Adolph Hofrichter was born in 1880 and chose the path of a career officer in the Austro-Hungarian KuK Army of Kaiser Franz Josef. After spending several years assigned to the 14th Infantry Regiment in Linz he applied to and tested for promotion to the General Staff Academy. When the promotion list came out he discovered he was number 32. While this was not a bad placing, it was known that only the top 30 officers would be promoted. Not to leave anything to chance Oberleutanant (First Lieutenant) Adolph Hofrichter went looking for alternative means to fulfill his destiny.
Mysterious Pills in the Mail
Within weeks ten officers ahead of him on the promotion lists received mysterious packets in the mail. Inside the packet was a small medical box with a few pills. Literature included with the packet advertised the pills as being of the 'little blue bill' variety and were listed as being an anonymous gift from a like-minded friend who vouched for their performance. They were listed as being manufactured by a pharmacist named Charles Francis. One of the officers who received the packet, Captain of Infantry Mader, promptly took the pills and died in agony a short time later.
Detectives found the remaining pills after a search and discovered them to contain prussic acid and potassium cyanide. The paper and ink used in the production process of the notes was of the same type in military topography. When detectives started to look into a military connection they discovered that the signature of the druggist closely matched that of Lt Adolph Hofrichter. Furthermore the good Lieutenant was seen at the post office in the town where the packets were mailed from. A search of his home found more capsules, more notes and a supply of prussic acid used for photography.
The Good Lieutenant Taken into Custody
The Lieutenant was arrested on November 27, 1909. After more than five months in custody he confessed that he sent capsules containing a poison to the ten officers in question. Hofricher's wife was a suspect in the crimes and was several times questioned but never tried. According the Austrian KuK's military law guidelines Hofrichter was to be sentenced to death. However his formal confession and the publicity of his case commuted the sentence to being cashiered and sentenced to 21 years in prison.
Hofrichter's Fate
Fortune smiled on the former Lieutenant and in 1918 he was released early with a general amnesty due to the fall of the monarchy and the resulting disintegration of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Shrugging off his sentence for hit and miss attempted mass murder for personal gain, Hofrichter published a book and gave several interviews about his crime and imprisonment. In 1927 the Austrian government pardoned him and he became an influential member of the Austrian Nazi party. He died a free man in 1945 in Vienna.
Sources:
Austrian Confesses Army Poison Plot: To Clear Way for Promotion, Lieutenant Sent Prussic Acid to Ten General Staff Officers. New York Times April 30, 1910, Saturday
Prison for Army Poisoner Austrian Lieutenant, Hofrichter, Gets a 21-Year Sentence. New York Times June 26, 1910, Sunday
Deak, Istavan Beyond Nationalism: A Social and Political History of the Habsburg Officer Corps, 1848-1918. University of Chicago 1990
Blofelds website or his research and photographic collection
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