Elisabeth Wiese
German serial killer executed for murdering five children.
Elisabeth Wiese (1 July 1853 – 2 February 1905) was a German serial killer from Hamburg, convicted and executed for the killing of five children. She began her working life as a midwife, but after being convicted of carrying out illegal abortions she was prevented from practicing, and money grew scarce. Tensions with her husband led her to try to murder him on several occasions—first by poisoning his food, then by attempting to cut his throat with a razor while he slept. She failed and was sent to prison. After release, she offered child-care services, but instead of placing babies with adoptive parents, she poisoned them with morphine and burned their bodies in a stove. She became known as "the angel-maker of St. Pauli."
Quick Facts
- Other names
- "The angel-maker of St. Pauli"
- Born
- 1 July 1853
- Birthplace
- Bilshausen, Kingdom of Hanover
- Died
- 2 February 1905
- Place of death
- Hamburg, German Empire
- Victims
- 5
- Penalty
- Death
- Criminal status
- Executed by guillotine
Facts from the source article.
Murders
Upon release from prison, Wiese offered her services as a child-carer to women who could not raise their children themselves, or who had illegitimate children. Initially, she charged the mothers a one-time fee for handing the children over to adoptive parents, who in turn had to be paid. However, she did not always pay the adoptive parents, who returned the children to her, so they had to be gotten rid of. She then informed the mothers of babies left in her care that she had had the babies adopted by rich families in distant countries.
What she actually did was poison the babies with morphine and burn their bodies in a stove in her apartment. As suspicions grew, Wiese forced her daughter Paula into prostitution. Paula fled to London, but became pregnant. She returned to Hamburg and gave birth in a cellar.
Immediately after the birth Wiese drowned Paula's baby and burnt the body in the stove. When the police searched Wiese's apartment they discovered her cache of morphine and poisons. As she lived in St. Pauli, a suburb of Hamburg, she became known as "the angel-maker of St. Pauli." On 10 October 1904 Wiese was convicted in court of fraud, living off immoral earnings and the murder of five children. She was executed by guillotine in 1905.
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