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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/
#DorotheaKraft #TrueCrime #Crime
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NewsTranscript
00:07Hello everyone. Today we are going to South Africa to look at a case that happened nearly
00:15100 years ago. So sit back as we go to Troufontaine in the early 20th century.
00:26Dorothea Craft had a farm in Troufontaine. She was a widow and lived on the farm with her daughter
00:32Polly. It was only a small farm and the lack of rain in the previous few years and the not
00:38very
00:38good soil resulted in lots of hard work for the farm workers. Being a single mother and a woman
00:46owning a farm was a tough proposition in early 20th century South Africa. Her workers gave her
00:54problems given the fact that she was a woman. The farm provided her and her daughter with a living
01:00but did not give them the standard of living they desired. Dorothea knew that in order for the farm
01:08to prosper as she thought it could she would need a man to run it. So the workers would take
01:14him more
01:14seriously and treat him with respect. Dorothea met Louis Trampowski when he visited her farm looking
01:23to buy fresh produce for his general stores business. He had come to South Africa from the USA in 1887
01:30when he was 25. He first went to Johannesburg which then was a small but fastly growing mining town.
01:38Louis was a good businessman and decided to start the small business.
01:43Selling his locally sourced food he would visit the local farms in order for him to find the quality
01:49products he needed to sell to his customers. One day when Louis visited her farm Dorothea told him
01:58that she was looking for a man to manage it and asked if he would be interested in doing the
02:04job.
02:06Maybe he thought he could take advantage of her vulnerable position but Louis decided to accept
02:16the proposition on slightly different terms than that as farm manager. He told Dorothea that he was
02:24willing to lease the farm from her for an agreed annual rent and then he would run it taking all
02:30the
02:30profits himself. Dorothea gave this proposal some thought and after consideration decided but having
02:38a fixed annual income and no more issues but a rise from running a farm would be good for her
02:44and her
02:44daughter. So accepted Louis' offer. Louis then arranged for a contract to be drawn up by a Johannesburg law firm
02:53as he wanted the arrangements to be legally binding. He didn't want to put lots of hard work into the
02:59project only for Dorothea a couple of years later to decide she was taking the farm back and leaving
03:07him to have to find a new way of generating an income. On the 21st of May 1914 the document
03:15was signed
03:15by Louis and Dorothea. Louis then moved to the farm and shortly afterwards the two of them started a
03:24relationship and began living together as a couple. Louis worked hard to try and make the farm profitable
03:31but despite all his efforts the farm did not create the income that he had hoped and he still had
03:38to pay
03:38Dorothea the annual payment for leasing it. In 1918 with Polly growing up Dorothea decided that the time had
03:47come to sell the farm. She told Louis of her decision to sell it but she was shocked when he
03:54informed her
03:55but she could not as when she had signed the lease agreement in 1914 there was a clause inserted which
04:02stipulated but if she wanted to end the lease agreement with Louis he had the right to buy the
04:08farm from her at a very reduced price which at the time was about £35 for every 10,000 square
04:16meters.
04:17Dorothea was distraught as this was the future for her and her daughter so how could she sell the farm
04:24at a price far below the true market value. She was a resourceful woman and sought legal advice
04:32so contacted a law firm. She maintained that this option clause had been excluded when the terms of
04:39the agreement were read out to her in Johannesburg four years earlier. The solicitors looked at the
04:46paperwork and after considering everything she had told them and the legal documents they reluctantly
04:53concluded but the agreement was legal and binding and that if she wanted to sell her farm she would have
04:59to sell it to Louis at a very reduced price. Her next course of action was to talk to Louis.
05:06They had
05:07been living together for four years so she believed they could come to an amicable arrangement. The pressure
05:13of the farm and the issues over the clause that meant Louis had the right to buy it had put
05:19too much
05:19pressure on their relationship so Louis was in no mood to compromise. He told her but if she wanted to
05:27sell
05:27he would buy the farm otherwise they would just continue as they were. Dorothea really wanted to sell
05:34but at a fair price so she approached a local witch doctor named Jim Bird and asked him to make
05:41a love
05:42potion which would make Louis fall madly in love with her. She thought then if he loved her he would
05:49agree to wave the clause. The witch doctor made up a potion and instructed her to put it in Louis's
05:56tea
05:56but instead of making him fall back in love with her he became very sick and accused her of trying
06:02to poison him. Following this he prepared all his own food and drink. Dorothea's daughter Polly had
06:12an amara named Herman Schwartz. He would visit Polly regularly and was very sympathetic to the family's
06:19ordeal. He suggested that the best way to solve the issue would be to kill Louis. At first Dorothea
06:28didn't really like this idea but as time passed she thought that it was probably the only solution
06:34that would end the issue. They asked the witch doctor Jim Bird to kill Louis and offered him a hundred
06:41pounds to do it. He agreed. They decided to kill Louis on Saturday the 2nd of February 1918. This was
06:50a
06:50good time as Polly had gone to live for a while in Johannesburg so she would have an alibi should
06:56anything ever come out about their actions. That night there was a terrible hailstorm on the farm.
07:03Dorothea, Herman, Jim Bird and three local workers gathered at the farmhouse. Louis was resting in his room
07:11home. Herman and Jim Bird went to his room and quietly opened the door. A startled Louis looked up but
07:19before he could react Jim Bird hit him with a knob carry. A knob carry is a short stick with
07:27a knob at
07:27the top which is a traditional South African weapon. He hit him many times and then Herman tied a leather
07:35thong around Louis's neck and cut his throat with a pocket knife. Dorothea then got a blanket which she
07:43used to stop the flow of blood and then started to clean up the room. Jim Bird was startled and
07:50thought
07:50someone was watching for a window so quickly ran off. With the help of three farm workers, Herman and
07:57Dorothea carried Louis's body outside and buried it in an ash pit in the garden. When the morning came
08:05there was no evidence of the grisly events of the previous night. Dorothea now put part two of her plan
08:13into action and started to remark to everyone she knew that Louis had abandoned her and for a short time
08:21she stayed with a neighbour because she said she was too afraid to remain alone in the farmhouse.
08:28Three months passed and Dorothea thought she had got away with the crime.
08:33Then Louis's sister named Mrs Saltman who lived in Johannesburg received a letter from a man who was
08:40interested in purchasing the lease on Dorothea's farm from Louis. He asked for her brother's new address
08:46as when he approached Dorothea she said she didn't know it. Mrs Saltman contacted Dorothea who again
08:53said for her brother had just left the farm. She wasn't convinced and became concerned as she had not
09:00heard from her brother for many months and Dorothea's answers were not very convincing. So Mrs Saltman
09:06along with her husband went to the police and asked them to investigate the disappearance of her brother.
09:15At first the police took the missing person inquiry seriously and went to visit Dorothea on the farm.
09:21She calmly told them that she had no idea where Louis was. Neither was she remotely interested in
09:28anything about him. She did tell them that she thought he had disappeared because he had debts that
09:34he was unable to pay as the farm was not as profitable as he had hoped when he leased it
09:40back in 1914.
09:42When the police relayed this to Louis' sister she demanded that the police investigate further
09:48as she claimed her brother's financial affairs were in perfect order when he suddenly vanished.
09:54The police ignored this request thinking that Dorothea's theory on Louis' disappearance was probably
10:00correct and ignored the occasional contact from Mrs Saltman inquiring to the progress they had made.
10:08A year after the police had visited the farm a police inspector named Inspector Trigger decided to look
10:15more deeply into the case. He was the head of the Transval CID and obtained a copy of the contract
10:22between Louis and Dorothea and learned about her desire to sell the farm at a fair market price.
10:29He decided to look again at Louis' mysterious disappearance. No one had had any contact with
10:36him for over a year so he was naturally suspicious but there was also no body so without a body
10:42there
10:43was no case. Louis' sister had asked for police on many occasions to conduct a full-scale search on
10:50the farm. Digging up the farm to look for a body was a very large and laborious task but Inspector
10:57Trigger
10:57asked Detective Sergeant Frederick William Daniels to work out a search plan and look for the body.
11:04In July 1920 Detective Daniels got permission for eight prisoners from the Lichtenberg prison to do
11:12all the digging and the search for the body of Louis Tampowski began. The search went on for seven
11:19weeks and not only was much of the farm dug up they looked into the wells and they looked under
11:24the
11:25floorboards in the farmhouse but they didn't find anything. The police offered a hundred pounds
11:30reward for information but no one came forward. During the digging Detective Daniels kept on hearing
11:38the name of Jim Bird so decided to pay him a visit. The detective thought that Jim knew more than
11:45he was
11:45letting on so decided to take him to the police station to question him under caution. During misquestioning
11:52Jim suddenly confessed to taking part in the murder. He stressed that he had ran away before the body was
12:00disposed of so had no idea what was done with Louis afterwards. Detective Daniels then arrested him and
12:08instructed him to take part in the search for the body. On the 20th of September 1920 almost two and
12:16a half
12:16years after his disappearance the body of Louis Tampowski was found buried at the edge of the
12:23ash pit near the back door of the farmhouse. Strangely it was Jim Bird who found it. The body was
12:30badly
12:31decomposed but there was some grey hair still visible and there were marks indicating a cut across the
12:38throat. On a finger on the left hand was a signet ring and a local shoemaker recognized the shoes still
12:45on his feet. The post-mortem showed that Louis had suffered a fractured skull and there were marks
12:51across his throat that indicated a knife attack. There was no doubt he had been murdered. The police
12:58knew that Jim Bird was a key to getting all the people who committed the crime so offered him immunity
13:04from prosecution in exchange for evidence on everyone involved. They soon arrested Dorothea, Herman and the
13:13three farm workers. The trial began on the 13th of June 1921. The state prosecutor began his address
13:23to the jury by pointing out that for a guilty verdict it was not necessary for the state to prove
13:30to the
13:30court that Dorothea murdered Louis herself only that she had instigated the crime. The defence pointed out
13:38that Jim Bird was by his own admission a liar and an adulterer. They also said that he had been
13:46in a
13:46relationship with Dorothea. All of this was true but the evidence against Dorothea and Herman was so
13:54overwhelming the jury returned a verdict of guilty on both of the accused. The three farm workers who Jim
14:02Byrd claimed had been accessories to the murder were committed to trial but later acquitted on lack of
14:08evidence. Dorothea was hanged on Tuesday the 16th of August 1921 at Pretoria Central Prison and Herman
14:18had the same ending a day later. Hello everyone thank you so much for listening. As per usual I would
14:28appreciate any comments and feedback you may have and I will see you all in the next brief case.
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