The Disturbing & Sinister Case of Marius Bogaardt

Brief Case

The case of Marius Bogaardt, that shocked the Netherlands in 1880  Join this channel to get access to perks: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCXNVw0S9_LZHhWTr-skizhg/join  Please remember to subscribe and hit the bell icon as well as leave a like and a comment for more videos every week!  Brief Case is a True Crime Channel focusing on old or lost cases that have been forgotten to history. If you have any recommendations for future cases that you would like to bring to light, feel free to reach out to me to: briefcaseuk@gmail.com  Music Credits Music by Myuu https://www.youtube.com/user/myuuji  Music by CO.AG Music https://www.youtube.com/@co.agmusic  “Cicada” by Kevin MacLeod https://incompetech.com/    Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Transcript

00:07Today we are looking at a case from the second part of the 19th century, so sit back as we

00:14go to Holland.

00:18Frederik Marius Birgert was born on the 23rd of May 1867 in Soriwaja in the Dutch East Indies.

00:25He was named after his father, so to avoid confusion, he was known simply as Marius.

00:31He was the second of four children. His eldest sister Louisa Isabel had been born in 1864, and his younger

00:38brother was born in 1869, but sadly he died in infancy.

00:42He had another sister named Marie Julie, who was born in 1874.

00:47The family had spent several years living in Surabaya, where Marius' father had made a considerable fortune.

00:53He had become a successful and wealthy plantation owner, and was also the head of the trading firm, Fraser Eaton

00:59& Company.

01:00His success provided the family with a comfortable and privileged life.

01:04In 1873, the family returned to the Netherlands, where they settled in The Hague, which was one of the country's

01:11most prosperous and fashionable cities.

01:13It was a seat of the Dutch government and the royal court, and its streets were home to politicians, diplomats,

01:20wealthy merchants, and members of the aristocracy.

01:22New residential areas were now developing beyond the old city centre, with broad streets, elegant houses, and substantial villas, while

01:32the city's parks and avenues gave parts of The Hague a distinctly residential character.

01:36In 1877, Marius' father, Frederick, purchased Scroote Engelberg Castle, which was near Brumham.

01:44The estate had a long history, but by this time, the castle had been transformed into an elegant country residence,

01:51surrounded by landscaped grounds and gardens.

01:54Frederick initially acquired it as a summer residence, while the family's main home remained in The Hague.

01:59In the late 1870s, the Netherlands was undergoing considerable economic and social change.

02:05The country was becoming increasingly industrialised, although much of the population still lived in smaller towns and rural communities, where

02:13agriculture remained important.

02:15The growing prosperity of the professional and upper classes was reflected in the expansion of comfortable country estates, and the

02:22development of better schools in the larger cities.

02:24For children from wealthy families, education was considered a very important part of preparing them for adult life, and there

02:31were many private institutions, that offered classes in languages, history, mathematics, and other subjects.

02:38The Hague was particularly well served by private schools, and catered for the city's wealthy and professional families.

02:44When Marius was 13 years old, he started to attend the prestigious Institut Balscholta, here he spent his weekdays alongside

02:52other boys from the city's wealthier families.

02:55He normally travelled to school with his family's groom, who then collected him again later in the afternoon.

03:01On Thursday the 23rd of September 1880, Marius went to school as normal, but went home for lunch with his

03:07parents before returning to school for afternoon classes.

03:10However, as the groom escorted him back, Marius said that he should not come for him at the usual time,

03:16because he was going to be kept behind, as he was being punished for his behaviour that morning.

03:21At about 3 o'clock, a man arrived at the school, and informed the maid that he had come on

03:25behalf of Marius' father, Mr. Frederick Biergat.

03:29He said that he had been instructed to collect the boy.

03:31There was nothing particularly unusual about the request, as pupils were sometimes taken away before the end of the school

03:37day, and the visitor had also said that Marius' father was waiting for him.

03:41A message was passed on to one of the teachers, who after being told that Marius knew the man, permitted

03:47the boy to leave with him.

03:48They both climbed into a cab, and set off in the direction of Scheffening, travelling through the western part of

03:54the Hague.

03:55After continuing for some distance, the cab eventually stopped, near Lann van Mierdevoort, one of the city's growing residential avenues.

04:05By 5 o'clock, Marius had not returned home, and his parents were becoming increasingly worried.

04:10They contacted the school, hoping to find out where he was, but they were told that he had been allowed

04:15to leave because a man had arrived to collect him.

04:18This did little to ease their concerns.

04:20They had no idea who the man was, or where he had taken their son.

04:25As the hours passed, their anxiety grew.

04:27Then, at around 8 that evening, a letter arrived.

04:31The writer demanded 75,000 guilders for the boy's safe return, and claimed that Marius had been taken somewhere secure,

04:38where he was being given neither food nor freedom.

04:41The location, the writer insisted, could not be discovered.

04:44The family was told that if the money was paid, Marius would be put on a train, and sent back

04:49to the Hague.

04:50But if the ransom was not paid, they would never see their son again.

04:54However, Mr. Frederick Birkhardt did not pay the ransom.

04:58Instead, he reported the kidnapping to the public prosecutor.

05:01The police were then informed of the ransom demand, and began investigating the disappearance.

05:06The family could now only wait and hope that the police would be able to find Marius, and bring him

05:12back home safely.

05:14A few hours after the ransom note arrived, a second letter was received.

05:18This time, the writer stated that they no longer required the ransom, and gave no clear explanation for the change

05:24of plans.

05:25The unexpected message only added to the family's uncertainty.

05:29They still had no idea where Marius was being held, or what had happened to him.

05:34While the police were faced with a difficult task, of trying to establish who had kidnapped the boy.

05:39And where he had been taken, the coachman who had transported Marius and his abductor was located.

05:45He was questioned about the journey, and was able to tell the police where he had left them.

05:49This gave the authorities an important starting point, and officers began searching the area.

05:54However, the following day, men who patrolled the coastal dunes, made a grim discovery, in a secluded area.

06:01They found the body of Marius Birghardt.

06:04He had been bound, and his body bore numerous stab wounds.

06:08The discovery confirmed the worst fears of his parents.

06:11Marius had been kidnapped, apparently with the intention of obtaining a ransom.

06:15But he had been found murdered, before any ransom money could be collected.

06:19The police began searching for the man responsible, while details of the ransom letter were made public.

06:25The letter was reproduced in newspapers, in the hope that someone might recognise either its wording, or the handwriting.

06:32And perhaps be able to provide the authorities with a clue, that could lead to the person responsible.

06:37As the news spread, information began to reach the police.

06:41And before long, investigators had their first suspect.

06:45Based on descriptions provided by the cabman, and members of the school staff,

06:49plainclothes officers arrested a man named Willem Marianas de Jong.

06:54However, Mr. de Jong strongly denied having anything to do with Marius' disappearance, or his murder.

06:59And although he was questioned at length, there was not enough evidence to hold him.

07:03So he was eventually released.

07:05The funeral of Marius took place on the 27th of September 1880, and attracted a huge crowd.

07:12Thousands of people lined the streets of The Hague, as the funeral procession passed.

07:16And the number of mourners seemed to reflect the shock and sorrow,

07:19that had been caused by the murder of a 13-year-old boy.

07:24One of the people following the case closely, was Jax de Boer,

07:28a journalist associated with the newspaper, Damstadammer.

07:32And as he examined the details of the ransom letter,

07:35he noticed something unusual in the way it had been written.

07:38The writer had used the hyphen in the Dutch place name,

07:41Skrava Haga, the formal name for The Hague.

07:44Although this might have seemed like a minor detail,

07:47Mr. de Boer knew that this particular use of the hyphen,

07:50was very unusual at the time.

07:51He mentioned his observation publicly,

07:54hoping that someone familiar of the case might recognise the same habits.

07:58His comments attracted the attention of Amir Lorgus Musketia,

08:02a sergeant in the Dutch army.

08:03He knew Willemmerianos de Jong from their time serving in the Dutch East Indies,

08:08and remembered that Mr. de Jong had a distinctive habit of using the same hyphen.

08:12When writing Skrava Haga,

08:15the sergeant obtained several letters written by Mr. de Jong,

08:18and showed them to Mr. de Boer.

08:19When these letters were compared to the ransom notes,

08:22there were noticeable similarities in the handwriting.

08:25The unusual use of the hyphen was one of the details that attracted attention,

08:29but there were other similarities in the writing as well.

08:32These observations were then passed on to the police.

08:35Following this, the investigation focused on Willemmerianos de Jong.

08:40He was 24 years old,

08:42and a former sergeant in the Royal Netherlands East Indies Army,

08:45but was now employed at the Ministry of Colonies.

08:48The cabman and the schoolmaid,

08:50both confirmed that he was the man who they had seen with the boy.

08:54Police questioned him about his movements,

08:56and his connection to the case,

08:58and confronted him with the evidence they had gathered,

09:01including the similarities between his handwriting and the ransom letters.

09:04Although Mr. de Jong denied any wrongdoing,

09:07after some time,

09:08he admitted that he had indeed written the ransom letters.

09:11He did, however, attempt to distance himself from the murder,

09:15and claimed that an accomplice had killed Marius,

09:17and that he had not been responsible for the boy's death.

09:20After more questioning,

09:22he eventually abandoned this explanation,

09:24and confessed that he had committed this most horrible crime.

09:28According to his confession,

09:29killing Marius had not been his intention.

09:32Instead,

09:33he had planned to keep the boy hidden until the ransom could be obtained.

09:36But during the journey in the cab,

09:38Marius made a remark,

09:39that caused him to fear that the boy might be able to identify him.

09:43Mr. de Jong then told officers,

09:45that he became so afraid that Marius would be able to reveal who had taken him.

09:49He decided that he could no longer risk keeping him alive.

09:53Looking down,

09:54and speaking in a soft voice,

09:55he said that he took out a sword stick,

09:57and attacked the child.

09:59Sword stick,

10:00was something that looked like an ordinary walking cane,

10:03but had a handle on top that could be removed,

10:05and this allowed the blade to be drawn.

10:07Mr. de Jong went on to say,

10:09that after he realised that Marius was dead,

10:11he covered the boy's face,

10:13as he could not bear to look at him,

10:14knowing what he had done,

10:16and seeing the consequences of his actions.

10:18Asked what he did next,

10:20Mr. de Jong replied,

10:21that he left the boy's body,

10:23and continued with his original plan to obtain the ransom.

10:26So he returned to the Hague by train,

10:28and sent a letter to Marius' father.

10:32The murder of a 13-year-old boy,

10:34had caused widespread horror,

10:36and there was little sympathy for the accused.

10:38Mr. de Jong was brought before the criminal court in the Hague,

10:41where the circumstances of the kidnapping,

10:43and the murder were examined in detail.

10:45His previous confession formed an important part of the case,

10:49but the court also heard evidence about the ransom letters,

10:52the journey taken in the cab,

10:54and the discovery of the boy's body in the dunes.

10:56The evidence presented a picture of a kidnapping,

10:59that had begun as an attempt to obtain money,

11:02but had ended with the death of an innocent child.

11:04However,

11:05as the trial continued,

11:07Mr. de Jong changed his position.

11:09He no longer accepted the omissions he had previously made.

11:12Instead,

11:13he claimed that his involvement had been limited to writing the ransom letter,

11:17and lending the sword stick to the person who had murdered Marius.

11:20He offered no explanation as to why he had not previously disclosed this,

11:24and refused to name his accomplice,

11:27saying that he would be willing to accept responsibility for the crime,

11:30rather than betray the other man.

11:32The defence team requested that a man named Mr. Baumann be called as a witness,

11:36as they said that he had seen the sword stick being given to Mr. de Jong,

11:40by a man named Mr. van der Missen.

11:42The prosecution objected to Mr. Baumann giving evidence,

11:46because he had recently been convicted of other offences.

11:49Nevertheless,

11:49the court allowed him to testify.

11:52Mr. Baumann identified the sword stick,

11:55and said that he had once heard Mr. van der Missen discuss plans to extort 75,000 guilders from Marius'

12:01father.

12:02The judges,

12:03however,

12:03were not convinced by this explanation.

12:05They regarded Mr. de Jong's new account,

12:08as an attempt to escape responsibility for the killing,

12:11and his claim that he was protecting an accomplice was dismissed as a trick.

12:15When the trial ended,

12:16the court found Willem Marianas de Jong guilty of murder,

12:20and on the 30th of December 1880,

12:23he was sentenced to life imprisonment.

12:25Although he had been found guilty,

12:27he did not accept the outcome,

12:28and remained determined to challenge his conviction.

12:31He repeatedly told his mother that he was not the murderer,

12:34and appealed against the sentence.

12:36When the appeal was heard,

12:38his lawyer argued that there was not enough evidence to prove that the murder had been planned,

12:42and maintained that Mr. de Jong should not have received a life sentence.

12:46The prosecution countered this,

12:48by arguing that even if Mr. de Jong had not intended to kill Marius,

12:52his actions had certainly caused the boy's death.

12:55After much consideration,

12:57the appeals called to agree with the defence,

12:59that premeditated murder had not been proved.

13:02Willem Marianas de Jong then had his conviction changed to manslaughter,

13:06and his life sentence was reduced to 25 years in prison.

13:09Despite this, he was still not satisfied,

13:13and continued to insist that the full truth about the murder had not been established,

13:17and that he was actually an innocent man.

13:20The years of imprisonment,

13:21together with his belief that he had been wrongly convicted,

13:24appeared to take a heavy toll on him,

13:26and it was reported that he had succumbed to insanity,

13:29and was tormented by visions of a deceased child.

13:32Eventually, he named his accomplice,

13:34as a man called Gerrit Ketz,

13:36and said that he was the person responsible for the murder of Marius Birghardt.

13:41Mr. Ketz had been engaged to Mr. de Jong's sister at the time,

13:44and he insisted that he could prove that he had been wrongly convicted,

13:48and again sought to have his conviction overturned.

13:50The claim, however, produced no results,

13:53and in 1901,

13:54he again applied for a retrial,

13:56claiming that new evidence would prove that he had not been the murderer,

13:59and that Mr. Ketz had been the person responsible.

14:02This application was again rejected by the courts,

14:05as they stated that there was no convincing evidence to support it.

14:09Wilhelm Marianas de Jong,

14:11eventually completed his imprisonment,

14:13and was released in 1905.

14:15Following this,

14:16he went to live with his mother,

14:18but after she died,

14:19he moved to Amsterdam,

14:21where he married in 1908.

14:23However, his life remained troubled,

14:25and he was constantly tormented by the events of the 23rd of September 1880.

14:30In 1919,

14:31Wilhelm de Jong died by his own hand.

14:34The murder also had consequences for others.

14:37The actions of the sergeant,

14:38who had recognised Mr. de Jong's distinctive use of the hyphen,

14:42and brought his observations to the attention of the authorities,

14:44was considered by some in his regiment to have betrayed a fellow soldier,

14:48and the criticism and hostility he faced

14:50continued to trouble him over the following years.

14:53In 1887,

14:54while in the Dutch East Indies,

14:56he died by his own hand.

14:58Marius' family left The Hague,

15:00and went to live in their country estates.

15:03For the people of The Hague,

15:04the name Friedrich Marius Birghardt

15:07remained associated with one of the most shocking child murders of the period,

15:11and although the 13-year-old boy was abducted,

15:13on the 23rd of September 1880,

15:16his memory still lives on in the city.

15:20Hello everyone,

15:22and thank you so much for listening.

15:24As usual,

15:25please leave any comments or feedback you may have,

15:28and I hope to see you all again,

15:30in the next,

15:31brief,

15:32case.

15:33.

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