When I first read the title of this article, found in a 1911 newspaper, I was attracted to the use of the word “cult”. Upon reading the article, it did not bring up the possible cult angle, except that this family perverted the words of the Christian Bible and committed suicide to cleanse themselves of sin.
Mother and Father, Crazed by Weird Cult, Poison Son, Then Kill Themselves
A weird story of religious fanaticism was revealed today when Henry Letch, his wife and 12-year-old son Herman were found dead on the floor of the dining room of their home at 5027 Gunnison avenue, Irving Park.
It is the story of a mother and father, crazed by zeal, who entered into a pact to slowly starve their son and themselves, and then to end their lives by poison.
The bodies were found by a real estate agent who came to collect the rent. He could get no answer to his knocking at the door. A neighboring boy told him he was sure that Mrs. Letsch and little Herman were at home.
The real estate agent called the police, and after neighbors had testified that none of the family had been seen for a week, the door was battered down.
Little Herman was stretched out on a lounge, his eyes wide open, a peaceful smile on his face. The mother kneeled by the boy’s bedside, her hands closed as in prayer. The father was stretched on the floor.
It was evident that all had been poisoned. The police at first thought that Chicago was to be shocked by another horrible crime. And then a queerly written letter, evidently added to from day to day, and jumbled with Biblical phrases and off bits of philosophy was found lying on the kitchen table, and the true story of the deaths was disclosed.
The letter was dated March 19, 1911, and began by the statement that the signers had determined to die together three years before. It was written in the German father tongue. Part of it was as follows:
“The world is unkind, and its churches and ministers full of hypocrisy.
“There is no truth nor goodness anywhere, save only in death. The teachings of the Master have been forgotten, and the world is given over to Mammon.
“It is written: ‘It were better that a millstone were hanged about his neck and he were cast into the sea lest he offend one of these little ones.
“Yet our daughters are given over to lust, and our sons to misery and the world heeds not.
“We have sought everywhere for the good, and we have not found it.
“o it were better to die.
“Feed not the body when it is the home of sin.
“Starve it into righteousness. If it rebel, starve it to the end.
“Our boy must go with us. It would be right that the family should be separated even in death.
“And besides he might grow up in darkness and the love of money that is the curse of the world.
“We have starved for a long time now, and are near purged of all sin.
“When the penance is complete we shall die. That will be easy.”
Dr. Ewald Weber, 5375 Lawrence avenue, was called in to make an investigation for the police.
He reported that every member of the family had died of a virulent poison. They had been dead, he said, for about a week.
Source: (1911, November 04). Mother and father, crazed by weird cult. The Day Book, pgs. 26-27.
