The Chilling & Sinister Crimes of Grete Beier

Brief Case

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Transcript

00:08Today we are going to Germany, so sit back as we go to the early 20th century.

00:19Margarita Bayer was born on September the 15th 1885 in Brand Abistof which is a small town in

00:29the German Free State of Saxony.

00:32She was always known by her family and friends as Greta.

00:36Her father held the prominent and respected position of mayor of the town, which meant

00:41that his daughter enjoyed a very good lifestyle.

00:44She was educated in the best schools and surrounded herself with the town's wealthy families.

00:50She always dressed in fine clothes and made sure she was seen in the most fashionable

00:55places.

00:56Greta grew up to be a very beautiful lady and she was very sought after by many of

01:02the young men from some of the region's most affluent and influential families.

01:07Her parents had not been born into high society.

01:10Her father had worked as a coal miner before obtaining a position in the local bank where

01:16he eventually became the manager and her mother was the daughter of a shoemaker.

01:20So now her father held the prestigious position of mayor.

01:25Greta's parents were very keen to make sure that their daughter would enhance her social

01:29standing even more by marrying into the right family.

01:32And when Greta turned 22, they encouraged her to accept the marriage proposal of a successful

01:38engineer named Kurt Pressler.

01:40He was everything the parents wanted for their daughter, well respected, very rich, and a

01:47person who was associated with the highest social circle.

01:50He was also infatuated with their daughter.

01:53She accepted his marriage proposal.

01:56There were however two quite large drawbacks with Greta accepting the marriage proposal.

02:01The first was that her new fiancé was already married, albeit separated from his wife.

02:08He explained that he had already petitioned for a divorce and once all the legal matters

02:13were resolved, they could marry.

02:15This arrangement suited Greta.

02:18As a second drawback was that unbeknown to her parents or her new fiancé, she was already

02:24secretly engaged to a man named Hans Merker.

02:28Hans worked as a clerk.

02:29He did not come from a wealthy family and didn't really have any money, but Greta loved

02:35him and had no intention of ending their relationship.

02:39But she also did not want to give up on her great opportunity of becoming the wife of

02:43a very rich and influential man who could give her the things in life she had always sought.

02:49In April 1907, Greta's uncle died.

02:53He was the officer in charge of a poorhouse.

02:55In his will he bequeathed a large amount of his estate to Greta.

03:00This was not a fortune, but a tidy sum for a young lady.

03:04The thing that no one was aware of was that Greta had falsified her uncle's will and together

03:10with her boyfriend Hans could now start to live a more comfortable life.

03:15The problem that Greta faced was that she had become engaged to court and his affections

03:21for her were somewhat unwanted.

03:23He would write her letters and send her gifts, and in order to be closer to her he rented an

03:29apartment in the nearby city of Chemnitz.

03:33He rented the apartment as he thought it would be easier for her to visit him.

03:39Greta wanted the lifestyle that his wealth could bring, but she wanted to be with Hans, who was

03:45never going to advance himself into the high society circles that she and her parents had worked so

03:50hard to be accepted in. He was also never going to be accepted by her father as a future husband.

03:57Greta needed to find a way where she would be able to stay with Hans, but still have the benefits

04:03of

04:04being with her wealthy fiancé. But with every day that passed was a day nearer to her becoming his wife.

04:10He had already set a date for the wedding and had already bought the rings. Greta was getting desperate.

04:19On May the 13th 1907, she left her house and made her way by train to Chemnitz and to Kurt's

04:27apartment.

04:28He was very happy to see her and was very much looking forward to spending the evening with her.

04:33But Greta had other ideas. She had no intention of spending the night with her fiancé.

04:39She had planned something very different for him. Soon after arriving, and after the couple's usual

04:46exchange of sweet talk, Greta prepared her fiancé a drink, but the drink was different to any she

04:52had ever prepared for him before. This time, she took out a bottle of cyanide that he kept in his

04:58desk drawer and poured some of it into a glass before handing it to him. He quickly drank it and

05:05suddenly

05:06sunk into his chair. Greta then moved slowly towards him, took out a revolver and shot him. The noise of

05:15the revolver was drowned out by the sound of the nearby church bells. The plan was well thought

05:21out and after shooting her fiancé, she coolly then sat at his desk and wrote love letters between Kurt

05:28and a fictional Italian woman. The letters threatened to expose an affair he was having with the Italian

05:35lady. Greta also forged a suicide note stating that the Italian lady was going to expose him and he could

05:42not take all the shame. He wrote that he was leaving all of his money to the true love in

05:48his life,

05:48his fiancée, Greta. After finishing writing the letters and the note, she calmly placed a revolver

05:56beside him and left. She walked bristly to the train station and caught the train to Freiburg.

06:04It was a Monday and the train was busy. She looked at the people and thought to herself that no

06:10one on the

06:11train would suspect but the finely dressed pretty young lady had just murdered her fiancé.

06:17After arriving in Freiburg, she went to a society gathering where the charming mayor's daughter

06:24laughed, ate and drank with her friends while thinking about the dark secret she was hiding.

06:30A couple of hours after Greta had left the apartment, Kurt's brother arrived and was horrified

06:37when he found Kurt lying dead with a revolver by his side and a suicide note next to him.

06:43He looked at the note and concluded that it had undoubtedly been written by his brother.

06:48In this letter, Kurt had begged his brother to forgive him for his action and asked him to

06:54comfort his future bride. He contacted the police who came and examined the scene.

07:01After completing their investigation, they concluded that this was a case of suicide. Although his

07:07brother understood that Greta had been named a benefactor of the entire estate, he was baffled as

07:12to why he would leave all of his money to a girl he had only known for a short while

07:17and who without

07:18the will would have no legal claim to any of his possessions. He decided to take the will and the

07:25suicide note to be examined by handwriting experts. The expert's conclusion was that the will and the

07:32note were not written by Kurt and had almost definitely been false. Kurt's brother took all of

07:40his findings to the police who decided to open an investigation. Greta was immediately included as a

07:48suspect and the police were already looking into irregularities of her uncle's will. They watched

07:55her for a few weeks and when they discovered a letter to Hans which suggested she committed the

08:00crime of forging her uncle's will, they decided that they had enough evidence to make an arrest.

08:07Greta, her mother and Hans were all arrested on the charges of forging a will. They were all taken to

08:14the police station. After her arrest, the police started to question Greta both about her uncle's will

08:21and also about the death of her fiancé. Under intense police questioning, the young lady decided to

08:28confess her crimes. She was told that in Saxony all murders were eventually pardoned and that the last

08:35person to be executed was more than 50 years before in 1852, so Greta signed a written confession.

08:43The police also charged Greta's mother and Hans in the crime of forging her uncle's will.

08:50The trial of Greta began on June 29th 1908 in the district court of Freiburg. There was massive

08:59public interest in the case from both the press and the public and over 1,000 people arrived to try

09:06and get into the courthouse. The press filled their papers with the story, the mayor's daughter in the

09:12love triangle. Her father was spared seeing his daughter arrested and the media circus had surrounded her trial.

09:20as he had died in August of 1907. The trial lasted for two days and in all 16 witnesses were

09:28called

09:28upon to give evidence. She was being tried for theft, forgery and murder. The evidence against her was

09:36very conclusive and she had also written a confession in attempt to get the sentence reduced.

09:42It came as no surprise when the 12 jurors returned a verdict of guilty on all charges. The judge then

09:51sentenced her to be executed. The jury however unanimously supported the defendant's pardon request

09:58which would mean that the sentence would be reduced to life in prison. The request was then heard by the

10:06king of Saxony who decided that Greta's crimes were all premeditated and refused to commute her sentence.

10:13The execution date was set for July 23rd 1908 in the courtyard of the Freiburg prison. Greta's mother

10:23in a separate trial was sentenced to two years in prison for embezzlement. On July 21st the authorities let

10:31mother and daughter spend some time together spend some time together and say their last goodbyes.

10:36At 6.30 in the morning on July 23rd 1908 Greta calmly walked into the prison courtyard to have her

10:46sentence carried out. Before placing her head in a guillotine she was asked if she had any last words

10:52and she said father in your hands I command my spirit. The body of Greta Beyer was taken to Dresden

11:03in a coffin

11:04decorated with flowers. There she was buried the next day in a family grave next to her father. When

11:11her mother eventually died she was buried in the same grave. Greta's fiance Hans Merker was sentenced to 20

11:20months in prison for embezzlement and sometime after his release he started a new life in Argentina.

11:29Hello everyone and thank you so much for listening. As per usual please leave any comments or feedback

11:36you may have and I will see you in the next brief case.

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