Legend holds that the Galápagos tortoise can perceive the intentions of human visitors to its home, dispensing a powerful curse if it deems those intentions harmful. History provides an eerie example in the story of Thomas Chappel, helmsman of the doomed Nantucket whaler Essex. In 1820, while visiting what is now Floreana Island, Chappel set a fire that reduced the land to bare rock, wiping out several species. Soon after, the Essex was attacked and sunk by a sperm whale, setting off the tragic series of events immortalized in Melville’s Moby-Dick.
But this is another Galápagos curse—one of sex, murder, and mystery.
It began in 1929, when German dentist Friedrich Ritter abandoned his old life and fled to Floreana with one of his married patients, Dore Strauch. Ritter sought to reinvent himself as a scientist and philosopher, while their letters back home painted them as the “Adam and Eve” of the Galápagos. The German press sensationalized their story, attracting other settlers to their supposed paradise.
Fredrich Ritter and Dore Strauch
In 1932, Heinz and Margret Wittmer arrived with their son Harry, later giving birth to Rolf on the island. That same year, the most eccentric of Floreana’s residents arrived: an Austrian woman calling herself Eloise von Wagner Bosquet, accompanied by her two lovers, Robert Philippson and Rudolf Lorenz.
The Wittmers, a hardworking and self-sufficient family, mostly kept to themselves. Ritter, despite his grand philosophical aspirations, was said to be domineering over Strauch, forcing her to do much of the labor. But it was the Baroness—wild, flamboyant, and armed with both charm and a pistol—who made the biggest impact.
The Whittmer Family: Heinz, Margret, Harry, and Rolf
Eloise wasted no time declaring herself the “Baroness of the Galápagos.” She forbade any landings on Floreana without her permission and would meet visiting ships in Post Office Bay wearing sheer dresses with a revolver strapped to her hip. She thrived on the mystique surrounding her, feeding rumors whenever possible.
One such tale, likely fabricated by the Baroness herself, claimed she had murdered a shipwrecked couple who had come ashore. She even starred in a silent film short based on this rumor, Empress of Floreana, filmed by eccentric millionaire and ship captain George Allan Hancock, who had originally come to the island to film its wildlife.
But trouble soon came to paradise.
Baroness von Wagner with her two lovers: Robert Philippson (L) and Rudolf Lorenz (C). In the garden of Hacienda Paradiso, Floreana Island, Galapagos. Circa 1932
By March 1934, Rudolf Lorenz had fallen out of favor with the Baroness and Philippson. Claiming both emotional and physical abuse, he left their settlement to stay with the Wittmers. On the night of March 27, 1934, Dore Strauch awoke to a long, bloodcurdling scream.
By morning, the Baroness and Philippson had vanished.
The Wittmers claimed that the Baroness and her lover had accepted an invitation to leave with a wealthy American yachtsman, asking them to mind their belongings. But Strauch, in her memoir, stated she never saw a ship come to the island. No records exist of an American yacht in the area that day.
From The Empress of Floreana
With the Baroness gone, Lorenz wasted no time in arranging his departure from Floreana. He convinced a Norwegian captain, Trygve Nuggerud, to take him to San Cristóbal, where he could more easily find passage home. Weeks later, both men vanished.
On November 2, 1934, their desiccated remains were found on Marchena Island, though Nuggerud’s boat and its other crewmembers were never located. The island teemed with life, but a lack of fresh water had doomed them.
Curiously, that same week, Friedrich Ritter also died—allegedly from food poisoning. Strauch claimed they had eaten the same food, yet she felt fine. Margret Wittmer would later write that Strauch only sought help when Ritter was beyond saving. His last words, it is said, were curses against her.
Strauch soon returned to Germany, where she published Satan Came to Eden, a memoir recounting her time on Floreana. But the book gained little traction, dismissed by many as the bitter recollections of a scorned woman. Decades later, however, the story found renewed interest, inspiring the 2013 documentary The Galápagos Affair: Satan Came to Eden, which explored the bizarre and unsolved mystery that still haunts the islands.
As for the Baroness and Philippson, no trace of them has ever been found.
Lorenz’s desiccated remains
What really happened on that fateful night in March 1934?
The most common theory is that Lorenz, after enduring months of abuse, murdered the Baroness and Philippson, with the Wittmers helping to cover up the crime. Others believe the Wittmers themselves orchestrated the killings, resenting the Baroness’s disruptive presence on their fragile island existence. Then there are those who entertain the possibility that the Baroness and her lover did, in fact, escape—fleeing to some distant shore, perhaps changing their names and vanishing into history.
But if the Galápagos tortoise does indeed curse those who wrong its home, then perhaps the island itself delivered its own form of justice. Lorenz perished in a slow, torturous death on Marchena. Ritter, who had cast himself as an enlightened man but ruled over Strauch with an iron hand, died cursing her name. The Baroness, the self-proclaimed Empress of Floreana, disappeared without a trace, leaving behind only whispers of scandal and the ruins of her failed utopia.
Today, Floreana remains a paradise, but one with ghosts. The descendants of the Wittmers still live there, running a hotel on the very land where the Baroness once held court. And the sea, the wind, and the tortoises carry the secrets of those lost to time.
Jason Roberts is a Seattle-based author noted for his acclaimed western horror series The Dead Wind Trilogy as well as other works of cosmic horror infused with historical fiction. His web-based series, Dark Distractions examines paranormal mysteries, unexplained phenomena, and all things strange.
