Isabella Mueller (crime writer)
The year is 1854. At that time, Mrs Jacob, a widow, lived with her lovely daughter Marie in a house on Breiten Gang in the Neustadt district of Hamburg. The widow, who worked as a laundress, was extremely well-liked in the neighbourhood. She and her daughter – who received many marriage proposals but turned them down due to her young age – were hard-working women who led a secluded life. Widow Jacob was considered well-off, as she was able to live in a house on her own with her daughter. It was 7 May 1854 when Widow Jacob set out on a Sunday outing with her daughter, as the glorious spring weather simply beckoned them to do so. On her way, she met her immediate neighbour, Master Turner Vernimb, a respected citizen and family man who was a loyal customer of the laundress. After their outing, Marie set about cleaning the stove. At around 9.30 pm, the 15-year-old apprentice of the gunsmith Mayer knocked on the Widow Jacobi’s front door. He had been instructed by the master’s wife to deliver a bundle of laundry to Mrs Jacobi. But although the light was on, nobody opened the door. The young lad then knocked frantically on the door once more. This drew the neighbours’ attention to him. After he had explained his business, they sent him away, as the two women were probably already in their nightclothes and had no desire to let him in. So the lad left empty-handed. The next morning, none of the neighbours saw the two women, who always set off for work on time and would stop off at the baker’s to buy bread beforehand. As the light was on but nobody answered, the neighbours alerted the police. Two officers went to the house. But nobody opened the front door for them either, so the police broke it down. Shortly after entering the house, they made a gruesome discovery. The laundress lay dead on the floor with a fractured skull and stab wounds to her neck and throat. Next to her lay a blood-stained knife, which, as it later transpired, came from her own household. But where was her daughter Marie? They found her lying at the foot of the cellar stairs in a large pool of blood. Like her mother, her head had presumably been smashed in with a hammer; she, too, had stab wounds to her neck and throat. The investigation revealed that the women had been the victims of a robber-murderer, as all their cash was missing. During a search of the house, the officers found a second bloodstained knife that did not belong to the household, and a man’s undershirt lying on the floor rather than in the baskets of dirty laundry. Just a few days later, the funeral of the two women took place, attended by many Hamburg residents who had come to pay their last respects. Among them was their neighbour, the master turner Vernimb, and his 19-year-old apprentice, Arnold Wilhelm Timm, who was the son of a respected widow and lived in the master’s house. Shortly after the funeral, Timm informed his master that he was resigning to go and work for his brother from then on. However, he intended to remain with his master until 9 May. The police were investigating at full speed and questioned many people, including Master Vernimb. They showed him the knife and the undershirt, which the master identified as belonging to his apprentice. As the police knew that the apprentice Timm was a close friend of the shoemaker’s apprentice Bonneck, they turned to him. He was to spy on his friend Timm. As luck would have it, Timm took his boots to Bonneck to be repaired. Once Bonneck had finished the job, he demanded his payment from Timm. As Timm had no money on him, he had to go and fetch it first. A quarter of an hour later, Timm returned with a handful of Prussian talers, which had earth stuck to them. Bonneck showed these to the police, who believed they came from the robbery and that Timm had buried them. Bonneck was instructed to continue shadowing Timm. The two of them now frequently went to pubs, where Timm – who was by then out of work – always paid the bill. He claimed his brother had given him the money as an advance. Timm was summoned to the police station for questioning. By the second day, he had made a full confession, citing the knife, the undershirt and the money as evidence. He had long planned to rob the widow, who was considered wealthy. He carried out the plan on 8 May at around 9 pm. He knocked on his neighbour’s door to ask her to take his undershirt to the cleaners. Suspecting nothing, she let him into the house, where he struck her dead with a hammer from his master’s workshop. He then stabbed her in the neck with a knife from the workshop. Marie had heard her mother’s screams and had rushed to her. When she saw her mother lying dead on the floor, a struggle ensued between Marie and Timm. He struck her on the head with the hammer and stabbed her in the neck; as he did so, she tumbled down the cellar stairs. Timm then wanted to look for the cash. But suddenly the young boy came knocking; however, after a while he was sent away by the neighbours. Timm now searched for the cash, but found only 100 Mark in ‘Hamburger Courant’ notes in Prussian taler coins, as the widow had deposited her money in the savings bank. Disappointed, he left the flat, which he locked using the key he had taken. He then went first to the ‘Pfannkuchenkeller’ pub, where he dined like a prince, before really letting his hair down at the ‘Ehebrechergang’ brothel. Arnold Wilhelm Timm was sentenced by the lower court to be beheaded by the guillotine. This verdict was upheld by the High Court nine months later. An appeal for annulment and a petition for clemency from his mother were rejected. On 10 April 1856, the sentence was carried out. Before his execution, Arnold Wilhelm Timm smoked eight cigars and ate a beefsteak. The double murderer was then executed by the mechanical guillotine in the prison’s rear courtyard. Thus ended the young life of the robber and murderer Arnold Wilhelm Timm.
