The inquest verdict of murder did little to change public opinion of suicide. And then there was the matter of the pregnancy.

Trigger Warning: This article discusses graphic violence and suicide, which some people might find disturbing. If you are experiencing a suicidal crisis or emotional distress, please call or text 988 for the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline, which provides 24/7 free and confidential support.

Part 1 of this story can be found at https://thesuntimesnews.com/the-1903-unsolved-murder-in-lima-township-part-1/

Further investigation revealed that on the morning of his death, Benz had visited Louis Traub and Hugh Quinn, the two who, along with his wife, would find his body that evening to enlist them in hauling oats with him the next day on Saturday. Benz returned home and put the horse in the barn, still harnessed, showing he intended to continue work after dinner (lunch). An hour after Benz would have finished lunch, a neighbor reported seeing a man crossing the yard behind the house. Being some distance away, he assumed it was Benz.

Observations indicated abundant blood within the kitchen and dining area, contrasting with the scant traces that led to the shed. The pathway from the shed’s entrance to the discovery site of the body was devoid of blood. However, significant amounts of blood were detected on both a wheelbarrow and a tipped-over barrel. It was speculated that the body was carried across the wheelbarrow and barrel. Positioned obstructively near the shed’s door, the wheelbarrow and barrel presented an insurmountable barrier for Benz in his final moments, making it implausible for him to have traversed them. Additionally, blood droplets on a pump, located six to eight feet away from the main blood trail, suggest an attempt to cleanse blood-stained hands.

Relatives and neighbors refused to believe any theory except murder. The thought of suicide was “preposterous.”

“There was no reason why Benz should commit suicide. He was never despondent,” witnesses told the newspapers. When Benz bid his wife goodbye that morning, he was “in a most cheerful mood,” she said. He had made arrangements to haul oats the next day. Benz was prosperous, backed by his wealthy father-in-law, William Aprill, who said, “He and his wife enjoyed the utmost of domestic happiness.”

Benz purchased the 145-acre farm for $8,000, with a $4,000 mortgage. Payments on the principle wouldn’t begin for seven years. No interest was due for six months, in March 1904.

The news reported Coroner Watts had ordered a post-mortem, which was performed by “Dr. Theo. Klingman, who is one of the most competent physicians in the county.” Klingman confirmed the theory of murder rather than suicide.

“In addition to the wounds produced by the hammer on the jaw, lip, cheek and forehead, Dr. Klingman found that a severe blow had been dealt on the right side of the head, behind the ear and near the base of the brain,” reported the Detroit Free Press. The broken skull was driven inward. Klingman theorized it showed Benz was struck from behind. Furthermore, the doctor discovered a “severe wound” on the breast bone. The contusion was about three inches in diameter, leading him to believe something other than the hammer was used. The throat was cut so deeply it severed the windpipe.

Klingman affirmed it was “not probable” that a man could receive such a blow to the head and retain consciousness or receive all the blows and not be knocked down.

Suspicion immediately fell on Fred Jaeger, who had been living at the Benz farm since Jaeger’s father sold it to Benz. Benz had asked Jaeger to leave after his wife complained of Jaeger’s strange actions toward her. No details were given as to the nature of his actions. Jaeger returned with a friend, Edward VanFleet, to the farm on Tuesday before Benz’s murder to collect his belongings.

Fred Jaeger and Edward VanFleet’s movements were traced to Hillsdale. Sheriff Gauntlett and a deputy brought the two back four days after Benz was found dead. Public sentiment was that the two must be guilty. Jaeger and VanFleet told their story, and it was investigated.

Jaeger and VanFleet came to the Benz farm the Tuesday before Benz’s death on Friday to collect Jaeger’s personal belongings. They left Dexter on Wednesday morning in a horse and buggy belonging to Jaeger and arrived in Jackson. On Thursday, they headed out to Manchester, spending the night in a schoolhouse along the way. They arrived in Manchester at 11:00 a.m. Friday morning, and hired out to a circus. They had been with the circus at Manchester, Jonesville, Hanover, and Hillsdale since.

Ex-Sheriff Brenner was hired by Benz’s father-in-law, William Aprill, to verify Jaeger’s presence on the day of Benz’s death. Brenner verified his presence in Manchester on Friday, the day of Benz’s death. “He certainly had nothing to do with the case,” determined Brenner.

Sheriff Gauntlett said of his interview with the suspects, “When I approached Jaeger, I asked him if he knew where William Benz was. He told me that he must be at Dexter, as he saw him there on Tuesday. Then I told him that Benz was dead. He would not believe me. He had not even read it in the papers. I brought back the young men as witnesses, as I want no stone left unturned to get at the truth…These young men I know are perfectly innocent.”

Gauntlett then commented on the blood-covered hammer being heavier than a standard hammer. “Blows from this hammer must have been comparably light ones not to inflict greater wounds than they did. A blow with this hammer in the hands of a man attacking another with murder in his heart would have smashed the skull to pieces and every blow would have crushed the bones.”

“No, I am not prejudiced, but I cannot see it in any other light than that it was suicide,” concluded the Sheriff.

Coroner Watts called for an inquest a week after Benz’s death to render a verdict on Benz’s death. The Detroit Free Press reported on August 28, 1903, that the coroner’s jury assembled at the Dexter Opera House, packed with approximately 300 people, to hear testimony on Benz’s death. After deliberating for 30 minutes, the jury reached a verdict of murder.

The paper reported that no new evidence was introduced except a portion of Mrs. Benz’s testimony: “When she went away in the morning she left her husband’s dinner on the table, consisting of four slices of bread, two slices of cake, butter, honey and a pitcher of milk, which had all been eaten. She had forgotten to put spoons on the table. Her husband also ate his bread and milk with a big spoon. He knew where the spoons were kept. There were no spoons on the table in the evening. The next morning she found in the kitchen two cups and four spoons, and a little coffee in each cup. There was no milk in the coffee, and her husband always drank milk in his coffee. A piece of paper was shown Mrs. Benz and she said there was a little memorandum, ‘one white table cloth,’ on it. She testified the writing was not her’s or her husband’s, and she did not know whose writing it was. She had never seen it before.”

The Argus Democrat also reported that the slip of paper had been written on the other side, “April 2-16-23-30. May 7-14-21-28.” The handwriting was in large letters as if done by a child or someone just learning to write.

William Benz Sr. testified that he had never had any trouble with his son. He was prepared to help him financially, and there was no reason for him to be despondent.

With nothing more to go on, the story faded from the news cycle as investigative leads ran dry. On August 31, ten days after Benz’s murder, Sheriff Gauntlet seems to have changed his opinion from suicide to murder. He announced a $200 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the person or persons who murdered William Benz.

In its September 3 edition, the Detroit Free Press reported that despite the coroner’s jury verdict of murder, enough people still held the theory of suicide to cause a problem for William Benz’s burial. By the rules of the Lutheran Church to which Benz was a member, a suicide could not be interred on sacred ground. Benz’s father-in-law, William Aprill, “went to the German cemetery in Dexter and made arrangements for a lot for the remains of the dead man. The grave was nearly dug when the trustees of the cemetery put a stop to it.” However, William Benz Sr. owned a lot in the cemetery, giving him “full control over it. He ordered a grave dug on his lot and here the remains of his son will be interred.”

The funeral for William Benz was held on Tuesday, August 25, four days after his murder, at the Salem Lutheran Church in Scio Township. The large church was packed with family and friends paying their last respects. While the church trustees could not see their way into placing Benz in the ground, they had his body interred in a vault instead.

James Mann writes in his book Wicked Washtenaw County: Strange Tales of the Grisly and Unexplained, “Lydia Benz attended the funeral of her husband with Dr. Klingmann nearby in case she should collapse. Since the discovery of the body of William, she had been in a state of almost total collapse. At times, she would drop off in a fainting spell, and at others she would burst out weeping. She was being cared for by members of her family.”

Mann finishes the tragic story by saying that Lydia Benz never remarried. She moved back home with her father and later to Ann Arbor, “where, for a time, Harold Benz, the younger brother of William who in 1920 was fifteen years of age, stayed with her. She continued to live in Ann Arbor into the 1940s. Every year, the Ann Arbor city directories listed her as the widow of William.”

A Curious Conflict and Questions

According to FindAGrave.com, William Benz had no brother named Harold. If Harold had been born in 1905, as Mann states, his mother, Fredricka Benz, would have been age 57. Not impossible perhaps, but highly unlikely. FindAGrave.com does tell us Lydia Benz gave birth to a son, Harold, on March 8, 1904, six months and two weeks after her husband’s murder. Assuming a normal pregnancy, she would have been two-and-a-half months pregnant at the time of William’s murder. Why is this not mentioned in any of the news accounts? It seems unlikely to be an intentional omission since such a poignant detail would only add to the sensation of the article. More likely, nobody knew, including William. Wouldn’t a typical 26-year-old newlywed man find fatherhood something to tell people about? But Lydia knew, and soon, her appearance would tell everyone. Is there a connection between William’s murder and Lydia’s soon-to-be baby bump? Was Lydia desperate to the point of murder to keep her husband from discovering her pregnancy? After all, without William there to contest it, the default assumption would be it was William’s child.

Sources:

Detroit Free Press, editions August 23 – September 3, 1903

Ann Arbor Argus-Democrat, August 28, 1903

Mann, James Thomas. Wicked Washtenaw County: Strange Tales of the Grisly and Unexplained. Arcadia Publishing Inc. Kindle Edition.

FindAGrave.com