Ruth Wheeler grew up in poverty, but that did not stop her from following her dream of becoming a stenographer.
At age 15 in 1910, young Ruth graduated from the Merchant and Bankers Business College with her diploma in stenography. Every morning she would get up and visit the job placement office, wanting to get work in order to help support her widowed mother.
On the morning of Thursday, March 24, 1910, Ruth received word that a man, Albert Wolter, was looking to hire a stenographer. She went to the man’s New York flat that morning, and was never seen alive again.
What happened in that flat would later shock the country.
Albert Wolter
Albert Wolter was an 18-year-old German immigrant. He and his girlfriend rented a room with the small salary she earned working at a laundry.
Wolter did not work, but he had some pretty high aspirations. He was drawn to society women and, it was believed, wanted to become a pimp.
Ruth was going to be his first victim forced into prostitution, but as evidence later showed, Ruth fought him off with everything she had.
Body Discovered
Shortly after Ruth disappeared, Wolter and his girlfriend abandoned their flat. They left behind a full burlap sack on the fire escape.
A neighbor saw the sack and pushed it off the escape and it landed with a solid thud to the ground. There the sack stayed for a day and a half.
After Wolter and his girlfriend failed to return for the sack, the neighbor went down into the courtyard and opened it up. To the man’s horror, he found the charred remains of Ruth Wheeler.
What the Police Found
The neighbor brought the police to the scene and told them about Wolter and his girlfriend. The police immediately went up to the flat and searched the scene of the murder.
“The apartment reeked with the odor of kerosene. There were oil stains in front of the newly painted firebird that hid an open grate. Fully dressed, the girl’s clothing and hair had been saturated with kerosene, the fire board had been removed and the body thrust up the chimney standing. when the match was touched to her, she burned like a torch.”
The Awful Murder
Ruth’s murder was beyond brutal. The girl had been raped. A rope had been tied around her neck and she had been strangled. She was stabbed multiple times with a knife.
She had survived the initial attacks, only to be soaked in kerosene and burned.
An autopsy showed soot in Ruth’s lungs, proving that she was still alive when she was lit on fire.
Wolter Arrested
There was no doubt as to who committed the murder. According to the landlady:
“[Wolter] received many calls from young girls, and she had particularly noticed that one who last called was fresher of face and better dressed than the ordinary run of them.”
In a very short amount of time, detectives found Wolter’s live-in girlfriend and followed her straight to Wolter. He was arrested.
Wolter denied having anything to do with Ruth’s death. He even denied having requested a stenographer, although the prosecutor had the original postcard as evidence.
Trial and Ending
On April 22, 1910, it took a jury one hour and fifty minutes to convict Albert Wolter of murder in the first degree.
On January 29, 1912, was seated in Sing Sing’s electric chair and died.
His girlfriend, who had lived with him in the flat, was never brought to trial for the murder of Ruth Wheeler. The police and prosecutor claimed that there was not enough evidence against her.
