The Mammoth Book of Bizarre Crimes

by Odell, Robin

  Denise was so much under his influence that she had gone along with his previous demands but she initially baulked at the idea of making her daughter a sacrifice. Worn down by the psychological pressure he applied, however, she made two failed attempts to kill Cathy. On the first attempt, she pulled back from dropping the child from a bridge and, on the second, she retrieved her daughter after putting her into a canal. All of this was rejected by Algarron as weakness.

  Finally, on 8 November, while staying with her sister at Vendôme, Denise held Cathy’s head down in a water-filled basin and drowned her. She said the child died as the result of an accident and to Algarron she wrote: “Catherine deceased. See you soon.” He replied, “It is all very disappointing. It means nothing to me now.”

  Friends became suspicious about the little girl’s death and when police questioned her, Denise admitted being responsible saying, “Yes, I killed my daughter but it was a ritual murder.” She named Algarron who was promptly arrested.

  The couple were tried for murder at Blois in May 1955. Algarron appeared arrogant and cold-hearted and put the blame for what had happened on Denise. She expressed her love for him and sorrow over the loss of her child. Powerful speeches were made by counsel for both parties who simply blamed each other.

  The jury took three hours to reach a verdict and found Denise guilty of murder with extenuating circumstances and Algarron guilty of having provoked a crime. She was sentenced to penal servitude for life and Algarron was given twenty years’ hard labour.

  “You Are To Be Obeyed”

  Jeanne Daniloff Weiss married in 1886 when she was eighteen. Soon afterwards, her husband Lieutenant Weiss was posted to a French army unit in Algeria. During the next three years, the couple had two children and appeared to be a contented family.

  This aura of domestic bliss was punctured in 1889 when Jeanne met Felix Roques, an engineer working on the Algerian railways. She fell madly in love with him and became his mistress and slave. Alarmed at the turn of events, Lieutenant Weiss took his wife and family on holiday in France in the hope of breaking up the relationship. But, by that time, Jeanne was pregnant with her lover’s child.

  When they returned to Algeria, Jeanne met Roques to discuss their future plans. They ruled out elopement as an option and settled on a course of action that would enable them to marry, namely the elimination of Lieutenant Weiss. This task was allotted to Jeanne and she was required by Roques to give him a written undertaking that was spelled out in his pocket book; “I swear that I will murder my husband, that I may belong to you alone – Jeanne”.

  The plan was to be put into effect while Roques was working in Spain on an engineering project. The implications of what she had agreed to now began to dawn on Jeanne and she had second thoughts. She expressed these in a letter to her lover. He was dismissive, telling her to carry out the plan to which she responded by writing, “It is agreed Felix, you are to be obeyed . . .” But still she was wracked by doubts which prompted Roques to tell her, “You promised to obey me. I implore you to obey me.”

  In October 1890, Lieutenant Weiss became ill as his wife began systematically to poison his food. He was laid low by bouts of vomiting, convulsions and fevers which gave his friends cause for concern, if not suspicion, about Jeanne’s part in his deteriorating health. This suspicion was fuelled by the local post-mistress who was in the habit of reading the letters exchanged between Jeanne and Felix Roques.

  On 9 October 1889, one of Jeanne’s letters was intercepted and the murderous plot began to unravel. She complained to Roques about her husband’s vitality and said she was afraid that she did not have enough of “the remedy” left. She asked him to send a further supply by post. This letter was given to one of Weiss’ friends who immediately went to the authorities.

  Confronted by the evidence of her plan to poison her husband, Jeanne admitted that Roques was her lover. Quantities of an arsenical preparation, prussic acid and corrosive sublimate were found in her house. Roques was arrested in Madrid and the discovery of Jeanne’s letters in his apartment provided conclusive proof of the lover’s murderous plans.

  Roques avoided justice by taking his own life, thereby leaving Jeanne to face the music on her own. Her husband survived the attempts to poison him and she was tried for attempted murder. Weiss gave evidence in court and declared, “I do not and I never will forgive her . . .”

  Jeanne Weiss was found guilty and given a sentence of twenty-five years’ penal servitude. Spectators at the trial applauded the verdict. When she was returned to her cell on 29 May 1891 at the end of the trial, she took her own life by ingesting strychnine, which she had concealed in her handkerchief.

  Out Of Love

  A millionaire computer expert David Brown and his wife, Linda, lived in Santa Ana, California in the US. They had a baby daughter, Krystal, and fourteen-year-old Cinnamon, his daughter from a previous marriage. There were tensions in the marriage and Brown was attracted to seventeen-year-old Patti, his wife’s sister.

  A fatal shooting occurred at the Brown’s house on 19 March 1985. Police officers called to the scene found Linda in the bedroom fatally wounded with gunshot wounds to the chest. The baby and Patti were in the house but Cinnamon was absent. When the property was searched, the girl was found in the yard lying in her own vomit in the dog’s kennel. She was ill from a drug overdose. She had written a message on a piece of card that read, “Dear God, please forgive me, I didn’t mean to do it.”

  There were rumours of disagreements between Cinnamon and her stepmother as a result of which she was banished to a trailer in the garden. The teenager admitted firing the gun and was tried for murder as a juvenile. She was convicted and sentenced to twenty-seven years’ imprisonment. Some of the investigators had uneasy feelings about the outcome and decided to keep David Brown under surveillance. They discovered that, following Linda’s death, Patti began wearing her dead sister’s clothing and jewellery. In due course, Brown and Patti were married and had a child.

  After serving more than three years of her sentence, Cinnamon began to realize the extent to which she had been used. She confided to investigators that her father had feared Linda was planning to kill him and so he’d enlisted the help of Patti and herself to thwart her ambitions. She said that on the evening of 19 March 1985, her father had made her write a suicide note and directed her to swallow some drugs. He then left the house and, programmed and drugged, Cinnamon took the gun she had been given and shot Linda. He had coerced her into killing her stepmother with the encouraging words that she would do it if she really loved him and out of love for her father she was prepared to admit the killing and accept the punishment that followed.

  In September 1988, David Brown and his new wife, Patti, were arrested and charged with Linda’s murder. The account that Patti gave of events three years earlier confirmed Cinnamon’s version. In February 1990, Brown was tried for murder, conspiracy to commit murder and with expectation of financial gain. The evidence against him was deeply incriminating and, despite efforts while he was in custody to persuade a fellow inmate to kill Patti, he was convicted on all charges.

  Brown was sentenced to life imprisonment while Cinnamon and Patti remained in prison but with a favourable outlook as far as parole was concerned. Ann Rule’s book on the case, published in 1991, captured the essence of the crime in its title, “If You Really Loved Me”.

  Red And Black

  Dr Yves Evenou, an obstetrician and former mayor at Choisy-le-Roi, a town to the south of Paris, married Marie-Claire in 1946. They had a daughter and lived in a three-storey house. Marie-Claire was permanently unwell but she was a dutiful wife. What neither she nor her daughter realized was that the doctor was leading a double life in which wine and women featured strongly.

  Evenou met Simone Deschamps when she attended his surgery for a routine appointment. What the forty-three-year-old seamstress lacked in beauty, it seemed she made up for with a vigorous sexual appetite. She responded to all the doctor’s
demands and received insults and humiliation in response.

  Despite this treatment, Simone became one of the family, helping with the chores and mending clothes. Evenou installed her in a room on the ground floor so that she was accessible to meet his needs. To all intents and purposes, she was his slave.

  These arrangements continued for about five years until Evenou became bored and decided to extend his repertoire of abuse. During drinking sessions, he told Simone that the present situation could not continue. “We can’t go on unless she is removed,” he declared. The person he was referring to was Marie and his plan was to murder her or, rather, to get Simone to murder her.

  Ever willing to follow her master’s instructions, Simone agreed and, having been told that stabbing would be the best method, went out to buy a knife. There was no time to be lost. Having made the decision, Evenou wanted the deed done immediately.

  One evening in 1955, the pair returned to the house and Evenou consumed the meal his wife had cooked for him while Simone prepared for her part in the action to follow. She had been instructed to strip off her clothes and wear only her red shoes and black gloves. Thus attired, she went upstairs to where Evenou was waiting. He had given Marie a sleeping draught and she lay on the bed with the blankets pulled over her.

  Evenou pulled the bedclothes back and indicated that all was ready for Simone to play her part, which she did with deadly effect, stabbing Marie eleven times. Simone washed the blood from her naked body and hid the knife and gloves, while Evenou called the police to tell them that an intruder had entered the house and killed his wife.

  Investigators did not believe his story and, in no time, Evenou was putting the blame on Simone. She, in turn, accused him of planning the murder. In their separate ways they both confessed. But Evenou was taken ill and died before he could be brought to trial and Simone was left to answer for their crime.

  Her defence was simply that she had been manipulated by Evenou. She recalled their relationship in such graphic detail that the judge felt obliged to clear the court. Simone was found guilty and the fact that she had clearly been under the influence of an evil man established her credentials as a person acting under extenuating circumstances. She thereby escaped the death penalty and was sentenced to life imprisonment.

  Volunteer Victim

  Armin Meiwes was a German computer technician who came to be called “The Rotenburg Cannibal” after he confessed to killing and eating a man he met via the internet.

  Meiwes advertised online for a “young, well-built man who wants to be eaten”. He received a reply from a forty-three-year-old computer engineer, Bernd Brandes, who lived in Berlin. They communicated by e-mail and Brandes noted that they were both smokers, adding, “. . . smoked meat lasts longer . . . maybe you can use my skull as an ashtray . . . I don’t want anything left from my ex-person.” Meiwes replied, “Don’t worry, I am just interested in your flesh. I will get rid of the rest.”

  The cannibal and the masochist agreed to meet and in March 2001, Brandes took a day off work. After deleting files of masochistic material from his computer, he took a train to Rotenburg. There he met Meiwes and the pair went off to the farmhouse where Meiwes lived alone.

  That evening, after cutting off Brandes’ penis and feeding him sleeping tablets, Meiwes read a novel while his newfound friend lapsed into unconsciousness. Early next morning, he lay Brandes out on the table in his upstairs “slaughter room” and stabbed him to death. Then he hung the corpse on a meat hook and went to bed.

  The next day, he cut off pieces of the body and stored them in his freezer. He later told a magazine reporter that he cooked parts of Brandes with olive oil, garlic, peppers and nutmeg and ate them with sprouts and potatoes. This repast was washed down with a bottle of red wine. He claimed he buried Brandes’ bones and other parts in the garden while he read the 23rd Psalm. Meiwes made a video of some of his acts, which he then watched from the comfort of his armchair. He subsequently returned to the internet, placing ads for further volunteers for slaughter.

  It was his return to the internet that led to his capture when an Austrian man contacted the police about the ads and details of the killing. Officers turned up at the farmhouse in Rotenburg in December 2002. They found that Meiwes had eaten about 20kg (44 lb) of his victim from the freezer.

  His two-month-long trial began at Kassel at the end of 2003. Psychologists testified that Meiwes was mentally fit to stand trial. The prosecution made out a case for sexually motivated murder. It appeared that as a child Meiwes had been completely dominated by his mother who supervised his every movement including any sexual inclinations he had as a young man.

  Cannibalism was not illegal in Germany and Meiwes’ defence was that Brandes had not been murdered because he was a willing participant in his own death. Judge Volker Mütze was inclined to take the same view, stating in his judgment that, “This was the killing of a person without murder. These were two psychologically sick people. The famous lust for murder was not there.”

  Judge Mütze rejected the prosecution case and Meiwes was found guilty of manslaughter. He was given a sentence of eight and a half years’ imprisonment. The verdict and sentence were greeted with shocked amazement by the German public. One newspaper reported that Meiwes had smiled when sentenced as if he had been served a delicious pudding.

  Over press photographs of Meiwes sitting smoking in a restaurant with a bottle of wine on the table, came news that he was planning to write a book and was considering film offers. When the cannibal entered prison he became a vegetarian, supported the agenda of the Green Party and helped fellow inmates by writing letters for them.

  The prosecution lawyers maintained that Meiwes was guilty of murder and appealed against his sentence. A re-trial was ordered and the cannibal was served his just desserts when a court sitting in Frankfurt in May 2006 found him guilty of murder and sentenced him to life imprisonment.

  Eager To Please

  A young Eskimo hunter, called Aligoomiak, killed a tribal chief so that his uncle could take possession of the rival’s wife. He left a trail of death in his flight from the Mounties before ending up as a victim of “Neck-Tie Bill”.

  An Eskimo tribe called Cogmollocks lived in the wilds of northern Canada, on Herschel Island inside the Arctic Circle. Their life was hard and conditions tough and unforgiving. They were skilled hunters and had a reputation for violence among themselves in inter-tribal disputes. White traders and missionaries were not welcomed and periodically ended up dead.

  In 1922, a Cogmollock chief was killed in a dispute over ownership of a wife. The widow was taken by one of the dead man’s rivals, Pugnana, which left another contender dissatisfied. Tatamangama resolved to eliminate the man who had snatched his prize away. He enrolled his eighteen-year-old nephew, Aligoomiak, as the assassin.

  During a hunting expedition with fellow tribe members, Aligoomiak bided his time and killed Pugnana with a single shot. The young man’s uncle took his dead rival’s wife and possessions and moved into his igloo. He rewarded Aligoomiak by giving him a new rifle and the death of Pugnana was reported as an accident.

  When news of the death reached the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, an officer was despatched to Hershel Island to investigate. By bribing a few Eskimos to speak out, he established the broad facts of Pugnana’s death. As a result he arrested both Aligoomiak and his uncle and set off to take them to the nearest trading post, which was a long and arduous journey through blizzards and involved living off fish and seal meat. However, when they reached their destination Aligoomiak killed the policeman and the trader manning the post.

  Several months later the Mounties finally got their man when Aligoomiak, who had vowed to kill any white man who crossed his path, was once again arrested and charged with murder. At the end of 1923, after an epic journey of four thousand miles, a party consisting of a judge and several court officials arrived at Hershel Island from Edmonton. The group also included a hangman, William Brown, better known as “Nec
k-Tie Bill” whom the judge had brought along in case he was needed.

  Aligoomiak put up a strong defence against the charge of killing the policeman who he said planned to eliminate him rather than bringing him to justice. His aim, he claimed, was to incapacitate the officer. Both Aligoomiak and his uncle were found guilty and sentenced to death. They were then handed over to “Neck-Tie Bill” and on 1 February 1924 the two Eskimos were hanged.

  Will You Kill Me?

  Late on the night of 10 June 1919, Sutton Police Station in the UK, received a call from a local resident reporting that he had found a man near his house who appeared to have been stabbed. On their way to the scene, officers stopped a young man in the street and questioned him. The answers he gave were not convincing and when he offered them money to let him go as he had a train to catch, he was assured of closer attention.

  The injured man had sustained several stab wounds but was still alive. He was taken to hospital and the young man was conveyed to the police station. They each had a story to tell. Seventeen-year-old William Adams said he had encountered the man on the Thames Embankment. He was down on his luck and sixty-year-old George Jones offered him food and shelter. Jones told him that he could not afford to pay his income tax and said that life was not worth living. He said to Adams, “I’ve done you a good turn. Now you do me one. Will you kill me?”

  No doubt surprised by this request to commit murder, Adams answered, “I would if I had the pluck.” By arrangement, he subsequently met Jones and they went by tram to Tooting and then walked towards Sutton. Adams had another man with him, called Charlie Smith, a completely mysterious character who, despite the best efforts of the police, was never traced. The trio stopped by a field in Sutton and Jones repeated his earlier request saying, “I want to die. God help me, I want you to kill me.” He pressed into Adams’ hand a shoe-maker’s awl and said, “Stab me,” adding, “The best way is in the neck . . .”

  Jones had prepared himself for the end by taking off most of his clothes and lying on the ground. Adams stabbed him three times in the neck and again in the stomach. None of the wounds were fatal and Adams tried to drag Jones to a nearby pond, presumably to drown him, but found his victim too heavy. Smith, apparently, was an observer of all this but not an active participant. Eventually, Jones was relieved of what little money he had on him and was abandoned to his fate.