The Hangman's Ropemaker: Ernest Ortwein, the Homestead Butcher

"Among the other important murderers for whom Mr. Bupp made ropes, were..... Ortwein, who was convicted of killing the Hammett family, five in number, at Homestead."

~ "Making Nine Ropes," Pittsburgh Dispatch (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania), 31 March 1890, page 2

*This blog post is one in a series of blogs on my famous ancestor, Jacob Bupp, the Hangman's Ropemaker- click the page tab above labeled "The Hangman's Ropemaker" for more information and the blog series*

Ernest Ortwein was a recent Prussian immigrant from a village near Stuttgart in the newly formed German Empire.   He was a veteran of Bavarian Army, and had fought in a number of battles in the then fairly recent Franco-Prussian War, which can be read about in a previous blog.  He was in his late twenties and was working as a laborer of the farm of the Hamnett family in Homestead, Pennsylvania, which was in the country southeast of Pittsburgh.  He went by the names of Ernest Love  and Ernest Mentzer as aliases, although why he needed such aliases was unclear.

On 29 April 1874, John and Agnes Hamnett, the owners of the fairly prosperous farm, had gone to visit neighbors, leaving their two young daughters Ida and Emma and their young ward, Robert Smith, home alone.  Ernest Ortwein had asked to borrow a horse to visit a friend, and was supposed to be gone from the farm that evening. However, he had returned home sometime in the evening, after having a few drinks and purchasing candy for the children in the village.

The story gets kind of confusing at this point.  In some newspaper accounts, Ortwein's motive for the crimes he committed that night was he wanted to rob the family, but couldn't with the children at home, so he killed them.  Another account stated he killed the boy and the parents and then set fire to the house to cover his crime, but couldn't bear to think of the children burning to death, so he killed them mercifully while the house burned.  Another account stated he did what he did only to cover up his lust for the elder daughter, Ida (who was only six years old according to her tombstone and eight according one newspaper account), and the fact that he was caught in acting upon that lust.  Whatever the motive, the fact remains that by the end of the night, not only were the children dead, butchered by an ax, but both John and Agnes Hamnett lay dead.  The house was ransacked as Ortwein looked for whatever money he could find, and then burned to cover up the crime.

A neighbor noticed the burning house and the smell of flesh being roasted at three the next morning, and suspicion first fell upon Ortwein when neither his belongings nor his being were found amongst the ruins of the burned home.  It was upon examining the remains that authorities were alerted to the nature of the crimes.

Meanwhile, Ortwein fled to the South Side of Pittsburgh, hopping from saloon to saloon.  He then crossed the river into Allegheny, where he was caught with a number of possessions on him belonging to the Hamnett family.  According to one newspaper account,  he was hallucinating:

"During all this time the apparitions of his murdered victims appeared to follow him and his inability to ignore the subject of the murder finally led to the suspicions which caused his arrest." ("The Curtain Dropped," Pittsburgh Daily Post (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania), 24 February 1875, page 4)
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After word got out about his hallucinations, people in the village of Homestead threatened to lynch Ortwein if he was not brought up on charges of murder.

Ortwein's trial took place in June of 1874.  The lawyers for the defendant worked hard to prove that Ortwein was insane, using the claims of his hallucinations as proof.  There was discussion that his recent service in the Franco-Prussian War caused him trauma and that was why he killed the family in the manner that he did.

The Supreme Court of Pennsylvania affirmed the sentencing in January 1875, stating that even if Ortwein was doubted to be insane, the court was not necessarily convinced he was actually insane, and therefore the sentence of death was upheld.

On 23 February 1875, Ernest Ortwein was hanged in the city jail.  Six people wanting to watch the scene unfold but not on the invitation list had been caught that morning, having sneaked into the jail during the night.  A wall erected in the city jail yard kept a lot of the looky-lous from viewing.  His last words were said to be a prayer, spoken in German and translated by one of the ministers who was there.  He then was hanged, and his body and brain were examined upon his death for any abnormalities.  None were found.  The same scaffold he was hanged on was later widened to be used in the hangings of William Murray and Frederick Myers eleven months later.

While not listed as the maker of the rope in the articles of the day, in later interviews Jacob insisted he made the rope for Ortwein's execution.  What's interesting is that just after one of the newspaper accounts of the hanging, the following was found:

"A rope manufacturer, with an eye to business, attended the execution yesterday.  He was very solicitous to get a free puff.  Whether he succeeded or no, we are unable to state, but the matter was regarded much in the same light as decorating soldiers' graves with flags on which advertisements are printed." ("Local Briefs," Pittsburgh Daily Post (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania), 24 February 1875, page 4)

Whether or not that particular ropemaker was indeed Jacob  remains a mystery, but it is an interesting mention, and given his history, the chances that it was Jacob are great.

Sources Used
"The Curtain Dropped," Pittsburgh Daily Post (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania), 24 February 1875, page 4; online images, Newspapers.com (www.newspapers.com : accessed 23 May 2019).

Find A Grave, database with images (www.findagrave.com : accessed 23 May 2019), memorial page for John Hamnett (and family), Find A Grave Memorial # 48780291, citing Anne Ashley United Methodist Church Cemetery (Munhall, Allegheny, Pennsylvania), memorial created by Roseanne Kocinski-Fowler, photograph by Richard Boyer.

"The Hamnett Tragedy," The Pittsburgh Daily Commercial (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania), 20 June 1874, page 2; online images, Newspapers.com (www.newspapers.com : accessed 23 May 2019).

Journal of the House of Representatives of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania for the Session Begun at Harrisburg on the Fourth Day of January 1876 (Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: B. F. Meyers, 1876), 68; online images, Google Books (https://books.google.com/books?id=a3JMAAAAMAAJ : accessed 6 June 2019).

"Local Briefs," Pittsburgh Daily Post (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania), 24 February 1875, page 4; online images, Newspapers.com (www.newspapers.com : accessed 23 May 2019).

Loftquist, Bill. "Ernest Ortwein," State Killings in the Steel City: The History of the Death Penalty in Pittsburgh, 11 January 2018 (https://state-killings-in-the-steel-city.org/ : accessed 23 May 2019).

"Making Nine Ropes," Pittsburgh Dispatch (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania), 31 March 1890, page 2; online images, Newspapers.com (www.newspapers.com : accessed 16 August 2016).