Chicago's Serial Husband

The Marriages & Murders of Johann Hoch

Adam Selzer

• Publisher: The History Press
• eBook ISBN:
  9781467173100
• Year: 2025

When the police caught up with Johann Hoch, he'd already proposed to what they believed would have been wife number fifty-five. For a decade, he traveled the country, marrying and deserting desperate women—and five of his wives were lying in their graves. He married Marie Walcker in Chicago in 1904, and when Marie died five weeks later, he proposed to her sister while the corpse lay on the bed. The sister agreed, only to be swindled out of her savings. Adam Selzer trails jovial, big-talking Hoch through a twisting tale of Chicago journalism, Chicago justice and the coming together of some of most daring and corrupt characters the city had to offer.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• A Note on Names
• Introduction: February 1905, Nickel Plate Railroad
• 1. Wheeling, 1895
• 2. The Wives and Crimes of Johann Hoch
• 3. Marie, Emilie, and Bertha: The Schippnick Sisters
• 4. Circulation Wars
• 5. The Story Unfolds
• 6. Evelyn Campbell’s Quest
• 7. Like Zithers for Him
• 8. Captured
• 9. Nights on Mulberry Street
• 10. The Wives at the Inquest
• 11. Anna Hendricks in New York
• 12. The Ordeal of the Black Pen
• 13. The Road to Chicago
• 14. Back in Town
• 15. The Inquest Continues
• 16. The Ladies Can’t Resist You When You Look Like Johann Hoch
• 17. Tales from the Murder Castle
• 18. The Old Jail
• 19. On Trial
• 20. A New Reporter Enters the Saga
• 21. To Beat the Gallows
• 22. Justice for the Poor
• 23. The Pardon Board
• 24. The Final Day
• 25. Through with the World
• 26. The Aftermath
• Epilogue
• Appendix: Known Wives
• Notes
• About the Author