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Non-Fiction: HENRY SCHLENCKER
Publication date: May 1st, 1879.
Henry Schlencker, a mild-mannered German of
thirty-two years, was found guilty of killing his mistress,
Florence Booth, at Lincoln, Nebraska, on the
Uth of October, 1878. Unless Providence or the Executive
interferes, he will be hanged on the 13th of
June, 1879. Schlencker, for some years, had been a
saloon-keeper and bar- tender.at the Capital city. He
became enamored of the woman he murdered, neglected
his business, and spent his time and money
with her.
This course of life leads to but one end and he has
almost reached it. For months before the murder, he
had become an outcast of society and what is termed
in common parlance, a gutter-drunkard. On the afternoon
of the 11th of October, crazy with drink, he
borrowed a revolver of a friend and wandered to the
bagnio of Mollie Hall, where his mistress lived. She
and Mollie Hall were alone sewing in the front room,
and he walked in, went up stairs, and was soon followed
by Florence Booth. Knowing his condition
she urged him to lay down on the bed. This he did
and she started down the stairway. He called her,
and as she stood facing him at the top of the stairs,
he raised himself up in bed. Though in a drunken stupor he took mortal aim and shot her near the heart.
She died in half an hour, being conscious to the last
moment. She talked calmly with her sisters in shame,
making dispositions of her dress and toilet. As soon
as Schlencker saw he had hit his victim he turned the
weapon of death upon himself. The first shot passed
through the left side and the second through the left
arm.
Though he thought himself fatally wounded, he
tried again to shoot, but found he was unable to raise
his arm. He thought he had now had vengeance on
the source of all his sorrows, and he was ready to die.
When his case came on for trial, the prosecution
gave him an opportunity to plead guilty to murder
in the second degree, and thus save his life. His
counsel urged him not to accept this proposition, and
the trial proceeded and Schlencker received the highest
sentence known to the law. The Supreme Court
was appealed to for a rehearing, but that tribunal refused
to interfere. His long neglected wife living in
St. Louis, Mo., with the fervor of a woman's love, is
using her influence and utmost endeavors to save his
life.
" It never rains but it pours." During the past
year murder followed murder with such astonishing
regularity, that Nebraska was expected to furnish a
fresh tale of horror with each succeeding week. As
the records given in this volume amply attest, evildoers
do not go unpunished. The strong arm of the law has stretched forth and called its violators to account.
Twelve years passed without a legal execution
in the state. Counting Richards and St. Louis, we
have now five in twelve weeks. Let us hope with
them may end the sad story of capital crimes that
have marred the fame of this young commonwealth.
Lincoln, May 1st, 1879.