{"id":3608,"date":"2016-11-06T22:40:21","date_gmt":"2016-11-06T22:40:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.archivingwheeling.org\/blog\/?p=3608"},"modified":"2020-05-09T21:41:54","modified_gmt":"2020-05-10T01:41:54","slug":"murder-robert-lee-ritz-wheeling-high-school-football-star","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.archivingwheeling.org\/blog\/murder-robert-lee-ritz-wheeling-high-school-football-star","title":{"rendered":"The Murder of a Football Hero"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

The Sad Story of Robert Lee Ritz<\/h2>\n
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\n
$\"Real$ <\/a>
Robert Lee Ritz, Wheeling High School football star.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
In the Shreve High football stadium,<\/em>
\nI think of Polacks nursing long beers in Tiltonsville,<\/em>
\nAnd gray faces of Negroes in the blast furnace at Benwood,<\/em>
\nAnd the ruptured night watchman of Wheeling Steel,<\/em>
\nDreaming of heroes.<\/em><\/p>\n
All the proud fathers are ashamed to go home.<\/em>
\nTheir women cluck like starved pullets,<\/em>
\nDying for love.<\/em><\/p>\n
Their sons grow suicidally beautiful<\/em>
\nAt the beginning of October,<\/em>
\nAnd gallop terribly against each other\u2019s bodies.
\n<\/em>
\n\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u2013<\/em>Autumn Begins in Martins Ferry, Ohio <\/em>by James Wright<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
\n
$\"Portrait$ <\/a>
Portrait of Robert lee Ritz.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
One of the most tragic stories in Wheeling sports history is the 1916 murder of Robert Lee Ritz of Wheeling.<\/p>\n
$\"Roberta$ <\/a>
Roberta Lee Mitchell holds the portrait of her cousin.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
In an interview with a relative, 98-year-old Roberta Lee Mitchell of Colerain (who was named for her cousin Robert), a photograph of this outstanding and popular football player was donated to the Ohio County Public Library Archives.<\/p>\n
[Ed. Note: Roberta Lee Stobbs Mitchell<\/a> of Colerain passed away March 22, 2020 at age 103.]<\/p>\n
Known as \u201cLee,\u201d Robert Lee Ritz was the only child of Lee and Anna Ritz. His father died at an early age and his mother, a Stobbs, later married Theo Camp and lived at 1014 Vine Street in East Wheeling.<\/p>\n
Lee was captain of the football team at Wheeling High School, and according to the Wheeling Intelligencer<\/em>, he was one of the best athletes in West Virginia. Selected to the all-state high school football team, he planned to attend Cornell University.<\/p>\n
\n
The Big Game<\/h2>\n
$\"The$ <\/a>
The 1916 Wheeling High football squad<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
The big game of 1916 was the Thanksgiving Day contest between Wheeling High and Bellaire High School on Thursday, November 30 at League Park field. Said to have the best team in the state, Wheeling defeated Bellaire 13-0 on a muddy field before a crowd of 10,000 people. Despite playing with an injured knee and ankle, Captain Lee Ritz led the way, rushing for a touchdown as halfback and kicking the bonus point while playing beside his cousin Hugh Stobbs.<\/p>\n
\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t $\"\"$ <\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div><\/figure>
\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t $\"\"$ <\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div><\/figure>
\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t $\"\"$ <\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div><\/figure>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n
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A City Paralyzed with Grief<\/h2>\n
$\"Robert$ <\/a>
Robert Lee\u2019s tombstone at Greenwood.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
Just two days later on Saturday night, December 2, 21-year-old Robert Lee Ritz was dead, shot twice by an old \u201cchum,\u201d 28-year-old brass worker Jack Nolte of Warwood. Nolte then tried to kill himself, but lived, never divulging his motive. The front-page story noted that the shooting took place at 9th and Main Streets. The janitor at the Virginia Apartments heard the shots and rushed to the scene, but Ritz was already dead. A crowd gathered, and a rumor started that Lee had been killed by a disgruntled Bellaire High fan.<\/p>\n
\u201cWheeling,\u201d said the Intelligencer, \u201cwas paralyzed with astonishment and grief.\u201d The funeral of Lee Ritz on Tuesday, December 5, 1916, was a city event. Brief services were held at the home of his grandparents, Mr. and Mrs. William Stobbs, at 217 South Wabash Street on Wheeling Island. At 2:30, a public service was offered at First English Lutheran Church on 16th Street. As the paper reported, the funeral was one of the largest ever held in Wheeling, and special traction cars were employed to carry the many friends and family to Greenwood Cemetery.<\/p>\n
$\"Robert$ <\/a>
Robert Lee Ritz\u2019s tombstone at Greenwood.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
Among those in attendance were football squads and representatives of schools of the Valley, including Parkersburg, Tyler County, Moundsville, Bridgeport, Bellaire, Cathedral, Linsly, Union, Wellsburg, and Martins Ferry. At the service, a quartet sang and the church was filled with flowers, including a bouquet from Ella Nolte and the family of the killer. For an hour after the service, more than 3,000 people walked past the open casket. Then Robert Lee Ritz was taken to his grave at Greenwood Cemetery, leaving behind a grief-stricken Valley.<\/p>\n
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Epilogue<\/h2>\n
\u2013 by Sean Duffy<\/em><\/p>\n
In many ways, the sad story of Robert Lee Ritz exemplifies the value of archival collections. From the donation of a large, but relatively nondescript, oval portrait of a young man and a bit of information shared by a 98-year-old relative who still remembered some of the subject\u2019s story, a sad but fascinating story from Wheeling\u2019s past was rediscovered.<\/p>\n
The stories such artifacts reveal are not always pleasant. In fact, what happened to Lee Ritz was tragic and awful. We gave serious thought to not sharing the story, thinking perhaps it would be better if it remained forgotten. But in the end, we decided there is value in remembering\u2013there is value in learning from the past, even when the lessons are painful. This story provides an\u00a0important window, a nuanced insight into the zeitgeist of 1917 Wheeling. We did not visit Roberta Lee Mitchell to learn about Robert Lee Mitchell. It was unexpected. But she entrusted us with his photograph, and his story should speak for itself to a new generation. Lee Ritz should not be forgotten. It is not our place to censor the past. Archival collections, even when they consist of only one photograph, exist to make the past accessible.<\/p>\n
\n
Three Years of Tragedy<\/h2>\n
The murder of Captain Robert Lee Ritz on December 2, 1916, was actually the third wrenching annual tragedy endured by the students and faculty of Wheeling High School from 1914 to 1916.<\/p>\n
On January 3, 1914, an intense fire<\/a> ripped through the relatively new school building, causing part of the roof and a supporting wall to collapse, crushing to death a city fireman and two volunteers who were fighting the blaze.<\/p>\n
Then on November 20, 1915, Lee Ritz\u2019s predecessor as football captain, William H. Parker, died after being carried from the field midway through a game at Buckhannon that would determine the state championship. According to the attending physician, he died from a ruptured blood vessel in the brain caused by \u201cover-exertion.\u201d<\/p>\n
$\"Dedication$ <\/a>
Dedication to Parker in the 1915 WHS Record.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
The Buckhannon High School student body passed a resolution, proclaiming, \u201cwe\u2026profoundly deplore the tragic death of Captain William H. Parker,\u201d and extending their sympathy to his teachers and classmates. Both schools canceled the final game of the season. For Wheeling, that meant the annual Thanksgiving \u201cBig Classic\u201d against Bellaire, the same game won by Wheeling a year later, just days before Ritz was murdered.<\/p>\n
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$\"Image$ <\/a>
Image of the Parker memorial from the 1916 WHS Record.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
By the time newly elected Captain Ritz and his mates took the field for the 1916 season opener against Moundsville at League Park, a plaque dedicated to Parker \u2018s memory had been hung in the school, \u201cso that all future classes might look back and revere his memory.\u201d It\u2019s unlikely that Lee Ritz needed any such reminder to revere his deceased teammate and friend on that day and, indeed, every game day through Thanksgiving.<\/p>\n
A year later, the team was left to revere the memory of another dead captain. Interior lineman Lawrence \u201cBud\u201d Wagoner helped them by composing an elegy for his friend that appeared in the WHS Record for 1917.<\/p>\n
\n
\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t $\"Bud$ <\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\tBud Wagoner’s poem for his friend Lee from the 1917 WHS Record.\n\t\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>
\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t $\"Lawrence$ <\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\tLawrence “Bud” Wagoner from the 1915 WHS Record.\n\t\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n
\n
But what became of Jack Nolte?<\/h2>\n
This is the natural question to ask after reading Margaret\u2019s story above. And, as might be expected, a sensational trial would determine Nolte\u2019s fate.<\/p>\n
After the shooting, John \u201cJack\u201d Nolte spent some time recuperating from his self-inflicted gunshot wounds at North Wheeling Hospital. There was speculation that he would not recover. At first, he did remain steadfastly silent (or, as the Intelligencer<\/em> termed it, a \u201csphinx-like silence\u201d) about the events of December 2, despite relentless \u201cgrilling\u201d by Prosecutor McKee and police detectives.<\/p>\n
Newspapers across the state and region reported the early theory, originating with police officers, that Nolte had shot Ritz due to jealousy \u201cover a girl wooed by both\u201d (Charleston Daily Mail, Dec. 4, 1916).<\/p>\n
When he finally did speak, Nolte claimed the two men had formed a suicide pact, and that Ritz had taken his own life. This seemed suspect from the start, since one of the bullets entered through Ritz\u2019s back, on the left side of his body. Two detectives later testified that he still clutched a cigar in his right hand when his dead body was examined on the sidewalk outside the Virginia Apartments. This, said the state, would have made suicide physically impossible.<\/p>\n
Nolte retained prominent Wheeling attorney Frank A. O\u2019Brien as defense council, and O\u2019Brien would attempt an insanity defense. Several prominent Wheeling men were chosen as jurors, among them P.H. Hornbrook, baker Fred G. Stroehmann (foreman), Walker I. Frissell, and A.S. Paull.<\/p>\n
The trial itself was rapid by modern standards. Commencing in early March 1917, a verdict was returned by March 23.<\/p>\n
The sensational details of the testimony are a matter of public record and will not be recounted here. Suffice to say, the evidence showed that Nolte was indeed jealous of Ritz and perhaps obsessed with him. His strange behavior toward Ritz provided the basis for his defense. An array of psychiatrists testified as to Nolte\u2019s\u00a0\u201cmoral imbecility,\u201d diagnosing him as a \u201csadist\u201d and \u201cpathological,\u201d having \u201clost all sense of decency and shame.\u201d This, the defense claimed, meant that Nolte could not appreciate the consequences of his actions.<\/p>\n
Dr. J.R. Bloss of Huntington went so far as to summon the specter of phrenology to diagnose Nolte: \u201cShape of his head, small above ears, high arched palate, are indicative of degeneracy. Also, one side of his face is different from the other and apparently controlled by separate and independent muscles. These are indicative of mental infirmity\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n
The prosecution, while admitting that Nolte\u2019s obsession with Ritz was \u201cunnatural,\u201d maintained that Nolte was fully aware of the consequences of his actions, and, in fact, planned and intended to kill Ritz. Prosecutor McKee sought the death penalty. One of the doctors called by the prosecution, the prominent Wheeling physician Dr. Charles Wingerter, who specialized in \u201cmental and nervous diseases,\u201d testified that Nolte was \u201cabnormal\u201d but not insane.<\/p>\n
Both sides seemed to acknowledge Nolte\u2019s \u201cinversion,\u201d the contemporary medical term for homosexuality. And the various reactions to this fact are instructive regarding early 20th century attitudes and mores. For the prosecution, it simply proved that Nolte was \u201cabnormal.\u201d For the defense, Nolte\u2019s homosexuality was proof of his insanity. Nolte\u2019s defense attorney went so far in his closing argument as to call his client an \u201cimmoral, perverted and almost God-punished man\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n
After two days of deliberation, the jury agreed with the prosecution, finding Nolte guilty of murder in the first degree. But three jurors rejected the death penalty, and the jury recommended life in prison.<\/p>\n
\u201cLife\u2019s a long time, but that\u2019s not so bad, is it?\u201d Nolte reportedly said in reaction to the verdict. His defense attorney admonished him for smiling at the jury.<\/p>\n
As far as we can determine, Nolte spent the remainder of his life in the state penitentiary at Moundsville.<\/p>\n
\n
Epilogue, Part 2: What REALLY<\/em> Became of Jack Nolte?<\/h2>\n
~Sean Duffy<\/p>\n
$\"\"$ <\/a>~Thanks to Bill Carney and the digitization of the Wheeling newspapers<\/a>\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n
Update:\u00a0<\/strong>On May 8, 1922, Jack Nolte was pardoned unconditionally from his life sentence by West Virginia Governor E.F. Morgan. He was released from the Moundsville Pen that afternoon, having served only five years of his life sentence. A \u201cHowl of Indignation in Wheeling,\u201d the Intelligencer headline declared. Nolte\u2019s trial attorney Frank O\u2019Brien said he had nothing to do with the pardon.<\/p>\n
In a scathing Letter to the Editor, former Prosecutor David A. McKee accused the governor of failing to consult him regarding the pardon as required by law, thus failing \u201chis obligation to the people.\u201d McKee then implicated the governor in a conspiracy involving a man named \u201cPareno\u201d who claimed to have \u201cinfluence over the governor\u201d and who came to Wheeling to bribe McKee to support Nolte\u2019s pardon by offering him a $1000 retainer in a Clarksburg case, saying there \u201cwould be no trouble about the governor.\u201d He said the reason was that Nolte\u2019s mother was ill, a claim McKee said was later proven false. McKee refused the retainer and refused to support the pardon. He accused the governor of turning loose \u201cto prey upon society, a murderer, a moral pervert, a degenerate who, I am reliably informed, has not reformed in his perversion\u2026this pardon is a disgrace upon the name of the state of West Virginia\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n
Nolte was said to have been a \u201cmodel prisoner,\u201d having played a prominent role in \u201cmusic and minstrel entertainments\u201d at the Moundsville Pen.<\/p>\n
\n
Sources<\/strong><\/p>\n
Charleston Daily Mail<\/em>, December 1916.<\/p>\n
In-person interview with Roberta Lee Mitchell, October 2015.<\/p>\n
Wheeling High School Record<\/em> [Yearbook], 1913-1917.<\/p>\n
Wheeling Daily News<\/em>, 1916 [clippings from Stobbs family scrapbook]<\/p>\n
Wheeling Intelligencer<\/em>, March 1917, May 1922.<\/p>\n
Wheeling News-Register<\/em>, March\u00a01917.<\/p>\n<\/body>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Sad Story of Robert Lee Ritz In the Shreve High football stadium, I think of Polacks nursing long beers in Tiltonsville, And gray faces of Negroes in the blast furnace at Benwood, And the ruptured night watchman of Wheeling<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":5188,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[40],"tags":[548,543,541,539,300,542,546,547,545,538,544,540,259],"coauthors":[309],"class_list":["post-3608","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archiving-wheeling","tag-548","tag-bellaire-high-school","tag-firts-english-lutheran-church","tag-football","tag-greenwood-cemetery","tag-high-school-football","tag-jack-nolte","tag-league-park","tag-ritz-family","tag-robert-lee-ritz","tag-stobbs-family","tag-virginia-apartments","tag-wheeling-high-school"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.archivingwheeling.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/FI-Lee-Ritz.jpg?fit=738%2C300&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5pkc7-Wc","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.archivingwheeling.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3608","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.archivingwheeling.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.archivingwheeling.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.archivingwheeling.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.archivingwheeling.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3608"}],"version-history":[{"count":52,"href":"https:\/\/www.archivingwheeling.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3608\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8644,"href":"https:\/\/www.archivingwheeling.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3608\/revisions\/8644"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.archivingwheeling.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5188"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.archivingwheeling.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3608"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.archivingwheeling.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3608"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.archivingwheeling.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3608"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.archivingwheeling.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=3608"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}

Three Years of Tragedy<\/h2>\nThe murder of Captain Robert Lee Ritz on December 2, 1916, was actually the third wrenching annual tragedy endured by the students and faculty of Wheeling High School from 1914 to 1916.<\/p>\n