As of: March 5, 2024, 4:23 p.m
By: Cornelia Schramm
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The poisoned gentian was in this stone jar.
A single stamp was enough to kill Albert Blumoser in 1967.
© Munich State Archives
A mysterious murder case presented the police in Fürstenfeldbruck with a puzzle in 1967: a man died after drinking a shot of gentian.
But it soon becomes clear: the poison attack was actually aimed at someone else.
Fürstenfeldbruck – On Valentine's Day 1967, things went haywire in the hospital in Fürstenfeldbruck.
A young man is admitted.
He is dead. The doctors are guessing a serious cause of death: poison.
When the police arrived at the clinic, they found 25-year-old Manfred Müller.
He is the companion of the dead Albert Blumoser.
Müller is questioned that night.
He actually lives with his wife Christel and two children in Kempten and is in Fürstenfeldbruck because he is taking part in a several-week course for employees of the German Weather Service.
Blumoser was his colleague.
“The files say little about Mr. Müller’s state of mind,” explains historian and archivist Ulrike Claudia Hofmann.
She leafs through a stack of old papers in the Munich State Archives.
She dug up the historic murder case from 1967 from the miles of archive shelves.
Everything the public prosecutor was dealing with at the time is contained in the old file.
Albert Blumoser dies from the poison in the gentian.
© Munich State Archives
Classes, canteen, learning.
Colleagues Müller and Blumoser didn't do anything else that day.
“Blumoser complained of a runny nose and cough all day long.
“He wanted to buy a bottle of rum in the morning because he hoped it would improve his flu,” Müller explains to the officers.
At the end of the day, Müller takes pity and offers his colleague the gentian that he has in his room.
But the liquor was anything but a cure for his ailing colleague.
The investigators had the bottle photographed a little later.
Because it quickly became clear: the doctors were right.
Poison has been added to the gentian.
Traces of sodium cyanide were found in the murder victim's stomach.
Better known as hydrogen cyanide.
Hydrocyanic acid in gentian: The poison attack was intended to affect someone else
When Blumoser finished drinking, everything happened very quickly.
Müller reports: “Blumoser drank the jug, sailor-style, in one gulp.” Then he gasps and shouts: “That’s sour, that’s vinegar.” Müller is just sipping his schnapps and immediately spits the schnapps back out out of.
“The taste was disgusting, I immediately had a dry throat,” he told police.
Both colleagues swear and rinse their mouths in the bathroom.
Müller pours the gentian into the toilet.
Seconds later, Blumoser collapses, shaking with cramps.
Müller gets help.
But Blumoser dies - and leaves behind a pregnant wife.
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The files from 1967 show that the police examined Müller closely.
“He states that the gentian came into his possession in a mysterious way,” explains Hofmann.
Days before the fatal toast, Müller's colleagues tease him about an alleged lover who sent him a package to Fürstenfeldbruck.
Manfred Müller receives the ominous package with an unknown sender during a course in Fürstenfeldbruck.
© Munich State Archives
“The package contained a bottle of gentian, the Krügerl and cat tongues,” says archivist Ulrike Hofmann.
“A card said: Greetings from the Upper Palatinate, but drink alone with pleasure.” Sender unknown.
When the police question Müller's wife, they come across a hot lead.
Her first husband, a former sergeant from Stuttgart, is said to have threatened to kill her new partner - Manfred Müller.
“The officers underlined the exact spot in the statement in red in the file,” says Hofmann.
“That shows that the alarm bells were ringing.”
Fürstenfeldbruck: Wife is targeted in the investigation into the Enzian murder
And indeed: the package was posted in Stuttgart.
So the murderer seems clear.
Until the postal worker on duty gets in touch.
He says: A young woman - not a jealous soldier - posted the package.
And: The woman said she had forgotten to note the recipient.
Wouldn't the postal worker be able to do that for you?
“Greetings from the Palatinate” is written on the card.
A bottle of gentian and cat tongues are included in the gift.
© Munich State Archives
Things get even more explosive: three days after Blumoser's tragic death, a metal worker from Kempten reports to the police.
He had recently filled a gentian bottle with acid for a friend and obtained another substance - sodium cyanide.
The investigators investigate: This same friend is also a friend of Christel Müller, and a special one at that.
The two have been having an affair for almost a year - and wanted to get their husband and father Manfred Müller out of the way.
It's just a shame that the deadly cocktail ended up hitting the wrong person.
And the police found out about the two of them despite all the feints.
Both were sentenced to 15 years in prison each.
(sco)