Gesche Gottfried
Gesche Gottfried, born Gesche Margarethe Timm around 1798 in northern Germany, is infamously known as one of the early female serial killers. Initially an attractive young woman with aspirations for a comfortable life, she married Johann Miltenberg, whose alcoholism and abuse prompted her to seek an escape through infidelity and ultimately murder. Gottfried began poisoning Miltenberg and, after his death was attributed to his alcoholism, she continued her killing spree, targeting her parents, children, and later her suitors, often using arsenic she had learned to use from her mother.
Despite her horrific actions, which included the deaths of at least fifteen people and possibly as many as thirty, Gottfried managed to evade suspicion for years, presenting herself as a caring widow. Her deceptive practices came to an end when she was arrested in 1828, leading to a sensational trial that exposed her manipulative schemes. Ultimately, she was sentenced to death and executed in 1831, marking the last public execution in Bremen. Gottfried’s case continues to evoke interest as a stark example of a woman who defied societal norms while committing heinous crimes, reflecting complex psychological and social themes surrounding her life and actions.
Gesche Gottfried
Serial killer
- Born: c. 1798
- Birthplace: Northern Germany
- Died: c. 1831
- Place of death: Bremen, Germany
Also known as: Gesche Margarethe Timm (birth name); Gesina (or Gessina) Margaretha Gottfried
Significance: Gesche Gottfried was a German female serial killer who killed fifteen people—including her own children—by poisoning them with arsenic in the early nineteenth century.
Background
Gesche (later known as Gesina or Gessina) Gottfried was born Gesche Margarethe Timm in northern Germany circa 1798. (Some sources say 1783 or 1785.) Some accounts suggest that Gottfried's parents, Johann and Gesche Timm, spoiled her when she was a child. Others indicate that they favored her brother.
Gottfried grew to become an attractive young woman with blonde hair and blue eyes. She had a taste for fine things and was determined to marry a man who could provide her with a comfortable life. Although she had several suitors, one man in particular, Johann Miltenberg, caught her attention. Miltenberg owned his own business and had some savings in the bank, and Gottfried wanted to marry him. Some of Gottfried's relatives tried to intervene on her behalf. They warned Gottfried and her parents that Miltenberg was an alcoholic. Yet, with her parents' backing, Gottfried married Miltenberg in 1815 and started a family.
Gottfried quickly realized she should have listened to her relatives. Miltenberg not only drank heavily but also physically abused Gottfried in his drunken state. His business was on the verge of bankruptcy. Meanwhile, Gottfried began having an affair with another man.
Criminal Career
According to accounts of her life, Gottfried got the idea to poison Miltenberg as she watched her mother set out white arsenic powder to kill mice. Shortly thereafter, Gottfried obtained some of the poisonous powder and administered a lethal dose to her husband. No one suspected foul play in Miltenberg's death; doctors assumed that his alcoholism had finally killed him.
Not long after Miltenberg's death, Gottfried told her lover, Michael Christoph Gottfried, that she wanted to marry him. Her plans were met with a few obstacles. First, Michael Gottfried reportedly did not want to take responsibility for her children. Second, Gottfried's parents disapproved of the marriage. They believed that Gottfried was too recently widowed to remarry. Gottfried handled these obstacles by poisoning her parents and her children. Again, however, physicians did not suspect Gottfried of murder. They believed that her parents' deaths had resulted from old age and that her children's deaths resulted from a swift illness.
Michael Gottfried still wavered in agreeing to marry Gottfried. In response, Gottfried began to poison him with small amounts of arsenic. She used enough to make him ill but not enough to kill him. Michael Gottfried gradually became sick and weak. During this time, Gottfried stayed by his side and provided constant care. Her devotion moved Michael Gottfried, and as he neared death, he agreed to marry her. Gottfried arranged to have a priest and a lawyer come to perform a deathbed ceremony. The two were married, and Michael Gottfried signed over all his wealth. He died within hours.
Gottfried continued her killing spree. Among her other victims were her fiancé, Paul Thomas Zimmermann; her brother, Johann Christoph Timm; and several friends or acquaintances to whom she owed money. Their deaths never aroused suspicion, as police and doctors always seemed to find some other underlying cause.
Eventually, Gottfried bought a house in Bremen, Germany. The house was quite expensive, though, and Gottfried could not afford the mortgage. When the bank foreclosed, a man named Johann Rumpff (also spelled Rumf) purchased it for his family, which included his pregnant wife Wilhelmine and their four children. Rumpff felt sorry for Gottfried and hired her as a housekeeper so she could remain in the house. Shortly after the Rumpffs moved in, Wilhelmine Rumpff gave birth to a son. A few days later, she died mysteriously, and doctors—unaware that Gottfried had poisoned her—assumed she had suffered complications from childbirth. Gottfried then poisoned all of Rumpff's children, so that only she, Rumpff, and a few servants remained in the house. During this time, Gottfried took such good care of the ailing Rumpff family that she earned the nickname the "angel of Bremen."
Gottfried then began to poison Rumpff, who realized that he felt ill after every meal. One day, while Gottfried was away, another servant prepared some pork for Rumpff. Rumpff ate the meat and was amazed at how good he felt afterward. He stashed the leftover meat in the pantry so he could enjoy it over the next few days. Upon her return, Gottfried saw the leftover meat and sprinkled it with arsenic powder. The next time Rumpff went to get a helping of meat, he noticed the white powder and recalled seeing it in other dishes Gottfried had prepared for him. He took the powder to be analyzed and discovered that it was arsenic.
Police arrested Gottfried in March 1828. They quickly discovered the lengths to which Gottfried had gone to maintain her appearance as a sweet, young widow. Beneath her clothes, she had worn thirteen corsets to create the illusion of a curvy figure. Her expensive makeup and false teeth had given her rosy cheeks and a friendly smile. When she appeared at trial without this costume, people were shocked by her haggard, skeletal appearance.
Gottfried poisoned fifteen people, and confessed to killing as many as thirty, over a period of about thirteen years. Police questioned her for many months. In many instances, she was unable to provide investigators with a solid motive for her crimes. In the end, the judge at her trial sentenced her to die. Gottfried was executed in Bremen, Germany, in 1831 (some sources say 1828).
Impact
Gottfried showed no remorse for her crimes and actually seemed proud that she had eluded detection for so long. Several sources report that prior to her death, she stated, "I was born without a conscience, which allowed me to live without fear." Gottfried is among the few known early cases of female serial killers. Following her conviction, Gottfried was sentenced to death by decapitation. Her execution was the last public execution held in Bremen, Germany.
Personal Life
Gottfried married Johann Miltenberg in 1815. The couple had three children: Johanna, Adeline, and Heinrich. Following their deaths, Gottfried married Michael Christoph Gottfried. After his death, she became engaged to, but did not marry, Paul Thomas Zimmermann.
Bibliography
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Nash, Jay Robert. "Gottfried, Gesina Margaretha." Look for the Woman: An Encyclopedia of Female Poisoners, Kidnappers, Thieves, Extortionists, Terrorists, Swindlers and Spies from Elizabethan Times to the Present. M. Evans and Company, 1981, pp. 170–2.
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