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The Murder of Gregg Smart

 

Pamela Ann Smart (née Wojas; born August 16, 1967) is an American woman who was convicted of conspiracy to commit murder, witness tampering and accomplice to first degree murder. In 1990, at age 22, Smart was accused of conspiring with her under-aged sex partner, then 15-year-old William "Billy" Flynn, and three of his friends to have her 24-year-old husband Greggory Smart killed in Derry, New Hampshire. She is currently serving a life sentence at Bedford Hills Correctional Facility for Women, a maximum security prison in Westchester County, New York.

Early life

Pamela Smart was born Pamela Wojas in Windham, New Hampshire, on August 16, 1967, the daughter of John and Linda Wojas. She grew up in Miami, Florida, before her family moved to Derry, New Hampshire, when she was in the eighth grade. Pamela attended secondary school at Pinkerton Academy in Derry, where she was a cheerleader, and graduated from Florida State University (FSU) with a degree in communications. At FSU, she had been the host of a college radio program.

Pamela met Greggory Smart while she visited New Hampshire over Christmas break in 1986. They formed a serious relationship in February 1987 and married two years later, with Greggory moving to Florida to live with Pamela during her senior year at FSU. The couple shared a passion for heavy metal music. However, seven months into their marriage, they began having difficulties in their relationship. Pamela took a job as a media coordinator at Winnacunnet High School in Hampton, New Hampshire, where she met high school sophomore William "Billy" Flynn at Project Self-Esteem, a local drug awareness program at Winnacunnet High where both were volunteers. They bonded over their mutual interest in heavy metal. Pamela also met another intern named Cecelia Pierce, who was friends with Flynn.

 

Murder of Gregg Smart

On May 1, 1990, Pamela Smart came home from a meeting at work to find her condominium ransacked and her husband Greggory murdered. Police officials said the crime scene looked like a disrupted burglary. Smart was later accused of seducing 15-year-old Flynn and threatening to stop having sex with him unless he killed her husband. Flynn did so with the help of friends Patrick "Pete" Randall, Vance "J.R." Lattime, Jr., and Raymond Fowler.

During the investigation, Lattime's father brought a .38 caliber pistol he had found in his house to the police, believing it might have been the murder weapon. On May 14, an anonymous tip also indicated that Pierce was aware of the plan. Police talked to Pierce, who agreed to wear a wire and record conversations with Smart in hopes that she would say something incriminating, which she did.

On August 1, 1990, Detective Daniel Pelletier approached Smart in her school's parking lot. Smart recognized him, having spoken to him on at least six other occasions. Taken by surprise, she asked, "What's up?" "Well, Pam," Pelletier said in the recording, "I have some good news and I have some bad news. The good news is that we've solved the murder of your husband. The bad news is you're under arrest." "What for?" Smart asked. "First-degree murder." Smart was then handcuffed and arraigned at the Derry District Court and jailed at the New Hampshire State Prison for Women, which was in Goffstown at the time.

Trial

Smart's trial was widely watched and garnered considerable media attention, partly because it was one of the first in the U.S. to allow TV cameras in the courtroom. She faced life in prison if convicted. The prosecution's case relied heavily on testimony from Smart's teenaged co-conspirators, who had secured their own plea bargains before her trial began.

When oral arguments began March 4, 1991, Assistant Attorney General Diane Nicolosi portrayed the teenagers as naïve victims of an "evil woman bent on murder." The prosecution portrayed Pamela Smart as the cold-blooded mastermind who controlled her under-aged sex partner. Nicolosi claimed that Smart seduced Flynn to get him to murder her husband, so that she could avoid an expensive divorce and benefit from a $140,000 life insurance policy. In her testimony, Smart acknowledged that she had what she termed an "affair" with the under-aged boy, but claimed that the murder of her husband was solely the doing of Flynn and his friends as a reaction to her telling Flynn that she wished to end their "relationship" and repair her marriage. She insisted that she neither participated in the murder plot nor had any foreknowledge of it. Though Flynn claimed he had fallen in love with Smart when he first met her, Cecelia Pierce testified at trial that Smart and Flynn were originally just friends. Pierce first noticed a change about February, when Smart confessed to her that she "loved Bill." Flynn testified at trial that he was a virgin before he had sex with Pamela Smart.

After a 14-day trial that culminated on March 22, 1991, in the Rockingham County Superior Court, Smart was found guilty of being an accomplice to first-degree murder, conspiracy to commit murder, and witness tampering. The tampering stemmed from Pamela's coercing Cecelia not to say anything to authorities or to lie. The conviction was largely the result of the testimony of her co-conspirators and secretly taped conversations in which Smart appeared to contradict her claims of having wanted to reconcile with her husband and of having no knowledge of the boys' plot. She could have been charged with capital murder, but the prosecution decided against it. Later that day, she was given a mandatory sentence of life in prison without the possibility for parole.

Smart argued that the media had influenced her trial and conviction, as she explained in the 2014 HBO documentary Captivated: The Trials of Pamela Smart.

Imprisonment

Smart is serving her life sentence at the maximum-security Bedford Hills Correctional Facility for Women in Westchester County, New York, where she was transferred in 1993 from the New Hampshire State Prison for Women in Goffstown. At the time, New Hampshire officials said the transfer was for unspecified "security reasons." Co-defendants William Flynn and Patrick Randall were also transferred out-of-state, in both cases to the Maine State Prison in Warren, Maine.

The specific reasons for Smart's transfer are unclear. In 2007, a senior assistant in the state attorney general's office told the Keene State Equinox that Smart was transferred due to discipline problems. While she had accrued 22 disciplinary reports, all but two of them were for minor offenses. Deputy Compact Administrator Denise Heath claimed that at the time, there were fears that the State Prison for Women was not suitable for a high-profile inmate like Smart, and that it would be too easy for someone to break her out. However, New Hampshire has never had a formal transfer agreement with New York; Heath believed the transfer was a "commissioner to commissioner" arrangement. Smart's family maintains they were never informed of the transfer.

Although she maintains her innocence, Smart has conceded that her husband would still be alive if she had not had what she continues to describe as an "affair" with Flynn, a minor. While in prison, Smart has tutored other inmates and has completed two master's degrees with concentrations in literature and legal studies from Mercy College, which were paid for with private funds from Mercy College. Smart became a member of the National Organization for Women, campaigning for rights for women in prison.

In October 1996, Smart was severely beaten by fellow inmates Mona Graves and Ghania Miller. This resulted in the insertion of a plastic plate in the left side of her face. The two inmates beat Smart after they accused her of snitching on them about their prison relationship. Graves and Miller were convicted of second-degree assault in the attack on Smart at Bedford Hills Correctional Facility and were subsequently transferred to separate prisons. As a result of the beating, she takes medication for chronic pain and sometimes thinks of suicide. Her counselor, Dr. Eleanor Pam, says that "she has many, many, many dark days."

Smart says she still keeps track of Flynn because she regards him as being the key to her freedom. "He is one of the few people that could actually get me out of here, by coming forward and telling the truth, but he's never gonna do that," said Smart.

In 2003, photos of a scantily clad Smart were published in the National Enquirer. She filed a complaint against the prison and was placed in solitary confinement for two months. Smart sued, claiming that the photos were taken by a prison guard who had raped her, but the lawsuit was dismissed. In 2004, Smart and fellow inmate Carolyn Warmus sued officials of Bedford Hills, claiming sexual harassment, and sexual assault by a corrections officer, who they said coerced them into posing for the suggestive pictures published in 2003. On November 5, 2009, a U.S. District Court Judge approved a $23,875 judgment to Smart from the State of New York. Smart received $8,750, while her attorney received the remaining balance for attorney fees.

While serving her sentence, Smart took part in a writer's workshop, which was facilitated by playwright Eve Ensler. The workshop and Smart's writing were exhibited in the 2003 PBS documentary What I Want My Words to Do to You.

In April 2004, the First U.S. Court of Appeals upheld a 2002 ruling by a federal judge who rejected her federal habeas petition. Previous to her federal appeal, Smart had exhausted all judicial appeals at the state level. In July 2005, the New Hampshire Executive Council unanimously denied a pardon request for "any conditions the governor may seek to impose." In an interview with ABC News, Smart indicated she is afraid of growing old and dying in prison and would rather have been given the death penalty.

Co-conspirators

In 1992, Bill Flynn was sentenced to life in prison for second degree murder; not eligible for parole for 40 years with 12 years of the minimum sentence deferred if he maintains good behavior. Flynn was incarcerated at the Maine State Prison in Warren, where he earned his GED, has been active in charity work and worked as an electrician at the prison. In 2007, Flynn sought a sentence reduction after serving 16 years, stating that he had vowed not to do so until he had spent as many years behind bars as he had spent free. He also apologized to Gregg Smart's family for murdering him. The Smart family opposed the request. On February 12, 2008, the request was denied, although Flynn's earliest parole eligibility date was reduced by three years to 25 years, making him eligible for parole in 2015. In July 2014, Flynn was moved to a minimum security facility in Warren, Maine; the transfer allowed him to participate in a work release program.

Flynn was granted parole by the state parole board on March 12, 2015, and was released from prison with lifetime parole on June 4, 2015, a few days past the 25th anniversary of Gregg Smart's death.

Like Flynn, Patrick Randall was also sentenced to life in prison for second degree murder, eligible for parole after 40 years with 12 years deferred, making him eligible as early as 2018. He too served his sentence at the Maine State Prison in Warren, Maine. In March 2009, a judge reduced Randall's minimum sentence by three years to 25 years, making him eligible for release as early as June 2015. Randall was granted parole by the New Hampshire Parole Board after a hearing on April 9, 2015. He was released on June 4, 2015 on lifetime parole, the same day as co-conspirator Flynn's release and a few days past the 25th anniversary of Gregg Smart's death.

Co-conspirator and driver Vance Lattime was sentenced to life in prison as an accomplice to second-degree murder, eligible for parole after 30 years with 12 years suspended, making him eligible in 2008. In 2005, his minimum sentence was reduced by three years, and he was paroled that same year, 15 years after Gregg Smart's death.

Co-conspirator Raymond Fowler (who waited in the car during the killing) was sentenced to 30 years for conspiracy to murder and attempted burglary, and parole eligibility after 15 years. Fowler was paroled in 2003, 13 years after Gregg Smart's death, but was sent back to prison in 2004 for violating his parole terms. He was paroled again in June 2005.

Popular culture

Books

The book American Murder: Criminals, Crimes, and the Media (ISBN 978-1788284660) written by Mike Mayo (2008), aims to clear criminal acts of fact from Hollywood fiction. Gregg Smart's murder is cleared away from media outlet's portrayals of crime.

Dean J. Smart, brother of murder victim Gregg Smart, released Skylights and Screendoors (ISBN 978-1-936680023), his memoir, on April 7, 2011.

Joyce Maynard drew several elements from the case for her 1992 novel To Die For (ISBN 978-0451186072).

The case was also the subject of several best-selling true crime books, including Teach Me To Kill (ISBN 978-0380766499) and Deadly Lessons (ISBN 978-0312927615).

In 1993, French publisher J'ai Lu published a French translation of Stephen Sawicki's Teach Me to Kill, entitled Leçons particulières de meurtre.

The character of Becky Burgess in feminist writer Marge Piercy's novel The Longings of Women (ISBN 978-0449909072) was inspired by Pamela Smart and the conspiracy to kill Greggory Smart.

Pamela Smart is reported on in the book Till Death Do Us Part: Love, Marriage, and the Mind of the Killer Spouse (ISBN 978-1416523130) written by Dr. Robi Ludwig and Matt Birkbeck, Introduction by Larry King, Foreword by Nancy Grace.

The details of Smart's tale of sex and murder are depicted in the book Deadly Lessons: A Trial That Stunned a Nation. A Killer Whose Motive is the Most Shocking of All (ISBN 978-1626815162), author Ken Englade (2014 edition).

The key points of the Pamela Smart case are revealed in the book Evil Women (ISBN 978-1788284660) written by John Marlowe, published in 2017. The book covers the criminal acts committed by girlfriends, partners and wives.

Television and movies

The case was the basis for the NBC Television crime and drama series Law & Order Season 2, Episode 9 "Renunciation", originally aired November 19, 1991.

The trial was the basis of the television movie Murder in New Hampshire: The Pamela Wojas Smart Story, starring Helen Hunt and Chad Allen, released 1991.

Joyce Maynard's novel was adapted by Buck Henry for Gus Van Sant's 1995 movie To Die For, starring Nicole Kidman and Matt Dillon as the fictional wife and husband, and Joaquin Phoenix as the wife's under-aged sex partner.

Reel Crime/Real Story a short lived crime documentary series from the Investigation Discovery channel, detailed crimes that became the basis for movies. Smart's crimes are detailed in the episode titled "To Die For" Season 1, Episode 3, originally aired: June 12, 2012.

The crime series American Justice played an episode on the case: "Crime of Passion: The Pamela Smart Story", aired May 25, 1996.

The murder was parodied in an episode of the animated sitcom Family Guy, "Fast Times at Buddy Cianci Jr. High", season 4, episode 2, aired May 8, 2005.

Snapped, an American true crime television series, dedicated its 13th episode in the second season (2005) to the case.

The case is referenced on Psych, on the Season 5 episode "Dual Spires", where a character is said to be "pulling a Pamela Smart" after she has allegedly killed a teenage girl while having a sexual relationship with an underage boy, aired December 1, 2010.

Smart appeared on Oprah on October 22, 2010. On the show, Smart claimed she was innocent and believes that her sentence for life in prison is too harsh.

Scorned: Love Kills, a series on the Investigation Discovery channel, dedicated the Season 1, Episode 4 titled "Hot For Teacher" to the story on February 11, 2012.

The HBO documentary Captivated: The Trials of Pamela Smart was directed by Jeremiah Zagar, aired August 14, 2014.

The USA Network series Corrupt Crimes, which investigates crime stories and interviews experts to analyze a wide variety of cases, dedicated an entire episode to Pamela Smart's upbringing, career and murder trial in Season 1, Episode 62, entitled "From Student Seduction to Murder", which aired on February 19, 2016.

The Reelz Network series Murder Made Me Famous, a fact-based crime documentary series, aired the Season 2, Episode 1 titled "Pamela Smart" on March 19, 2016.

The Oxygen Network series Snapped: Killer Couples, reveals couples whose attractions lead them to carry out crimes, released an episode of Smart and Flynn's case on Season 6, Episode 10, entitled "Pamela Smart & William Flynn", which aired on December 13, 2016.

In August 2018, the Investigation Discovery channel released a three-part program titled Pamela Smart: An American Murder Mystery, with a total run-time of 127 minutes:

◦ Episode 1: "A Death in Derry" details the murder of Gregg Smart and the police investigation leading to the arrest of three teens who are connected to Pamela Smart and the additional case load of her now being a suspect in her husband's murder. 42 minutes, aired: August 19, 2018.

◦ Episode 2: "An Affair to Die For" the investigation reveals that Smart slept with her husband's shooter, 15-year-old William Flynn, 42 minutes, aired: August 19, 2018.

◦ Episode 3: "Black Widow" secret audio recordings of Pamela Smart are played out to the jury at her trial; she takes the stand, 43 minutes, aired: August 20, 2018.

In 2019, on French Chérie 25 channel : Snapped : les couples tueurs Episode 20 "Smart & Flynn"

The entire Pamela Smart story was recounted in an episode of ABC News 20/20 (American TV program) broadcast in January 2020 that included a new interview of Smart conducted by Juju Chang.

Heinrich Muller

 

Heinrich Müller (28 April 1900; date of death unknown, but evidence points to May 1945) was a high-ranking German Schutzstaffel (SS) and police official during the Nazi era. For the majority of World War II in Europe, he was the chief of the Gestapo, the secret state police of Nazi Germany. Müller was central in the planning and execution of the Holocaust and attended the January 1942 Wannsee Conference, which formalized plans for deportation and genocide of all Jews in German-occupied Europe—The "Final Solution to the Jewish Question". He was known as "Gestapo Müller" to distinguish him from another SS general named Heinrich Müller.

He was last seen in the Führerbunker in Berlin on 1 May 1945 and remains the most senior figure of the Nazi regime who was never captured or confirmed to have died.

Early life and career

Müller was born in Munich on 28 April 1900 to Catholic parents. His father had been a rural police official. Müller attended a Volksschule and completed an apprenticeship as an aircraft mechanic before the outbreak of the First World War. During the last year of the war, he served in the Luftstreitkräfte as a pilot for an artillery spotting unit. He was decorated several times for bravery (including the Iron Cross 1st and 2nd class, Bavarian Military Merit Cross 2nd Class with Swords and Bavarian Pilots Badge). After the war ended, he joined the Bavarian Police in 1919 as an auxiliary worker. Although not a member of the Freikorps, he was involved in the suppression of the communist risings in the early post-war years. After witnessing the shooting of hostages by the revolutionary "Red Army" in Munich during the Bavarian Soviet Republic, he acquired a lifelong hatred of communism. During the years of the Weimar Republic he was head of the Munich Political Police Department, having risen quickly through the ranks due to his spirited efforts.

SS career

It was under these auspices that he became acquainted with many members of the Nazi Party (NSDAP) including Heinrich Himmler and Reinhard Heydrich, although Müller in the Weimar period was generally seen as a supporter of the Bavarian People's Party (which at that time ruled Bavaria). On 9 March 1933, during the Nazi putsch that deposed the Bavarian government of Minister-President Heinrich Held, Müller advocated to his superiors using force against the Nazis. Ironically, these views aided Müller's rise as it guaranteed the hostility of the Nazis, thereby making Müller very dependent upon the patronage of Reinhard Heydrich, who in turn appreciated Müller's professionalism and skill as a policeman, and was aware of Müller's past. Once the Nazis seized power, Müller's knowledge of communist activities placed him in high demand; as a result he was promoted to Polizeiobersekretär in May 1933 and again to Criminal Inspector in November 1933.

Historian Richard J. Evans wrote: "Müller was a stickler for duty and discipline, and approached the tasks he was set as if they were military commands. A true workaholic who never took a vacation, Müller was determined to serve the German state, irrespective of what political form it took, and believed it was everyone's duty, including his own, to obey its dictates without question." Evans also records Müller was a regime functionary out of ambition, not out of a belief in National Socialism: An internal [Nazi] Party memorandum ... could not understand how "so odious an opponent of the movement" could become head of the Gestapo, especially since he had once referred to Hitler as "an immigrant unemployed house painter" and "an Austrian draft-dodger". Nazi jurist and former police chief, SS-Obergruppenführer Werner Best opined Müller represented one of the "finest examples" of the limited connection between members of the NSDAP and the police before 1933.

After the Nazis came to power in 1933, Heydrich, as head of the Security Service (SD), recruited Müller, Franz Josef Huber and Josef Albert Meisinger, who were collectively referred to as the "Bajuwaren-Brigade" (Bavarian Brigade). Müller joined the SS in 1934. By 1936, with Heydrich head of the Gestapo, Müller was its operations chief.

On 4 January 1937, an evaluation by the Nazi Party's Deputy Gauleiter of Munich-Upper Bavaria stated:

Criminal Police Chief Inspector Heinrich Müller is not a Party member. He has also never actively worked within the Party or in one of its ancillary organizations ...

Before the seizure of power Müller was employed in the political department of the Police Headquarters. He did his duty both under the direction of the notorious Police President Koch [Julius Koch, the Munich Police President 1929–33], and under Nortz and Mantel. His sphere of activity was to supervise and deal with the left-wing movement ... [H]e fought against it very hard, sometimes in fact ignoring legal provisions and regulations ... But it is equally clear that, ... Müller would have acted against the Right in just the same way. With his enormous ambition and his marked 'pushiness' he would win the approval of his superiors ... In terms of his political opinions ... his standpoint varied between the German National People's Party and the Bavarian People's Party. But he was by no means a National Socialist.

As far as his qualities of character are concerned, these are regarded in an even poorer light than his political ones. He is ruthless, ... and continually tries to demonstrate his efficiency, but claims all the glory for himself.

In his choice of officials for the Bavarian Political Police he was very concerned to propose either officials who were more junior than himself or only those who were inferior in ability ... In this way he could keep rivals at bay. In his choice of officials he did not take account of political considerations, he only had his own egoistical aims in mind ...

The Gau leadership of Munich-Upper Bavaria cannot, therefore, recommend accelerated promotion for Müller because he has rendered no services to the National Uprising.

This assessment did not deter Heydrich from moving Müller along the ranks, particularly since Heydrich believed it was an advantage not to be bound to the influence of the Nazi Party. Functionaries like Müller were the sort of men Heydrich preferred since they were inherently committed to their "area of responsibility" and correspondingly justified any steps they deemed necessary against perceived enemies of the Nazi "racial community." Müller was promoted to the rank of Standartenführer (colonel) in 1937. Engrossing himself often in red-tape and statistics, Müller was a natural administrator who took solace in a "world of notes, memos, and regulations" and then received and transformed Gestapo reports of denouncements, torture, and secret executions into "administrative fodder." Despite the expense of so much mental energy in carrying out his duties, Müller disliked the scholarly types and once told Walter Schellenberg that "intellectuals should be sent down a coal mine and blown up."

British author and translator Edward Crankshaw described Müller as "the arch-type non-political functionary" who was "in love with personal power and dedicated to the service of authority, the State." General Walter Dornberger, the chief over the rocket research at Peenemünde, (under alleged Gestapo suspicion) was one of the few to ever interview with Müller and characterized him as, "the unobtrusive type of police official who leaves no personal impression on the memory" but added, "... all I could remember was a pair of piercing grey-blue eyes, fixed on me with an unwavering scrutiny. My first impression was one of cold curiosity and extreme reserve." American journalist and war correspondent, William L. Shirer, called Müller a "a dapper-looking fellow" but shortly thereafter described him as "a cold, dispassionate killer".

Himmler biographer Peter Padfield wrote: "he [Müller] was an archetypal middle rank official: of limited imagination, non-political, non-ideological, his only fanaticism lay in an inner drive to perfection in his profession and in his duty to the state—which in his mind were one ... A smallish man with piercing eyes and thin lips, he was an able organizer, utterly ruthless, a man who lived for his work." Such was his dedication to the job that Auschwitz Commandant Rudolf Höss claimed one could reach Müller "any time of the day or night, even Sundays and public holidays."

Berlin February 1939: Maj. v. Schweinichen; Dr. Boor; Müller

He was made Inspector of the Security Police for all of Austria following the 1938 Anschluss, while his close friend Franz Josef Huber took charge of the Gestapo office in Vienna. One of Müller's first major acts occurred during the unprecedented Kristallnacht pogrom of 9–10 November 1938, when he ordered the arrest of between 20,000–30,000 Jews. Heydrich also tasked Müller during the summer of 1939 to create a centrally organized agency to deal with the eventual emigration of the Jews. Müller became a member of the Nazi Party in 1939 for the purely opportunist reason of improving his chances of promotion and only after Himmler insisted he do it. Historian Robert Gellately does not give much credence to this apolitical image of Müller and cites the musings of Walter Schellenberg, who claimed during a conversation with Müller sometime in 1943, Müller lauded the Stalinist system as superior to Nazism, which he believed compromised on too much. Schellenberg even alleged when Müller compared Stalin against Hitler, his (Müller's) opinion was Stalin did things better. As Gellately relates, such a politically-oriented asseveration certainly indicates Müller did indeed have preferences. He was notorious, for instance, for admiring the Soviet police.

While the chief of the subsequent Reich Central Office for Jewish Emigration was indeed Heydrich, it was Müller who took care of the office's administrative details. Shortly thereafter, Müller took charge of this office but then handed control over to Adolf Eichmann. Once the war began, this ended the possibility of Jewish emigration and caused the office's dissolution.

Gestapo chief

In September 1939, when the Gestapo and other police organizations were consolidated under Heydrich into the Reich Security Main Office (RSHA), Müller was made chief of the RSHA "Amt IV" (Office or Dept. 4): Gestapo. To distinguish him from another SS general named Heinrich Müller, he became known as "Gestapo Müller".

As Gestapo chief of operations and later (September 1939 forward) head of the organization, Müller played a leading role in the detection and suppression of all forms of resistance to the Nazi regime. Trusted by both Heydrich and Himmler, Müller was pivotal in making the Gestapo the "central executive organ of National Socialist terror" according to historians Carsten Dams and Michael Stolle. Under his leadership, the Gestapo succeeded in infiltrating and to a large extent, destroying groups opposed to the Nazis, such as the underground networks of the left-wing Social Democratic Party and Communist Party. Along these lines, historian George C. Browder asserts that Müller's "expertise and his ardent hate for Communism guaranteed his future".

When Hitler and his army chiefs asked for a pretext for the invasion of Poland in 1939, Himmler, Heydrich, and Müller masterminded and carried out a false flag project code-named Operation Himmler. During one of the operations, the clandestine mission to a German radio station on the Polish border, Müller helped collect a dozen or so condemned men from camps, who were then dressed in Polish uniforms. In exchange for their participation, the men were told by Müller that "they would be pardoned and released." Instead, the men were given a lethal injection and gunshot wounds to make them appear to have been killed in action during a fake attack. These incidents (particularly the staged attack on the Gleiwitz radio station) were then used in Nazi propaganda to justify the invasion of Poland, the opening event of World War II.

Thereafter, Müller continued to rise quickly through the ranks of the SS: in October 1939 he became an SS-Oberführer, in November 1941 – Gruppenführer and Lieutenant General of the police. During the Second World War, Müller was heavily involved in espionage and counter-espionage, particularly since the Nazi regime increasingly distrusted the military intelligence service—the Abwehr—which under Admiral Wilhelm Canaris was a hotbed of activity for the German Resistance. In 1942 he successfully infiltrated the "Red Orchestra" network of Soviet spies and used it to feed false information to the Soviet intelligence services.

Heydrich was Müller's direct superior until his assassination in 1942. For the remainder of the war, Ernst Kaltenbrunner took over as Müller's superior.  Müller occupied a position in the Nazi hierarchy close to Himmler, the overall head of the Nazi police apparatus and the chief architect of the plan to exterminate the Jews of Europe, and Eichmann, the man entrusted with arranging the deportations of Jews to the Eastern ghettoes and death camps. Eichmann headed the Gestapo's "Office of Resettlement", and then its "Office of Jewish Affairs" (the RSHA Amt IV sub-section known as Referat IV B4). He was Müller's subordinate. Müller was also involved in the regime's policy towards the Jews, although Himmler and Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels drove this area of policy. On 6 October 1939 for instance, Müller instructed Eichmann to prepare for the deportation of some 70,000 to 80,000 Jews from the annexed Polish city of Kattowitz; an order which included the deportation of the Jews from Ostrava—both "expulsion campaigns" had already been planned as early as September by the Gestapo or the army. Twelve days later on 18 October 1939, he told Eichmann it would soon "be necessary to organize the resettlement and removal of Poles and Jews into the area of the future Polish rump state centrally" via the RSHA.

Although his chief responsibility was always police work within Germany, he was fully in charge and thus responsible to execute the extermination of the Jews of Europe. When Eichmann reported to Müller sometime in the middle of 1941 that he had been informed by Himmler the Führer had ordered the physical destruction of the Jews for instance, Müller silently nodded at his desk, indicating to Eichmann that he already knew. Correspondingly, Müller received detailed reports from Eichmann about the Einsatzgruppen death-squad units, which according to historian Raul Hilberg killed more than two million people, including 1.3 million Jews between 1941 and 1945. At the end of June 1941, Müller dispatched Eichmann to Minsk, so he could collect detailed information on the execution activities. In August 1941, Müller ordered these killing reports be forwarded to Hitler. Attempting to keep the brutality of the wholesale slaughter occurring in the East as quiet as possible, Müller sent a telegram to the Einsatzgruppen towards the end of August 1941, which explicitly instructed them "to prevent the crowding of spectators during the mass executions." On 23 October 1941, Müller briefed a circular to SiPo stations which exclusively prohibited any future Jewish emigration out of German controlled territory, a directive which presaged their imminent extermination.

In January 1942, he attended the Wannsee Conference at which Heydrich briefed senior officials from a number of government departments of the extermination plan, and at which Eichmann took the minutes. Once the conference concluded, Müller, Heydrich, and Eichmann remained afterwards for additional "informal chats". Just a couple months later in March 1942, Jews were already being systematically killed in gas vans at Chelmno and Belzec while construction was underway at Birkenau and Sobibor. Again, Müller sent Eichmann to relate his findings about the killing operations taking place at Chelmno; when Eichmann returned this time, he reported to Müller that the scene was "horrible" and added it was "an indescribable inferno." When the first denunciations of the mass murder being carried-out by the Germans hit the Allied press during the autumn and winter of 1942, Himmler instructed Müller to ensure "all the bodies were either buried or burned."

Enforcement and administration of Nazi "racial-hygiene" policies were also within the purview of Müller's responsibilities, as a special letter he sent from Berlin to all Gestapo offices on 10 March 1942 reveals; the letter contained instructions concerning the relationship between German women and Polish civilians or prisoners-of-war who were conscripted as labor during the war, particularly in cases related to pregnancy. If both parties proved "racially acceptable" and the Polish man wanted to marry the woman, the pregnancy and relationship was allowed without punitive consequences, provided the RSHA approved after photographic evaluation of both parties and subsequent "Germanization" of the Pole occurred. For cases where one or more parties was deemed racially unfit, the Polish male would receive "special handling", an obvious Nazi euphemism for a death-sentence.

In May 1942, Heydrich was assassinated in Prague by Czechoslovak soldiers sent from London. Müller was sent to Prague to head the investigation into Operation "Anthropoid". He succeeded through a combination of bribery and torture in locating the assassins, who killed themselves to avoid capture. Despite this success, his influence within the regime declined somewhat with the loss of his original patron, Heydrich. Nonetheless, between the time Heydrich died in 1942 and Kaltenbrunner took office in January 1943, "Müller played a central role in the organization of the Holocaust." Evidence of Müller's intimate involvement in the Holocaust are abundant in some of the surviving documents and in the later testimony of Eichmann, who divulged that he remained in constant contact with Müller. Eichmann recalled how Müller reserved power unto himself and while he (Eichmann), arranged plenty of deportations, it was only Müller who could write the total number of Jews (in his orange-colored pencil) who were transported at the top of the corresponding reports.

As the Red Army counteroffensive against the Germans arrayed at the Battle of Stalingrad in mid-November 1942 started to take its toll, the exigencies of war demanded an increase in arms production; Müller played his part by responding to and facilitating Himmler's request for an additional 35,000–40,000 forced laborers. The Gestapo Chief rounded them up from across detention centers and prisons which were not yet part of the concentration camp system and sent them to Majdanek and Auschwitz. Sometime in 1943, Müller was sent to Rome to pressure Fascist Italy to cooperate in relinquishing their Jews for deportation. Despite having the apparent support of Benito Mussolini, Müller's efforts were not very successful as influential Jewish figures within Italy were in contact with the police and the military; they successfully appealed to their (Italians and Jews) shared religious convictions and convinced them to resist Nazi pressure. In 1943 Müller had differences with Himmler over what to do with the growing evidence of a resistance network within the German state apparatus, particularly the Abwehr and the Foreign Office. He presented Himmler with firm evidence during February 1943, that Wilhelm Canaris was involved with the resistance; however, Himmler told him to drop the case. Offended by this, Müller became an ally of Martin Bormann, the head of the Nazi Party Chancellery, who was Himmler's main rival.

According to the SiPo and SD official in Denmark, Rudolf Mildner, Gestapo Chief Müller instructed him "to arrest the Nobel Prize–winning atomic physicist Niels Bohr" sometime during the fall of 1943; this was likely the consequence of Bohr being half-Jewish, but his scientific significance also interested officials in Berlin. Fortunately for Bohr, he was tipped off by a sympathetic German woman working for the Gestapo and was able to escape across the Kattegat Strait into Sweden with the evacuation of Jews from Denmark. Later, Mildner conveniently asserted during Allied questioning that he had disobeyed Müller's order and allowed Bohr to get to safety.

Early in 1944, Müller issued the Nazi injunction known as the "cartridge directive"; this command ordered that Soviet prisoners-of-war who had assisted in the identification of detained political commissars for the purpose of their liquidation be executed on the grounds they were Geheimnisträger (bearers of secrets). Instructions like these amid the numerous other crimes committed at his command made Müller "one of the most feared officials in Europe" during the Nazi reign.

After the assassination attempt against Adolf Hitler on 20 July 1944, Müller was placed in charge of the arrest and interrogation of all those suspected of involvement in the resistance. Over 5,000 people were arrested and about 200 executed, including Canaris. Not long after the anti-Nazi resisters were sadistically killed, Müller allegedly exclaimed, "We won't make the same mistake as in 1918. We won't leave our internal German enemies alive." In the last months of the war, Müller remained at his post, apparently still confident of a German victory — he told one of his officers in December 1944 the Ardennes offensive would result in the recapture of Paris.

Berlin 1945

In April 1945, he was among the last group of Nazi loyalists assembled in the Führerbunker in central Berlin as the Red Army fought its way into the city in the Battle of Berlin. One of his last tasks was the sharp interrogation of Hermann Fegelein in the cellar of the Church of the Trinity as to what he knew of Himmler's attempted peace negotiations with the Western allies behind Hitler's back. Fegelein was Himmler's SS liaison officer and was shot after Hitler had Himmler expelled from all his posts for the betrayal. Hitler's secretary, Traudl Junge, recounted seeing Müller on 22 April 1945 and claimed she saw him on occasion chatting with Hitler in the bunker; she also added that he (Müller) had assumed Kaltenbrunner's former duties as head of the RSHA. Both Junge and Oberscharführer Rochus Misch, the telephone operator for the Führerbunker, recalled seeing Müller on 30 April 1945. Misch placed him in the Reich Chancellery still in full uniform. That afternoon, Hitler committed suicide. On 2 May 1945, the commander of the Berlin Defence Area, General Helmuth Weidling, surrendered to the Red Army.

Disappearance

Müller was last seen in the bunker on the evening of 1 May 1945, the day after Hitler's suicide. Hans Baur, Hitler's pilot, later quoted Müller as saying; "we know the Russian methods exactly. I haven't the faintest intention of being taken prisoner by the Russians". From that day onwards, no trace of him has ever been found. He is the most senior member of the Nazi regime whose fate remains a mystery. However, the best evidence points to him either having been killed or committing suicide during the chaos of the fall of Berlin, and his body, if recovered, was not identified.

The Central Intelligence Agency's (CIA) file on Müller was released under the Freedom of Information Act in 2001, and documents several unsuccessful attempts by U.S. agencies to find Müller. The U.S. National Archives commentary on the file concludes: "Though inconclusive on Müller's ultimate fate, the file is very clear on one point. The Central Intelligence Agency and its predecessors did not know Müller's whereabouts at any point after the war. In other words, the CIA was never in contact with Müller." The CIA file shows an extensive search was made for Müller in the months after the German surrender. The search was led by the counterespionage branch of the U.S. Office of Strategic Services (forerunner of the CIA). The search was complicated by the fact that "Heinrich Müller" is a very common German name. A further problem arose because "some of these Müllers, including Gestapo Müller, did not appear to have middle names. An additional source of confusion was that there were two different SS generals named Heinrich Müller".

In 1947, American and British agents searched the home of his wartime mistress Anna Schmid, but found nothing suggesting that he was still alive. With the onset of the Cold War and the shift of priorities to meeting the challenge of the Soviet Union, interest in pursuing missing Nazis declined. By this time, the conclusion seems to have been reached that Müller was most likely dead. The Royal Air Force Special Investigation Branch also had an interest in Müller with regard to the Stalag Luft III murders, for which he was presumed to have responsibility given his position in the Gestapo.

Walter Schellenberg alleged in his memoir that Müller had defected to the Soviets in 1945. Schellenberg also wrote that a German officer—who had been a prisoner of war in Russia—claimed to have seen Müller in Moscow in 1948, and that he had died shortly afterward. There is no reference in the memoir as to who the German officer was or any other details that might help verify this claim.

The seizure in 1960 and subsequent trial in Israel of Adolf Eichmann sparked new interest in Müller's whereabouts. Although Eichmann revealed no specific information, he told his Israeli interrogators that he believed that Müller was still alive. The West German office in charge of the prosecution of war criminals charged the police to investigate. The possibility that Müller was working for the Soviet Union was considered, but no definite information was gained. Müller's family and his former secretary were placed under surveillance by the Allies in case he was corresponding with them.

The West Germans investigated several reports of Müller's body being found and buried in the days after the fall of Berlin. The reports were contradictory, not wholly reliable and it was not possible to confirm any of them. One such report came from Walter Lüders, a former member of the Volkssturm, who said he had been part of a burial unit which had found the body of an SS general in the garden of the Reich Chancellery, with the identity papers of Heinrich Müller. The body had been buried in a mass grave at the old Jewish Cemetery on Grosse Hamburger Strasse in the Soviet Sector. Since this location was in East Berlin in 1961, this gravesite could not at the time be investigated by West Germany, nor has there been any attempt to excavate this gravesite since the reunification of Germany.

In 1961, Lieutenant-Colonel Michael Goleniewski, the Deputy Chief of Polish Military Counter Intelligence, defected to the United States. Goleniewski had worked as an interrogator of captured German officials from 1948 to 1952. He never met Müller, but said he had heard from his Soviet supervisors that sometime between 1950 and 1952, the Soviets had "picked up Müller and taken him to Moscow". The CIA tried to track down the men Goleniewski named as having worked with Müller in Moscow, but were unable to confirm his story. Israel also continued to pursue Müller: in 1967, two Israeli operatives were caught by West German police attempting to break into the Munich apartment of Müller's wife.

In 1967, in Panama City, a man named Francis Willard Keith was accused of being Müller. West German diplomats pressed Panama to extradite him for trial. West German prosecutors said Sophie Müller, 64, had seen photos of Keith and identified him as her long-missing husband. However, Keith was released once fingerprints proved he was not Müller.

The CIA investigation concluded: "There is little room for doubt that the Soviet and Czechoslovak [intelligence] services circulated rumors to the effect that Müller had escaped to the West ... to offset the charges that the Soviets had sheltered the criminal ... There are strong indications but no proof that Müller collaborated with [the Soviets]. There are also strong indications but no proof that Müller died [in Berlin]." The CIA apparently remained convinced at that time that if Müller had survived the war, he was being harbored within the Soviet Union. But when the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991 and the Soviet archives were opened, no evidence to support this belief emerged. The U.S. National Archives commentary concludes: "More information about Müller's fate might still emerge from still secret files of the former Soviet Union. The CIA file, by itself, does not permit definitive conclusions. Taking into account the currently available records, the authors of this report conclude that Müller most likely died in Berlin in early May 1945." By the 1990s, it was in any case increasingly unlikely Müller, who was born in 1900, would be alive even if he had survived the war.

In 2008, historian Peter Longerich published a biography of Heinrich Himmler—translated into English in 2012—that contained an alleged first-hand account of Müller's last known whereabouts. According to reports from Himmler's adjutant Werner Grothmann, Müller was with Himmler at Flensburg on 11 May and accompanied Himmler and other SS officers as they attempted to escape the Allies on foot. Himmler and Müller parted company at Meinstedt, after which Müller was not seen again.

In 2013 Johannes Tuchel, the head of the Memorial to the German Resistance, claimed Müller's body was found in August 1945 by a work crew cleaning up corpses and was one of 3,000 buried in a mass grave on the site of a former Jewish cemetery in Berlin-Mitte. While Tuchel was confident he had solved the mystery, whether Müller is actually there has not been confirmed. Nonetheless, the uncertainty of Müller's ultimate end and/or whereabouts has only served to nourish the "mysterious power" that the Gestapo elicits even to the present.

Alleged CIC dossier

In July 1988, author Ian Sayer received from an anonymous individual a 427-page document, which claimed to be a photocopy of a US Army Counter Intelligence Corps (CIC) file that had been inadvertently released by the US National Archives. The dossier purported to confirm Heinrich Müller had survived the war and been retained by the CIC as an intelligence adviser.

Sayer and co-author Douglas Botting were known to be working on a comprehensive history of the CIC at that time. The alleged dossier had also come to the attention of the US Department of Justice's Nazi-hunting unit, the Office of Special Investigations, who subsequently sought Sayer's opinion on the veracity of the documents. By this time the anonymous individual (later identified as Gregory Douglas) had managed to interest Time magazine and the London Times newspaper in his story. The claims of the dossier, which include a conspiracy theory about Hitler's death (involving a body double) are considered by historians such as Anton Joachimsthaler and Luke Daly-Groves as an example of created "myths".

The Unsolved Disappearance of Asha Degree on TPKs Stoiries

 https://anchor.fm/valerie-harvey/episodes/The-Unsolved-Disappearance-of-Asha-Degree-e18tipo

Belle Gunness

 

Belle Gunness, born Brynhild Paulsdatter Størseth (November 11, 1859 – possibly April 28, 1908), was a Norwegian-American serial killer who was active in Illinois and Indiana between 1884 and 1908. Gunness is thought to have killed at least fourteen people, most of whom were men she enticed to visit her rural Indiana property on the promise of marriage, while some sources speculate her involvement in as many as forty murders. Gunness seemingly died in a fire in 1908, but it is popularly believed that she faked her death. Her actual fate is unconfirmed.

Early life

Brynhild Paulsdatter Storset (Belle Gunness) was born in Selbu, Norway on November 11, 1859 to Paul and Berit Storset; she was the youngest of eight children. She was confirmed at the Evangelical Lutheran Church in 1874. At age 14, she began working for neighboring farms by milking and herding cattle to save enough money for passage to New York. She moved to the United States in 1881. When she was processed by immigration at Castle Garden, she changed her first name to Belle, then traveled to Chicago to join her sister, Nellie who had immigrated several years earlier.

In Chicago, while living with her sister and brother-in-law, she worked as a domestic servant, then got a job at a butcher's shop cutting up animal carcasses, until her first marriage in 1884.

Deaths associated with Gunness

Mads Sorenson and children

Belle Gunness married Mads Sorenson in 1884. Sorenson and Gunness owned a candy store which burned to the ground. The couple’s home had also burned down, and both instances granted the couple insurance payouts.

Two babies in their home died from inflammation of the large intestine, which can result from poisoning. Belle had insured both of the children and collected a large insurance check after each death. Neighbors gossiped about the babies, since Belle never appeared to be pregnant.

Sorenson had purchased two life insurance policies. On July 30, 1890, both policies were active at the same time, as one would expire that day, and the other began. Sorenson died of cerebral hemorrhage that day. Gunness explained he had come home with a headache and she provided him with quinine powder for the pain; she later checked on him and he was dead. Gunness collected money from both the expiring life insurance policy, and the one that went into effect that day, making a total of $5,000. With the insurance money, she moved to La Porte, Indiana, and bought a pig farm.

Peter Gunness

Belle married Peter Gunness on April 1, 1902. The following week, while Peter was out of the house, his infant daughter died of unknown cause in Belle's care.

Peter died eight months later due to a skull injury. Belle explained that Peter reached for something on a high shelf and a meat grinder fell on him, smashing his skull. The district coroner convened a coroner's jury, suspecting murder, but nothing came of the case. Belle collected $3000 insurance money for Peter's death.

Disappearances

Gunness began placing marriage ads in Chicago newspapers in 1905. One of her ads was answered by a Wisconsin farmhand, Henry Gurholt. After traveling to La Porte, Gurholt wrote his family, saying that he liked the farm, was in good health, and requesting that they send him seed potatoes. When they failed to hear from him after that, the family contacted Gunness. She told them Gurholt had gone off with horse traders to Chicago. She kept his trunk and fur overcoat.

John Moe of Minnesota answered Gunness's ad in 1906. After they had corresponded for several months, Moe traveled to La Porte and withdrew a large amount of cash. Although no one ever saw Moe again, a carpenter who did occasional work for Gunness observed that Moe's trunk remained in her house, along with more than a dozen others.

Andrew Helgelien and discovery of multiple graves

Her criminal activities came to light in April 1908, when the Gunness farmhouse in La Porte, Indiana burned to the ground. In the ruins, authorities found the bodies of a headless adult woman, initially identified as Belle Gunness, and her three children. Further investigation unearthed the partial remains of at least 11 additional people on the Gunness property.

After the fire at the Gunness homestead led to the discovery of bodies believed to be Gunness and her children, La Porte police authorities were contacted by Asle Helgelien, who had found correspondence between his brother, Andrew Helgelien, and Gunness; the letters included petitions for him to relocate to La Porte, to bring money, and to keep the move a secret. A visit by Asle Helgelien to the Gunness farm with a former hired hand led to attention being paid to "soft depressions" in what had been made into a pen for hogs; after briefly digging one of the depressions in the lot, a gunny sack was found that contained "two hands, two feet, and one head", which Helgelien recognized to be those of his brother.

Immediate inspection of the site revealed that there were dozens of such "slumped depressions" in the Gunness yard, and further digging and investigation at the site yielded multiple burlap sacks containing "torsos and hands, arms hacked from the shoulders down, masses of human bone wrapped in loose flesh that dripped like jelly", from trash-covered depressions that proved to be graves. In each case, the body had been butchered in the same manner—the body decapitated, the arms removed at the shoulders, and the legs severed at the knees. Blunt trauma and gashes characterized the skulls that were found that had been separated from the bodies. Lucas Reilly, quoting The Chicago Inter Ocean in Mental Floss, noted that:

The bones had been crushed on the ends, as though they had been... struck with hammers after they were dismembered... [and that] Quicklime had been scattered over the faces and stuffed in the ears.

After finding the parts of 5 bodies on the first day, and an additional 6 on the second—some in shallow graves under the original hog pen, others near an outhouse or a lake—"the police stopped counting". With these discoveries, the perceptions of Belle Gunness, as reported in newspaper descriptions of a praiseworthy woman—dying in the fire that consumed her house, "in a desperate attempt to save her children"—were reassessed. Despite the initial success with the identification of Andrew Helgelien, and despite the fact that widening news coverage of the mass murders invited inquiries from families with men that had gone missing, "[m]ost of the remains could not be identified."

Involvement of Ray Lamphere

Ray Lamphere was Gunness' hired hand and on-and-off lover. In November 1908, Lamphere was convicted of arson in connection with the fire. Lamphere later confessed that Gunness had placed advertisements seeking male companionship, only to murder and rob the men who responded and subsequently visited her on the farm. Lamphere stated that Gunness asked him to burn down the farmhouse with her children inside. Lamphere also asserted that the body thought to be Gunness's was in fact a murder victim, chosen and planted to mislead investigators. The brother of one victim had warned Gunness that he might arrive at the farm shortly to investigate his brother's disappearance. According to Lamphere, this impending visit motivated Gunness to destroy her house, fake her own death, and flee. When Lamphere was arrested, he was wearing John Moe's overcoat and Henry Gurholt's watch.

Edward Bechly, a journalist, was given a secret assignment to acquire access to a confession and publish it, thus bringing a second, inconsistent Lamphere account to light.[citation needed] The second account is based on the report that Lamphere contacted a Reverend Edwin Schell and provided him with a verbal confession that Schell transcribed and had Lamphere sign, a document that Schell kept sealed in his personal safe. Bechly attempted to convince Schell to allow him to publish this later confession, but was denied by both Schell and Schell's wife. However, a separate newspaper published a story with speculation regarding the second Lamphere confession. Described as worried as to the peace of the families of the victims, Schell offered the confession to Bechly, which was later published. The Bechly narrative, entitled "Lanphere's Confession", contains this summary from Bechly:

In the confession, Lanphere said that he had killed Mrs. Gunness and children with an ax, sprinkled the bodies with kerosene and set fire to them and the house. It gave details of the slaying, and told of his part in the former murders which occurred at the Gunness farm, his task usually being the burying of the bodies in the garden. The essential fact, however, was that the murderess was not alive as a fugitive.

The publication of Lamphere's confession resulted in the subsequent arrest of his accomplice Elisabeth Smith. The inconsistencies between the two confessions, including the matter of the survival of Belle Gunness, remain historical issues that are not fully resolved.

Legacy

Belle Gunness was pronounced dead, even though the doctor who performed the postmortem testified that the headless body was five inches shorter and about fifty pounds lighter than Gunness. No explanation was provided for what happened to the body's head. Whether Gunness died in the fire or escaped remained uncertain, although the sheriff blamed a Chicago American reporter for inventing the "escaped" story. Reported "sightings" of Gunness in the Chicago area continued long after she was declared dead. At the time, police looked into reports of women suspected to be Belle, none of which led to her apprehension. Recent DNA tests were performed on the headless corpse, but the results were inconclusive.

After Gunness' crimes came to light, the Gunness farm became a tourist attraction. Spectators came from across the country to see the mass graves, and concessions and souvenirs were sold. Moreover, the crime became an acknowledged part of area history: the La Porte County Historical Society Museum has a permanent "Belle Gunness" exhibit.

Gunness has also been the subject of at least two American musical ballads.

Method, a 2004 film starring Elizabeth Hurley as Rebecca who is portraying Gunness in a film being shot in Romania.

The Farm, a 2021 film starring Traci Lords, is based on the Belle Gunness story.

In the Garden of Spite: A Novel of the Black Widow of LaPorte is a 2021 novel by Camilla Bruce with elements of "Norwegian noir and true crime" based on the life of Belle Gunness.

Peter Madsen

 

Peter Langkjær Madsen (Danish: [ˈpʰe̝ˀtɐ ˈlɑŋˌkʰeˀɐ̯ ˈmæsn̩]; born 12 January 1971) is a Danish convicted murderer, former engineer and entrepreneur. In April 2018, he was convicted of the 2017 murder of Swedish journalist Kim Wall on board his submarine, UC3 Nautilus, and sentenced to life imprisonment.

Biography

Madsen was born in 1971 to Annie and Carl Madsen. He spent his early life in Sæby and Høng (both in Kalundborg Municipality), Denmark. Annie was more than 30 years younger than Carl and had three other boys from two previous men. Carl was allegedly abusive toward his three stepsons. Annie left when Peter was six, taking the children with her. After a couple of years, Madsen returned to his father, with whom he shared an interest in rockets.

While attending primary and secondary school in Høng, Madsen developed an interest in rocket fuel with the help of chemistry and physics teacher Johannes Fischer. He developed his first large rocket at Høng and launched it on 3 March 1986. It was one meter tall, modeled after the American ICBM MX Peacekeeper and built in his father's workshop. It reached a height of 100 m (330 ft) before crashing without harming anyone. In 1987, Madsen was accepted at the gymnasium (upper secondary school) in the nearby town of Kalundborg. He moved to live in a youth house in the town. His father died in 1990 when Peter was 18.

Madsen continued to experiment and to consult engineers, and became friendly with the family responsible for the fireworks in Copenhagen's Tivoli Gardens. He also joined the Dansk Amatør Raket Klub (DARK) rocket club in Copenhagen, but the other members gradually became disillusioned with him. DARK members claimed that "saying his name would start the fire sprinkler system". He never finished any formal education, but took courses in welding and engineering to learn something about submarines. His enthusiasm brought impressive results, but also caused conflicts with others. Madsen funded his lifestyle through financial support from people, organizations, and enterprises which saw promise in him.

Personal life

Madsen was married at Copenhagen City Hall in November 2011. His wife had worked in the film industry and had also helped in Madsen's workshop at Refshaleøen, Copenhagen. In February 2018 it was reported that his wife had abandoned him. Madsen himself explained that he had lived in an "open relationship". His wife has chosen to remain anonymous and her identity has not been released by the media. According to a report from Wired magazine, Madsen was a regular at fetish parties.

In 2020, Madsen married 39-year old Russian-Mauritian opposition activist Jenny Curpen. Curpen has had political asylum in Finland since 2013, because of her persecution in Russia. In a post on Facebook, Curpen said that she received death threats after her marriage was made public.

Projects

Submarines

Madsen built three submarines: UC1 Freya, UC2 Kraka and UC3 Nautilus. The Nautilus was a privately built midget submarine, launched on 3 May 2008 in Copenhagen, Denmark. Constructed over three years, it cost approximately US$200,000 to build (1.5 million DKK).

Copenhagen Suborbitals

On 1 May 2008, Madsen co-founded Copenhagen Suborbitals with Danish Architect Kristian Von Bengtson. In June 2014, he left the project. Madsen was responsible for the launch system, launchpad and booster rocket engines.

Rocket Madsen Space Lab

In June 2014, Madsen established RML Spacelab ApS. The goal was the development and construction of a crewed spacecraft. From 2016, RML was developing a nano satellite launch vehicle using venture investments. Under the title Raket-Madsens Rumlaboratorium (Danish for 'Rocket-Madsen's Space Laboratory') Madsen has blogged about his activities on the web-site of the Danish news magazine Ingeniøren.

Murder of Kim Wall and sinking of UC3 Nautilus

Murder

On 11 August 2017, Madsen was arrested after the sinking of UC3 Nautilus and the disappearance of Kim Wall, a Swedish journalist who had last been seen alive aboard the submarine.

The following day, a court ruled that he be held in pre-trial detention for 24 days on a charge of negligent homicide. Madsen initially claimed that he disembarked Wall on land at the tip of Refshaleøen on the night before the sinking. He later changed his statement, saying that she had died on board in an accident, and that he had buried her at sea. According to the Danish police, the submarine was deliberately sunk, contradicting Madsen's explanation regarding a technical fault.

A human torso washed up on the coast of Amager on 21 August, which DNA tests concluded belonged to Wall.[29] Chief investigator Jens Møller reported that the torso had been stabbed multiple times to vent accumulating gases that could float it to the surface, and that a piece of metal had been fastened to it to ensure its sinking to the seabed. On 25 August, Madsen's charge was extended to improper handling of a corpse.

Trial and conviction

During a hearing on 5 September, Madsen stated that Wall had been killed when he lost his grip on the submarine's hatch cover, which he was holding open for her, and it hit her on the head, causing her skull to fracture. On 7 October 2017 Royal Danish Navy divers assisting the police found Wall's head, arms and legs, along with a knife and pieces of her clothing, in bags at the bottom of Køge Bay, weighted down by bits of metal. A police spokesperson reported that there were no fractures to Wall's skull.

A post-mortem examination of the torso found "knife wounds to her genitals and ribcage", believed to have been caused "around or shortly after her death". The prosecution said that police had found videos on Madsen's computer showing women being murdered, and that witnesses said that they had seen Madsen watching videos of decapitation and practicing asphyxiation sex. On 30 October 2017 it was reported that Madsen had changed his account of Wall's death and admitted dismembering her body.

It was reported that he now claimed that she had died from carbon monoxide poisoning on board the submarine, but his legal representation denied this, saying that Madsen did not know how she died. It was later confirmed by the police that he had made no clear statement on how she had died, but had said that she was inside the submarine when it contained exhaust gases.

In January 2018 Madsen was charged with murder, indecent handling of a corpse (due to dismemberment), and sexual assault (due to stabbings in genital region). The prosecution accused him of having bound, hit, cut and stabbed Wall before killing her by cutting her throat or strangling her. Madsen's trial began on 8 March 2018 with him pleading not guilty to Wall's murder. On 25 April 2018 Madsen was found guilty of all charges, and sentenced to life imprisonment. A psychiatric evaluation of Madsen described him as a narcissistic psychopath, lacking in empathy but not psychotic or delusional. Madsen immediately appealed the sentence but not the guilty verdict. On 26 September 2018, the Østre Landsret (High Court of Eastern Denmark) upheld the sentence.

Later events and escape

Madsen was admitted to the hospital in August 2018 after being assaulted by an 18-year-old inmate in Storstrøm Prison. Madsen was also in a relationship with a female prison guard, before she left.

On 20 October 2020 Madsen escaped from prison. He was arrested again in a nearby residential area, however, not far from Herstedvester Prison. When police discovered that he was in possession of a pistol-like object and was wearing a belt that could potentially contain explosives, he was surrounded until bomb experts had determined that it was a decoy. On 9 February 2021 a Copenhagen court handed down a 21-month prison sentence to Madsen, for his attempted escape from jail. The additional sentence will not be added to the life sentence, but may play a role if a probation request were ever made.

Media

It has been suggested that this section be split out into another article titled Into_the_Deep_(film). (Discuss) (April 2020)

On 24 January 2020, a Danish documentary, Into the Deep, premiered at the Sundance Festival in Utah, USA. The 90-minute documentary was directed by Australian-born Emma Sullivan and chronicles Peter Madsen and a group of volunteers helping Madsen with his projects – shot as it happens before, during, and after the murder of Kim Wall. Variety called the documentary "riveting". Marie Claire called it "gripping" and a "must-watch".

The documentary was initially intended to be distributed on Netflix. After a controversy arose, where participants claimed they did not give their consent to appear with their name and image, Netflix put it on hold. On 22 April 2020, Netflix announced they withdrew from the deal.

The Investigation (Efterforskningen) is a Danish-language television dramatization created by Tobias Lindholm, which follows the criminal investigation of the case. The six-part series premiered on 28 September 2020 on TV2 and SVT. It features Søren Malling as chief inspector Jens Møller, Pilou Asbæk as special prosecutor Jakob Buch-Jepsen and Rolf Lassgård and Pernilla August as Wall's parents. The TV series does not feature the crime itself and does not mention Madsen's name, whose character does not appear onscreen either; it focuses on the investigative work leading to his indictment and conviction. It has been compared to the 2020 BBC series The Salisbury Poisonings. The series was broadcast on UK's BBC Two between 22 January and 5 February 2021. HBO began showing it on 1 February 2021.

Orville Lynn Majors

 

Orville Lynn Majors (April 24, 1961 – September 24, 2017) was a licensed practical nurse and serial killer, who was convicted of murdering his patients in Clinton, Indiana. Though he was only tried for seven murders and convicted of six, he was believed to have committed additional cases between 1993 and 1995, the period of time for which he was employed by the hospital where the deaths occurred, and for which he was investigated. It was reported that he murdered patients who he claimed were demanding, whiny, or disproportionately added to his work load.

Early life and career

Majors was born in Greenville, Kentucky in 1961. He took care of his elderly grandmother as a teen, and the experience led him to go into nursing. He graduated from Nashville Memorial School of Practical Nursing in 1989, and took a job at Vermillion County Hospital in Clinton, north of Terre Haute. He briefly took a higher-paying job in Tennessee, but returned to VCH in 1993.

Investigation

Majors was one of the most popular nurses at VCH, especially among elderly patients. He received glowing evaluations.

However, suspicion developed when the death rate at VCH jumped significantly after Majors returned to Indiana. In the year before his return to VCH, an average of around 26 patients died annually at the 56-bed hospital and four-bed intensive care unit. After Majors started working at the facility, however, this rate skyrocketed to more than 100 per year, with nearly one out of every three patients admitted to the hospital dying.

The circumstances of the deaths also raised eyebrows, even though most of them were elderly. Some died from an erratic heartbeat following respiratory arrest, a reverse of the normal pattern. Others died from conditions they did not have when they were admitted or took a sharp downturn despite being otherwise healthy. At the same time, patients began coding at an alarming rate.

Eventually, Majors' coworkers began noticing a correlation between the spike in deaths and when Majors was on duty, joking about when the next patient would die. However, in 1995, nursing supervisor Dawn Stirek was concerned enough to check the time cards to see who was on duty at the time of the deaths. She discovered that Majors was on duty for 130 of 147 deaths between 1993 and 1995. Alarmed, she alerted hospital officials, who called in the Indiana State Police. Majors was suspended pending investigation. The Indiana State Nursing Board suspended Majors' license for five years after it determined he had exceeded his authority by giving emergency drugs and working in an ICU without a doctor, and VCH fired him.

Investigators subsequently determined that when Majors was on duty, there was an average of one death every 23 hours, or almost one death per day–a pattern that held when he worked on weekdays or weekends. When he was off duty, the death rate dropped to one every 23 days. They also determined that a patient at VCH was 42 times more likely to die when Majors was on duty.

Majors adamantly denied wrongdoing. While running a pet store in his hometown of Linton, he hired a lawyer and made the rounds of talk shows to proclaim his innocence. Prosecutors and the state police were hamstrung at first; while they believed from the beginning that Majors was a killer, they could not prove how he did it. However, after Majors began his public relations offensive, several relatives of patients who died at VCH called the state police to report suspicious behavior on Majors' part before their loved ones died. They recalled that their loved ones either coded or died within minutes of Majors giving them injections, in some cases before he left the room.

The state police medical team noticed several patients' heart patterns widening around the time Majors was on duty. They called in electrophysiologist Eric N. Prystowsky to look at the EKGs. He suspected that there were only three explanations for these patterns–a potassium overdose, a sudden heart attack, or a large clot in the lung. With this in mind, in September 1995, state officials began exhuming 15 patients who had been witnessed getting injections and had widening heart patterns around the time they died. None of the bodies had signs of a heart attack or clotting in the lung, which proved they had been murdered. After a former roommate recalled seeing potassium chloride and epinephrine vials in their house, police obtained a search warrant and discovered numerous vials that could be traced back to the hospital.

Prosecution and trial

After a two-year investigation, Majors was arrested in December 1997 and charged with seven murders. As mentioned above, investigators believed he killed 100 to 130 people. However, prosecutors chose to focus on just seven to keep from overwhelming the jury. A total of 79 witnesses were called to the stand at his trial in 1999. Some of the witnesses testified that he hated elderly people, and that he believed that they "should be gassed."

Majors was convicted on October 17 for six murders; the jury deadlocked on a seventh because the victim took longer to die than the others. He was sentenced to six consecutive terms of 60 years, the maximum possible penalty under Indiana law at the time, virtually assuring that he would die in prison. Presiding judge Ernest Yelton described Majors' crimes as "diabolical acts" and "a parallel of evil at its most wicked," and concluded that "the maximum sentence is the minimum sentence in this case."

Aftermath

VCH, which had been renamed West Central Community Hospital after ousting Majors, was slapped with wrongful-death suits by the families of 80 patients who died at Majors' hands. Most of them settled the suits and were compensated by a state patients' fund. The hospital was subsequently fined $80,000 for negligence and code violations, and was briefly forced to shut down after losing its accreditation. By 2009, it had been taken over by Terre Haute-based Union Hospital and renamed Union Hospital Clinton.

Majors appealed to the Indiana Supreme Court, which let the verdict stand in 2002. He served his sentence at Indiana State Prison in Michigan City, where he died of heart failure on September 24, 2017 while arguing with correctional staff, Officer R. Houston.

Television

The story of the police investigation and prosecution of Majors is featured in a segment of an episode of The New Detectives entitled "Broken Trust" (Season 9, Episode 11).

The story was also covered in an episode of Oxygen's License To Kill, entitled "Lethal Injections."

Majors' crimes were also discussed at length in the Infamous Murders episode "Angels of Death".

Lalith Athulathmudali

 

Lalith William Samarasekera Athulathmudali, PC (Sinhala: ලලිත් ඇතුලත්මුදලි; 26 November 1936 – 23 April 1993), known as Lalith Athulathmudali, was a Sri Lankan statesman. He was a prominent member of the United National Party, who served as Minister of Trade and Shipping; Minister National Security and Deputy Minister of Defence; Minister of Agriculture, Food and Cooperatives and finally Minister of Education. Following a failed impeachment of President Ranasinghe Premadasa, he was removed from the UNP and formed his own party, the Democratic United National Front. He was assassinated under mysterious circumstances in 1993.

Early life and education

Born to a family of lawyers hailing from Kaluthara District, his father D. D. Athulathmudali was a member of the State Council of Ceylon and his mother was Srimathi Samarasekera Athulathmudali. He had two siblings, a brother Dayanthe who became an electrical engineer and a sister Sujaee who became a Physician.

Athulathmudali received his primary education at St. John's College Panadura and Royal Primary School; before moving to Royal College Colombo from 1948 to 1955 for his secondary educated, where he won the Steward Prize and excelled in athletics.

He then went on to read jurisprudence at Jesus College, Oxford from 1955 to 1958. He graduated with a BA in 1958 and continued his post-graduate studies at Oxford. In 1959, his father died and he had to return due to a lack of funds. S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike on hearing his case, provided him with a Ceylon Government Scholarship. He gained a BCL and MA in 1960 from Oxford winning the Lord Sanky Prize in 1959. While at Oxford, Athulathmudali joined the Oxford Union, serving as its Secretary (1956), Treasurer (1957) and became the first Sri Lankan to become its President in 1958. In 1962 he entered Harvard Law School on scholarship and graduated from Harvard University with a LLM in 1963. He was fluent in Sinhalese, English, Tamil, German and French.

Academic and legal career

Athulathmudali was admitted to the bar as a Barrister from the Gray's Inn in 1959. From 1960 to 1962 he served as a law lecturer at the University of Singapore. In 1963 he became the Associate Dean of the legal faculty of the University of Singapore. From 1960 to 1964 he had served as a visiting lecturer at the Hebrew University in Israel, the University of Edinburgh and the University of Allahabad. Returning to Ceylon in 1964, he took oaths as an Advocate and started his legal practice. From 1967 to 1974, he was the lecturer in jurisprudence at the Ceylon Law College. In 1985 he was appointed a President's Counsel.

Political career

Minister of Trade and Shipping

Lalith Athulathmudali entered politics in the early 1970s. He joined the policy planning committee of the United National Party in 1973. He contested the 1977 general election from the Ratmalana electorate and was elected to Parliament. J.R. Jayewardene appointed him to his cabinet as Minister of Trade. In 1978, he received the additional portfolio of shipping, as Minister of Trade and Shipping, which he held till 1984. During this time, as Minister of Trade, he introduced Intellectual Property Law; established the Sri Lanka Export Development Board and the Ports Authority. He established the Mahapola Trust Fund in 1981 to provision of financial assistance to students undertaking higher education.

Minister of National Security

In 1984, he was appointed Minister of National Security and Deputy Minister of Defense. He started reforms in both the police and army. During his tenure the armed forces were expanded and reequipped, with the army increasing from 6,000 to 24,000. The most controversial of his measures was to call for Israeli assistance. He organized several offensives against territories held by the LTTE including the Vadamarachchi Operation and was apposed to the Indo-Sri Lanka Accord.

He was severely wounded in a grenade attack inside the Parliament complex in 1987. The biggest debacle of his political career came in May 1988 when he declared a truce with the rebellion JVP. The main brokers of the so-called truce were a lawyer called Kelly Senanayake and Fr Thissa Balasooriya who later found had no mandate to represent JVP. He received the portfolio of Trade and Shipping again in 1988. His status in government changed upon Jayewardene's retirement in 1988, he tried to obtain the UNP's nomination for the presidential election, but was defeated by Ranasinghe Premadasa who went on to win the presidency.

Minister of Agriculture and Education

In 1989, he was appointed UNP chief organizer for the Colombo electorate and was elected to parliament in the 1989 general election. Premadasa retained Athulathmudali in his cabinet, but demoted him by appointing him as Minister of Agriculture, Food and Cooperatives. In the following year, he was appointed as Minister of Education, in which capacity he remained until 1991.

Conflict with Premadasa

Athulathmudali became disenchanted with Premadasa's leadership. Soon Athulathmudali ran into conflict with Premadasa. Premadasa tried to have Athulathmudali removed from his UNP party positions. He was accused by Premadasa as being one of the cabinet ministers behind the Burning of Jaffna library in 1981. Athulathmudali resigned from his cabinet position in August 1991 and in September 1991 he and several UNP MPs brought forth a motion to impeach Premadasa. The impeachment which was supported by members of the UNP and other parties in the opposition failed as Premadasa adjourned Parliament and the Speaker Mohamed dismissed the impeachment stating a lack of signatures. Premadasa expelled Athulathmudali and Gamini Dissanayake from the UNP.

Athulathmudali together with Dissanayake formed a new party, the Democratic United National Front with both serving as joint president in November 1991. Under the DUNF, Athulathmudali handed over his papers to contest the 1993 Provincial elections seeking the chief ministership of the Western Province Council.

Assassination

Athulathmudali was assassinated when he was shot by a gunman on 23 April 1993 after an election rally at Kirulapana. Initially, the government blamed the LTTE and produced the body of a Tamil youth named Ragunathan which was found near the scene of the shooting the following day. He had apparently died from taking a cyanide capsule. However, these claims were later proved to be false.

A Presidential Commission carried out by the Sri Lankan Government concluded that Sri Lankan President Ranasinghe Premadasa was directly responsible for the assassination. It also concluded that the Tamil youth Ragunathan, was murdered by the same people who killed Athulathmudali, by forcibly administering him with cyanide.

Family

Athulathmudali's was first married to the Parsi Perin E. Captain. She was the president of the Sri Lanka Cancer Society. Lalith, with a penchant for older women, was eventually caught cheating and then met his second wife Srimani De Seram in March 1978 when she was attached to UNCTAD in Switzerland. She was a friend of his brother Dayantha Athulathmudali. After a romance that lasted several years, during which Athulathmudali had several paramours, they got married in December 1981 in Geneva. They had one daughter, Serela Athulathmudali.

Historical reputation and legacy

Athulathmudali is considered one of the most distinguished Sri Lankan statesmen in recent history. He is still remembered by many in Sri Lanka as a gentlemen and as one of the few well educated politicians of that era. In his honour a statue and memorial has been erected in Colombo. His contribution to the education of the country is eminence, the Mahapola Fund he established has greatly contributed to the development of higher education and provides scholarships for needy students annually. The Lalith Athulathmudali Auditorium at the Sri Lanka Institute of Information Technology and the Lalith Athulathmudali Memorial Prize which is one of the prestigious prizes awarded annually at Royal College, Colombo (his alma mater) (awarded for the Most Outstanding Royalist (Student of Royal College) of the Year) are named in his honour.

Monuments and memorials

The statue of Lalith William Samarasekera Athulathmudali is located at 6°54′21.7″N 79°51′33.2″E in Colombo, Sri Lanka.