Robert Loerzel has a reporter's curiosity and a conqueror's will to see things through. Both are good traits considering that he spent the past eight years researching the crime of the century -- the 19th Century, that is.

Loerzel, an arts and entertainment editor outside Chicago, has received high praise for his new new book, "Alchemy of Bones: Chicago's Luetgert Murder Case of 1897."

Published by the University of Chicago Press, the book recounts one of the most fascinating and forgotten murder mysteries of its day. It even has a connection, albeit small, to Helena.

"I was looking around for a historical true crime story to write," Loerzel said in a phone interview Tuesday. "I was interested in crime and history and I stumbled across an old newspaper clipping."

That clipping told how reporters Fred Smith and W.H. Stuart of the Chicago Journal had scooped the other Chicago papers by eavesdropping on a jury deliberating a murder case in 1897. They had accomplished the task by lowering Smith on a rope down an air shaft above the jury room. The case soon swelled into one of the first media-driven celebrity trials in American history.

At the center of the case was Adolph Luetgert, "a hulking mustachioed German butcher" who some believed ground his wife, Louise Luetgert, to pieces in his Chicago sausage factory. Mrs. Luetgert was never found.

"Even years after the case, a legend persisted that Adolph had ground his wife into sausage, even though authorities had never accused him of doing that," Loerzel said. "They believed he had used a solution of crude potash to dissolve the corpse in a vat inside his factory."

In the vat, Loerzel said, police found several small bone fragments and two rings, reading "L.L.," which they believed belonged to Mrs. Luetgert.

But the prosecutor has another problem in the case beside the lack of a body. Mrs. Luetgert was reportedly seen in as many as 35 cities across the country after her purported death, including Helena.

On Sept. 16, 1897, three Chicago newspapers reported that a man named Christ Fathan had seen the alleged victim in Helena.

"(Fathan) says he had been well acquainted with Luetgert in the old country, and that Luetgert's wife was at present stopping at his home in Helena, Mont., as the guest of his wife," the Chicago Tribune reported.

The Chicago Evening Journal described Fathan as roughly dressed and fairly intelligent. He had evidently been drinking at the time of the sighting.

"He said he had a farm of 400 acres near Helena, Mont., which his boys were running while he went to Chicago," the Journal reported. "He claimed to be an ex-confederate veteran of a Kentucky regiment, and his war stories seemed straight. He gave no details as to how or when Mrs. Luetgert went to his place."

Loerzel said the rumor failed to create much interest in Chicago. Mr. Luetgert's attorney said he had never heard of Christ Fathan. Of the secondhand story, the attorney said, "I think it will scarcely pay to waste time upon it."

The mention of Helena is just a passing reference in the book, Loerzel said.

"People all around the country claimed they had seen her," Loerzel said. "That led to speculation that she was still alive and may have run off. Some of them were hoaxes, some were mistaken identity, and some were credible. She never did turn up."

Loerzel has worked as a reporter for 14 years, covering a variety of beats including crime and politics. He wrote the book on weekends and evenings over a period of eight years.

"It never failed to hold my interest," Loerzel said of the project.

Reporter Martin Kidston can be reached at 447-4086, or at mkidston@helenair.com.