Introduction
In Skivebogen from 1926, Jeppe Aakjær contributed two stories about two murders that took place in Salling and Gudum Parish near Struer in the latter part of the 1700s. The two stories were published under the headline “To grusselige Gjærninger”, so when the two crimes first came to Aakjær’s attention, they must have made such an impression on him that his curiosity drove him to find suitable source material and later to publish what he had found out. Here is a chronological retelling of the first article, which concerns the murder of a merchant in Otting in Vestsalling in 1758. The account is based on the authorities’ interrogation of the parties involved.
Merchant visiting Otting
On Good Friday, March 31, 1758, a young man named Niels Christensen Hummelgaard arrived at his home in Otting, where his parents Chr. Hummelgaard and Anna Pedersdatter lived on a smallholding. With him was a merchant who bought and sold horses and pigs for a living. His name was Chr. Gudum. The two travelers stayed with the family for two days, but on the third day, Easter Sunday, April 2, the son Niels left the house and was gone most of the day. He only returned after bedtime, when his parents had already gone to bed in the bedroom and the merchant had gone to sleep in the living room. Niels lit a candle in the living room when he came in and ate the food that was set out on the living room table. He must then have gone to sleep in the living room with Chr. Gudum.
Peat spade and six-shilling knife
Suddenly, the parents were awakened by a scream from the living room and rushed in. Their son Niels shouted for them to light a candle, and there stood their son in great agitation with a six-shilling knife in his hand in front of the bed, where Gudum lay wailing with a carving knife in his hand. The parents tried to calm the agitated son, but nothing could stop his wildness and instead Niels grabbed a peat shovel and gave the wailing merchant a slap on the left cheek, resulting in a “terrible scratch”. Apparently it wasn’t enough, because the wild son ended up stabbing the victim under the sternum with his sixpence knife. Niels then fled the house.
Last prayer and death
The shocked parents were left with the dying guest and didn’t know what to do, but the dying man managed to whisper to the couple and urge them to send for two residents of Otting, Jep Simonsen and Chr. Schiøtte, to come so they could hear what he had to say. The couple did not comply and left the room. When Chr. Hummelgaard came into the room later, Gudum was dead.
Looting and transportation of corpses
The next day, April 3, Easter Sunday, the escaped presumed murderer came home in the evening and started looting the dead man of money and other valuables, after which he wrapped the body in a (horse) blanket. With the help of his father, he loaded the wrapped corpse onto the victim’s horse, and now he forced his younger sister Maren, who was only a child, to grab the horse’s halter and drag the horse out into the darkness with the macabre cargo. In pitch darkness, the little girl pulled the horse along Krejbjerg, but when she reached a field that belonged to Krejbjergaard, the body fell off the horse and onto a sandbank. (The story makes no mention of whether poor Maren was accompanied by, for example, the murderer Niels and her father, but it is likely based on the following)
The body dumped
The following night, Niels, his father and Niels’ half-brother, the soldier Niels Smed from Volling, head to Krejbjerg to get rid of the apparently buried body. In the dead of night, they transported the body out towards Hjerk Nor to the former island of Hjortholm in Lysen Bredning. From here they could throw the body out into the bay.
Escape
Back home in Otting, the victim’s clothes were disposed of by burying them in the garden. Niels took the victim’s money and other valuables, which he used to pay his helpers, before getting on the merchant’s horse and fleeing. However, he was joined by a certain Mads Bertelsen from Otting.
Body discovery on Mors
Almost two months passed before there was any news in the case. On May 28, a naked and mutilated corpse turned up on the shore of the Højris estate in southeastern Mors. The body was marked by clear and ugly wounds, and it didn’t take long for the rumor to spread that it could be the missing merchant Chr. Gudum, who had drifted ashore. The trail led to Otting on the other side of the fjord, where Gudum was connected to the smallholder couple Chr. Hummelgaard and Anna Pedersdatter and their son Niels Christensen, who was nowhere to be found. The couple were therefore only summoned for interrogation in Skive by the shire bailiff.
Interrogation without a suspect
The interrogation took place on July 5, 1758, about three months after the atrocity, and it was during this interrogation that the couple explained the entire course of the murder and the disposal of the body as well as the complicity of those involved. The couple also admitted that it was their son who had committed the murder and that he was the main man behind the entire crime. There was no doubt that Niels Christensen should be convicted of the murder, and at the time this crime carried an unconditional death penalty, but there was a catch to the whole case: the killer was nowhere to be found, so the authorities had probably launched a search and perhaps even offered a reward for information that could lead to an arrest.
“The most merciful verdict” – in absentia
However, all efforts by the authorities were in vain, and as late as November 1759, the murder case was concluded in the High Court. In this connection, Jeppe Aakjær cannot help but make a sarcastic remark that the High Court judges “amused themselves” by handing down “the most merciful sentence”, which, according to Aakjær, had probably been rather superfluous, as the murderer was gone, and now the parents were also dead. The final verdict was handed down by the High Court in Viborg on November 7, 1759. The verdict was that the murderer Niels Christensen was to be pinched with burning teeth on the day of execution. The first time was to take place outside the home in Otting, three times between the home and the place of execution and finally at the place of execution itself. Here, the condemned man’s right hand would first be cut off alive, after which the executioner would chop off his head with an axe. The handless and headless corpse was then handed over to the night man, who had to dismember the corpse and place it on wheels and stakes. Yes, it is understandable thatNiels Christensen, convicted in absentia, was conspicuous by his absence. Such an execution cost money, as both executioner and night watchman had to be paid, and the bill of 33 Rdl was issued to the convicted man’s parents Christen and Anna, who, as mentioned, were dead and thus unable to pay, but then the authorities could perhaps collect money from the other convicts in the case:
Compensation and fines
The convicted man’s younger sister Maren was also sentenced for her involvement in the case, but escaped losing her life because she was forced by her older brother and had “the innocence of a child” and because she had already been in custody for a long time during the case, perhaps from the beginning in May 1758. Nevertheless, she had to pay full man penance, which meant that she had to pay 27 Rdl for the dead merchant. Since she owned nothing, she got help from the bailiff at Kjærgaardsholm, who defended her and got a request for exemption from the manumission from the state. Mads Bertelsen, who fled with the convicted murderer, did not escape the manumission, but had to pay the 27 Rdl. So did the soldier Niels Jensen Smed from Volling, but he also had to spend four years in Viborg Tugthus for his part in the disposal of the body at Hjortholm. Four men from Otting each had to pay two Rdl. to the poor in Otting and to the Justice Ministry for having concealed their knowledge of the murder case. A certain Maren Jepsdatter, who in one way or another contributed to or had knowledge of the case, was exempted from punishment as she had passed on her knowledge of the case to her “madfar” (husband) and thus helped the authorities.
Postscript
For the undersigned reteller of this crime, it may be surprising that the authorities demanded money for an execution that never took place, but perhaps it was the justice system and spirit of the time that showed its true face here – not without reference to Herman Wessel’s Smeden og Bageren. Jeppe Aakjær does not fail to be sarcastic about the judges’ verdict. The crime itself was serious enough, and today it would probably be considered a form of predatory murder without mitigating circumstances, which means a sentence of many years in prison – perhaps twelve years.
Sources:
Jeppe Aakjær: To grusselige Gjærninger, Skivebogen 1911