Short Stuff: Marianne Bachmeier: Vigilante Mother | STUFF YOU SHOULD KNOW

[Music]. Hey and welcome to the short stuff. I'm. Josh and there's Chuck and Jerry's here. too sitting in for Dave. So this is a. good oldfashioned short stuff the oh man. edition. >> vigilante justice. Uh thank you to. perplexity and YouTube and how stuff. works and morbidology. for the information on the um kind of. shocking story of Maryanne Bachmire. >> Yeah. So Maryann Bachmier um you say. vigilante you usually think guys in the.

old west right Maryann Bachmeer was a uh. a woman in Germany in Lubec I believe. Germany in the 1980s. uh who carried out essentially an. execution in the middle of open court to. kill the murderer of her daughter. If. you want to start talking about moral. quandries and ethical twists this is. about as as good as it gets. Yeah, as. bad as it gets uh on May 5th, 1980. And.

you know, trigger warning because this. involves sexual violence and violence. against a child, which is the worst. thing you can imagine. Uh but uh her. daughter Anna was abducted uh at the age. of seven by a man named Klaus Grabowski. He was a 35-year-old butcher. Uh he had. uh he was out on probation. He had a. history of uh crimes against children. and sexual offenses. And uh little Anna. got in an argument with her mother. apparently that morning, skipped school, and Grabowski lured her uh to his.

apartment because he said that he had. cats that she could play with. He um. sexually assaulted her over the course. of several hours and then strangled her. to death. Uh put her body in a cardboard. box and disposed of it in a canal. And. that is the uh most awful part of the. story. So I'm glad that part's over. with. Yeah, for sure. Um, and Maryanne. was a single mom. Did you say that? >> No. >> So, Grabowski was actually turned in by.

his fiance. Um, and like you said, he. was out on probation. He'd actually been. chemically castrated before and his. chemical castration was reversed when he. met his fiance while he was in prison. Um, and so he was caught fairly quickly, I believe, and and he was um, uh, put on. trial for the murder of Anna. And during. this trial, within the first, I think, couple of days, his defense was, I. didn't sexually abuse her, she said that.

she was going to tell um, her mom that I. did sexually abuse her if I didn't give. her money, so that's why I killed her. And that caused Maryanne Bachmire to. absolutely snap. Not only was her young. seven-year-old daughter sexually. assaulted and murdered, now she was. being slandered in open court by the guy. who murdered her. >> Yeah. And gas lit. The the whole country. is being gaslit by this guy. Uh so on. day three of the trial, um she comes.

into court and she has smuggled in a. gun, a small caliber, a .22 Beretta. pistol, and she shot him uh very calmly. apparently walked over uh fired eight. shots at him. I saw seven in other. places, but uh both places I saw that. she hit him six times, killed him on the. spot, and the the the court was going. nuts obviously, but apparently she was. very calm through the whole thing uh. with her demeanor. Said things like, "I. wanted to kill him. Uh he killed my.

daughter. I wanted to shoot him in the. face, but I shot him in the back. I hope. he dies.". >> Yeah. And her just calmly saying this. stuff too while the rest of the court's. going crazy. That's I mean that's movie. type stuff, you know. >> Yeah, for sure. >> So, I say we take a little break and. come back and talk about how people felt. about this uh vigilante execution in. Germany after this. [Music].

[Music]. All right. So, the vigilante killing has. happened in court in front of everybody. So, like you know, kind of no doubt what. happened uh as to her guilt goes. Um. details emerged. uh about you know her past and you know.

how what kind of a mother she was. Some. people at some point like uh questioned. her grief a little bit, criticized her. parenting, but uh most people, a lot of. people were like, "Heck yeah, you know, you you avenged the death of your. daughter. They're in plain view and you. took care of things uh very quickly and. efficiently." And $100,000 Deutsch marks. were raised for her legal defense. because of that. >> Right. And I have to say, I looked into. it. It's pretty gross the people who are. like, "Oh, I don't know. I question her. moral character." Yeah. >> Um she had a kid. She had two kids out.

of wedlock, one at 16, one at 18. And. she adopted both of them off uh right. after they were born. Um because she was. 16 and then 18. When she was 23, she had. Anna. She made the decision to raise her. on her own as a single mom. And then so. that was like her like her past that. people were like, "Oh, I don't know. about that." And then her behavior after. Anna died, she um apparently Maryanne. spent a lot of time at work. She worked.

in a pub and that was enough for people. to be like, I don't know about this. lady. I was okay with her murdering this. guy in open court, but she's spending. time at a pub and I I've lost faith in. her. >> Yeah, exactly. Which surprises me for. Germany because they love their beer. >> Yeah. I should also say this is West. Germany and I don't know if Germans has. refer to it historically like that still. or if they prefer people to just say. Germany because this is 1980 and 1981.

and it was definitely still West Germany. that we're talking about. So if you're. German, write in and let us know. >> Yeah. Yeah, for sure. Um so she. initially had a murder charge put on. her. Uh they eventually convicted her of. manslaughter and unlawful possession of. a firearm. That always cracks me up when. a a tiny little offense is tacked on. >> Uh six-year prison sentence. She served. three and got out. Uh people thought. that that was a fairly lenient um. sentence for obvious reasons. And if you. talk about a pretty evenly split survey,

there was a survey uh about a year later. in ' 83 by the Allen Spock Institute. And 28% felt the sentence was just. right. 27% thought it was too harsh. 25%. thought she got off too lightly. and 20%. weren't sure. So, it's very evenly uh. pretty much evenly divided as to how. people felt about her even serving those. three years. >> Yeah. And plus, it also sparked um a lot. of debates about other stuff, too. Um in. particular, whether or not the West.

German or German court system was a. little too lenient with repeat. offenders. >> Remember, um uh Grabowski was out on on. bail. >> um or on probation, I'm sorry. Um, so. that was a big a big discussion and also. like you know what like what right do. does a person like that have? Do you. have like a moral right to murder. somebody who did that to your child? And. then also does that right extend to your. if somebody did that to your husband or. your wife or your brother? Like is it.

just specifically is it really narrow. that a only a mother could do that only. for her young child only under. circumstances like this? This is the. stuff that the people of Germany were. talking about at the time. >> Yeah, for sure. Um, she served those. three years, uh, was released in June of. 85 and obviously wanted to sort of get. away from all that. Um, she withdrew. from the public eye, pretty, you know, pretty smart move. And moved to Nigeria. She married a a teacher, moved to.

Nigeria. She was there through the 90s, but um, got divorced after a few years. and then after her divorce went to. Sicily and developed pancreatic cancer. uh term a terminal case of cancer. So. that eventually got her to go back to. Germany such that she was you know in. the mid '90s uh like occasionally. interviewed and stuff like that again. because she was back there. >> Um in the mid '9s she was interviewed. for a television show where um I don't. know why she felt like she needed to. admit this because everyone knew it.

happened but sort of was like yeah I did. this. I meant to do it. um and just. passed away about a year later in 1996. at the young age of 46 from cancer. >> Yeah. Um I I think what she was saying. too was that she finally admitted that. it was premeditated because that's what. the case against her hinged on. Was it. something that she had planned out and. like. >> she brought the gun into court? >> Yeah. Yeah. But was it planned even. further than that? And like the. prosecution apparently had firearms. experts that were like she hit this guy.

six out of seven or eight, however many. shots she fired times. Like you actually. would have to have firearms training. The average person would to for that. number of hits. So like people were. saying like she definitely thought about. this, planned it out, prepared for it. and she finally admitted in 1995 that. she did. Um, and she had a really hard. life, man. Dead at 46 of pancreatic. cancer. And I also read that she herself. also had been sexually abused as a. child, too. >> So, she had a really hard hard sad life, you know.

>> Yeah, >> I feel for it. >> Yeah, for sure. She was uh laid to rest. uh beside her daughter there in uh. Burgdor Cemetery in Lubec, Germany. >> Yep. So, if you're in Lubebeck, Germany, and you want to go pay your respects to. Maryanne or Anna or both, you can do. that. Yeah, >> that's right. And this certainly is uh. something still people talk about uh. over there, especially, you know, as far. as uh all all the kind of things we were. saying. Uh and certainly we're not. weighing in on that here as far as. vigilante justice goes, but uh the world.

was probably a better place without that. guy walking around. >> Probably hard to disagree with that, Chuck. And uh I think uh before we say. anything else, short stuff is. >> Stuff You Should Know is a production of. iHeart Radio. For more podcasts, iHeart. Radio, visit the iHeart Radio app, Apple. Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your. favorite shows. [Music].