Murder for Christmas: Gießen shaked by gruesome crimes

Murder for Christmas: Gießen shaked by gruesome crimes

A cruel crime crashed in the Christmas season of 1908. On the first Christmas holiday, the body of ten -year -old Heinrich Abel in the Schiffenberg Forest was discovered by walkers. He was last seen when he was commissioned by his father on the evening of December 24th. Witnesses reported a loud scream from the direction of the forest, which suddenly interrupted the tranquil Christmas, as the reported

The criminal police were faced with a major challenge at the time because the investigation was only organized rudimentarily. However, witnessed information soon led to Wilhelm Reif, a 47-year-old shoemaker with a preliminary stress for sexual offenses. He was also seen on the evening of the crime near the boy's foundation. The "hunter with the magnifying glass", the renowned chemist Dr. Georg Popp, examined the evidence and discovered decisive traces: textile fibers from Heinrich's clothing and special spruce needles that only appeared at the scene. Ripe finally confessed, but claimed that he had no intention to kill the boy.

background and punishment

The process began in March 1909, and the public was very interested due to the tragedy of the case. Ripe was sentenced to life penalty for minor manslaughter and moral crime. The following investigations by psychiatric reports supported the assessment that he was classified as a habitual moral criminal. Historian Dr. Ludwig Brake found that the entire population in Gießen was severely affected by this crime and remained interested in the clarification of the case, as he described in his lecture in the Netanya Hall, as the Gießener Anzeiger reported.