The "Revenge Mother"
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How is it that I never heard of this??
https://allthatsinteresting.com/marianne-bachmeier
On March 6, 1981, Marianne Bachmeier opened fire in a crowded courthouse in what was then known as West Germany. Her target was a 35-year-old sex offender on trial for her daughter’s murder, and he died after taking six of her bullets.
In addition to the case’s ethical conundrum, there was also a legal debate about whether the shooting was premeditated or not and whether it was murder or manslaughter. Different rulings carried different punishments. Decades later, a friend featured in a documentary about the case claimed to have witnessed Bachmeier perform target practice with a gun in her pub cellar before the shooting.
The court ultimately convicted Bachmeier of premeditated manslaughter and sentenced her to six years behind bars in 1983.
After her death, Marianne Bachmeier was buried next to her daughter in Lübeck.
According to a survey by the Allensbach Institute, a majority of 28 percent of Germans deemed her six-year sentencing as an appropriate penalty for her actions. Another 27 percent considered the sentence too heavy while 25 percent viewed it as too light.
In June 1985, Marianne Bachmeier was released from prison after serving only half of her sentence. She moved to Nigeria, where she married and remained until the 1990s. After she divorced her husband, Bachmeier relocated to Sicily where she stayed until she was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, upon which she returned to a now-unified Germany.
With precious little time left, Bachmeier requested Lukas Maria Böhmer, a reporter for NDR, to film her last weeks alive. She died on Sept. 17, 1996, at the age of 46. She was buried next to her daughter, Anna. -
A part of me always has a sneaking admiration for revenge-takers. Maybe not in these circs -- crowded environment, where you're putting others at risk. But there's something, I don't know, pure about the eye-for-an-eye thing, when the thing taken from you is a beloved one.
I don't advocate it! But I sort of understand it.
I could also see myself doing it.
Success is measured by your discipline and inner peace. – Mike Ditka
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A part of me always has a sneaking admiration for revenge-takers. Maybe not in these circs -- crowded environment, where you're putting others at risk. But there's something, I don't know, pure about the eye-for-an-eye thing, when the thing taken from you is a beloved one.
I don't advocate it! But I sort of understand it.
I could also see myself doing it.
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For those who don't remember this case:
Wiki -- On 5 May 1980, Anna Bachmeier did not go to school to spite her mother. When trying to visit a friend her own age, Anna was abducted by Klaus Grabowski, a 35-year-old butcher. He is said to have held Anna for several hours at home and then strangled her with a pair of tights. According to the Prosecutor he had tied the girl tight, packed her into a box, which he then buried on the canal bank in a shallow grave.
Klaus Grabowski was a convicted sex offender and had previously been sentenced for the sexual abuse of two girls. During his detention, he was castrated in 1976 and, two years later, underwent hormone treatment. Once arrested, Grabowski stated that he did not intend to sexually abuse Anna. He said the girl had wanted to tell her mother that he had touched her inappropriately, with the aim of extorting money from him.
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I get what she did and she knew she likely would go to jail for at least some time.
Hard to let someone off even though he was a monster, because it sets a precedence. Glad she got out early and had some semblance of what turned out to be a short life. Seems like her deathbed wish was to tell her version again and let that be her legacy.
All my comments are based on what is included in this thread.
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I could easily see her getting just a token sentence here, with the right judge and prosecutor. Or not.
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A part of me always has a sneaking admiration for revenge-takers. Maybe not in these circs -- crowded environment, where you're putting others at risk. But there's something, I don't know, pure about the eye-for-an-eye thing, when the thing taken from you is a beloved one.
I don't advocate it! But I sort of understand it.
I could also see myself doing it.
@catseye3 said in The "Revenge Mother":
A part of me always has a sneaking admiration for revenge-takers. Maybe not in these circs -- crowded environment, where you're putting others at risk. But there's something, I don't know, pure about the eye-for-an-eye thing, when the thing taken from you is a beloved one.
I don't advocate it! But I sort of understand it.
I could also see myself doing it.
Agree.
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Here's an American precedent I remember.
Link to video -
Here's an American precedent I remember.
Link to video
