PASTOR POISONS GIRL GETS LIFE

Rush N.D. Minister To Prison Cell After Midnight Sentencing -- Mercer County Man Confesses He Killed Maid, Fired Parsonage After She Threatened To Tell Wife of Illicit Relations

After this piece was published, I was contacted by a writer researching this particular murder for a magazine article and, potentially, a book dealing with strange happenings and murder mysteries of the Dakotas.  A correspondence ensued and substantially more genealogical research, including a letter from prison written by the Rev. Heid Janssen and correspondence with a descendant of the Reverend who was also a psychiatrist.  The writer has priority to the use of the research, so it will not appear in this blog in whole or in part until the story and book are published, at which time I will offer my readers a review of the story.  

--Mandan, N.D. Aug 19 [1938]--Sentenced at a midnight court session, Rev. Heid Janssen, Evangelical Lutheran pastor at Krem, began a life term in the state penitentiary today a few hours after pleading guilty to poisoning his 16-year old housemaid and firing the parsonage containing her body.
Feeling in the community ran so high trial was ordered immediately after the minister, 51, admitted he killed Alma Kruckenberg because she was pregnant.
Sentence was passed by District Judge H.L. Berry. Janssen was taken immediately to the penitentiary.
The arraignment followed swiftly after Janssen signed a confession before States Attorney Floyd Sperry of Mercer County admitting he perp[etrated the crime Monday.
"The devil overcame me," the pastor said impassively. "I did wrong. I have a very good Christian wife and two boys any father would be proud of and I feel only sorry that I bring such grief to them."
The girl's father after hearing the pastor admit his guilt told him:

"I FORGIVE YOU."

"We were the best friends he had," John Kruckenberg said. He described the minister as "the best preacher I ever heard.
"He was especially good for children and was very well respected, not only in this community but ministers over the state as well," the father said.
Kruckenberg described his daughter as "not very healthy" and said he had placed her in the churchman's care because he thought she was safe there and that the work would not be too hard.
Miss Krickenberg was one of 10 children in the family of Mr. and Mrs. Kruckenberg, farmers near Krem, 60 miles north of Mandan. She had been employed at the parsonage since last January.
Sperry and Special Assistant Attorney General James Austin began questioning Janssen early Tuesday. During two days of incessant interrogation, Sperry said, the minister denied any connection with the fire and burned body.

PARENTS ASK TRUTH

Thursday evening the parents of the murdered girl confronted Janssen and pleaded he "tell the truth." The confession followed.
Janssen told the court he gave the girl poisoned wine Aug. 13, and then burned teh house. He admitted illicit relations with the girl. He said the girl threatened to tell Mrs. Janssen, and he decided "to do away with her."
Janssen's wife was in Bismarck for medical treatment when he confessed to the crime and Sheriff F.W. Vreeland of Mercer County did not believe she knew either of the confession or the sentence.
The minister was calm throughout the trial and did not break down. He seemed pleased he would be taken immediately to the penitentiary.

FORMERLY AT HARVEY

Serving a parsonage of almost 50 members in the Krem area, Janssen has been there five years, previously serving in Montana for 18 years and before that at Harvey S.D. for eight years.

From The Fargo Forum Friday Evening August 19, 1938

I requested a copy of this news article from the Germans for Russia Historical Society after a research librarian there generously offered to run a check for the appearance of an Evangelical Lutheran Pastor by the name of Heid Janssen in connection with the murder of a servant girl sometime between 1930 and 1940. This genealogical investigation into an otherwise long forgotten crime was triggered by a story my father once told me when I asked him why he only went to church when his mother was buried and his children got married. He said he did not like the hypocrisy of church goers who sinned all week and held themselves out to be holy and righteous for an hour or so on Sunday mornings. Then, after a short pause, he told me about a pastor he knew when he was young who raped and killed a girl working at the parsonage. He never mentioned it again, and I never asked. But I never forgot the story.
A week ago, I returned to eastern Montana to celebrate the 100th birthday of my Uncle Bill, who was married to my father's sister, the oldest of the five children in my father's family. While there, I also reconnected with my 92 year old Aunt Martha, the widow of my father's older brother. It turns out that my Aunt Martha and my father were confirmed by the same Lutheran Pastor in a little church in Marsh, Montana, not too far from Glendive, both on or near the Yellowstone River. So I asked her about my father's story. Without hesitation she recited the particulars pretty much as I remembered my father's account and added to it, the names of the pastor's wife and two boys as well as the last name of a servant girl, whose body was found in the well of the Marsh, Montana church after Rev. Janssen was arrested and convicted for a similar crime in North Dakota.  A coroner's report, subsequently located, said only that the girl's body was found downstream in the Yellowstone River.  No autopsy was done.
As I write this piece, I am looking at "Zur Erinnerung an den Tag der Konfirmation" with the written inscription at the bottom "Evan. Luth. Jehovah -- Kirche, Marsh Montana" and in the same hand signed "H. Janssen ev. luth." Pastor, dated 23 June 1929.