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Case File: Charles Albert Breitwieser (1907)
[Link to original at Newspapers.com]– Page 8 of Magazine Section, Top half of page
A MURDERER HAS NINE CHANCES
OUT OF TEN TO ESCAPE
PUNISHMENT
BY KARL K. KITCHEN
If you commit murder in Cleveland, what chances have you of escaping the punishment prescribed by law?
Nine chances out of ten.
This is not a guess but the statement of criminologists who have made a careful study of the gentle art of murder in the Forest City. And an investigation of the murder cases of this city for the past three years substantiate their statement.
The murderer who commits his crime in Cleveland has nine chances out of ten of escaping the punishment prescribed by the statute books. And he has practically the same number of chances in other large American cities. Is it any wonder the number of murders has increased 20 to 25 per cent, in proportion to the population in the leading cities of this country within the past five years.
In Cleveland one fourth of the murderers are never even apprehended. That means that one out of every four murderers escapes from the very start. The police fail to make cases against one-third of those who are arrested and charged with murder. That means that half of the murderers escape any punishment whatsoever.
Of those that remains only one-fifth are found guilty and given sentences on either first or second degree murder charges. The remaining four-fifths are acquitted, released because the jury disagrees, or plead guilty to manslaughter or assault and battery charges and escape with a few years’ imprisonment. A few escape the penalty by committing suicide and about the same number are committed to institutions for the insane.
In fact the punishment of murderers in Cleveland as prescribed by law as well as in many other parts of this country has become a farce. So many convicted murderers are at liberty in France today that a member of the chamber of deputies recently suggested to brand the letter “M” for meurtrier on the forehead of everyone convicted of murder in order to stigmatize them to the public in some way. And conditions in this country are even worse in this respect than they are in France. One has only to recall the recent cases where women have been charged with murder to realize the exact situation. Women are able to commit murder with more immunity from punishment than men. And yet there is supposed to be no sex in law.
Much has been written about the failure of juries to bring in verdicts according to the evidence and the difficulty of obtaining convictions of murderers even when there is absolutely no doubt of their guilt.
Some of the recent murder trials in New York have been notable examples of this condition. There is absolutely no doubt about the guilt of Nan Patterson or Harry K. Thaw but the juries refused to convict them. The same condition is true in Cleveland. It is almost impossible to convict a man of murder in the first degree. Accordingly the county prosecutor frequently changes the charge to second degree murder for which the punishment is life imprisonment.
But while reforms are needed in these matters the burning question in Cleveland is to catch the murderers.
Many Unsolved Murders
The great increase in the number of so-called unsolved murder mysteries in Cleveland within the past three years has caused the police, and especially the detective force, to come in for a good deal of censure. Nearly a dozen atrocious murders have been committed within the past three years for which no one has been arrested and charged with the crime. The circumstances surrounding these murders have been for the most part somewhat obscure, and consequently they were soon known as mysteries, and after a few weeks had elapsed and no clew to the guilty parties discovered of unsolved murder mysteries.
Chief Kohler and his detectives force have been severely criticized for what many people believe to be inefficiency. The popular mind believe “murder will out,” and that if the detectives only do their duty the mystery around any murder can be dispelled and the guilty man ascertained if not actually apprehended.
The belief that “murder will out” is as old as the hills, has but little truth in it. Hundreds of murders are committed in this country every year for which no motive can be found and no clew to the identity of the murderer ascertained. It is possible for a murderer to commit a crime and so cover up his tracks that he will never be apprehended unless he walks into a police station and confesses. Some people have always believed that a clever, educated man could cover up his tracks after committing a murder, but in nearly every one of the unsolved murder mysteries in Cleveland the crimes were committed by ignorant, uneducated foreigners. And the same is true in practically all the recent murder mysteries throughout the country. It does not take any great amount of cunning for a murderer to cover up his tracks, as an investigation of these murder mysteries show.
The police and detective force in Cleveland have done as much as human agencies can do. Weeks, and even months, have been spent in working on some of the recent mysteries. Chief Kohler has given a large part of his time to these cases, but Sherlock Holmes himself would be baffled. Hundreds of clews have been run down, but in the majority of cases the police were no nearer solving them than they were on the day the crimes were perpetrated. In a few instances they succeeded in capturing the murderers, but for the lack of sufficient evidence were unable to place murder charges against them.
The Hoenig Mystery
At the present time the detectives are still trying to solve the Hoenig murder mystery. They have done all that mortal men could do, but they are no nearer its solution today than they were the day the dead body of the three-year-old boy was found in the barrel. That the boy was murdered is certain, but unless the murderer confesses it is not even likely that he will ever be apprehended. Of course, this mystery, and some of the others, too, may be cleared up in years to come, but the chances are so slim that they need hardly by considered. Whoever the murderer was, he succeeded in covering up his tracks so well that not the slightest clew could be found. It is a real mystery, and will probably always remain one unless the murderer’s conscience is too much for him. The public clamors for his capture, but he can’t be captured and nobody knows that better than Chief Kohler and the central station detectives. It would take supermen to do it.
Case of Minnie Peters
Mrs. Minnie Peters was murdered in her home last feel in even a more mysterious manner. Her skull was beaten to a pulp with a heavy machinist’s hammer by some unknown man. The detectives worked for several weeks on the case, but without results. Chief Kohler declared the woman committed suicide despite the coroner’s verdict, but nevertheless the detectives spent an unusually long time trying to unravel the mystery. It is certain the woman was murdered, but the police were never able to get any clew to the murderer, or if they were they did not have sufficient evidence to charge anyone with the crime.
While it is true that many innocent men are arrested in connection with some murder cases and are held “on suspicion,” for a few days, a charge of murder is never placed against a suspect until he confesses or the police are morally certain he committed the crime. The tactics of the Cleveland police in this matter are very much different from those employed in Chicago and New York. Of course, the police have made mistakes, but they have been more lenient than overzealous in placing murder charges against citizens. The recent agitation against the “sweatbox” is sentimental twaddle.
The Martin case was one of the recent mysteries which caused the police much additional work with no satisfaction. Thomas J. Martin, a Cass-av. saloonkeeper, was shot down by a stranger who fired at him from an open doorway as he stood behind his bar. Nearly a score of arrests were made on suspicion, but the identity of the murderer was never discovered.
In the case of Charles A. Breitweiser, the liquor house collector, who was killed recently by a blow from a billiard cue in a St. Clair-ave. saloon, the identity of the murderer was known, but he fled from the city, and just recently gave himself up. For a time this case was considered an “unsolved” mystery, but the murderer’s conscience proved his undoing.
Two Famous Mysteries
Two of the most recent unsolved murder mysteries were the Anna Kinkoff and Eva Myer cases. Both these murders were the direct result of the dance hall evil. Anna Kinkoff, a young Hungarian girl, was strangled to death in a vacant lot on Superior-av., near E. 23d-st., on her way home from a dance. Her body was found the evening after the crime by some children who were playing in the lot. Never did the police work harder than on that case. Several suspects were arrested and Chief Kohler claimed one of them was the guilty man, but the detectives were unable to find sufficient evidence to warrant them placing a murder charge against him.
The Myer case resembled the Kinkoff case to a surprising degree. Eva Myer, a seventeen-year old girl, was shot down from ambush on the South Side while she was returning from a dance late at night. The slayer disappeared in the darkness, and the police were never able to discover his identity. Both these murders were premedicated, and had the guilty men been arrested murder in the first degree would have been the charge. There is no doubt that the Peters murder was premeditated, but the murder of Thomas J. Martin might have been what the police term an “accidental murder,” although some of the detectives who worked on the case think differently.
A Trunk Mystery
Trunk mysteries always attract more attention than almost any other kind of murder mysteries, but it is doubtful if there was ever more excitement over a trunk mystery in Cleveland than the Ina Smith case.
The dismembered body of Ina Smith, a colored woman, was found in a trunk which was fished up from the old river bed. Sam Smith, her husband, was suspected of the crime, but he could not be found. He had left Cleveland a few days before the trunk was discovered and he has never been seen or heard of since, although every effort was made to capture him.
There have been half a dozen other so-called murder mysteries during the past three years of more or less interest. Some of them have been among the Italians and classed by the police as “accidental murders.” Few were premeditated, the majority of them resulting from saloon brawls. They constitute fully one-fourth of the murders that have been committed in the city within the length of time. The fact that the police had to deal with foreigners who spoke little English in nearly all the cases made the work doubly hard. The police did their part. There has been no shirking of duty. There is no doubt about the efficiency of Chief Kohler and his men.
The belief that “murder will out” is badly shattered.
[Inset section]
BY PROSECUTING ATTORNEY S. V. McMAHON
From the organization of the estate of Ohio until the year 1898 the crime of murder in the first degree was punishable in Ohio by death. For some years prior to 1898 it was found almost impossible to find a jury in this county that would convict a person of murder in the first degree, even though the crime had been established by evidence clear and convincing and beyond all reasonable doubt. This, I feel, was due to a vigorous public sentiment almost tantamount to a conviction against capital punishment. To overcome this difficulty the section of the Ohio statutes defining the crime of murder in the first degree and fixing its penalty was amended in 1898. The amendment provided that murder in the first degree shall be punished by death, unless the jury trying the accused recommended mercy, in which case first degree shall not be recommended for pardon by the board of pardons, or paroled by the board of managers of the penitentiary, except upon proof of innocence established beyond all reasonable doubt. Since the enactment of this amendment, and until this term of court, no jury in this county has returned a verdict of murder in the first degree without recommending mercy.
A few weeks ago a jury in our criminal court returned a verdict of murder in the first degree against John Saloy without such recommendation. This is the first conviction of murder in the first degree punishable by death returned in this county since the conviction of Edward Ruthven, some ten years ago. Because of the special venire provided by law in first degree murder cases, the extra peremptory challenges allowed the defendant and the difficulty in securing jurors who are without set opinions against capital punishment, the expense of trial in first degree cases to the county is about $700 more than other degrees of murder. Even after incurring this additional expense in first degree murder cases the verdict obtained accompanied by a recommendation of mercy is in effect the same as that in second degree murder, confinement in the penitentiary during life, being the penalty provided by law in each case. However, in first degree cases with a recommendation of mercy the pardoning power invested in the board of pardons can be exercised only upon proof of innocence established beyond all reasonable doubt.
Therefore, with the exception that in murder in the first degree the pardoning of the board of pardons is to the above extent curtailed the punishment is alike in each case. For some years past there has been a growing public sentiment against capital punishment. It is not my purpose to determine its causes. It may be due to large human sympathies, to a more intelligent consideration of the criminal, his hereditary traits, his environment and opportunities. Nevertheless, whatever the reason, the fact remains that it is almost impossible to find twelve men in his county willing to shoulder the responsibility for a death sentence.
