GOTTFRIED, Gesche Margarethe.

£9,750 · Offered by Peter Harrington · No longer available

Life of Gesche Margarethe Gottfried: Executed at Bremen in Germany in May 1831. First edition in English of an account of one of Germany's most prolific female serial killers, scarce. Gottfried murdered 15 individuals using arsenic, including her parents, two of her husbands, three of her own children, and her brother. The original German text was written by Friedrich Voget, Gottfried's defence lawyer, and published on the day of her execution.Gesche Gottfried (1785-1831) lived for most of her life in the north German city of Bremen, where she was admired for her devotion to the poor and unwell. Her murders commenced in 1813 and continued until 1827. She was arrested in 1828, tried in 1830, and in 1831 became the final person to be publicly executed in Bremen. Reporting on the case extended far beyond Germany; it had reached Pennsylvania by May 1828, when Gottfried's arrest and charges were reported in the Philadelphia Inquirer.With Gottfried's death, all censorship regarding her case was terminated, and three books on her life and crimes appeared immediately. One of these works was Voget's biography, which covered Gottfried's life in minute detail and extended to 768 pages. It may have been imported and sold in Pennsylvania for the Pennsylvania Dutch community.During her trial, Gottfried admitted her guilt but struggled to express remorse or identify any clear motivation for her actions, which drove public interest. Voget's text argued that Gottfried was utterly devoid of al

Found via Rare Books Intel, a search across rare-book dealers, auction houses and marketplaces worldwide.