A Decoy Letter, a Lonely Road, and a Confession
Charles Wezler admits to shooting his former mother-in-law to death on a Gig Harbor country road after a fake letter lured her there — a desperate scheme over children and alimony that ended in murder.
TACOMA, Wash., April 25. — Charles J. Wezler, the Portland novelty advertising solicitor, captured in San Francisco and brought here to answer for the brutal murder of Mrs. Fredericks Schulz, has made a complete confession to Sheriff Morris and Prosecuting Attorney McMurray.
Mrs. Schulz, mother of Wezler's divorced wife, was shot to death April 4 on a lonely country road leading from Gig Harbor to a sister's home near Artondale, whither Mrs. Schulz had been lured by a fake letter sent her by Wezler. Suspicion was at once directed by the family to Wezler.
Weeping hysterically while he talked, Wezler insisted that he did not intend to kill Mrs. Schulz. The family, he said, had threatened his life if he came to their house. He says he sent the decoy letter only to get Mrs. Schulz out where he could talk with her in safety, and that he wanted her to bring her daughter Emma along, believing Emma's good influence would help persuade the mother to aid him to recover his two children.
He walked along the road a mile or more talking with Mrs. Schulz. Wezler says she demanded he pay his divorced wife $3000 alimony and that then everything would be all right, otherwise his wife was going to Alaska and Mrs. Schulz was going to take the children. When she refused to recede or argue further, he says he lost all control of himself, drew the revolver and shot her.
“When she refused to recede or argue further, he says he lost all control of himself, drew the revolver and shot her.”
A custody-and-alimony dispute that ended in a roadside killing — the same volatile mix of money, children and grievance that still fills modern court dockets and, too often, the crime pages. Wezler's tearful insistence that he 'did not intend' to kill is the language of a thousand contemporary confessions.
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