Abendpost, 1922.11.15

[muckefuck]

Während dieser Mann krank war, so sollen die beiden Frauen erzählt haben, habe Frau Klimek oft davon gesprochen, daß er nicht lange mehr leben werde, und schon mehrere Tage vor seinem Tode habe sie einen Sarg in ihre Wohnung bringen lassen, den sie bei einem Gelegenheitskauf billig erhalten habe.

Während sie an seinem Krankenbett saß, soll sie an ihrem Trauerkleid genäht und sich nicht enblödet haben, dem Manne ohne Umschweife zu sagen, daß er sterben müsse. Nach seinem Tode spielte sie angeblich Tanzmusik in dem Zimmer, in dem die Leiche lag.

("While this man was sick, so both are to have said, Mrs Klimek remarked often that he would not live much longer and several days before his death she had a coffin, which she had picked up cheaply, brought into the dwelling.

While she sat on his sick bed, she reportedly sewed her mourning dress and did not shy away from saying to her husband plainly that he must die. After his death, she allegedly played dance music in the room where the corpse lay."

Weder Eltern noch Geschwister glauben an ihre Schuld. Burck ist ein gutmütig aussehender, grauhaariger Herr, der schon 80 Jahre alt ist, und seine bejahrte Ehehälfte eine typische Bäuerin.

("Neither her parents nor her siblings believe she is guilty. Burck seems a good-natured, grey-haired gentleman of 80 and his aged spouse is a typical farmer's wife.")

Comments

[mollyc-q.livejournal.com]

[crickets chirping] you've gone from bon vivant to um, grim(m)......[crickets chirping]

[muckefuck.livejournal.com]

Fear not, more bonne vivance is on the way. In the meantime, there's something darkly amusing about a thrifty murderess who gives the game away by buying a coffin when it's on sale.

[mollyc-q.livejournal.com]

dumb criminal, dumb silly dumb criminal, some people aren't meant to go into the business.... : )

And I accept the wrath that's headed my way, but dang this soooo German....grim, thrifty....

[mollpeartree.livejournal.com]

My own interpretation is that it was almost a form of bragging, at this point (this was at least her 4th, though possibly her 7th, murder).

The coffin cost $30, which struck me as kind of high for 1924.

[muckefuck.livejournal.com]

That's, what, about $400 in today's money? Sounds like a bargain to me! (The first discount site I found had them starting at $600.)

[mollpeartree.livejournal.com]

Ah, I should have checked an inflation calculator first. That really is pretty cheap.

[lhn.livejournal.com]

Thanks to the copyright wall, there's a tantalizing analysis of funeral costs from the 20s (based, as far as I can tell, primarily on Cook County data!) that we can only view snippets of. (Doubly annoying since I'd bet money no one ever actually renewed the copyright on it.)

[mollpeartree.livejournal.com]

Where did you see this? I've become pretty shameless about ILL lately. (Tillie claimed to have spent all of the insurance money on the funerals, which strikes me as highly unlikely.)

[lhn.livejournal.com]

Here are the Google Books entries I found. (They may be the same book under different titles; I'm not sure.)

The reasons for present-day funeral costs, John Charles Gebhart, Advisory committee on burial survey, G. P. Putnam's sons, 1928
http://books.google.com/books?id=kGDXAAAAMAAJ

Funeral costs: what they average. Are they too high? Can they be reduced?, John Charles Gebhart, Advisory committee on burial survey, G. P. Putnam's sons, 1928
http://books.google.com/books?id=2a0vAAAAYAAJ&q

Snippet: "In 1919 the Chicago City Club, and later the Chicago Council of Social Agencies, undertook a study of burial costs. The Chicago study attempted to get at the underlying economic causes and laid great stress, for example, ..."

[mollpeartree.livejournal.com]

Yay, we have the second book here! Thank you librarian man!

[lhn.livejournal.com]

No problem, citizen. Captain Reference, away!