Speaker: Ann Marie Ackermann, Author
 
Join us for a tale of murder, escape, heroism and redemption as Ann Marie Ackermann presents her book Death of an Assassin.
 
The first volunteer killed defending Robert E. Lee’s position in battle was really a German assassin. After fleeing to Philadelphia to escape prosecution for murder, the assassin enlisted in a German company of the Pennsylvania Volunteers in the Mexican-American War and died defending Lee's battery at the Siege of Veracruz in 1847. Lee wrote a letter home, praising this unnamed fallen volunteer defender. Military records identify him, but none of the Americans knew about his past life of crime. The roles the volunteer soldier/assassin and Robert E. Lee played at the Siege of Veracruz are part of American history, and the record-breaking, 19th-century cold case is part of German history. For the first time, Death of an Assassin brings the two stories together. 
 
Ann Marie Ackermann is a former attorney with focuses on criminal and medical law. She moved to Bönnigheim, Germany, the town in which the assassination occurred, 18 years ago and is a member of its historical society. Ackermann’s intimate knowledge of the town and of the German language enabled her to bring the German and American sides of this story together. She has a number of academic publications in law, ornithology, and history.