Adolph Luetgert

Adolph Louis Luetgert (December 27, 1845 – July 7, 1899) was a German-American charged with murdering his wife and dissolving her body in lye in one of his sausage vats at the A.L. Luetgert Sausage & Packing Company in 1897.

Luetgert, born in Gütersloh, Westphalia (now Germany), moved to Chicago, Illinois in the 1870s. He married his wife Louisa Bicknese on January 18, 1878. Luetgert ran the successful A.L. Luetgert Sausage & Packing Company and was considered the "sausage king" of Chicago until being accused of murdering his wife and being sentenced to life in prison on February 9, 1898 where he died about a year and a half later.

After the news of the trial became public, rumors spread that Luetgert had actually turned his wife into sausage and sold the "sausage" to unknowing consumers. Although this has been proven to be false as her body was dissolved and burned, the legend persists to this day. Another common legend about the murder is that the ghost of Louisa Luetgert haunts the old factory grounds and the couple's former home in Chicago.

Adolph Louis Luetgert, born on December 27, 1845, was originally named Adolph Ludwig Lütgert. He was born in a town called Gütersloh, located in the province of Westphalia, which is now a part of Germany.

His parents, Christian Heinrich Lütgert and Margreta Sophia Severin, had sixteen children; twelve other sons and two daughters. Adolph was the forth born in the family, and he also had a twin named Heinrich Friedrich "Fritz" Luetgert, who died before Adolph around 1894 or 1895. While Adolph was growing up, his father dealt with animal hides and tallow wool as well a dabbling into real estate.

Adolph's schooling lasted from about the age of seven until the age of fourteen and after those seven years of schooling, Adolph became an apprentice for Ferdinand Knabel who taught him about the tanning business. During the time of the apprenticeship, Adolph continued to live in Westphalia however as an apprentice he lived with his boss instead of his family. After working for Knabel for two and a half years, Luetgert began to travel around Germany, working wherever he could. At the age of nineteen, Luetgert traveled to London, England where he stayed for about six months but left because he was unable to find a job other than scrubbing restaurant floors.

Adolph Luetgert came to New York in around 1865 or 1866 when he was about twenty years old. Like many others, he had heard that thousands of his countrymen were going to America with very little money. With about thirty dollars to his name, Luetgert boarded a ship bound for the United States.

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