Death of an assassin : the true story of the German murderer who died defending Robert E. Lee / Ann Marie Ackermann.

Format:

• Book

Author/Creator:

• Ackermann, Ann Marie, author.

Series:

• True crime history series

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

• Rieber, Johann Heinrich, -1835.
• Lee, Robert E. (Robert Edward), 1807-1870.
• Murder--Germany--Bönnigheim--Case studies.
• Murderers--Germany--Bönnigheim--Case studies.
• Alvarado, Battle of, Mexico, 1846.
• Murder.
• Murderers.
• Germany--Bönnigheim.
• Mexico.

Genre:

• True crime literature.
• Case studies.

Physical Description:

xvii, 204 pages : illustrations, map ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Kent, Ohio : The Kent State University Press, [2017]

Summary:

"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"--Publisher's website

Contents:

• Preface : the murder case that broke all the rules
• Murder in the Kingdom of Württemberg : 1835-36
• Exile in the United States : 1835-46
• Heroism in Mexico : 1847
• An international solution : 1872
• Epilogue : unpaid debt : 2017
• Appendix A : sources indicating Lee wrote his letter about Gottlob Rueb
• Appendix B : additional history of Pennsylvania's German Company in the Mexican-American War.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 162-199) and index.

Local Notes:

HSP Credit Line -- John Kreitzer journal, 1846-1848, call number: Am .68835. Page 129 and 178.

ISBN:

• 9781606353042
• 1606353047

OCLC:

978712647