Prosecuted by State's Attorney Charles S. Deneen, later a two-term governor of Illinois, Luetgert was convicted and sentenced to life in prison on February 9, 1898.

The tale was later proved false, as her body was shown to have been dissolved and the remains mostly burned, but the legend persists to this day.

Another common legend related to the murder is that the ghost of Louisa Luetgert haunts the old factory grounds and the couple's former home in Chicago.

[1] His parents, Christian Heinrich Lütgert and Margreta Sophia Severin, had a total of sixteen children; twelve other sons and two daughters.

While Adolph Luetgert and his twin were growing up, their father dealt with animal hides and tallow wool, as well a dabbling in real estate.

[2] After a short time in New York, Luetgert traveled to Quincy, Illinois, to join some friends of his eldest brother Henry, who were living there.

He stayed in Quincy for about four months before moving to Chicago in search of a job at a tannery, which he found at Union Hide and Leather Company.

[2] Luetgert married his first wife, Caroline Roepke, on April 13, 1872, at Chicago, Illinois; their two sons, Max and Arnold, were born there in 1873 and 1875.

A watchman from the factory confirmed the account, saying that Luetgert gave him an errand to run and told him that he could take the rest of the night off.

[citation needed] The police also came across bills that documented Luetgert having bought arsenic and potash the day before the murder.

Due to all the accumulated evidence, they were convinced that Luetgert had killed his wife, boiled her in lye, and disposed of her remains by burning them in the factory furnace.

Luetgert's first murder trial began in August 1897 and took place in the Cook County courthouse with Judge Richard Tuthill presiding.

The prosecution presented bone fragments and the ring inscribed "LL", recovered from one of the grinders in Luetgert's sausage factory, as its main evidence that Louisa had been killed there.

The defense argued that Louisa Luetgert had left her house freely on May 1, 1897, citing many claims of people around the US who said that they had seen her after the trial began.

[5] The prosecution used George Amos Dorsey, an anthropologist from the Field Columbian Museum in Chicago, as an expert witness to prove that the bones found were human.

Eighteen months later, on July 7, 1899,[6] Luetgert was found dead in his cell at the Illinois State Penitentiary.