Sadie Anderson was 23 and working as a milliner in Chariton when she married Jacob Myers Simpson, 24, my grandfather's first-cousin, on the 28th of February 1884. She had been living with her parents, John Q. and Mary Anderson, prior to the marriage.
Jacob, eldest son of Prof. Joseph P. S. and Elizabeth (Myers) Simpson, was a printer and aspiring newspaper editor-publisher by trade.
Her father was a farmer who depended for his living on a stable of stallions available for breeding purposes. His father operated a private academy in Chariton at a time when public high schools were few and far between.
Two months later, Jacob purchased half interest in a newspaper in Clark, South Dakota, located in the northeast portion of that state, and the newlyweds moved. Two daughters were born there, Addah Pearl, during 1884; and Maedell, during 1887.
At some point during the 1890s, cracks in the marriage became irreparable and Jacob and Sadie were divorced. She took the two little girls and moved to California, joining her parents in Monterey, where they recently had settled after leaving Lucas County behind.
After a second failed marriage in California, Sadie entered a somewhat different line of work, headquartered in a rooming house in San Francisco's Tenderloin. And it was there during the early morning hours of Sunday, July 17, 1898, that she was strangled.
Her death was reported as follows in The San Francisco Call of July 18 under the headline, "Found Dead in Her Bed With a Rag Tightened About Her Neck; Mrs. Sadie Carpenter Makes a Mysterious Plunge into the Unknown."
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About three years ago people were shocked and women in the "tenderloin district" were terrorized by the murderous deeds of a strangler. Several women fell victims to his fiendish lust for blood, and all the efforts of the police to discover his identity were futile.
The police are again confronted with what some believe to be the work of a strangler, the victim being also a woman in low life.
The woman was Sadie Carpenter, who occupied room 10 in the Hubbard House, 139 Fourth street. So far as known, she was last seen alive in her room about 11:30 o'clock Saturday night by Joseph Von Lochner, who occupied an adjoining room.
Lizzie Riley, who occupies room 11, heard a noise as if someone were moaning in room 10 about half-past 1 o'clock yesterday morning, and notified Alphonse Prieur, the night clerk, that something was wrong in room10. Prieur knocked on Von Lochner's door and roused him from his sleep. Together they entered room 10, and while Prieur turned his attention to lighting the gas, Van Lochner went to the bed and found the woman was dead. A piece of calico was tied tightly round her throat and Von Lochner quickly loosened it. Her face was still warm, but her hands were cold.
Prieur notified Policeman Tuite and the woman's body was removed to the Morgue. About two hours later Von Lochner was arrested and locked up in the "tanks" pending an investigation. There is nothing so far against him except that he is the last one who is known to have seen her prior to her death. He was a friend of the woman and it is said that she was indebted to him for many acts of kindness.
Detectives Dillon and O'Dea and Policemen Tuite and O'Keefe were detailed on the case. They closely examined the room, but no sign of struggle could be found,, nothing in the room being disarranged. When found by Von Lochner the woman was lying in bed dressed in the wrapper she always slept in and her arms were stiffened by her sides.
Captain Seymour had a talk with Von Lochner and he felt convinced that he had nothing to do with the woman's death, but thought it advisable to hold him till a complete investigation was made. The captain is inclined to the theory that the woman committed suicide.
Von Lochner says he had known the woman for about four years. He had been a friend to her, but that was all. She had received a letter from a friend Saturday morning containing a medal. The pin on the medal had become loose and he took the medal and pin with him to get them fixed.
"I got home shortly after 11 o'clock last night," he said, "and Mrs. Carpenter's room door was partly open. I went in and gave her the medal. She talked a little about her friend George, who had sent it from Chickamauga, and then complained of not feeling well. She was preparing a poultice when I entered and after she had gone to bed I bade her goodnight and left the room, closing the door, which had a spring lock, after me.
"I went to bed and was awakened after 1 o'clock by the night clerk, who told me there was something wrong with Sadie. He went and got the key and we entered the room. He turned on the gas and I went straight to the bed. I shook her twice and then I noticed the rag round her neck, which I tore off. She was dead but her face was still warm, although her hands were cold."
Von Lochner was a lieutenant in the German army during the Franco-German war and his friends say that he is a baron in his own right. He receives a pension of $370 per year from the German government. He is a widower, having a son employed as a plumber in this city. He came here in 1876 and was for some time employed by C. Ehmann, a photographer on Fourth street. His friends say that he was never known to be in trouble before.
The one roomer in the house who seems to hold the key to the situation is Mrs. Lizzie Riley, but the police doubt her story. Her room is No. 11, adjoining the one in which the dead woman was found. Mrs. Riley's story runs as follows: "I was awakened out of a sleep after 1 o'clock this morning by a scuffling noise, which I could not at first locate. It seemed to come from overhead at first, but when fully awake I discovered it to be in the room next to mine, the one occupied by Sadie. The noise soon ceased and gave way to a peculiar scraping sound, like a spool of cotton running over the floor. this continued some 20 minutes. I became very nervous and was determined to see what was the matter, when the door of Sadie Carpenter's room opened and then was closed with a bang. I heard footsteps of some man who wore shoes that creaked going through the hall and down the stairs to the street.
"After that I jumped up and opened my door, went out in the hall and called the night clerk. He came with great reluctance. I told him that something was wrong in number 10. He woke up Joseph Lochner, on whose door he pounded twice. Lochner came out in a nightgown and the two entered."
Mrs. Riley did not know the deceased very well. She says that Mrs. Carpenter was secretive, reserved and attended to her own affairs with a jealous care. Mrs. Riley heard several people enter the room during the evening. The last one who gained her admittance to her knowledge was a heavy-set German. This was about 9 o'clock. She heard Mrs. Carpenter say good-night to him a half hour later as she escorted him to the door. Mrs. Riley, of all the roomers, was the only one who gained a slender confidence of the dead woman. She says that Mrs. Carpenter mentioned to her a few days ago certain fears of being strangled by some person who had once before threatened her life.
The rooms of Lochner and Mrs. Carpenter adjoin, with a door between. According to the statement of one in the employ of the house this door was seldom locked. On Mrs. Carpenter's side there are two screw eyes through which a curling-iron was run. This was found in place when the body was discovered.
The statement of Mrs. Riley of hearing what she thought was a scuffle in Mrs. Carpenter's room is partly borne out by the appearance of the dead woman's face, which would lead to the impression that she did not die without a struggle. On the left side of the face just below the ear is a mark of a finger nail, and on the right side of the nose close to the eye there is another distinct mark of a finger nail which drew blood that flowed down the side of the nose into the nostril. There is also a large abrasion on the left knee and a smaller one a little below it, both having the appearance of being freshly made. Policeman O'Keefe also noticed that when he first saw the body in the room there was a red mark on the throat.
These are against the suicide theory and there are other things. The woman had nearly $1,300 to her credit in the Hibernia Bank, so that poverty was not staring her in the face. She had an offer of marriage as soon as she got a divorce from Carpenter, if she felt so inclined, and she had a pleasant home with her parents and children in Monterey waiting her always.
It was first reported that robbery was the cause of the strangling as no money was found in her room, but that is accounted for by the fact that she banked all that she could spare. The last deposit made by her was $25 on July 6.
If Mrs. Riley is to be believed, and there is apparently no reason to doubt her, there was a man in room 10 shortly before the woman was found dead, and it is within the range of probability that he was the man who had once before threatened her life. It is, however, strange that no screams were heard.
According to papers found in the dead woman's room, her maiden name was Sadie Anderson, and she was married in Chariton, Iowa, on February 18, 1884, to J. Mark (actually J. Myers) Simpson, who is now in South Dakota. She was divorced from Simpson about 18 months ago and last December married Henry S. Carpenter, a shoemaker at 401 Tenth street, Oakland. The marriage took place at her parents' home in Monterey, where her two children by her first marriage, two girls, one 13 years of age and the other 10, are living. She did not live long with Carpenter as she had occupied the room at 139 Fourth street since last Christmas.
Several letters were found among her papers from Carpenter, the last sent from Lathrop on April 12, couched in affectionate terms and telling her that he had got a nice house for his business and wanting her to go to him and start a millinery store. He called upon her at her room about six weeks ago, so the police say.
There were also several letters from Sergeant George Gilligan of Company F, Fifth Regiment Michigan Volunteers, at Chickamauga. The last was dated July 10 and he called himself her "future husband" and spoke of the happy time they would have when they got married after the war was over. It was from him she got the medal referred to by Lochner.
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Sadie's parents claimed her remains and they were taken by train from San Francisco to Monterey on July 20th for burial.
Back in San Francisco, a coroner's jury declared that her death was indeed murder, but cleared Von Lochner of suspicion.
The investigation continued, but no suspect ever was named or apprehended. The strangulation of Sadie (Anderson) Simpson Carpenter remains a cold case long since forgotten.
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