BOWLING GREEN - A struggling German immigrant and farmer, Carl Bach apparently reached his breaking point one chilly October day 125 years ago.

Having failed at making a success of his farm in Wood County's Milton Township, frustrated with a wife he viewed as lazy, and sleeping in the barn because his wife wouldn't clear her things from the spare room, he so brutally attacked Mary Bach with a homemade corn knife that investigators literally picked up pieces of her afterward.

"For evidence later, they put three of her fingers in a bottle of whiskey and collected some of her hair and pieces of her skull," explained Joseph Terry, a local history buff who told Bach's story through the eyes of Bach's former neighbor and friend, Joseph Heinze, during two presentations yesterday at the Wood County Historical Center.

The horrendous murder, committed while the couple's three children huddled in another room, evoked nothing less than an 1881 media frenzy, Mr. Terry said.

The Blade declared the killing "a devil's deed." Other newspapers deemed Bach a madman.

Bach went on to be tried and convicted twice, earning a retrial after his first conviction in 1882 because of improper jury selection. Finally, on Oct. 12, 1883, he was hanged outside the Wood County courthouse, becoming only the second - and the last - man to be executed in such a way in the county.

Some 125 years after the notorious crime, it is Mary Bach's fingers that have become synonymous with the historical museum - for better or worse.

"We have people who walk in the front door and say, 'Where are your fingers?' and they're from Florida or Pennsylvania," said Christie Raber, director of the historical center on County Home Road just off U.S. 6.

She said the museum doesn't want to sensationalize the case, which is sensational enough on its own.

"It was a domestic violence murder, and when you think of all the domestic violence murders since then, why does this one attract so much interest? I think it's because we have her fingers in a jar," Ms. Raber said. "It's fascinatingly gruesome for people."

Willis Beck, of Perrysburg, who listened to Mr. Terry's presentation, said when he was a volunteer docent at the historical museum 20 years ago, the display case containing evidence from the Bach murder was easily the most popular one "because it's such a bizarre story."

It is still the most popular one.

Ms. Raber said she would like the local history museum to be known for more than the three fingers in the jar, but she understands that it is a part of Wood County history. She hopes presentations like Mr. Terry's will enlighten people about the conditions in the 1800s.

"It wasn't always the good old days," she said, referring to the circumstances of his life and the challenges of the land.

Mr. Terry agreed, saying the noose, the knife, the fingers "should not evoke disgust but pity. Life was hard and not everyone was up to it."

First Published October 11, 2006, 5:43 p.m.