Six people were murdered, and over 100 suspects were interviewed but the Hinterkaifeck case has remained unsolved since 1922, despite being reopened several times.
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The Gruber Family Murders
Hinterkaifeck was the house name unofficially given to the farmstead owned by the Gruber family. The home was shared by Andreas, his wife Cäzilia, their widowed daughter Viktoria and her children, seven-year-old Cäzilia and two-year-old Josef.
On the night of March 31st 1922 the family, along with their maid Maria Baumgartne, were brutally murdered with a mattock; a tool similar to a pickaxe. The perpetrator was never identified and the Hinterkaifeck murders remain unsolved.
Andreas and his wife Cäzilia were found dead along with their daughter Viktoria and their granddaughter seven-year-old Cäzilia in the family’s barn. Their bodies were found stacked on top of each other and covered with hay.
This led police to believe that the family members were lured into the barn and killed one at a time but exactly how they ended up in the barn is unknown. Was it normal for the family to be in the barn at that time as part of routine chores? Or did the murderer lure them in some other way?
The police did rule out the idea that the family were lured into the barn due to noise. They conducted experiments that proved screams from the barn could not be heard from any other part of the farmstead. So how did the Gruber family end up in the barn?
Seven-year-old Cäzilia was found with clumps of hair in her hand and bare patches on her head. Police concluded that Cäzilia had been alive for hours after the attack and she had led beside the bodies of her family, tearing out her own hair.
After killing four members of the family in the barn, the killer wasn’t finished. He left through the stable and went into the main house. It is thought that first, he made his way to the maid’s bedroom and struck her in the head whilst she slept. Finally, he went into Viktoria’s bedroom and murdered her two-year-old son while he was sleeping in his bassinet.
You can see the crime scene photos here.
Hinterkaifeck Farm
The Discovery of the Bodies
It took four days until the bodies were discovered, though the family’s absence had been noted around the town. Viktoria’s young daughter Cäzilia had been missing from school and the family had failed to make it to Sunday worship.
On the 3rd of April, the postman noticed that the mail he had delivered two days prior was still there. The day after that Albert Hofner, an assembler, arrived at Hinterkaifeck to repair one of the farm’s machines.
Hofner said that he did not see any of the family members and that the only sounds he heard were from the animals, including the family’s dog barking.
He worked on the machine for around four and a half hours. When he was finished he noticed that the barn door was open but he was unsure whether it had been open when he got there or not. He did cast a brief look inside the barn through the open door but he did not go inside.
When the village guide, Lorenz Schlittenbauer, heard about the emptiness of Hinterkaifeck he sent his sons over to see if they could make contact with the family. When they didn’t get a response, Schlittenbauer went to the farm himself that same day with Michael Pöll and Jakob Sigl. It was at this time they discovered the bodies in the barn.
Haunting at Hinterkaifeck?
One of the strangest things about the murders at Hinterkaifeck are the events leading up to it.
One day in March 1922, Andreas Gruber came across a copy of the Munich Newspaper on his property. He himself hadn’t bought it so he asked the postman if he had lost the paper. The postman told Andreas that no one in the area subscribed to that particular paper so he didn’t carry any copies.
Around the same time, one of the house keys went missing. Could it be a simple case of misplacing the key or had someone taken it?
Maria Baumgartner, the maid killed in the attack, had only started her job at the farm the day before. The family’s original maid had quit six months prior after she kept hearing strange noises. She believed that the house was haunted and no longer wanted to work for the Gruber family.
Baumgartner wasn’t the only one who heard strange noises. The day before the murder Andreas Gruber had also heard noises in the attic that had sounded like someone was walking around. He took a light and went to see if he could find the source of the noise but found nothing.
That same day Gruber also found the footprints of two people in the fresh snow heading to Hinterkaifeck’s engine house but the tracks did not lead away again. It was assumed that a burglary had taken place as the engine house’s lock had been broken and there were tool marks on the feeding room door. However, nothing was stolen.
So was Hinterkaifeck haunted as the previous maid thought or could it be that someone was living at the farmstead without the Gruber family knowing? In the days after the murders, before the bodies were discovered, there is evidence to suggest that someone had been staying at the farmstead. Bread had been eaten from the kitchen and meat had been taken from the pantry. Neighbours even said they saw smoke coming from the chimney. It also seemed as though the animals had been tended to as the cattle had been fed.
So had the murderer been living in the Gruber’s attic and decided to stay for a while after he killed the family? Or did a vagrant come across the empty house and decide to stay for a few days before moving on, not wanting to be caught up in a murder investigation?
Gruber Family Secrets
In 1915 Andreas Gruber and his daughter Viktoria were convicted of having an incestuous relationship over three years – during the 1907 – 1910 period. Andreas was sentenced to one year in prison, whilst Viktoria was sentenced to one month.
Though Viktoria was punished for the ‘relationship’, the evidence presented indicates that the relationship was not consensual. According to the testimony of Schlittenbauer (the guide who found the bodies) when Viktoria was 16 years old she told Schlittenbauer’s first wife that she could “no longer stand in front of her father because he always wanted to have sexual intercourse”.
But rumours around town suggested that Andreas and Viktoria continued with their relationship and this led many to believe that Viktoria’s two-year-old son was fathered by her father, Andreas.
However, after the death of his wife, village guide Lorenz Schlittenbauer had a relationship with Viktoria. Therefore it is also possible that he is the father of her two-year-old son, Josef. In fact, the initials L.S. appear on his birth certificate but Schlittenbauer both claimed and rejected the paternity of the little boy at various times.
Schlittenbauer claimed that Viktoria begged him to claim Josef as his own. It is possible that this could have been to hide the fact that Josef was the son of her father. Schlittenbauer recalled a conversation with Viktoria where she said, “That’s the best thing I could say, Father. You’re there too, otherwise, he’ll slay me.”
Hinterkaifeck Murders: The Suspects
The police investigated over a hundred suspects in the murder case. Though the case remains unsolved, here are some theories and suspects.
The Village Guide – Lorenz Schlittenbauer
Lorenz Schlittenbauer was one of the men who discovered the bodies at Hinterkaifeck but it was the way he acted after the discovery that had people speculating that he had something to do with the Gruber family’s death.
Schlittenbauer disturbed the initial crime scene as he moved the piled-up bodies in the barn upon finding them. He explained his actions by claiming he was worried that his son, Josef, could have been under the hay too. This is possibly a genuine response yet he had previously rejected the paternity of Josef.
When he didn’t find Josef amongst the dead he moved into the house. The two men he was with, Michael Pöll and Jakob Sigl, both said that they heard Schlittenbauer open the front door with a key. Could this be the key that had gone missing? Or was there another reason Schlittenbauer owned a key to the Gruber home?
A few people in the town also suspected Schlittenbauer due to his turbulent relationship with Viktoria Guber. Schlittenbauer had asked to marry Viktoria and her father initially agreed but then later changed his mind. Schlittenbauer put this down to the fact that Andreas Gruber would not stop his incestuous relationship with his daughter. In an interview, Schlittenbauer said, “He [Gruber] must stop intercourse with his daughter, he should convert from his sins, and then I will guide his daughter to the right path”.
There had also been battles and court cases about alimony for baby Josef. Schlittenbauer had even reported Gruber and his daughter Viktoria to the police claiming they were engaging in incest again but he later dropped his claim. After the murders, he even asked investigators if he would get back any money he paid towards the child.
Despite possible motive, and though police suspected him at the time, there was no conclusive evidence that pointed to Schlittenbauer being the murderer and he was not charged for the crime.
Back From The Dead? Karl Gabriel
One outlandish theory was that the perpetrator could have been Karl Gabriel, Viktoria’s husband. Why is this theory so outlandish? Because Gabriel was killed during the first world war, eight years prior to the murders.
Gabriel’s body had never been recovered so there was no conclusive evidence that he had died and people started to speculate whether or not Gabriel had, in fact, died in the war.
As Josef, Viktoria’s two-year-old son, was of illegitimate birth and was rumoured to be the son of her father, some people formulated the idea that Gabriel had killed the family in a revenge attack.
The theory gained momentum over the years and people even told stories of meeting Gabriel. Some even stated that he had swapped his identity with another soldier’s who had died in the war.
It can never be certain whether or not Karl Gabriel did lose his life during World War I but even he had been alive, there is no evidence connecting him to the Hinterkaifeck murders.
The Bichler Brothers
Karl Bichler and Georg Mader were seen in the area around the time after the murder. At around 3.30 am, a butcher was cycling home near Kaifeck when he saw them acting suspiciously by trying to hide their faces.
Karl Bichler was already known to police for petty thefts in the area and some of the local residents came forward stating they suspected him as the murderer. Some witnesses even claimed that Karl Bichler had asked for their help in a robbery at Hinterkaifeck stating it would involve the murder of Andreas to scare the women.
Bichler was arrested on the 5th of May but he provided an alibi for the entire weekend the murders took place and multiple witnesses confirmed he was working in another town at the time. Georg Mader also claimed he was working and the police believed that both alibis appeared strong.
However, local residents weren’t the only ones to suspect Karl Bichler. The Gruber’s former maid, Kreszenz Rieger, also suspected Karl and his brother Anton. Anton helped with the potato harvest and steam threshing on the farm and so knew the property well. Rieger also stated that he complained about the Gruber’s often and knew that Viktoria had a lot of money.
Rieger also said that Anton would knock on her bedroom window which was located on the ground floor, but she never let him in as she did not want a relationship with him. After rejecting him, Rieger was told that Anton had made some threatening comments which made Rieger fear for her life. According to an older woman, Anton also stated “the Kaifecker should all be slain”. In her statement to police, the former maid also claimed that Viktoria had told her that Anton blamed the Gruber’s for the rejection.
Rieger also recounts one night a man knocked on her bedroom window and asked to be let in. The man stated he was farmer Sepp von Gröbern but Rieger knew of the farmer and it wasn’t him. Rieger believed the man was Karl Bichler, though it was half dark and she could only see him from the side. When she didn’t let him in, the man asked if Andreas was with Viktoria, and she responded that she didn’t know. The man left.
Another strange thing that the former maid noted was that the Gruber dog was very vicious towards people and had even bitten Viktoria’s daughter Cäzilie, but the dog had never been aggressive towards Anton and didn’t even bark at him. This suggests that Anton would have been able to commit the murders without fear of the farm dog attacking him.
Kreszenz Rieger told the family that she feared that they would all be killed by Anton Bichler and was so scared that she left the farm and her job there. Like his brother, Anton Bichler also had an alibi for the time of the murders which was deemed strong by police.
Rieger also believed a man by the name of Georg Siegl might have been involved along with the Bichler brothers. She had heard that he had also made similar threatening statements about the Gruber family and had committed a theft at the Gruber home 8 days before she had started working there (though Siegls denied this). Interestingly, in Georg Siegl’s statement to police, he testified that he had been present when Andreas Gruber crafted the mattock which would later kill him and his family and that it was kept in the barn passage.
The Man From the Train – Paul Mueller
Interestingly the Hinterkaifeck murders are also mentioned at the end of the true-crime book The Man From the Train by Bill James and Rachel McCarthy James. The book tells the story of a serial killer in North America who killed 40 to 100 people between 1898 and 1912.
The authors suggest that this murderer may also be responsible for the Kinterkaifeck murders as he murdered families in their homes which were usually isolated. He also used a farm tool as a weapon and didn’t steal from their homes.
The End of Hinterkaifeck
The Gruber family were buried in the Waidhofen cemetery. They were buried without their heads as their skulls had been sent to a clairvoyant in hopes of identifying the killer. The clairvoyant stated the murders had been committed by two people and that the murder weapon was still on the estate.
After the clairvoyant’s examinations, it’s thought that the skulls were kept in the justice building in Augsburg and were destroyed during a bombing in the Second World War.
In 1923, the Hinterkaifeck farm was demolished. Whilst the farmstead was being torn down, a blood-smeared hoe was found hidden under the floorboards in the attic.
The hoe had a small bolt that had been left sticking out during a quick repair. This bolt was consistent with markings left on the victims during the attack. There was also some hair stuck to the blood, which was presumed to be human. Unfortunately, there was no evidence to point to a perpetrator as it was no longer possible to detect any fingerprints.
Even after finding the murder weapon, the police were no closer to finding out the killer’s identity and the mystery of the Hinterkaifeck murders remains unsolved. After the demolition of the farmstead, all that remains is a monument to the Gruber family.
Sources:
https://www.hinterkaifeck.net/
http://www.hinterkaifeck-mord.de/
