ALSO SEE:
1903 – Anna (Karoline) Przygodda – Roblau,
Allenstein, East Prussia (Germany/Poland)
***
Source: Hugo Friedländer (1847-1918), Ch. 1: “Unhappy
marriages! A female bluebeard before the jury, “Interesting criminal trials of
cultural and historical importance: Representation of strange criminal cases
from the present and the recent past, Volume 8, 1920; Berlin: Grunewald, pp.
5-29. [Hugo Friedländer (1847-1918), Ch. 1: “Unglückliche Ehen! Ein weiblicher Blaubart vor den Geschworenen,” Interessante Kriminal-prozesse von
kulturhistorischer Bedeutung: Darstellung merkwürdiger Strafrechtsfälle aus
Gegenwart und Jüngstvergangenheit, Volume 8, 1920; Berlin: Grunewald, pp. 5-29.]
Hugo Friedländer (1847, Berlin -1918) was a
German journalist and court reporter.
***
FULL TEXT (Translated from German; 3,736 words): "Marriages
are made in heaven", this beautiful saying has long been refuted by reality. It
is deeply unfortunate that in our material age, a happy marriage is considered
a great rarity. Unhappy marriages exist in all circles of society. In
the circles of the well-to-do, the main culprit is the fact that marriages are
often not concluded out of internal mutual inclination, but rather with
consideration for a large dowry, a prospective inheritance or other external
advantages. This makes marriage a kind of pension institution.
It is understandable that such marriages cannot be
happy. In many cases, unhappy marriages are also to blame because they are
concluded hastily and at such a young age that both spouses, especially the
male part, do not yet feel the necessary seriousness or the need to start a
family. But unhappy marriages are often encountered even in the poor
population. Undoubtedly, the beautiful poet's word is not sufficiently
heeded:
"Therefore, examine whoever binds forever, whether the heart finds itself to the heart. "
In the middle class as well as in the poorer circles, the
unhappy marriages are often to blame for the fact that the woman does not
understand how to make family life pleasant for the man through economic
efficiency, keeping the living space clean and preparing tasty food. However,
it cannot be denied that the sad economic conditions are the main culprit. The
fortunately decreasing consumption of brandy will undoubtedly contribute a
great deal to the improvement of family life. But it is also urgently necessary
to better prepare the young girls for their future job as wives and mothers at
school and also by setting up housekeeping schools as many as possible. Of
course, this applies to all social circles. It is understandable that the many
unhappy marriages contribute to the reduction in marriages.
A Roman philosopher was once asked whether it was better to
get married or not. The philosopher replied, “Do both, and you will repent
both.” Who would deny that there is a great truth in this saying? In any case,
our marriage law is still in very bad shape. In view of the fact that the
number of modern robber barons is not small, the girls and widows with some
fortune marry only with the intention of getting into possession of the wife's
fortune through "unpunished theft" and then disappearing without a
trace. This gives cause to change § 247, 2 of the Criminal Code as soon as
possible. The most dangerous phenomenon in married life is undoubtedly the
bluebeard.
Which child does not feel a certain shudder when the maid
tells him in the dark by the cozy fireplace about a bluebeard who has brought
half a dozen women around the corner out of sheer lust for murder.
Unfortunately, these children's fairy tales have taken on more and more
practical form in modern times. In the fifth volume of my "Interesting
Criminal Trials", under the heading: "A criminal doctor," a
bluebeard in the worst form as a defendant is brought before the jury in
Munich.
But that we have no shortage of female blue beards, too, is
evident from the trial against Countess Tarnowska and comrades from the trials
against Ms. Schönebeck in Allenstein as well as the ladies Steinheil and
Borawska in Paris and from even more recent events. In the same room in which
Ms. Majorin v. Schönebeck was responsible for inciting spousal murders, seven
years earlier, in June 1903, a female bluebeard appeared before the jury, who
overshadowed all of her predecessors in terms of nefariousness and cruelty.
This mass-murderess by no means belonged to the poor class; she owned a very
valuable farm; she did not, as the First Public Prosecutor stated in his
pleading, give her favor to poor youth in the village.Here, too, lasciviousness
and greed were the mainspring of the outrageous goings-on of these megarists [shrews?].
The trial revealed such a terrible abyss of depravity and
malevolence as one should not believe possible in a woman. In my many years of
activity as a court reporter, I have seen many a wicked criminal in the face,
this monster in female human form, who on June 18 and 19, 1903, was accused of
poisoning her first four husbands in a relatively short time before the jury
court in Allenstein. However, this case was to fill me, despite my reputation as "the weatherproof criminologist," with disgust and revulsion.
This forensic drama was chaired by District Court Director
Dr. Thiessen. The prosecution represented First Public Prosecutor Nietzki.
Justice Councilor Wolski led the defense. The interpreter of the Polish
language was Senior Secretary Doehlert. The defendant, Mrs. Anna [sic; news reports give the name as Karoline] Przygodda, was
a small, somewhat sedate woman with features that were neither unintelligent
nor unsightly. When asked by the chairman, she said through the mouth of the
interpreter that she was born on July 20, 1859 in Puvlitz, Ortelsburg district,
of Protestant denomination and has not yet been punished.
According to the indictment, she was accused of poisoning
four of her husbands, the owners Bachur, Kempka, Panneck and Wiescholleck. When
asked by the chairman whether she pleaded guilty, the defendant said: "Not at
all, I am completely innocent. The men all died of their diseases." On further
questioning, the defendant remarked: on February 15, 1883, she married the
owner Johann Bachur in Röblau. Bachur was 21 years old when they married. Three
children emerged from this marriage. The youngest, who was born after Bachur's
death, died three weeks after birth. Bachur died on May 22, 1888. In December
of the same year she married Kempka, who was an economic inspector at Bachur.
Kempka was 27 years old.A girl emerged from this marriage, but died shortly
after the birth. Kempka had told her that he had a fortune of a thousand
thalers, which he wanted to pay into her property; but he only owned 100
thalers.
Chairman: Is it correct that you did not want to go to the
wedding before Kempka counted a thousand thalers on the table?
Accused: That is not true, I was glad that Kempka
married me because I was already in blessed circumstances from him.
President: The girl you gave birth to in your second marriage was born
after the death of your second husband on July 22nd, 1889?
Defendant: Yes.
Chairman: You were therefore given permission to enter into
a new marriage very soon and married August Panneck on November 26,
1889. Was this the Kempka's economic inspector during its lifetime?
Defendant: Yes.
Chairman: When did Panneck die?
Defendant: September 18, 1891.
Chairman: Did you have children with Panneck?
Defendant: Yes, I had two children with Panneck. One died while Panneck
was still alive, the second very soon after his death. On April 19, 1892
I married the owner Wiescholleck. With this I had three children, a boy
and two girls. The boy died very soon, the two girls are alive.
Wiescholleck died on November 16, 1899. Wiescholleck was Panneck's
economic inspector during his lifetime. On November 3rd, 1901, I married
for the fifth time, to my now living husband, the owner Adam Przygodda.
President: What did your first four men, initially Bachur,
die of?
Defendant: Bachur got typhus. At that time, many people in
Röblau died of typhus. Bachur didn't want a doctor. After eight days Bachur was
dead. I probably quarreled with Bachur from time to time, but in general our
marriage was a very peaceful and happy one. Bachur also had rashes on his head
that caused his hair to fall out. My second dear husband, Kempka, had
"lifted himself" while carrying a sack of potatoes. Soon afterwards
he complained of pain in his back and feet and died a few days later. My third
husband, Panneck, was Ulan. He was called up for an exercise [military?] in Lyck. When he
came back, he had a large ulcer on his throat which was very painful. A short
time later he died. I was told Panneck had died of consumption. I don't know
what my fourth husband Wiescholleck died of, he was sick from the start. One
evening Wiescholleck got so drunk in the "Krug" that he couldn't find his way
home; he had slept in the snow for several hours. As a result, he must have
caught a bad cold.
Chairman: Didn't you give your men poison?
Defendant: No, I've never had anything to do with poison.
Chairman: Your first four husbands were Protestants, your
current fifth husband is Catholic?
Defendant: Yes.
President: You are supposed to have said once that
Protestant husbands cost ten pfennigs, while Catholic husbands cost five
pfennigs.
Defendant: These are lies.
Chairman: Do you drunk a lot of schnapps?
Defendant: I'm not an abstinent, but I haven't drunk much
schnapps, especially since I can't take it.
Chairman: Did your third husband Panneck is said to have once say: "She has already brought two men around the corner, but she won't succeed
with me"?
Defendant: That is completely unknown to me.
Chairman: Wiescholleck often went hunting?
Defendant: Yes.
President: You are supposed to have reproached
Wiescholleck for this and said: "If you don't let that happen, you will soon
disappear."
Defendant: That is completely untrue. On the contrary,
I was happy when my husband brought me a rabbit.
Chairman: Panneck is said to have called you a witch once
during an argument. You are said to have replied: "If I'm a witch, then
I'll bewitch you. It'll only cost me a silver groschen, then the devil
will come for you."
Defendant: This is a complete lie.
Chairman [?]: You are also reported to have said once: "There is a
plant which, if you give a person something to eat from it, he will die, even
if it takes a little long."
Defendant: That's all a lie.
President: You are also supposed to have said: You have
read on your planet that you will have six husbands; you will only end your
existence with the seventh?
Defendant: Once upon a time a gypsy came to see me and I had
my cards laid out by her. The gypsy said to me that in my youth I had seven
loves. I talked about this in the village, but I must have been misunderstood.
In response to further questioning of the chairman, the
defendant said: "As long as my first two husbands were alive, I never had poison
in the house. Two years before his death, Wiescholleck purchased
Schweinfurt green to kill Swabians. Wiescholleck's father, Altsitzer
Wiescholleck, had suffered from scabies and probably because of that, but also
bought vitriol to whiten the walls."
Chairman: You are said to have told your fourth husband,
Wiescholleck: "You are ruining the whole economy. If you don't change, I'll
just make you disappear."
Defendant: That is untrue. However, I have often
reproached Wiescholleck for occasionally getting drunk and as a result
neglecting financial matters. But I never said I would make him disappear.
Chairman: Wiescholleck is supposed to have said once that
the sausage you served him tasted strange.
Defendant: I don't remember that. In any case, the
sausage was good, I ate it myself. My husband didn't like everything
because he was sick.
Chairman: Wiescholleck is said to have often eaten alone?
Defendant: That only happened when we quarreled.
Chairman: You are supposed to have said once that
Wiescholleck died because he ate scrambled eggs that were made with eggs that a
goose had incubated for a fortnight?
Defendant: That is also not true, but Wiescholleck once
got sick from eating boiled eggs.
At the request of the First Public Prosecutor, the chairman
established from the files that Bachur was 21 years old at the time of the
marriage, Kempka 27, Panneck 26, Wiescholleck 28 years old.
Chairman: Defendant, you have been repeatedly accused of being responsible for the presence of the arsenic that was found in the four corpses that were excavated, at
least in the bodies of Bachur, Kempka and Wiescholleck. It has also been established
that all four men died of one and the same disease, how do you explain that?
Defendant: I have no explanation for it. Arsenic was
never in our house. The same symptoms cannot be found in the four men because
they died of different diseases.
The fifth husband of the accused, owner Przygodda, a tall,
not unattractive man of 30 years of age, was called into the hall as a witness
under great tension. When asked by the chairman, he stated that he had
married the defendant on November 3, 1901. His wife often quarreled with him and
also drank schnapps. She was drunk twice.
Chairman: Has your wife threatened you from time to time?
Witness: She once said: "You will remember me."
President: Didn't your wife once say: "It only costs me
one groschen? Then you are finished off?"
Witness: I don't know about that. I have been told,
however, that my wife said that Protestant men cost a silver groschen, Catholic
men half.
Chairman: Weren't you warned against marrying a woman to
whom four men had died almost in succession?
Witness: Yes, I was told that I could end up the same way
because the men all died suddenly under strange circumstances. I held this
up to my wife. Then she replied: “My first four men died of various
diseases. When your time comes, you will die too.” When questioned again,
the witness stated that he had brought 600 thalers into the inn belonging to
his wife.
Defendant: I only quarreled twice with my fifth husband, Przygodda.
Once I quarreled with Przygodda because he hit the dog badly. Przygodda
threatened to hit me too. Then I said: You will remember me. However, I also
said to Przygodda: "When your time comes, you will die too." That is
God's destiny, nothing can be done about it.
Landowner Braun (Röblau): I knew Panneck, Wiescholleck and I
know Przygodda. Panneck was a very sober man, on the other hand
Wiescholleck was sometimes drunk, Wiescholleck often complained to me that his
wife treated him very badly. I therefore advised the Wiescholleck to get a
divorce. Wiescholleck, who was [Ulan, error] just like Panneck, replied: "I'm a sick
man, so it's hard to get a divorce. Przygodda also complained to me once
that his wife treated him badly. He told me that his wife had said to him:
“The devil has already fetched four of my men, and he will soon fetch the fifth
too."
President: Defendant, you are said to have been to Russia
often?
Defendant: I've been to Russia twice.
Mayor Müller (Willenberg): In Russia poisons are more
expensive than in Germany, but you can get any poison in Russia without a
poison certificate. I have known the defendant for 20 years; I have often
seen her drunk. She often drank schnapps with people below her
class. The defendant was also a messy, wasteful woman.
District Court Secretary Hintz: I was in Willenberg in the
summer of 1902. It was said that the defendant had put her four husbands
aside in order to keep getting new money. The husbands have all put
money into the property, which has paid off very well.
The defendant denied that she was looking to get new money
from her husbands. Frau Rosowsky: The defendant once told her that she had
a gypsy lay the cards for her. She had to pay the gypsy six marks to read
the cards. But the gypsy knows a lot, the defendant said; but she did
not tell Frau Rosawsky what the gypsy knew.
Chairman: Didn't you tell the police that the defendant
bought a bewitching agent for six marks?
Witness: No. The defendant only said: "It cost six
marks for the gypsy, but she knows a lot."
Chairman: Did you know that the defendant drank a lot of
schnapps?
Witness: I think so. When we talked about the gypsy, we
drank a liter of schnapps together. (Great amusement.)
Chairman: Have you seen the defendant drunk?
Witness: I can't say that, I don't live in Röblau.
Teacher Ottersdorf: It has been frequently said that the defendant
had her first four husbands removed from the world by magic.
President: What do people understand the word "magic" to mean?
Witness: People are of the opinion that the defendant
bewitched the men so that they were attacked by the Vistula plague [?] and similar
things and died. I only knew Wiescholleck. The defendant once quarreled with me when drunk and said: "Three have already 'walked around the corner' [died], I will
soon end up the same way. Wiescholleck often complained to me about bad
treatment by his wife. When Wiescholleck died, I wanted to file a complaint
because I had noticed the death of the four men. After the defendant was
married to Herr Przygodda, she quarreled once with him while drunk. Przygodda cried
and said: "You have already brought four men around the corner, I will probably end up the same way soon." Then I felt compelled to file a complaint."
When asked by the chairman, Herr Przygodda admitted that he had
made the statement when drinking, but that he did not remember crying while doing
it.
Then the sister of the first husband of the
defendant, the late Johann Bachur, was heard as a witness: Her brother was a
very strong and healthy man when he married the defendant at the age of 21. In
the last year of his life, her brother complained of pain in his feet; which
made work difficult for him. She visited her brother a few days before his
death. Her brother complained of internal pain and heat. She was once in
Willenberg with her brother and sister-in-law. The couple quarreled violently.
The defendant said to her husband: "You will not die a by 'mortality."
The defendant probably wanted to say that her brother would not die of natural
causes.
Councilman Cibalski (Röblau): Bachur was a strong,
healthy man. In the last year of his life, Bachur complained of pain in
his limbs and that his hands and feet were swollen.
Defendant: Bachur did not have swollen hands and feet, but
had typhus and died from it.
Chairman: Mister Councilman, was typhus in Röblau at
that time?
Witness: Not at all.
In addition, when asked by the chairman, the witness
testified that the defendant often drank schnapps and was very uneconomical. The
property belonged to Bachur; the defendant married into the economy. He doesn't
know how much she brought into the marriage. The other husbands of the defendant each brought money and cattle with them. It was noticed that all four men died
with the same symptoms.
Worker Pöhl: Bachur suddenly got rashes on his head, so that
his hair fell out. The witness also confirmed the testimony of the previous witness and
also stated: "The spouses mostly did not eat together. When they both got drunk,
there was a lot of quarrel and argument. In the last year of his life Bachur
developed numerous sores on his face and head."
Frau Pöhl (wife of the witness) essentially followed her
husband's statements. Bachur had often had the urge to vomit recently, but he
was unable to vomit. The defendant once told her that her husband had scrambled
eggs from eggs that had been incubated by a goose for 14 days and became ill as
a result. Bachur has complained of cramps in his arms and legs in recent years.
When Bachur died, the defendant was very pleased.
Worker Jacobeck essentially confirmed the testimony of the
witnesses and went on to report: When Bachur died, the face of the corpse was
completely black and swollen. On the day before his death, Bachur walked around
with his pillow because of severe pain and complained of terrible pain in
his throat. Since Bachur couldn't stand it because of the pain, he pressed the
pillow violently against his body. He also complained of a terrible
restlessness. During the whole night that followed, Bachur screamed almost
incessantly in pain. He complained that he was burning inside. This terrible
condition lasted until the following morning, when Bachur died with violent
convulsions and moans. Death was undoubtedly a release to the wretched man.
Thereupon the witnesses testifying about the death of Kempka, the
second husband of the accused, were heard. Councilman Cibalski could
not say anything about Kempka's illness or death. All he had heard was
that Kempka had "overworked." Kempka got help from a teacher in
Röblau to assist with his deliveries [transl.?].
Worker Pöhl: Kempka was a very healthy and strong person. One
day Kempka fell ill; he said he must have "worn himself
out". Kempka complained of the same pain as Bachur. He finally
went to his home town of Wallen to be cured there.
Ms. Jacobeck: A short time before the Kempka died, he got a
severe nosebleed. To stop this, someone put horse manure on his
nose. (Laughter in the auditorium.)
Christoph Kempka, brother of the second husband of the
accused: His brother brought 800 thalers and 100 marks, a number of cattle and
11 pigs into the inn. The defendant said: "You will not go to the wedding
before the promised money and cattle are there." Christoph's brother was a strong,
healthy person. Some time after the marriage, he visited his brother.
He looked so bad that he (witness) was shocked by him. He
believed his brother had suffered a stroke. When asked, his brother told him that when he came from the Friedrichshofer fair one day, his wife gave him
something to eat; since then he has been sick. The brother complained of severe
pain in his hands and feet. After his brother had resided in his home for 1 1/2
years, he had him, the witness, bring him to Wallen because his wife did not
want to look after him. The brother said that if a pig is sick, then it receives
better treatment than he received from its wife. He (witness) called a doctor
to see his brother. The doctor told him: "Your brother will not live long, all his blood is
poisoned." His brother was a very sober man and tried to prevent his wife from
drinking liquor. His brother's child also died suddenly.
Mrs. Maruch, a sister of the witness and the late Kempka,
fully confirmed her brother's statements.
***
