Frederick Mors

Serial Killer

Frederick Mors: The Self-Styled Doctor Who Poisoned the Elderly

From Austrian Immigrant to Nursing-Home Attendant

Frederick Mors was the name used by Carl Menarik, an Austrian immigrant who became one of New York City's earliest known nursing-home serial killers. Born in Vienna, Austria-Hungary, on October 2, 1889, Menarik arrived in New York in June 1914 and began presenting himself under his new identity. Although he had no medical degree or legitimate professional training, he possessed some knowledge of hospitals, medicines and patient care. That limited knowledge would later allow him to approach vulnerable residents with an appearance of authority. Through an immigrant employment agency, Mors obtained work at the German Odd Fellows' Home in Unionport, an area that is now part of the Bronx. The institution cared for approximately 100 elderly men and women as well as hundreds of orphaned children. Mors was initially employed as a porter, but he soon began behaving as though he were a physician. He wore a white coat, carried or displayed a stethoscope and insisted that elderly residents address him as "Herr Doktor." Children and visitors reportedly found Mors pleasant and likable, but a different atmosphere surrounded him among the elderly residents. Some feared him, and his habit of assuming medical authority gave him unusual access to people who were frail, ill and often unable to defend themselves. Inside an institution where death was not unexpected, he found an environment in which deliberate killings could initially resemble natural losses.

The Unusual Increase in Deaths

Between September 1914 and January 1915, 17 elderly residents died at the German Odd Fellows' Home. The number was unusually high even for a facility caring for older and seriously ill people. Because the victims were elderly and their deaths did not immediately display obvious signs of violence, the fatalities were originally recorded or accepted as natural. Suspicion eventually grew within the institution. Residents and employees described their fear of Mors, while administrators could no longer ignore the concentration of deaths that had occurred during his employment. An investigation began, focusing attention on the self-styled doctor who had been moving freely among the residents. Mors ultimately admitted responsibility for eight deaths. He claimed that he had killed the residents to end their suffering, describing the murders as acts of mercy. Other accounts of his confession indicated that he considered some residents burdensome and believed that their deaths would create room for other people. His explanations attempted to give the killings a humanitarian purpose, but his calculated selection of helpless victims and his efforts to conceal their causes of death demonstrated deliberate and repeated homicidal behavior. ...

Confirmed Victims: (8)

Carl Hitzel Age: (78)

Frederick Mors - Wikipedia