Adolf J. Köppel, 1962

In November 2012, I saw a report on BR television about the horrific six-fold murder of the Gruber farming family in Hinterkaifeck, near Munich. All of them, including the maid who had just arrived, had apparently had their skulls bashed in. The criminal police assumed then (1922) as now that it was a robbery-murder, although nothing was stolen.

When it was mentioned at the end of the programme that everything about this case, which has still not been solved, can be read on the internet, I was immediately hooked.

I simply had to know everything about the terrible 6-fold murder. There was no way I was going to set out to find the murderer.

So the next day, completely unbiased but full of curiosity, I sat down at the computer and opened the site www.hinterkaifeck.net. At last I had all the information at my fingertips and didn't have to be satisfied with the titles of the newspapers and the scanty reports of the police, as I had been before. Police reports, witness statements, the curious murder weapon, life on the farm, simply everything could be read there.

Among the dead were: Andreas Gruber, his wife Cäcilia, his daughter Viktoria, his "granddaughter" Cilli, his "grandson" Josef and the maid Maria Baumgartner. As it appeared at first glance, all six people died through external causes. 

But anyone who takes a closer look at the character of the farmer Andreas Gruber, who has a criminal record, must inevitably conclude that only he can be considered responsible for this terrible deed.

But how can he be the murderer? Because when the criminal police found the six bodies, he was also among the dead. 

The murders were proven to have happened on 31.03.1922. Officially, however, the bodies were not found until 04.04.1922, four days later - and a lot can happen in four days ...