Today’s story takes place in 1922, therefore the legal landscape of Germany then versus now is much different, I will try to provide context for both. Germany runs on a civil law system, made up of laws by the German constitution and the federal parliament. Germany used the inquisitorial system where judges are involved in the investigation of cases (remember in episode 5, the juge d’instrucion in Petit Gregory). There are ordinary and specialized courts in the German justice system. In 1922, Germany’s government was called the Weimar Republic established by the Weimar constitution which held power from 1919 to 1933 in other words after WWI to the rise of Nazi Germany. The judicial system under the Weimar republic was basic law or fundamental. Basic law basically means that is gives power to the constitution.
Our crime story takes place in Bavaria, Germany, 43 miles north of Munich on a farm named Hinterkaifeck which translates into English as “behind the woods”. The farm was close to the small town of Wangen (today apart of the greater Waidhofen). Hinterkaifeck was home to the Gruber family, the father Andreas aged 63 his wife Cazillia aged 72, their widowed wife Viktoria Gabriel aged 35, Viktoria’s two children Cazillia who was 7 and baby Josef who was 2, as well as their newly appointed live in maid Maria Baumgartner aged 44. I tried to find out about the family’s personality but I don’t know because this case took place nearly 100 years ago or it got lost in translation but I could not find anything. This case has intrigued Germany for 98 years and the craziest thing, its still unsolved this day.
6 months before the murder the previous maid had left employment at the Gruber house due to the home being haunted. She claimed that she had heard footsteps in the attic and voices, it freaked her out enough to dodge out however this reason for her leaving has never been determined as fact. About a week before the incident, the father Andreas noticed something odd, there were footsteps in the snow leading to the home from the woods but there were none coming back and a set of house keys were missing. Andreas found a strange newspaper from Munich, he didn’t know where it came from. Also the family heard footsteps in the attic but when Andreas went up to search there was nothing. He told several people about these incidents, including his neighbor who told him to get a gun, which Andreas refused and also did not tell the police in town. It has also be alleged that 7 year old Cazilla told a school friend that her mother left the farm after a “violent quarrel” to be found later in the wood behind the home. Also the family allegedly said there was a man with a mustache standing the woods looking at the farm.
On March 31st, mid afternoon, the new live in maid arrived at the farm from the first day of work. It is believed later that night, a unknown person or persons came on to the farm and lured (some reports say one by one) Andreas, his wife Cazilla, Viktoria and her eldest child Cazilla out to the family barn and killed them with a mattock or pickaxe. The bodies were stacked upon each other and the child Cazilla was found with piles of hair in her hands that she pulled out from her head drawing the conclusion that she took a while to die. The new maid, Maria was believed to be killed in her bed because that is where was found. The same goes for Josef who was found dead in his crib.
On April 1st, coffee sellers arrived at the farm an no one had answerd the door, they notice a gate the machine house was open then left. Young Cazilla was absent from school and the family did not attend church. A repair man showed up at the house on April 4th and when no one answered the door he just went ahead with the repairs, the repair man told people in town that the farm felt empty. Evidence showed the killer or killers stayed at the home days after the murders. The cattle were still being feed and milked, food was being eaten and smoke was seen rising from the home’s chimney and the family dog had been tied up outside which the postman had noticed and untied the next day.
On the 4th of April, the neighbors discovered the bodies of the six victims, four in the barn and two in the home. They were killed by a pickaxe or mattock but elder Cazilla and Viktoria also had signs of strangulation. The mayor of the town and police collected evidence and sent a letter to Munich. Inspector Georg Reingruber and other police arrived by train from the Munich Police Department after a couple days and were put in charge of investigating the murders. Now remember the year in 1922, forensic science in not a thing, DNA is unknown to exist and murders and crimes did not happen in small towns. People could not get there crime fix on TV or podcasts, you read about it in newspapers or go and see for yourself . The murder was a spectacle to the residents on Wanger. When the MPD arrived people had touched and moved the bodies and other evidence and spectators eve cooked meals in the family’s kitchen for on lookers. Before the MPD arrived on April 5th the doctor preformed the autopsies in the barn itself. The skulls and the heads of the victims were removed and sent to Munich to be examined. The heads were lost (how do you lose 6 heads?!) in Munich and believed to have been destroyed entirely during WWII. Therefore, the family along with the maid where buried on April 8th without their heads. The police could also not find the murder weapon.
Robbery was soon ruled out a motive because large sums of cash were found just were the Gruber family had left it. The police really could find a motive but suspects started to appear. The first suspect wad Viktoria’s husband, Karl Gabriel. Wait, wasn’t Viktoria a widower like I said earlier? Yes she was. Karl was allegedly killed in WWI in France but his body had never been found. What would be his motive? Josef was born after the supposed death of Karl, who was the babies father? Her father, Andreas. I know, yikes. Viktoria and Andreas had both spent time in jail before due to their incestuous ways in 1915, making me believe and others that the relationship was consensual. It was even later discovered that young Cazilla was also Andreas’s daughter (and grandfather). Could Karl have sought revenge for this? People have stated that they met Karl after WWI, he was alive. In WWII a Soviet Officer said that he committed the murders on Hinterkaifeck farm and that officer could have possibly been Karl.
Another suspect in police’s eyes was the neighbor Lorenz Schlittenbauer. The only reason we knew of the mysterious things happening to the Gruber’s in the coming days of the murder like the footprints in the snow was because of Lorenz. What if he was just making it up? Andreas and Lorenz were known not to get along. Viktoria had admitted to having sex with Lorenz five times and Lorenz thought that he was the biological father of Josef. The initials L.S was even on Josef’s birth certificate, but that could have just been the doctor’s. Viktoria even asked Lorenz for “child support” for Josef before the murders. After the murders Lorenz was said to have entered the family’s home alone. What if he was hiding evidence? He was also known for moving the bodies before the police came. Years after the murder Lorenz had a big mouth and was said to talk about the murders and give details that only a killer would know, like that he couldn’t bury the bodies because the ground was frozen. Lorenz’s motive could have been that he found out that Andreas was Josef’s father or the child support payments even though it was not allowed to see Josef. Some reports even stated that the Gruber’s family dog barked and yelled at Lorenz after the murders. Dogs know things.
There also could have been political motives for the murders. Wagner was a conservative, catholic town and Andreas was known to be a vocal Nazi sympathizer. Local elections were happening soon and some guessed that the Gruber’s were killed to keep the conservatism alive. A man named Adolf Gump was also a suspect and may have dated Viktoria. Adolf was assoiscated with the political group called the Freikorps Oberland who had a hatred against Nazis. On his deathbed in 1944 Adolf alluded to being involved in the murders along with his brother Anton. In 1951, Anton was investigated but cleared in 1954 due to insufficient evidence.
It is even said that the Nazi’s could have killed the family, saying that the land was valuable and could have been used in the Third Reich. Similar rural hideouts have been found all over Germany and Bavaria. Other suspects have been named such as Peter Weber who supposedly told a friend that he committed the crime in order to get the family’s riches. A mother claimed that her two sons Karl and Andreas S could have committed the murders. The former maid pointed at the Thaler brothers who committed burglaries around the area in the months before. The former maid also suspected the brothers Anton and Karl Bichler along with Georg Siegal. Anton had helped on the farm beforehand and told people that he thought that the family should be dead. Georg also had worked on the farm before and allegedly burglarized the home in 1920. A man named Joseph Bartle escaped from a mental hospital in 1921 and was thought to be near the farm at the time of the murders. The Hinterkaifeck murders have also been linked to German serial killer Fredrich Hermann who committed his crimes in the 1920’s. The author Bill James in his book The Man on the Train states that Paul Mueller committed the murders. Paul Mueller committed similar murders in the US, Mueller was Germany immigrant and is sad to have gone home to Germany and committed the murders. The police were said to have questioned more than 100 in regard to the murders.
In 1999 an elderly woman contacted the police stating that her former landlord had information about the killings. The landlord made these claims in 1935 and was not alive in 1999 to be questioned. In 2007, the students at the German police academy used modern techniques to investigate the case and ruled out all suspects but one. The suspect is dead and they did not announce the name publicly. Police in 2007 stated that important evidence was now missing. It is unlikely that the murders will ever be solved.
A year after the murders, the farm structure was tore down. In this process the murder weapon was believed to have been found but it couldn’t be known for certain. There is a memorial to the victims on the farm which reads, translated from German “Memorial for Hinterkaifeck in the immediate vicinity of the crime. Godless hand- the family Gabriel- Gruber fell victim here on March 31st, 1922” followed by the names a birthyears of the victims. There is also a shrine in Waidhofen cemetery where the victims were laid to rest. No other structure has been place on the farm.
So…what happened to the Gruber family and there maid? Honestly I don’t think there will ever be a answer. The incestuous relationship between father and daughter rubbed people in town the wrong way, what if a villager killed the family to teach them a lesson. The same could have been said because Andreas was a Nazi sympathizer. Did the new maid have something to do with this? Doubtful in my opinion, she had only been on the farm for a day and strange things were happening on the farm in the weeks and months leading up to the murders. The theory that wad Viktoria’s husband, Karl Gabriel was the murderer is ludicrous to me. There sis no evidence of this man living since WWI. I do not think the family or even Viktoria knew that little Cazilla was not Karl’s son. If this man did live after WWI, I imagine he would have returned to his wife and daughter to continue with a normal life. There is no solid evidence this man is alive. I don’t disagree that the murder could have been politically motivated. It was a tough time in Germany politically. Adolf Gump even confessed that he committed the murder on his death bed, but there is no evidence to back this up. I also think it would have been absurd for the Nazi’s to commit this crime. Though Nazi’s are terrible I don’t see that they would have committed such a awful and messy crime. If they wanted to get rid of the family to use the land, I think they would have just simply made them disappear. I don’t think Peter Weber committed the crime, because he said he did it to steal from the family but nothing was stolen from the house. The crime did not fit with serial killer Fredrich Hermann normal M.O. The old maid accused two sets of brothers which I think should have been investigated more. The maid lived at the house, she knew the family, she would have know better then anyone the inner working of day to day life on Hinterkaifeck. The escaped metal suspect seems unlikely. Author’s Bill James suspect of Paul Mueller seems ridiculous because you cant even place Paul in Germany at the time.
In my eyes the best suspect is Lorenz Schlittenbauer, he had motive and the means. But if he did why did he kill his lover and who he thought to be his son, Josef. I can’t get over him disturbing the crime scene though. This has been well documented and possibly he was trying to clean something up or degraded evidence. Maybe he found out Josef wasn’t his son and snapped. Viktoria was strangled along with the stabbing of the pickaxe this could suggest that she was the target of the attack. Before his death in 1941, Lorenz conducted and won several civil claims for slander against persons who described him as the "murderer of Hinterkaifeck”. He fought to his dying day that he wasn’t the murderer but I do believe the investigation by the German police academy in 2007 though of him as the suspect.
That completes the 8th episode of A Crime Story Podcast. I would love to hear your thoughts on this case, what do you think happened to the Gruber family and their maid? Who do you think committed the crime?
A Crime Story is hosted and written by me, Kailin Lois. Sources for today’s episode can be found in the show’s notes. Theme Music is by Ross Bugden. Additional story editing is brought to you by my father, Mike. Thank you for listening to A Crime Story! Stay safe and be kind.
Sources: history.com howtogermany.com, flimdaily.co.uk, Buzzfeed Unsolved, Bedtime Stories, allthatsintresting.com, investigationdiscovery.com, ranker.com
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