Karl Hopf (serial killer)

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Karl Hopf (born March 26, 1863 in Frankfurt am Main ; † March 23, 1914 there ) was a German serial killer . He was sentenced to death by the jury court in Frankfurt am Main on January 19, 1914 for the murder of his wives, parents and children as well as the attempted murder of other people .

Life

Karl Hopf attended the model school and left it after the Untersekunda. He began an apprenticeship as a pharmacist in London , lived temporarily in Casablanca and India . There he trained in foil and saber fencing , which he mastered to perfection. At the turn of the century he ran a dog breed in Niederhöchstadt , now a district of Eschborn . For the sale of one of his dogs he achieved a high amount of 10,000 gold marks for the time .

Location

In 1902 he married his first wife Josefa, born in Niederhöchstadt. Henel. She died that same year on November 28th after a brief illness. He received an amount of 20,000 gold marks from her life insurance . He then married Auguste Christine, b. Cutter. She also developed health problems. She divorced Hopf, left him and died soon afterwards. However, Hopf could not collect the insurance of 30,000 gold marks taken out for them. His daughter Elsa from this marriage died in 1906.

In the following years Hopf appeared in the variety theater under the stage name “Athos” as a master in foil and epee fencing.

In 1912 he married Wally, born in Dresden, in London. Siewec. They insured each other with 80,000 gold marks "on mutuality". His third wife soon fell ill with a serious gastrointestinal disease. When she was treated in the deaconess hospital in Frankfurt am Main, she felt better again. The specialist in toxicology treating there , Rossmann, recognized the symptoms as a severe poisoning and consulted the coroner Georg Popp .

Investigations

As a result, during a house search in Hopf's apartment, large amounts of various highly concentrated poisons, including arsenic , foxglove poison ( digitalis ) and living cultures of typhus and cholera bacilli were found. He was arrested in the hospital on April 14, 1913 . Hopf carried a vial of potassium cyanide with him, which he wanted to take, but was prevented from doing so by the criminal police .

process

The trial before the jury court in Frankfurt am Main lasted from January 9th to 19th, 1914 and was well received by the public. Over 64 witnesses and experts were summoned and heard. During the trial it came to light that Karl Hopf had murdered his father, his first wife, his illegitimate baby and his daughter Elsa from their second marriage with poison. He had secretly administered poison to all those murdered, sometimes over a longer period of time, mostly hidden in food and drink.

When the corpses of all of his deceased relatives were exhumed , for the first time in criminal history, the coroner Popp succeeded in scientifically finding evidence of poison in the bones and body parts.

execution

After Hopf was sentenced on 19 January 1914 death, he was born on March 23, 1914 in the courtyard of the Royal punishment prison Preungesheim by the guillotine executed.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Gerhard Raiss: Karl Hopf, a mass murderer from Niederhöchstadt , MTK yearbook 1994
  2. ↑ 1913, Poisoner Karl Hopf, Arsen im Champagner, FAZ from June 24, 2017, p. 39.
  3. ↑ Hess. Main State Archive Wiesbaden, Section 407 / Access 68 from 1991. Hopf file
personal data
SURNAME Hopf, Karl
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German serial killer
DATE OF BIRTH March 26, 1863
PLACE OF BIRTH Frankfurt am Main
DATE OF DEATH March 23, 1914
Place of death Frankfurt am Main