# murderers: butlers vs. gardeners

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/murderers-butlers-vs-gardeners/229734>\
**Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\
**Created:** [February 18, 2004, 12:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/murderers-butlers-vs-gardeners/229734 "2004-02-18T00:10:05Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Albrecht\_Conz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85e7bf/32.png) [@Albrecht\_Conz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Albrecht_Conz)\
**Post date:** [February 18, 2004, 12:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/murderers-butlers-vs-gardeners/229734/1 "2004-02-18T00:10:05Z")

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I enjoyed the column on butlers as killers:  
[http://www.straightdope.com/columns/030926.html](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/030926.html)

Still I wonder - in German the saying is “the killer is always the gardener.” Does this variant exist in English too? There is a German hit from the 1970s by singer-songwriter Reinhard Mey “Der Mörder ist immer der Gärtner” (the killer is always the gardener) which might have gone to popularise the saying, still I don’t think it originated it - yet I couldn’t find any conclusive evidence.

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**Author:** ![ras2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/a587f6/32.png) [@ras2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ras2000)\
**Post date:** [February 23, 2004, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/murderers-butlers-vs-gardeners/229734/2 "2004-02-23T17:01:41Z")

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I’ve never heard that saying, but then I don’t speak German, so that’s hardly surprising. Maybe there is a German author, or several, who used the gardner in the same way as their English counterparts?  
My knowledge of German whodunnits could fit in a small book of matches without removing the matches first.  
A quick google found this link, but it does look like it might have been written in German (Austria?)  
[http://www.geocities.com/patriciawhitton/TheMysteryOfChestnutHill.html](http://www.geocities.com/patriciawhitton/TheMysteryOfChestnutHill.html)  
One strange story, that I didn’t have the patience to read.

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**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\
**Post date:** [February 23, 2004, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/murderers-butlers-vs-gardeners/229734/3 "2004-02-23T20:45:49Z")

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I’ve never heard of any equivalent saying in English regarding a gardener. I contributed to the thread that commented on that column, taking it apart line by line, and nobody there mentioned a gardener either. Guess it’s just parallelism.