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Chicago, Illinois, December 31st, 1925.

I loved John, and my husband was in the way, so John killed him.

This, in brief, was the substance of the confession last night of Mrs. Eliza Nussbaum,

59 years old, and the grandmother of eight children.

She said it unemotionally, almost casually, after first having tried to shield John Walton Wynne,

37 years old, with whom she had carried on an illicit love affair for 15 years.

Wynne was arrested in Crown Point, Indiana, but was not told there that he had been accused by the woman he called Mother

Nussbaum of having killed Albert Nussbaum, 92-38 Baltimore Avenue, 60 years old, a carpenter

contractor and fairly wealthy. Nussbaum's body was found on the prairie early yesterday morning

at 94th Street in Brandon Avenue.

When fought Sheriff Ben Strong and Deputy Tom Platt when they entered his room in a Crown Point Hotel.

Then, after he was subdued, he attempted to tear up a letter.

It was addressed to him and read as follows.

Play hold up, ransack the house, tear up the stuff in the drawers. I hate to do it. I don't want to be

rough about it. But it's you or me or him. Let it be a holdup and a robbery. I'd sooner you have one of the others do it. Couldn't

that guy do it? I hate to have you do it. I'll try and get $25 for you right away. I'll get the

money on the ring or watch and you'll hear from me soon. Do you love me? Unquote. There was no signature, but the letter closed

from mother to my baby.

Thank you. True Crime Historian presents an eye for an eye, a special edition of yesterday's news exploring the criminal justice system at its most extreme, inflicting the death penalty.

So, episode 199 tells what happens when a grandmother with a grumpy but somewhat wealthy older husband befriends a younger man when he's released from prison and begins paying him $250

a month for his affections.

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