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'Crimes of the past': Killed his mother in 'Hell House' - and had to pay the highest penalty | BT Krimi - www.bt.dk Already in the middle of the night, several thousand people began to gather in front of a wooden structure on the outskirts of Odense, which was guarded by 200 soldiers. At dawn, the crowd was to experience what became the city's last public execution, but it was not just the sight that made them push themselves. "People try to come forward to get the blood from the executed person, because there is such a popular belief that if you drink it, you can be cured of epilepsy," says Camilla Pryds Schjerning, museum inspector at Odense City Museums. "So in addition to the execution itself, this is also extremely disgusting." The year is 1869 and the date is 6 August. The reason for the at that time unusual execution was a murder that took place on December 18 the year before. Here was a middle-aged woman, Anne Margrethe Hansen, found in a large pool of blood in her bedroom, shot through the head and died on the spot. "You can see a bullet hole in the window, and inside the wall you will find that flattened bullet," says Camilla Pryds Schjerning. In the following investigation, it was also found that there were marks on the door to the barn, where some food was also missing. 'Crimes of the past' is a series of sensational criminal cases that have taken place in and around the Odense we know today. Just a really long time ago. Each of the crimes says something about the society and legal system of the time, and with the help of Odense City Museums, B.T. tell in detail about how crimes in Odense have been committed and punished over time. Even then, the house the woman lived in with her husband and son was surrounded by eerie mystery. It was called 'The House of Hell' because a young pregnant woman was supposed to have been beaten to death by her husband and a debt collector was supposed to have been pushed into the ditch. When Anne Margrethe Hansen's son, the young Hans Hansen, found her dead that December evening in 1868, suspicion quickly fell on him. Shortly before he found her spilled into his own blood, he had stated at a tractor site in the company of good friends that the death penalty must end because the king had a habit of pardoning people instead. "They have been sitting and talking, and they have, among other things, talked about the death penalty because there was a man who had shot the shooter at Langesø." "It had been clarified, and now there was talk about whether he would be executed," says Camilla Pryds Schjerning. The murder in Helvedeshuset on 18 December 1868 was widely discussed, and shows were written about Hans Hansen committing the murder of his own mother. Photo: Liv Østerstrand Three days after the crime, Hans Hansen was arrested and questioned, but he had to be released shortly after due to lack of evidence. Meanwhile, rumors were circulating in the city, and on Christmas Eve, a bounty of 50 rigsdaler was promised, which was later doubled. "It gives even more impetus to this that people are willing to report anyone and everyone they know who has a rifle," says Camilla Pryds Schjerning. Almost a month later, the suspicion fell again on his son Hans Hansen, and after a nine-day intense interrogation, he confessed to the murder. The thing was, he wanted to use his mother's legacy to travel to America. ‘He wanted to kill her because his life was so sad. He did not want to be there at all, but his mother would not let him travel, "says Camilla Pryds Schjerning. Just over a month later, on March 8, he was sentenced to death - a sentence that was immediately appealed to the high court. But the verdict was upheld all the way up to the Supreme Court, and thus Hans Hansen could do nothing but hope for the king's pardon. Fortunately, Christian IX was in a good mood, and both Hans Hansen and several others were pardoned on the occasion of the Crown Prince's impending wedding. "You want that for festive occasions," adds Camilla Pryds Schjerning. But the Minister of State was against and would not give Hans Hansen a free pass for something they considered to be a cold-blooded, planned murder - and even looked at the perpetrator's own mother. "When Hans Hansen heard this, he said: 'I did not do it anyway' and claimed that the sheriff had tortured the confession out of him," says the museum inspector. Nevertheless, he sat with a priest in the back of two carriages, which at dawn on August 6, 1869, drove out the gate of the jail. About half an hour later, they arrived at the execution site at Bolbro, where a scaffold had been set up. "At that time, there is only one executioner left in the country because there are so few executions." Hans Hansen put his head on the block and got braces around his neck so he could not move at the last minute. And with just one stroke, his head was separated from his body. Young Hans Hansen thus became the last person to be executed publicly in Odense, and the penultimate in Denmark, where the last public execution took place in 1882. However, it would be ten years before the last execution was made. It happened behind the walls of Horsens State Prison. SPORT UKRAINE B.T.s judgment B.T.s judgment Shock in DSB train: Do as more than 350,000 Danes Berlingske Media A / S Pilestræde 34 DK-1147 Copenhagen KTlf. +45 33 75 75 33 CVR.no .: 29 20 73 13