Irmgard Swinka

Irmgard Swinka (née Kuschinski, 1912 – October 1988) was a German serial killer who robbed and poisoned at least five elderly women between 1947 and 1948 with the help of two male accomplices. Convicted for these crimes, she became the last person to be sentenced to death in West Germany. Her death sentences were automatically commuted to life imprisonment following the abolition of the practice.

Early life Little is known about Swinka's early life. Born Irmgard Kuschinski in 1912 in Berlin, she grew up in an impoverished family where her alcoholic father beat both her and her siblings. She did not do well at school and was unable to learn a trade, and after graduating, she broke off all contact with her family.

As an adult Swinka worked as a waitress but was repeatedly imprisoned for theft, fraud, and embezzlement. Most of the charges stemmed from robbing or defrauding drunks and lesbians. She was also charged with bigamy after marrying to a third husband without divorcing her second, due to which the couple had to go into hiding from the Berlin authorities. Minna survived her ordeal, and later gave a witness statement that would become crucial in her assailant's arrest. When the detectives approached her, Swinka was tending to her little dog, Texas, prompting one of them to ask the woman by name if the dog was alright and handing her a cigarette.

The Swinka case was covered on the podcast True Crime Cologne in 2023, with the guest – retired judge Norbert Klein – retelling the story of Swinka, her lawyer Elsbeth van Ameln and the outcome of the trial itself.