Obit: Ableitner, Frederick 

Contact: Janet

Surnames: Ableitner, Allen, Austin, Barber, Briggs, Cornell, Clough, Cornell, Davis, Edwards, Franklin, Hacket, Hotchkiss, Hyde, Ireland, Jones, McClosky, Marshall, Moody, Morrison, Page, Richardson, Robinson,, Staley, Sullivan, Whitman

----Source: Rochester, Minnesota Historical Society

THE MURDER OF FREDERICK ABLEITNER.

Among all civilized peoples the willful, malicious, wrongful taking of human life is regarded as the highest crime known to the law. The act never fails to excite the horror and execration of the community in which it is committed, and invokes the just and speedy trial, condemnation and punishment of the murderer. But in murder, as well as in other offenses against society and the law, there are degrees of guilt and criminality. In some cases there are extenuating circumstances, as great provocation, sudden impulse of anger, or other conditions which tend to modify, to a greater or lesser extent, the real guilt of the criminal, and are and justly, too plead and allowed in mitigation of punishment. The case, however, which we are about to relate May well be classed among the most brutal, cold-blooded and fiendish in the annals of crime. Three strong, healthy and vigorous young men get together and coolly, deliberately, and with a sang-froid (evenness of mind under stress) strikingly shocking, plan, plot and proceed to murder a harmless and unsuspecting old man in his humble prairie home. The old man had never done his murderers any wrong; they had no motive to call him from his bed in the darkness of the night to assault and murder him, save that of robbing him of property justly and solely his own.

At the time our narrative commences, there were residing at or about the little city of St. Charles, in Winona county, three men, named John Whitman, Charles Edwards and George W. Staley. Whitman was a married man, about thirty-five years of age, and with his family, resided at St. Charles. Edwards and Staley were young men and unmarried. They were transient characters and had come into that neighborhood some time in the latter part of the summer of 1867, and engaged to work as harvest hands.

About two miles west of St. Charles, in the town of Dover, Olmsted county, was the farm residence of Mr. and Mrs. Frederick Ableitner, an old German couple. The country was then new and the old couple's home, though comfortable, was humble and unpretending, but, unfortunately for them, it was thought that they had a considerable sum of money in the house, recently sent to them from their native country. Jobn Whitman, it seems, had been at Mr. Ableitner's house, and while there he claims to have seen the old gentleman exhibit quite a sum of money as he was paying off some harvest hands. He informed Edwards that the old man had $2,000 in gold put away in a chest. The two men were not very long in making up their minds to rob the old German, and, taking Staley into the conspiracy, the three agreed upon the night of October 29, 1867, to put their wicked plan into execution. On the night of the murder the three men drank heavily at a saloon in St. Charles, and then, with brain crazed with whisky, and with robbery and murder in their hearts, they started for the scene of their horrible crime. It would appear that they had not fully determined upon killing their unsuspecting victim when they left St. Charles, but in talking the matter over, Edwards suggested that "dead men tell no tales," an adage which was readily agreed to by the other two men. Accordingly on the way they cut each man a club, Staley having with him also a loaded revolver. It was agreed that Edwards should call the old man to the door and knock him down, while Staley should watch him and Whitman assist Edwards in robbing the house. Arriving at the house Edwards knocked at the door, and Ableitner inquired: "Who was there and what was wanted." Edwards replied that a couple of men had lost their way and wanted to inquire the road to Chatfield. Upon this the old man came to the door, when Edwards knocked him down with his club. The victim got on to his hands and knees trying to rise, when Staley shot him with his pistol. Two or three more shots were fired at the old man. Edwards afterward lighted a paper, by which they looked in and saw the wounded man walking about the house, holding his hand to his side and groaning piteously. The above is, in substance, the narration of the circumstances connected with the cold-blooded and brutal transaction as minutely detailed by Staley in his confession, and is probably true in the main.

Mr. Ableitner survived his terrible injuries a few hours, but before he died he stated that there was only about fifteen dollars in money in the house at the time he was attacked.

Of course the entire community was deeply stirred over the brutal deed, and measures were speedily taken to ferret out the guilty ones and bring them to justice. Edwards, soon after the murder, disappeared and was never seen afterward by any one having knowledge of the murder. Whitman and Staley, however, remained in the neighborhood, and suspicion resting upon Staley as having been concerned in the murder, he was arrested upon a warrant issued by Justice Stevenson, of Dover. In the meantime Whitman pretended to be very active and officious in searching out the murderers, and it is a singular fact that while Staley was in custody during his examination, he was placed in charge of Whitman, the people little thinking that the latter was one of the murderous confederates. Justice Stevenson, deeming the evidence insufficient to warrant him in holding Staley for trial, discharged him.

Whitman and Staley remained in and about St. Charles for a number of days, when the citizens held an indignation meeting and resolved to put the case into the hands of Chicago detectives. Soon after this, Whitman, with his family, and also Staley, left the country. Mr. D. J. Page, a Chicago detective, appeared at St. Charles about this time and set himself to work to hunt up and arrest the murderers of Ableitner. Gathering what information he could, Page started east, as he believed, on the trail of the guilty and absconding Whitman. He traced the fugitive through Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio and Pennsylvania to Runnelsville, New York, where he found Whitman's family, but no Whitman. He had been there but his then whereabouts was not known. Page was at a loss to know just which way to take, but finally concluded to start in a westerly direction. Upon arriving at Rochester, New York, he was fortunate enough to find a clue that finally led to the capture of his man. He there teamed that Whitman was somewhere in the Michigan pineries, working as a teamster. With this slight clue, the wily and persistent Page pushed on to Michigan, and at a little town called Cedar Springs, in the pine forests of that state, he found and arrested Whitman, December 18, 1867. The detective brought his prisoner to Rochester and lodged him in jail. We will here finish our narrative concerning John Whitman and then take up again the case of Staley.

At the Jun term of the district court, 186S, Charles Edwards, John Whitman and George W. Staley were indicted by the grand jury for the willful murder of Frederick Ableitner. On October 6, following, the court being then in session, John Whitman plead guilty of manslaughter in the third degree, and on the 16th he was sentenced by Judge Barber to confinement in the state prison for the term of eight years. In the meantime Whitman had manifested a good degree of remorse and penitence over his awful crime. He had confessed soon after his arrest that he was one of the men who was present at the murder, but charged the killing upon Edwards and Staley. Prison life, with a guilty conscience, however, did not seem to agree with him. His health began utterly
to fail him, and on March 24, 1871, Gov. Austin granted him a full pardon.

About two weeks after landing Whitman at Rochester detective Page, with another Chicago detective, named James Webb, started to look up Staley. Mr. Page had obtained a slight clue to Staley's whereabouts by a letter which he saw at St. Charles, written by a Mr. Poole, of Portage City, Wisconsin. With what information they could gather, meager though it was, the officers pursued their way to Sparta, Wisconsin, from whence they proceeded to Black River Falls, thirty or forty miles further on. From that place the officers, with two or three other men in company, proceeded to Neillsville, some twenty to thirty-five miles distant, from whence they went to a lumbering camp, called "Allen's Camp." an obscure place in the Wisconsin pineries, in the northeast corner of Clark county. The party arranged to arrive at the camp in the night, as they thought that the arrest of Staley could be effected more easily and safely when all the lumbermen would be in bed. Accordingly, they reached the camp at two or three o'clock on the morning of December 26. The sleeping bunks or berths in the camp were arranged similiar to those on a steamboat, and Page, with Staley's picture about him, passed through between the berths, and told the men to look up and show their faces. Most of them uncovered their heads and the question was asked,
"What is wanted ?" One man, however, held the blankets down over his head, but the officer pulled the covering off and immediately recognized Staley. Mr. Page said to him: "George, get up, I want you." The guilty murderer and trembling fugitive immediately got up, dressed himself, and under the escort of the officers arrived at Rochester about December 30, when he joined his fellow murderer, Whitman, in the common jail of Olmsted county.

June 15, 1868, Staley was arraigned in the district court Hon. L. Barber presiding on a charge of murder in the first degree. County-attorney Start and F. R. E. Cornell, attorney-general, conducted the prosecution. Hon. R. A. Jones, of Rochester, and Hon. Benjamin Franklin, of Winona, appeared for the defense. Two full days were spent in getting a jury to try the case. Over one hundred men had been summoned before the requisite number (twelve) were selected. The jurors' names were as follows : W. P. Clough, John Morrison, A. D. Robinson, Aaron Richardson, R. R. Hotchkiss, J. Briggs, Barney Hacket, A. T. Hyde, D. A. Sullivan, James Ireland, Robert McClosky and James Moody. Aaron Richardson was chosen foreman.

About a dozen witnesses were sworn on the part of the state, and about half that number for the defense. The trial, which lasted nine days, was very interesting and impressive, and the proceedings were witnessed with deep and unabated interest by a large number of spectators each day. The state, as well as the defendant, was represented by skilled, able and energetic attorneys; the struggle of legal acumen and adroitness in the examination of witnesses was frequent, sharp and incisive, while the arguments before the jury were marked for their ability, candor and soundness.

The case was given to the jury on the 26th, between five and six o'clock in the evening. The jury retired to their room to consult together touching their verdict, and after being out about six hours they returned to the courtroom, and, through their foreman, announced to the court that they had agreed upon a verdict, which was, "Guilty, as charged in the indictment."

With all the circumstances and associations the scene was deeply sad and impressive, and was graphically described in the "Rochester Post," in its account of the trial, as follows:

"During the trial the appearance of Staley underwent no great change. He is twenty-two years old, of medium height, well built, and in expression candid, sincere, and rather prepossessing. From long confinement in the cell his hands and face have faded to a delicate white. His dress is scrupulously neat, his hair neatly combed, and hangs in graceful curls, giving him more the appearance of a dry goods clerk than of a prisoner on trial for his life. As the dread ordeal drew to a close, as the terrible recollection of that dreadful night of last October was renewed, as the fearful and ominous words, at the lumber camp, at the dead hour of night, "Get up, George, I want you," were reiterated, and as the web of condemning evidence continued to be woven around him, his earnestness of expression indicated a deepening interest in the results of the proceedings. But at no time did his self-control or steadiness of nerve forsake him. Confronted, face to face, at the lonely hour of midnight, with the twelve men, who, under God, held his fate in their hands; all nature hushed in repose, and the pale lamp casting a weird and ghostly glare over all objects in the now almost deserted courtroom, young Staley listened to the awful word "guilty" coolly, composedly, and without any apparent excitement or emotion. All present, including the court, attorneys and officers, were deeply moved with the sadly interesting and solemn scenes of that midnight hour."

The condemned man was remanded to the jail, and the next day his counsel moved the court for a new trial and suspension of sentence. The motion was heard by the court on the first Monday of September, 1868, and denied. County-attorney Start then moved for judgment of sentence. The prisoner arose to his feet, and the court asked him if he had anything to say why the sentence of the law should not be pronounced against him. Staley replied that he had ''nothing to say." The court then passed sentence as follows: " It is adjudged by the court, now here, that you, George W. Staley, as a punishment for the offense of which you have been convicted, be conveyed hence to the common jail, in the county of Olmsted and State of Minnesota; that you be kept in said jail in solitary confinement until the fifth day of March, 1869, and that on said fifth day of March you be hung by the neck until you are dead."

On the 12th day of September an appeal was taken to the supreme court. The appeal was argued before that court at its session in January following. The judgment of the court below was affirmed. A few days before the time fixed for Staley's execution, a petition to Go v. Marshal, asking for a commutation of the prisoner's sentence to confinement in the state prison for life, was drawn up and circulated for signatures by E. A. Jones, Esq. The petition was very generally signed by the jurors and leading citizens of Rochester and other near localities, and four days before the fatal "fifth day of March " the petition was presented to the governor by Mr. Jones. The governor granted the prayer of the petitioners, and Staley, instead of going to the gallows, was conveyed to the state prison.

Staley's uniform good behavior and cheerful compliance with prison rules and regulations, together with his youthfulness and agreeable manners, won for him sympathy, kindly feeling and respect, and after serving a prison life of six and one-half years, he was granted a full pardon by Gov. Davis, and has since, it is believed, led an innocent and honorable life.

In January, 1868, the legislature passed a bill appropriating $500 to be expended in the capture of Edwards. Detective Page stated that he had heard from Edwards; that he was in Texas, and he believed he could find him. The money, or a portion of it, was given to Page and he made the trip to Texas in pursuit of the fugitive, but without avail. Edwards was said to have been a Texas ranger; that he fought in the rebel army during the rebellion, and that the old German, Ableitner, was not the first man which he had murdered. That he was, and still is, if not dead or reformed, a desperate character, a full-Hedged villain and cut-throat, there seems to have been abundant evidence.


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George Staley did not hang. Responding to a popular petition, Governor William R. Marshall reduced his sentence to life in prison, and six years later Governor Cushman K. Davis granted him a full pardon. John Whitman, one of Staley’s cohorts, was apprehended, charged with murder, and pled guilty to third degree manslaughter, another instance of plea bargaining. He was sentenced to eight years in prison, but was pardoned by Governor Horace Austin after serving only three. A third robber, Charles Edwards, disappeared.