The Gawenda Case
 
from
 
Erich's Criminal Archive
 
Translated by Daniel Rastatter

Katharina Sroka, who was born in 1865, was the daughter of Ignaz Sroka. He married a second wife Marie Gallus. After his death his widow married Johann Gawenda. He took over the administration of land belonging to the still underage Katharina Sroka, the stepdaughter of his wife, and pledged to support and raise her. However, he unscrupulously neglected this duty. The child fared very badly with him. He often abused her and appeared to have seized her land.

In 1881 Katharina Sroka disappeared without a trace. After some time, a rumor spread that Johann Gawenda, who wanted to keep her land, murdered her with the help of countryman Franz Gallus. After hearing of this, a policeman named Prus took up the matter, and through his energetic efforts, it was possible to determine the following:

Fifteen-year-old Baran has stated that Agnes Sroka, a half-sister of the missing Katharina, had told her in 1882 that Katharina would not be returning as Gawenda and Gallus had killed her one night with a hoe. The seven-year-old Agnes Sroka then told the policeman the following, as stated by the actions she observed: One night, after he sent his wife to drink in the tavern, Gawenda was with Gallus, who had taken a hoe, and the two came to Katharina's bed, and with the blunt end of the hoe, delivered a blow to her forehead. He and Gallus then pulled her out of bed onto the ground where Gawenda continued to beat her until she was dead. He then removed her clothes, covered her with a linen cloth, and carried her out of the room. Agnes Sroka later denied this testimony in court, but the prosecution still used it against the defendants.

Franz Gallus denied the accusation. However, Johann Gawenda confessed to the police voluntarily that he had murdered Katharina Sroka in the manner specified by her sister, with a hoe brought by Gallus. He had given her a mighty blow with the hoe to the chest such that her scream was weak and he buried her body under a willow tree.

In court Gawenda recanted the confession. He claimed it had been extorted from him by abuse. However, he admitted committing the murder to bailiff Buda in jail and said that in contrast to Franz Gallus, whom tried to make him recant, he had to admit the truth because he felt remorse.

A municipal official, Franz Facza, stated that the policeman had urged Gawenda to confess, assuring him that nothing would happen to him, and he would not even be arrested as three years had elapsed since the murder.

However, the trial of Gawenda and Gallus was held on Mar. 12, 1884. Neither the prosecutor nor the jury nor the court took any decisive actions, either in regard to the peculiar “voluntary” yet recanted confession or to the fact that all efforts to locate the body had failed both at the place designated by Gawenda and anywhere else. Because the jury voted 9 to 3 to convict, Gawenda was sentenced to death for murder and Gallus was sentenced to 10 years in prison for providing aid.

Gawenda said of the verdict: “Do with me what you want.” His sentence was commuted to 20 years of imprisonment. In time to come, the innocence of the convicted came to light in a most surprising way. On May 28, 1885, farmer Franz Noga testified as follows in in the District Court at Dabrowa:

“As I was suspected in the community of the murder of my runaway step-daughter, Kathi Przesidowska, I tried to find her in different villages. When I learned that an unknown girl resided in the village of Szarwark, I went there and met the very same Kathi Sroka, who I knew very well, as she had worked for my relative Katharina Setermus.”

On the same day, the same court summoned the unknown girl and found that she was the missing Kathie Sroka. She had runaway from home because she had fared badly with Gawenda and he had repeatedly maltreated her. She had been detained at various places, survived by begging, and worked as a maid until she was discovered by Noga.

An inquiry that was undertaken left no doubt as to her identity. The alleged murder victim walked safe and sound among the living. Gawenda and Gallus were acquitted at a retrial.

Subsequently, a fact was clarified that in the initial proceedings had served to strongly incriminate the accused. Kathi's step-sister Agnes was seen after Kathi's disappearance in the same dress that her sister had received shortly before her disappearance. When asked where she had received the dress she had initially replied that she bought it from Johann Bogacz. That was a lie. Under further questioning the child became confused, and the question went without a response.

Katharina Sroka stated that in leaving home she had taken nothing but two petticoats, two shirts, and two leg linens. Agnes had arbitrarily taken the dress her missing sister owned and was ashamed to admit it.

Source: Die Irrtümer der Strafjustiz unserer Zeit - Geschichte der Justizmorde von 1797 – 1910 (The Errors of Criminal Justice of Our Time - The History of Judicial Murders 1797 – 1910) by Erich Sello, 2001 Edition - 215 p. - ISBN 3-929349-40-X