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On the evening of 31 March 1922, six inhabitants of a small Bavarian farmstead, commonly referred to today as Hinterkaifeck (), were murdered by an unknown assailant.

Occurring approximately 70 kilometres (43 mi) north of Munich, the victims were Andreas Gruber (aged 63), his wife Cäzilia (aged 72), their widowed daughter Viktoria Gabriel (aged 35), Viktoria's children Cäzilia (aged 7) and Josef (aged 2) and their maid, Maria Baumgartner (aged 44). The murder weapon, a mattock, which was used on all six of the victims, was later recovered in the loft of the barn. Immediately following the murders, the perpetrator lived with the six corpses for three days. Four of the bodies were found stacked in the barn, the victims having likely been lured there one by one. Prior to the incident, other family members and a former maid had reported hearing strange noises coming from the attic, which led to said maid quitting the job. Considered one of the most gruesome and puzzling crimes in German history, the murders remain unsolved.

The farm at Hinterkaifeck, approximately 70 kilometres (43 mi) north of Munich in the German province of Bavaria, was built around 1863. The name Hinterkaifeck comes from its location: Hinter meaning "behind" in German, and Kaifeck being a small nearby hamlet of that name. Per its German name, the Hinterkaifeck farmstead was essentially located behind Kaifeck or, more precisely, about one kilometre north of it and bordered by dense woods.

According to a school friend of Viktoria's daughter Cäzilia Gabriel, the young girl reported that her mother had fled the farmstead the night before the murders after a violent row with Andreas, and only hours later had been found in the forest. Maria had only worked at Hinterkaifeck for one day before the murders.

Later on 4 April, at around 3:30 p.m., Schlittenbauer sent his son Johann (16) and stepson Josef Dick (9) to Hinterkaifeck to see whether they could make contact with the family. Upon entering the barn, they found the bodies of Andreas, his wife Cäzilia, his daughter Viktoria and his granddaughter Cäzilia.

At 3:00 a.m. on 1 April, on the night of the murders, a farmer named Simon Reißländer, travelling to his home near Brunnen, saw two mysterious figures standing at the edge of the forest near Hinterkaifeck.

In 1951, prosecutor Andreas Popp questioned Gump and his brother Anton about the Hinterkaifeck murders. In 1971, a woman identified as 'Therese T.' wrote a letter citing an event in her youth: at the age of 12, she had witnessed her mother receiving a visit from the mother of brothers identified as 'Karl S.' and 'Andreas S.' The woman claimed that her sons, from Sattelberg, had committed the murders at Hinterkaifeck.

According to Betz, Weber spoke of a remote farm called Hinterkaifeck and alluded to personal knowledge about the Gruber family, including the incest between Andreas and Viktoria (However, this was public knowledge since the 1915 trial.) Betz testified in a hearing that Weber had suggested killing Andreas to steal the family's money.

She suspected the brothers Anton and Karl Bichler (brothers of the aforementioned Josef Bichler) of having committed the murders. Rieger suspected the Bichlers committed the murder together with Georg Siegl, a Hinterkaifeck farmhand who knew of the family fortune.

Rieger also pointed suspicion at brothers Josef and Andreas Thaler, who had committed several minor burglaries in the area before the murders.

The Hinterkaifeck murders bear some similarities to Mueller's suspected crimes in the United States, including the slaughter of an entire family in their isolated home, use of the blunt edge of a farm tool as a weapon (a pickaxe), the moving and stacking bodies of the victims and the apparent absence of robbery as a motive.

Many books and newspaper articles have been devoted to the Hinterkaifeck murders.

Quick Facts

• Immediately following the murders, the perpetrator lived with the six corpses for three days.
• The murder weapon, a mattock, which was used on all six of the victims, was later recovered in the loft of the barn.
• Four of the bodies were found stacked in the barn, the victims having likely been lured there one by one.
• Maria had only worked at Hinterkaifeck for one day before the murders.
• Prior to the incident, other family members and a former maid had reported hearing strange noises coming from the attic, which led to said maid quitting the job.

Source material: Wikipedia - "Hinterkaifeck murders". Adapted and summarized for DiscoverScroll. Original contributors are credited through the linked Wikipedia article. Read original on Wikipedia. CC BY-SA 4.0. Changes were made from the original.