Parricide

Although it is rare for a child to murder their parents, accounting for only 1 to 5 percent of all homicides worldwide, it does happen. One person who committed parricide, the technical term for the murder of one’s parents, was 16-year-old Joseph Apfelböck from the Haidhausen district of Munich. Not only did he murder his parents with a small-caliber pistol in 1919, but he also lived with their bodies in the apartment for three weeks after the murder. But first things first. On August 18, 1919, carpenter Josef Holmer and pastry chef apprentice Josef Zelmer reported to the police station of the 15th Munich district of Truding-Riem that a terrible stench, smelling of decay, was coming from the apartment of Josef and Maria Apfelböck at Lothringergasse 11. The police officers then drove to the apartment building. As soon as they entered the stairwell, the foul smell hit their noses. When no one answered the door after ringing the bell several times, the police officers forced it open. Upon entering the apartment, they discovered the bodies of Josef and Maria Apfelböck. The subsequent investigation revealed that the residents of the building had not seen the couple for three weeks. When the stench became unbearable, they spoke to the couple’s 16-year-old son Josef, who blamed it on rotten meat. To corroborate his statement, the entrails and skin of a rabbit were hanging on the balcony. It also came to light that the residents of the house had seen Josef sleeping on the balcony several times. After Josef had slept on the balcony again from August 18 to 19 and visited his uncle Karl Apfelböck at around 6 a.m., he was handcuffed. Josef was considered a prime suspect in the murder of his parents. Josef was interrogated at the police station, where he initially denied everything. But at some point, the teenager broke down and made a full confession. On July 29, 1919, he had shot his mother with a Flobert pistol at around 8 p.m. The trivial reason was that she had forbidden him to apply for a job as a projectionist at the cinema. His father was not at home at the time. After the murder, he searched his mother’s body for money and valuables. When his father returned home from working in the woods in Hohenbrunn, he first shot him and then stabbed him several times with a knife. He also searched his body for money and other valuables. Curiously, after murdering his parents, Josef even received a visit from his friends Josef Zelmer and Johann Gerbl. On November 25, 1919, Josef Apfelböck was sentenced to 15 years in prison without parole by the Munich People’s Court at Mariahilfplatz. This was the maximum sentence for juveniles. On December 20, 1919, Josef began serving his sentence at the Landsberg am Lech prison. There he trained as a tailor. After serving his sentence, he returned to the Bavarian capital of Munich, where he actually managed to lead a normal life without reoffending. The famous author Bertold Brecht used the criminal case as the basis for his ballad “Apfelböck oder die Lilie auf dem Felde” (Apfelböck or the Lily in the Field). He also addressed the case in his story “Die Erleuchtung” (The Enlightenment). The writer Robert Hültner also mentioned the case in his crime novel “Inspektor Kajetan und die Sache Koslowski” (Inspector Kajetan and the Koslowski Case).