On May 1, 1897, Louise Luetgert disappeared. Although no body was found, Chicago police arrested her husband, Adolph, the owner of a large sausage factory, and charged him with murder. The eyes of the world were still on Chicago following the success of the World's Columbian Exposition, and the Luetgert case, with its missing victim, once-prosperous suspect, and all manner of gruesome theories regarding the disposal of the corpse, turned into one of the first media-fueled celebrity trials in American history.

Newspapers fought one another for scoops, people across the country claimed to have seen the missing woman alive, and each new clue led to fresh rounds of speculation about the crime. Meanwhile, sausage sales plummeted nationwide as rumors circulated that Luetgert had destroyed his wife's body in one of his factory's meat grinders.

Weaving in strange-but-true subplots involving hypnotists, palmreaders, English con artists, bullied witnesses, and insane-asylum bodysnatchers, Alchemy of Bones is more than just a true crime narrative; it is a grand, sprawling portrait of 1890s Chicago—and a nation—getting an early taste of the dark, chaotic twentieth century.

| Cover Title Copyright Contents Introduction 1. Omens 2. Legends 3. The Englishman 4. Everything Is Gone 5. Moving Day 6. Missing 7. Case Histories 8. The Search ILLUSTRATIONS A 9. Strong Stuff 10. Grewsome Clews 11. The Sweating 12. The Woman in Black 13. Cell 21 14. Spring and Summer 15. Fixed Opinions 16. The Rustling Noise 17. The Morbid Women 18. Trained Beasts 19. Trial by Newspaper 20. The Throwing Mania 21. The Widow ILLUSTRATIONS B 22. The Experiments 23. Cries and Whispers 24. The Experts 25. Autumn 26. The Kiss 27. Sideshows 28. A Game of Tag 29. Just a Plain Domestic Girl 30. The Many Mrs. Luetgerts 31. Soap and Bones ILLUSTRATIONS C 32. Cigar Talk 33. Oratory 34. Twelve Men 35. Queer Reports 36. Telescopic Views 37. Aftermath 38. Editorials 39. Between Trials 40. Turbulence 41. The Ghouls ILLUSTRATIONS D 42. Denials 43. Winters 44. The Verdict 45. Lives of Destiny 46. Prisoner 5969 47. Confessions and Eulogies Epilogue Acknowledgments Notes Index Back cover |

"Thanks to Robert Loerzel this fascinating case comes to life to show forensic scientists and investigators how much has changed (and hasn't changed) in the one hundred years since it captured the nation's attention."—Journal of Forensic Science

"Loerzel has done an impeccable research job and tells the story as if he were a fly on the wall."—CBA Records

"Alchemy of Bones is an exceptional example of the true-crime genre."—Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society

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Robert Loerzel is an associate editor at Pioneer Press, which publishes newspapers in the suburbs of Chicago. He has received many awards for investigative reporting and feature stories from the Illinois Press Association, the Chicago Headline Club, and the Northern Illinois Newspaper Association.