He Dreamed of Becoming a Priest… Then He Became One of Switzerland’s Last Guillotine Killers
August 9, 1937. A young man sits on a park bench in Rapperswil. Minutes later a police officer is dead—five shots to the body, the last one to the temple. As he flees toward the lake, he kills again.
His name was Paul Irniger. He once longed to be a monk. He later dressed as a priest, celebrated Mass, and heard confessions. He also murdered a taxi driver for 60 francs, then two more people in a single afternoon.
In this episode of A True Crime Podcast, Alexander Lawson tells the strange, short, and violent story of the man they called the “philosophical murderer”—and how his crimes helped…
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