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Music by CO.AG Music - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VwZB4l43iTw&t=105s
Music by Myuu -https://www.youtube.com/user/myuuji
Music by Kevin Macleod - https://incompetech.com
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
Music by CO.AG Music - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VwZB4l43iTw&t=105s
Music by Myuu -https://www.youtube.com/user/myuuji
Music by Kevin Macleod - https://incompetech.com
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
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NewsTranscript
00:07Hello everyone. Today we go back over 200 years to look at a case from Germany. So sit back as
00:17we go to early 19th century Bavaria. Andreas Bichel was born in 1760 in the Bavarian region
00:29of Germany. He was a quiet, industrious man and he lived in a nice cottage with his wife. He had
00:37a reputation of being a quiet person who never went out drinking and spent most of the time with
00:44his wife. He lived in the small town of Regendorf and occasionally got into trouble for petty
00:51thieving. The things he stole never amounted to much. They were things like vegetables from his
00:57neighbour's garden. He worked in a local inn for three years but he was dismissed after he was
01:04caught by the innkeeper trying to steal some hay from the innkeeper's barn. Andreas would not be put
01:11off by being released from his employment and having to support his wife he came up with an ingenious way
01:19of making some money. Andreas decided to go into the business of fortune telling. He professed to be
01:28able to see people's fortunes through a special magic mirror. He obtained a magnifying glass and propped it
01:36up on a small wooden board. It was an ingenious device that he claimed could provide a mystical insight
01:43into people's futures. Fortune telling was quite popular during the early 19th century. Fortune tellers
01:51could often be seen at parties in some of the finest houses in Europe. It was seen as a thrilling
01:57form of
01:58entertainment in high society. There were plenty of individuals from the richest to the poorest who
02:05truly believed in the supernatural. Their desire to learn about their future meant a good career could be
02:12had from fortune telling and Andreas was determined to prosper from it. In the summer of 1806 a young
02:21lady named Barbara Reisinger answered an advert for a job as a housemaid and came to Andreas's house
02:28to inquire about the position. When the young lady arrived only Andreas was home as his wife was working
02:35in a neighbouring village. So he invited her in and spoke to her about the position. The conversation
02:43soon turned to his gift for fortune telling and the intrigued Barbara, thinking it would be a bit of
02:49innocent fun, agreed to have her fortune told. Andreas explained the process was very strict. He told her that she
02:58would have to sit down facing the magic mirror placed on the adjacent table. To make sure she wouldn't touch
03:05the
03:05mirror and thus ruin the spell, he insisted that her hands be tied behind her back. She would also have
03:12to have her eyes covered with a blindfold. Barbara was more intrigued than suspicious so went along with
03:18the request. Andreas had no intention of predicting a young lady's future as he knew exactly what would
03:26happen to her. Once she was in position he took a knife and plunged it repeatedly into her neck.
03:34Immediately he took off her dress to preserve it and took her body to a pit next to his woodshed
03:40where he buried it. He then returned to the house and cleaned the blood-soaked room with water and
03:47sprinkled sand and dust on it to hide the stains. When his wife returned she noticed the very wet floor
03:54but Andreas brushed this off by telling her that he had spilt some water. Andreas did not seem to change
04:02after his callous act. He did not panic, he had no obvious mood swings and he just continued his daily
04:08routine. His wife did not suspect that anything suspicious had happened during her absence. During the
04:16Christmas holidays of 1806 Andreas had to go to the nearby village where his victim Barbara was from.
04:24Whilst there he bumped into Barbara's father who inquired about his daughter.
04:30Very coolly Andreas explained that Barbara had got married and moved away. He told her father that he had
04:37sent him messages asking for her clothes to be sent so he could send them on to Barbara.
04:43Barbara's father said that he had not received any messages but took Andreas back to his house
04:48where Barbara's mother packed some of her daughter's clothes into a case for Andreas to take back to his
04:55home in Reggendorf. Andreas profited from the clothes. He either sold the dresses, used the fabric to get a
05:02local tailor to make other garments or just sold pieces of the dresses as fabric. It was a good business
05:09place. And along with his fortune telling and his wife's work he was living a comfortable life.
05:16Andreas decided that this could be a very lucrative business. Whenever he saw a well-dressed girl he wanted
05:22to rob her and take her clothes. He tried to tempt other young ladies into his house to have their
05:29fortunes
05:29told. In December 1807 he invited a 21 year old girl named Graeber who had not heard from her fiance
05:38for many
05:38months. Andreas promised that his mirror would discover if the young man was dead or alive.
05:45The innocent young lady said well if you don't tell anyone I'll come and have my fortune told.
05:52Andreas told her that she must bring her most beautiful dress and some other garments. She
05:57promised to come and Andreas returned to his house and waited for her to arrive.
06:02But Gerber changed her mind and never turned up to have a fortune told by Andreas. He then tried to
06:10tempt
06:10two other young ladies. One named Juliana Dowek and the other Margaretha Hemberger to come to his house
06:18to have their fortunes told and as usual he instructed them to bring their finest clothes. Both girls intrigued
06:25agreed agreed to his request but again he was left waiting in the house alone as both changed their
06:32mind and did not go to meet Andreas. The three young ladies were local and were saved partly due to
06:39their
06:39disbelief in fortune-telling and partly due to their suspicion of Andreas. In early 1808 21 year old Catherine
06:48Seidel met Andreas and he explained to her the virtues of his mirror. Catherine was very curious and
06:56excited about the amazing device that would let her know what her future held but she was a sensible
07:02girl from a close family and lived in a comfortable house and decided that she would not have her fortune
07:09told. Three months later she found work and lodgings near Egendor and with no family members telling her
07:16that fortune-telling was just a show. Her curiosity of knowing her future got the better of her and
07:23she returned to see Andreas. He told her she must go home and return with her most beautiful clothes.
07:31Catherine now quite excited returned home and collected her very best garments and hurried back to
07:38Andreas's house. He then explained the process so tied her hands together with a string and put a blindfold
07:46around her eyes. Still innocently wanting to know her future Andreas stabbed her in the neck. For some
07:55reason he then decided to cut up her body and carefully dissected it. He served her intestines to his pigs
08:03and buried the other body parts. He stored the very nice garments in his closet and burned the bloodstained
08:10clothes. He then cleaned his house so when his wife returned she would not suspect anything.
08:19A short time later Catherine's sister named Wahlberger went to Reggendorf looking for her missing sibling
08:27and came across something rather suspicious in a local tailor's shop. The tailor was in the process of
08:34making a waistcoat and he was using a distinctive corded fabric that looked very familiar to Catherine's
08:40sister as it was the material and pattern that had come from a petticoat owned by Catherine that she had
08:46taken away with her when she left her family home. She asked where the material had come from and the
08:53tailor said that it had been supplied by the person who had ordered the garment, a gentleman named Andreas
09:00Bichel. Catherine's sister went to the local police and explained about her sister's disappearance and the
09:07fabric found at the tailor's shop. The police thought that this was a little odd so went to Andreas's
09:13house to investigate. Andreas explained that the reason for Catherine's disappearance was that she
09:19had met a young man at his house and had run off with him. The story didn't impress the police.
09:26They
09:26searched the house and in a closet they found a collection of women's clothes including some that
09:33had belonged to Catherine. The police were then reminded that two years previously another girl named Barbara
09:40Raisinger had also disappeared in very similar circumstances. She had also gone to Andreas's house
09:48and had not been seen since. Witnesses came forward who confirmed that Andreas's wife had sold some
09:55clothing which Barbara's friends recognized as having belonged to the missing girl. The possession of
10:02which Mrs Bichel accounted for by saying that Barbara having married a rich man in another part of the
10:09country had no longer any need for peasant costumes. The police continued the search and started to think
10:17that they may find the bodies that went with the garments. A local bailiff said that whenever he passed
10:23the Bichel's house his dog would jump up at the woodshed. He was ordered to go with some local men
10:30and dig
10:31around the shed. Very quickly they came across various bones and a decomposing corpse. Above the shed next
10:40to a lime pit lay many logs and when these were cleared away they discovered the upper part of another
10:47body. Further digging found the lower half and the bailiff immediately ascertained that these were the bodies
10:54of the two missing young women. Andreas was questioned but denied all knowledge of the bodies and denied any
11:03wrongdoing against Barbara and Catherine. The denials continued he was taken to see the bodies which were
11:10pieced together as best as the authorities could do but he still denied any involvement in the crime.
11:17Two days later however while in his prison cell maybe because his guilt had become too much for
11:24him. He confessed to both murders. He said he was only driven to murder in order to get his hands
11:32on the
11:33fine clothes that his victims wore. When the police had all the evidence which included the reports of
11:39the interrogation, witness statements and the confession from Andreas, the file was sent to the Royal
11:46Appeal Court in Newburgh in Newburgh. After consideration, the court pronounced the verdict on February the 4th
11:551809 which found the defendant guilty. Some say that Andreas may have killed many other women but the exact number
12:06is unknown and he was only convicted of two murders. He was executed by beheading on the 9th of June
12:1518
12:161909. Hello everyone and thank you so much for listening to this sad and tragic case. As usual,
12:26feedback is always very much appreciated and I will see you in the next brief case.
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