Compiled and written by David R. Schleper, 2021

Frederick Hankey, his wife, Elizabeth, and Julia immigrated to Shakopee, and on November 20, 1867, Julia married Joachim Jacob Unze, the second of thirteen children born of Joachim Unze and Dorothy Elizabeth Selle from Krampfer, Bradeburg, Prussia. Joachim was born in 1844.

They married at St John’s Lutheran Church in Shakopee. Joachim and Julia had four children, including Mary Rose (1868), Julia Sophia (1873), Jacob Henry (1874) and Albert (1879). They farmed in the Eagle Creek area of what became Shakopee.

On January 14, 1882 in Spring Hill, Joachim died. He was 37 years old. He had returned from the market in Shakopee, put his horse team in the barn, and entered the house, according to the January 19, 1882 Shakopee Argus. He unbuttoned his coat, placed the packages on the table, and suddenly fell to the floor, dead. After Coroner Hirscher checked and declared the cause heart disease.

Almost one year later, Julia suddenly died.

Julia was unwell, but not serious. The next day was much worse, and by Wednesday, she was dead, according to the January 18, 1883 Shakopee Argus. Though some people thought it might be suicide, Coroner Hirscher made an investigation and decided that Julia died of natural causes.

Her four children were left orphans but eventually were adopted by George Unze and Margaret Rielander Unze.

Julia Hankey Unze was buried in the early part of January 1883 at Valley Cemetery in Shakopee.

And that is when the body snatchers showed up.

Night watchman Gifford was in the cemetery. He noticed suspicious tracks near the new grave of Julia Unze. He contacted the trustees, who investigated. They opened the grave and found that it was filled with earth, according to the January 11, 1883 Shakopee Argus.

There was no body.

Gifford reported the tracks of three men. They were wearing either moccasins or stocking feet. They drove into the field adjoining the cemetery with a single horse hitched to a bobsled. They were accompanied by a large, heavy dog.

Was there an organized gang of professional grave robbers, who disposed of their ghastly plunder in distant cities and medical colleges?

All the doctors’ offices were searched. No luck. Nothing happened until May 1883.

A headless body was found floating in the river near where the creek emptied into Conter’s Lime Kiln. It was a nude body of an adult female, decapitated, and with the left leg amputated, according to the May 17, 1883 Shakopee Argus.

A jury was summoned and an inquest was held that afternoon. They decided that the deceased was an unknown person who had met her death at the hands of a person or persons unknown to them. They buried the body.

The county attorney didn’t like the verdict, and so they again disinterred the body. Same results, and the body was buried again.

The May 17, 1883 Shakopee Argus noted the person or people had “undoubtedly decapitated the body and buried it upon the banks of the river, or shoved it under the ice, naked, as they would have done with a dead hog.”

Julia Unze had a scar on her left leg, which would have aided in identifying the body. Because this was the leg that was removed, it was clear someone knew that.

“Haunted in their dreams, they must dread the appearance of the pure, bright light of day as being a constant reproach upon their dark deeds,” said the May 17, 1883 Shakopee Argus.

Bibliography

Shakopee Argus, 19 Jan. 1882.

Shakopee Argus, 11 Jan. 1883.

Shakopee Argus, 18 Jan. 1883.

Shakopee Argus, 17 May 1883.