Wilhelm Hudelmaier

Wilhelm Hudelmaier (* 1934 in Schlichten , Baden-Württemberg ; † 2000 ) was a convicted German criminal who, together with Herbert Franz Jacoby, looted around 20 million Deutschmarks in 19 robberies and hostage-taking in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s  . Hudelmaier gained notoriety through the kidnapping of the Schlecker children , from which he extorted 9.6 million Deutschmarks.

Life

Hudelmaier's criminal career began in 1975 with a first bank robbery . He then managed to fool the police for 23 years. Hudelmaier always gave the impression of a staid, brave Swabian. Even later in the process, he always appeared well mannered. He was considered a well-groomed, calm and intelligent man, and even his victims described Hudelmaier as polite and courteous - but ice cold.

His best-known and largest case was the kidnapping of the Schlecker children, in which the police were unable to find clues about the perpetrators despite a special commission of almost 100 people . In their desperation, the officers even investigated their colleagues at the time. Even Anton Schlecker was suspected to have orchestrated the kidnapping of his own children themselves. In total, Hudelmaier and Jacoby captured around 20 million D-Marks by 1998, most of which were squandered - through speculation with warrants, with commodity futures, on the part of Hudelmaier, but above all through a luxurious lifestyle.

Hudelmaier had known that he had leukemia by the mid-1980s at the latest . In the early 1990s there was therefore a hospital stay with radiation and chemotherapy for the first time . He may have paid the cost of the treatment with part of the booty. After being released from the hospital, Hudelmaier moved into a small two-room apartment in Mannheim . Money there gradually became scarce in the following years. Hudelmaier therefore contacted Jacoby again, and both began planning for another big coup. In Ehingen - in the immediate vicinity of the Schleckers - they attacked a bank director and his wife in the bedroom in 1998. Then they extorted the surrender of 1.9 million D-Marks, but the banknotes were prepared. Hudelmaier was caught around two weeks later - he was already 64 years old at the time.

After his arrest, Hudelmaier experienced an increasingly positive representation in the media, also in view of his surprising age. For example, he was described as a “gentleman gangster” and never gave the impression in court that he possessed the risk potential assigned to him. The fact that he had committed one crime after another for more than two decades without being recognized, as well as his apparent wealth of tricks, were also taken to the attention of the public with amazement. The story of Hudelmaier and Jacoby was even filmed as part of the documentary series The Great Criminal Cases.

In 1999 Wilhelm Hudelmaier was sentenced to thirteen and a half years in prison by the Ulm Regional Court . Only a year later he died in the detention center as a result of his illness.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c d} Die Schlecker-Entführer DasErste.de, February 16, 2004
2. ↑ [1]
3. ↑ ^{a b c d e f} Roland May: The Schlecker kidnappers. In: Helfried Spitra (ed.): The great criminal cases. Volume 2: The St. Pauli Killer, the Escape King and nine other famous crimes (= Piper 4477). Piper Verlag GmbH, Munich et al. 2005, ISBN 3-492-24477-7 , pp. 164-179.
4. ↑ ^{a b} The Schlecker kidnappers hike behind bars until 2013 Berliner Kurier from March 23, 1999
5. ^ Two defendants confess Tat Rhein-Zeitung Online, February 18, 1999
6. ↑ Savings bank robbers are sentenced to long imprisonment  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Südwest Presse, May 21, 2010.  
7. ↑ Two professional criminals with large financial needs, Abendblatt.de, February 16, 2004