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Scandal in Pittsburgh: 1892 - Suicide or Murder? Scandal in Pittsburgh: 1892 - Suicide or Murder?CRIME FOUND.SUICIDE OR MURDER?’TIS A MYSTERIOUS HANGING.A HUSBAND’S ARREST.The Pittsburgh headlines on July 28, 1892, gave the public something to talk about.The Dispatch, The Post, the Times, The Commercial Gazette, and The Chronicle Telegraph allprinted a story on Max Cutkisky, who was arrested the previous day for murdering hiswife and making it look like a suicide. Three of the papers provided lengthy articles, andthe Times even gave the story front-page billing. All over Pittsburgh, people were readingabout Bessie Cutkisky (née Lieberman), who was pronounced dead on July 23. Shewas found in the Cutkisky home at 2834 Penn Avenue by her husband, who immediatelyreported the news to his neighbors and the police. However, in the days following theapparent suicide, Cutkisky’s suspicious actions earned him unwanted attention and,ultimately, an arrest.Bessie and Max married on June 26, just one month before Bessie’s death. The state oftheir short-lived marital life is unclear, as reports are contradictory. The Dispatch claimedthat neighbors said Cutkisky abused his wife and even threatened her, while The Post saidneighbors believed the couple “lived peaceably and acted almost like young lovers.” Evenwhen citing her brother’s words, the newspapers were at odds. The Gazette quoted JosephLieberman: “We are sure that Bessie was murdered. Max never treated her right…” YetThe Times read that Lieberman “said they seemed to live happily together.”Whether the marriage was happy and healthy or not, the Lieberman family found theapparent suicide questionable. Bessie’s brother Joseph made the formal charge of murderagainst Cutkisky. His suspicions were aroused by Cutkisky’s nervousness following thedeath and the insistence that Bessie’s body not be examined. The Lieberman familyhired attorney James K. Wallace to pursue the case for murder. Additional testimonialsonly added to the evidence against Cutkisky. The women who prepared and dressedBessie’s corpse for burial reported evidence of knife wounds on the body, and a police officerattested he overheard a damning conversation in which Cutkisky and an unnamedAfrican-American woman plotted to kill Bessie. Several papers produced variations onthe following conversation:“You were mine first! You must be mine now and last! Get that womanout of the way or there’ll be trouble.”“All right,” answered the man.“Now you meet me here at 12 o’clock tomorrow night, and you bet by ---I’ll be there.”(Pittsburgh Post, 1892)The woman was suspected of being an earlier love interest of Cutkisky’s; her role inhis life was reported as ranging from wife to mother of his children to mistress to exgirlfriend,according to differing sources. The police released a warrant for this woman’sarrest as well, but there is no evidence she was ever apprehended.When the police came to find Cutkisky on July 27, he sealed his own fate by immediatelyasking if he was being arrested on a charge of murder. His conscience betrayed him inhis daily nervousness and his apparent assumption of guilt. He was committed to prisonby Alderman McMasters. The Cutkisky family, according to The Gazette, were wealthyPittsburghers willing to pay thousands to free Max Cutkisky, but the judge refused toset bail and ordered Cutkisky to be held until his trial.Not everyone believed in Cutkisky’s guilt. The Post questioned whether the arrest mightnot be a mistake, citing neighbors’ arguments that Bessie’s melancholy provided a reasonablemotive for suicide. Most newspapers, however, and the court, determined thatMax Cutkisky was in fact guilty of spousal homicide. The murder case was significantenough that The Dispatch listed it in the December 31 wrap-up, in which the importantevents of the year were set on one page. “July 27,” it reads, “Max Cutkisky arrested forthe murder of his wife.”Emily Anne Gibson is a rising senior at Carnegie Mellon University, where she studieshistory, English, and dramaturgy. She is currently a new work dramaturg with Pittsburghplaywright Maureen McGranaghan, and next season at Carnegie Mellon shewill be working on You Can’t Take It With You.WHO’SYOUR MAMA?FOR RESERVATIONS: (412) 621.SAUCEunder the clock at Forbes & Oakland