Marietje Kessels (English)
In August 1900, the 11-year-old Maria (Marietjé) Catharina Wilhelmina Kessels (Tilburg 1889 – Tilburg 1900) was found in the attic of the former church of the Noordhoek in an alcove of several metres deep. She had been undressed, raped and strangled. This crime, which was never solved, spread a shock wave through the Tilburg community and the ensuing court cases even surfaced in the national press on a daily basis.
The sexton and a painter were the main suspects but they were both acquitted. In 1988, Ed Schilders reconstructed the murder in his book ‘Moordhoek’ , in which he also came up with the then parish priest dr. George van Zinnicq Bergman as a suspect.
In 2001, a monument made by Guido Geelen was erected in the playground at the Dionysiusstraat to commemorate the fateful event. Another tangible memory – the Marietje’s grave – can be found at the cemetery at the Bredaseweg (cemetery Binnenstad). This monument was created in 1900 thanks to donations made by inhabitants of Tilburg.