The Sinister and Strange Case of Charles Arthur Preller (Missouri, 1885)

In April 1885, the manager of the Southern Hotel in St. Louis opened a trunk in Room 144 and found inside it the body of a young English commercial traveller named Charles Arthur Preller. He had been killed with chloroform by the man he had crossed the Atlantic with, the man he had loved, and the man who was now somewhere on a steamship halfway to New Zealand. The chase that followed would cross three continents, draw in the Pinkerton Detective Agency, the Governor of Missouri, the President of the United States, and the most expensive single police cablegram ever sent in the 19th century. This is the case of Charles Arthur Preller. History Mark is a documentary channel covering real, documented true crime cases from the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries. Every case is researched from period newspapers, court records, and coroner's inquests. No invented dialogue. No invented facts. Just the story as the record holds it. SOURCES AND FURTHER READING: Murder by Gaslight: https://www.murderbygaslight.com/2011... St. Louis Post-Dispatch, "A Look Back: Mother Weeps as 'Little Chloroformer' Goes to Gallows in St. Louis in 1888": https://www.stltoday.com/news/archive... Find A Grave, Charles Arthur Preller: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/2... #historicaltruecrime #historicalcrimestories #victoriancrime