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<\/a>\nJohann Hoch – Ladykiller<\/em><\/p>\n
He purportedly came to the United States in 1883 with his first wife (that we know of) Annie.\u00a0 What followed was almost 25 years of bigamy and murder.\u00a0 He became infamous for poisoning his wives shortly after taking their money and earned the nickname \u201cThe Bluebeard Murderer\u201d after the French folktale published in 1697 in which \u201cBluebeard\u201d murders his wives.<\/p>\n
He wed over 50 wives illegally and bilked them out of different amounts of money but murdered anywhere from a confirmed 15 to upwards of 30.<\/p>\n
He was finally tried and convicted of only one murder and that was his second to last wife, Maria Walcker-Hoch who lived with him at 6430 Union Avenue. \u00a0\u00a0He supposedly married Maria Walcker on December 10, 1904 in Chicago and almost exactly one month later on January 11, 1905 she was dead of Nephritis or inflammation of the kidneys.\u00a0 Within five days he married Maria\u2019s sister, Emilie Fischer from Joliet.\u00a0 Three days later Hoch fled with $750 and Emilie reported him to the police as a swindler and bigamist.\u00a0 The police became suspicious and had Emilie\u2019s sister exhumed and they found 7.6 grams of arsenic in the body.<\/p>\n
Hoch was indicted for bigamy and an arrest warrant was issued.\u00a0 Hoch had made the mistake of asking his landlady, a Mrs. Kimberly, in New York to marry him within 24 hours of meeting her.\u00a0 She contacted the police suspecting him to be Hoch and he was subsequently arrested and extradited back to Chicago where he was charged with the murder of Maria Walcker-Hoch.<\/p>\n
The trial started April 19, 1905 and Hoch was convicted of murder on May 20th<\/sup>.\u00a0 His original death by hanging was scheduled for June 23, 1905. Hoch had avoided the hanging a number of times while in custody.\u00a0 Governor Deneen granted him a reprieve until July 28th<\/sup>.\u00a0 Within an hour of his hanging he was given another reprieve until August 25th<\/sup>.\u00a0 Before the August 25th<\/sup>\u00a0date, the Illinois Supreme Court agreed to hear his case but on December 15th<\/sup>\u00a0handed down its verdict which supported the lower court\u2019s ruling.\u00a0 The Supreme Court set his date of Execution to be February 23, 1906.<\/p>\n On the date of Hoch\u2019s execution his attorney, Frank D. Comerford, attempted to make an appeal to the Federal Court on the basis that Hoch\u2019s 14th<\/sup>\u00a0Amendment rights had been violated because his wife was purportedly coerced by authorities to testify against her husband and commit perjury\u00a0 (Of course she and 49 others were not his legal wives) Judge Landis denied his petition for a writ.<\/p>\n One day before his execution Hoch was moved to the Death Chamber of the County Courthouse and Jail (Now\u00a0Courthouse Place Office Building)<\/a>\u00a0where he woke up and ate his breakfast sparingly.\u00a0 He received several visitors on that day.\u00a0 His first visitor at 9am was his spiritual advisor F.W. Schlechte.\u00a0 He met the Reverend Schlechte with a military salute and they studied the Bible for about an hour.\u00a0 His next visitor was a very strange young man who introduced himself as a hypnotist and medical student.\u00a0 The \u201chypnotist\u201d had slipped past the guards and told Hoch, \u201cLook into my eyes\u201d.\u00a0 Hoch told the guards that he was a \u201ccrank\u201d and only managed to make him tired.\u00a0 The crank was removed.\u00a0 His last visitor was his latest wife Emilie Fishcer-Hoch.\u00a0 He bid her a fond farewell at about 6pm and retired with a cigar which he smoked until it burned his fingers.\u00a0 He then reclined in his bed but according to guards did not sleep.<\/p>\n He was supposed to die sometime between 10am and 11am on the 23rd\u00a0<\/sup>but Jailer Whitman postponed it to as long as 2pm as they waited for Judge Landis\u2019s decision.<\/p>\n Upon hearing that Landis had refused a writ of habeas corpus the death warrant was read to Hoch who stepped up to the gallows at 1:32pm.\u00a0 His final words were, \u201cOh Lord, our Father, forgive them all.\u00a0 They know not what they do.\u00a0 They hang an innocent man.\u00a0 I am innocent.\u00a0 Goodbye.\u201d<\/p>\n The trap was dropped and Hoch died of a broken neck almost instantly.\u00a0 The body was lowered and handed off to undertaker Ernst Matz.\u00a0 (The\u00a0Matz Funeral Home\u00a0<\/a>is still in operation)<\/p>\n Meanwhile it seemed that no cemetery wanted to allow a murderer to be buried on their property.\u00a0 Even Waldheim that accepted a number of the anarchists from the Haymarket riots (Spies, Parsons, Engel and Fischer) refused.\u00a0 In fact officials from Waldheim stated that the burials of the anarchists had brought such unpleasant notoriety to their cemetery that under no circumstances would they ever allow another body of a person executed for a crime to be buried in their cemetery.<\/p>\n Shortly before noon on February 24, 1906 Hoch\u2019s body was interred in\u00a0the potter\u2019s field of the Dunning Asylum and Poor Farm\u00a0<\/a>in an unmarked grave.<\/p>\n Culled from: Chicago Now<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n The following is a list of the attendant floor duties for the Northern Michigan Asylum (aka Traverse City Asylum) in 1886 as culled from the book Angels in the Architecture<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\nNorthern Michigan Asylum Attendant Floor Nurse Duties – 1886<\/h3>\n