Christa Lehmann (serial killer)

Christa Lehmann (* 1922 in Worms ) is a German serial killer .

Life

Childhood and first employment

Christa Lehmann was born Christa Ambros in Worms in 1922. She grew up almost parentless. Her mother lived in a sanatorium in Alzey .

After attending primary school, Christa Ambros found a job in a leather goods factory. She later switched to Farbwerke Hoechst . During this time she was sentenced to suspended prison for theft.

marriage

At Hoechst she met Karl Franz Lehmann, whom she married in 1944. Lehmann had a stomach problem and limped slightly, so that he was postponed from military service. The couple moved to live with Lehmann's parents in Worms. They earned their living with a tiling business, but also through the black market trade . The currency reform put an end to this, a fact that Christa Lehmann found it difficult to come to terms with. There were arguments and fights with her alcoholic husband and violent arguments with her in-laws.

The murders

Karl Franz Lehmann died surprisingly on September 27, 1952 within half an hour of severe convulsions. The doctor called for help stated that the cause of death was the breakthrough of a gastric ulcer , which, in view of the well-known gastric disease and alcohol dependence, seemed plausible.

After the death of her husband, the conflicts with her father-in-law Valentin Lehmann intensified. On October 14, 1953, Valentin Lehmann fell clinically dead from his bicycle while driving into town. The doctor summoned by the passers-by determined death from heart failure.

Christa Lehmann became friends with Annie Hamann, a war widow who lived in a household with her mother Eva Ruh, her brother Walter and her nine-year-old daughter. Annie Hamann and Christa Lehmann started going out together. On Sunday, February 14, 1954, Lehmann came to visit and brought five chocolate mushrooms with a liqueur filling. She shared four chocolates among Annie Hamann, her brother, a neighbor who happened to be present and herself, and offered the fifth to Eva Ruh. She declined with thanks and put them to one side.

Annie Hamann came home the next day, found the praline in the kitchen cupboard, took a bite, swallowed part of it, and spat the other half on the floor in disgust. The family dog ​​ate the rest of the chocolate immediately. A short time later Hamann turned pale, began to stagger, and stated that he could no longer see anything. She staggered into the bedroom, accompanied by her mother, and lay down on the bed with convulsions. She lost consciousness and Eva Ruh called for help. When the doctor called by the neighbors arrived, Annie Hamann was already dead, as was the dog in the kitchen. After describing what had happened, the doctor informed the police.

Condemnation

Annie Hamann's body was confiscated and taken to the forensic medicine institute in Mainz . After long examinations (including for strychnine ), Prof. Kurt Wagner tested Annie Hamann's stomach contents for the plant protection product E 605 , a poison that was invented in Germany, but up until this point had mainly been used in the USA . The effect of poisoning is very similar to that of hydrogen cyanide . Up to this point in time, however, there had been no proven case of murder or suicide using E 605. The 168 cases of poisoning documented in the USA up to 1953 were due to gross negligence and, with the exception of nine cases, were rather mild. Therefore, there was still no method of forensic evidence of E 605 .

Christa Lehmann was arrested and interrogated. On February 23, she made a confession. The attack was not aimed at Annie Hamann, but rather her mother. On March 19, the bodies of Karl Franz and Valentin Lehmann were exhumed. E 605 could be detected in both. The trial against Christa Lehmann began on September 20, 1954. She was sentenced to life imprisonment .

In Neuwied prison, Christa Lehmann tried several times to take her own life. In 1971 she was transferred to the women's prison in Frankfurt. After 23 years in prison, she was released and then lived in freedom with a changed identity.

Aftermath

The plant protection product E 605 was given the name Wormser Poison in the extensive press coverage of the trial against Christa Lehmann and was subsequently often misused as a “fashion poison” in Germany and Austria . It was used for many murders and suicides until the late 1950s . This also led to the previously colorless and almost odorless poison being denatured and colored.

literature

• Jürgen Thorwald : The century of the detectives. Path and adventure of criminology . Volume 3: Handbook for Poisoners . Droemer Knaur, Munich et al. 1968, (several editions).
• Stephan Harbort : The serial killer principle. What makes people evil? Droste Verlag, Düsseldorf 2006, ISBN 3-7700-1221-6 .
• Ernst Klee : Christa Lehmann. The poisoner's confession . Krüger, Frankfurt am Main 1977, ISBN 3-8105-1002-5 .

Web links

• Deutschlandradio - an interview on the subject of poisoning
• Literature by and about Christa Lehmann in the catalog of the German National Library
• Article by Ernst Klee about Christa Lehmann: The story of the poisonous murderer in the weekly newspaper Die Zeit