This article is missing information about Hoch's adult years, murders, arrest/trial.(June 2019) |
This article needs additional citations for
verification. (June 2019) |
Johann Otto Hoch | |
---|---|
Born | John Schmidt 1855 |
Died | February 23, 1906 (aged 50/51)
Chicago, Illinois, U.S. |
Cause of death | Execution by 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 status | Executed |
Conviction(s) | Murder |
Criminal penalty | Death |
Details | |
Victims | 1–50+ |
Span of crimes | 1890–1905 |
Country |
United States,
Austria, France, United Kingdom |
State(s) | Illinois, others possible |
Date apprehended | 1905 |
Johann Otto Hoch (also known as The Bluebeard Murderer and Chicago Bluebeard) (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.
Hoch was born John Schmidt in 1855, at Horrweiler, in the Grand Duchy of Hesse (present-day Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany). He emigrated to the United States 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. Hoch used matrimonial ads to find victims. [3] 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 "America’s 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.
A turn of the century account [4] partially reports on many of Hoch's victims, except where noted:
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.;
[5]
[14] 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.
[6]
Allegedly Hoch married twice in Cincinnati, Ohio under alias of "Henry Bartel" and "Fred Doess".
This article is missing information about Hoch's adult years, murders, arrest/trial.(June 2019) |
This article needs additional citations for
verification. (June 2019) |
Johann Otto Hoch | |
---|---|
Born | John Schmidt 1855 |
Died | February 23, 1906 (aged 50/51)
Chicago, Illinois, U.S. |
Cause of death | Execution by 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 status | Executed |
Conviction(s) | Murder |
Criminal penalty | Death |
Details | |
Victims | 1–50+ |
Span of crimes | 1890–1905 |
Country |
United States,
Austria, France, United Kingdom |
State(s) | Illinois, others possible |
Date apprehended | 1905 |
Johann Otto Hoch (also known as The Bluebeard Murderer and Chicago Bluebeard) (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.
Hoch was born John Schmidt in 1855, at Horrweiler, in the Grand Duchy of Hesse (present-day Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany). He emigrated to the United States 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. Hoch used matrimonial ads to find victims. [3] 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 "America’s 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.
A turn of the century account [4] partially reports on many of Hoch's victims, except where noted:
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.;
[5]
[14] 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.
[6]
Allegedly Hoch married twice in Cincinnati, Ohio under alias of "Henry Bartel" and "Fred Doess".