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- Herausgeber: neobooks
- Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
- Serie: From the collection
- Sprache: Deutsch
In my research on historical criminal cases, I occasionally come across curiosities that I have constantly collected and compiled. In this selection, various historical and entertaining bizarre things are to be brought back from oblivion. One is always amazed at how often lawbreakers through their own stupidity, their narcissism, their excessiveness of greed to enrich themselves, or very often only out of pure stinginess, but sometimes also out of necessity, shoot themselves in the foot and thus, in the truest sense of the word, put the noose around their necks with their own hands. Very often, the desire to harm other people - occasionally also the state or its institutions - also plays a role. Many crimes would have remained unsolved and numerous evildoers - thanks to their mindlessness and simple-mindedness - would otherwise have never been caught. What luck for the police ...
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Seitenzahl: 180
Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2025
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The grotesque activities
of the "high society"
From the collection "Curious Criminal Cases"
"How lawbreakers kill themselves."
(Part 1)
General Foreword:
Dear reader,
with this e-book series, I decided to go in a completely different direction, namely the comic side of crime. I would like to take this opportunity to show you curiosities from criminal history, as they appear from time to time in various daily newspapers.
The following foreword gives you the necessary introduction.
Foreword:
In my research on historical criminal cases, I occasionally come across curiosities that I have constantly collected and compiled. In this selection, various historical and entertaining bizarre things are to be brought back from oblivion. One is always amazed at how often lawbreakers through their own stupidity, their narcissism, their excessiveness of greed to enrich themselves, or very often only out of pure stinginess, but sometimes also out of necessity, shoot themselves in the foot and thus, in the truest sense of the word, put the noose around their necks with their own hands. Very often, the desire to harm other people - occasionally also the state or its institutions - also plays a role.
Many crimes would have remained unsolved and numerous evildoers - thanks to their mindlessness and simple-mindedness - would otherwise never have been caught. What luck for the police ...
In some cases, one can only shake one's head at the aberration of the respective motives for the crime. Some cases are hard to beat in terms of audacity and cheekiness, but sometimes the laughter gets stuck in your throat.
The complete collection has been taken over throughout in the respective original texts. As a result, the uniqueness of the reproduction of the articles from that time, which were often written down in a very smugly sharp-tongued or ironically mischievous manner, has also been preserved. Because even back then, they knew how to entertain their readers in the best possible way... Mostly with a wink pointing to human weaknesses.
In this compilation, only a few small errors from the newspaper texts have been corrected and occasionally a note has been added afterwards. But read this random compilation and judge for yourself...
In any case, I wish you a lot of fun.
Anna Marie Bartho
Poverty is the mother of crime,
then lack of understanding is their father.
Jean de La Bruyère
(1645 - 1696), important representative of the French moralists and aphorists.
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Table of contents:
1. The delinquent who becomes dangerous to the executioner.
2. Executioner's Meal – Wedding Feast.
3. Strange Thieves (1).
4. Strange Thieves (2).
5. Strange Thieves (3).
6. The man with 50 brides.
7. The man with the eleven brides.
8. Invisible for 1.50 marks.
9. Nude culture damages the desire to work - of others.
10. Tragic fate.
11. A dead woman stands up.
12. The cashier as the darling of the police.
13. A church spire stolen.
14. The prisoner i. V.
15. The enterprising old woman.
16. The somewhat different meat purchase.
17. Thieves crying for help.
18. The Professor's Den of Vice.
19. The selection: "knife or rope"?
20. Strange result of a theft affair.
21. An insane couple entrenches themselves.
22. The Merry Widow and the Country Uncle.
23. The shirt as a bank deposit.
24. The wedding treasure on the church wall.
25. "The Miracle of Kürtös".
26. Freche Gauner.
27. A father-in-law as a mother-in-law.
28. A Cheerful Prison.
29. The Prison Release Trick.
30. The "funeral" of his living sister.
31. Become a millionaire overnight.
32. Countess Wartensleben sentenced to a fine of 66,000 marks.
33. The Hackbusch case.
34. A Heavy Boy Arrested.
35. A Night Among Lunatics.
36. The cheap pork knuckles.
37. Arrested beggar swindler.
38. The Ten Times Clever Master Smuggler in the Trap.
39. Held the lover captive for two years.
40. The Failed Sugar Push.
41. The morphine woman with the hunting license.
42. They don't get smart.
43. A warehouse as circumstantial evidence.
44. The Adventures of the Braid Cutter.
45. "Aunt Lieschen."
46. Fresh croissants.
47. The "Director's" wife in embarrassment.
48. Risen from the dead.
49. Blackmail of the mother.
50. The Mystery of Cell Number 7.
51. The Unmasked Salon Lion.
52. When you snore in a coffee house.
53. The Old Beggar.
54. The Beggar's Giant Treasure.
55. Bettlers Glanztag.
56. A begging homeowner.
57. "With the arrow, the bow...!" - The 82-year-old sniper.
58. Adultery with the mother-in-law.
59. A millionaire who can't read and write.
60. Daring marriage fraud with the help of a doctor's coat.
61. The Domestic Helpers - Consolation Sits Again!
62. A strange wedding.
63. Poldl unter der haute vole‘e.
64. Caught smuggling 40 kg of silk stockings.
65. The Shepherd Boy as a Counterfeiter.
66. Terrible imprudence.
67. Arrest of a "miracle doctor".
68. To annoy the father.
69. Where women are curious.
70. Disguised as a maid for four years.
71. A madman "disinherits" his wife.
72. A drama 25 years ago.
73. When Prisoners Play Rummy.
74. In the Hotel "Zum Zuchthaus".
75. Marriage swindler and Home Guard organizer.
76. A Marriage Swindler and Her Seven Hundred Victims.
77. Chain trade in cement.
78. What the police have time for.
79. A six-year-old murderer.
80. The Living Corpse.
81. A madman wants to derail a railway train.
82. "I reject the whole judgment".
83. Rudolf Balauch, the original fraudster.
84. Dr. Witzhoff, the man with the thirty wives.
85. The beggar woman in front of the church doors.
86. Alfred Swoboda, the notorious marriage swindler.
87. Lisa Maria Mayer and her big Berlin riot concert.
88. Anton Doburyushka, the enemy of the Minister of Finance.
89. Florian Huber and his studies at the "Diebsakademie".
90. Ferrucio Chebat, the specialist in escaping.
91. Boris Tolchev, the man fighting for his body.
----------------------------------
A strange trial in the Warsaw courts.
The Warsaw courts are currently dealing with a lawsuit that the official Polish executioner is conducting against the state. The background to the trial is interesting enough to be reproduced here:
Recently, a man sentenced to death was to be executed. The executioner had erected the gallows, and was waiting for the delinquent to carry out his office. When he finally appeared, he did not wait for the executioner to put the rope around his neck in the usual manner to execute him, but he himself threw himself upon the surprised executioner to hang him in his place.
In the ensuing scuffle, in the course of which the delinquent managed to free himself and make off as quickly as possible - he has not yet been caught again - the executioner was so badly injured that he had to be taken to hospital. He did not regain consciousness until three days later. Even after his complete restoration, he did not become "fully employable" again, but had to retire.
His lawsuit against the Polish state now goes to the effect that the state is responsible for the adequate guarding of the delinquents. Accordingly, he had to be liable to him for the damage suffered as a result of the incident during the failed execution - early retirement.
The amount sued for is about 150,000 marks.
News-World-Sheet - (19321213)
Married ten minutes before the execution.
It is reported from Warsaw: One of the most dangerous bandits in Poland, Gregor Wiekowski, has now been handed over to the executioner.
In the process, a single case in criminal history has occurred. On the morning of the execution, the bandit expressed his last wish and declared that he wanted to marry his long-time partner, with whom he had a two-year-old child.
In accordance with the custom of fulfilling the last wish of a death row inmate, the prison administration then ordered the marriage ceremony to be held. The condemned man's partner was summoned and the blond woman, trembling in all limbs, agreed to become the wife of a man whose head was to be separated from the torso in a few minutes.
The wedding was quickly performed by the prison chaplain and afterwards the woman declared: "It would have been better for my child that he had never known who his father had been and what shame he had brought upon his wife. But I didn't have the strength to deny Gregor this wish. I forgive him everything!" Ten minutes after his wedding, Wiekowski's head fell under the executioner's axe.
IKZ - (19380311)
Rifles as marriage goods.
On the night of February 3, the firefighter Johann Hermann, not quite 20 years old, was on aisle inspection duty in the Cyclist Battalion No. 4 in Trostgasse. The next morning, six carabiners were missing.
As it turned out later, Hermann, a tall person, had carried two carbines out to his lover, 26-year-old Anna Z., three times during the night. They were to be, as Hermann stated, the marriage property that he brought with him into the marriage. Anna already felt like a mother and they wanted to get married soon.
The rifles were later found in the apartment of Anna's parents. Their value was given in yesterday's hearing before the single judge Doctor Kubesch at a total of four to six million.
Hermann was sentenced to seven months in prison, Anna Z. to two months of strict arrest.
New 8 O'clock Sheet - (19230228)
With the stolen fur on the lightning rod.
A small, overgrown person, the 22-year-old unskilled worker Alois Hofstädter, has repeatedly been punished for ground break-ins and has often played badly with his mother Rosalie, who has to make a living as a waitress, in particular by committing his thefts in apartments where she was a servant. On January 2 of this year, passers-by at the "Tiefer Graben" were surprised by a strange sight. In the morning hours they saw a little man climbing up the lightning rod of house No. 10. The police were informed, as they immediately suspected that it was a burglar, and found Alois Hofstädter, who had made a "visit" to the merchant Oskar Weinstein, who lived in the same house, hidden in a toilet. It is not without humor that Hofstädter had already stolen from this businessman twice before, and that the main hearing against him for the last theft was to take place that very morning. But instead of in the dock, Hofstädter sat on the lightning rod while the private party waited patiently in the court corridor and Hofstädter kidnapped his fur. Burdened with this fur, Hofstädter climbed over the lightning rod and was thus arrested. In yesterday's hearing, presided over by Hofrat Wüstinger, the defendant was sentenced to eighteen months in prison, whereby his suitability for transfer to a forced labor institution was pronounced.
New 8 O'clock Sheet - (19230228)
The treasure chamber of a beggar.
In June of that year, Cäcilie Ablinger, a pensioner for old age, filed a complaint with the police that various items had been stolen from her. The story seemed mysterious to the detectives from the very beginning and a house search was therefore carried out at the home of the complainant, who was known as a poor woman. They found 100 pairs of shoes, a whole truck full of clothes, furniture and various utensils, as well as three savings bank books that were worth 20,000 schillings. In a special hiding place stood seven suitcases with valuable objects from the possession of a deceased aristocrat, including crockery with the family coat of arms. Mrs. Ablinger told us that these were gifts from charitable people.
The investigations showed, of course, that the owners of these things knew nothing about the gifts to Mrs. Ablinger. The woman was known as a beggar. She liked to sneak into the families of aristocrats and high-ranking officials, sometimes even into vicarages. She always explained that she would not take anything as a gift, but that she would earn the alms through work, so to speak. So she was used for minor unskilled work and she behaved so reservedly and modestly that she was soon given the greatest trust. She used the opportunities that then presented themselves to her to steal all kinds of things. If the robbers noticed the absence of some objects, Mrs. Ablinger skilfully knew how to divert suspicion to other members of the household. But if she had to admit to the thefts, she promised improvement. The robbers believed their assurances and did not file a complaint out of pity. The cunning woman has now gone online through her own theft report.
Cäcilie Ablinger was found guilty of habitual theft and sentenced to one year of severe, aggravated imprisonment.
The Little Leaf - (19371127)
Arrest of a marriage swindler.
A marriage swindler acted as a doctor or nurse in the Virchow Hospital, who, according to the findings so far, stole from 50 widows and girls within a few weeks. Under the name Weber or Menzel, he placed a marriage advertisement in local newspapers, according to which a middle-aged man was looking for the acquaintance of a widow with a child, possibly with an older daughter, or even a young girl as his wife. He received many offers. The alleged doctor or nurse did not engage in any further written correspondence.
The man had such an ingratiating nature that the applicants immediately trusted him and unsuspectingly accepted his visit. As a rule, he knew how to arrange it in such a way that he missed the last tram car and had to stay overnight, for better or worse, because he allegedly lived at the opposite end of the city and could not walk that far. In this way he gained an opportunity to find out where the valuables and jewellery were and pocketed them secretly.
Early in the morning he offered to fetch fresh rolls from the bakery and disappeared with the booty. Until now, he had not dared to pick up the applicants' letters from the post office himself. Yesterday, however, he appeared in person to receive new entrances. Now he has been arrested and unmasked as a 41-year-old hairdresser Wilhelm Wohlfahrt, who was without a permanent residence, sometimes in Berlin, now in some suburb.
Many letters from widows and girls who were eager to marry were found with him, as well as a baggage ticket from the Silesian Railway Station. Here he had given a basket of travellers into custody, first making his booty disappear in order to turn it into money later. The basket still contained all kinds of stolen valuables, gold rings, watches, chains, embroidery, etc.
How many girls and widows the arrested man stole, he himself no longer knows. 50 have already been identified.
Berliner Volkszeitung - (19230301)
The "wealthy" with the upcoming inheritance.
"Older lady, capable housewife, with small savings, is looking for suitable life partners, also widowers, with a good heart and some assets". Under "Possibly with a furnished apartment".
This or something similar is the sigh of many lonely women, which they send out to the world in the form of a newspaper advertisement in the tireless hope of a better future.
Punctually, the man chosen by fate appears, introduces himself as a well-heeled civil servant or foreman and tells of his good income or an upcoming inheritance. After a few days, he accidentally finds himself in a financial embarrassment, whereupon the marriage candidate, dreaming of the coming happiness, willingly helps him out. This is usually the end of the dream, the "suitable partner" is gone.
Yesterday, a jury senate chaired by the OLGR. Doctor Kahler. The prosecution against the 39-year-old unemployed coachman Franz Schuster, represented by public prosecutor Dr. Lindermann, names a whole series of women who have fallen victim to the defendant's frauds. Schuster has already been convicted of various marriage frauds several times and served his last, fourteen-month prison sentence only last summer. Nevertheless, shortly after his release, he eagerly threw himself back into the marriage swindle. The fraudster proved to be particularly capable in the last months of his activity, within which short time he entered into no less than eleven female acquaintances with fraudulent intent.
Schuster introduced herself to the widowed operator Karoline Fernmüller as a foreman and proposed to her. After a few days, he came to talk about his beloved wife, who had allegedly died during the July demonstrations, and told how he got into such debt due to the costs of the funeral that he had to move all his jewelry. The gullible waitress lent the severely tested man 200 shillings, whereupon Schuster disappeared never to be seen again.
Then the scammer approached the coffee house chef Anna Leeb. This time he pretended to be a mechanic who had divorced his wife. He appeared as a serious applicant, reported after a few days that he had already bought the furniture and showed as proof of this, a poster slip amounting to 1500 schillings. In the course of the next two weeks, he borrowed first 30, then 40 and finally 100 shillings from his beloved, for which he allegedly wanted to buy the kitchen utensils. Since then, the betrayed cook has been waiting in vain for her suitor.
The next victim was the unskilled worker Marie Hannes. Before her, he pretended to be a municipal head fitter with a monthly income of 600 schillings and a fortune of 7000 schillings, who also owns a stall at the Naschmarkt. He fixed the wedding and went with his bride to one of her acquaintances, whom he asked to participate in the celebration as an "assistant". This time, Schuster only earned a few shillings for the whole manoeuvre.
Schuster also proposed marriage to the housemaid Anna Fenz, drove with her to her parents in Obernalb near Retz and stayed there for nine days. The delighted people slaughtered a pig in honour of the bridegroom and did not let him miss anything. This was quite understandable, because the future son-in-law had told him that 50,000 schillings had been secured for him at his deceased wife's Prater inn, part of which he wanted to advance to the parents of the Fenz for the renovation of their house. He also promised his father a horse, which he wanted to fetch from Vienna. In the meantime the girl had advanced the journey there and back, but the lover came back neither on horseback nor on foot.
Schuster told the divorced waitress Theresia Schleglhofer that he wanted to buy an apartment and a dairy shop so that they would have a secure future. The unfortunate woman then lent him 800 shillings. After three days, the suitor called her by phone and told her that he had suffered an accident and was in the hospital of the Brothers of Mercy. There he had to pay 100 shillings at once, but was not in a position to procure the money at the moment. The good waitress also borrowed this amount. That was the last thing she learned about her injured darling.
The next bride was the unskilled worker Helene Kronawetter. Again Schuster was introduced to the parents and again performed a hoax. The fact that the money he had lured out of the industrious girl was her entire weekly wage did not bother the helpful philanthropist much. The fraudster now advanced to become a turbine fitter with a monthly salary of 800 schillings and found the trust of the unskilled worker Hedwig Herf in this role. Here, too, he had allegedly already provided the wedding equipment, introduced himself to the girl's father and disappeared after luring money out.
However, this seemed to be a less favourable time for Schuster. Various women whom he visited on the basis of marriage advertisements became suspicious as a result of his grand oratory, and his efforts to elicit money from them were unsuccessful. He resorted to other scams, but was reported and arrested. This put an end to the work of the marriage-loving coachman, and only the unemployed coachman Schuster, who had a criminal record, remained, whose unfortunate wife, a well-behaved caretaker, gets away by honest work and, moreover, tries to make up for the damage caused by her husband.
The jury sentenced Schuster to 18 months in prison.
Illustrated Kronen-Zeitung - (19290203)
Exaggerated trust in a touted invention.
An inventive man announced in Mecklenburg and Pomeranian towns a "Mefi" invisibility cloak he had made, a joke article in the form of a gruesome face mask. However, the fact that it was a joke and a larva was not to be read in the advertisements. Two harmless farmers and an estate inspector, who still vaguely remembered Siegfried's invisibility cloak from their school days, now ordered the "Mefi" for 1.50 marks, convinced that it was a real invisibility cloak that made them invisible. All three needed that, because they were constantly robbed and the thieves could never catch them. Even wearing the new invisibility cloak did not change anything. The three men remained as visible as before and the thefts may have increased.
This seemed to prove the ineffectiveness of the cap sufficiently to the buyers. They filed a complaint for fraud against the enterprising inventor, who for his part asserts that he did not think of fraud. The court will have to decide how far the good faith of a buyer and the mischievousness of an inventor may go.
Berliner Lokalanzeiger - (19261219)
Gross violation of public morality.
The representative Alfons J. and the operator Stefanie K. had to answer before the Fünfhauser criminal judge for gross violation of public morality. While the trial itself was held behind closed doors and ended in an acquittal, the following facts became known from the publicly given reasons for the verdict:
