The case record
What was reported?
Six people were killed at the isolated Hinterkaifeck farm in Bavaria in 1922. The investigation generated many leads without establishing who committed the murders.
The victims included members of the Gruber and Gabriel family, two children and a newly arrived servant. Their bodies were discovered on 4 April. The Bavarian state archive dates the fatal attack to the evening of 31 March; stories of earlier disturbances require separate assessment of their reporting history.
The range separates the archive’s estimated attack evening from discovery. Marker represents the former farm area without inviting access.
- Reported date
- 31 March–4 April 1922
- Witnesses
- Historical records, investigators and observers; see case-specific account · Not reliably reducible to a single count
- Investigation
- Historical and research accounts reviewed from: Bavarian State Archives
Evidence in the record
Police files and surviving exhibits document the injuries, investigation and an agricultural tool found during demolition in 1923. A 2026 archival exhibition reports more than one hundred investigations conducted by Munich police by 1930 without success.
Competing explanations
Official and research context
Bavarian archival interpretation describes an unsuccessful investigation of the six murders; the recovered implement did not securely identify an offender.
Conventional explanations
A visitor, neighbour or other person familiar with the farm has been proposed, but scene access and circumstantial suspicion do not identify an offender. Later reconstructions cannot replace missing forensic opportunities or resolve contradictory memories.
Arguments that remain contested
Who carried out the attack and the complete sequence of events on the farm remain unknown.
Locations & timeline
Coordinates are representative. Area and route labels do not imply exact paths or object positions.
- Primary reference location
Former Hinterkaifeck farm area
The range separates the archive’s estimated attack evening from discovery. Marker represents the former farm area without inviting access.
Representative case location · Approximate area radius: 3 km
48.590°, 11.320° · point · Regional reference only; not survey-grade
Record notes
Map coordinates are representative and do not establish an exact incident position.
Case-specific sources researched 8 September 2026. Evidence, alternatives, dates and representative geography reviewed.
Original dataset status: unresolved