Editing Adolph Luetgert

{{Villain Infobox
|image = Adolph Luetgert 1897.gif
|fullname = Adolph Ludwig Lütgert<br>Adolph Louis Luetgert
|alias = The Sausage King of Chicago
|origin = Westphalia, Germany
|occupation = Sausage factory owner
|goals = Make money by marrying a rich widow
|crimes = [[Murder]]<br>[[Domestic abuse]]
|type of villain = Adulterous Murderer}}
'''Adolph Louis Luetgert''' (December 27, 1845 - July 7, 1899) was a German-American businessman and head of the highly successful A.L. Luetgert Sausage & Packing Company. In 1897 he murdered his second wife Louisa and dissolved her body in lye at his sausage factory. 

==Biography==
Luetgert was born Adolph Ludwig Lütgert in Germany in 1845. He emigrated to New York City in 1866, where his name was anglicized to Adolph Louis Luetgert. Luetgert worked at various tanneries and other jobs in New York and Chicago, Illinois, until starting his own self-titled sausage company in Chicago in 1879. This company was highly successful, with Luetgert being nicknamed the "Sausage King of Chicago". In 1878 he married his second wife, Louisa Bicknese, two months after the death of his first wife Caroline.

Louise Luetgert went missing on May 1, 1897. Her husband claimed that she had run off with another man, but police became suspicious after discovering that Luetgert, suffering from financial difficulties following the Panic of 1896, had been courting a rich widow at the time of Louisa's disappearence. The Luetgerts also had a history of fighting and domestic violence.

A night watchman at the Luetgert sausage factory soon came forward to say that on the night of May 1, Adolph and Louisa Luetgert had entered the factory and Adolph Luetgert had told him to take the night off. Police also discovered that on April 30 Luetgert had bought several hundred pounds of arsenic poison and potash, which was often used to conceal arsenic poisoning. Police searched the Luetgert factory and found in the furnace the burnt remains of a human skull, foot bones and part of a rib. An anthroplogist examined the burnt bones and concluded that they belonged to a human female. Louisa Luetgert's wedding ring, inscribed with the initials "L.L.", was also found. 

Luetgert was charged with murder. It was suggested by prosecutor Charles S. Deneen that Luetgert had dissolved his wife's body with lye before attempting to destroy the bones by burning them in the furnace. It was also widely rumoured that Luetgert had used his wife's body in sausage meat, but no evidence of this exists. The jury were unable to reach a verdict, resulting in a mistrial and Luetgert being given a second trial. Luetgert was found guilty at his second trial and sentenced to life imprisonment in February 1898. The following year he was found dead from heart disease in his cell at the Illinois State Penitentiary. 
[[Category:List]]
[[Category:Male]]
[[Category:Early Modern Villains]]
[[Category:United States of America]]
[[Category:European Villains]]
[[Category:Germany]]
[[Category:Deceased]]
[[Category:Murderer]]
[[Category:Abusers]]
[[Category:Adulterers]]
[[Category:Greedy]]
[[Category:Imprisoned]]
[[Category:Deaths in prison]]
[[Category:Liars]]