“The case might be closed officially, but the debate about Knox’s guilt will rage on for years,” said journalist Barbie Latza Nadeau whose bookAngel Facerecounted the first trial. “There are just too many unanswered questions, even for those of us who covered the case from the start.”
The Kercher family in particular believes that Knox and Sollecito got away with murder.
“The family is in shock after the verdict,” said Kercher family attorney after Knox and Sollecito were exonerated in 2015. “I’ve had to explain to them there are now no avenues open to them. There is a great sense of bitterness.”
As if to add salt to the Kercher family’s psychological wounds, Rudy Guede was given a furlough in June 2016. The only person known definitively to be involved in Meredith Kercher’s murder will be released very soon.
Chapter 3: Francis “Frankie” Stewart Silver, a Nineteenth Century Black Widow
In today’s often chaotic world, many desire the justice of earlier periods. Some of the primary complaints from people today concerning the justice system are that the convicted are given too many amenities while in prison and in the United States many think that death sentences take too long to carry out.
In nineteenth century United States, justice was quick and hard. Death sentences were routinely given and the appeals process was limited in most cases—if it was available at all.
The 1831 murder of Charles “Johnny” Silver in rural North Carolina is one such case. Charles’ killer was determined to be his wife, who was quickly arrested, tried, and executed all within a matter of months. In that respect, the murder of Charles Silver was like many others of the period. What makes this case particularly interesting and important is the number of unanswered questions surrounding it, which have ultimately made the case enduring in the minds of people for generations, making it a genuine American folk legend.
The Murder
Since the murder of Charles Silver took place in the early nineteenth century, the records of the events are a bit sketchy. Silver’s murder took place long before every courtroom had a court reporter and newspaper reporting had yet to become an art. With that said, the authorities conducted a relatively thorough examination and had a plethora of forensic evidence to compile a case against Charles’ wife, Francis “Frankie” Silver.
The authorities believed that Frankie hacked her husband to death on December 22, 1831, in the small cabin the couple shared with their one-year-old daughter Nancy.
The location of the murder is important because it played a role in Frankie’s arrest and subsequent execution.
Charles and Frankie Silver lived in the western North Carolina town of Morgantown, which is located in Burke County. The area is unique because it is in both the American South and Appalachia, where people tend to be clannish and live off the land. Even today, a strong vein of self-sufficiency and independence runs through the population of the region.
In 1831, the people of Burke County did not take kindly to one of their own committing a cold-blooded murder, especially a woman.
Shortly after the authorities believed that Frankie killed Charles, the black widow then went to the home of her in-laws, feigning distress that something had happened to her husband.
Charles’ parents reassured Frankie that their son was probably on an extended hunting trip and that he would show up at any time. To further mitigate any misgivings that Frankie had, Charles’ father returned to the Silver’s home with Frankie to assess the situation.
The Burke County authorities believe that Frankie’s visible concerns were just a ruse to elicit sympathy from the victim’s family and to create an alibi.
Charles’ father found nothing outwardly suspicious at the Silver cabin, although several of Charles’ personal effects that he probably would have taken with on a trip were in the home. By all accounts, Charles’ father was convinced that nothing was amiss at his son’s household. Charles must have gone hunting with a friend.
The Silver family never suspected their daughter-in-law, but the Burke County authorities had her at the top of their suspect list.
Burke County authorities made their move after Christmas and arrested Frankie Silver along with her brother Blackston Stuart and mother Barb. The Stuart family, and the Silver family for that matter, were extremely close and looked out for one another, no matter the situation. This attitude was common in Appalachia during the nineteenth century and was often the reason behind violent family feuds, such as the very famous “Hatfield and McCoy” feud. Because of this, the Burke County prosecutors believed that the murder was a conspiracy; Frankie may have acted alone, but her family helped her conceal the crime after the fact.
But even in early nineteenth century America, evidence was needed to win a conviction.
Because there was a lack of evidence against them, the charges against Barb and Blackston Stuart were dropped on January 17, 1832.
Frankie, though, would have to cool her heels in the jail a while longer before she had her day in court.
The Forensic Evidence
To use the term “forensic evidence” for a murder case from the nineteenth century may seem a bit anachronistic, but there was actually a fair amount in the Frankie Silver murder case and the prosecutors showed an incredible ability to locate and use that evidence in trial.
True, 1832 was long before DNA had been discovered and still decades away from the discovery of fingerprints, but investigators found ample amounts of physical evidence throughout the Silver cabin.
Oily ashes, which were consistent with fat, were found in the fireplace and a large pool of blood was discovered underneath the cabin. In a spring near the cabin, small bits of bone and flesh were found along with an iron boot heel that matched the type of heel Silver wore. The authorities posited that Frankie killed her husband in the cabin, possibly while he was asleep, in front of their child, and then dismembered and burned the body in a pit near the spring.
To many people in Burke County, the evidence was convincing and it was just a matter of when, not if, Frankie Silver would be convicted for her husband’s murder.
But Frankie Silver had other ideas.
Perhaps frightened by the stack of evidence against her, or possibly afraid that she could not get a fair trial in Burke County, Frankie Silver escaped from the jail with the help of her father and uncle. Since Frankie was petite, her family members disguised her as a boy and then attempted to whisk her out of the county.
But fate was not so kind to Frankie Silver.
The trio did not get very far, as the sheriff rounded up a posse to block all the roads in order to catch the elusive femme fatale. While on the run, when they reached a roadblock outside of town, Frankie’s uncle referred to her as “her”, which raised red flags to all those who heard and knew about Frankie’s escape. Frankie was quickly captured and sent back to the jail to stand trial.
Although Frankie Silver went through an entire jury trial, the guilty verdict was probably a foregone conclusion, partly due to the evidence and no doubt also because no “good woman” in nineteenth century America would be charged with such a crime.
Silver was convicted of her husband’s murder on March 29, 1832, and then hanged on July 12.
Justice was surely swift and hard for Frankie Silver.
But did Frankie receive proper justice?
The Legend of Frankie Silver
Frankie Silver’s case was not forgotten and actually became well known throughout Appalachia in the decades after her death for a number of reasons.
It is believed that Frankie Silver had the dubious honor of being the first white woman hanged in Burke County, but probably more importantly than that are the lingering questions about the details of the crime.
No one doubts that Charles Silver was killed in the manner that the prosecutors laid out to the jury in 1832 and few think that someone other than Frankie was the culprit, but the question remains: why did Frankie kill her husband at that time and place?
> One theory holds that Frankie was abused by Charles and that the combination of the abuse and the holiday season led her to snap and kill her husband in a burst of fury.
Another possible motive is that Frankie was a jealous wife who caught her husband cheating and rather than go through a divorce or share Charles with a mistress, she decided to kill him.
Whatever the motive for the murder, the event led the black widow to be immortalized in the song known as the “Ballad of Frankie Silver.” Also, her gravestone, which has become a tourist destination over the years, contains the epitaph “only woman hanged in Burke County,” which certainly adds to the mystique of the legend of Frankie Silver.
Frankie’s family grew tired of the publicity and changed the spelling of their family name to “Stewart,” but it still did not keep the legend of Frankie Silver from growing.
Today the legend of Frankie Silver is well known to the residents of North Carolina, almost as much as the legend of Tom Dooley.
But to the rest of the country, the Frankie Silver murder case stands as an example of early forensic investigation and the swift and sometimes harsh justice of nineteenth century America.
Chapter 4: The Hinterkaifeck Murders
In the early 1920s, the people of Germany faced numerous hardships. The government was forced to pay reparations for World War I to France and Great Britain and it lost 13% of its territory as part of the Treaty of Versailles. The reparations, combined with war time debts, placed the new government based in Weimar at a serious disadvantage.
The Weimar government’s answer to the problems was to print more money, which led to the process of hyperinflation that coursed through Germany from 1921 through 1923.
Hyperinflation is not simply an increase in prices, but is an increase in the prices of commodities by at least 1,000%! Obviously, one does not need to be an economist to understand that hyperinflation can destroy an economy and the social and political stability of a nation along with it.
The situation caused Germans to burn their money to heat their homes because the money became virtually worthless, and worse yet, it created havoc on the streets and throughout the countryside.
Political crime increased dramatically, as once obscure political factions from the far right and left of the political spectrum fought each other for supremacy on the streets.
Street crimes, such as muggings and burglaries, also saw a significant increase in early 1920s Germany. The Weimar government seemed unable to stop the violence and desperation that had gripped Germany. Things were bad and only seemed destined to get worse.
This era of violence and hopelessness was the backdrop for one of the most brutal and mysterious multiple homicides in modern German history known as the Hinterkaifeck murders.
Hinterkaifeck
The strange sounding name for this case, at least strange sounding to non-German speakers, is derived from the name of the village of Kaifeck, which was the nearest town to the site of the murders. The murders took place on a farm that the owners had named “Hinterkaifeck,” meaning “behind Kaifeck.” If you were to travel to Kaifeck today, you would not think that it could be the location of one of Germany’s most notorious crimes.
In 1922, the farmstead of Hinterkaifeck was located in the idyllic hill country of Bavaria, about forty miles from Munich. At the time, most of the people in the area worked in agriculture and it was a place where neighbors knew one another. The farmers around Kaifeck often gladly helped their neighbors at harvest time and were charitable during the lean winter months. The warm, communal spirit of the rural area around Kaifeck was known throughout Germany.
But in early 1922, the peaceful, idyllic surroundings of rural Bavaria were shattered when the bodies of five members of the Gruber family and their maid were discovered at the Hinterkaifeck farm.
The Discovery
On April 4, 1922, neighbors began to worry when they had not seen any of the members of the Gruber family for several days. The people living at Hinterkaifeck were the patriarch, sixty-three-year-old Andreas and his seventy-two-year-old wife Cazilia. Along with the elder Grubers, their thirty-five-year-old widowed daughter, Viktoria Gabriel, and her two children, seven-year-old Cazilia and two-year-old Josef, also made the farmstead their home. To round out the residents of Hinterkaifeck was the maid, forty-four-year-old Maria Baumgartner.
Since a number of people lived at the farm, including two children, it was normal for the neighbors to see the Grubers coming and going, or for someone to be seen doing chores. When no activity was seen around Hinterkaifeck for several days, the neighbors became suspicious and noticed that the mail had not been picked up.
The local authorities were called to investigate.
The police first checked the house where they were horrified to find little Josef and Maria Baumgartner both dead in their beds. The shock of the initial discovery was quickly compounded when investigators found the bodies of Andreas, Cazilia, Viktoria, and little Cazilia in the barn.
An autopsy revealed that they were beaten and hacked to death with a mattock.
Investigators assigned to the case immediately established a chronology by working backwards from the discovery of the bodies, along with eyewitness testimony of the last reported sightings of the family, to determine that the murders took place on March 31, 1922.
The investigators knew how and when the Gruber family was murdered, but they quickly found out that finding the perpetrator, or perpetrators, would be elusive.
The Investigation
In many ways, the investigation of the Hinterkaifeck murders was ahead of its time procedurally speaking. The police pursued numerous leads and kept an open mind to different theories and techniques. Over 100 men from the area were investigated and questioned, but no arrests were made.
The initial investigation did turn up some mysterious and bizarre details about some incidents that took place at Hinterkaifeck just prior to the murders.
According to the Grubers’ neighbors, in the days just before the murders, Andreas said he noticed some footprints leading to the house, but not away from it. This alone would not normally be enough to raise an alarm, but it turned out that the Hinterkaifeck farm experienced several other strange incidents in the weeks leading up to the murders.
Other members of the Gruber family also told neighbors that they heard some sounds in the attic that sounded too big to be a small animal. Andreas crawled into the attic to check the source of the sounds, but found nothing.
The Grubers also said that they noticed some items missing, namely a set of house keys, and that they found some things that were out of place, like a newspaper that no one in the family claimed.
Then there were the maids.
The maid who worked at Hinterkaifeck farm prior to Baumgartner left after only six months because she thought the farm was haunted.
Baumgartner was murdered on her first day on the job!
Was Hinterkaifeck haunted and cursed by malevolent spirits? As strange as that may sound, many people at the time believed so and a quick search on the internet reveals that some people still hold this belief.
After investigators collected the statements of the neighbors and interviewed men from the area, it seemed as though there were no suspects in the macabre case. At their wits’ end, the local police decided to remove the skulls from the victims in order to have a clairvoyant in Munich offer any suggestions or leads.
None were found.
The lack of arrests in the Hinterkaifeck murders troubled the citizens of rural Bavaria, but the police did have some theories—although one of them reached into the realm of the bizarre.
One of the early suspects was actually a dead man, Karl Gabriel. Gabriel was the husband of Viktoria and father to little Cazilia, but he supposedly died on the Western Front during World War I. Since his body was never recovered from the battlefield, some people speculated that he actually survived and then deserted to keep from being sent back to the front.
T
here are some obvious problems with this theory.
Although Gabriel’s body was never recovered, his comrades all claimed to have seen him die. It was not an uncommon occurrence for bodies of soldiers killed on the battlefield, especially the Western Front, to never be recovered during World War I. Thousands of men routinely died at a time fighting for land the size of a football field and in the confusion identity tags and papers were often lost, destroyed, and misplaced. The use of chemical weapons also made entire regions uninhabitable and so bodies were often left to rot.
Then there is the question of motive.
The initial investigation of Gabriel did not turn up a clear motive he would have to murder six people in cold blood. It seems unlikely that Karl Gabriel would stage his own battlefield death, desert the army, and then wander around Germany for a few years before killing his family.
With that said, some circumstantial evidence points toward Karl’s wife being the primary intended target of the murderous rampage.
Viktoria’s body received more damage than any of the others—she and her mother were the only two strangled and beaten, but Viktoria was beaten worse.
Then there was the question of little Josef’s paternity.
Since Karl was allegedly killed during the war, he could not have been Josef’s father. Neighbors suspected the father to be a local man named Lorenz Schlittenbauer. Schlittenbauer was in fact Viktoria’s suitor at the time, but the police were never able to link him to the crimes, primarily because he had no motive, even if he was Josef’s father.
The more investigators searched the backgrounds of the Gruber family the more they learned that they were not such a normal family.
Many believed that Andreas was actually the father of Josef and pointed out that the Gruber patriarch was actually prosecuted for incest with his daughter, although he was acquitted.
True Crime Stories Volume 4: 12 Shocking True Crime Murder Cases (True Crime Anthology) Page 3