Hermann SCHWARZ
Classification: Mass murderer
Characteristics: Shooting spree
Number of victims: 7
Date of murder: August 30, 1912
Date of arrest: Next day
Date of birth: 1887
Victims profile: Men
Method of murder: Shooting
Location: Romanshorn, Switzerland
Status: Found insane. He was ordered to be institutionalized for the rest of his life
The Romanshorn shooting was an act of mass murder that occurred in the town of Romanshorn, Switzerland, on August 30, 1912.
On that evening, Hermann Schwarz, a 25-year-old local resident, opened fire at people in the street from the second-storey window of his apartment. In the initial shooting and the following siege Schwarz shot a total of twelve men, six of them fatally, before managing to escape into a nearby forest. While police and townsmen engaged in an extensive search operation the gunman killed another person and evaded capture until the next day, when he was shot and wounded and subsequently taken into custody.
In the following months Schwarz was examined by several psychiatrists and was found to suffer from mental illness, resulting in his acquittal due to insanity. He was ordered to be institutionalized for the rest of his life.
Madman Shoots, Kills; Captured
Ex-Soldier Barricades Self in House, Murders Seven Pursuers
The Spokesman-Review
September 29, 1912
Berne, Switzerland, Sep. 28.- Seven men have been killed aand several others wounded in the capture of a madman named Hermann Schwarz, just discharged from the army, who first defied attack in a house in wich he barricaded himself and afterwards shot at pursuers who followed him into the woods.
Schwarz, when discharged owing to mental trouble, was unaccountably left in possession of a rifle. He barricaded himself in his room at Romanshorn, in the canton of Thurgau, and from 6 o'clock until past 11 kept up a continuous fire.
In attempting to break down the door four men were killed and eight others wounded, including a policeman and the manager of the gas works. The fire brigade was summoned, and shortly after midnight a number of people rushed the house, but found that Schwarz has disappeared.
A policeman came upon him in the woods and fired, but was himself mortally wounded by the madman. Finally Schwarz was arrested, seriously wounded by shots, after a chase in which 100 people took part.
He killed another of his pursuers before he was captured, and yet another of those who had taken part has died subsequently.
