Cook County IL Archives News.....Girl Wife Ends Life - Ganka December 7, 1903 ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/il/ilfiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Deb Haines ddhaines@gmail.com September 4, 2007, 3:21 am Various: See Text December 7, 1903 Marshall [MI] Expounder, Dec 11, 1903 After an Evening at Theatre Mrs. Rose Ganka Takes Poison and Dies The following concerning the death of Mrs. Fred Ganka is taken from the Chicago Record-Herald. Mr. Ganka formerly lived in this city and is well known here: "A romance that for three years filled two lives with sadness, with just a little happiness intermingled, came to an abrupt end early Saturday morning when Mrs. Rose Ganka committed suicide at the Saratoga hotel. Ganka, in whose arms the young wife died, was forced by the hotel attaches to remove her body at once. He put it in a cab and drove with it to his wife's former home at 418 Washington boulevard. Death was caused by poison and after she had taken the fatal dose Mrs. Ganka sat beside her husband, chatting and laughing, until overcome by nausea. Even then she did not acknowledge that she had taken poison, but tried to pass off her illness as being of no consequence. The romance began at a dancing academy where then Rose Bemis, niece of Henry V. Bemis, formerly of the Richelieu hotel, met Fred Ganka, a clerk in a shoe store. Miss Bemis was only 15 at the time, Ganka being five years her senior. Two weeks after they met they were married at St. Joseph, Mich. It was an elopement. At first, owing to the youth of the bride, her uncle, Mr. Bemis, and her grandmother, Mrs. Katherine Woodruff, with whom she had lived since the death of her mother five years ago, objected to the match. Reconciliation followed, however, and the girl bride and her husband returned to the home of Mrs. Woodruff to live. A year and a half ago a son was born to them, and at about the same time Mrs. Ganka inherited $15,000. At the wish of her husband she invested nearly the whole amount in a bakery at Albion, Mich., whither they went to live. Six months ago they returned to Chicago, their money gone. Mrs. Ganka went to her grandmother's home and her husband boarded several blocks away. Then came a bill for divorce, alleging that Ganka had been cruel to his wife. For a time Mrs. Ganka appeared despondent. Saturday afternoon Mrs. Ganka left her grandmother's house, saying she would dine with Mr. Bemis. She went to the store where her husband is employed, and calling him to one side said: "Fred, our boy is ill. I want you to come home with me and see him." Ganka left the store with her, only to be informed that the child was in good health, and that she had made an excuse to get him away. She then begged him to forget about the divorce proceedings and to live with her again. An reconciliation was arranged, and they agreed to attend the theatre together. Going to a drug store at Center avenue and Jackson boulevard, Mrs. Ganka then bought the poison, telling her husband it was face powder, and obtaining from him the money with which to pay for it. After the theatre Mr. and Mrs. Ganka went to the Saratoga hotel, where Mrs. Ganka obtained stationery and wrote four brief letters, one each to Mr. Bemis, Mrs. Woodruff, Mrs. Ella Tolman, an aunt, and Miss Zadie Galvin, a friend. She also wrote a note to her husband, and this was found after her death. In it she asked forgiveness, begged him to be kind to their child and her grandmother, and exonerated him from blame. Mrs. Ganka took the poison at 1 a. m. and at 5 o'clock was dead. The police were not notified until 9:30 in the morning. Coroner Traeger made a personal investigation of the case as soon as he was notified by the police, and threatens trouble for the hotel employes. In discussing the case he said: "The law expressly provides that in the case of a sudden death the body shall not be moved until it is viewed by the coroner. When the inquest is called tomorrow morning every person who had any part in the moving of the body will be called on to explain. "It seems as if the hotel authorities, the house physican, Dr. J. J. Davis, and the friends and relatives of the woman did all that they could to hide the details of the death. From what I have learned it was a case of suicide, but should the same methods be pursued by others in a case where murder was done the hands of the police and of the coroner would be tied. "It is an outrage that no notice of the death of this woman was sent to me." ------------------------------ The Evening Herald [Syracuse NY] Dec 7, 1903 Tragedy Ends Romance Eloping Heiress Takes Poison When Delusion is Over Rose A. Bemis, Niece of a Chicago Millionaire, Ran Away with a Store Clerk Three Years Ago and Was Brought Home Dead in a Cab Chicago, Dec. 7.-Early Sunday morning, with the shrouded form of his dead wife beside him in a cab, Frederick Ganka, whose elopement three years ago with Miss Rosa A. Bemis, heiress and niece of Henry V. Bemis, president of the Bemis-Richelieu Importing company and former proprietor of the Hotel Richelieu, stunned West side society, drove from the Saratoga hotel to the home of Mrs. Kathryn Woodruff, No. 418 Washington boulevard, the grandmother of Mrs. Ganka. This was the home-coming of the beautiful 18-year-old girl who is believed to have accepted suicide as the happiest solution of a shattered romance. Dead Body in a Cab Wrapped in blankets and borne by the young husband and two hotel employes, the body of the young woman was carried from the Saratoga hotel to a waiting cab in Dearborn street. The body was placed inside the vehicle in a sitting position. Ganka climbed in after it and the weird ride to Washington boulevard was begun. On arrival at the former home of his wife, Ganka, aided by the driver of the cab, carried the body into the residence of Mrs. Woodruff. The peculiar circumstances in connection with the death of the girl prompted the arrest of Ganka early in the forenoon. Criticism was aroused by a late notification to the Coroner and police. Detectives from the Central station apprehended Ganka, the disheartened and frightened young man, but he was later released at the instance of Mr. Bemis. Eloped When But Fifteen Ganka at the time of his marriage was a shoe clerk for Marshall Field & Company. Recently he has been employed in Streeter's shoe store. When 15 years old Miss Bemis eloped with Ganka to St. Joe, Mich. Ganka, himself, was only 20 years old and the affair caused a stir among Mrs. Ganka's relatives and friends. There is little doubt that resulting unhappiness caused the girl to take the poison which caused her death Sunday morning. Letters left by Mrs. Ganka bear out this theory. Last July Ganka and his wife became separated and later Mrs. Ganka filed for a bill of divorce, alleging cruelty. After a visit to her grandmother on Saturday evening Mrs. Ganka is said to have called her husband from his place of employment on the pretext that their baby was ill. Then she told him that nothing was the matter with the baby, but that she had filed a suit for divorce and wanted to know if he would contest the case. Ganka said that he would not. Took Poison in Saratoga Hotel Then he asked his wife to go to the theater. She agreed. Both went to Ganka's home at No. 354 Jackson boulevard and while he was changing his clothes it is thought that Mrs. Ganka purchased poison at a drug store. They went to the theater and then to the Saratoga hotel. Mrs. Ganka left the parlor which her husband had engaged and went to the lavatory. Alarmed by her failure to return, Ganka went to seek his wife. He found her lying on the floor, suffering agonies from the poison which she had swallowed. A physician was called but he arrived too late to save Mrs. Ganka's life. She died about 5 o'clock in the morning and soon after the body was wrapped in blankets by Ganka and taken to the home of Mrs. Woodruff. File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/il/cook/newspapers/girlwife279nnw.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.net/ilfiles/ File size: 8.4 Kb