Death of an Assassin by Ann Marie Ackerman is a well plotted and researched book of crime, war, and intrigue. The pages are filled with historical facts as well as reenactments of events as they are thought to have occurred. The solving of one of the oldest cold cases in history and the link to the USA’s past is fascinating.

Follow along as Ann Ackermann takes you through history and a crime that went unsolved for over 40 years, leading directly to one of America's most famous Generals of all time.
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Genre: Non-Fiction/Historical/True Crime
Publisher: The Kent State University Press
Publishing date: September 1, 2017

This is the story of the murder of Mayor Johann Heinrich Rieber in the Kingdom of Wurttemberg, Bonnigheim, now known as Southwest Germany. As well as the man who murdered him, Gottlob Rueb. Rueb played a role in US history while protecting Robert E. Lee during the Mexican-American War.

Lee wrote to numerous colleagues and household members regarding a deceased soldier that he admired for his strength while enduring considerable pain. It is not known whether Robert E. Lee ever learned Rueb’s name. Evidence suggests that Lee had no personal contact with Rueb, and most likely never knew Rueb was a murderer.

Much of the investigation into the murder of Rieber can be attributed to the birth of ballistics forensic. This case may well have served as the jumping off point in today’s modern forensic studies and is a look into the world of crime and investigation as it was hundreds of years ago.

In 1872, after stringing together all of the evidence and documentation of the day Frederick Rupp concluded that Mr. Rueb was the killer. Mr. Rupp, who was once a suspect in the murder wrote a letter to Bonnigheim’s city council stating that he believed Rueb to be the murderer of Mayor Rieber. Unfortunately, Mr. Rueb deceased by then could not be punished for the crime. The cold case of who killed Mayor Rieber was solved thanks to Mr. Rupp. Those who were wrongly accused, including Mr. Rupp were vindicated.

Death of an Assassin is an interesting read, the pages filled with historical value. It is well written as well as entertaining. Ms. Ackermann has crafted an easy to follow story that will leave the reader wanting more. The insights into the mind and life of Robert E. Lee are captivating and give the reader a new take on what Lee felt and thought during his first real battle. History comes alive through this story and sends the reader on a trip back through time.

This book is highly recommended to all of those who enjoy crime, and a historical who-done-it. Death of an Assassin takes readers on a trip into a world no one alive today remembers. ( )

For the second time in a year, I’ve had book encounters with 19th century European assassins who eventually fled to the United States and began new lives under different names. The first was Sergei Degaev, who assassinated the chief of Tsar Nicholas's security organization in 1883. Sixteen years later he would become a popular professor at the University of South Dakota. Most recently I was introduced to a man who assassinated the mayor of Bönnigheim, Germany, in 1835. His potentially greater impact on U.S. history is explored in Death of an Assassin: The True Story of the German Murderer Who Died Defending Robert E. Lee.

Author Ann Marie Ackerman unravels a real life mystery. Not only is this an engaging piece of history, the former prosecutor uses an appendix to present the compelling evidence and reasoning behind her identification of a 19th century German murderer. Ackerman also makes a strong case that the initial investigation may have seen the first use of forensic ballistics as a law enforcement tool.

Death of an Assassin begins on the night of October 21, 1835, when the mayor of Bönnigheim, Germany, was shot just a few steps from his front door. The mayor did not see his assailant and died about 30 hours later. Using the original investigative file, Ackerman details the investigation, providing a rare look inside the techniques and legal standards of the time.

Despite a thorough investigation and examination of several potential suspects, the case was essentially closed without resolution in 1837. At some point, the actual assassin emigrated to the U.S. illegally. (Ackerman doesn't identify him until approximately halfway through the book so his name isn't used here.) In January 1840, he enlisted in the U.S. Army, then a force of only 7,000 men.

At the time of the assassination, Robert E. Lee was 28, a lieutenant in the Army Corps of Engineers. That same month, the Texas Revolution against Mexican rule began, eventually leading to the Mexican-American War a decade later. And, Ackerman maintains, that would bring Lee and the German assassin together during the siege of Veracruz in March 1847, Lee’s first battle experience.

In April 1847, Lee would write his 15-year-old son about his experiences. He described a soldier in a company protecting him and the battery he commanded during the bombardment of Veracruz. The soldier’s thigh was shattered by a Mexican cannonball and he lay in agony most of the day. When finally being borne off in a litter, he was killed by an incoming shell. “I doubt whether all Mexico is worth to us the life of that man,” Lee wrote. (It seems somewhat ironic that an account of Lee's military activities more than a decade before the Civil War is released when the nation is debating Confederate statues.)

Currently living in Germany, Ackerman’s experience as a prosecutor in America shows through. Poor military record-keeping at the time forces her to say the assassin “probably” was the soldier mentioned in Lee’s letter. Yet she musters and builds a strong case for naming him. Although there are a few instances of repetition and the actual events surrounding the man's death are muddied by time, Death of an Assassin is a cogent work.

In 1872, the assassin was identified, ironically, by a Bönnigheim resident who emigrated to the U.S. in 1836 after unfounded rumor said he killed the mayor. In a letter to authorities, he relayed that a friend told him that shortly after arriving in the U.S., the assassin admitted to killing the mayor for rejecting his application to be a game warden. While they were aware the killer died in combat in Mexico, it took Ackerman to make the connection to American history.

(Originally posted at A Progressive on the Prairie.)