In the summer of 1918, a wealthy Spanish pharmacist named José Ezequiel Navarro arrived on the island of Gran Canaria with a leather briefcase that never left his side. Inside it he carried nearly all of his fortune: cash, jewelry, checks, and shares worth tens of thousands of pesetas. He had come from Cuba to open new pharmacies, and he was eager to begin. At the Hotel Universal in Las Palmas, he met a charming German doctor named Paul Bersteinhoffer, a man of fine clothes, elegant manners, and persuasive conversation.
Navarro was impressed. He did not know that the doctor was a fraud, a wanted criminal, and a man who had already decided to take everything he owned. Paul Einstein was not a doctor. He had been born on October 8, 1891, in Braunschweig, a small city in north-central Germany, to a working-class family.
His father was a locksmith, and his mother had been widowed young before marrying into the family. Paul grew up in a country that was rapidly industrializing. By the time he was fifteen, sixty percent of Germans lived in towns or cities, and young men like him were leaving small communities for big urban centers in search of opportunity. Paul moved to Hanover, where he found work as a typographer.
He was tall, blond, well dressed, and well liked. To those who met him, he seemed like a distinguished gentleman who had come from a life of comfort. In reality, he could barely afford his lodgings. He wanted more, and he wanted it quickly.
Envious of the wealthy men who paraded through the city, he turned to petty theft. Using the locksmith skills his father had taught him, he began robbing the homes of wealthy Hanover residents. His crimes soon escalated into fraud and armed robbery. Victims and financial institutions complained, and the police issued a warrant for his arrest.
On February 10, 1914, he was charged and sentenced in absentia to five years and three months in prison. But by then, Paul Einstein was already a fugitive. When the First World War broke out in July 1914, many Europeans fled the continent for South and Central America. Paul had friends in Mexico and Argentina, and he had read accounts by famous German explorers who had written admiringly of the Canary Islands.
The archipelago, located in the Atlantic sixty-two miles off the northwest coast of Africa, had belonged to Spain since the late fifteenth century, but its strategic position had made it a frequent target of invaders. It was the last European port for ships bound for the Americas, and its trade routes had brought great wealth to the islands. Merchants and adventurers from all over Europe came there. Paul decided that Gran Canaria would be the perfect place to escape the war and start over.
He arrived in Las Palmas using the name Paul Bersteinhoffer. He settled in San Mateo, a town in the mountainous center of the island, where he found a small German community and made friends easily. With the money he had stolen in Hanover, he maintained the pretense of being an educated gentleman. But he knew the money would not last, so he declared himself a doctor and began visiting neighboring towns and villages, offering his services to the sick.
Patients queued up to see the young, handsome German physician. His reputation grew until his patients realized he had no medical training at all. The newspapers reported the story of the fake doctor, but before charges could be brought, Paul fled by boat to the neighboring island of Tenerife. There he stayed at the Hotel Colón in Santa Cruz, dressed in expensive clothes and heavy jewelry, handing out business cards under the name Pablo Rodríguez.
The hotel owner grew suspicious and reported him to the German consulate. Two weeks after arriving, Paul was officially expelled from Tenerife. With the war occupying everyone’s attention, the story of the fake doctor faded, and Paul quietly returned to Gran Canaria. José Navarro had also come to the island with plans.
He was a fifty-year-old pharmacist with a degree in chemistry, originally from Valencia, who had spent many years in Cuba and had grown wealthy. He owned pharmacies in Spain and Cuba and planned to open two more on Gran Canaria. He was a cultured, well-traveled man who spoke several languages and took great care with his appearance. He wore fine suits, silk socks, handmade shirts, and expensive jewelry, including a prestigious gold watch.
He carried most of his money in that leather briefcase, which he kept close at all times. He had stayed at the Hotel Universal before, when he established a pharmacy in Tenerife run by his nephew. This time, he was excited about his new venture on the island. He met Paul Bersteinhoffer at the hotel.
The two men got along well. Navarro spoke of Cuba and his travels; Paul spoke of Germany and the war and the medical advancements being made on the battlefields. They met regularly. Paul noticed the briefcase and eventually learned what it contained.
He saw an opportunity. Paul told Navarro about a wonderful investment opportunity: an almond plantation in Pinos de Gáldar, a remote area known for its panoramic views of the island’s north and west. He said the almonds could be sold to the many traders who landed daily at the port. Navarro had no real interest in the project, but he did not want to upset his new friend, so he agreed to go and take a look.
Perhaps, he thought, he could find a location for one of his pharmacies along the way. On the afternoon of September 2, 1918, the two men set out. They traveled first to the town of Agüimes, some fifty kilometers from Las Palmas, then on to San Nicolás, where Paul introduced Navarro to five German friends. One of them was Johan Ludwig, a brutish man who worked as a butcher aboard a German ship docked at Santa Catalina.
He was known locally as an unsavory character, not the sort of person one would expect to see in a doctor’s company. Navarro, however, enjoyed the company and was impressed by the island’s landscape of tall pine trees and high mountain views. The last leg of the journey began on September 11, when they traveled to the town of Tejeda. The next day, Johan Ludwig arrived to accompany the two gentlemen to the plantation.
Ten days had passed since Navarro had left Las Palmas, and he was growing anxious. He had started to have doubts about his friend’s intentions, but he was still captivated by Paul’s charm and agreed to go on. They had a long, pleasant lunch with more drinks than usual. When they set out to see the plantation, it was already dark.
They made their way along a narrow mountain path, Navarro still clutching his briefcase. By now, his doubts had become fear. He pleaded with them to spare him, telling them they could take the briefcase and go. But Johan Ludwig feared that letting him go would mean the authorities would come after them.
He told Paul that he had not spent days traveling to a remote island spot only to be arrested afterward. Paul had already paid him an advance of five hundred pesetas for the job. Without further discussion, Johan struck Navarro with a piece of wood and knocked him to the ground. Paul finished him with a knife.
Fifty-year-old José Navarro was dead. The killers covered the body with a light layer of sand and returned to Las Palmas the next day on horseback, carrying the briefcase. They stopped at the town of Arucas, where hotel staff found their behavior suspicious. The two men bought liquor with the stolen money and acted strangely.
In all, they had taken more than fifteen hundred pesetas in cash, forty pesetas in silver, a gold watch, a chain, two gold rings with diamonds valued at seven hundred and eighty pesetas, and checks and shares valued at thousands more. Johan had also taken Navarro’s boots. They had planned the murder carefully, but they had made no real effort to hide the body. It was discovered quickly.
On September 19, the newspaper Ecos announced that an unidentified body had been found in the area around Pinos de Gáldar and published a description. The manager of the Hotel Universal read the article and contacted the police. A guest had left weeks earlier saying he would be back in a few days and had never returned. The clothes on the body matched those the guest had worn at the hotel.
The victim was identified as José Navarro. At first, the police believed that a gang of Germans living on the island had kidnapped and killed the pharmacist. Four Germans were arrested, all of them alleged friends of the false doctor Paul Bersteinhoffer. They confessed that they had met Navarro on September 6 in La Aldea and had accompanied him and Bersteinhoffer to Tejeda on the eighth, where they met up with Johan Ludwig.
After that day, they said, they never saw the three men together again. The case gripped the island. Gran Canaria had always been a peaceful place, and the murder of a wealthy visitor horrified its residents. The police were sure the killers had fled.
But Paul Bersteinhoffer and Johan Ludwig were not fleeing. They were busy spending their newfound wealth. Both were soon arrested and imprisoned to await trial. The trial opened on April 2, 1919, and became a sensation.
The press and the public followed every detail, even though the outcome was never in real doubt. Paul was charged under his real name, Paul Einstein. Both men were found guilty of the murder of José Navarro and sentenced to death. The sentences were later commuted to life in prison, but they did not serve them.
Just a few years later, for reasons that remain unknown, both men were freed and left the island. The stolen goods that had been recovered were returned to the victim’s family. The case of the charming fake doctor who murdered a wealthy pharmacist for his briefcase faded from the papers, but on Gran Canaria, the story was not forgotten.
