Surnames: Schuette, Bingham, Wasem

----Source: Colby Phonograph (Colby, Clark County, Wis.) 12/05/1912

Slayers of Baby Are Captured Fargo Officers Trace Couple From North Dakota to Wisconsin

A search for Mr. and Mrs. Richard Schuette, confessed slayers of their three weeks old infant at Fargo, North Dakota, Nov. 4, ended yesterday in the capture of the couple on the South Fork farm a short distance from Bright near Owen. They were arrested by Deputy Sheriff J. K. Bingham and Coroner B. F. Wasem of Fargo, who brought them to Eau Claire late last night and lodged them in the city detention station to await their departure for Fargo today.

During the summer the man and wife, who are aged twenty-two and twenty years respectively, worked with a threshing outfit in Braddock county, the wife doing the cooking for the crew. A baby was born to them Oct. 14. On the afternoon of Nov. 4 they left for Wisconsin on a Great Northern train arriving at Fargo in the evening. Here they left the train and engaged a room at the Great Northern hotel. They occupied it but an hour but during that time, according to the confession made to Sheriff Bingham in the presence of Chief Elliot and Coroner Wasem last night, they killed their baby by choking it to death with a handkerchief.

Schuette testified that he at first attempted to kill the baby by placing his fingers over its mouth and nose, but this failing he tied a handkerchief about its neck causing death by strangulation. The baby was placed behind a dresser where it was found a few moments after their departure by the hotel proprietor who notified the authorities.

Through the efforts of Mr. Wasem, who wrote numerous letters over the country, the couple was traced to Owen. He immediately left with Sheriff Bingham for that town.

The couple had been working on the South Fork farm the past two weeks. When arrested they immediately acknowledged the charge and last night formally entered pleas of guilty to murder in the first degree.

According to the office this is a plain case of the wife and mother giving in to the husband in everything. Upon cross examination............. missing content.