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introduction
In 1981, a woman walked into a trial that was in session. I saw that she looked indifferent and walked straight to the center of the courtroom, because she was the victim's mother, and everyone was not surprised by her appearance, and they did not take too much precautions. Unexpectedly, her next move shook the entire court.
I saw that she took out a 0.22 Beretta pistol from her pocket and killed the suspect in front of her decisively and quickly. She is Marianne Bachmeier, known to the Germans as the "Mother of Vengeance".
(Marianne Bachmeier)
1. The daughter who ran away from home
On May 5, 1980, Marianne Bachmeier got up as usual to prepare breakfast, which was an ordinary morning for her.
It's just that during breakfast, her daughter Anna was reprimanded by Marianne for being a picky eater, and she quarreled with her mother unconvinced. Marianne didn't control her temper and said a few heavy words. Anna immediately left the table sad and angry.
Marianne ignored Anna, who was leaving.
(Marianne Bachmeier)
After divorcing her husband, she chose to live on her own with her youngest daughter, Anna, and the two of them lived in the old town of Lübeck. Runs a small bar to make ends meet.
The hectic and trivial burden of life weighs deeply on this single mother. The daughter's temper is sometimes a little willful, and there is always some friction between the two, but they will soon reconcile. She didn't take this quarrel to heart, thinking that her daughter would talk about it after school in the evening.
But what she didn't expect was that this conversation would be the last time she would talk to her daughter. Since then, Anna has never returned to her.
(Photo of Anna before her death)
2. Suspects who skillfully exonerated themselves
Marianne returned home that afternoon, only to find that Anna was not home, long overdue for school. She went to school only to learn that Anna hadn't been to school today.
Anxious, she immediately rushed to the police station and reported to the police. When the school, neighbors, relatives and friends heard about this, they sent people to find Anna. People thought it was just a playful girl who forgot her way home.
(People looking for the missing Anna in the woods)
It wasn't until later that someone found a cardboard box containing Anna's tiny corpse by the canal. She had visible strangulation marks on her neck and was disheveled, apparently having been attacked and tortured before her death.
The case caused quite a stir, and the German police quickly dispatched to arrest the suspect, to Marianne's disbelief, the man was actually their neighbor Klaus Grabowski.
(Suspect Klaus)
Klaus also confessed to his crime during the interrogation - it was he who strangled the poor little girl with a stocking. But his subsequent confession was incomprehensible and full of subjective bias.
He claimed that 7-year-old Anna had taken the initiative to greet him before the incident, and that he saw that Anna was walking alone on the road and felt dangerous, so he took her home out of kindness.
Unexpectedly, when he returned home, Anna asked him for money and threatened that if he did not agree, he would go home and tell others that he had been violated.
He was so frightened that he strangled her to death in a momentary error.
(Marianne Bachmeier)
3. A mother who is bent on revenge
Klaus's confession not only puts the main blame on Anna, but it is also full of loopholes and illogical. And Klaus himself is someone with a similar criminal record.
But at that time, the police did not find evidence of infringement in Anna, and they could not prove the truth of his words, and they really could not refute it.
(Klaus had a criminal record, but his lawyer cleverly used the torture as an excuse to explain that he was mentally abnormal at the time of the crime.)
This man, who was supposed to pay for his crimes, was cleverly exculpatible.
Moreover, Klaus's lawyer also defended Klaus on the grounds that he had a criminal record and suffered from chemical castration, so he had mental problems.
In the end, in the first-instance verdict, this criminal with conclusive evidence was actually acquitted by the court.
(Marianne)
Although she immediately appealed, based on the evidence available to the police at that time, the situation in the second instance was not optimistic. The news completely crushed Marianne's hopes for justice in the legal trial.
On March 6, 1981, the second instance was heard as scheduled. In the courtroom, Klaus was telling the judge what he had told a thousand times. If nothing else, he should be released in court soon.
It was only then that Marianne walked in slowly. She is the mother of the victim and the plaintiff in this case. Everyone was not surprised by her appearance.
(Marianne shoots and kills suspect)
All eyes were on the courtroom, and no one was paying special attention to her movements. Unexpectedly, she made a sensation at this time, and even the whole of Germany.
I saw that she decisively took out a 0.22 Beretta pistol from her pocket, and without hesitation, fired eight shots at Klaus until the magazine was empty.
(0.22 Beretta pistol, a pocket pistol)
People were stunned by her actions, and it took a while for someone to stop her. Marianne did not struggle or run away, and watched the man in front of her fall in a pool of blood with hatred in her eyes, and then calmly left with the police.
Out of eight shots, Klaus was shot six times and died on the spot.
Fourth, the controversial ending
Marianne's actions quickly shocked the whole of Germany, and there was a great deal of controversy about her actions at the time. Some people call her the "mother of revenge", praising her for using her own judgment of the injustice of the law to punish criminals.
(Marianne)
Some people also believe that her behavior is "splitting the country", even though she has bitter intentions, but the behavior of countering evil with evil is even worse and the impact is even worse. If it is not punished severely, it is encouraging people to resist crime with crime.
This is a debate about the justice of revenge. However, the evidence in this case is conclusive, the criminal process and facts are obvious, and the trial is not very difficult. In 1983, the court convicted her of "wilful manslaughter" and Marianne was sentenced to six years in prison.
Three years later, she was released early for her good behavior in prison. But the civil debate about this case has never stopped, and to this day, there are still many people who have mixed opinions about the outcome of this trial.
(The scene after Marianne and Klaus were killed)
After the case, the media at the time visited Marianne's residence and the bar where she worked. The mother and daughter lived in a small room with a meager salary. Marianne's sadness and hardship as such a single mother can be imagined.
For her who has had a rough life, her daughter may be one of the few lights and hopes in her life. Even though the daughter is sometimes a little willful, how can there be an overnight feud between the mother and daughter.
Anna's tragedy shattered the mother's hope with a sledgehammer. Marianne is known as the "Mother of Vengeance", and she is used as a metaphor for the jealous brave and the unjust judgment and reality.
(Anna's image before her death)
But in fact, for Marianne, it may have been just a desperate cry after hopelessness. Marianne never regretted her actions, and during the interrogation that year, she admitted that everything she did was to avenge her daughter.
After her release from prison, Marianne left for bigamy and divorce, but never returned to Germany.
In 1996, Marianne died of pancreatic cancer. Her family followed her will and buried her next to her daughter, Anna.
(Anna's grave, next to which Marianne is also buried)