Hinterkaifeck
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Hinterkaifeck is the scene of an unsolved mass murder which is one of the most mysterious crimes in German history. It is situated between the bavarian cities Ingolstadt and Schrobenhausen about 70 kilometres north of Munich.
In a stormy night in the year 1922 the whole family of an isolated Farm was killed with a pickaxe. Among the six victims were Andreas Gruber (63), his wife Cäzilia (72), their widow daughter Viktoria Gabriel (35), her daughter Cäzilia (9), her son Josef (2) and the female farmhand Maria Baumgartner (44). The 2 years old Josef was said to be the son of Viktoria and her father Andreas. It was well known that they had an incestuous relationship.
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[edit] The crime:
One day before the crime, the old farmer Andreas Gruber made a weird discovery: Traces in the snow lead from the forest to his farm, but there were no traces leading back. He also found a newspaper which nobody read in this region and several indications to housebreaking. Finally the only bunch of keys of the farm disappeared. Gruber, known as crank and eccentric, told two neighbors about his discovery but didn't call the police.
Half a year before the crime, the young female farmhand left the farm because she thought the farm was haunted. The new farmhand, Maria Baumgartner, arrived march 31st, a few hours before her death.
Four days later, three neighbors headed to the isolated farm because Grubers granddaughter was absent in school without excuse. They found the mutilated corpses of Andreas Gruber, his wife Cäzilia, their daughter Viktoria Gabriel, their granddaughter Cäzilia, their grandson/son Josef and the farmhand Maria Baumgartner. Autopsy showed later on that little Cäzilia was alive hours after she was badly injured. Laying in the straw next the bodies of her grandfather and her mother she tore out her hair in tufts while dying.
[edit] The Investigation:
Inspector Georg Reingruber and his colleagues from the Munich Police Department identified a pickaxe as the murder weapon. On April, 5 the autopsy was performed in the barn. Court physician Dr. Johann Baptist Aumüller beheaded the corpses. The skulls were sent to Munich, where they were examined by three clairvoyants without useful results.
The police suspected the inhabitants of the surrounding villages, traveling craftsmen and vagrants. Even the death of Karl Gabriel, Viktoria's husband who was killed 1914 in the French trenches, was doubted.
The police made immense efforts to investigate the crime. More than 100 suspects were questioned without a proper result. The last questioning took place in 1986. Even nowadays many hobby researchers are into this case (like the "Ripperlogists" in the case of Jack the Ripper).
[edit] The funeral:
The corpses of the six victims are buried in Waidhofen without their skulls. The skulls got lost in the chaos of World War II. The farm was broke down in 1923.
[edit] Media:
Two movies with the title "Hinterkaifeck" were made. One in the year 1981 by producer Hans Fegert and one in 1991 by producer Kurt K. Hieber.
In 2006, german writer Andrea Maria Schenkel wrote a novel with the title "Tannöd" where she tells the story of Hinterkaifeck with changed names of humans and places. Also the novel "The Murdered House", written by french writer Pierre Magnan, is allegedly inspired by this case. In this novel, the youngest victim of the massacre survives and returns to the farm as an adult to investigate the crime.
Munich journalist Peter Leuschner wrote two books with the title "Hinterkaifeck. Der Mordfall. Spuren eines mysteriösen Verbrechens." in 1979 and 1997. The second book is an extension of the first book. The title means "Hinterkaifeck. The Murder Case. Traces of a mysterious crime". In this book, Leuschner quotes the original police files.
