Frederick Mors was an Austria

Austria

Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...

n serial killer

Serial killer

A serial killer, as typically defined, is an individual who has murdered three or more people over a period of more than a month, with down time between the murders, and whose motivation for killing is usually based on psychological gratification...

 who, while employed in a nursing home in New York City

New York City

New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

, killed seventeen elderly patients by poison

Poison

In the context of biology, poisons are substances that can cause disturbances to organisms, usually by chemical reaction or other activity on the molecular scale, when a sufficient quantity is absorbed by an organism....

ing. When questioned by police he was very cooperative, readily admitting to the murders. After being arrested, Mors was diagnosed as a megalomaniac and committed to an insane asylum from which he later escaped

Prison escape

A prison escape or prison break is the act of an inmate leaving prison through unofficial or illegal ways. Normally, when this occurs, an effort is made on the part of authorities to recapture them and return them to their original detainers...

.

Immigration

Born Carl Menarik, Mors immigrated

Immigration

Immigration is the act of foreigners passing or coming into a country for the purpose of permanent residence...

 to New York City from his native Austria-Hungary

Austria-Hungary

Austria-Hungary , more formally known as the Kingdoms and Lands Represented in the Imperial Council and the Lands of the Holy Hungarian Crown of Saint Stephen, was a constitutional monarchic union between the crowns of the Austrian Empire and the Kingdom of Hungary in...

 in June 1914. Being from German-speaking

German language

German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....

 Vienna

Vienna

Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...

, he was soon able to gain employment at the German Odd Fellows Home, a kind of nursing home

Nursing home

A nursing home, convalescent home, skilled nursing unit , care home, rest home, or old people's home provides a type of care of residents: it is a place of residence for people who require constant nursing care and have significant deficiencies with activities of daily living...

, located in the Bronx. Soon after he began work there, he exhibited signs of megalomania. He would wear white lab coats with a stethoscope

Stethoscope

The stethoscope is an acoustic medical device for auscultation, or listening to the internal sounds of an animal body. It is often used to listen to lung and heart sounds. It is also used to listen to intestines and blood flow in arteries and veins...

 around his neck. He also adopted an arrogant attitude and would insist that the elderly patients, whom he terrified, address him as "Herr Doktor." Inexplicably, though he terrified the older patients, younger patients and visitors seemed to like him and enjoy his company.

Murders

In a four month period from September 1914 to January of the following year, an unusually high number of patients died at the Home. In all seventeen died. Mors had been purchasing pharmacy

Pharmacy

Pharmacy is the health profession that links the health sciences with the chemical sciences and it is charged with ensuring the safe and effective use of pharmaceutical drugs...

 items from a local druggist, including arsenic

Arsenic

Arsenic is a chemical element with the symbol As, atomic number 33 and relative atomic mass 74.92. Arsenic occurs in many minerals, usually in conjunction with sulfur and metals, and also as a pure elemental crystal. It was first documented by Albertus Magnus in 1250.Arsenic is a metalloid...

 and chloroform

Chloroform

Chloroform is an organic compound with formula CHCl3. It is one of the four chloromethanes. The colorless, sweet-smelling, dense liquid is a trihalomethane, and is considered somewhat hazardous...

, which he had been using to murder at least eight of the elderly residents, though he later claimed he was "putting them out of their misery"

Euthanasia

Euthanasia refers to the practice of intentionally ending a life in order to relieve pain and suffering....

. He commissioned his first murder using arsenic. Encountering difficulties with this method he later switched to the use of chloroform. Fearing foul play, the administration called the police

Police

The police is a personification of the state designated to put in practice the enforced law, protect property and reduce civil disorder in civilian matters. Their powers include the legitimized use of force...

 in to investigate.

Investigation

Early in the investigation, police learned of the fear the elderly patients had for Mors. On these grounds he soon became the primary suspect of the investigation. When questioned, Mors readily and calmly admitted to killing eight of the seventeen patients that had recently died. He claimed that these were mercy killings and that they had been nuisances. In detail, he described his method as:

"First I would pour a drop or two of chloroform on a piece of absorbent cotton

Cotton

Cotton is a soft, fluffy staple fiber that grows in a boll, or protective capsule, around the seeds of cotton plants of the genus Gossypium. The fiber is almost pure cellulose. The botanical purpose of cotton fiber is to aid in seed dispersal....

 and hold it to the nostrils of the old person. Soon my man would swoon. Then I would close the orifices of the body with cotton, stuffing it in the ears

EARS

EARS may refer to:* Electoral software* Electronic Arts, Redwood Shores campus.* Emirates Amateur Radio Society...

, nostrils and so on. Next I would pour a little chloroform down the throat and prevent the fumes escaping the same way."

Mors was found to be criminally insane and was committed to the Matteawan Institution for the Insane. He later escaped the institution in the late 1920s. He was never caught and disappeared into obscurity, never being heard from again.