In 1966, I was a young military policeman assigned to Erlangen, outside Nuremberg. While there, I heard the story of the so-called "Beast of Bayreuth", a US Army lieutenant, who had been arrested in 1964 for the gruesome murder of his German girlfriend, who he cut up into pieces and strewed along the roads outside Bayreuth, a town not far from Erlangen made famous by the composer Richard Wagner who lived there.
Although I knew that the killer had been captured and prosecuted, his story was forgotten as I left the army and the years passed. A few years ago, I was talking on the phone with an ex-Erlangen GI who asked about the case. He had been Googling "Beast of Bayreuth" but had come up empty. I tried as well but with the same results.
This week, while surfing through a website for veterans of Ferris Barracks (our Erlangen kaserne), a found another query as to whatever became of the "Beast of Bayreuth"? The question was whether he had been executed, was serving life in prison or what?
This time, Google was more accommodating. The actual name of the officer was Gerald Maurice Werner. Now there are a handful (so far) of articles that bring us up to date on his fate.
Upon his arrest after parts of his victim's body were found along the roads, Werner confessed to killing his girlfriend, Ursula Schamel, by choking her and drowning her in the bathtub of his home in Bayreuth. He then cut her in pieces and tried to flush the parts down the toilet before putting them in his car and throwing them along the rural roads outside Bayreuth. Werner was confined at the stockade at Fuerth until it was finally agreed that the Germans would try his case under the Status of Forces Agreement. In German court, he was ruled insane and confined for a few years in a German mental institution (Heil und Phlege Anstalt) in Ansbach. The decision was based on interviews of Werner by psychiatric experts from the University of Erlangen. It naturally caused outrage among members of Schamel's family and the public.
The below English-language article from that time tells the story up to his conviction.
http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1955&dat=19670212&id=7eQiAAAAIBAJ&sjid=xJkFAAAAIBAJ&pg=2138,5475773
In 1971, Werner was turned back over to the US Military who returned him to the US and discharged him. But he was not yet a free man. A state court in his home state of Minnesota confined him to a mental hospital. He was declared of sound mind in 1976 and released. Then in 1979, a court awarded him back pay for the period he was under US-German confinement from 1964 to 1971! That information is contained in the comment thread of the below site (Dragoon Base-see Garrett Bruen). The reader who relayed the below facts was a records clerk in the army in Germany during the 1960s and had to send monthly reports on Werner to the Pentagon.
http://dragoonbase.com/group/bindlach/forum/topics/2nd-armored-cavalry
Below is the text of the court decision on the Werner claim for correction of his military records.
http://federal-circuits.vlex.com/vid/gerald-werner-v-the-united-states-38403484
But what happened to Werner after 1979? At last report, he was living in Minnesota. A German source, the Nordbayerische Kurier, recently writing on the story, seems to have found a final answer.
http://www.bt24.de/aktuelles/region/item/86301/gebiet/bayreuth/us_oberleutnant_gerald_m_werner_bringt_seine_freundin_um_und_zerst%FCckelt_die_leiche_8211_er_landet_in_der_psychiatrie_nicht_im_gef%E4ngnis
The final paragraph indicates that an Internet search found a reference to the reported death of a man with the same name and age on April 6, 1999 in (Inver) Grove Heights, Minnesota.
Here is what I have been able to find:
http://www.locategrave.org/l/3050296/Gerald-Maurice-Werner-MN
It seems that the years 1979-1999 are still unknown to the public as to what happened to Werner in his last twenty years.
Bayreuth is a city with a history. It was a margravial home of the Hollenzollern family, and as mentioned, was the home of Richard Wagner and the opera house connected to him and his surviving family. To the city's embarrassment, it was also favored by Adolf Hitler, who, as a Wagner fan, became a friend and patron of the Wagner family. As evidenced by the recent German news article, the city also remembers the "Beast of Bayreuth".
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20 comments:
I was stationed in the 87th dental det at the 20 station hospital in Nurnberg in 1965- I worked in the exam room and they brought Werner in several times- he would be handcuffed to the dental chair and I would take x rays on him- he never said a word to any of us.
Here is a medicalreport that is online regarding Werner. It actually concerns his appeal for back pay. https://www.leagle.com/decision/19811046642f2d4041933
https://www.alamy.com/oct-10-1966-commit-gi-in-german-killing-bayreuth-germany-oct-18-ap-image69425619.html
Donald Persinger Sargent C troop 2nd armor Cav
Bayreuth Germany 1964 On TDY to guard Lt Werner at Nuremberg Stockade
I was attached to the 2nd Armored Cavalry for West Point AOT during the summer of 1963. Lt. Werner was my “sponsor” for training. I knew him and Ursula pretty well, although my memories are vague. I think I went on double dates with them several times; she set me up because I spoke fluent German. I did not notice or remember anything strange about him, he was very helpful to me. I only learned about the incident when the Captain of our unit sent me a letter the following year. I was talking to a classmate recently about Germany and that triggered the memory, and I googled this. That’s about all I can recall until I read all this. pretty scary.
Tommy Thompson
In the early 70’s, I was attached to the 2nd Region CID in Grafenwohr, Germany. Bill Russell was the Agent in Charge and told me to get some old CID files from the attic of the CID office .These were old case files that had been closed out for several years. I brought down several boxes and Bill told me to incinerate them in our local incinerator. I recall that this was one of the files with attached gruesome photos. When I finished burning these files I stopped by the MPI office which was downstairs from our CID office. I recall John McClain was in charge of the MPI and I told him I had just incinerated some old closed out CID files and was telling him about the one with the gruesome body parts strewn along the road. John told me he was very familiar with that case he was on duty back then when the Lt. was brought in and stripped before being placed in the D cell. John told me that he could not understand why someone didn’t notice anything strange about him as he had shaved his arms, legs and pubic hair and that the only place he had any hair was some on his head. I don’t know. If John is still living, but Bill Russell passed away many years ago .others I worked with at the CID office were Tommy Washington, Robert Burns and Henry McIntyre.
Thank you for the comment and information. A fascinating story.
I was an artillery officer in Howitzer battery at that time. I was a forward observer (artillery) and the Squadron’s liason officer, largely because I could “read a map” (I was a forester by training). Werner was my commanding officer. I was there when the police came in and put some sort of powder into the trunk of his car (a big Plymouth with fins, if I recall). The powder turned a color (blue, I think) if it contact blood. The trunk lit up like a light bulb. Whenever a lieutenant argued with Gerry or defied some small order, like for example: When we were tent camping at Graphinveer (sp) he would sometimes throw his cigarette butt on the ground then say, “Pick it up, lieutenant”. We’d often reply something like “screw you” or whatever. His reply was always “Duly noted!). Once, I had to lead our tracks (105 SP howitzers) to Graph via back roads. It was snowing hard and very icy. I was specifically ordered to NOT take the autobahn. The steel tracks on those guns started slipping immediately, and the guns slid all over the road, on one occasion, slamming a tree and knocking loose a piece of armor plate. The roads were barely wide enough for an SP howitzer and a VW. I called in on my radio several times telling Werner it was unsafe to continue, that we were probably gonna kill someone before we got to Graph. So..after a couple radio talks, a little German Opel came around the bend just as one of the guns slid out. The car crashed head on to the gun. There were two people inside. Both were killed. The impact was so strong we had to use a pair of guns to pull the car apart. It was awful. I called Gerry on the radio and said, “Congratulations, Gerry, we just killed two German civilians. “Permission to take the autobahn?” Over. “Negative”, he replied. Then I said, no way, we’re taking the autobahn. And we did, got home safely. Then Gerry called me in and said he was initiating court martial charges because I disobeyed a direct order. About two weeks later I received a letter from the Dept. of Army, ordering me to appear at a court in Nurenburg. I wrote back that I would be there but my commanding officer wouldn’t because he was in prison for murdering a woman. Another week passed and I got a letter saying they had reviewed the situation and dropped the charges. By the way, Gerry’s second in command (who name escapes me) was courtmartialed too.
Thank you for those comments. Werner was obviously a real piece of work.
Thank you Gary! This is such an interesting case. We are producing a podcast about the murder right now. There are so many stories in this story, it is amazing. It would be very helpful, if somebody who knew Werner, the life in Bayreuth/Bindlach or anything about the case could give us an interview.
Thanks for your help!
Matthias
Fresh@eclipso.de
Matthias, I myself don't know anybody who knew Werner. The reader comments you see above in his thread are pretty much it. Please let me know when your podcasts is ready. I would like to see it.
Thank you very much for your answer, Gary.
I will share the link, when the podcast will be ready.
Should be in October this year, the 60th "anniversary" of the verdict.
Another question: Louis Gaban was Werners roomate.
Does anybody how long he has been in Bindlach?
Matthias, I do not know, but hopefully, one of the above readers knows, but this article and comment thread are pretty old.
You, right. Just a try. We are a really bit late with this podcast. ;)
We will keep you informed and everybody who is still reading here …
These are the interviews we've done so far for the podcast: Werner's (co-)lawyer 1966, Ursula's friend in school, a police officer who found a missing leg, the son of the mayor of Bayreuth in 1964, a surgeon, and a lawyer.
A perspective from a (former) US soldier is sorely lacking. It's not necessarily (just) about the Werner case, but also about life in Bindlach in the 1960s in general. Where and how did people party in Bayreuth, for example? Was there much contact with Germans? Were there any problems?
The dollar was highly valued; were the US soldiers in Germany "rich"? Questions like these...
I cannot speak for Bayreuth in the 1960s since I was never there. The only time I have been to Bayreuth was over 10 years ago while on a research trip for my book on the history of Erlangen. I can give you a lot of generic information on what it was like for the US soldiers in Germany in the 60s since I was a military policeman in Erlangen. Some towns had more problems with the GIs than others. For example, in the 1960s, Kaiserslautern, Hanau, Bamberg, and Illesheim were more "active" for MPs than others.
You might want to check the two books I have written that touch on these issues. In 2005, I published "Erlangen: An American's History of a German Town. (University Press of America) There is a chapter on the specific time I was in the city and what it was like for GIs and MPs.
My last book: "My years in DEA and Beyond: The drug war, anti-semitism, and Islamist extremism", have two chapters on the time I spent, first in Goeppingen, then Erlangen, 1966-68. Both mention the relations between GIs and Germans, the bars, social life, etc. At the time, the Deutsche Mark was about 3.8 to a dollar.
Both books are available on Amazon Books.
In addition, I am in a few online chat groups for former US soldiers who were in Germany. I can send queries for anybody who was in Bayreuth during the period. As for the Bindlach kaserne, I have no information.
I am willing to assist you any way I can.
I assume you are in Germany, right?
Matthias: I have sent the information to two sites for ex-GIs in Germany. I suggest you send me your email (which I will not post) and then we can communicate more directly, especially if I am able to put you in contact with somebody.
Oops! Looks like you sent it already.
Hi Gary … from Germany, yes.
Thanks a lot for your help!
You can send me an e-mail and I will send you all my data
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