Obit: Hilgert, Frank Bennie (? - 1957)  
 

Contact: Dolores Mohr Kenyon

Email: dolores@wiclarkcountyhistory.org 
 

Surnames: Hilgert, Kuegel, Kutsche, Lulloff, Harris 
 

----Source: Clark County Press (Neillsville, Clark Co., WI.) August 22, 1957 
 

Hilgert, Frank Bennie (? - 19 August 1957) 
 

Funeral services will be held in Thorp, this (Thursday) afternoon at 2 o’clock for Frank Bennie Hilgert, 19, who was found dead in his bed Monday morning at the John Hilgert farm home, five miles south of that city. 
 

Authorities are attempting to learn the cause of young Hilgert’s death, and have enlisted the aid of a pathologist and the state crime laboratory.  They suspect suicide. 
 

In charge of the services will be the Rev. John W. Harris, Methodist pastor at River Falls.  Burial will be made in the Thorp Cemetery. Arrangements are being made by the Thorp Funeral Home. 
 

Hilgert, who returned to the family home from California in April, was found about 7 a.m. by his mother.  He was in his bed in an upstairs bedroom.  On a bedside table were a partially emptied bottle of aspirin, and another bottle containing a white powder and labeled "Strychnine Sulphate Merck". 
 

His father told Sheriff Ray Kutsche and Coroner Robert Lulloff that he had purchased a strychnine poison several years ago to use in killing rats, and that the bottle beside the bed looked like the bottle, which had been kept on top of the medicine cabinet in the bathroom.  No such bottle was found on the medicine cabinet, Coroner Lulloff reported. 
 

An autopsy was performed by a Marshfield pathologist, and some materials were sent to the state crime laboratory for analysis.  It will be another week before results of these investigations are known, Mr. Lulloff said. 
 

Since his return from California, young Hilgert had not acted entirely the same as he had before leaving Thorp, officers were told.  He had periods during which he ate little and slept late.  He had one of these periods Sunday, officers were told.  He arose late that morning, ate very little that day, and retired early. 
 

His parents occupied a downstairs bedroom; heard nothing during the night.  An upstairs bedroom of a sister, Margaret, was unoccupied that night as she stayed in Thorp with a friend. 
 

Other survivors include two sisters, Mrs. Dorothy Kuegel and Miss Evelyn Hilgert, both residents of Torowa Terrace, N. C.  
 

Young Hilgert was graduated from Thorp High School with the class of 1956.