Ernest Moraweck

**Dr. Ernest Moraweck** was a con artist who bilked several widows out of their family estates. He traveled to Europe to see if he could find some use for his inheritance that did not righfully belong to him.

## Biography

On February 28, 1858, Ernest Moraweck was born in Davenport, Scott County, Iowa as the son of a baker who had emigrated from Bohemia to Chicago and later moved to Tell City, Indiana, where he opened The Hotel Moraweck, originally called the Steiner House. His name was Anton Moraweck and Claudina Kroboth was his wife and Ernest’s mother. In Indiana two siblings were born, named Claudina and Alvin Herman.

On 28 February 1884 he pledged his vows to Emilie Basler. During their marriage Ernest worked as a clerk and later a physician as well as a surgeon.

Moraweck’s wife Emilie died in 1904 at the age of 33. Later after that, Moraweck was living on a farm he’d recently bought in Frankfort, Kentucky. He crossed the Atlantic multiple times.

During one of these voyages, he came across a wealthy widow, named Magdalena Hasse. She was from Freiburg, Germany and had left Europe at the same time as Moraweck in Autumn 1909. She had medical troubles and Ernest looked after her.

In the Spring of 1910, she was on the farm of Moraweck in Kentucky, but suddenly had become very ill, and died. Luckily for Moraweck, she had left a load of belonings for him in her testament, most notably her estate, for his good care and kindness. But there were rumours surrounding Moraweck that he had earned the trust of several other loaded widows after which they had visited his farm, and mysteriously died soon after that, and in those cases, he too had appeared in the ladies’ will to inherit grand fortunes from them.

Another story goes that he was not approved by the German family of Magdalena, as well as his claims to her items.

## *Titanic*

Moraweck left the British mainland on *Titanic* from Southampton. He met Second Class passenger Kate Buss, who was traveling alone. Her letters home from the *Titanic* indicate that she spent a good deal of her time on board with fellow Second Class passenger Ernest Moraweck, a doctor who was 'known for inventing a tool to remove cataracts.'

Kate Buss would describe Moraweck as “very agreeable.” He talked about his medical background, helped Kate get a bit of soot out of her eye, and offered to show her around New York City when the *Titanic* docked there. She declined the offer kindly.

On April 14th, 11:40 P.M. Kate Buss had been awakened by the iceberg collision. Kate went into the hall were Ernest Moraweck was standing right outside her door. “Would you like me to go and investigate?” he offered. “No thank you,” she answered. Kate sped away from Moraweck and went straight to Marion Wright’s cabin. Dr. Moraweck did not survive the sinking. If his body was found, it was never identified. Kate Buss was saved however.

He left behind an astonishing fortune of around $75,000—wealth that was allegedly amassed by swindling family estates away from lonely, unsuspecting widows no one else seemed to care about. It was appointed to his two siblings Claudina and Alvin.  Whatever investigation had started into his possible crimes, it had led to a dead end.