Frieda Keller

Frieda Keller (December 24, 1879 – September 7, 1942), was a Swiss seamstress convicted of the murder of her child born of rape.

She was sentenced to death by the St. Gallen Cantonal Court on November 12, 1904, for the murder of her son Ernst. Pardoned on November 18, 1904, by the St. Gallen Cantonal Council, her death sentence was commuted to life imprisonment in solitary confinement. She was released on November 25, 1919, after fifteen years in harsh conditions.

Her case led to the revision of the Swiss Criminal Code's provisions on homicide, to take account of the perpetrator's motive.

Life

Origins Frieda Keller was born on December 24, 1879, in Bischofszell, Canton Thurgau. She was the fifth of eleven children, two of whom died prematurely. Her father, Jakob, was a shoemaker ; her mother was born Anna Kobi in Rapperswil.

She was a seamstress and also worked as a waitress at an inn on weekends.

Rape and child out of wedlock One day, at the age of 18, Keller's boss, Karl Zimmerli, married with two children and a close friend of her father, sent her to the cellar to fetch some wine, and took advantage of the opportunity to rape her. A second rape took place later, in the innkeeper's bedroom, as Keller brought in a dress for his wife. Writer Carl Albert Loosli and psychiatrist Auguste Forel also lent their support to Frieda Keller, the latter even writing that the real culprit was Zimmerli, who was not legally accountable for his obligations or actions.