Henri Albert "Albert" "Doc" Jeanneret

Cal 1845 - 1895  (~ 49 years)

• Name	Henri Albert "Albert" "Doc" Jeanneret
  Born	CALC 4 Dec 1845	Les Ponts-de-Martel, Neuchâtel, , , Switzerland   [1, 2, 3]
  Gender	Male
  Interesting	murder, crime
  Name	Albert Jeanneret
  Name	Henry Albert Jaenierette
  Eby ID Number	Waterloo-45659
  Died	4 Aug 1895	Waterloo Twp., Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada   [1]
  	Cause: murdered
  Person ID	I45659	Generations
  Last Modified	7 Nov 2024

  
  

  Father	Frederic Sylvain Jeanneret,   b. CA 1814, , Switzerland ,   d. Yes, date unknown
  Mother	Eugenie Dumont,   b. CA 1814, , Switzerland ,   d. Yes, date unknown
  Family ID	F14799	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

• Photos

  Jeanneret-HenriAlbert-001-WeeklyRecord1895.JPG Weekly Record Thu, Apr 02, 1896 Page 1

  
  

• Notes

  THE MURDER NEAR BRESLAU The brutal murder of Albert Jeanneret near Breslau was naturally the main topic of conversation in the past week. The hearing of the accused, August Kurschinski, before Judge Mackie on Wednesday afternoon did little to clarify the matter, and the continuation of the interrogation was post-poned until yesterday, Wednesday. On Thursday evening, Detective Grier from Toronto arrived and on Friday, he went to Breslau to view the scene of the crime. Newspaper correspondents and curiosity seekers visited the swamp, to see with their own eyes the spot where Jeanneret was found. There is little to add to our report of last week. The disappearance of the victim first caused concern on Monday morning and in the afternoon, close to 35 men went out on a search. Shortly before 4 o'clock, the body was found as already described; the pail and hat of the victim were found close by, as well as blood-stained chips of wood which had flown off the murderer's cudgel with each blow. There were deep gashes above the left eye and on the back of the head; the left ear was almost severed completely and there were at least 6 wounds on the right side of the head. The right arm and shoulder were smashed and severely swollen. The gash in the neck seemed to have been made with a dull knife after death had occurred. It was so deep that the spine was visible from above. The ground in the area of death was trampled underfoot and clearly shows that a bitter struggle took place. The murderer must have lost his senses completely as a result of the resistance of his victim, for otherwise, he would not have treated him so shamefully. August Kurschinski, who was arrested on suspicion of murder, is a neighbour of Mr. Hagey, at whose home Jeanneret resided. He is about 50 years old and has lived for 4 or 5 years in the area with his wife and several children. The Sunday before last, his wife and a daughter drove to Bloomingdale in the morning. The horse was frightened by a bicycle, galloped off and tipped over the carriage. Mrs. Kurschinski suffered severe injuries and was carried into the house of Mr. Noah Detweiler and her husband was informed immediately of the accident. He arrived towards noon, soon returned home however to feed his livestock and then returned towards 4:30pm. When he entered the house, he wore his hat on the back of his head and Mrs. Detweiler noticed several injuries on his forehead and between his eyes. As she had not noticed these before, she asked where he had injured himself. He appeared embarrassed, quickly pulled his hat forward and said that the hat didn't fit properly and the sun had burned his face. Hagey's sister and others heard a while ago that Kurschinski and Jeanneret were in disagreement with one another, because the former refused to pay the latter the usual sum for permission to pick berries. Kurschinski is said to have uttered a threat, moreover. On Sunday afternoon, Kurschinski's children who were at home alone, told some people who were looking for their father, that he was in the woods. A search of the house of the accused produced nothing. His pocket- knife showed several rust marks, whose origin will be investigated by a microscopic examination. Kurschinski wore a blue shirt on Sunday morning and it, as well as other pieces of clothing, had disappeared. In the medical examination of the body by Doctors Lackner and Bowlby, the condition of the stomach showed that death had occurred about 2 hours after a meal. Since Jeanneret dined at 1:00pm, the murder must have taken place between 3:00 and 4:00pm. Those are the grounds for suspicion which at present exist against Kurschinski. He himself insists that he had not spoken with Jeanneret for more than a week before his death. And he had also paid him for the berry-picking. One of the injuries on his face came from a tree branch against which he had fallen. A few days ago, he had injured his forehead while digging a ditch and he had also cut himself while shaving. Sunday afternoon he had had a nap in the barn after he had fed the cattle. The stains on the blade of his pocket-knife came from cutting tobacco. On Friday, at the instigation of his lawyer, Mr. Mowat of Guelph, the injuries on his face were examined by 6 doctors. In Kurschinski's house, things are in a sad state; his wife is in bed as a consequence of the injuries received in the accident on the Sunday before last, and the serious accusation against the father and provider weighs heavily on his next-of-kin. A brother of the accused lives in Berlin near the high-school. The interrogation of the prisoner on Wednesday (yesterday) was postponed until next Wednesday so that all the evidence could be at hand. The prisoner is quite alone in a cell at the jail, and no-one may speak with him with the exception of his lawyer, his spiritual mentor and the jailer. The injuries on Kurschinski's face are beginning to disappear; they were examined again by Dr. Duck of Preston. Clothing was found in Kurschinski's residence, but it is not known if it was worn by Kurschinski the Sunday before last. No blood stains were found on it. On the order of the administration, the body of the murdered man was exhumed on Monday morning and the fingertips were cut off by Drs. D.S. & G.H. Bowlby, Lackner and Clemens. Professor Ellis in Toronto will investigate whether or not any pieces of skin from Kurschinski's face are present under the fingernails. Such a discovery would form the strongest circumstantial evidence, but it is not likely, since the body was washed before burial. The branches of the trees on Kurchinski's property, against which he is said to have fallen, are all taller than he is, himself, as has since been established. BERLINER JOURNAL AUGUST 22, 1895 PAGE 4 - COLUMN 1. _______________________ The hearing of August Kurschinski, accused of the murder of Albert Jeanneret, took place on Wednesday, yesterday, before the justices of the peace Mackie and Mackay in the court-house here and, after the interrogation of many witnesses, he was consigned to the next assizes for a final examination. BERLINER JOURNAL AUGUST 22, 1895 PAGE 4 - COLUMN 1. ___________________________ THE FALL ASSIZES The deliberation of the fall assizes for the County of Waterloo began on Tuesday afternoon under the presiding judge, Robertson. The following were sworn in as the Grand Jury; Jerome Dietrich, foreman; Alex Beggs, John Cutler, Jas. Hastie, James Lochie, Wm. Mackenzie, Wm. Niehaus, Thos. B. Puddicombe, Arthur Pequegnat, Michael Robson, J.H. Stiefelmeyer, Jakob Stolz, Joseph Weber. The judge addressed the jury clearly and distinctly about the 3 criminal cases at hand, especially about the murder charge, and explained to them what a murder consisted of, according to the law, under varying circumstances. He advised them in investigating the charge, to judge and to pass sentence only from the statements of the witnesses, and not from public or their own private opinions. And also, not to speak with anyone outside of their own group, nor allow themselves to be influenced by anyone. He alluded to the penalties to which those are liable, who attempt to influence those under oath. Then, he spoke of the new changes in the jury laws, namely that the grand jury consists of only 13 members instead of 23, as formerly, and that in the decision-making in civil cases, unanimity of 10 out of 12 members is sufficient. He spoke approvingly of the concern demonstrated by the County of Waterloo in its construction of a Poor-house for the poor and needy, and drew the attention of the jury to the fact that they should visit the jail and could, in addition, visit the poor-house and bring any grievances to his attention. The jury then retired to their chambers and deliberated over the charge of the murder against August Kurschinski, which they found to be justified. They reported to the judge at 4.00pm. Kurschinski was led out before the judge and the charge was read out to him, at which he stood as straight as a soldier. To the question, whether he declared himself guilty or not guilty, he answered enthusiastically, "Not guilty!" at which, he was led out again. Of the 6 civil cases before the court, the action of Puddicome versus Beattie, came before the court on Tuesday and the case, which was concerned with a promissory note was decided in favour of the plaintiff and $427.56 was awarded to him. The accused raised no objection. Kurschinski's murder trial was begun yesterday morning (Wednesday). BERLINER JOURNAL OCTOBER 24, 1895 PAGE 4 COLUMN 3 _____________________________________ KURSCHINSKI'S TRIAL POST-PONED The deliberations in connection with August Kurschinski's murder trial began on Wednesday morning. Mr. B.B. Osler, counsel for the defense, made an objection to the hearing being undertaken, because the crown attorney intended to submit a pair of grey trousers, alleged to be spotted with blood, as evidence and the accused was not aware of this. He proposed therefore, to not undertake the hearing until the spring, so that the stains could be investigated microscopically to determine whether the stains were really from blood or not. Kurschinski had bought the material for the trousers from John Polinksi, in Galt; a petticoat of his wife made from the same piece of fabric and a left-over piece were presented, which had stains that appeared to have been caused by burning in the dyeing process. This was also verified on Thursday by the statements of John Polinski and his wife. Polinski had acquired the fabric in Brodie's factory in Hespeler and sold it to Kurschinski in December 1894. Caroline Spring of Kossuth had made the fateful trousers and avoided the burned spots as much as possible in the cutting out of them. Friedrich Kurschinski, a son of the accused, swore that secret policeman Greer and Constable Klippert had picked up the trousers at his father's house on August 9th. The latter two, however, said under oath that they had only found the item in question on August 20th. The gaoler, Thomas Tracey, testified that Kurschinski had asked him a month ago if the blood-stained trousers had been found and when he said "yes", the accused was very shocked and said he had cut his finger with a knife and had wiped the blood on the trousers. Mr. Osler would only agree to the immediate proceeding with the hearing, if the trousers were not going to be used as evidence, and renewed his proposal for a delay of the trial. The public prosecutor, Mr. Johnson, rejected the suggestion energetically, and the judge declined at length to grant the petition. Finally, however, he yielded and granted a postponement till the spring assizes. The accused, who had expected his hearing to take place immediately, was not at all pleased at the result and became sad and downcast and still has not resigned himself to his fate. BERLINER JOURNAL OCTOBER 31, 1895 PAGE 4 COLUMN 5 ____________________________ SPRING ASSIZES KURSCHINSKI FOUND NOT GUILTY! The deliberations of this court for the county of Waterloo began on Monday at 1:00 o'clock in the afternoon, presided over by Judge Rose. Because of the Kurschinski murder trial, an extraordinarily large number of spectators were present, of whom however, except for the jurors and the subpoenaed witnesses, only those who had acquired an entrance card from the deputy sheriff beforehand were allowed entrance into the court-house and the court-room. The following were sworn in as grand-jury members:- Wm. Stahlschmidt, headman, John S. Anthes, Thos. B. Allen, A. Brubacher, Ezra Eby, Richard Everatt, Robert Freeborn, Anton Forster, James Jardine, Wm,. Kerr, H. McCulloch, R. Struthers, S.J. Williams. The grand jury from the fall assizes had already investigated and validated the murder charge against Kurschinski and therefore, this grand jury did not have to do this again. There was no other criminal business on the docket except for visiting the prison and the poor-house and reporting on what they found. After the lawyers concerned had come into an agreement with the judge about all the civil cases without a jury on hand, in order that the jurymen not necessary for the murder trial could be let go, they proceeded to the hearing of the murder trial. The list of the 72 summoned jurymen was read out and then, the selection of the jurymen for the case was undertaken, which took a full hour, in that many of the aforementioned names were rejected both from the side of the Public Prosecutor as well as by the counsel for the defence. Following is the result of the selection:- Wm. E. Hall, John A. Mulroy, Peter Toul, Walter E. Coulthard, Walter E. Coke, Andrew Bryden, Jas. Bracey, John Waltham, Samuel Stewart, Peter Sararas, James E. Thompson, Stephan Hall. Among these, not one is a German of European extraction, and there is only one Pennsylvania-German; the remainder are all English, Irish & Scottish. Mr. E.F.B. Johnson, supported by the county Public Prosecutor Bowlby, conducted the prosecution, and B.B. Osler and J.A. Mowat, the defence. On Monday, 14 of the 45 witnesses for the prosecution were interrogated. The interrogation of the witnesses finished at 4.30 p.m. on Tuesday. The testimony was basically the same as that already recorded at the preliminary examination. The only new fact consisted in the testimony of the 3 experts who were examined regarding the evidence of the stains on the trousers of the accused and the fibres under the finger-nails of the victim. According to their opinions, the stains derived from blood and the fibres from blue and white cotton materials. According to certain indications in newspapers, it was expected that witnesses would be called who had seen Albert Jeanneret and August Kurschinski fighting with one another on the fateful Sunday afternoon in the raspberry marsh; that, however, was not the case. The entire testimony consisted of circumstantial evidence and no direct proofs. Mr. Osler spoke for over an hour to the jury in favour of the accused, and Mr. Johnson somewhat longer, in support of the charge. After a break from 7.30 to 8.30, the resume of the judge began, who presented clearly to the jury in a 1-hour speech the circumstances, as presented by the evidence of the witnesses. Among other things, he said; The possibility that someone else besides the accused could be the murderer is in no way out of the question, in that the proofs on which the crown bases its theories are rather weak. No-one saw Kurschinski at the scene of the crime; the threat against Jeanneret uttered by him: "If I can't have any raspberries, then you won't have any either!", might just as well make reference to Jeanneret's property (the raspberries) as to his life. The stains on the trousers of the accused could have come from blood other than that of the victim. The cotton threads found under the finger-nails of the accused are not a definite proof and the other materials which were taken to be particles of skin, could, in the opinion of the experts, be from his own, deteriorating fingers. The only strong point among the incriminating evidence is the conflicting explanation by Kurschinski of the scratches seen by several witnesses on his forehead. Whether this chain of proofs was strong enough to find the accused guilty, he would have to leave that completely to the consciences and sense of duty of the jurors. The jury withdrew immediately and re-appeared after an absence of scarcely 10 minutes in the court-room again, with the verdict, "Not Guilty!" Since there were no further charges against Kurschinski before the court, he was immediately released by the order of the judge. He left his seat with a few words of thanks to the jury, and at 10:00 p.m., the court-room that had been packed with spectators was empty. BERLINER JOURNAL APRIL 2, 1896 PAGE 4 - COLUMN 2

  
  

• Sources

  [S116] Vit - ON - Death Registration. Henry Albert Jaeniette, d. 4 Aug 1895 Waterloo twp, aged 49y, 8m Occ: laborer, b. Switzerland, Cause: murdered [S2508] Ancestry Public Member Trees. [S2508] Ancestry Public Member Trees, https://www.ancestry.ca/family-tree/person/tree/57044247/person/44149169225/facts.

  
  

• Event Map

  Born - CALC 4 Dec 1845 - Les Ponts-de-Martel, Neuchâtel, , , Switzerland Died - Cause: murdered - 4 Aug 1895 - Waterloo Twp., Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada  = Link to Google Earth