The annals of history are filled with well-known and creepy mysteries. Many of them have already been snapped up by movie producers to form the basis of their 'based on a true story' horrors, but here is a lesser known horrific mystery that could inspire big screen scare-fests.
The Hinterkaifeck Murders are so horrific not because we do not know what happened, but because of the exact opposite. The police have been able to create quite a detailed series of events, the only mystery is who carried out the terrible crime.
Hinterkaifeck is the unofficial name for a small homestead that was originally located near Munich, Germany. In 1922, it was home to the Gruber family and their maid - all of whom were brutally murdered in terrifying circumstances. On April 4th, 1922 all five members of the family, and their maid (who had only just started working for the family hours before) were found bludgeoned to death with a mattock.
Several days before the crime, the father of the family, Andreas Gruber, had told other townfolk he had found footsteps leading to the farm from the woods, but none leading back. He also mentioned hearing footsteps in the attic and an unfamiliar newspaper on the farm.
On Friday 31st March, police believe the older couple, Andreas and his wife Cäzilia, were lured to the barn and killed. Later their daughter, Viktoria and her seven year old daughter Cäzilia were also suffered the same fate. It is believed the younger Cäzilia survived the first assault, and now laying next to the bodies of her dead family, pulled out her own hair in tufts.
Following this, the murderer entered the house and killed the two year old Josef and the maid, Maria Baumgartner, in their bedrooms.
Their bodies were not found for four days, and there is even suggestion the killer stayed at the house. The cows were fed, food from the house had been eaten and neighbors had seen smoke from the chimney on the weekend. However, some of this activity has been attributed to neighbors who remained at the house after the bodies had been found.
So, who did it? Well, despite interviewing hundreds of suspects police have never been able to solve the murders. In 2007, they did establish a prime suspect who had already passed away. They never released the name out of respect for the living relatives.
The room of Maria Baumgartner
However, one possible explanation is that the murderer could have been the vengeful husband of Viktoria - who killed the family due to rumors Viktoria was in an incestuous relationship with her own father. The only problem with this theory is that Viktoria's husband was believed to have been killed in the First World War - although his body was never found and others have claimed he survived.
Karl Gabriel - the supposedly dead husband of Viktoria - would automatically be the main suspect if it could be established that he survived WWI. He allegedly died in December 1914, so he could not possibly have been the father of Viktoria's two year old son Josef. Whoever the killer was, he made no attempt to steal the substantial amount of money in the house, so that argues for revenge as a more probable motive than anything else.
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