Ludwig Tessnow
Beth Doerr and Lauren Kaufman
Background
In July of 1901, two brothers Herman and Peter Stubbe
(six and eight years old) went out to play in the woods
and they never came back. A search party was
conducted and they found dismembered body parts
scattered through a wide woodland area. Members of
the search party tracked a bloody trail and they found
disemboweled remains of the Stubbe brothers.
Key Players
Herman and Peter Stubbe- (victims)Brothers found murdered and disemboweled
Ludwig Tessnow- (suspect) A carpenter from the neighboring village, he was seen
talking to the boys on the day they were murdered. Claimed that the red stains on
his clothes were wood dyes
Ernst Hubschmann- Local prosecutor
Johann Schmidt- Examining magistrate
Paul Uhlenhuth- discovered how to test for blood and discern
human blood versus animal blood
When and Where
Murder of the Stubbe Brothers:
Rugen Island, Germany
1901
First Murder Tessnow Committed
Osnabruck, Germany
1898
Evidence
Boots and Clothes:
•
•
Found at Tessnow’s home
Had dark stains and were recently washed - claimed to be wood dye
Apart from the staining on the clothing that was found, no other physical evidence was
found that could connect the carpenter with the crime
•
•
Several days before the murder of the Stubbe boys, a farmer saw a man resembling
Tessnow running across his fields covered in blood
All of the farmers sheeps were found to be disemboweled and dismembered
Previous case:
•
•
•
A murder that occurred several years earlier (1898) was extremely similar
Two young girls (ages seven and eight) were found murdered in the woods near their homes
Ludwig Tessnow was seen in the woods where they were killed - he was detained due to his
Techniques Used
Precipitate Test: Assays for the detection of immunoglobulin levels from the serum of a subject.
This test is performed in semi-solid media (agar) where antibodies and antigens can diffuse
toward one another and form a visible line of precipitation
•
Rabbit-based serums were created which precipitated and showed the proteins of any animal,
including humans
Outcome
•
•
•
Tessnow’s overalls, shirt, and suit were found to contain wood dye as
well as seventeen traces as human blood
His jacket was found to have sheeps blood on it, connecting him to
another crime
After Tessnow was tried and confined for a long period of time, he was
executed at Greifswald Prison in 1904
Work Cited
http://crimesceneinvestigatio.blogspot.com/2013/04/the-ludwig-tessnow-case.html
http://murderpedia.org/male.T/t/tessnow-ludwig.htm