Isabella Mueller (crime writer)
Fritz Erbe and his 30-year-old mistress, Dorothee Buntrock, were a cunning murderous duo who robbed young women not only of their jewelry and clothing, but also of their lives. She was born in Holzminden in 1856 and worked as a teacher of laundry tailoring at a girls’ school in Osnabrück. She was hopelessly infatuated with Fritz Erbe, a former glazier who was now working as a commercial agent. For her lover, she would lure young women into an ambush so that her lover could assault them and then kill them. Her reward was the dead women’s dresses, as well as their jewelry and cash. For Dorothee Buntrock was a lingerie fetishist who, after murdering the women, wore their dresses. To lure the young women, the couple placed advertisements in North German newspapers throughout 1890, seeking a young travel companion for a count’s family offering a high salary and good board. Dorothee posed as the employment agent and summoned the young women to either Magdeburg or Hanover. The police caught on to the duo’s scheme when a forest ranger’s dog found the dismembered, naked body of a woman next to a tree root in the Neuhaldesleben Forest in Magdeburg in November 1891. The remains were those of 30-year-old Emma Kasten from Minden, who earned her living as a housekeeper. She was last seen alive by her aunt in Magdeburg on May 21, 1890. Emma Kasten had discovered the job advertisement for the count’s family on May 21, 1890. She immediately wrote to the cipher address, and within a few hours she was invited to Magdeburg for an interview. There, in a pastry shop in downtown Magdeburg, Emma Kasten met Dorothee Buntrock, who offered her the job. That very evening, Dorothee Buntrock intended to introduce Emma Kasten to the count’s family, who lived in a castle on the edge of the forest. The path there led into a dense forest, from which Emma Kasten never returned. For Fritz Erbe was already waiting there for his accomplice, Dorothee Buntrock, and for the young woman, whom he overpowered. While Dorothee Buntrock held Emma Kasten’s head, he slit her throat with a butcher’s knife. Afterward, Dorothee Buntrock stripped the woman and took her dress, a gold watch on a chain, rings, and 60 marks in cash. Since Emma Kasten’s aunt had not heard from her niece, she alerted the police. The trail led to the employment agent Dorothee Buntrock, who was under strong suspicion of the crime. On January 8, 1892, she was arrested by Detective Schmidt from Magdeburg. At the time, she was wearing Emma Kasten’s dress, which Emma’s aunt clearly identified as her niece Emma’s dress. Dorothee Buntrock initially denied having anything to do with Emma Kasten’s murder. But she eventually broke down during questioning and confessed to having been involved in the murder of Emma Kasten. However, she claimed that the murder had been committed by her former lover, Fritz Erbe. To substantiate this, she presented Inspector Schmidt with letters from Fritz Erbe. These contained details that only the perpetrator could have known. Following her statement, Inspector Schmidt traveled from Osnabrück to Bielefeld, where Fritz Erbe lived. At the Evangelical Clubhouse, he arrested Fritz Erbe, who, however, vehemently denied the murder of Emma Kasten. He pinned the murder on Carl Behrens, Dorothee Buntrock’s alleged new boyfriend, with whom she had had a child and who had subsequently fled to America. However, Dorothee Buntrock’s version of events sounded completely different, as Fritz Erbe had simply taken off after she had a child by him. Following the arrest of the murderous duo, many newspapers reported on the gruesome murder of Emma Kasten. This was also read by the hotelier Klages of the “Deutsches Haus” hotel in Hamelin. He immediately contacted the police, as his 17-year-old daughter Doro had disappeared without a trace after responding to a job advertisement. On August 13, 1890, Doro Klages had met with a job placement agent named Anna Blume in Hanover. Blume had promised her a position as a travel companion for a count’s family. Doro’s father still had the letter from the employment agent, which he gave to Inspector Schmidt. The inspector ordered a handwriting analysis, which confirmed that both letters were written by Dorothee Buntrock. Both women were interrogated again. Dorothee Buntrock confessed that she had conducted four job interviews in August 1890. She chose Doro Klages because of her pretty dress. Afterward, she took the train from Hanover to Eschede with Doro Klages. Fritz Erbe was also on the train, but he did not identify himself as an acquaintance of Dorothee Buntrock. After the train arrived in Eschede, Dorothee Buntrock and Doro Klages went to a restaurant on Bahnhofsstraße. A short time later, Fritz also entered the restaurant, where he sat down at a nearby table. This statement corresponded with the testimony of the daughter of the Gerecht couple, who ran the restaurant. During a lineup, the daughter identified both Dorothee Buntrock and Fritz Erbe. She testified that Dorothee Buntrock had been drinking coffee with a very pretty girl. Then Fritz Erbe had sat down at a nearby table and stared intently at both of them while he drank a beer. Ten minutes after the women had left, Fritz Erbe also left the restaurant. Dorothee Buntrock set off with Doro Klages for the noble family’s castle. At a crossroads where the paths to Lohe and Weyhausen diverged, she stopped to rest. She no longer knew the exact way and wanted to ask a passerby. Shortly thereafter, Fritz Erbe appeared, offering to show them the way to the castle and accompanying them. Until Fritz Erbe overpowered the young girl and stuffed a gag into her mouth. He then raped Doro Klages in the presence of his lover. Afterward, he slit her throat and chopped off her head and legs. Then the two of them dug a hole. Dorothee Buntrock stripped the corpse and took her jewelry. Since it was stuck fast, she cut off her fingers and ears. Afterward, they dismembered the remains and threw Doro Klages into the hole, which they covered with moss. They washed themselves with a bottle of water, which they left at the crime scene, before boarding the train and returning from Eschede to Hanover. The girl had been slaughtered by both of them like a piece of livestock. Eight days after the murder of Doro Klages, Dorothee Buntrock gave birth to her child in Hanover. Following her confession, the search for the body began; it was found on March 17 by rural mail carrier Eggers. On June 21, 1892, the trial of Fritz Erbe and Dorothee Buntrock began before the jury court in Magdeburg. Fritz Erbe continued to deny any involvement in the two murders, even though he had no alibi for the murder of Doro Klages. Fritz Erbe admitted only that he had placed advertisements in the “Hannoversches Tagesblatt.” He had hoped to have sex with the applicants. As early as the second day of the trial, Fritz Erbe was heavily incriminated by several witness testimonies. Fritz Erbe had given a girl from Hanover jewelry that, according to the statements of Doro Klages’ father and sister, clearly belonged to her. In addition, the innkeeper’s daughter from Eschede and, of course, his lover, the key witness Dorothee Buntrock, heavily incriminated him. On June 23, 1892, Fritz Erbe and Dorothee Buntrock were found guilty by the jury of the murders of Emma Kasten and Doro Klages and sentenced to death. These two murderers were also considered the prime suspects in the murder of 5-year-old Johann Hegmann, who had been found in a barn in Xanten with his throat slit. However, they could not be proven guilty of this murder. At the time of the crime, they had been in Kleve, which is not too far from Xanten. The murderous duo was executed on May 24, 1893, by executioner Friedrich Wilhelm Reindel in Magdeburg. A small gravestone near the crime scene in Eschede still commemorates the heinous murder of Doro Klages to this day.
