On June 26, 1897, New York City police were confronted with a gruesome discovery: a headless torso wrapped in red oilcloth was found floating in the East River near 11th Street. Later the same day, two teenage boys swimming near the Brooklyn Navy Yards found a package containing two human legs, also wrapped in oilcloth. The following day, another parcel containing the lower part of a human body was found by a man and his two sons near the High Bridge. An autopsy at the High Bridge Mortuary determined that all the body parts belonged to the same person: a well-built male, roughly 35 years old and about 5 feet 10 inches tall.
The coroner found that the man had been stabbed, including a wound through the heart, and concluded that whoever had dismembered the body likely had some medical training. The oilcloth proved a crucial clue, as only two wholesale companies in New York supplied it. One of them, H. Firstein and Sons, confirmed the match.
Detectives then worked to identify the victim, a difficult task since the head had not been found. A woman initially came forward believing the body was her missing brother-in-law, but that identification proved false. The case soon turned when employees at the Murray Hill Spa identified the body as that of William Goldensuppe, a masseur who had recently gone missing. An attendant recognized distinctive marks and a tattoo that someone had tried to remove, and a doctor confirmed the identification based on a scar on the left index finger from a procedure he had performed on Goldensuppe.
Police learned that Goldensuppe had been living with a midwife named Augusta Nack at 339 Fifth Avenue. When authorities arrived at her apartment, they found her preparing to leave for Europe and took her into custody. She claimed to have no knowledge of Goldensuppe’s whereabouts and said she had no concern for his fate. Her estranged husband, Hermann Nack, was arrested but released after his alibi was confirmed.
A breakthrough came when a woman told police that her husband, a barber named John Gotthard, had recounted a story told to him by another barber, Martin Thorn. Gotthard told detectives that Thorn had been living with Mrs. Nack and that the two had begun an improper relationship while Goldensuppe was away. One evening, Goldensuppe allegedly returned home and found Thorn and Mrs.
Nack in bed together, leading to a fight in which Goldensuppe attacked Thorn. According to Gotthard, Thorn later rented a cottage in Woodside, Long Island, under the false name of Mr. Braun, and purchased a pistol and a knife with the intention of seeking revenge. On June 25, Mrs.
Nack allegedly invited Goldensuppe to the new house. When Goldensuppe went upstairs, Thorn was reportedly hiding behind the door and shot him in the back of the head. When Goldensuppe was found still breathing, Thorn placed him in the bathtub and finished the job with the knife. Gotthard claimed Mrs.
Nack then purchased oilcloth while Thorn dismembered the body. The head, he said, was covered in plaster of Paris and bandages before being discarded in the river, while the limbs and torso were wrapped and scattered around the city. Martin Thorn was apprehended and questioned but denied the murder, claiming he had arrived at the house to find Mrs. Nack had already killed Goldensuppe and that he only helped dispose of the body.
A carving knife, a saw, and a revolver were found in the cottage, all stained with human blood. In early July 1897, Augusta Nack was charged with murder, and Martin Thorn was charged days later. Their trials were held separately, with Nack’s first. The proceeding took place in Long Island and became one of the most widely followed trials of the 1890s, with seats reserved for 72 reporters and 10 telegraph lines set up to transmit updates.
The prosecution alleged that Nack had killed the man she lived with and conspired with Thorn to dispose of his remains. Witnesses identified her as the woman who had purchased the red oilcloth, and the blood-stained tools supported the prosecution’s case. The prosecution also implied that Nack had performed illegal abortions under the guise of being a midwife, a claim she denied. Nack, for her part, denied shooting Goldensuppe and blamed Thorn, saying he was jealous of her relationship with the victim and angered after Goldensuppe had assaulted him.
Her defense attorney, William Howe, a prominent lawyer of the era, argued that she was a victim of both men and had lived in fear of them. As the trial neared its end, Nack accepted a lesser charge of manslaughter in the first degree and agreed to testify against Thorn. She was sentenced to 15 years in prison. Thorn’s trial followed and was another media sensation.
He told the court that he had left Germany 17 years earlier, had paid $2 a week in rent to Nack, and had initially believed Goldensuppe was her husband. He claimed that when he arrived at the Woodside cottage on June 25, Nack told him she had shot Goldensuppe and that she herself had cut up the body. A witness, barber Constantine Kean, testified that Thorn had told him he had received surgical training in Germany, which supported the prosecution’s argument that Thorn had the knowledge necessary to dismember the body. Thorn admitted he had lied to police about his whereabouts on the day of the murder in an attempt to establish an alibi.
John Gotthard was a crucial witness for the prosecution, and his credibility was questioned when it was revealed he had been paid a $100 reward for his testimony. A letter from Nack to Thorn, written while she was in prison, was also revealed; in it, she asked him to send her something to end her life. Thorn told the court he refused because he loved her and wanted to see her free. When asked if he was willing to die for her, he said he was.
The trial lasted six days. On November 30, 1897, Martin Thorn was found guilty of the murder of William Goldensuppe and sentenced to death. His appeal was rejected, and he was executed in the electric chair at Sing Sing Prison on August 1, 1898. Augusta Nack did not serve her full sentence.
She was released from prison in July 1908 after serving nine years. She attempted to open a shop, but closed it after being recognized, and a second shop met the same fate. She spent the rest of her life in relative obscurity in New Jersey.