This was perhaps understandable since the Baroness was known to have a hot temper, and made people very nervous with the pistol she always seemed to be constantly carrying around with her, which she was known to wave about from time to time when she was particularly angry, as well as the whip which she was known to use judiciously on her lovers when they stepped out of line. It was all very unusual since Ritter was a strict vegetarian. The Galapagos Islands are an archipelago of volcanic islands spread out along the Equator around 906 km (563 mi) west of Ecuador. Additionally, she made up her home with quite a loud, garish décor that was just as flamboyant as she was, in stark contrast to the simple, functional design of the other homesteads. Additionally, the two lovers had taken no luggage with them whatsoever, and since the Baroness was such a celebrity at the time it seemed odd that there would be no word in the news of her arrival in Tahiti. In response, the Baroness would go on to steal Ritter’s donkey and set it loose on Wittmer’s vegetable garden. Unfortunately, wherever mankind goes so does the evil of which we are capable and these tranquil tropical islands would become the scene of a scandalous murder mystery that to this day remains unsolved.
This included visiting yacht captains, who she would entertain with grandiose tales and also shamelessly flirt with. One whaleship called the Essex made a stopover on Charles Island, now known as Floreana Island, and the crew went about hunting the endemic giant tortoises for food, something which was unfortunately somewhat of a common practice for visitors passing through at the time. Tags Conspiracy Galapagos Island Murder mysterious disappearances mysterious places natural world strange disappearances strange places unsolved crime. The Galapagos Affair Usually, day-to-day life on the remote Galapagos Islands is as uneventful as it gets. Meanwhile, conflict between Ritter and the Wittmers had escalated to the point where there were fights between them nearly every day. One family who chose to stay and brave this new land was that of former soldier Heinz Wittmer, who arrived on the island in 1932 along with his pregnant wife, Margret, and their young son Harry, who was suffering from health problems and was one of the reasons the family had decided to come live amongst nature in the first place.
And all of it was at least partially accessible online. Lorenz was also reported to have lost a shocking amount of weight from being underfed. Many of us yearn to get away from it all, and some of us even manage to conjure up the courage to actually do it. It was also not uncommon for her to snoop around other people’s property or sometimes even sift through their mail looking for juicy tidbits to gossip about. It caused such extensive damage that several years later one visitor described Charles Island as still being mostly a blackened, charred wasteland. It is here where our story begins to divert from one of the promise of an unfettered quiet life in paradise to one of scandalous betrayal, sex, murder, and the evil of man. In fact their had been no passing boats in weeks. While indeed simple and tranquil, life on the island was certainly not easy. In the end, only the perpetrator knew for sure and who that was remains a mystery to this day.
While many of these visitors to Floreana were curiosity seekers there merely to catch a glimpse of the now famous couple and their lifestyle, others went fully expecting to stay to establish their own permanent homesteads.
Copyright © Mysterious Universe. The Baroness was reportedly an insufferable chatterbox as well, who would tell stories and gossip to anyone within earshot, whether they wanted to listen or not. The islands are most famous for their incredible diversity of both marine and terrestrial life, including the well-known Galapagos giant tortoise (Chelonoidis nigra) and the marine iguana (Amblyrhynchus cristatus). One of her lovers, Philippson, began to make it a habit of regularly beating and abusing the Baroness’ other, physically smaller lover, Lorenz. Just as things were starting to froth to a head, one day in March, 1934, the Baroness and Philippson just disappeared without a trace, leaving behind all of their valuables and personal property.
Another problem was the Baroness’ personality, which proved to be abrasive to those around her, as well as her deceitful actions. Indeed, the Wittmer family would thrive on the island, and would go on to eventually establish a hotel there which is still run by their descendants.
One was that no one had seen any such yacht come to the island neither the previous night nor the day they had supposedly left. This was all much to the chagrin of Ritter. As for the deaths and disappearances, the bodies of both the Baroness and Philippson have never been found and Mrs. Wittmer would claim to her dying day that the Tahiti story was true, while Strauch stubbornly maintained that she and Ritter were convinced that Lorenz had murdered them with the help of the Wittmers. She became popular with many male visitors who passed through, and some yacht captains were known to go out of their way to make a stop at the island just to have a chat, among other things. It is unclear what the catalyst for this new development was, but it is said that the Baroness had decided that she didn’t need Lorenz anymore, and had reduced him to a mere whipping boy and slave to do hard labor on the homestead. The furious Wittmer then shot and killed the animal with his rifle, and the whole incident sowed conflict, tension and distrust between the two men. The governor was reportedly so enamored with the Baroness that he gave her an additional 4 square miles of land on Forteana along with other gifts. This enraged the previously quiet Wittmer, and he threatened to kill them both. The idea of leaving civilization behind, of escaping our busy and stressful lives to spirit ourselves away to some tropical paradise where we can live out our days in blissful quiet is an alluring one. Regardless of the reasons, the abuse and mistreatment towards Lorenz continued and there was not much anyone could do about it.
This growing amount of human settlement, as well as the ships passing through, had rather disastrous consequences for some of the native wildlife, most notably with the demise of the Floreana subspecies of giant tortoise, which had already gone extinct due to being hunted by settlers and passing whalers by the time Darwin arrived in 1835.
This was despite the fact that Ritter had been the one who had shown the most animosity towards the Baroness, thus making him a perfectly reasonable suspect in his own right. To this day, the mystery of what happened on Forteana Island remains unsolved and probably will remain that way. Get the MegaPack collection now for this great price. First was that the couple had been quite eccentric from the outset, having had all of their teeth removed in order to be able to share a pair of steel dentures before they had even left for the islands. Both families seemed to like it this way, and life on the island remained quiet and without incident. Dore Strauch and Mrs. Whittmer would also spend the rest of their days accusing each other of murder and denying any involvement in the death of Ritter. Additionally, the even-tempered Wittmer, who had until now mostly tolerated the Baroness and her eccentricities, became embroiled in a feud with her as well after one incident pushed him over the edge. Floreana Island is an island of the Galápagos Islands.It was named after Juan José Flores, the first president of Ecuador, during whose administration the government of Ecuador took possession of the archipelago.It was previously called Charles Island (after King Charles II of England), and Santa María after one of the caravels of Columbus.. The original matriarch of the family, Mrs. Wittmer herself, would later write her own book on her experiences on the island entitled Floreana: A Woman’s Pilgrimage to the Galapagos. The news was quiet, all of their belongings and valuables remained, and the Baroness and Philippson were simply gone without a trace.
Permanent settlement began with groups of convicts, who were brought there by the islands’ first governor, General José de Villamil to be put into penal colonies.
Settlement of the Galapagos really picked up in the 1920s and 30s, when a wave of settlers from Europe started to arrive, lured by numerous perks and benefits including the right to receive land from the Ecuadorian government, the ability to maintain their citizenship, unlimited fishing and hunting rights, and freedom from taxation for their first 10 years.