Franz Strasser


Franz Strasser was an Austrian-German former NSDAP Kreisleiter and convicted murderer.

Action

In December 1944, in Kaplitz in the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, Franz Strasser killed two American airmen of the USAAF by shooting them with a Thompson submachine gun. They were members of a group of five airmen of the 20th Bomb Squadron who stayed with pilot Warren Woodruff when he landed their plane in a field. They had voluntarily surrendered and were taken away in a truck, accompanied by Strasser, and by Captain Karl Lindemeyer, the chief of police of the city. During Strasser's trial evidence was presented that it was Lindemeyer who killed the other three, and the court verdict suggests that the killings were originally Lindemeyer's idea. Lindemeyer committed suicide while in custody.

Trial and execution

On 24 August 1945, Strasser was tried in an Allied military court, which had provided a translator for him during the trial. He was found guilty and was sentenced to death by hanging at Landsberg Prison. On 10 December 1945, he was hanged and died as German Catholic priest and long-time hospital chaplain Karl Morgenschweis prayed for him.