well-known forensic pathologist, thought it was an air raid siren when a driver for the Kripo woke him in the middle of the night to come to this crime scene. Once he arrived, the Kripo asked him to examine the body where it was found along the railroad tracks. He was able to estimate the rough time of death, but the detective on the scene wanted more information from Dr. Weimann than he was able to provide.
After looking over Elfriede Franke’s corpse, Dr. Weimann wrote in his memoirs that he was asked about the cause of death as follows:
“Death by a blow or just by the fall?” asked Detective Zach, who was standing beside me at the accident site.
“Do you have maybe an X-ray machine with you?” I replied angrily.
“After all, I would be grateful if I could have your finding today,” said Zach. . . . [Zach] seemed to detect my reluctance [to do a postmortem that quickly]. He pulled me aside and said, ‘This is the third case of this kind . . . on this route.’” 1
This was the first time Dr. Weimann had heard anything about this situation. Zach explained to him that two women had been thrown from the S-Bahn before and had remarkably managed to survive, one by landing in sand and the other living to talk to police despite sustaining major damage to her body.
There was more. The detective told the doctor that the first victim had strangulation marks on her neck, while the second said she’d been hit on the head. As an expert in forensic medicine, the doctor was curious what other evidence the police had beyond the second woman’s word that a man had hit her. Detective Zach said that in addition to injuries related to being thrown from a train, a doctor was able to find evidence of a blow from a tool of some sort.
As Dr. Weimann recalled, he then asked, “Who was this medical examiner?” 2
The response was a surprise: “Well, you yourself, doctor.” 3
In thinking back, it made sense to him. Dr. Weimann wrote, “First, I was angry, I remembered those ominous radiographs. They had been sent to me one day out of the Reich Criminal Police Office ‘with a request for expert opinion.’ Otherwise unspecified were the Who, When, Where, How and Why—the golden ‘W’s of the coroner. I had to the best of my expertise and knowledge expressed the judgment of: ‘Flawless skull and skull base rupture by impact on a flat surface. In addition, localized fractures, possibly by impact with a blunt object.’” 4
Dr. Weimann was a curious man, and the first question that popped into his mind after realizing that he’d already consulted on the related attack, under mysterious circumstances, was “Why the secrecy?” 5
Detective Zach told him that it was because Joseph Goebbels, the Reich minister of propaganda, wanted this kept quiet. For Dr. Weimann, this answer made perfect sense and required no follow-up questions. He was well aware that Nazi Germany was a country in which the flow of information was tightly controlled by the government.
The doctor was thinking about what could motivate a man to throw women off the train, given that he was not stealing anything from them. He asked about it being a sexual offense, but the detective told him that the first two victims said that nothing of that sort had happened. Besides, they could see for themselves that Elfriede Franke still had all her clothes on and they were not disturbed any more than one would expect from such a terrible fall. There was nothing to suggest that any of these women had been molested.
Dr. Weimann left the crime scene to accompany the body as it was driven to the morgue.
What neither Dr. Weimann nor the police realized at the time was that the doctor had already examined a third woman, Gertrude Ditter, killed by the same perpetrator who attacked Elizabeth Bendorf and Elfriede Franke. They would not make that connection for a while to come, as Mrs. Ditter was found in her home in the garden area and had been killed with a knife, as
After looking over Elfriede Franke’s corpse, Dr. Weimann wrote in his memoirs that he was asked about the cause of death as follows:
“Death by a blow or just by the fall?” asked Detective Zach, who was standing beside me at the accident site.
“Do you have maybe an X-ray machine with you?” I replied angrily.
“After all, I would be grateful if I could have your finding today,” said Zach. . . . [Zach] seemed to detect my reluctance [to do a postmortem that quickly]. He pulled me aside and said, ‘This is the third case of this kind . . . on this route.’” 1
This was the first time Dr. Weimann had heard anything about this situation. Zach explained to him that two women had been thrown from the S-Bahn before and had remarkably managed to survive, one by landing in sand and the other living to talk to police despite sustaining major damage to her body.
There was more. The detective told the doctor that the first victim had strangulation marks on her neck, while the second said she’d been hit on the head. As an expert in forensic medicine, the doctor was curious what other evidence the police had beyond the second woman’s word that a man had hit her. Detective Zach said that in addition to injuries related to being thrown from a train, a doctor was able to find evidence of a blow from a tool of some sort.
As Dr. Weimann recalled, he then asked, “Who was this medical examiner?” 2
The response was a surprise: “Well, you yourself, doctor.” 3
In thinking back, it made sense to him. Dr. Weimann wrote, “First, I was angry, I remembered those ominous radiographs. They had been sent to me one day out of the Reich Criminal Police Office ‘with a request for expert opinion.’ Otherwise unspecified were the Who, When, Where, How and Why—the golden ‘W’s of the coroner. I had to the best of my expertise and knowledge expressed the judgment of: ‘Flawless skull and skull base rupture by impact on a flat surface. In addition, localized fractures, possibly by impact with a blunt object.’” 4
Dr. Weimann was a curious man, and the first question that popped into his mind after realizing that he’d already consulted on the related attack, under mysterious circumstances, was “Why the secrecy?” 5
Detective Zach told him that it was because Joseph Goebbels, the Reich minister of propaganda, wanted this kept quiet. For Dr. Weimann, this answer made perfect sense and required no follow-up questions. He was well aware that Nazi Germany was a country in which the flow of information was tightly controlled by the government.
The doctor was thinking about what could motivate a man to throw women off the train, given that he was not stealing anything from them. He asked about it being a sexual offense, but the detective told him that the first two victims said that nothing of that sort had happened. Besides, they could see for themselves that Elfriede Franke still had all her clothes on and they were not disturbed any more than one would expect from such a terrible fall. There was nothing to suggest that any of these women had been molested.
Dr. Weimann left the crime scene to accompany the body as it was driven to the morgue.
What neither Dr. Weimann nor the police realized at the time was that the doctor had already examined a third woman, Gertrude Ditter, killed by the same perpetrator who attacked Elizabeth Bendorf and Elfriede Franke. They would not make that connection for a while to come, as Mrs. Ditter was found in her home in the garden area and had been killed with a knife, as
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