Red Baron Descendant Sentenced For Murdering Parents
A family branch
descended from the line of Manfred von Richthofen has come to a
tragic end in Brazil. In Sao Paulo on Saturday, a court sentenced
three young Brazilians to long prison terms for the October 31,
2002 murders of Manfred Alberto von Richthofen and his
wife.
Apart from the interest resulting from the famous name, and the
brutal nature of the crimes, the story has made a worldwide splash
because of the identity of the murderers: the von Richtofens'
19-year- old daughter, Suzane; her boyfriend, Daniel Cravinhos; and
Cravinhos's brother, Christian.
According to Brazilian press reports and the Associated Press,
the root of Suzane's falling out with her parents was her
relationship with Daniel Cravinhos, of whom her parents
disapproved. Prosecutors suggested that the motive was not only to
end the parental nagging, but also to get hold of the parental
estate valued at almost a million dollars.
The Richthofen family, an old Prussian Junker line, has spread
around the world and contained many unusual characters, but none
more famous than the flying Richthofens: Manfred, Lothar and
Wolfram. Manfred, the "Red Baron" of World War I, was a protege of
Oswald Boelcke who went on to become the ranking ace of the war
with 80 kills. His younger brother Lothar was a forty-kill ace in
his own right in the same squadron, Jasta 11. Distant cousin
Wolfram, a latecomer to Jasta 11 who still shot down eight aircraft
by war's end, went on to become a dive-bomber specialist whose
ability brought him to the rank of Field Marshal in the World War
II Luftwaffe. (Only five other men ever held that rank).
All three flying Richthofens died young: Manfred under the guns
of Canadian pilot Wilfrid "Wop" May; Lothar in a crash of a
civilian aircraft in 1922; and Wolfram in 1945 of a long illness
that forced him into early retirement in 1944.
Another Richthofen emigrated to the United States in the 19th
Century, and went on to build a replica of the family's
castle. Yet another was recently in the German diplomatic service,
and served as German Ambassador to the UK in the 1990s.
The latest von Richthofen in the news, Suzane, was sentenced to
39 years in prison Saturday, and the Cravinho brothers to forty
each.
They bludgeoned the Richthofens; as crimes often do, the master
plan quickly unraveled and Suzane confessed. The intervening four
years have been spent in legal maneuverings, which are now at an
end.
It's probably a good thing that the Red Baron didn't live to see
this.