Ride amok from Stuttgart and Möglingen

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During the rampage in Stuttgart and Möglingen on May 1, 1949 , three people were killed by US military policeman Russel Jones.

The culprit

Russel Jones was a military policeman in the 434th Military Company of the US Army in Stuttgart-Zuffenhausen . On September 9, 1949, he was sentenced to life imprisonment. He died in April 1977.

The fact

On Saturday, April 30, 1949, Jones got drunk in a club on the barracks grounds. He then got a punch in a fight with other soldiers. He later became contentious again and was put to bed by a supervisor. When he woke up again, he left the premises in a jeep, armed with his baton. At a gas station in Feuerbach he beat the German industrial policeman (I. P.) Alois M. with the baton , stole his M1 carbine and shot the seriously injured man with it. Jones first drove back to headquarters, but then came back to dispose of his broken baton. Alois M. died on admission to the hospital.

Jones drove to Bad Cannstatt , where he asked Ruth S., who was on her way home with her friend Gertrud M. and her boyfriend Leonid R., to get into the jeep. Ruth S. tried to run away, whereupon Jones shot her in the back, killing her. Then he asked Gertrud M. to get into the car with him, which she did on Leonid R.'s advice. Jones tried to offend her. After the woman persuaded him to go elsewhere, she was able to jump out of the moving car and get to safety. About 100 meters further, Jones met Fritz N. and his companion. After addressing them, Fritz N. approached him, whereupon Jones shot him with the carbine and hit him in the heart. The escaping woman drew the attention of a police officer, whereupon Jones drove away. The policeman tried to take Fritz N. to the hospital, who died on the way.

Jones drove back to Zuffenhausen and parked the jeep in front of the barracks around four o'clock. One of the guards spoke to him and Jones hit him in the stomach and head with the carbine. He raced away in the direction of Vaihingen an der Enz and then turned off to Möglingen . There he met Ingeborg S. and Hildegard R. with their two companions. The jeep brushed against the two women who were thrown into the ditch. Jones offered to drive her to the hospital. When Hildegard R. was seated in the passenger seat, he drove away. There were fights, the woman was able to fall out of the vehicle and was brought to safety by passers-by.

When it was getting dark, Jones stopped by a barn and went to sleep there. At around 10.45 a.m. he asked about the police in Möglingen and allowed himself to be arrested at the local police station without resistance. He made a written confession later that day.

The process

From August 22 to September 9, 1949, Jones had to answer to an American military court in the house of the Community of Friends of Wüstenrot (GdF) in Ludwigsburg . Almost all of the major daily newspapers in the US reported on it. Seven medical experts and many witnesses were heard. His defense attorney Philip Lorber argued that Jones did not know what he was doing and saw his drunkenness as an extenuating factor. The prosecutor Major Thomas L. Parsons was of the opinion Jones have conscious drunk courage because he worried about a fine imposed on him a disciplinary wanted revenge. The written confession shows that he could think clearly at the time in question. At the end of his plea, Parsons called the presiding judge Lt. Col. John M. Ferguson to: “Give him what he gave Alois M., Ruth S. and Fritz N.! Give him his death! ”Jones was sentenced to life imprisonment for hard labor for triple murders, the unlawful appropriation of an MP jeep, theft of a carbine, attempted rape and drunkenness . He was also dishonorably discharged from the army and lost all remuneration to which he was entitled. He was first taken to a military prison in Ludwigsburg and transferred to the United States a few days later. The verdict was upheld by the US Army Attorney General in Washington on January 16, 1950 and May 24, 1950 . It became legally binding on June 7, 1950.

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