She Devils Around the World

by Sylvia Perrini

  Oliver Hilschenz and the surviving children did not wish to testify at Sabine’s trial.

  Sabine’s defence lawyer, Matthias Schöneburg argued that Sabine’s alcohol consumption during labour would cause her to pass out. When she awoke, she would find the child dead and buried in soil on her balcony. He said to the court, "We don't know how long the babies lived, my client can't remember burying or concealing the children, which raises the question of whether someone else did it."

  The court disagreed and found Sabine guilty of eight counts of manslaughter.

  Before the court pronounced sentence Matthias Schöneburg, argued that Sabine should only be convicted of one charge of manslaughter and her sentence should only be three-and-a-half years, saying the court had not proved conclusively that all the babies had been born alive. Judge Matthias Fuchs, disagreed, saying "there were plenty of indications that all the babies were alive".

  On the 1st June 2006, Sabine was sentenced to fifteen years in prison, which was the maximum prison term the court was able to give.

  Sabine’s lawyer announced that his client would appeal against the verdict.

  Two years later when Sabine was 42 her appeal was heard. She stated to the appeals court that, Oliver Hilschenz, the first man with whom she had sexual contact was the love of her life. However, she said neither her husband nor her parents provided her with companionship. “I did not have friendship,” she declared which she claimed led to her alcoholism, which drove her, to kill nine of her new-born babies.

  The appeals court also heard from friends of Sabine’s who said, she was a good mother to her four surviving children.

  The appeals court upheld the 15-year prison sentence, stating the fact that although Sabine was an alcoholic, it did not lessen her accountability for the manslaughter. The presiding appeals court Judge, Barbara Sattler said, “The verdict took into consideration that eight people were killed without having a chance to even begin their lives.”

  The case helped to prompt a long needed German government drive to improve protection for children.

  SABINE RADMACHER

  In 2010, in the small town of Lörrach, Germany close to the French and Swiss borders, and a town twinned with Chester in the UK, residents were reeling in shock. On September 19, 2010 a 41-year-old woman, Sabine Radmacher suffocated her 5-year-old by first knocking him unconscious and then putting a bag on his head.

  When her estranged husband, a 44-year-old carpenter, arrived at her apartment to collect his son, she shot him twice, once in the head and once in the neck before stabbing him. Sabine then set fire to the apartment with highly flammable nitrocellulose paint thinner, which eventually led to the flat exploding causing seventeen people to be injured by smoke inhalation. It is amazing that there were no worse injuries given the damage that occurred to the building.

  Sabine’s estranged husband

  Once she had set the fire, Sabine made her way down to the street, clutching a 22-calibre sports pistol and a knife. Sabine then crossed the road over to St. Elizabethan Hospital.

  Upon entering the hospital grounds, she opened fire on passersby, injuring two.

  A nurse at the hospital, Sister Xaveria, said, "I heard shots and looked out of the window. This woman was running towards the entrance. She had a gun. I immediately grabbed the phone and called the emergency services. When she entered the clinic, she seemed quite calm. I saw her loading her gun and then she pointed at me. All I could do was duck under the table and remained there until the police arrived."

  Sabine then made her way to the Gynecology Ward, here she shot and stabbed dead a 56-year-old male nurse, who was married with three children. She also severely injured two visitors and a police officer who happened to be visiting.

  The police arrived, and Sabine opened fire at the officers. Police marksmen shot Sabine in a hail of bullets seventeen times until they were sure she was dead. The entire incident from the explosion to Sabine’s death lasted 40 minutes. Afterwards, over 100 rounds of ammunition were found at the hospital. Sabine had been treated at the hospital in 2004 for a miscarriage, but no one knows if that was the reason why she started shooting in the hospital.

  In fact, no one is entirely sure what triggered Sabine’s murderous rampage. Sabine was a lawyer, and her work colleagues and friends said she had become increasingly distressed and resentful about the collapse of her relationship and a child custody dispute.

  Sabine and son in happier days

  The couple were said to have separated in June and that the husband had custody of the son, who visited Sabine at weekends. Neighbors thought the husband had a new partner that had seemed to upset Sabine greatly.

  An unnamed neighbor told the German Bild newspaper: "She seems not to have got over the fact that the son lived with the father. She had lost everything: her husband, her child and her home. But I would never have thought she was capable of something like this."

  UNNAMED MOTHER

  In Germany in September 2012, a twenty-eight year-old woman has been arrested and charged with manslaughter on suspicion that she killed her five babies shortly after giving birth.

  The case had been under investigation since 2006 when a newborn baby body was discovered close to the northern city of Flensburg, in a paper sorting station. In 2007, the body of a second baby was discovered in a parking lot off a regional highway.

  The investigating police officers said the woman had surrendered to them following the taking of a DNA test and had subsequently confessed to murdering the children, as well as three others who had been born alive.

  She has been charged with five counts of manslaughter. Her identity has not been released because of German privacy laws. The trial is expected to take place sometime in 2013.

  HOLLAND

  MARIA SWANENBURG

  Maria Catherina Swanenburg was born on the 9th of September in 1839 in Leiden, Netherlands. On the 13th of May in 1868, she married Johannes van der Linden. Together, they had five sons and two daughters. Maria was affectionately known in Leiden as “Goeie Mie,” meaning “Good Me,” for nursing ill people and children in her home town.

  In 1883, she was found poisoning the Groothuizen family. This opened up an investigation into other deaths of people in her care. The investigation looked into one hundred suspicious deaths including her parents’ deaths in 1880. It is believed that her mother Johanna was her first victim followed shortly after by her father, both of whom she had taken out insurance on. Her preferred method of poisoning was arsenic.

  It was estimated that she poisoned close to eighty people. Twenty-seven died in the years 1880-1883. Another fifty people she had tried to kill survived but as a result of the poisoning, suffered lifelong chronic health problems. Maria’s motive was money. She would insure their lives before beginning to poison them.

  Her trial started on April 23rd, 1885. Maria was found guilty and sentenced to life in prison. Maria Swanenburg died in prison in 1915

  ITALY

  TOFANIA

  During the 17th Century in Italy, it was fashionable for wealthy women to have a 'white look’. A white face was considered highly fashionable and continued to be for several centuries. A pale complexion and white face demonstrated that you did not need to work; exposure to the sun while working in the fields caused the ruddy complexion of the farm laborer.

  Varieties of ingredients were used as face powders to produce the required fashionable whiteness. One powder used was a face powder whose base was arsenic.

  One leading supplier of this face powder was a woman who lived in Naples. Her name was Tofania, and her clients were the elite of society. The rich and famous women of the city would often pay a visit to Tofania to learn the uses and secrets of the cosmetic.

  Tofania was originally from Palermo, Sicily, which is where she had learned her profession. When the authorities in Palermo began to be suspicious of her activities, she moved to Naples.

  Apart from her face powder, Tofania also dispensed her own uniq
ue love potion, and a deadly poison she called Acqua Tofana. Aqua Tofana contained a mixture of arsenic and lead and possibly belladonna. Acqua Tofana was a clear, tasteless, water-like liquid which mixed easily with water, wine, or other beverages to be served during meals. It required four to six drops for an effective dosage. It acted slowly but irrevocably.

  It was extremely popular with the Italian noble women who used it to dispose of unwanted husbands and irksome lovers. This would leave themselves free for new liaisons or better marriages.

  The reason that women resorted to poisons, love powders, and even black magic was to put an end to domestic abuse and financial dependence. Violence against women and children was regularly employed by men in the household to control and correct what they saw as their faults.

  Thus, many women used love potions “to have in plain power sure, the spirit, the heart, and the goods of their husbands”.

  If the love spells turned out to be inadequate to achieve their goals, women subsequently resorted to venous potions and black rituals. Some of them aimed at remarrying for love, being aware that a second marriage could not take place without ending the previous one. Even for female members of aristocracy and wealthy powerful families, the chances of obtaining a divorce were very slim. And even if a woman succeeded in obtaining a divorce, they would normally be forbidden to marry again.

  Therefore, poisoning their husbands seemed to be the only way a woman could end an abusive and unhappy marriage as well as regain control of patrimonies and household finances. Considering the unequal and subservient conditions women endured during the seventeenth century in Italy and the rest of Europe, both legally and financially, it is hardly surprising that poison became a weapon that saved them from abuse and lives of misery.

  Tofania sold her poison in petite glass phials. On the bottles was a label that read, “Manna of St. Nicholas of Bavi,” and had an image of the saint.

  Tofania successfully ran her business for fifty years. At her eventual trial, some six hundred murders were attributed to her poison. Her poison was used extensively throughout Naples and Rome and many believe in France, Spain, and England. Tofania had no scruples at revealing the names of her clients. Consequently, a considerable number of Italian high society women were charged and executed on her evidence.

  Tofania was in her sixties or even seventies, when eventually arrested and executed by strangulation.

  HYERONYMA SPARA

  Hyeronyma Spara was born in Palermo Sicily. She had been a student of Tofania´s and when Tofania was obliged to leave Palermo, Hyeronyma moved to the Eternal City: Rome.

  In Rome, Hyeronyma set herself up as a fortune-teller and sorcerer. When women visited her and told their woes of their miserable lives, Hyeronyma would offer them a solution that in three or four days the abusive or unfaithful husband could be removed with complete safety. The solution of course came at a price.

  Overtime, Hyeronyma had formed a small group of women to cater to the needs of the women of Rome. Her chief aide was a woman named Gratiosa. Hyeronyma, herself, kept her clients to the elite of Roman society, as she believed they were less likely to betray her.

  By 1659, it had come to the notice of Pope Alexander VII that a large number of women were confessing to their priests that they had poisoned their husbands.

  It was not too long before suspicion fell on Hyeronyma Spara, but they needed proof before arresting her. The authorities sent a woman, posing as a rich aristocrat, to consult Hyeronyma. The woman asked for help in dealing with an abusive husband. Hyeronyma was slow to respond, so the woman offered her more and more money until Hyeronyma finally handed over a small glass phial of liquid.

  Once the authorities had the phial, they tested it on animals, which all died slow, agonizing deaths.

  Hyeronyma, Gratiosa, and three other women were arrested and tortured, as was the custom at the time. The torture was to get the women to identify other accomplices and clients involved.

  Once, having obtained their confessions, Pope Alexander VII ordered the women to be hanged publicly.

  Following their confessions, there was a roundup of several high society women in Rome. Many suffered hanging in public and others banished.

  NEW ZEALAND

  MINNIE DEAN

  Williamina "Minnie" Dean, nee McCulloch, began life in Greenock in West Scotland on the 2nd of September in 1844. Her father, John McCulloch, worked on the railways as an engineer. Elizabeth Swan, her mother, died of cancer when Minnie was thirteen.

  In 1862, Minnie Dean moved across the world to New Zealand to live with an aunt. She arrived at her aunt’s pregnant and with a young daughter. Who the father was, no one knows. She took up a position as a teacher in the Southland area and in 1873 married a publican, Charles Dean.

  Charles and Minnie moved to a large house on a twenty-two acre estate named ‘The Larches’ in East Winton. It was situated on the railway line that ran from Invercargill city to Kingston. Shortly after the move, the house burned down. The Deans built a new house to replace it, which only had two bedrooms and measured twelve-feet by twenty-two feet.

  Charles Dean became a laborer, and Minnie set herself up as a ‘baby farmer’, a not uncommon occupation in the Victorian era. It involved taking in babies for payment. Some baby farmers "adopted" children for one-time payments, while others cared for infants for periodic payments. Illegitimacy and its social stigma were usually the impetus for a mother's decision to put her children with a baby farmer. Baby farming also included foster care and adoption before law regulated them.

  At times, Minnie would have up to ten infants below the age of four in her home. In October of 1889, an infant of a few months old died in her care. The death certificate showed death by natural causes. Barely two years later, an eight-week-old baby died of inflammation of the heart and lung problems. Infant mortality rates were high in this era. Perhaps, inevitably, some infants would become ill and die. An inquest was subsequently held which decided the dead child had passed away of natural causes. The inquest found the other children at ‘The Larches’ to be taken well care of, but the property to be inadequate.

  After the inquest, the local community distrusted Minnie Dean and stories of abuse spread, as well as stories about children under Minnie Dean's care going missing without explanation.

  With the authorities now aware of her work, Minnie became more secretive. The Laws at this time did not require Minnie to keep records of the children for whom she was caring.

  Minnie began to advertise her services under false names.

  The next time a child in her care died rather than report the death, she buried the body discreetly under a flower patch.

  In May of 1895, a station porter watched Minnie Dean board a train with a young infant and a hatbox. He later watched her leaving the same train with only the hatbox and wearing a hat. Another railway porter later testified the hatbox was questionably heavy. The following day, she was once again watched boarding a train carrying her hatbox and a young baby but when stepping off from the train, she was carrying only the hatbox and a parcel. Railway staff alerted the police who began an investigation.

  The police paid a visit to a Mrs. Hornsby who lived in Dunedin. She told the police that she had given money and her four-week-old grandchild, Eva Hornsby, to Minnie at Milburn Station, four miles from Milton. The police confronted Minnie Dean with Mrs. Hornsby at Minnie’s house. Mrs. Hornsby identified Minnie Dean as the woman to whom she had handed her granddaughter and identified clothes that had belonged to her grandchild. However, there was no Eva to be found. The police arrested Minnie and Charles Dean. The police removed five children living at the house.

  Rescued from Minnie Dean: Ethel Maud Hay, Florence Smith, Esther Wallis with “Baby Gray,” Cecil Guildford, And Arthur Wilson.

  Constables then began a search, which included digging up the garden. Under a sea of orange Montbretia plants, they uncovered the corpses of three infants: Eva Hornsby, Dorothy Edith Carter, and the third
remained unidentified. The resulting inquest found that one child had died of suffocation and another from an overdose of laudanum (a sedative). The cause of death for the third child remained undetermined.

  Minnie Dean’s house and garden

  Two charges of murder were brought against Minnie and Charles Dean. After further inquiries, the charges against Charles Dean were dropped.

  Minnie Dean went on trial for murder in Invercargill on the 18th of June in 1895. Minnie Dean claimed innocence, but the jury found her guilty of murder, and Minnie was sentenced to death. The renowned defense lawyer Alfred Hanlon defended Minnie. He later wrote:

  During the trial, outside the courthouse, macabre hatboxes containing baby dolls were sold.

  Minnie Dean Hat Boxes

  On the 12th of August, Minnie Dean’s hanging took place in Invercargill by the official executioner, Tom Long. Her final words were, "No, I have nothing to say except that I am innocent.” She gained the dubious honor of being the first -- and last -- woman to be legally hanged in New Zealand.

  Charles Dean claimed his wife's body after the hanging and buried her in an unmarked grave in Winton.

  The Legend of Minnie Dean

  After her death, Minnie Dean became one of New Zealand’s legends; one local myth claimed that no plants would grow on her grave. Another myth claimed that disobedient children rather than being threatened with the bogeymen were instead told they were going to be sent to Minnie Dean.