At the crossroads of criminal history and medico-legal science, an enigma of two centuries has just been lifted. In the collections of the University of Heidelberg, the skeleton allocated since 1805 to the German Brigand Schinderhannes did not actually correspond to its supposed identity. Sentenced to death in 1803 and executed before the eyes of thousands of spectators, this famous outlaw of the romantic Rhine saw his leftover preserved for scientific purposes, before sinking into the confusion of anatomical archives. It was only after a meticulous work crossing genetic, isotopic and historical indices analyzes that researchers formally identified the true body of Schinderhannes.
Two years later, Jacob Fidelis Ackermann, first anatomy teacher at Heidelberg, transported the two supposed skeletons to Schinderhannes and Jonas to his collection. But from the beginning of the 19th century, a documentary disorder settled in the inventory of specimens. The numberings were modified, merged, and sometimes replaced. Over the generations, this vagueness in traceability ends up throwing doubt on the real identity of the bones. This uncertainty continued until the 21st century.
A team led by Sara Doll, anatomist at Heidelberg University, has undertaken a rigorous reassignment work. To move forward, the researchers relied on precise historical data. They notably studied the known injuries of Schinderhannes. He had broken an arm during an argument with an accomplice. He also had a fractured leg after an escape attempt in Simmern. These lesions were found on one of the two skeletons. This detail therefore brought a first concrete index suggesting a possible exchange of identities.
What science has revealed to the Schinderhannes skeleton
To confirm this hypothesis, the team mobilized a set of advanced techniques. Radiological analyzes have made it possible to precisely determine age, stature, sex and certain signs of bone stress linked to ancient pathologies. The two individuals were young men, measured about 1.70 meters, and presented traces of nutritional stress during childhood. But one of them showed characteristic bone thickening on the left ulna and the right tibia, compatible with the historical wounds attributed to Schinderhannes.
A second level of analysis focused on geochemistry. Researchers have extracted collagen in several bones and teeth. They then studied isotopes of strontium, carbon and nitrogen. These elements trace the environment and the food of a person throughout their life. The results revealed two separate profiles. One of the men had grown up on an old limestone soil, typical of the Hunsrück massif, in Western Germany. It is precisely the native region of Schinderhannes, where he lived before his run. The other presented a different geological signature, oriented towards the east. This origin is consistent with the Berlin region, from which Schwarzer Jonas would have according to the judicial archives.
- This skeleton, long attributed to Schwarzer Jonas, was formally identified as that of Schinderhannes thanks to scientific analyzes carried out in Heidelberg.
But it was genetics that made it possible to close the debate. The team at the University of Innsbruck, led by geneticist Walther Parson, conducted advanced mitochondrial and nuclear DNA analyzes. Thanks to a large -scale genealogical search, the researchers found a living descendant of the maternal line of Schinderhannes. The researchers compared a saliva sample with DNA fragments extracted from the bones. The genetic correspondence has been categorical: the skeleton hitherto presented as that of Schwarzer Jonas is actually that of Schinderhannes. The results, published in Forensic Science International: Genetics, show that this skeleton belongs a billion times more likely to the brigand than to any other unrelated individual.
At the same time, DNA has made it possible to predict with great reliability the physical features of the famous criminal. Unlike certain artistic representations of the time, he had brown eyes, dark hair, and clear skin. This genetic portrait comes to qualify the romanticized stories which described it sometimes blond, sometimes brown, according to the imagination of the illustrators.
The mystery of the second skeleton remains whole
If scientists have identified with certainty the true skeleton of Schinderhannes, that of Schwarzer Jonas now seems lost. The individual initially designated under this name presents no genetic link with the brigand. Neither the historical archives, nor isotopic data, nor DNA make it possible to formally identify this body.
The hypothesis of an accidental exchange or even a flight remains possible. As Popular Science evokes, some researchers think that someone could have borrowed the remains of Jonas under a false label, then disperse them in other collections without ever returning them.
The confusion would date from the first years of the 19th century, under Friedrich Tiedmann, successor to Ackermann. At that time, he reorganized specimens from the Anatomy Institute. But he did not always retain written trace of his changes. The identification of bodies and heads could therefore have blurred at that time. Especially since certain anatomical elements, such as the skulls, were sent elsewhere. Several pieces have thus left for Frankfurt, without precise documentation to follow them.
Today, researchers therefore only authenticate only one skeleton. The museum withdrew that of Shinderhannes from the windows for reasons of conservation. Visitors can nevertheless discover its reply and an artistic representation in the permanent exhibition of the University of Heidelberg, as reported by a Klinikum article. This museography now highlights not only the history of the brigand, but also that of science and its methodological advances in terms of identification.
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