- Frederick Mors
Infobox Serial Killer
name=Frederick Mors
caption=
birthname=Frederick Mors
alias="Herr Doktor"
birth=
location=Vienna flagicon|Austria
death=
cause=
victims=8
country=United States
states=New York
beginyear=1914
endyear=1915
apprehended=January 1915
penalty=Involuntary commitment Frederick Mors was an
Austria nserial killer who, while employed in a nursing home inNew York City , killed seventeen elderly patients bypoison ing.cite book|last= Lane|first=Brian|coauthors= Wilfred Gregg|title=The Encyclopedia of Serial Killers|publisher=Berkley Books|pages=265|isbn= 0-425-15213-8] When questioned by police he was very cooperative, readily admitting to the murders. After being arrested, Mors was diagnosed as amegalomaniac and committed to aninsane asylum from which he later escaped.Immigration
Mors immigrated to New York City from his native
Austria-Hungary in June of 1914. Being from German-speakingVienna , he was soon able to gain employment at the German Odd Fellows Home, a kind ofnursing home , located in theBronx . Soon after he began work there, he exhibited signs of megalomania. He would wear white lab coats with astethoscope around his neck. He also adopted an arrogant attitude and would insist that the elderly patients, whom he terrified, address him as "Herr Doktor." Inexplicably, though he terrified the older patients, younger patients and visitors seemed to like him and enjoy his company.Murders
In a four month period from September of 1914 to January of the following year, an unusually high number of patients died at the Home. In all seventeen died. Mors had been purchasing
pharmacy items from a local druggist, includingarsenic andchloroform , which he had been using to murder at least eight of the elderly residents, though he later claimed he was "putting them out of their misery". He commissioned his first murder using arsenic. Encountering difficulties with this method he later switched to the use of chloroform. Fearing foul play, the administration called thepolice in to investigate.Investigation
Early in the investigation, police learned of the fear the elderly patients had for Mors. On these grounds he soon became the primary suspect of the investigation. When questioned, Mors readily and calmly admitted to killing eight of the seventeen patients that had recently died. He claimed that these were mercy killings and that they had been nuisances. In detail, he described his method as:
"First I would pour a drop or two of chloroform on a piece of absorbent
Mors was found to be criminally insane and was committed to the Matteawan Institution for the Insane. He later escaped the institution in the late 1920s. He was never caught and disappeared into obscurity, never being heard from again.cotton and hold it to thenostrils of the old person. Soon my man would swoon. Then I would close the orifices of the body with cotton, stuffing it in theears , nostrils and so on. Next I would pour a little chloroform down the throat and prevent the fumes escaping the same way."References
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