t mean, but he was always in the way.’ That is the excuse she gives, and to her it seems sufficient.”

1928 – Caroline Evanovich – Stark County, Ohio

“The officers declare that the girl did not die from drowning as a result of being pushed into the water but say that the child was struck over the head with some kind of a blunt instrument that caused hemorrhages of the brain and her death.”

1928 – Mrs. Reddick – Fresno, California

After the death of her husband, Mrs. Reddick deposited her daughter in an asylum and her son in a reform school in order to prevent the children from ever reuniting with her natural mother.

1930 – Pearl O’Loughlin – Denver, Colorado

Mrs. O’Loughlin was found guilty last night of slaying her stepdaughter, Leona, 10, whose battered body was found in Berkeley Park Lake, Oct. 17. The child had been fed broken glass, struck on the head with a tire iron and her body hurled into the lake, the state charged.

1935 – Florence Stoddard – Keene, New Hampshire

“Mrs. Florence Stoddard, aged 20 years, was sentenced to imprisonment for twenty-two months in the house of correction upon an admission that she had used a hot poker [an iron stove-lifter, actually] to brand the bodies of her two small stepchildren. The husband originally lodged the complaint and when the police made an investigation they found thirty-six scars on the body of the 10-year-old stepdaughter and twenty-six scars on the person of the 6-year-old stepson.”

1935 – Mildred Schueler – Bridgeport, Connecticut

“They have listened to the story of little Marilyn being tied hand and foot, beaten and crushed to death by the stepmother.” Sentenced to life in prison.

1937 – Agnes Joan Ledford – St. Helens, Oregon

Murdered a husband & 2 teenage step-daughters. She was convicted of the 2 child-murders.

1939 – Anna Louise Sullivan – Milwaukee, Wisconsin (Serial Killer)
She murdered her second husband; attempted to murder her third husband and his two sons and daughter, leaving one son dead, the husband crippled and the daughter very ill.

1953 – Jewell Louise Kelley – Texas City, Texas

According to the attending physician, the condition of the beaten child was worse than prisoners of war from Japanese camps.
 

1956 – Rhonda Belle Martin –Montgomery, Alabama (Serial Killer)

Mrs. Martin, a waitress from Montgomery, Alabama, admitted slaying her mother, three small daughters and two of her five husbands with poison. She also fed ant poison once was her stepson. He is still alive though paralyzed.

1978 – Catherine L. Sherriod – Norfolk, Virginia

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Martha Steele: “Wife Murders Child Of Eleven Years Because She Kissed Father Too Much." - 1915

CHRONOLOGY:

Apr. 21 – Mrs. Martha Steele murders Evelina.

Apr. 22 – body found; fake story about Evelina being pregnant and the attempt to perform abortion told to police.

Apr. 23 – Arraignment in circuit court.

Apr. 26 – funeral, Acorn Street Mission Sunday school; thousands attended; Mrs. Steele pleads not guilty.

May 17 – trial begins.

May 21 – Mrs. Steele convicted of murder.
May 22 – Mrs. Steele admits, after much coaxing, to having lied about Evelina being pregnant.

Jun. 2 – Mrs. Martha Steele sentenced to life in prison; falsely accuses husband of telling her to strangle their daughter to death; he is arrested then quickly released.

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FULL TEXT (Article 1 of 11): Muskegon, Mich., April 22. – “I tied her hands behind her, blindfolded her, pulled her tongue out of her mouth and threw a spoonful of muriatic acid down her throat. Then I held her in my arms until she died. I next pulled up two boards in the woodshed floor and buried the body.”

Without a trace of emotion and speaking in an even voice, Mrs. Albert Steele, aged 32 years, this afternoon confessed to the murder of her 11-year-old stepdaughter, Evelina, whose nude body was found in an alley back of her home at 9:20 o’clock this morning.

“At 3:20 o’clock this morning,” continued Mrs. Steele, “I became afraid the body would be found, so I dug up the body and placed it in the alley.”

~ Jealous of husband’s Love. ~

A charge of first degree murder has been placed against Mrs. Steele by Prosecuting Attorney Galpin. Jealousy of the father’s affection is given as the motive. The father. Albert Steele, formerly of Pentwater, is heartbroken.

“I knew she would do it,” he said. “I suspected her from the very first. I never want to see her again.”

Little Evelina was last seen alive yesterday morning. The father believing she was visiting an aunt, did not miss “her until 9 o’clock last night. Then after a search, when it developed that Evelina had not been at her aunt’s, the police were notified. The body was found this morning by John Vanderlaan, Sr.

~ Charged Criminal Operation. ~

When the discovery of the body was reported, Mrs. Steele and her husband wdere immediately arrested. At Balbirnie’s morgue, an autopsy was performed, which failed to reveal the criminal operation which the stepmother said had been performed on the girl.

Across the dead body of the child, Coroner Balbirnie confronted the woman.

“You might as well confess, Mrs. Steele,” he said. “Someone saw you put something in the alley early this morning.”

Then Mrs. Steele broke down.

It developed that she purchased the muriatic acid a month ago and the authorities say it was for the purpose of murder.

Mr. Charles Anderson, of Niles, the mother of Evelina, arrived tonight. She was divorced from Steele about a year after Evelina was born. Steele has been released. Mrs. Steele will be arraigned tomorrow morning.

[“Tells of Pouring Poison In Throat Of Stepdaughter – Mrs. Albert Steele, of Mukegon, Confesses Over Body of Child. – Jealous Of Husband’s Love, Planned Crime. – Discovery Follows Fear Corpse Would Be Found in Barn; Hides It in Alley.” The Detroit Free Pree Press (Mi.), Apr. 23, 1915, p. 2]

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FULL TEXT (Article 2 of 11): Muskegon, Mich., April 23. – Mrs. Martha Steele, who yesterday confessed to the murder of her 11-year-old stepdaughter, Evelina M. Steele, this afternoon was bound over to the circuit on a charge of first degree murder.

~ Made Up Confession. ~

The police say that Mrs. Steele’s first confession, that of an attempt to perform an illegal operation on the child, was evolved while she was aiding in the search for the girl, whose dead body she had buried in the coal shed.

Further evidence obtained by the physicians who performed the autopsy over Evelina’s body has disclosed, it is alleged, that the mother mistreated the body after death, to give an appearance of truth to her first purported confession that the child died while she was attempting a criminal operation. The physicians who performed the autopsy are agreed that the alleged mistreatment took place after death, not before.

~ Father’s Grief is Tragic. ~

The most dramatic feature of the sensational murder is the tragic grief of the father, Albert Steele. He made frequent visits today to the coal shed where the body was hidden.

Steele said this afternoon that jealousy was the sole motive for the crime. “My wife never liked little Evelina. The child was of a loving disposition but would only come to me for a kiss or a pat on the head when my wife was not in the room.

“For hours my daughter would sit quietly when my wife and I were together, fearing to show any affection for me when her stepmother was there.”

~ Woman Appears Indifferent. ~

Meanwhile, Mrs. Steele, at the county jail, maintains an attitude of complete indifference. She sings and conducts herself in such a manner that the authorities suspect she may be mentally unbalanced.

The funeral of Evelina will be held Sunday afternoon from the Acorn Street Mission Sunday school, of which she was a member.

[“Father Mourns At Spot Where Slain Child Was Hidden – Albert Steele, Heartbroken, Paces Shed of Muskegon Home. – Stepmother, Murderesses, Sings At County Jail – Doctors Say Evidence of Criminal Operation Was Manufactured After Slaying.” The Detroit Free Press (Mi.), Apr. 24, 1915, p. 1]

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FULL TEXT (Article 3 of 11): Muskegon, Mich., April 24. – Abandoned by her mother and brothers and still without an attorney, Mrs. Albert Steele, who on Thursday confessed to the deliberate murder of her 11-year-old stepdaughter, Evelina, will be brought into circuit court Monday morning to plead to a charge of first degree murder.

A further examination of the body of the little girl this afternoon by Coroner James F. Bahlinire revealed four fingernail prints in the child’s throat. The authorities now believe that the woman may have strangled the girl, as an analysis of the contents of her stomach has failed to reveal any traces of muriatic acid.

Police reserves will be on duty at the public funeral of Evelina to be held tomorrow afternoon at the Acorn Street Mission church.

[“Stepmother May Have Choked Girl – Fingernail Prints on Throat of Muskegon Murder Victim; Woman to Face Court Monday.” Apr. 25, 1915, p. 18]

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FULL TEXT (Article 4 of 11): Muskegon, Mich., April 26. – Surprising the authorities, Mrs. Albert Steele, alleged to have confessed to killing her 11-year-old stepdaughter, Evelina M. Steele, this afternoon pleaded not guilty in circuit court to first degree murder.

Mrs. Steele appeared unmoved by the curious throng which crowded the court room and the corridors.

Attorneys R. W. Gale and Harry W. Jackson were appointed to defend Mrs. Steele. Her trial will be the last on the criminal calendar of this term.

In anticipation of a plea of not guilty, the officers took photographs of marks on the child’s throat that seem to indicate that she may have been strangled.

Thousands of persons yesterday jammed the neighborhood of the mission chapel where the Sunday school, of which Evilina was a member, conducted a memorial service. Pinned on her burial dress is the reward of merit pin which she had earned for faithful attendance and which was to have been presented to her yesterday.

[“Pleads Not Guilty To Slaying Child – Mrs. Alberta Steel, of Muskegon, Must Stand Trial; Many at Services for Stepdaughter,” The Detroit Free Press (Mi.), Apr. 27, 1915, p. 16]

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FULL TEXT (Article 5 of 11): Muskegon, Mich., May 15. – An important exhibit in the Mrs. Albert Steele murder case, which will come to trial in the circuit court Monday, the bit of rope found in the shed addition to the rear of the Steele home has disappeared. It was with this rope, prosecution contends that the child’s hands were tied before she was first poisoned, and then strangled by her stepmother. The rope was dug up by members of the sheriff’s force. What has happened to it since no one knows and everyone disclaims responsibility.

[“Muskegon ‘Murder Rope’ Missing On Eve Of Trial – Cord With Prosecution Alleges Stepmother Tied Child’s Hands Disappears.” The Detroit Free Press (Mi.), May 16, 1915, p. 10]

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FULL TEXT (Article 6 of 11): Muskegon, Mich., May 17. – Her face showing the pallor of one confined in prison for years. Mrs. Albert Steele, slayer of her 11-year-old stepdaughter, Eveline Mary Steele, walked into the court room this morning at the opening of her trial.

The stir following her appearance seemed to have no effect upon her. She calmly took the chair pointed out by a deputy, immediately back of the table used by her attorneys.

Anton Beilgart was the first juror called. The box was rapidly filled. Mrs. Steele showed no interest.

Before the case opened, the prosecutor announced he would endeavor to prove that Mrs. Steele strangled the girl. The defense will be along the lines that Mrs. Steele was insane at the time of the slaying.

Six of the first 14 jurors examined by the prosecution openly admitted they had positive opinions as to the guilt or innocence of Mrs. Steele, some saying that they believed the woman was guilty. These expressions visibly affected Mrs. Steele.

Questions of the defense attorney, R. R. Gale, to the jurors, plainly revealed that insanity was to be the defense.

[“Murder Trial Of Mrs. Steele Opens – Muskegon Woman Charged With Slaying Stepdaughter, Stolid in Court . – Temporary Insanity Will Be Plea Of Defense – Many Talesmen Express Positive Convictions of Woman’s Guilt.” The Detrot Free Press (Mi.), May 18, 1915, p. 16]

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FULL TEXT (Article 7 of 11): Muskegon, Mich., May 18. – Details of the life of Mrs. Albert Steele, facts which she and her relatives will expose to the public eye in a desperate effort to save her from life imprisonment for the slaying of her 11-year-old stepdaughter, Evelina Mary, will be the basis of the defense in the most heinous criminal case ever tried here.

Mrs. Steele’s story, for she will take the stand in her own defense, will not only turn the public loathing against her in sympathy, it is said, but the sympathy, but the sympathy for some of the principals in the case will instead be altered to disdain.

The defense has already requested Judge Sullivan to bar all women and children from the court room.

An even greater crown than has attended the Steele case since it began, was present in the court room this afternoon. Women outnumbered the men about nine to one.

~ Says Girl Was Strangled. ~

Dr. W. A. Campbell, former city physician, who examined the girl’s body, testified that the blood showed positively that death was the result of strangulation and not poisoning. Mrs. Steele sat as yesterday, her glance never varying from a distinct line ahead.

After Judge Sullivan announced that the afternoon’s proceedings were over a curious crowd gathered outside. Through this crowd Mrs. Steele had to walk. She stepped between two deputy sheriffs and began the two blocks walk to the jail, reading horror, loathing and anger in every face.

[“‘Insanity, Victim Of Society,’ To Be Steele Defense – Relatives Flop at Last Moment to Aid Woman Who Killed Child. – Feminine Spectators Crowd Muskegon Court – Attorneys Plan to Bare Past of Defendant and Threaten to Thrill Town With Revelations.” The Detroit Free Press (Mi.), May 19, 1915, p. 9]

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FULL TEXT (Article 8 of 11): Muskegon, Mich., May 20. – With Mrs. Martha Schrebe Steele, accused of strangling her step-daughter, appearing more lifeless and morose today than any time during her trial in the local circuit court, the evidence was concluded late this afternoon and preparations made for the beginning of arguments by attorneys at 9 o’clock tomorrow morning.

It is expected that the arguments and Judge James E. Sullivan’s charge will occupy both sessions of court tomorrow, the case going to the jury late in the afternoon.

~ Asks Judgment of Alienists. ~

The defense made its last desperate attempt for acquittal today with a hypothetical question. In this were listed the alleged sorrows of Mrs. Steele’s life, her vicious habits, her tainted heredity and the black side of her married life. The sentence ended with: “Would such a woman be insane?” This hypothetical question was the one dock on which the defense pinned its hopes. Everything also. Everything else was thrown aside today.

In the question the defense admitted that Mrs. Steele strangled her step-daughter, Evelina Mary.

“The killing of a child, her own step-child, without motive or cause by a woman who endured what the defense claims Mrs. Steele had to endure, would be evidence of insanity,” Dr. Frank B. Marshall testified. He was backed by a number of local physicians in his contention.

The expert medical witnesses disagreed, however. The prosecution, in rebuttal, placed on the stand Dr. Charles W. Hitchcock, professor of mental discusses at the Detroit College of Medicine and an expert alienist. He examined Mrs. Steele at the county jail, May 3, a few days after the crime. He declared himself positive today that she was sane. This testimony concluded the evidence.

~ Mrs. Steele Wears Mourning. ~

When Mrs. Steele came into court today, she was dressed in mourning. The scarlet bow on her black velvet turtan was entirely covered with a heavy black veil. The crowd noticed it immediately.

Mrs. Steele appeared to be more vigorous than at the session yesterday afternoon when Judge Sullivan ordered her cross-examination halted because of her apparent physical exhaustion. After answering a few questions well, however, her memory again failed her, it appeared, and the constant reply became “I don’t know,” or “ I can’t remember.”

Women gathered at the court house as early at 6:20 o’clock this morning waiting for the doors to open. More than 300 persons remained in the courtroom during the noon recess, friends going out and purchasing them a luncheon.

[“Steele Attorneys Admit Slaying In Quiz Of Alienists – Muskegon Lawyers Risk All On Hypothetical Question. – Women Gather At 6:30 For Good Seats In Court – Sensational Murder Case Expected to Reach Jury Late Friday.” The Detroit Free Press (Mi.), May 21, 1915, p. 18]

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FULL TEXT (Article 9 of 11): Muskegon, Mich., May 22. – The one last service that Martha Schrebe Steele, convicted last night of the murder of her 11-year-old step-daughter, Evelina Mary, could do the child from whose frail body she strangled the breath of life, she did today at the county jail.

In her cell, as she lay on her cot suffering, she declared, from a terrific headache, she admitted that her girl victim had never been attacked by boys, had not been in a delicate condition and was, as other girls of her age, wholly innocent.

Thus, with a term of life imprisonment in the Detroit house of correction facing her, the convicted woman cleared the child’s name of the stain she herself had cast upon it, making the feeble but only reparation she could to the child now in her grave at Pentwater.

The confession did not come willingly. It was the result of long persuasion. Harry W. Jackson, her attorney, demanded that she make it in return for the fight he had made to save her from prison, appealed to save her from prison, appealed to her gratitude, to her sense of honor. He pointed out that since the jury had pronounced its verdict, all evasion was futile. Captain Phillip Lawton, head of the Salvation Army branch here, and her chief comforter, added his entreaties.

“You want to clear the little girl’s name,” Mr. Jackson implored. “You want to clear it of the stain that has been brought upon it by you, don’t you?”

No answer.

“You don’t want this little girl’s name blackened, do you?” said Captain Lawton.

“The story was a lie!” cried Mrs. Steele as she burst into tears, “Evelina was a good little girl. She was good and clean, just as any girl of her age might be. She never was attacked. That story was what first came to my mind when the officers arrested me.”

All that happened during the last week – the trial, the crowds, the courtroom – Mrs. Steele asserts is a blank to her. This morning she asked what the jury’s verdict was.

“What does guilty mean?” she inquired.

“Have you anything more to say,” asked Captain Lawton, “in regard to the happening the day of the crime?”

“No sir, I don’t remember. I do know, though, that Evelina did not leave the house the morning she met her death, as the prosecution claimed she did. That was the morning before. I know Evelina was dressed this morning. I don’t remember whether she had had her breakfast or not.”

Mrs. Steele, through her attorney, Mr. Jackson, this afternoon sent to Circuit Judge James E. Sullivan a letter containing her final request before she is to be sentenced. What was included in this letter Judge Sullivan refused to reveal. She will be sentenced some time next week.

[“Mrs. Steele, From Cell, Clears Name Of Child Victim – Confesses She Lied in Blackening Reputation of Step-Daughter. – Says Mind Is Blank On Events Of Trial – Muskegon  Slayer, Facing Sentence, Asks What What Verdict of ‘Guilty’ Means.” The Detroit Free Press (Mi.), May 23, 1915, p. 12]

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FULL TEXT (Article 10 of 11): Muskegon, Mich., June 2. – Lying in a cot in Hackley Hospital, Mrs. Martha Schrebe Steele, convicted two weeks ago of the murder of her stepdaughter, Evelina Mary, eleven, today accused her husband, Albert Steele, of complicity in her crime. The man was immediately placed under arrest by sheriff’s deputies.

Mrs. Steele’s told officers today that her husband advised her to “get rid of the child,” so there would be nothing to interfere with their marital happiness and that he even suggested the method of killing the girl – strangulation.

Later in the day Mrs. Steele was taken before Judge Sullivan and received sentence to life imprisonment.

[“Causes Arrest of Husband – Murderess Tells Authorities That He Counselled Her to Kill Girl.” Lincoln Daily News (Ne.), Jun. 2, 1915, p. 2]

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FULL TEXT (Article 11 of 11): Two women descended from a Pere Marquette train in the Union station Wednesday afternoon, closely followed by a spare, bronzed men who seemed to accord them more than the ordinary attention.

The leader of the group and the taller of the two women was Mrs. Albert Steele, of Muskegon, convicted strangler of her 11-year-old step-daughter. She was muffled in a long blue coat, a scarf was wrapped about her head, and she made the trip from the train to the building like a person asleep, oblivious of the rain. The attentive man with her was Sheriff Fred J. Collins, of Muskegon. His wife was the third member of the group.

~ In Hospital Since Trial. ~

Mrs. Steele was being taken to the Detroit house of correction, to begin a life term. She was removed from the hospital in Muskegon Tuesday, the sheriff said, where she had been confined since the trial. Upon her arrival here she had no word to say of the past or the future. Her dull eyes kept upon vacancy, and there was no shade of color in the sunken cheeks. Mrs. Collins, an alert, capable little woman, hovered about her like a nurse.

No person on the train save the officials knew her identity and the trip was without incident. The slight, pale figure in the veil was not a person likely to attract attention.

The trio hailed a taxicabs Mrs. Steele was placed within, between the sheriff and his wife. She evinced not a shade of interest in the proceedings.

~ Will Work When Well. ~

She was received at the house of correction at 6:16 o’clock, registered and assigned quarters. Inmates are permitted their identity in the institution and the formula of giving her a number was absent. She will be given garments such as are worn by other inmates and as soon as their health permits will be set to work in the shops.

Sheriff Collins said Mrs. Steele had made him illuminating comment on the care since the trial, save to reiterate that the murder was performed at the instance of her husband. He was arrested Tuesday [June 1] as a result, but was later released.

[“Life Term In Jail For Mrs. Steele, As Slayer, Begins – Sentenced for Strangling Child, Muskegon Woman Brought to Detroit. – Rides From Station To Cell Like Person Asleep – Guarded by Sheriff and Wife; Has No Comment to Make on Past or Future,” The Detroit Free Press (Mi.), Jun. 3, 1915, p. 1]

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Evelina’s Mother – Mrs. Charles Anderson, Niles, divorced circa 1906

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ALSO SEE: Maternal Filicide: Spousal Revenge Motive for similar cases

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For more examples, see Step-Mothers from Hell.

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[2473-2/6/19; 2944-10/28/21]
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