Franz Strasser

Franz Strasser (1899 – 2 January 1946) was an Austrian-German former NSDAP Kreisleiter and convicted murderer.

Action
In December 1944, in Kaplitz, Czechoslovakia (now Czech Republic), Franz Strasser killed two American allied airmen by shooting them with a Thompson submachine gun. They were members of a group of five who stayed with pilot Warren Woodruff when he landed the plane in a field and had voluntarily surrendered and were taken away in a truck. A Captain Lindemeyer, who later committed suicide, reportedly killed the other three, and the court verdict suggests that the killings were originally Lindemeyer's idea.

Trial and execution
On 24 August 1945, he was tried, with someone translating for him. He was found guilty and was sentenced to execution by hanging at Landsberg Prison. On 2 January 1946, he was hanged and died instantly as German Catholic priest and longtime hospital chaplain Karl Morgenschweis prayed for the convicted murderer.