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    Death of an Assassin: The True Story of the German Murderer Who Died Defending Robert E. Lee
    Death of an Assassin: The True Story of the German Murderer Who Died Defending Robert E. Lee
    Death of an Assassin: The True Story of the German Murderer Who Died Defending Robert E. Lee
    Ebook309 pages3 hours

    Death of an Assassin: The True Story of the German Murderer Who Died Defending Robert E. Lee

    By Ann Marie Ackermann

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    From the depths of German and American archives comes a story one soldier never wanted told. The first volunteer killed defending Robert E. Lee’s position in battle was really a German assassin. After fleeing to the United States to escape prosecution for murder, the assassin enlisted in a German company of the Pennsylvania Volunteers in the Mexican-American War and died defending Lee’s battery at the Siege of Veracruz in 1847. Lee wrote a letter home, praising this unnamed fallen volunteer defender. Military records identify him, but none of the Americans knew about his past life of crime.

    Before fighting with the Americans, Lee’s defender had assassinated Johann Heinrich Rieber, mayor of Bönnigheim, Germany, in 1835. Rieber’s assassination became 19th-century Germany’s coldest case ever solved by a non–law enforcement professional and the only 19th-century German murder ever solved in the United States. Thirty-seven years later, another suspect in the assassination who had also fled to America found evidence in Washington, D.C., that would clear his own name, and he forwarded it to Germany. The German prosecutor Ernst von Hochstetter corroborated the story and closed the case file in 1872, naming Lee’s defender as Rieber’s murderer.

    Relying primarily on German sources, Death of an Assassin tracks the never-before-told story of this German company of Pennsylvania volunteers. It follows both Lee’s and the assassin’s lives until their dramatic encounter in Veracruz and picks up again with the surprising case resolution decades later.

    This case also reveals that forensic ballistics—firearm identification through comparison of the striations on a projectile with the rifling in the barrel—is much older than previously thought. History credits Alexandre Laccasagne for inventing forensic ballistics in 1888. But more than 50 years earlier, Eduard Hammer, the magistrate who investigated the Rieber assassination in 1835, used the same technique to eliminate a forester’s rifle as the murder weapon. A firearms technician with state police of Baden-Württemberg tested Hammer’s technique in 2015 and confirmed its efficacy, cementing the argument that Hammer, not Laccasagne, should be considered the father of forensic ballistics.

    The roles the volunteer soldier/assassin and Robert E. Lee played at the Siege of Veracruz are part of American history, and the record-breaking, 19th-century cold case is part of German history. For the first time, Death of an Assassin brings the two stories together.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherThe Kent State University Press
    Release dateSep 1, 2017
    ISBN9781631012587
    Death of an Assassin: The True Story of the German Murderer Who Died Defending Robert E. Lee

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    • 5/5
      Death of an Assassin by Ann Marie Ackerman is a well plotted and researched book of crime, war, and intrigue. The pages are filled with historical facts as well as reenactments of events as they are thought to have occurred. The solving of one of the oldest cold cases in history and the link to the USA’s past is fascinating.

      Follow along as Ann Ackermann takes you through history and a crime that went unsolved for over 40 years, leading directly to one of America's most famous Generals of all time.
      --
      Genre: Non-Fiction/Historical/True Crime
      Publisher: The Kent State University Press
      Publishing date: September 1, 2017

      This is the story of the murder of Mayor Johann Heinrich Rieber in the Kingdom of Wurttemberg, Bonnigheim, now known as Southwest Germany. As well as the man who murdered him, Gottlob Rueb. Rueb played a role in US history while protecting Robert E. Lee during the Mexican-American War.

      Lee wrote to numerous colleagues and household members regarding a deceased soldier that he admired for his strength while enduring considerable pain. It is not known whether Robert E. Lee ever learned Rueb’s name. Evidence suggests that Lee had no personal contact with Rueb, and most likely never knew Rueb was a murderer.

      Much of the investigation into the murder of Rieber can be attributed to the birth of ballistics forensic. This case may well have served as the jumping off point in today’s modern forensic studies and is a look into the world of crime and investigation as it was hundreds of years ago.

      In 1872, after stringing together all of the evidence and documentation of the day Frederick Rupp concluded that Mr. Rueb was the killer. Mr. Rupp, who was once a suspect in the murder wrote a letter to Bonnigheim’s city council stating that he believed Rueb to be the murderer of Mayor Rieber. Unfortunately, Mr. Rueb deceased by then could not be punished for the crime. The cold case of who killed Mayor Rieber was solved thanks to Mr. Rupp. Those who were wrongly accused, including Mr. Rupp were vindicated.

      Death of an Assassin is an interesting read, the pages filled with historical value. It is well written as well as entertaining. Ms. Ackermann has crafted an easy to follow story that will leave the reader wanting more. The insights into the mind and life of Robert E. Lee are captivating and give the reader a new take on what Lee felt and thought during his first real battle. History comes alive through this story and sends the reader on a trip back through time.

      This book is highly recommended to all of those who enjoy crime, and a historical who-done-it. Death of an Assassin takes readers on a trip into a world no one alive today remembers.

    Book preview

    Death of an Assassin - Ann Marie Ackermann

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