Johann Oberreiter

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Johann Oberreiter (born May 8, 1807 in Dienten am Hochkönig , † July 26, 1865 in Salzburg ) was an Austrian appointed mayor of Werfen and Lebzelter . He became known as a poisoner who was sentenced to death by hanging . His execution was the last in Salzburg in the 19th century.

Life

Education, family and work

Johann Oberreiter was born in Dienten am Hochkönig in 1807 and later learned the trade of Lebzeltner in Radstadt . In 1833 he began to work as a journeyman for the widowed Maria Schintelmaißer, whose husband was Lebzeltner. He entered the service because he hoped to marry the wealthy widow. Soon afterwards he married Schintelmaisser. The Oberreiter family, soon with two daughters and two sons as well as a stepdaughter from his wife's first marriage, was considered wealthy and respected in the village, although his wife was considered choleric and neglected her children. Oberreiter was appointed mayor of Werfen in 1843 and held this office until 1848. On May 25, 1855, his wife died at the age of 49. Oberreiter then became the sole owner of the house and business. In the following years he got into debt. On March 8, 1859, he married the 38-year-old surgeon widow Anna Meneweger. This marriage remained childless. Its economic situation remained tense. Creditors kept demanding repayment of debts that he was unable to do, and the banks refused to grant him any more loans.

Offense and Conviction

His step-daughter Eva Schintelmaißer died on April 26, 1864 and his daughter Barbara Oberreiter on May 17. The rumors that emerged in the village that they had been poisoned like Oberreiter's first wife was believed by his wife and reported him to the police. She also told the police that she had been watching him "teaching his stepdaughter something harmful" for some time. The motive in the village was presumed to be that Johann Oberreiter felt overwhelmed by paying his children the 500 guilders bequeathed by his first wife and the house with a mortgage in favor of the children. Almost all of his children were more or less severe and physically restricted, which probably meant that the father himself was physically and mentally overloaded. Eva had suffered from diarrhea and vomiting since 1862. Also because she was "completely crippled by gouty disease", her treating doctor found nothing abnormal about her early death and she was buried without further examinations. After Barbara died only three weeks later, who had shown similar symptoms of diarrhea and vomiting before her death and after Oberreiter's death had noticeably urged a burial as soon as possible, Anna Oberreiter filed a complaint. In this she expressed the suspicion that the two daughters had been poisoned with verdigris . In the following autopsy, arsenic poisoning was found.

Oberreiter initially confessed that he had given his daughters arsenic with mead , and that he had received the poison from a wandering wax worker as a wax clarifier. In the first interrogations he admitted that he administered only a small amount to his victims in order to shorten their suffering, as they would have died in any case. In the further course of the proceedings, he revoked this statement and changed it several times.

In order to clarify the suspicion that he had also murdered his first wife, she was exhumed and autopsied for evidence of poisoning. Traces of arsenic were also found in her body, although they could also be found in an accompanying bouquet of flowers . At that time, the coroners could not clearly determine whether the poison had passed from the corpse to the flowers or from these, which had been treated with dyes containing arsenic and copper, to the corpse.

On February 27, 1865, the trial against Oberreiter began before the Salzburg Regional Court . Up until March 4, the case was heard in front of crowded stands on five court days, most of which lasted from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. After a day of deliberation, the court found Oberreiter guilty of poisoning his daughters. He was acquitted of the alleged assassination of his first wife for lack of evidence. He was sentenced to death by hanging . The sentence was the last executed death sentence in Salzburg in the 19th century.

His house in Werfen is now part of Karl and Rudolf Obauer's hotel and restaurant .

Contemporary reports

Aimé Wouwermans published a book on the case in 1865. In this he said that Oberreiter hardly looks like someone who is believed to have committed a murder because of his external appearance. He has the creeping, crawling nature of a reptile, which first fixes its victim with its gaze and then sneaks up suddenly to a place that seems most suitable for attack and defense. Only in a few moments did you notice an inner excitement in him with indistinct signs. As shown in court, he probably had an effect on his fellow citizens earlier: "Calm on the outside (and) pathologically excited inside".

The New Bavarian Courier reported extensively on the process. Among other things, it is written there that Anna Oberreiter no longer testified against her husband, since the pastor had advised against it because he was "still (her) husband". According to the newspaper, Oberreiter was called a hypocrite by his fellow prisoners . He told one of them that he would not mind four or five years in prison. At the end of the trial it was noted that Oberreiter would have been acquitted, despite overwhelming circumstantial evidence, had he only murdered his wife. And this only because "a loving hand" would have placed the contaminated bouquet in the coffin.

In the Augsburger Tagblatt it was reported, among other things, that Oberreiter wanted to reorganize his indebted business by marrying his son to a rich bride. Because of the elderly unmarried sisters in the house, none of them could be found. It was reported there that his fellow inmates called him a prayer brother .

The autopsies and examinations of objects confiscated from Oberreiter's household and clothing for arsenic and other poisons were intensified with several multi-page articles in the specialist publication Vienna Medical Press: Organ for Practical Doctors. described.

literature

  • Aimé Wouwermans: The gingerbread from Werfen (Johann Oberreiter). According to the results of the final hearing at the kk regional court in Salzburg for assassination by poisoning, 1865
  • Barbara Wolflingseder : The murderous Lebzeltner in: Dark stories from Old Austria , Styriabooks, 2013, ISBN 978-3-99040-180-4 , pp. 147–157
  • Walter Thaler : A mayor as a serial poison killer. In: Pinzgauer! Heroes - fools - pioneers. Portraits from the provinces . newacademicpress, Vienna 2017, ISBN 978-3-99036-014-9 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b baptismal register - TFBIII | Served | Salzburg, rk. Diocese | Austria | Matricula Online. Retrieved October 31, 2018 .
  2. ^ Austrian National Library: ANNO, Linzer Abendbote: Zeitschrift für Stadt und Land, 1865-07-27, page 2. Accessed on October 31, 2018 .
  3. ↑ a b c d e f g h Barbara Wolflingseder: The murderous Lebzeltner in: Dark stories from the Old Austria , Styriabooks, 2013, ISBN 978-3-99040-180-4 , pp. 147–157
  4. ↑ An ex-mayor as a serial poison killer. In: An almost perfect murder. Article in Public Safety 5-6 / 07 on poisoning, p. 54 (pdf; 340 kB)
  5. ↑ Death register - STBV | Throw | Salzburg, rk. Diocese | Austria | Matricula Online. Retrieved October 31, 2018 .
  6. ↑ Wedding book - TRBIII | Throw | Salzburg, rk. Diocese | Austria | Matricula Online. Retrieved October 31, 2018 .
  7. ↑ a b death register - STBV | Throw | Salzburg, rk. Diocese | Austria | Matricula Online. Retrieved October 31, 2018 .
  8. ^ New Bavarian courier for town and country, Rothlauf, 1865 ( online at googlebooks )
  9. ^ Augsburger Tagblatt, Reichel, 1865 ( online at googlebooks )
  10. ^ Vienna medical press: Organ for general practitioners. , Urban & Schwarzenberg, Volume 6 1865 ( online at googlebooks )
  11. ↑ Constantin von Wurzbach : Wouwermans, Aimé . In: Biographisches Lexikon des Kaiserthums Oesterreich . 58th part. Imperial-Royal Court and State Printing Office, Vienna 1889, p. 133 ( digital copy ).
personal data
SURNAME Oberreiter, Johann
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian appointed mayor of Werfen und Lebzelter, murderer
DATE OF BIRTH May 8, 1807
PLACE OF BIRTH Served on the Hochkönig
DATE OF DEATH July 26, 1865
Place of death Salzburg