 Good evening. This is crime classics. I am Thomas Highland with another true story of crime Listen Officer Rudolf Schmitt Schmitt at the scene of a crime and a beer hall in Nuremberg Tapping a broken beer mug with his polished boot toe and counting one Two three four Four of them four corpses that is Officer Schmitt spies a thing a clue fun Buns who left a bag of buns officer Schmitt just standing around with a bag of bun and Thinking what a man to have committed such a crime a brute a monster a muscular fiend Who liked buns? Tonight am I report to you on bunny bomb lure his close brush with fame crime classics a Series of true crime stories taken from the records and newspapers of every land from every time your host each week Mr. Thomas Highland connoisseur of crime student of violence and Teller of murders Now once again, it's Thomas Highland He's shimmer horn was the master singer of Nuremberg in 1820 and held sway for three golden years Until he lost his voice in a manner which sent a ripple of laughter across the continent other amusement Nuremberg furnished the continent clever toys and some clock and wonderful beer and not too long ago the city had become part of the barrier and It's street now teamed with corollion hat knitted socks and jerkins Somehow a kind of golden glow suffused the city and drifted through its ancient streets Becoming one with the patina laid there by the soft Bavarian music a place of gentleness and quiet laughter except that number 23 Brutus Russia You is no more than an hour hell guy. What the hell go please I should have such a husband as you please listen. No You're the one who listen Make Doris proud evil and she is sick in bed, and you know why I'm laughing at you. I'm sorry. All right. Oh, nothing you do turns out right. Nothing. Oh I will say it this morning for example, you went out to chop the wood and you chopped the dock foot It was a misty morning And I kept telling Bruno not to sleep on the woodpile Even now Bruno's head has got more brains than you have. Oh hell hell. Get away. Get out. Please Please what One more chance. Oh You're small and you're not handsome in your bumble. I Asked myself constantly why I ever married you because I love I'll show you I love you How the watch you admire near a client house jewelry shop, you shall have it where did you get 400 marks? Yeah, yeah, yeah, bunny's got away. You know bunny's got away. Oh Come here Then we have the watch tonight No, there was a quarter moon over Nuremberg April the 4th for the Nurembergers the first night of the Bach beer season So there was celebration in the streets and the squares of the town and in the hills all around by the mayor's decree Festival of spring and the ran everybody out laugh and dance and sing and plink tankers and throw lines and fellows everybody out Now while all this was going on that's the height of it Bonnie Baumler breaking the window the back door of client Hall's jewelry shop reaching around and opening the door Sneaking around Crashing into a display case and shattering it become alarmed another display case panic-stricken Head on into hair client helps cuckoo clown Knocking himself unconscious Is this not a dirty thief being awakened the next morning by the police? Yes, this is a dirty thief. Huh? Did you not commit a crime? Oh? Yes, you did commit a crime. Yes, he did commit a crime And he was sentenced to three years in jail for breaking and entering it just seems that bunny Baumler put a hex on everything he touched fellow inmates noticed this and shunned him thus bunny became a lonely man Then one day three years later. He was released and he went home Olga Why did you come back? Why? To make a mockery of my life again to make it a laughing stock. I love you. I love you. Helga. Please don't please don't What? What do you want? Why didn't you come and visit me? I'll tell you why because I had no time because my husband was in jail and I had to work so I would not starve What now I brought a watch What a watch remember the last time I saw you I said I was gonna get your watch Not a very good one. I agree. It's not the watch you wanted, but it's all I could afford I stopped in here at Klein Hall's jewelry shop, and I apologize and with the 10 marks the warden gave me I bought a watch Klein Hall gave me a special Such a watch Let me pin it to you Well, all right. Hey, you see I've changed We'll be very happy Oh, Helga, I did not mean to stick you I work for you Where will I go what will become of me? I'll work hard. We'll get rich. I will be rich and you'll be proud and you'll wear fine things right and catch it Why should I fool myself? Who is that? I am the kind of woman a man like you deserve You're kind and gentle you understand me You're my life And I love you Listen, are you hungry? Yes Well, here's money go to the baker and buy buns While you're gone, I'll start a rabbit stew and listen. I love you and listen With the change you may stop at the beer hall and have a glass of beer A glass of beer? My Helga! Go, go! How was prison terrible? They're lonely. Prison shibble. What can I do for you? Buns. Oh, don't tell me which kind. I remember the sticky ones with apples inside. Yeah. Adopted. Adopted. Nice to have you back with us. Are you happy? Oh, not the same. Please don't laugh. Here are your buns. 15 pettigs. Yes. Well? I lost my money. Oh, please. Oh, Jason, taste the buns. Your wife will pay later. Oh, you must not do that. Please. Right. Nuremberg is now the same. When I was down the street at the baker's and I thought I'd drop in to look around to see if anything's changed. Dear, omit me. I am so happy to see you. I must give you welcome. On the house. The sign of things. Oh, forget the sign. This one is free. And besides, this is a happy occasion. Oh? In fact, my husband talked to my daughter's fiancee. How is your daughter? Oh, that's nice. And such a dowry. So expensive. I drink to the young people's happiness. Must have had a crack. But I forgot the buns. I left them. I'll go out and get some more. Stop mocking me. Just because I forgot the buns, you stand there and mock me for half an hour. You call me? And you answer to each one. I'm crazy. This is the residence of Herr Baumler. Yes. May I come in, please? Yes. What is it? What does the policeman want here? Herr Baumler? Yes. Are these your buns? Well, here. Take them and tell me are these your buns? Oh, yes. Um... 10, 11? 12. Yes. They're my buns. Then you were in the beer hall of Herr Froschnitzler. Recently? Froschnitzler, you will recall a big man. Huge. His wife and Amazon. His daughter, likewise, but heavier. His prospective fernenlord towers over all of them. Yeah? A few moments ago, their bodies, the bodies of all four of them, were found in the beer hall. Beacons. Legends. Then? All four of them. The work of a great criminal of audacity and feelings, of strength and fury and passion. Officer? A boldness to have murdered four. What a man could do this. Officer, I... A crime unparalleled in the annals of Jürgenberg. And I did it. And I did it. Handing their jaw thrust forward, chest out, stomach in, hands by his side. Bunny seemed to grow. Bunny? It's what... Helga's cheek, whereupon a light kindled in her eyes and glowed as he looked at him. For all at once, Bunny Baumler was special, above the crowd. And no one could laugh at him anymore. His report to you on Bunny Baumler is close brush. It was better to confess, or as one would have it, as many people died in the interrogation chamber as on the gallows. And not that the police were particularly brutal, as they just wanted to get it over with and get outside again. Again, it should be noted that the Nuremberg police were thorough and persistent, as witnessed the famed 20-year search for Karl Kroger, which ended in our own country, and which caused a notable and bitter exchange of letters between the mayors of Nuremberg and Milwaukee, and later, President Polk's manifesto. And so it was then, when in the interrogation chamber, Bunny Baumler said, I did it. The police said, Good boy. I don't know what came of him. Fury. Yes. Fine ray. Yes. Passion. Oh, yes. Tell me why you did it. Those four people, they mocked me. And then you... I told them to stop mocking. And then you... I warned them. And then you... I picked up an and iron. And iron. I picked up a heavy candlestick. Heavy candlestick. I picked up an... An an... I picked up an axe. And then you... Perk! Perk! It was none other than Bunny Baumler who had taken an axe to Hare and Proud Schnitzler and a realigned Sophie and Hare Gertner, Sophie's fiance. Suddenly Bunny's name was on everyone's list. A hero of frightfulness. A dread colossus. Bunny Baumler. Murderer. Bunny? How does it happen you have the name of Bunny? When I was a boy, Majesty. And I was timid. And you ran away when there was trouble. Yes, sir. And how is it you have the courage to kill four people? I've changed. Four large and strong people. I've changed completely. There was fury, blind rage, and passion. And I killed them. I see. What are they seeing about me now? You are the most talked-out person in Nuremberg. Do they lie? They shudder. And what else? Still, each day the women congregate outside the prison walls hoping for a glimpse of you. Right, Jayla. Take him away. He was none other than Adolf Megler, the boy wonder of the early Bavarian School of Applied Psychology. And none other than the Adolf Megler who quipped, show me a man and I'll show you a madness. Adolf Megler found so often in Freud's bibliography as well as in Gessner's. So he was a man with a mission, this Megler. As soon as he'd had this chat with Bunny Baumler, he went first to the bakery. There was something in his eyes when he came in. Yes, yes. A madness, the way he looked at me. Yes, yes, yes. Please. I'm trying to tell you how. I've known him for a long time. Oh, yes. Tell me about him. Well... Yes. Bunny Baumler served a three-year jail sentence in his cell. Did he not? And you were his cellmate. Were you not? Yes. What kind of man was he? Bunny Baumler? That's right. Tell me about him. I want to. I need to laugh. Oh, Baumler and clown. Oh. He was comical. He could never do anything right. Once. Once what? You remember the prison break last year? Hans, Kundler and his three brothers? They got them outside the wall. They tried out and the guards had not seen them. So what does Bunny do? Runs over here to this window and he gets in his chair and yells, Hans, my wife, I miss her very much. Yells and yells at Hans, Kundler and his three brothers. They're buried right over there in the graveyard. Oh, let me tell you about it. There was a thing that happened at the soccer game when we were playing the guard. And Bunny... And Bunny... What about him, Baumler? What can I say? The kind of man he is. You know the kind of man he is. Fearful, mighty, with no pity? A destroyer? Tell me about your marriage. Why do you sigh? My honeymoon, for example. At the spa, I'd bought geeselings. Oh. A tragedy. Oh. He hired a band of parenaders. Men with guitars and Swiss bells to stand outside our window and play. And? They came right through the window. Robert, sceptic of everything. And the next day... What happened the next day? He fell in. Oh. The spa. He leaned over too far, and he was almost taken underground. He always leans over too far. Now tell me... Tell you what? Was he ever vicious to you? Well... No. Meek. Yes. A fumbler. Yes. He can never do anything right. Never. Let me tell you... What? When we returned from bought geeselings, when our honeymoon was over, he carried me over the threshold. And when we got into the room. But what? What happened? A fumbler spent a week in this way, questioning all those who had known Bunny Baumler. And this, in summation, was the reaction to Bunny when recalled as the man he used to be. A mental treatise to this man the papers called the most dangerous criminal of the 19th century. Then he called Bunny into his chamber. And when you're finished taking off his chains, Jailer, you may leave. It is remarkable, my friend. That you have the courage to be in the same room as I am. And I am without chains. And I am without a gun. Don't you fear me? I have inquired about you, Baumler. Yes? Old friend, relatives, your wife. Don't you know. I warn you, I killed four people. And it's not safe for you to be near me. For any moment I may kill again because I... I found it easy to snuff people's lives out like that. Don't laugh at me. No, please. That's the story of your life as it's not easy to be. I am a murderer, but I am polite. A murderer? Yes, a frightful man. The most dangerous criminal of the 19th century. My people shudder when my name is mentioned. Well, you're a liar. You couldn't kill a flower. I'm a brutal vicious being. You couldn't kill a flower. I slaughtered four people with an axe. You did not. Well, you are. What? If I had an axe, I'd show you. Kitty, I have no axe. However... What? That end I am, for example. End I am. Take it. Let's see what you'll do with it. Go on. Take it, Bunny. Give it to me. And now what will you do? What will you do? You are... Three days later, one Rudy Himmelstotz was found walking the hills outside Nuremberg. Still angry and muttering to himself about four people in a beer hall, he had bludgeoned to death and a fit of rage. He was hanged. There's only one other thing to say about Bunny. He inherited a fortune. A relative in the New World had died and willed Bunny his wealth. But the boat Bunny took out of Hamburg was none other than the ill-fated Koernig Otto, the first one, the one which sank from sight over the horizon and was never seen again. Just a moment, Thomas Highland will tell you about next week's crime classic. Bunny Baumler, tonight's crime classic, was adapted from the original court reports and newspaper accounts by Morton Fine and David Friedkin. The music was composed and conducted by Bernard Herman and the program is produced and directed by Elliot Lewis. Thomas Highland is portrayed on radio by Lou Merrill. In tonight's story, Howard McNeer was heard as Bunny. Features in the cast were Irene Tedrow, Edgar Berrier, Paula Winslow, Martha Wentworth, Jack Prussian and Benny Rubin. Bob LeMond speaking. Here again is Thomas Highland. Next week, a cave near Navesboro, England in the year 1758. The remains they dug up had been there 15 years, a time enough for a murderer to have become very respectable. It's listed in my files as Mr. Clark Skeleton in Mr. Aram's closet. The noise it made. Thank you. Good night. Through the worldwide facilities of the United States Armed Forces Radio and Television.