Herman Helcher

Herman Helcher (1877–1912) was a Latvian American cigar maker and attempted murderer. Having suffered from a mental disorder since childhood, after emigrating to the United States, he became obsessed with his English teacher Voltairine de Cleyre. He began to harbor paranoid delusions about her, leading to him attempting to murder her. De Cleyre survived the attack but the bullet wounds caused her pain for the rest of her life. Although she defended Helcher during his trial, he was convicted and sentenced to prison. He spent much of the remainder in his life in mental asylums, where he died.