Red Baron’s Great-Great-Niece Guilty of Murdering Parents
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RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil — A descendant of Manfred von Richthofen, the German pilot known as the Red Baron, has been sentenced to almost 40 years in jail in Brazil for bludgeoning her parents to death.
Suzane von Richtofen, the 22-year-old daughter of the great-nephew of the World War I ace, was described in court as “the personification of an evil blonde.”
She was convicted along with her boyfriend, Daniel Cravinhos, and his brother Cristian.
Daniel was sentenced to almost 39 years and Cristian, who was judged to have played a lesser role in the double murder, was given almost 38 years.
A jury in Sao Paulo decided that the three had sneaked into Manfred and Marisia von Richtofen’s bedroom as they slept at their home in one of the city’s wealthier districts and beaten them with iron bars before choking them with towels.
All three had taken a cocktail of marijuana, paint-thinner, and glue. Prosecuting lawyers argued that the trio killed the couple in order to inherit their estate.
“It was all planned in advance in a macabre fashion,” said Roberto Tardelli for the prosecution. “They did what they did because they wanted to.”
The murders took place in October 2002 but because Brazil’s legal system works slowly, the trial only took place this week.
The three ransacked the house and stole money in an attempt to make their crime resemble a botched break-in, but police detained Daniel Cravinhos after he paid for a new motorbike in cash the day after the murders.
Von Richthofen, his then girlfriend, was arrested soon after and their fate has gripped Brazil ever since.
In a country where elaborate soap operas of evil, sex, and intrigue regularly attract tens of millions of viewers, the trial surpassed anything dreamed up by the nation’s scriptwriters.
Most intriguing to Brazilians was the relationship between the wealthy, blond von Richthofen and the poorer, darker Cravinhos.
Her parents, Manfred von Richtofen, 49, an engineer and the great nephew of the Red Baron, and his wife, a psychologist, disapproved of their daughter’s relationship with Cravinhos, who is from a lower-middle-class family.
