Mary Bach’s residence in Bowling Green ended when she was murdered by her husband Carl in the autumn 1881, but she left a little something behind.
In a jar at the Wood County Historical Center rest the departed Bach’s fingers. The desiccated appendages in question were the key evidence in a murder trial that resulted in the last execution in Wood County, a public hanging on the front stairs of the Wood County Courthouse on the last day of the Wood County Fair in 1883.
Bach’s husband Carl, a local farmer, walked into town the next day and made statements which eluded to the killing. He was taken into custody and the police went to the Bach farm to investigate the claims. He was telling the truth, she was unmistakably dead, cut into numerous small pieces. When the police arrived at the scene of the crime the fingers were collected in a jar as evidence for the pending trial.
“There was a history of domestic violence between the couple and he had been living in the barn over the summer,” said Anne Touvell of the Wood County Historical Center. “He had wanted to move back into the back part of the house as winter was coming, and evidently she did not move her stuff out or she did not move it out fast enough and he snapped and killed her.”
According to Touvell the rage behind the act is clear in the size of the cluster of fingers in the jar. The fingers would fit easily into the bottom of a beer mug.
“Almost all pieces that she was cut into were just as small as the fingers and those are pretty small,” Touvell said. “You can imagine the rage he must have been feeling when he did this.”
After Carl Bach murdered his wife he left their children with her over night, then he took the children and all of his money over to the neighbors house, requesting that she receive a proper funereal. With that done he then went into town and turned himself in.
The fingers are not the only artifact from the murder. According to employee Janet Kennedy there is a display containing the jar of fingers along with news clippings, a souvenir postcard from the trial and the rope that was used in the execution. The rope was prepared for the sole purpose of hanging Carl Bach and has been used as nothing but a macabre remainder of this particularly gruesome chapter in the history of Bowling Green.
“Often parallels are drawn between the execution of Carl Bach and modern capital punishment cases. There where people who drew parallels over the summer with the McVeigh execution,” said Brett Bossard, Education Coordinator for the Historical Center, “Plus many people who come here have already heard about the fingers and especially with younger people the first thing they ask is when do they see the fingers on the tour.”
The fingers are a small discolored cluster still connected at the point of junction between finger and hand, resembling overcooked and dehydrated sausages. Above them dangles the murder weapon, a large corn knife with a darkly oxidized blade that is chipped and deformed from use, sections of the blade are so damaged that they stick out at an angle from the weapon itself. Draped across the top of the exhibit is the noose, braided and labeled, still well enough persevered that it looks like it could still function, a bit of padding covers the point where rope and skin would come in contact. A post card commemorates the event, and a framed picture of Carl Bach stares out from the case, his full white beard obscuring most of his face down to his chest, his eyes look just a little wild. Drawing and diagrams explain the layout of the farm and what was found after the authorities arrived.
“Until the 1980’s the fingers where kept in the Wood County Court House” Bossard said. The appendages were moved to the museum during renovations to the court house and have remained there to this day. “A lot of the people who come in here have the expected gross out reaction, others don’t believe that they are real.”
In the adjacent cases there are relics from other infamous moments in Bowling Green’s history. Other murder weapons also remain there as memorabilia of the crimes, even a few other knives, though none quite the same as the massive, battered corn knife used by Carl Bach. Handcuffs and other restraints bear witness to the actions of law enforcement, but there is only one noose. In the entirety of these exhibits there is nothing to compare to the jar containing Mary Bach’s desiccated fingers.
