A regular feature looking back at what was being printed more than 100 years ago in the former Bucks County Gazette. This week’s entry comes from the January 22, 1915 edition of the newspaper.
Youth Who Murdered Woman Pardoned By Outgoing Gov. John Tener
A telegram from Harrisburg, dated January 16, says: “The last pardon to be issued under the present State Board of Pardons was sent out today for Joseph Benzer, Bucks County, sentenced to 20 years imprisonment second degree murder. He was recommended at the recent meeting.”
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Sentenced By Judge Staples
Joseph Benzer, aged 16 years, and Hermann Haubt, aged 17 years, were convicted in the Bucks County Criminal Court of second-degree murder on September 25, 1908 for killing Mrs. Francis Kade, of Fallsington. The trial was held before Judge Charles B. Stales, of Stroudsburg, who was assisting Judge Mahton H. Stout at that term. The Commonwealth was represented by Judge William C. Ryan, then district attorney, and the prisoners’ counsel were George Ross and Harry J. Shoemaker, by appointment of the court. This was the first case in which George Ross was engaged after his admission to the bar, and the ability with which he handled it attracted much attention.
Banzer and Haubt were convicted of murder in the second degree, the jury reaching the verdict at 11 o’clock on the night of the day of the trial began. On October 6th Judge Staples sentenced each of the convicted men to 20 years in the Eastern Penitentiary, the full penalty for that grade of crime. Banzer has served only six years and three months of his term. Neither of the men’s counsel were interested in securing a pardon, and it is not known here who presented the petition. Mr. Ross expressed surprise on Monday morning when informed of the action of the Board of Pardons that Banzer, who was evidently the instigator of the crime should be pardoned and Haubt not receive the same consideration.
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History Of The Crime
The murder was committed early on Saturday morning, March 28, 1908. Mrs. Kade, the victim, resided alone in a little house near Fallsington, her husband at the time being in Doylestown jail, serving a sentence of six months for the larceny of wood from woods not far from their home. The Kades were Germans and had only recently moved Into the neighborhood.
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Banzer and Haubt lived in Trenton, N.J., heard that Mrs. Kade had a sum of money in the house. They crossed the river and went to Fallsington, where they entered the Kade home through a window. The noise made by the burglars aroused Mrs. Kade, who seized the lamp and rushed out of her bedroom into the hallway.
As she did so one of the men struck her with a club and she fell over the doorstep at the entrance to the house. The men then fled. The next morning the murder was discovered by a boy who saw a woman’s head protruding out of the doorway on the doorstep as he passed the house.
The detectives were engaged on the case for a week before suspicion was directed towards Banner and Haubt, who were under arrest In Trenton for stealing chickens. The boys made a confession, in which they admitted the crime, but each accused the other of inflicting the blow with the club upon Mrs. Kade. It was never clearly a established which wielded the club. one of Both the men prisoners claimed that after she had been struck Mrs. Kade ran ou towards the door tripped and fell into the doorway where her body was found.
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The trial attracted a great deal of attention. At its conclusion counsel for the prisoners moved for a new trial but the motion was subsequently withdrawn.
An advertisement from the January 22, 1915 edition of the former Bucks County Gazette:
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