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Alchemy of Bones: Chicago's Luetgert Murder case of 1897. By Robert Loerzel (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2003. Pp. 319. Illustrations, photographs, index. Cloth, $29.95).
Robert Loerzel swiftly narrates the events surrounding the late 189Os investigation and trial of Chicagoan Adolph Luetgert on charges of murdering his wife. Luetgert-a German immigrant and onceprosperous sausage-maker-had made a series of unfortunate business decisions that left him on the verge of financial ruin. Luetgert's wife Louise had grown increasingly angry about the family's declining fiscal fortunes and disappeared on 1 May 1897, after a few days of erratic behavior. Or at least that is what Adolph Luetgert told police. Investigators soon found a much more grisly explanation for Louise Luetgert's disappearance: Adolph had killed her and disposed of the body by boiling it in a vat of potash in his sausage factory.
For Chicagoans in 1897, the Luetgert matter was...