How NOT to Murder Your Wife

 

Chicago, Ill. (1920)

06/21/1920: Husband hired a hit man to “stage a fake holdup, in order that he might put his wife out of the way.”  He then killed his wife, their unborn child and the hitman “in order that there would be no witnesses.”  He confessed to police but pleaded insanity at trial.  This was unlikely to be a successful strategy, because he clearly knew he was doing something wrong by murdering the hit man.  Police caught him because the pistol found on the hit man was an Army pistol issued to the husband’s brother.

Category: family

Suicide: no

Cause: unknown

Weapon: pistol[1]

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[1] "Will Plead Insanity To Save Carl Wanderer," [Washington, D.C.] Evening Star, Oct. 05, 1920, 4.

His insanity plea clearly could not succeed.  Killing the hit man to eliminate a witness shows that he could distinguish right from wrong and knew he was doing wrong.  Using a gun borrowed from his brother just shows stupidity.