Fatal Sex

One of the greatest miscarriages of justice in Germany was the case of Hans Hetzel, who was wrongfully imprisoned for 14 years. But how could this have happened? Hans Hetzel, a trained butcher and married family man, had picked up a young woman named Magdalena Gierth, who was hitchhiking, in his BMW at the Hofweier railroad crossing around 2 p.m. on September 1, 1953. Magdalena Gierth was a 5-foot-3 woman with red curls who was wearing a green dress that day and had therefore immediately caught Hans Hetzel’s eye. Hans Hetzel was a womanizer who had held various jobs since the end of the war; most recently, he supported his family by working as a sales representative for soccer game machines, which he sold to companies on a commission basis. Hetzel first drove with Magdalena Gierth to the Burger company in Münchweier to settle a few matters there. Afterward, he continued the drive with Magdalena Gierth, who intended to earn her money as a barmaid. Since the young woman was short on cash, Hetzel promptly bought her shoulder bag for 6 marks, intending to later give it to his wife Käthe as a gift. Around 8 p.m., Hetzel stopped at the “Hotel über dem Wasserfall” in Triberg to have something to eat with Magdalena Gierth. Afterward, they continued their drive and stopped at the “Gasthaus zum Engel,” where they drank half a liter of wine. Slightly tipsy, they then drove toward Hausach. Shortly after the railroad crossing, they turned right onto an open lot. Then they kissed and engaged in consensual sex. After vaginal intercourse, anal intercourse followed, during which Magdalena Gierth suddenly collapsed lifelessly. Hetzel, who had a prior conviction for a fatal accident involving a 5-year-old boy, panicked. Therefore, he drove with the young woman’s body to a section of the highway where female bodies had previously been found. On September 3, 1953, around 7:30 p.m., gamekeeper Bäuerlein from Windschläg discovered the naked woman’s body on Federal Highway 28 between Appenweiler and Sand. Since this was already the third woman’s body found on this stretch of the highway within four years, the police and the public wondered whether a serial killer might be involved. Meanwhile, Hans Hetzel had been incarcerated at the Offenburg State Prison since September 6, 1953, pending criminal proceedings at the Hünfeld District Court. When a fellow inmate gave him a newspaper to read on the morning of September 7, he discovered an article about the discovery of Monika Gierth’s body. Hetzel immediately reported to prison authorities to make a statement. He could not have known that this would cost him 14 years of his life. For Hetzel was considered a bon vivant who, despite having a wife and child, never missed an opportunity. During his military service, the tall, lanky Hetzel was taken prisoner by the French. He was liberated in 1945 and completed a butcher’s apprenticeship at the Offenburg slaughterhouse. Afterward, he worked as a truck driver. In 1947, he was involved in an accident there in which a 5-year-old boy died. Hetzel, who was at fault for the accident, had to serve a month in prison and pay 300 marks in compensation to the parents. Afterward, he ran a restaurant together with his mother. Although the business was doing well, his passion had always been cars, which is why he founded a trucking company in 1948. His debts grew, and Hetzel consequently accumulated several prior convictions for fraud. Afterward, Hetzel tried his hand at running a restaurant again and bought a construction canteen in Offenburg. But Hetzel preferred to go on drinking binges with his friends and have fun with young women rather than take care of the canteen. This led to the canteen quickly going out of business, and Hetzel ended up in jail for five weeks in 1951 on charges of fraud and theft. Afterward, Hetzel, who liked to brag about his large penis, went back to chasing women. No skirt was safe from him. Finally, in October 1951, Hetzel married Katharina Margarete Elisabeth Schmieder, known as Käthe. She was a very young woman from a family of professors who simply adored the bon vivant Hetzel. Soon after, their son Roland was born. Starting in 1952, Hetzel worked again as a truck driver and leased a quarry in Durbach in October 1952. But Hetzel, who had two employees, preferred to spend his time at the pub and visiting women rather than working at the quarry. After just two months, Hetzel was forced to close his quarry again by order of the district administration due to a lack of reliability. Consequently, Hetzel took over the distribution of sports equipment starting in July 1953. Of course, Hetzel’s lifestyle did not fit the image of the ideal family man, which is why the police officers did not believe his statements regarding Monika Gierth’s sudden death during anal sex. The case went to trial, and Hetzel was portrayed as a sex-crazed lust murderer. This was at least the conclusion of the expert opinion by the highly respected physician Professor Albert Ponsold. He was considered a leading authority in West German forensic medicine and served as the director of the Institute of Forensic Medicine at the University of Münster. His expert opinion was based exclusively on amateur photographs, in which he allegedly recognized that Monika Gierth had been strangled—and with a calf rope. Ponsold arrived at this conclusion because Hetzel had once trained as a butcher. Although all other forensic pathologists and experts concluded that the death was natural, caused by heart failure, Hetzel was sentenced to life imprisonment in Bruchsal on January 17, 1955, based solely on this report. Both his appeal and two motions for retrial—backed by eleven additional expert opinions contradicting Ponsold’s version—were rejected. It was only through the expert opinion of Prof. Dr. Otto Prokop, director of the Institute of Forensic Medicine at Humboldt University in Berlin, that Hetzel’s innocence could be proven. Journalist Frank Arnau had campaigned vigorously for this. Thus, in 1969, with the help of Prof. Dr. Otto Prokop, it was proven that the alleged strangulation marks had only appeared after death and were caused by a fork in a tree branch where Monika Gierth’s head had rested after her death. The young woman had been weakened by an abortion and a recent bout of syphilis. During violent anal intercourse, she suffered sudden cardiac death due to a pulmonary embolism. Hans Hetzel was acquitted and received 75,000 DM in compensation. Although he married a second time after his divorce in 1974 and became the father of two children, However, he never fully recovered socially or professionally. He was scarred by the trial and died of cancer in 1988. He left his family with a mountain of debt amounting to 560,000 marks. To this day, this miscarriage of justice continues to provide ample material for films and books.