Johann Arthold murder case

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Adrienne Eckhardt's murder weapon, exhibited in the Vienna Crime Museum

The murder of 44-year-old Johann "Hans" Arthold took place on the night of November 22nd, 1952 in Vienna and is considered one of the most spectacular crimes in Austrian criminal history. The arrest of Adrienne Eckhardt, who was only 23 at the time of the offense, and her statements by an unknown third party who is said to have committed the murder, together with the brutality of the crime, led to enormous media interest. The investigation ended with the conviction of Adrienne Eckhardt, who has since been dubbed the "murderer with the meat grinder", to life imprisonment. However, in 1967 she was released early from prison.

background

Johann Arthold was the owner of a delicatessen shop on the corner of Alser Strasse and Spitalgasse. He had been assigned this business in 1945 through good relations with the Soviet Communist Party , as the owner at the time had fled. The shop was known throughout Vienna for its cheap prices, especially chocolate from the manufacturer Cadbury plc was available in large quantities at an exceptionally low price. The sales techniques and methods of procurement of goods were the same who later Greißlerorganisation the USIA took over. In Vienna Arthold was also known as the chocolate king from Alsergrund .

Arthold also ran another shop at the regional court and was the owner of a racing team, his wife also ran a shop on Skodagasse. He was also the father of two children.

murder

On Saturday, November 22nd, 1952, shortly after midnight, a security guard who was patrolling Alser Strasse in Vienna discovered the unlocked scroll bar of the delicatessen shop at number 7. Since he suspected a break-in, he pushed up the scroll bar and entered the shop. where he found the 44-year-old owner Johann Arthold in a pool of blood in a small adjoining room. The murder commission, which was alerted, found that the dead man's head had been smashed with a blunt object and his throat had been cut with a sharp knife.

Since the night watchman had already found the scrollbar locked at 11:32 p.m. during a previous round of inspection, the crime must have been committed shortly before midnight. At the scene of the crime, there were traces that indicated that Arthold had still entertained his murderer. It was also found that the perpetrator washed his hands in the shop and tried to clean his clothes from blood with pieces of paper.

Investigations

In the dead man's pocket, the investigators found two tram tickets that had been punched in a 38 line tram at 11.30 p.m. Therefore, all tram drivers who were on the route at this time were interviewed. In fact, a conductress could remember a man who exactly matched Johann Arthold's description. This should have boarded at 11.30 p.m. in Grinzing and drove to Alser Strasse. The conductress could also remember a young blonde woman who was with the later victim.

The police were able to determine that Arthold was with this woman on Friday from 8 p.m. to 11 p.m. in a wine tavern in Grinzing and then went to a café with her. A witness could also be found who observed the two of them entering the delicatessen shop.

Arthold also wanted to settle a larger debt on Saturday. He had put together 6,000 schillings and wanted to take out a loan of 10,000 schillings on Saturday. Due to the brutality of the crime, the police were looking for a male perpetrator from Arthold's business environment, the unknown woman was only wanted as a possible witness or accomplice.

arrest

The officials interviewed people in Arthold's local bars and made decisive progress in a night cafe in Neubaugasse. Two barmaids remembered the victim and named one of their colleagues who had been with Arthold recently. The woman's name was Adrienne Eckhardt, a 23-year-old trained nanny who had been an animator in the café for a long time . Since the personal description matched her and blood stains could be found on a fur jacket and shoes that she owned, Eckhardt was arrested on Sunday. In subsequent interrogation, she denied knowing anything about the crime.

Interrogate

Confronted with the traces of blood on her clothes, she broke her silence after two days of interrogation and tearfully told the police about the alleged crime. She testified that she had had a drink with Arthold in the next room when suddenly there was a knock on the front door. Arthold is said to have asked her to let in the man he apparently knew. The two men are said to have talked about irrelevant things and drank beer. When Arthold turned to a beer bottle, the guest is said to have suddenly pulled something out of his pocket and knocked him down with it. Under threat of killing her, he is said to have forced Eckhardt to turn the corpse, which is said to have got the blood stains on her clothing. Then he is said to have forced her to bring him the knife and then to clean it. After he was reportedly allowed to leave, she decided not to go to the police, as she had a previous criminal record of fraud and feared for her credibility.

During the inspection of the crime scene, she described the crime again without contradicting herself. In addition, she now claimed that the man had asked Arthold to return the money, which the latter apparently could not pay. This also coincided with the current investigation results, which proved that Arthold was now in financial difficulties and was in debt. The officials were also unable to refute any of their statements, but remained skeptical. An intensive search for the "hooded man" she described was unsuccessful. The weapon with which Arthold was killed also remained undetectable.

However, Eckhardt was burdened by the research into her finances. She earned very poorly, was in need of money and several times moved personal items in the pawn shop . A few hours before the murder she had even moved a lamp for a small amount, an indication for the police that by that time she apparently already had no more shilling of money. However, the day after the murder, she triggered a watch at the pawn shop, bought lining for her coat and groceries for several days. According to calculations, she had spent more than twice as much money as she said she had owned. During the search of her apartment, the officers had also seized a large amount of groceries from Arthold's shop, which led Eckhard to make another partial confession. She stuck to the fact that the unknown man had killed Arthold and threatened her with killing, but he is said to have subsequently forced her to take the money from the cash register and some groceries to disguise the act as a robbery.

confession

On Thursday, December 4, 1952, Eckhardt finally made a full confession after almost two weeks of interrogation and admitted that he had planned and carried out the murder of Johann Arthold on his own. She had made this decision after Arthold tried to persuade her to engage in unnatural acts with a prostitute a long time ago . Since then she has disgusted him and resolved to give him a lesson.

She testified that she had not seen Arthold in a long time and only happened to meet him again in a pub a week before the crime, where he made her proposals again and invited her to the wine tavern. Her hatred rose again and she decided to kill Arthold. She had deliberately deposited the later murder weapon, her landlady's meat grinder , in his shop before visiting the wine tavern. This was supposed to serve as a pretext to re-enter the shop with Arthold after visiting the wine tavern. After the murder, she cleaned the meat grinder and brought it back unnoticed by her landlady. Since the police only had a search warrant for Eckhardt's items at the time, the murder weapon remained undetected.

At the beginning of February 1953 she retracted her confession and named as the perpetrator a southern man named Bertini, who traded in morphine . She wants him to be referred to Arthold to help him out of his financial need. However, since Arthold was in arrears with payments, there should have been a dispute, in which the acquaintance finally killed Arthold. Eckhard claims to have confessed to the murder back then only because she was exhausted from the long solitary confinement and interrogations. In addition, she recognized in detention that she was pregnant and did not want to be seen as a murderer in front of her child. Investigations in the direction of the morphine trade were completely inconclusive and were classified as not credible, and the suspect named could not be investigated. Since her arrest and until the end of the following process, there has been a real hysteria around this "stranger in the Daufflecoat". Passers-by and prison inmates reported several times that they had heard the name Bertini in the criminal world. However, it should not have been the man's real name.

process

On March 23, 1953, the trial began in front of the jury court of the Regional Court for Criminal Matters Vienna , chaired by Regional Court President Rudolf Naumann. The court process met with great media interest. Eckhard was represented by one of the most legendary defense lawyers in Austrian legal history, Michael Stern . On the very first day of the trial there was a sensation when Eckhardt, on the advice of her defense attorney, did not answer any of the public prosecutor's questions (“ I have just been informed by my lawyer that I cannot be forced to answer the public prosecutor ”). Attorney Stern was admonished for this by the judge, who accused him of hindering the establishment of the truth. The prosecutor lodged a complaint with the bar association. Eckhardt only answered questions from her defense counsel.

Even the two-day testimony could not provide any indication of an unknown third party. The medical report was also presented on March 24th. Johann Arthold had around 40 individual injuries in the head area, as well as cuts on the neck, which led to a violent death by bleeding to death.

Condemnation

On March 25, 1953 Adrienne Eckhardt was unanimously found guilty of robbery and murder and sentenced to lifelong, heavy imprisonment. Eckhardt's lawyer appealed and appealed against the judgment. The annulment appeal was rejected, but the appeal was upheld in July. The sentence was reduced from life to 20 years, but she was released early for the 1967 Christmas amnesty.

Others

The murder case is shown in the Vienna Crime Museum.

literature

  • The wild Wanda and other dangerous women by Gabriele Hasmann, Sabine Wolfgang, Carl Ueberreuter Verlag GmbH 2020
  • Murder in Vienna - True criminal cases by Helga Schimmer, Haymon-Verlag 2012
  • Murder: The Most Spectacular Murder Cases in Austria by Andreas and Regina Zeppelzauer, Verlag f. Collector 2005
  • Adrienne Eckhardt and the three confessions by Konrad Frieser, ed. Rota-Verlag 1953

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