State v. Duestrow

• Citation: 38 S.W. 554,137 Mo. 44
• Parties: The State v. Duestrow, Appellant
• Decision Date: 19 January 1897
• Court: United States State Supreme Court of Missouri

38 S.W. 554

137 Mo. 44

The State v. Duestrow, Appellant

Supreme Court of Missouri, Second Division

January 19, 1897

Rehearing Denied 137 Mo. 44 at 91.

Appeal from Franklin Circuit Court. -- Hon. Rudolph Hirzel, Judge.

The testimony tended to show the following: That defendant and deceased were husband and wife and had been married some four years prior to the homicide; that their family at the time of the killing consisted of themselves, a child, Louis, two years of age, a servant girl named Katie Hahn, and a cook named Annie Mace. They resided at house number 1724, South Compton avenue, in the city of St. Louis. The house was a two-story brick, consisting of some nine or ten rooms. It was situate on the east side of Compton avenue, between Lafayette avenue on the north and the Compton Heights on the south. The entrance was through a shallow front yard, up three or four steps onto a small porch or veranda into the front hall. On the first floor was a parlor, dining room, kitchen, and hallway and a stairway leading from the front door up to the front hall of the second floor; also, a rear stairway leading from the rear hall up to the second floor. On the second floor there was in front, facing the hall, a small room; the hall and stairway ran east and west along the north side of the house; adjacent to this small room and south of it, being the main second story front room, was the sleeping apartment of the defendant; next, east of it, the apartment of the deceased; across the hall from the latter and in a bay window addition to the house was a billiard room; back of the apartment of the deceased and east of it the landing and stairway leading to the first floor in the rear of the house and at the extreme east end of the hall on the second floor the child's room; opposite the room of the defendant and across the hall from it was a stairway inclosed, leading to the third floor or attic, in which and over the apartments of the defendant and the deceased were the rooms of the servant and the cook.

The defendant was engaged in no business, being a young man of leisure and apparent means, but he had a few years prior to the homicide studied medicine at the Missouri Medical College, but failed of graduation.

Prior to the homicide and for the first few years of their married life the defendant and deceased lived apparently a happy life; but about two years before the killing and shortly after the birth of Louis it was shown the defendant became enamored of a courtesan named Clara Howard, residing at 816 South Fourteenth street, in an assignation house there kept by her. Defendant frequently visited her there, remained with her day and night and paid great attention to her; that from the time he began these visits his treatment toward his wife changed; he became distant; came home all hours of the day and night; was frequently intoxicated and abused his wife called her the vilest of names, and finally and within a period of six months prior to the homicide, assaulted and beat her; kicking her at one time, about two months before the killing, out of the bath room. One morning she came down out of their room with a black eye. During the night before she was heard crying by the servant and begging him not to hurt her, that she was innocent. This was about the middle of the night. Sounds were also heard as of a terrible pounding. That he spent a great deal of his time shortly before the homicide with his mistress; that the very day of the tragedy he was with Clara Howard in her room from about 10 o'clock till about 11:30 o'clock in the morning; that about 11:30 A. M. on the day of the killing he left his mistress apparently in a bad humor and spent the balance of the time between the time he left her and the time of the killing at various saloons drinking, carousing, and quarreling.

That the day of the homicide, the thirteenth of February, 1894 was a cold day, and that there was considerable snow and ice on the ground, in fact, the sidewalks and streets were covered with ice and snow and were very slippery. That up to 4 P. M. of that day defendant sojourned at several saloons located between Clara Howard's house and his home; that at 2 o'clock he ordered a sleigh at a livery stable situated at Ohio and Lafayette avenues, being about five blocks east of his home; that he remained in the saloon of one Von der Berg, across the street from the livery stable, drinking, carousing, and quarreling, until about 4 P. M., at which time he crossed the street, got in the sleigh previously ordered, being partially intoxicated, and ordered the driver to drive to his residence through the Compton Heights (a beautiful residence district to the south and east of his residence); that on the way he ordered the driver to make a short turn; that the driver warned him it might break the pole of the sleigh, to which defendant responded in a surly mood, "damn the pole, I can afford to get another one;" that as they approached the house, coming from the south on Compton avenue, the deceased was standing in her room, at the dressing case near the window, on the south side of the building, engaged in dressing herself preparatory to going out to purchase a valentine for a little relative in return for one sent to little Louis; that Katie Hahn with the child in her arms was in the same room; that from her position at the window Mrs. Duestrow saw the defendant, as he approached in the sleigh from the south and stated, "Here comes the doctor [as he was familiarly known]; I wonder if he is coming to take me out sleighing," and directed the servant to go down stairs and ask him.

The girl with the baby in her arms went down the front steps into the front hall and opened the front door; that the defendant meanwhile had directed the driver to stop in front of his house; as the sleigh stopped, he, defendant, stumbled out of the sleigh and up his front steps onto the porch or veranda and met Katie Hahn at the front door just as she opened it; the defendant said to her "you damned bitch you haven't any business to open the door for me;" she then followed Duestrow up stairs, and when they got up there, Mrs. Duestrow said to him, "Arthur, are you going to take me out sleigh riding?" and he said, "Yes, and get ready in a damn big hurry, too," and she started to dress, and was very glad to go with him. He then started to go in the baby's play room, and was talking about his play things and was looking at them, the toys he had sent up. The baby then came out of the play room and went into his mother's room, and defendant soon thereafter followed and commenced scolding right away. He called Mrs. Duestrow and the witness damned bitches and asked Mrs. Duestrow if she was keeping a whore house, and said he could prove it; he had had a detective watching them for six months, and called them vile names one after another. He then attempted to hit Katie Hahn, and Mrs. Duestrow said "Arthur, don't hit a stranger; if you hit anybody, hit me," he then hit her with his hand in the face. She then went toward the window sill, against the pane, when he attempted to hit her again, when Mrs. Duestrow again said, "Don't, Arthur, if you want to hit anybody, hit me," and he said, "All right," and he hit Mrs. Duestrow again -- two slaps and one punch in the side. The third time he hit her she fell towards the bed, when he said, "There you damned bitches you are nothing any more, I am going," and took the baby on his arm and went down the front stairway. And after a few minutes he came back upstairs into the room where Mrs. Duestrow and Katie were, with his pistol. The witness stated that it seemed like he drew the pistol out of his hip pocket, and Mrs. Duestrow said, "Don't fool with your pistol, dear, you must be drunk;" and he said, "No, I am not drunk, I will show you whether I am drunk or not," and as she saw and heard that, she ran to her room upstairs. He pointed the pistol at both of them. When Katie got upstairs, she heard Mrs. Duestrow pleading, "Please, Arthur, don't for the sake of your father, and for the sake of your mother," to which he replied, "I don't care."

While she was up there near the landing, she heard a shot in the hall, and immediately opened the door, when she saw Mrs Duestrow in the act of dropping, defendant at the time said, "Tina, bist du todt?" She didn't answer. The child was standing on the opposite side of its mother, and he reached for it, and he held it with one hand, and with the other he held the pistol against the child's heart. She turned her head, and as she did so heard a shot, and immediately thereafter heard another in the same hallway. She at once went out on the street, and, seeing the sleigh in front of the house, told the driver what had occurred and left; the driver hurriedly drove to the stable to get assistance and meanwhile defendant, dropping the child and the pistol, hurriedly left the house, bareheaded, but with his overcoat on; that he proceeded north on Compton avenue one half block to Lafayette avenue and west on the south side of Lafayette avenue in the direction of the Reservoir Park Police Station, situated at Grand and Lafayette avenues, about four blocks west of Compton; that as he proceeded along the sidewalk he staggered, either from drink or the slippery condition of the sidewalk, or both; that after proceeding about one half way to the station, and while walking west on the south side of Lafayette avenue, he met a teamster driving east, accosted him, told him that he had killed his wife and child, and asked to be hauled to the station; the driver helped him on the wagon, turned around and drove to the police station; on the way defendant pointed to an abrasion on his forehead, asked the driver to examine his head, and if he...