Johann Otto Hoch

Johann Otto Hoch
Born 1855
Horrweiler, Germany
Died February 23, 1906
Chicago, Illinois, United states
Cause of death Hanging
Other names

The Bluebeard Murderer
C.A.Meyer
H.ireck
Dr James
Jacob Huff
C.A.Calford
Jacob Hoch
JAcob Erdorff
Schmitt
Bartell
Henry F. Hartman
William Frederick Bessing
Martin Dotz
Adolf Hoch
Martin Dose
Albert Buschberg
John Healey
Carl Schmidt
Count Otto van Kurn
Dr G. L. Hart
John Jacob Leo Schmidt
Leo Preger
Joseph Hoch

Jacob Hock
Henry Bartells
John Joseph Adolf Hoch
Fred Doess
Criminal penalty Death
Conviction(s) Murder
Killings
Victims 1-50+
Span of killings
 1890–1905
Country United States, Austria,
France, United Kingdom
State(s) Illinois
Date apprehended
 1905

Johann Otto Hoch (also known as The Bluebeard Murderer) (1855 – February 23, 1906) is the most famous and last-used alias of a German-born murderer and bigamist, John Schmidt. He was found guilty of the murder of one wife but is thought to have killed more, perhaps up to 50 victims.[1][2] He was hanged.

Early life

Hoch was born John Schmidt in 1855, at Horrweiler, Germany. He immigrated to the United States as a young man in the 1890s and dropped his surname in favor of assorted pseudonyms where he began to marry a string of women, frequently taking the name of his most recent victim. He would swindle all their money and either leave them or kill them with arsenic and then begin his pattern all over again. Chicago police would dub him "Americas greatest mass murderer," but statistics remain vague in this puzzling case. We know that Hoch bigamously married at least 55 women between 1890 and 1905, bilking all of them for cash and slaying many, but the final number of murder victims is a matter of conjecture. Sensational reports credit Hoch with 25 to 50 murders, but police were only certain of 15, and in the end he went to trial (and to the gallows) for a single homicide. Hoch's first and only legal wife was Christine Ramb, who bore him three children before he deserted her in 1887.

Murders

By February 1895, as "Jacob Huff," he had surfaced in Wheeling, West Virginia, where he won the heart and hand of Caroline Hoch, a middle-aged widow. They were married in April, and Caroline fell gravely ill three months later. Called to her beside, Rev. Hermann Haas watched "Huff" administer a potion that Haas believed to be poison, but the minister took no action and Caroline died days later in agony. "Huff" cleaned out her $900 bank account, sold their house, collected $2500 in life insurance benefits—and vanished. Suicide was suspected, with his clothing, his watch, and note found on the bank of the Ohio River, but no body was ever recovered. Hoch kept his latest victim's surname—described by prosecutors as "a warped keepsake stored in an evil mind"—and moved on to Chicago, finding work in the meat-packing plants when he was not engaged with the business of swindling people. He spent a year in jail for defrauding a used-furniture dealer. Police Inspector George Shippy also suspected Hoch of bigamy, and murder was added to the list upon receipt of a letter from the Rev. Hass in West Virginia. Shippy started digging into Hoch's background, turning up reports of dozens of missing or deserted women from San Francisco to New York City, but solid evidence remained elusive.

Inspector George Shippy, investigated Hoch's crimes[3]

In Wheeling, Caroline Hoch was exhumed in a search for arsenic traces, but surgeons found the body gutted, all her vital organs missing. Hoch was released at the end of his jail term, chalking up another 15 wives before his ultimate arrest in 1905. Aware that Shippy and others were charting his movements, Hoch killed more often and more swiftly while swindling women. Selecting his victims from newspaper "lonely heart" columns, Hoch went merrily about his business by relying on primitive embalming fluids with their high arsenic content to cover any traces of poison in his victims. On December 5, 1904, he married Marie Walcker in Chicago, killing her at once. Wasting no time, Hoch proposed to his sister-in-law on the night of Marie's death, and they were married six days after the hasty funeral. Amelia Hoch bestowed a gift of $750 on her husband, prompting him to vanish with the cash, and she immediately summoned the police. Modern science was Hoch's downfall. His late wife's mortician employed a new embalming fluid with no taint of arsenic. Medical examiners found poison in Marie Walcker's system and Hoch was charged with her murder, his picture mailed to every major American newspaper. In New York City, a middle-aged landlady recognized "Henry Bartels," a new tenant who had proposed marriage to her 20 minutes after renting a room. At his arrest, police seized a revolver, several wedding rings with their inscriptions filed off, and a fountain pen filled with arsenic—which Hoch claimed was intended for himself, a foiled attempt at suicide. A Chicago journalist dubbed Hoch the "Stockyard Bluebeard," trumpeting the speculative details of his criminal career. At the trial he whistled, hummed, and twirled his thumbs throughout the prosecution's case, apparently well-pleased with his position in the limelight. On conviction of Marie Walcker's murder, he was sentenced to hang, telling the court, "it's all over with Johann. It serves me right." Mounting the gallows on February 23, 1906, Hoch reverted to a claim of innocence, declaring "I am done with this world. I have done with everybody." As the trap was sprung, a local newsman quipped, "Mr. Hoch, but the question remains: What have you done with everybody?" Part of the solution was unearthed in 1935 when human bones were found inside the wall of a Chicago house once occupied by Hoch. It was a meager bit of evidence, the victim unidentified, and Johann's body count, the names and number of his murdered wives, will probably remain a mystery forever.[4]

Timeline of swindles/killings

A turn of the century account [5] partially reports on many of Hoch's victims, except where noted:

Other reported victims

In addition to the above, it is alleged that Hoch was involved with a Mrs. John Hicks of Wheeling WV {died}; Mrs. Emma Rencke of Chicago; Mrs. Palinka of Batavia Ill; a Mrs. Fink of Aurora; Natalie Irgang; Hulda Stevens; Schwatzman of Milwaukee; and a Justina Loeffler of Elkhart Indiana who "disappeared" in Chicago in 1903.;[6] a Mrs. Lena Hoch died in Milwaukee in 1897; a Mrs. Hoch died 1897 and a Mrs. Hoch died 1898-both sisters of Mrs. J.H.H. Schwartman of Milwaukee;[7]
Allegedly Hoch married twice in Cincinnati, Ohio under alias of "Henry Bartel" and "Fred Doess";

References

  1. ↑ Lydersen, Kari (31 Oct 2006). "Infamous Piece of Chicago History Goes on the Block". Washington Post. Retrieved 24 April 2013.
  2. ↑ Schutzer, A. I. (October 1964). "The Lady-killer". American Heritage. Retrieved 24 April 2013.
  3. ↑ Donovan, Henry. "Chicago Eagle". Illinois Digital Newspaper Collections. Retrieved 6 July 2015.
  4. ↑ The Encyclopedia of SERIAL KILLERS by: Michael Newton.
  5. ↑ Hoch v. People, 76 N.E. 356, 357 (Supreme Court of Illinois 20 December 1905).
  6. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 "Remarkable Career of Bluebeard Hoch". Perrysville Journal (Ohio). 24 Feb 1905. Retrieved 24 April 2013.
  7. 1 2 3 Clinton Mirror Feb 25, 1905
  8. ↑ Fluharty, Linda Cunningham (2009). "Caroline Miller Hoch Huff: Victim of a Serial Killer". The WVGenWeb Project: West Virginia Genealogy. Retrieved 24 April 2013.
  9. ↑ "Re: Mary Schulte missing after 1900?". GenForum. Genealogy.com. 6 December 2008. Retrieved 24 April 2013.
  10. ↑ San Francisco Call January 11, 1905
  11. 1 2 San Francisco Call 2 February 1905
  12. ↑ New-York tribune., December 16, 1904, Page 10, Image 10
  13. ↑ San Fransisco Call January 22, 1905
  14. ↑ San Francisco Call 2 February 1905
  15. ↑ San Francisco Call 10 February 1905
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