We take a look at some of Germany's most notorious serial killers, some of whom will be in prison until they die, with no chance of parole.
This is a list of notable serial killers from Germany, ranked by number of proven victims (deadliest):
| # | Name: | Number of victims: |
| 30. | Erwin Hagedorn | (3) |
| 29. | Sophie Charlotte Elisabeth Ursinus | (3) |
| 28. | Martin Ney | (3 - 5+) |
| 27. | Jürgen Bartsch | (4) |
| 26. | Frank Gust | (4) |
| 25. | Fritz Honka | (4) |
| 24. | Anna Margaretha Zwanziger | (4) |
| 23. | Heinrich Pommerenke | (4 - 4+) |
| 22. | Werner Boost | (5 - 5+) |
| 21. | Olaf Däter | (5) |
| 20. | Elisabeth Wiese | (5 - 5+) |
| 19. | Wolfgang Schmidt | (6) |
| 18. | Ida Schnell | (6 - 9+) |
| 17. | Friedrich Schumann | (6) |
| 16. | Marianne Nölle | (7 - 17) |
| 15. | Paul Ogorzow | (8) |
| 14. | Joachim Kroll | (8 - 14+) |
| 13. | Volker Eckert | (9 - 19+) |
| 12. | Peter Kürten | (9 - 79+) |
| 11. | Rudolf Pleil | (10 - 25) |
| 10. | Adolf Seefeld | (12 - 100+) |
| 9. | Gesche Gottfried | (15 - 15+) |
| 8. | Peter Stumpp | (16) |
| 7. | Fritz Haarmann | (24 - 27+) |
| 6. | Carl Großmann | (26 - 50+) |
| 5. | Stephan Letter | (29 - 80+) |
| 4. | Karl Denke | (30 - 40+) |
| 3. | Bruno Lüdke | (51 - 86+) |
| 2. | Peter Niers | (544 - 544+) |
| 1. | Christman Genipperteinga | (970 - 970+) |
(See also 7 Myths About Serial Killers)
(See also The Last Words of 30 Famous Serial Killers)
(See also Top 30 Serial Killers By Number of Victims (20th century))
(See also Top 30 Intelligent Serial Killers With Highest IQ)
(See also Top 10 Famous Austrian Serial Killers)
30. Erwin Hagedorn (3)
 |
| (Hans Erwin Hagedorn, age 20) |
Hans Erwin Hagedorn (born 30 January 1952 in Eberswalde; died 15 September 1972 in Leipzig) was a German child murderer.
Span of killings: 1969 - 1971
Date of arrest: 12 November 1971
Born: 30 January 1952, Eberswalde, East Germany
Died: 15 September 1972, Leipzig, East Germany
Number of victims: 3
Location: East Germany, Germany
On May 31, 1969 Hagedorn killed two nine-year-old boys in a forest in Eberswalde with a knife. More than two years later, on 7 October 1971, Hagedorn killed a twelve-year-old boy in the same area and in the same way he had killed his first two victims. Shortly afterwards the decisive clue came from a boy who reported to have been sexually harassed in the year before the first murders took place. Erwin Hagedorn was arrested on 12 November 1971 and immediately confessed to the murders.
In May 1972 Hagedorn was sentenced to death. An appeal for clemency was denied by Head of State Walter Ulbricht. The 20-year-old Hagedorn was executed by shooting on September 15, 1972. He was the last civilian to be executed in the German Democratic Republic and in Germany more generally.
In May 1972 Hagedorn was sentenced to death. An appeal for clemency was denied by Head of State Walter Ulbricht. The 20-year-old Hagedorn was executed by shooting on September 15, 1972. He was the last civilian to be executed in the German Democratic Republic and in Germany more generally.
29. Sophie Charlotte Elisabeth Ursinus (3)
 |
| (Portrait of Sophie Charlotte Elisabeth Ursinus (née Weingarten)) |
Sophie Charlotte Elisabeth Ursinus (née Weingarten; 5 May 1760 – 4 April 1836) was a German serial killer believed to have been responsible for poisoning her husband, aunt and lover, and of attempting to poison her servant. Her trial led to a method of identifying arsenic poisoning.
Span of killings: September 1796 - 1803
Date of arrest: 1803
Born: May 5, 1760, Glatz, Lower Silesia
Died: April 4, 1836 (aged 75)
Number of victims: 3
Criminal penalty: Life imprisonment
Location: Prussia, German Empire
The trial for murder ended on 12 September 1803. In her attempt to save her life and honour Sophie Ursinus had disputed every point, but was found guilty of the murder of her aunt and the attempted murder of her servant, and was sentenced to life imprisonment. She was allowed a certain amount of comfort while in prison in Glatz, and was even allowed to have parties with guests and dress in fine clothes. After 30 years she was pardoned in 1833 and rejoined the upper-class society of Glatz until her death in 1836.
28. Martin Ney (3 - 5+)
 |
| (Martin Ney) |
Martin Ney (born December 12, 1970 in Bremen) is a German serial killer. He wore a mask while killing 3 and sexually assaulting at least 40 children.
Span of killings: March 1992 - April 2004
Date of arrest: 15 April 2011
Born: 12 December 1970 (age 44), Bremen, Germany
Proven victims: 3
Possible victims: 5+
Criminal penalty: Life imprisonment
Location: Germany
His first victim was Stefan Jahrd, 13, in 1992. Three years later he murdered Dennis Rostel, eight. Six years after that he snatched nine-year-old Dennis Kleinfrom.
27. Jürgen Bartsch (4)
 |
| (Jürgen Bartsch (born Karl-Heinz Sadrozinski)) |
Span of killings: 1962 - 1966
Date of arrest: June 22, 1966
Born: November 6, 1946, Essen, Germany (Birth name: Karl-Heinz Sadrozinski)
Died: April 28, 1976 (aged 29), Eickelborn, West Germany
Number of victims: 4
Location: Bonn, West Germany, Germany
Status: Sentenced to life imprisonment on December 15, 1967. In 1971, the Federal Court of Justice of Germany, on appeal, reduced the sentence to 10 years juvenile detention and to be placed under psychiatric care in Eickelborn. Died during voluntary surgical castration on April 28, 1976
Upon arrest, Bartsch openly confessed to his crimes. He was sentenced to life imprisonment on December 15, 1967, by the Wuppertal regional court (Landgericht Wuppertal). Initially, the sentence was upheld on appeal. However, in 1971, the Federal Court of Justice of Germany, returned the case to the Landgericht Düsseldorf, which reduced the sentence to 10 years of juvenile detention and had Bartsch placed under psychiatric care in Eickelborn. There, he married Gisela Deike of Hanover on January 2, 1974.
The forensic psychiatrists considered various therapy concepts: psychotherapy, castration and even psychosurgery. Bartsch initially refused any surgery but finally agreed to voluntary castration on April 28, 1976 in order to avoid lifetime incarceration in a mental hospital. This was about ten years after incarceration, two years after his marriage, and after his depressive condition did not improve. The doctors of Eickelborn State Hospital chose a castration methodology that accidentally resulted in Bartsch's death. An official autopsy and investigation determined that Bartsch had been intoxicated with a Halothane overdose (factor 10) by an insufficiently trained nurse.
The forensic psychiatrists considered various therapy concepts: psychotherapy, castration and even psychosurgery. Bartsch initially refused any surgery but finally agreed to voluntary castration on April 28, 1976 in order to avoid lifetime incarceration in a mental hospital. This was about ten years after incarceration, two years after his marriage, and after his depressive condition did not improve. The doctors of Eickelborn State Hospital chose a castration methodology that accidentally resulted in Bartsch's death. An official autopsy and investigation determined that Bartsch had been intoxicated with a Halothane overdose (factor 10) by an insufficiently trained nurse.
26. Frank Gust (4)
 |
| (Frank Gust) |
Frank Gust (born May 24, 1969 in Oberhausen) is a German serial killer. He has been dubbed Rhein-Ruhr-Ripper by the media, because his actions show similarities with Jack the Ripper and were mainly committed in the Rhine-Ruhr region in western Germany.
Span of killings: 1994 - 1998
Date of arrest: 1999
Born: May 24 1969, Oberhausen, West Germany
Number of victims: 4
Criminal penalty: Life imprisonment
Location: Germany
In 1999 Gust indicated to his mother that he had committed a murder. She told a friend of hers, who informed the police. Gust was arrested shortly afterwards. On September 21, 2000 he was sentenced to life imprisonment for killing four people. Gust started a therapy which he quit after only six months, stating that he wasn't treatable and would always remain a threat to other people.
25. Fritz Honka (4)
 |
| (Friedrich "Fritz" Paul Honka) |
Friedrich "Fritz" Paul Honka (31 July 1935 – 19 October 1998) was a German serial killer. Between 1970 and 1975, he killed at least four prostitutes from Hamburg's red light district, keeping the bodies in his flat.
Span of killings: 1971 - 1974
Date of arrest: January 1975
Born: July 31, 1935
Died: October 19, 1998
Number of victims: 4
Location: Hamburg, West Germany, Germany
Status: Sentenced to life in prison, 1975. Released, 1993. Died on October 19, 1998
On 15 July 1975, the mummified remains were found by firemen after a fire in the house. Honka was not present, being on shift as a night watchman. He was arrested when he returned home. In custody, Honka said he killed the women after they mocked his preference for oral sex over "straight" intercourse. He was sentenced to life imprisonment, the maximum possible under German law.
Honka was released from prison in 1993 and spent his last years under the name of Peter Jensen in a nursing home. He died in a hospital in Langenhorn, Hamburg on 19 October 1998.
German director Andreas Schnaas has said that his film Violent Shit series is very loosely based on the exploits of Honka, who is mentioned in Violent Shit II, which states he was once cellmates with the fictional serial killer Karl Berger.
Honka was released from prison in 1993 and spent his last years under the name of Peter Jensen in a nursing home. He died in a hospital in Langenhorn, Hamburg on 19 October 1998.
German director Andreas Schnaas has said that his film Violent Shit series is very loosely based on the exploits of Honka, who is mentioned in Violent Shit II, which states he was once cellmates with the fictional serial killer Karl Berger.
24. Anna Margaretha Zwanziger (4)
 |
| (Anna Margaretha Zwanziger) |
Anna Margaretha Zwanziger (née Anna "Nannette" Schonleben, 7 August 1760 – 17 September 1811) was a serial killer in the German state of Bavaria. She used arsenic, which she referred to as "her truest friend".
Span of killings: 1808 - 1809
Date of arrest: October 16, 1809
A.K.A.: "The German Brinvilliers"
Born: Anna "Nannette" Schonleben, August 7, 1760
Died: September 17, 1811, Nuremberg
Number of victims: 4
Method of murder: Poisoning (arsenic)
Location: Bavaria, Germany
Status: Executed by a sword in Nuremberg on September 17, 1811
From 1801 until 1811, Zwanziger was employed as a housekeeper at the home of several judges in Bavaria. She would poison her employers with arsenic, and then nurse them back to health to gain their favour. She poisoned three people, and attempted to poison several others. She killed four people, one of whom was a baby. Four others survived.
Zwanziger was judged guilty of murder and sentenced to death. Before she was beheaded, she said it was probably a good thing she was to be executed, as she did not think she would be able to stop.
Zwanziger was judged guilty of murder and sentenced to death. Before she was beheaded, she said it was probably a good thing she was to be executed, as she did not think she would be able to stop.
23. Heinrich Pommerenke (4 - 4+)
 |
| (Heinrich Pommerenke) |
Heinrich Pommerenke (born: July 6, 1937 in Bentwisch, Mecklenburg – died: December 27, 2008 in Asperg) was a German serial killer. Between February and June 1959 Pommerenke killed four women ages 16 to 49 in the Black Forest area in southern Germany.
Span of killings: Between February and June 1959
Date of arrest: June 19, 1959
Born: July 6, 1937 in Bentwisch, Mecklenburg, Germany
Died: December 27, 2008 in Asperg, Germany
Proven victims: 4
Possible victims: 4+
Criminal penalty: Life imprisonment
Location: Germany
On June 10, 1959 Pommerenke broke into a gun shop and stole a small bore rifle and an air gun. With this gun he robbed 540 Deutsche Mark from a counter clerk at a railway station in Karlsruhe on June 18. On the same day he went to a tailor in Hornberg. Besides his clothes he left a packet with the stolen small bore rifle there, which he wanted to pick up in a few days.
A footprint was found at the station in Karlsruhe and it matched the footprint from June 8. This and the description of the gun were the evidence of a connection between the robbery and the series of murders. On June 19 the tailor reported the finding of the rifle and gave the police Pommerenke's personal data. He was arrested on the same day.
Pommerenke confessed to overall 65 criminal acts, among them were the four murders, seven attempted murders, two accomplished and 25 attempted rapes, six robberies, ten burglaries and six petit larcenies. In October 1960 he was sentenced to six life sentences by the High Court (Landgericht) Freiburg. He died of leukemia in a prison hospital in Asperg in December 2008. At the time of his death he was the longest-serving prison inmate in Germany.
A footprint was found at the station in Karlsruhe and it matched the footprint from June 8. This and the description of the gun were the evidence of a connection between the robbery and the series of murders. On June 19 the tailor reported the finding of the rifle and gave the police Pommerenke's personal data. He was arrested on the same day.
Pommerenke confessed to overall 65 criminal acts, among them were the four murders, seven attempted murders, two accomplished and 25 attempted rapes, six robberies, ten burglaries and six petit larcenies. In October 1960 he was sentenced to six life sentences by the High Court (Landgericht) Freiburg. He died of leukemia in a prison hospital in Asperg in December 2008. At the time of his death he was the longest-serving prison inmate in Germany.
22. Werner Boost (5 - 5+)
 |
| (Werner Boost) |
Werner Boost (born May 6, 1928 in Düsseldorf) is a German serial killer known as "The Doubles Killer".
The case of Werner Boost dragged on for years, producing one of the longest indictments in German history. Upon conviction, Boost was sentenced to a term of life imprisonment, the maximum allowable in postwar German law.
Span of killings: 1953 - 1956
Date of arrest: June 6, 1956
A.K.A.: "Doubles Killer", "The Dusseldorf Doubles Killer"
Born: May 6, 1928
Proven victims: 5
Possible victims: 5+
Location: Düsseldorf, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany
Status: Sentenced to life in prison in 1959
The illegitimate son of an East German peasant woman, Boost had entered the world of crime early; a child thief who later earned a dishonest pfennig guiding parties of East Germans safely, if illegally, over the border into the West. Only in the light of subsequent revelations were a number of unsolved homicides around the border area at the same time laid to Boost's account.
By 1950 Boost had transferred his crooked career to Dusseldorf, where he served a prison sentence for plundering metal fittings from graves. But if he was an indifferent thief, then Werner Boost was at least an accomplished marksman; by the end of the decade his deadly accuracy in firing 'Wild West' style, from the hip, would make headlines throughout both Germanies.
On 17 January 1953, a lawyer named Bernd Serve was sitting with a young male companion in his stationary car on a quiet road leading out of Dusseldorf. As they talked, two masked figures appeared out of the night, one bludgeoning the nineteen-year-old with the butt of his gun, the other shooting Dr Serve through the head. It was later remarked by ballistics experts that the bullet had taken an unusual trajectory, entering the body below the left jaw and leaving through the right temple, seemingly fired from below the victim as he sat in the driver's seat of the car.
The crime that was to earn Werner Boost the soubriquet, the 'Dusseldorf Doubles Killer', was discovered in November 1955. A twenty-six-year-old baker, Friedheim Behre, and his girlfriend Thea had been missing for four weeks when villagers from Kalkum, just beyond Dusseldorf, found two battered bodies trapped in their car in a water-filled gravel pit. Like Dr Serve and his friend, this couple had been robbed.
With no light yet illuminating either case, the second 'doubles murder' was committed on 7 February 1956. A twenty-year-old secretary and her companion, Peter Falkenberg, had been reported missing, and police found their extensively bloodstained car the following day. On the day after that, the 9th, two bodies later identified as the missing couple were found badly burnt in the smouldering remains of a haystack. Both victims had been bludgeoned, and Falkenberg had been shot through the head from the same odd angle that had been observed in the case of Dr Serve.
A further abortive attempt at a 'double murder' took place in May of the same year in some woods near Dusseldorf. Luckily for the potential victims the young woman alerted passersby with her screams for help and the two attackers fled. By plain coincidence, or perhaps divine irony, it was in this same wood at Meererbusch that a forest ranger on patrol saw and apprehended an armed man who appeared to be tracking a young couple. The man's name was Werner Boost.
Boost had surrendered to the ranger without a struggle because, he said, he had been committing no offence. He indignantly denied any part in the recent series of attacks and murders, and defied the police to prove otherwise. And they might have had a much more difficult job doing so if Boost's unwilling partner in crime, Franz Lorbach, had not made a statement in which he confessed his own part in the murders and implicated Werner Boost. Boost, he said, had 'hypnotised' him into complicity on pain of his life. He exposed the bizarre fantasy world into which Boost had dragged him - the drugs and poisons with which Boost dreamed he would find the perfect method of murder; Lorbach told police of one plan to float cyanide-filled balloons into prospective victims' cars. There was also a string of non-fatal rapes and assaults against courting couples who, for reasons best known to himself, Boost considered immoral and degenerate.
Werner Boost was eventually brought to trial in 1959, and sentenced to life imprisonment. For his contribution, Franz Lorbach was put away for six years.
By 1950 Boost had transferred his crooked career to Dusseldorf, where he served a prison sentence for plundering metal fittings from graves. But if he was an indifferent thief, then Werner Boost was at least an accomplished marksman; by the end of the decade his deadly accuracy in firing 'Wild West' style, from the hip, would make headlines throughout both Germanies.
On 17 January 1953, a lawyer named Bernd Serve was sitting with a young male companion in his stationary car on a quiet road leading out of Dusseldorf. As they talked, two masked figures appeared out of the night, one bludgeoning the nineteen-year-old with the butt of his gun, the other shooting Dr Serve through the head. It was later remarked by ballistics experts that the bullet had taken an unusual trajectory, entering the body below the left jaw and leaving through the right temple, seemingly fired from below the victim as he sat in the driver's seat of the car.
The crime that was to earn Werner Boost the soubriquet, the 'Dusseldorf Doubles Killer', was discovered in November 1955. A twenty-six-year-old baker, Friedheim Behre, and his girlfriend Thea had been missing for four weeks when villagers from Kalkum, just beyond Dusseldorf, found two battered bodies trapped in their car in a water-filled gravel pit. Like Dr Serve and his friend, this couple had been robbed.
With no light yet illuminating either case, the second 'doubles murder' was committed on 7 February 1956. A twenty-year-old secretary and her companion, Peter Falkenberg, had been reported missing, and police found their extensively bloodstained car the following day. On the day after that, the 9th, two bodies later identified as the missing couple were found badly burnt in the smouldering remains of a haystack. Both victims had been bludgeoned, and Falkenberg had been shot through the head from the same odd angle that had been observed in the case of Dr Serve.
A further abortive attempt at a 'double murder' took place in May of the same year in some woods near Dusseldorf. Luckily for the potential victims the young woman alerted passersby with her screams for help and the two attackers fled. By plain coincidence, or perhaps divine irony, it was in this same wood at Meererbusch that a forest ranger on patrol saw and apprehended an armed man who appeared to be tracking a young couple. The man's name was Werner Boost.
Boost had surrendered to the ranger without a struggle because, he said, he had been committing no offence. He indignantly denied any part in the recent series of attacks and murders, and defied the police to prove otherwise. And they might have had a much more difficult job doing so if Boost's unwilling partner in crime, Franz Lorbach, had not made a statement in which he confessed his own part in the murders and implicated Werner Boost. Boost, he said, had 'hypnotised' him into complicity on pain of his life. He exposed the bizarre fantasy world into which Boost had dragged him - the drugs and poisons with which Boost dreamed he would find the perfect method of murder; Lorbach told police of one plan to float cyanide-filled balloons into prospective victims' cars. There was also a string of non-fatal rapes and assaults against courting couples who, for reasons best known to himself, Boost considered immoral and degenerate.
Werner Boost was eventually brought to trial in 1959, and sentenced to life imprisonment. For his contribution, Franz Lorbach was put away for six years.
21. Olaf Däter (5)
 |
| (Olaf Däter) |
Olaf Däter (born September 25, 1969 in Bremerhaven) is a German serial killer who has been dubbed as Oma-Mörder ("Granny-Killer") by the media.
Span of killings: June 5-14, 2001
Date of arrest: June 14, 2001
A.K.A.: "Oma-Mörder" ("Granny-Killer")
Born: September 25, 1969
Number of victims: 5
Location: Bremerhaven, Germany
Status: Sentenced to life imprisonment in November 2001
In June 2001 Däter killed five elderly women within ten days. As he had previously worked as gerontological nurse for the women, they trusted him and let him into their apartment. There he attacked the women from behind and suffocated them, whereby the obese Däter used his whole bodyweight.
The doctors examining the first four victims didn't notice the severe internal injuries and declared the women to have been died of natural causes, which was subject of intense public discussion. He tried to kill a sixth woman, but she survived and told his name to the police.
Däter was arrested and confessed to the murders. He named financial problems as motivation for his actions. At the time of the murders Däter was deeply indebted. He intended to steal money from his victims after the murder, but on several occasions he didn't manage to do so, because he was interrupted by a doorbell. In November 2001 Däter was sentenced to life imprisonment by the Landgericht Bremen.
The doctors examining the first four victims didn't notice the severe internal injuries and declared the women to have been died of natural causes, which was subject of intense public discussion. He tried to kill a sixth woman, but she survived and told his name to the police.
Däter was arrested and confessed to the murders. He named financial problems as motivation for his actions. At the time of the murders Däter was deeply indebted. He intended to steal money from his victims after the murder, but on several occasions he didn't manage to do so, because he was interrupted by a doorbell. In November 2001 Däter was sentenced to life imprisonment by the Landgericht Bremen.
20. Elisabeth Wiese (5 - 5+)
 |
| (Elisabeth Wiese) |
Elisabeth Wiese (née Berkefeld, 1 July 1853 – 2 February 1905) was a German serial killer from Hamburg, convicted and executed for the killing of five children, burning the bodies of the babies in her own oven.
Span of killings: 1902 - 1903
Date of arrest: September 1903
A.K.A.: "The angel-maker of St. Pauli"
Born: July 1, 1853 (née Berkefeld)
Died: February 2, 1905
Proven victims: 5
Possible victims: 5+
Victims profile: Peter Berkefeld / Wilhelm Karl Klotsche / Franz Sommer / Bertha Blanck / Peter Schultheiß (children)
Method of murder: Poisoning (morphine) / Drowning
Location: Hamburg, German Empire, Germany
Status: Executed by guillotine on February 2, 1905
In a luridly reported case “revolting in the extreme, proving the woman to be a monster of iniquity” Wiese — a former convict whose larcenous past had forced her trade away from the legitimate field of midwifery to the more shady precincts of mercenary fostering.
From scandal-averse single mothers in England as well as Germany, she collected children with maintenance fees running to US $1,000 plus a hush-money surcharge tacked on. For this donative, she represented a capacity to distribute these whelps to willing adoptive families: in reality, most of them she disposed of with morphine. (As an added inflammation to public opinion, she had also forced her own illegitimate daughter into prostitution; Paula, whose own infant was among Wiese’s victims, repaid that ill turn by appearing as a witness against her mother.)
When Wiese fell under suspicion, the neighbors’ reports of her kitchen glowing like hellfire and belching revolting stenches led police to the remains of these little ones burnt up in her stove.
Condemned for five murders — it’s thought that the true count must have run much higher — Wiese is known as the “angel-maker of St. Pauli” after the suburb where she plied her trade.
In March 2010 the story of Elisabeth Wiese was filmed by NDR in Germany.
From scandal-averse single mothers in England as well as Germany, she collected children with maintenance fees running to US $1,000 plus a hush-money surcharge tacked on. For this donative, she represented a capacity to distribute these whelps to willing adoptive families: in reality, most of them she disposed of with morphine. (As an added inflammation to public opinion, she had also forced her own illegitimate daughter into prostitution; Paula, whose own infant was among Wiese’s victims, repaid that ill turn by appearing as a witness against her mother.)
When Wiese fell under suspicion, the neighbors’ reports of her kitchen glowing like hellfire and belching revolting stenches led police to the remains of these little ones burnt up in her stove.
Condemned for five murders — it’s thought that the true count must have run much higher — Wiese is known as the “angel-maker of St. Pauli” after the suburb where she plied her trade.
In March 2010 the story of Elisabeth Wiese was filmed by NDR in Germany.
19. Wolfgang Schmidt (6)
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| (Wolfgang "Beate" Schmidt) |
Wolfgang "Beate" Schmidt (born October 5, 1966) is a German serial killer. From October 1989 to April 1991, Schmidt murdered five women and an infant. Schmidt is a transsexual.
Span of killings: October 24, 1989 - April 5, 1991
Date of arrest: August 1, 1991
A.K.A.: "Pink Giant", "The Beast of Beelitz"
Born: October 5, 1966
Number of victims: 6
Location: Potsdam/Beelitz, Brandenburg, East Germany, Germany
Status: Sentenced to 15 years imprisonment and detention in a psychiatric hospital 1992
The nickname the "Pink Giant" came from both the killer's size and alleged penchant for pink lingerie. The area where some of the crimes took place led to a second moniker, the "Beast of Beelitz".
For the first time, Police were able to get a description of the man from the two girls who were attacked. And who the police believed was the man was The Beelitz murderer. A composite sketch was prepared and published.
On August 1, 1991 Schmidt was arrested. In late 1992, Wolfgang Schmidt was sentenced to 15 years in prison, they sent him to the Forensic Hospital in Brandenburg.
Schmidt asked the court that if he would be addressed in the future as a woman and asked that his name would be changed.
In 2001, the courts granted Schmidt's wishes and his name was changed to "Beate".
For the first time, Police were able to get a description of the man from the two girls who were attacked. And who the police believed was the man was The Beelitz murderer. A composite sketch was prepared and published.
On August 1, 1991 Schmidt was arrested. In late 1992, Wolfgang Schmidt was sentenced to 15 years in prison, they sent him to the Forensic Hospital in Brandenburg.
Schmidt asked the court that if he would be addressed in the future as a woman and asked that his name would be changed.
In 2001, the courts granted Schmidt's wishes and his name was changed to "Beate".
18. Ida Schnell (6 - 9+)
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| (Ida Schnell (in the middle)) |
Ida Schnell killed at least six infants by the time she was 13-years-old.
Span of killings: ??? - October 1907
Born: 1893 - 1894 (???)
Died: ???
Proven victims: 6
Possible victims: 9+
Criminal penalty: ???
Location: Munich, Bavaria, Germany
The German "nurse-girl" confessed to the heartbreaking murders in October of 1907. She admitted to killing the babies because "their crying troubled her," but that isn't the most disturbing part of her crimes. In fact, the most unsettling part of this case is how she chose to kill the helpless infants (some of which just days old). She'd use a sharp hairpin (picture a Bavarian hairpin from the 18th century), and jam it into the children's skulls, instantly killing them. While many female serial killers kill children, the way Ida Schnell is said to have killed is by far one of the most unique and coldblooded. Unfortunately there aren't many details from reliable sources regarding Ida's crimes and her life before and after she committed them.
(... Further inquiries are extending the grim record of the Munich child murderess, Ida Schnell, and it is now believed that she must have taken the lives of at least eight or nine of the hapless infants confided to her charge. ...) [“Grim Record of Child Murderess.” El Paso Herald (Tx.), Nov. 16, 1907, p. 18]
(... Further inquiries are extending the grim record of the Munich child murderess, Ida Schnell, and it is now believed that she must have taken the lives of at least eight or nine of the hapless infants confided to her charge. ...) [“Grim Record of Child Murderess.” El Paso Herald (Tx.), Nov. 16, 1907, p. 18]
17. Friedrich Schumann (6)
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| (Friedrich Schumann) |
Friedrich Schumann (1 February 1893 – 27 August 1921) was a German serial killer. He is also known as "Massenmörder vom Falkenhagener See" ("Terror of Falkenhagen Lake"). Schumann murdered six people and raped several women. He was only 28 years old when he was executed in 1921.
Span of killings: 1911 - 1919
Date of arrest: August 20, 1919
A.K.A.: "Terror of Falkenhagen Lake"
Born: February 1, 1893, Spandau, Germany
Died: August 27, 1921 (aged 28)
Number of victims: 6
Criminal penalty: Death
Cause of death: Execution
Location: Berlin, Germany
Status: Sentenced to death on July 13, 1920. Executed by decapitation by axe on August 27, 1921
On 18 August 1919 Schumann shot 52-year-old forester Wilhelm Nielbock from Spandau. On 20 August 1919 he was arrested in Berlin. The trial against Schumann started on 5 July 1920 in Berlin.
Friedrich Schumann was convicted of murder, and on 13 July 1920 he was sentenced to seven death penalties, one life sentence, ten years hard labour and several other sentences in Berlin. He was therefore sentenced to death.
On August 27, 1921, at 6 o'clock in the morning, Schumann was executed in the courtyard of the Plötzensee Prison by Prussian executioner (Scharfrichter) Carl Gröpler, using the axe.
The Berlin lawyer Erich Frey recalled later his brief encounter with the executioner: "At the end of the corridor, I had to give way to a broad-shouldered man. He looked like a transportworker, the high-buttoned jacket looked strange (out of place) on him. His closely-cropped skull rested on a plied bullsneck. In spite of the faint light, he looked sun-tanned and healthy. Never before, I had seen executioner Gröpler from Magdeburg. But, as he passed me with a slight bow, I knew, it was him. Anyone who had any business in the Criminal Court of Justice, knew about Gröpler. He had been a horse butcherer before. ... he collected every month a small fixed income, and had in return to be ready with his massive axe and his three skilled assistants, at the demand of the State attourney. He became for every execution, 300 Mark and the extra costs. Gröpler went to see his customers ... 'You can go to him without trouble,' I heard the guard say to Gröpler, 'he has no nerves' (in a Berlin dialect)."
Friedrich Schumann was convicted of murder, and on 13 July 1920 he was sentenced to seven death penalties, one life sentence, ten years hard labour and several other sentences in Berlin. He was therefore sentenced to death.
On August 27, 1921, at 6 o'clock in the morning, Schumann was executed in the courtyard of the Plötzensee Prison by Prussian executioner (Scharfrichter) Carl Gröpler, using the axe.
The Berlin lawyer Erich Frey recalled later his brief encounter with the executioner: "At the end of the corridor, I had to give way to a broad-shouldered man. He looked like a transportworker, the high-buttoned jacket looked strange (out of place) on him. His closely-cropped skull rested on a plied bullsneck. In spite of the faint light, he looked sun-tanned and healthy. Never before, I had seen executioner Gröpler from Magdeburg. But, as he passed me with a slight bow, I knew, it was him. Anyone who had any business in the Criminal Court of Justice, knew about Gröpler. He had been a horse butcherer before. ... he collected every month a small fixed income, and had in return to be ready with his massive axe and his three skilled assistants, at the demand of the State attourney. He became for every execution, 300 Mark and the extra costs. Gröpler went to see his customers ... 'You can go to him without trouble,' I heard the guard say to Gröpler, 'he has no nerves' (in a Berlin dialect)."
16. Marianne Nölle (7 - 17)
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| (Marianne Nölle) |
Marianne Nölle (born 1938) is a German serial killer from Cologne. She was sentenced to life imprisonment in 1993 for seven murders.
Span of killings: 1984 - 1992
Born: 1938
Proven victims: 7
Possible victims: 17
Method of murder: Poisoning (Truxal)
Location: Cologne, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany
Status: Sentenced to life imprisonment in 1993
Nölle was a nurse and between 1984 and 1992 killed patients in her care using Truxal. Police think she killed a total of 17 and attempted 18 other murders, but she was only convicted of seven. She has never confessed to her crimes.
15. Paul Ogorzow (8)
 |
| (Paul Ogorzow) |
Paul Ogorzow (29 September 1912 in Muntowen, Sensburg – 26 July 1941 in Berlin-Plötzensee, executed), also known as the S-Bahn Murderer, was a German serial killer and rapist who operated in Nazi-era Berlin during the height of World War II.
Span of killings: 4 October 1940 to 3 July 1941
Date of arrest: 12 July 1941
A.K.A.: "S-Bahn Murderer"
Born: 29 September 1912, Muntowen, Sensburg, Germany
Died: 26 July 1941, Berlin-Plötzensee, Germany
Number of victims: 8
Location: Nazi Germany, Germany
Status: Executed by guillotine on July 26, 1941
Ogorzow was employed by Deutsche Reichsbahn, working for the commuter rail system in Berlin, the S-Bahn. Ogorzow gained infamy by using the routine wartime blackouts, that took place as a result of the Allied bombing of Berlin, to more easily prey upon his victims. He was responsible for the murders of eight women during a nine-month-period from 4 October 1940 to 3 July 1941. Following his apprehension by the Kriminalpolizei (Kripo), Orgozow was executed by guillotine at Plötzensee prison in July 1941.
14. Joachim Kroll (8 - 14+)
 |
| (Joachim Georg Kroll) |
Span of killings: 1955 - 1976
A.K.A.: The Ruhr Cannibal (Ruhrkannibale), The Ruhr Hunter (Ruhrjäger), Rollstuhl Funf (Fifth Wheelchair), The Duisburg Man-Eater (Duisburger Menschenfresser), Uncle Joachim (Onkel Joachim)
Date of arrest: July 3, 1976
Born: 17 April 1933, Hindenburg O.S, Oberschlesien, Nazi Germany
Died: 1 July 1991 (aged 58), Rheinbach, Germany
Proven victims: 8
Possible victims: 14+
Criminal penalty: Life imprisonment
Location: North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany
Status: Sentenced to 9 terms of life-imprisonment on April 8, 1982. Died in prison on July 1, 1991
Born
the son of a miner in Hindenburg (Zabrze), a town in Upper Silesia
(then Germany, now Poland), Kroll was the last among eight children. His
education was poor. (Later psychiatrists found he had an IQ of 76.)
After the end of World War II, in which his father had become a prisoner of war, Kroll's family moved to North Rhine-Westphalia.
He began killing in 1955, after his mother died. Around 1960, Kroll went to Duisburg and found work as a toilet attendant for Mannesmann. Afterwards he worked for Thyssen Industries and moved to 24 Friesen street, Laar, a district of Duisburg. At that time he resumed killing people.
On 3 July 1976, Kroll was arrested for kidnapping and killing a four-year-old girl named Marion Ketter. As police went from home to home, a neighbor approached a policeman and told him that the waste-pipe in his apartment building had blocked up, and when he had asked his neighbor, Kroll, whether he knew what had been blocking the pipe, Kroll had simply replied; "Guts". Upon this report, the police went up to Kroll's apartment and found the body of the Ketter girl cut up: some parts were in the refrigerator, a small hand was cooking in a pan of boiling water and the entrails were found stuck in the waste-pipe.
Kroll was immediately arrested.
He admitted killing Marion Ketter and gave details of 13 other murders and one attempted murder over the previous two decades. He remembered fourteen victims, but he really couldn't say if there were more, a circumstance that left detectives free to speculate upon his final body-count.
Kroll said that he often sliced portions of flesh from his victims to cook and eat them, claiming that he did this to save on his grocery bills. In custody, he believed that he was going to get a simple operation to cure him of his homicidal urges and would then be released from prison. Instead he was charged with eight murders and one attempted murder. In April 1982, after a 151-day trial, he was convicted on all counts and was given life sentence.
He died of a heart attack in 1991 in the prison of Rheinbach.
After the end of World War II, in which his father had become a prisoner of war, Kroll's family moved to North Rhine-Westphalia.
He began killing in 1955, after his mother died. Around 1960, Kroll went to Duisburg and found work as a toilet attendant for Mannesmann. Afterwards he worked for Thyssen Industries and moved to 24 Friesen street, Laar, a district of Duisburg. At that time he resumed killing people.
On 3 July 1976, Kroll was arrested for kidnapping and killing a four-year-old girl named Marion Ketter. As police went from home to home, a neighbor approached a policeman and told him that the waste-pipe in his apartment building had blocked up, and when he had asked his neighbor, Kroll, whether he knew what had been blocking the pipe, Kroll had simply replied; "Guts". Upon this report, the police went up to Kroll's apartment and found the body of the Ketter girl cut up: some parts were in the refrigerator, a small hand was cooking in a pan of boiling water and the entrails were found stuck in the waste-pipe.
Kroll was immediately arrested.
He admitted killing Marion Ketter and gave details of 13 other murders and one attempted murder over the previous two decades. He remembered fourteen victims, but he really couldn't say if there were more, a circumstance that left detectives free to speculate upon his final body-count.
Kroll said that he often sliced portions of flesh from his victims to cook and eat them, claiming that he did this to save on his grocery bills. In custody, he believed that he was going to get a simple operation to cure him of his homicidal urges and would then be released from prison. Instead he was charged with eight murders and one attempted murder. In April 1982, after a 151-day trial, he was convicted on all counts and was given life sentence.
He died of a heart attack in 1991 in the prison of Rheinbach.
13. Volker Eckert (9 - 19+)
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| (Volker Eckert) |
Volker Eckert (1 July 1959 – 2 July 2007) was a German truck driver and serial killer who confessed to the murders of six women, five of whom were prostitutes. He was accused of committing 19 murders in France, Spain and Germany between 1974 and 2006.
Span of killings: 1974 - 2006
Date of arrest: November 17, 2006
A.K.A.: "Brummi Killer"
Born: 1 July 1959, Plauen, East Germany
Died: 2 July 2007 (aged 48), Bayreuth, Germany
Proven victims: 9
Possible victims: 19+
Cause of death: Suicide by hanging
Location: Germany, Czech Republic, France, Italy, Spain
Status: Committed suicide in his cell in Bayreuth, Germany, on July 2, 2007
Peter
Kürten (26 May 1883 – 2 July 1931) was a German serial killer known as
both The Vampire of Düsseldorf and the Düsseldorf Monster, who committed
a series of murders and sexual assaults between February and November
1929 in the city of Düsseldorf.
Span of killings: 1913 - 1929
Date of arrest: May 24, 1930
A.K.A.: "The Vampire of Düsseldorf", "The Düsseldorf Monster"
Born: May 26, 1883, Mülheim am Rhein, German Empire
Died: July 2, 1931 (aged 48), Cologne, Weimar Republic (German republic)
Proven victims: 9
Possible victims: 79+
Location: Prussia Rhine Province, Germany
Status: Executed by guillotine in Cologne on July 2, 1931
Rudolf Pleil (July 7, 1924 – February 18, 1958) was a German serial killer known as "The Deathmaker". He was convicted of killing a salesman and nine women. He claimed to have killed 25 people. Pleil was sentenced to life in prison in 1950. Pleil committed suicide by hanging himself in prison on February 18, 1958.
Span of killings: 1946 - 1947
Date of arrest: April 1947
A.K.A.: "The Deathmaker"
Born: July 7, 1924, Germany (The Weimar Republic)
Died: February 18, 1958 (aged 33), West Germany
Proven victims: 10
Possible victims: 25
Criminal penalty: Life imprisonment
Location: Germany
Status: Sentenced to 12 years in prison for manslaughter in ax murder of a salesman, 1947. Sentenced to life in prison for nine rape-murders, 1950. Committed suicide by hanging in prison on February 18, 1958
Adolf Gustav Seefeld (Seefeldt) (1871-1936), a German tramp and religious fanatic, killed boys with natural poisons. When arrested and tried in 1936, he confessed to 12 murders, committed at ever-decreasing intervals between April 16, 1933, and February 23, 1935. (There may have been more, since he had been charged with a murder as early as 1908.) The Nazi court moralized over his deeds and sentenced him to be executed.
Span of killings: 1908 / 1933 - 1935
A.K.A.: "Onkel Tick Tack"
Born: March 6, 1870
Died: May 23, 1936 (aged 66)
Proven victims: 12
Possible victims: 100+
Location: The German Empire, Germany (Weimar Republic), Nazi Germany
Status: Executed by guillotine on May 23, 1936
Span of killings: 1974 - 2006
Date of arrest: November 17, 2006
A.K.A.: "Brummi Killer"
Born: 1 July 1959, Plauen, East Germany
Died: 2 July 2007 (aged 48), Bayreuth, Germany
Proven victims: 9
Possible victims: 19+
Cause of death: Suicide by hanging
Location: Germany, Czech Republic, France, Italy, Spain
Status: Committed suicide in his cell in Bayreuth, Germany, on July 2, 2007
On 17 November 2006, Eckert was arrested in Cologne, Germany. The police found tufts of hair and pictures of his victims subjected to various tortures in Eckert's truck and in his house.
After the arrest, Eckert said: "I am so crazy that I am alleviated for the arrest".
On 2 July 2007, Eckert was found dead in his cell in Germany, after committing suicide. After his death, the police found evidence that Eckert had killed nine women across Germany, France, Spain and Italy. Furthermore, there are strong indications that he killed another four women.
In December 2007, the German police closed the file.
After the arrest, Eckert said: "I am so crazy that I am alleviated for the arrest".
On 2 July 2007, Eckert was found dead in his cell in Germany, after committing suicide. After his death, the police found evidence that Eckert had killed nine women across Germany, France, Spain and Italy. Furthermore, there are strong indications that he killed another four women.
In December 2007, the German police closed the file.
12. Peter Kürten (9 - 79+)
 |
| (Peter Kürten) |
Span of killings: 1913 - 1929
Date of arrest: May 24, 1930
A.K.A.: "The Vampire of Düsseldorf", "The Düsseldorf Monster"
Born: May 26, 1883, Mülheim am Rhein, German Empire
Died: July 2, 1931 (aged 48), Cologne, Weimar Republic (German republic)
Proven victims: 9
Possible victims: 79+
Location: Prussia Rhine Province, Germany
Status: Executed by guillotine in Cologne on July 2, 1931
In
the years prior to these assaults, Kürten had amassed a lengthy
criminal record for offenses including arson, theft and attempted
murder. He also confessed to the 1913 murder of a 9-year-old girl in
Mülheim am Rhein.
Kürten became known as both the The Vampire of Düsseldorf and the Düsseldorf Monster because the majority of his murders were committed in and around the city of Düsseldorf. He was considered a vampire because he drank the blood of a killed swan in December 1929 and he also made attempts to drink the blood of some of his human victims.
In May 1930, he accosted a young woman named Maria Butlies; he initially took her to his home, and then to the Grafenberger Woods, where he raped (but did not kill) her. Butlies led the police to Kürten's home. He avoided the police, but confessed to his wife, knowing that his identity was known by the police. On 24 May, he was located and arrested.
Peter Kürten was charged with nine murders and seven attempted murders. He went on trial in April 1931. He initially pleaded not guilty, but after some weeks changed his plea. Kurten confessed to 79 offences including nine murders and seven attempted murders. He was found guilty and sentenced to death.
Peter Kürten was executed on 2 July 1931 by guillotine in Cologne.
Shortly before he was executed by guillotine, Peter Kurten, the so-called Vampire of Dusseldorf, asked the prison psychiatrist: "Tell me, after my head has been chopped off will I still be able to hear; at least for a moment, the sound of my own blood gushing from the stump of my neck?" When the doctor replied that his ears and brain probably would function for several seconds after the blade struck, Kurten replied: "That would be the pleasure to end all pleasures".
In 1931, scientists attempted to examine irregularities in Kürten's brain in an attempt to explain his personality and behavior. His head was dissected and mummified and is currently on display at the Ripley's Believe It or Not! museum in Wisconsin Dells, Wisconsin.
Singer/songwriter Randy Newman wrote a song about Kürten entitled "In Germany Before the War" for his 1977 album Little Criminals.
Doom Metal band Church of Misery, released a track in 2013 called "The Düsseldorf Monster" about Kürten on their album, Thy Kingdom Scum.
The power electronics band Whitehouse recorded an album titled Dedicated to Peter Kürten.
Kürten became known as both the The Vampire of Düsseldorf and the Düsseldorf Monster because the majority of his murders were committed in and around the city of Düsseldorf. He was considered a vampire because he drank the blood of a killed swan in December 1929 and he also made attempts to drink the blood of some of his human victims.
In May 1930, he accosted a young woman named Maria Butlies; he initially took her to his home, and then to the Grafenberger Woods, where he raped (but did not kill) her. Butlies led the police to Kürten's home. He avoided the police, but confessed to his wife, knowing that his identity was known by the police. On 24 May, he was located and arrested.
Peter Kürten was charged with nine murders and seven attempted murders. He went on trial in April 1931. He initially pleaded not guilty, but after some weeks changed his plea. Kurten confessed to 79 offences including nine murders and seven attempted murders. He was found guilty and sentenced to death.
Peter Kürten was executed on 2 July 1931 by guillotine in Cologne.
Shortly before he was executed by guillotine, Peter Kurten, the so-called Vampire of Dusseldorf, asked the prison psychiatrist: "Tell me, after my head has been chopped off will I still be able to hear; at least for a moment, the sound of my own blood gushing from the stump of my neck?" When the doctor replied that his ears and brain probably would function for several seconds after the blade struck, Kurten replied: "That would be the pleasure to end all pleasures".
In 1931, scientists attempted to examine irregularities in Kürten's brain in an attempt to explain his personality and behavior. His head was dissected and mummified and is currently on display at the Ripley's Believe It or Not! museum in Wisconsin Dells, Wisconsin.
Singer/songwriter Randy Newman wrote a song about Kürten entitled "In Germany Before the War" for his 1977 album Little Criminals.
Doom Metal band Church of Misery, released a track in 2013 called "The Düsseldorf Monster" about Kürten on their album, Thy Kingdom Scum.
The power electronics band Whitehouse recorded an album titled Dedicated to Peter Kürten.
11. Rudolf Pleil (10 - 25)
 |
| (Rudolf Pleil) |
Rudolf Pleil (July 7, 1924 – February 18, 1958) was a German serial killer known as "The Deathmaker". He was convicted of killing a salesman and nine women. He claimed to have killed 25 people. Pleil was sentenced to life in prison in 1950. Pleil committed suicide by hanging himself in prison on February 18, 1958.
Span of killings: 1946 - 1947
Date of arrest: April 1947
A.K.A.: "The Deathmaker"
Born: July 7, 1924, Germany (The Weimar Republic)
Died: February 18, 1958 (aged 33), West Germany
Proven victims: 10
Possible victims: 25
Criminal penalty: Life imprisonment
Location: Germany
Status: Sentenced to 12 years in prison for manslaughter in ax murder of a salesman, 1947. Sentenced to life in prison for nine rape-murders, 1950. Committed suicide by hanging in prison on February 18, 1958
Rudolf Pleil made an unlikely-looking monster. Fat and jovial, he radiated charm and a disarming sense of humor, worming his way into the confidence of the women who became his victims. None would see the darker side in time to save themselves, but it existed all the same, concealed within a man who called himself Germany's "champion death-maker." As Pleil once explained, "Every man has his passion. Some prefer whist. I prefer killing people."
Pleil worked as a border guard after the war and would encounter women who were trying to flee into West Germany from East Germany. For a while Pleil had two accomplices, Karl Hoffmann and Konrad Schüßler, who would help trap the victims. He had an argument with one accomplice after he insisted on decapitating the victim, which Pleil found disgusting.
He used various weapons, including hatchets, knives, hammers or stones. Pleil was arrested after murdering a merchant with an axe but was only sentenced to twelve years in prison as it was seen as an impulsiveness act. While in prison, a woman that Pleil had left for dead came forward and told of her encounter with him, which helped to uncover the other murders.
Pleil's behavior was bizarre and arrogant throughout the trial. Whenever prosecutors made a reference to his estimated body count, he interrupted them indignantly. "It is 25," he insisted. "I had 25 victims but they can find only nine bodies. You underrate me. I am Germany's greatest killer. I put others, both here and abroad, to shame."
Convicted across the board, all three defendants (Rudolf Pleil, Karl Hoffmann, Konrad Schüßler) were sentenced to life imprisonment. Pleil passed his time by writing to authorities and offering the whereabouts of new remains, in exchange for an "airing" to visit the scene of his crimes. On one occasion, he wrote to the mayor of a town, offering his services as a hangman; his credentials for the job could be determined by examining an old well on the city's outskirts - where authorities retrieved a woman's strangled corpse.
Pleil angrily denied that any of his victims had been killed for purposes of robbery, maintaining that the random slaughter had been "necessary for my sexual satisfaction." "What I did is not such a great harm," he declared, "with all these surplus women nowadays. Anyway, I had a good time."
In jail he wrote his life story, calling it 'Mein Kampf' (sound familiar???). Pleil signed it "by Rudolf Pleil, death dealer (retired)."
In time, Pleil tired of the sadistic game and made good on his promise that "I'll hang myself one day." In February 1958, a jailer found him dangling in his cell, the final victim of his own desire to kill.
Pleil worked as a border guard after the war and would encounter women who were trying to flee into West Germany from East Germany. For a while Pleil had two accomplices, Karl Hoffmann and Konrad Schüßler, who would help trap the victims. He had an argument with one accomplice after he insisted on decapitating the victim, which Pleil found disgusting.
He used various weapons, including hatchets, knives, hammers or stones. Pleil was arrested after murdering a merchant with an axe but was only sentenced to twelve years in prison as it was seen as an impulsiveness act. While in prison, a woman that Pleil had left for dead came forward and told of her encounter with him, which helped to uncover the other murders.
Pleil's behavior was bizarre and arrogant throughout the trial. Whenever prosecutors made a reference to his estimated body count, he interrupted them indignantly. "It is 25," he insisted. "I had 25 victims but they can find only nine bodies. You underrate me. I am Germany's greatest killer. I put others, both here and abroad, to shame."
Convicted across the board, all three defendants (Rudolf Pleil, Karl Hoffmann, Konrad Schüßler) were sentenced to life imprisonment. Pleil passed his time by writing to authorities and offering the whereabouts of new remains, in exchange for an "airing" to visit the scene of his crimes. On one occasion, he wrote to the mayor of a town, offering his services as a hangman; his credentials for the job could be determined by examining an old well on the city's outskirts - where authorities retrieved a woman's strangled corpse.
Pleil angrily denied that any of his victims had been killed for purposes of robbery, maintaining that the random slaughter had been "necessary for my sexual satisfaction." "What I did is not such a great harm," he declared, "with all these surplus women nowadays. Anyway, I had a good time."
In jail he wrote his life story, calling it 'Mein Kampf' (sound familiar???). Pleil signed it "by Rudolf Pleil, death dealer (retired)."
In time, Pleil tired of the sadistic game and made good on his promise that "I'll hang myself one day." In February 1958, a jailer found him dangling in his cell, the final victim of his own desire to kill.
10. Adolf Seefeld (12 - 100+)
 |
| (Adolf Seefeld (Seefeldt)) |
Adolf Gustav Seefeld (Seefeldt) (1871-1936), a German tramp and religious fanatic, killed boys with natural poisons. When arrested and tried in 1936, he confessed to 12 murders, committed at ever-decreasing intervals between April 16, 1933, and February 23, 1935. (There may have been more, since he had been charged with a murder as early as 1908.) The Nazi court moralized over his deeds and sentenced him to be executed.
Span of killings: 1908 / 1933 - 1935
A.K.A.: "Onkel Tick Tack"
Born: March 6, 1870
Died: May 23, 1936 (aged 66)
Proven victims: 12
Possible victims: 100+
Location: The German Empire, Germany (Weimar Republic), Nazi Germany
Status: Executed by guillotine on May 23, 1936
An itinerant watchmaker in his native Germany, Seefeld was also a student of scripture, able to quote long Bible passages from memory. He preferred to sleep in the open, regardless of weather, and sometimes passed himself off as a witch to gullible peasants, professing ability to cast evil spells on their livestock.
First charged with the murder of a young boy in 1908, Seefeld escaped conviction through lack of evidence, but spent nearly a quarter-century in prison on various convictions for child molestation. Committed to a mental home near Potsdam, he remained in custody for two years without speaking a word to attendants.
Seefeld did not always choose to murder his victims, once traveling with a kidnapped boy for three months and sparing his life. When he killed, the drifter's favorite weapon was a homemade poison, concocted from wild plants and fungi, that left his chosen targets in an attitude of peace, as if they were relaxing for a nap. Ironically, authorities recorded that his murder victims showed no signs of sexual abuse, while children he molested were allowed to live. In custody, Seefeld confessed to a total of twelve murders.
In some cases, names were unknown or forgotten, but Adolf remembered most of his children - or, at least, the ones he had dispatched in recent years. Eleven-year-old Kurz Gnirk was slain on April 16, 1933, followed by ten-year-old Ernest Tesdorf, on November 2.
A bare five days later, Seefeld had murdered Wolfgang Metzdorf, age seven, rebounding on November 22 with the killing of ten-year-old Alfred Praetorius. Hans Korn, age 11, was killed on January 16, 1934, while two victims - six-year-old Edgar Diettrich and four-year-old Arthur Dinn - were found together at New Ruppin, on October 16.
Seefeld's arrest followed the murder of a boy named Zimmerman, on February 23, 1935, and he was convicted at trial a year later, executed on May 23, 1936.
First charged with the murder of a young boy in 1908, Seefeld escaped conviction through lack of evidence, but spent nearly a quarter-century in prison on various convictions for child molestation. Committed to a mental home near Potsdam, he remained in custody for two years without speaking a word to attendants.
Seefeld did not always choose to murder his victims, once traveling with a kidnapped boy for three months and sparing his life. When he killed, the drifter's favorite weapon was a homemade poison, concocted from wild plants and fungi, that left his chosen targets in an attitude of peace, as if they were relaxing for a nap. Ironically, authorities recorded that his murder victims showed no signs of sexual abuse, while children he molested were allowed to live. In custody, Seefeld confessed to a total of twelve murders.
In some cases, names were unknown or forgotten, but Adolf remembered most of his children - or, at least, the ones he had dispatched in recent years. Eleven-year-old Kurz Gnirk was slain on April 16, 1933, followed by ten-year-old Ernest Tesdorf, on November 2.
A bare five days later, Seefeld had murdered Wolfgang Metzdorf, age seven, rebounding on November 22 with the killing of ten-year-old Alfred Praetorius. Hans Korn, age 11, was killed on January 16, 1934, while two victims - six-year-old Edgar Diettrich and four-year-old Arthur Dinn - were found together at New Ruppin, on October 16.
Seefeld's arrest followed the murder of a boy named Zimmerman, on February 23, 1935, and he was convicted at trial a year later, executed on May 23, 1936.
9. Gesche Gottfried (15 - 15+)
 |
| (Gesche Margarethe Gottfried) |
Gesche Margarethe Gottfried, born Gesche Margarethe Timm (6 March 1785 - 21 April 1831), was a German serial killer who murdered 15 people by arsenic poisoning in Bremen and Hanover, Germany, between 1813 and 1827. She was the last person to be publicly executed in the city of Bremen.
Span of killings: 1813 - 1827
Date of arrest: March 6, 1828
A.K.A.: "The Angel of Bremen"
Born: March 6, 1785 (née Gesche Margarethe Timm)
Died: April 21, 1831 (aged 46)
Number of victims: 15
Method of murder: Poisoning (arsenic)
Location: Bremen/Hanover, Germany
Status: Executed by guillotine on April 21, 1831. She was the last person to be publicly executed in the city of Bremen
Gesche Gottfried's victims:
Gottfried was born into a poor family, she had a twin brother, Johann Timm Junior. Her parents, Johann Timm and Gesche Margarethe Timm, always had a preference for her brother. The reasons behind Gottfried's crimes remain unclear and widely debated, but the emotional deprivation she suffered during her childhood and her modus operandi lead to the assumption, that she suffered from 'Munchausen syndrome by proxy', a very common disorder among female serial killers.
Gottfried's victims included her parents, her two husbands, her fiancé and her children. Before being suspected and convicted of the murders, she garnered widespread sympathy among the inhabitants of Bremen because so many of her family and friends fell ill and died. Because of her devoted nursing of the victims during their time of suffering, she was known as the "Angel of Bremen" until her murders were discovered.
She used a rat poison called "mouse butter" (in German "Mäusebutter") very common at the time, which consisted of small flakes arsenic mixed in animal fat. She mixed small doses into her victims food, eventually they started to get sick and Gottfried "friendly, selfless and resignedly" offered to take care of them during their convalescence, while continuing to poison them.
During the period of her criminal activity, Gesche Gottfried was considered a model citizen and was well liked in the community. Even after the constant loss of relatives who suffered, it seemed that the friendly, candid and kind Gesche chased a "cloud of misfortune". Her neighbors, moved by the zeal and resignation with caring not only for her family but also her sick friends began to call her "the angel of Bremen".
Johann Christoph Rumpff, Gesche's would be twelfth victim, got suspicious after finding small white granules on food she had prepared for him. He confided to his physician, Dr. Luce, who, incidentally, had already attended several of the earlier victims and handed over the substance he had found. Luce was determined that it was arsenic and alerted authorities, but by then Gottfried had already claimed two more victims and had moved to Hannover, where she was withering life of her latest victim, Friedrich Kleine.
It was the night of March 16, 1828, the day of her 43rd birthday, when she was arrested. She was sentenced to death by decapitation. She was publicly executed on April 21, 1831. It was the last public execution in the history of Bremen . Gottfried 's deathmask was made to study the facial patterns of criminal women. This is within the field of study of the now obsolete phrenology.
- 1 October 1813: Johann Miltenberg (first husband)
- 2 May 1815: Gesche Margarethe Timm (mother)
- 10 May 1815: Johanna Gottfried (daughter)
- 18 May 1815: Adelheid Gottfried (daughter)
- 28 June 1815: Johann Timm (father)
- 22 September 1815: Heinrich Gottfried (son)
- 1 June 1816: Johann Timm (brother)
- 5 July 1817: Michael Christoph Gottfried (second husband)
- 1 June 1823: Paul Thomas Zimmermann (fiancé)
- 21 March 1825: Anna Lucia Meyerholz (music teacher and friend)
- 5 December 1825: Johann Mosees (neighbor, friend and advisor)
- 22 December 1826: Wilhelmine Rumpff (landlady)
- 13 May 1827: Elise Schmidt (daughter of Beta Schmidt)
- 15 May 1827: Beta Schmidt (friend, maid)
- 24 July 1827: Friedrich Kleine (friend, creditor; murdered in Hanover)
Gottfried was born into a poor family, she had a twin brother, Johann Timm Junior. Her parents, Johann Timm and Gesche Margarethe Timm, always had a preference for her brother. The reasons behind Gottfried's crimes remain unclear and widely debated, but the emotional deprivation she suffered during her childhood and her modus operandi lead to the assumption, that she suffered from 'Munchausen syndrome by proxy', a very common disorder among female serial killers.
Gottfried's victims included her parents, her two husbands, her fiancé and her children. Before being suspected and convicted of the murders, she garnered widespread sympathy among the inhabitants of Bremen because so many of her family and friends fell ill and died. Because of her devoted nursing of the victims during their time of suffering, she was known as the "Angel of Bremen" until her murders were discovered.
She used a rat poison called "mouse butter" (in German "Mäusebutter") very common at the time, which consisted of small flakes arsenic mixed in animal fat. She mixed small doses into her victims food, eventually they started to get sick and Gottfried "friendly, selfless and resignedly" offered to take care of them during their convalescence, while continuing to poison them.
During the period of her criminal activity, Gesche Gottfried was considered a model citizen and was well liked in the community. Even after the constant loss of relatives who suffered, it seemed that the friendly, candid and kind Gesche chased a "cloud of misfortune". Her neighbors, moved by the zeal and resignation with caring not only for her family but also her sick friends began to call her "the angel of Bremen".
Johann Christoph Rumpff, Gesche's would be twelfth victim, got suspicious after finding small white granules on food she had prepared for him. He confided to his physician, Dr. Luce, who, incidentally, had already attended several of the earlier victims and handed over the substance he had found. Luce was determined that it was arsenic and alerted authorities, but by then Gottfried had already claimed two more victims and had moved to Hannover, where she was withering life of her latest victim, Friedrich Kleine.
It was the night of March 16, 1828, the day of her 43rd birthday, when she was arrested. She was sentenced to death by decapitation. She was publicly executed on April 21, 1831. It was the last public execution in the history of Bremen . Gottfried 's deathmask was made to study the facial patterns of criminal women. This is within the field of study of the now obsolete phrenology.
8. Peter Stumpp (16)
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| (Peter Stumpp - "The Werewolf of Bedburg" (1589)) |
Peter Stumpp (? - October 31, 1589) (whose name is also spelled as Peter Stube, Pe(e)ter Stubbe, Peter Stübbe or Peter Stumpf) was a Rhenish (Western Germany) farmer, accused of being a serial killer and a cannibal, also known as the "Werewolf of Bedburg".
Stump was accused of killing and disturbingly eating 16 people in the likeness of a wolf. His case remains the most lurid and notorious werewolf trial in history.
Span of killings: c.1564 - 1589
Date of arrest: 1589
A.K.A.: "The Werewolf of Bedburg of Danvill"
Born: Unknown
Died: October 31, 1589
Number of victims: 16
Criminal penalty: Death
Location: Rhenish (Western Germany), Electorate of Cologne, Holy Roman Empire
Sources
The most comprehensive source on the case is a pamphlet of 16 pages published in London during 1590, the translation of a German print of which no copies have survived. The English pamphlet, of which two copies exist (one in the British Museum and one in the Lambeth Library), was rediscovered by occultist Montague Summers in 1920. It describes Stumpp’s life and alleged crimes and the trial, and includes many statements from neighbors and witnesses of the crimes. Summers reprints the entire pamphlet, including a woodcut, on pages 253 to 259 of his work The Werewolf.
Additional information is provided by the diaries of Hermann von Weinsberg, a Cologne alderman, and by a number of illustrated broadsheets, which were printed in southern Germany and were probably based on the German version of the London pamphlet. The original documents seem to have been lost during the wars of the centuries that followed.
Biography
Peter Stumpp's name is also spelled as Peter Stube, Pe(e)ter Stubbe, Peter Stübbe or Peter Stumpf, and other aliases include such names as Abal Griswold, Abil Griswold, and Ubel Griswold. The name “Stump” or “Stumpf” may have been given him as a reference to the fact that his left hand had been cut off leaving only a stump, in German “Stumpf”. It was alleged that as the "werewolf" had had its left forepaw cut off, then the same injury proved the guilt of the man. Stumpp was born at the village of Epprath near the country-town of Bedburg in the Electorate of Cologne. His date of birth is not known, as the local church registers were destroyed during the Thirty Years' War (1618-1648). He was a wealthy farmer of his rural community. During the 1580s he seems to have been a widower with two children; a girl called Beele (Sybil), who seems to have been older than fifteen years old, and a son of an unknown age. During the years before his trial he had an intimate relationship with a distant relative named Katharina Trump (also spelt "Trumpen" or "Trompen").
Accusations
During 1589, Stumpp had one of the most lurid and famous werewolf trials of history. After being stretched on a rack, and before further torture commenced, he confessed to having practiced black magic since he was twelve years old. He claimed that the Devil had given him a magical belt or girdle, which enabled him to metamorphose into "the likeness of a greedy, devouring wolf, strong and mighty, with eyes great and large, which in the night sparkled like fire, a mouth great and wide, with most sharp and cruel teeth, a huge body, and mighty paws." Removing the belt, he said, made him transform back to his human form.
For twenty-five years, Stumpp had allegedly been an "insatiable bloodsucker" who gorged on the flesh of goats, lambs, and sheep, as well as men, women, and children. Being threatened with torture he confessed to killing and eating fourteen children, two pregnant women, whose fetuses he ripped from their wombs and "ate their hearts panting hot and raw," which he later described as "dainty morsels." One of the fourteen children was his own son, whose brain he was reported to have devoured.
Not only was Stumpp accused of being a serial murderer and cannibal, but also of having an incestuous relationship with his daughter, who was sentenced to die with him, and that he had coupled with a distant relative, which was also considered to be incestuous according to the law. In addition to this he confessed to having had intercourse with a succubus sent to him by the Devil.
Execution
The execution of Stumpp, on October 31, 1589, and of his daughter and mistress is one of the most brutal on record: He was put to a wheel, where "flesh was torn from his body", in ten places, with red-hot pincers, followed by his arms and legs. Then his limbs were broken with the blunt side of an axehead to prevent him from returning from the grave, before he was beheaded and burned on a pyre. His daughter and mistress had already been flayed and strangled and were burned along with Stumpp's body. As a warning against similar behavior, local authorities erected a pole with the torture wheel and the figure of a wolf on it, and at the very top they placed Peter Stumpp's severed head.
Background
There are a number of details of the text of the London pamphlet that are inconsistent with the historical facts.
The years during which Stumpp was supposed to have committed most of his crimes (1582-1589) were marked by internal warfare in the Electorate of Cologne after the abortive introduction of Protestantism by the former Archbishop Gebhard Truchsess von Waldburg. He had been assisted by Adolf, Count of Neuenahr, who was also the lord of Bedburg.
Stumpp was most certainly a convert to Protestantism. The war brought the invasion of armies of either side, the assaults by marauding soldiers and eventually an epidemic of the plague.
When the Protestants were defeated during 1587, Bedburg Castle became the headquarters of Catholic mercenaries commanded by the new lord of Bedburg - Werner, Count of Salm-Reifferscheidt-Dyck, who was a staunch Catholic determined to re-establish the Roman faith.
So it is not inconceivable that the werewolf trial was but a barely concealed political trial, with the help of which the new lord of Bedburg planned to bully the Protestants of the territory back into Catholicism. If it had only been just another execution of a werewolf and a couple of witches, as occurred about this time in various parts of Germany, the attendance of members of the aristocracy – perhaps including the new Archbishop and Elector of Cologne – would be surprising. Furthermore, the trial remained a singular event.
However, this does not mean that the charges were without base in fact. The execution of a mere Protestant convert would have been deeply unlikely to have drawn the aristocratic attention Stumpp's trial did, and while it was unlikely for the elite to attend to any given werewolf or witch trial the sheer scale of Stumpp's alleged crimes would have made it more visible to the public at large and the nobility.
In popular culture
Glasgow, Scotland-based author Scott Wolf wrote a fictional interpretation of the trial of Peter Stump from the point of view of his executioner. The story is called "On the Death of Peter Stubbe".
The U.S. metal band Macabre recorded a song about Peter Stumpp, titled "The Werewolf of Bedburg"; it can be found on the Murder Metal album.
In the Pine Deep Trilogy of novelist and folklorist Jonathan Maberry, Peter Stumpp is the supernatural villain Ubel Griswold. Since Griswold is actually one of Stumpp's historical aliases, Maberry decided to use the name of Ubel Griswold instead of openly telling people that the villain was the famous werewolf Peter Stumpp until later on in the third book of the series, Bad Moon Rising.
In the Jim Butcher book Fool Moon there are several characters that use enchanted wolf pelt belts to transform into a wolf form, similar to the belt Peter Stump claimed to have.
A reference to Peter Stumpp is also in William Peter Blatty's book, The Exorcist. When Father Karras and Kinderman talk about Satanism they say "Terrible, was this theory, Father, or fact?" "Well, there's William Stumpf, for example. Or Peter. I can't remember. Anyway, a German in the sixteenth century who thought he was a werewolf".
The direct-to-video Big Top Scooby-Doo!, uses a portion of Lukas Mayer's woodcut of the execution of Stumpp in 1589, though in the movie no mention of Stumpp is made. The portion used depicts a man cutting off a werewolf's left paw (supposedly Stumpp in werewolf form) and a child being attacked by a werewolf. The woodcut scene shown in the film restores the werewolf's left paw and removes the child in the second werewolf's jaws, making it appear as if the swordsman is fighting one of the werewolves while another flees.
The most comprehensive source on the case is a pamphlet of 16 pages published in London during 1590, the translation of a German print of which no copies have survived. The English pamphlet, of which two copies exist (one in the British Museum and one in the Lambeth Library), was rediscovered by occultist Montague Summers in 1920. It describes Stumpp’s life and alleged crimes and the trial, and includes many statements from neighbors and witnesses of the crimes. Summers reprints the entire pamphlet, including a woodcut, on pages 253 to 259 of his work The Werewolf.
Additional information is provided by the diaries of Hermann von Weinsberg, a Cologne alderman, and by a number of illustrated broadsheets, which were printed in southern Germany and were probably based on the German version of the London pamphlet. The original documents seem to have been lost during the wars of the centuries that followed.
Biography
Peter Stumpp's name is also spelled as Peter Stube, Pe(e)ter Stubbe, Peter Stübbe or Peter Stumpf, and other aliases include such names as Abal Griswold, Abil Griswold, and Ubel Griswold. The name “Stump” or “Stumpf” may have been given him as a reference to the fact that his left hand had been cut off leaving only a stump, in German “Stumpf”. It was alleged that as the "werewolf" had had its left forepaw cut off, then the same injury proved the guilt of the man. Stumpp was born at the village of Epprath near the country-town of Bedburg in the Electorate of Cologne. His date of birth is not known, as the local church registers were destroyed during the Thirty Years' War (1618-1648). He was a wealthy farmer of his rural community. During the 1580s he seems to have been a widower with two children; a girl called Beele (Sybil), who seems to have been older than fifteen years old, and a son of an unknown age. During the years before his trial he had an intimate relationship with a distant relative named Katharina Trump (also spelt "Trumpen" or "Trompen").
Accusations
During 1589, Stumpp had one of the most lurid and famous werewolf trials of history. After being stretched on a rack, and before further torture commenced, he confessed to having practiced black magic since he was twelve years old. He claimed that the Devil had given him a magical belt or girdle, which enabled him to metamorphose into "the likeness of a greedy, devouring wolf, strong and mighty, with eyes great and large, which in the night sparkled like fire, a mouth great and wide, with most sharp and cruel teeth, a huge body, and mighty paws." Removing the belt, he said, made him transform back to his human form.
For twenty-five years, Stumpp had allegedly been an "insatiable bloodsucker" who gorged on the flesh of goats, lambs, and sheep, as well as men, women, and children. Being threatened with torture he confessed to killing and eating fourteen children, two pregnant women, whose fetuses he ripped from their wombs and "ate their hearts panting hot and raw," which he later described as "dainty morsels." One of the fourteen children was his own son, whose brain he was reported to have devoured.
Not only was Stumpp accused of being a serial murderer and cannibal, but also of having an incestuous relationship with his daughter, who was sentenced to die with him, and that he had coupled with a distant relative, which was also considered to be incestuous according to the law. In addition to this he confessed to having had intercourse with a succubus sent to him by the Devil.
Execution
The execution of Stumpp, on October 31, 1589, and of his daughter and mistress is one of the most brutal on record: He was put to a wheel, where "flesh was torn from his body", in ten places, with red-hot pincers, followed by his arms and legs. Then his limbs were broken with the blunt side of an axehead to prevent him from returning from the grave, before he was beheaded and burned on a pyre. His daughter and mistress had already been flayed and strangled and were burned along with Stumpp's body. As a warning against similar behavior, local authorities erected a pole with the torture wheel and the figure of a wolf on it, and at the very top they placed Peter Stumpp's severed head.
Background
There are a number of details of the text of the London pamphlet that are inconsistent with the historical facts.
The years during which Stumpp was supposed to have committed most of his crimes (1582-1589) were marked by internal warfare in the Electorate of Cologne after the abortive introduction of Protestantism by the former Archbishop Gebhard Truchsess von Waldburg. He had been assisted by Adolf, Count of Neuenahr, who was also the lord of Bedburg.
Stumpp was most certainly a convert to Protestantism. The war brought the invasion of armies of either side, the assaults by marauding soldiers and eventually an epidemic of the plague.
When the Protestants were defeated during 1587, Bedburg Castle became the headquarters of Catholic mercenaries commanded by the new lord of Bedburg - Werner, Count of Salm-Reifferscheidt-Dyck, who was a staunch Catholic determined to re-establish the Roman faith.
So it is not inconceivable that the werewolf trial was but a barely concealed political trial, with the help of which the new lord of Bedburg planned to bully the Protestants of the territory back into Catholicism. If it had only been just another execution of a werewolf and a couple of witches, as occurred about this time in various parts of Germany, the attendance of members of the aristocracy – perhaps including the new Archbishop and Elector of Cologne – would be surprising. Furthermore, the trial remained a singular event.
However, this does not mean that the charges were without base in fact. The execution of a mere Protestant convert would have been deeply unlikely to have drawn the aristocratic attention Stumpp's trial did, and while it was unlikely for the elite to attend to any given werewolf or witch trial the sheer scale of Stumpp's alleged crimes would have made it more visible to the public at large and the nobility.
In popular culture
Glasgow, Scotland-based author Scott Wolf wrote a fictional interpretation of the trial of Peter Stump from the point of view of his executioner. The story is called "On the Death of Peter Stubbe".
The U.S. metal band Macabre recorded a song about Peter Stumpp, titled "The Werewolf of Bedburg"; it can be found on the Murder Metal album.
In the Pine Deep Trilogy of novelist and folklorist Jonathan Maberry, Peter Stumpp is the supernatural villain Ubel Griswold. Since Griswold is actually one of Stumpp's historical aliases, Maberry decided to use the name of Ubel Griswold instead of openly telling people that the villain was the famous werewolf Peter Stumpp until later on in the third book of the series, Bad Moon Rising.
In the Jim Butcher book Fool Moon there are several characters that use enchanted wolf pelt belts to transform into a wolf form, similar to the belt Peter Stump claimed to have.
A reference to Peter Stumpp is also in William Peter Blatty's book, The Exorcist. When Father Karras and Kinderman talk about Satanism they say "Terrible, was this theory, Father, or fact?" "Well, there's William Stumpf, for example. Or Peter. I can't remember. Anyway, a German in the sixteenth century who thought he was a werewolf".
The direct-to-video Big Top Scooby-Doo!, uses a portion of Lukas Mayer's woodcut of the execution of Stumpp in 1589, though in the movie no mention of Stumpp is made. The portion used depicts a man cutting off a werewolf's left paw (supposedly Stumpp in werewolf form) and a child being attacked by a werewolf. The woodcut scene shown in the film restores the werewolf's left paw and removes the child in the second werewolf's jaws, making it appear as if the swordsman is fighting one of the werewolves while another flees.
7. Fritz Haarmann (24 - 27+)
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| (Friedrich Heinrich Karl "Fritz" Haarmann) |
Friedrich Heinrich Karl "Fritz" Haarmann (25 October 1879 – 15 April 1925) was a German serial killer, known as the Butcher of Hanover and the Vampire of Hanover, who committed the sexual assault, murder, mutilation and dismemberment of a minimum of 24 boys and young men between 1918 and 1924 in Hanover, Germany.
Described by the judge at his trial as being "forever degraded as a citizen," Haarmann was found guilty of 24 of the 27 murders for which he was tried and sentenced to death by beheading in December 1924. He was subsequently executed in April 1925.
Haarmann became known as the Butcher of Hanover (German: Der Schlächter von Hannover) due to the extensive mutilation and dismemberment committed upon his victims' bodies and by such titles as the Vampire of Hanover (der Vampir von Hannover) and the Wolf Man (Wolfsmensch) because of his preferred murder method of biting into or through his victims' throats.
Span of killings: 1918 - 1924
Date of arrest: June 22, 1924
A.K.A.: "The Butcher of Hanover", "The Wolf Man", "The Vampire of Hanover"
Born: 25 October 1879, Hanover, German Empire
Died: 15 April 1925 (aged 45), Hanover, Germany
Proven victims: 24
Possible victims: 27+
Criminal penalty: Death
Location: Province of Hanover, Lower Saxony, Prussia, Germany
Status: Executed by guillotine on April 15, 1925
From 1919 to 1924, Haarmann committed at least 24 murders, and possibly many more. Haarmann's victims were young male vagrants who hung around railway stations, whom Haarmann would lure back to his apartment and then kill them by biting through their throats in a kind of sexual frenzy. Rumours had it that Haarmann would then peddle meat from the bodies of his victims as black market pork, but there was no evidence. His accomplice, Hans Grans, sold the clothing of his victims, and Haarmann claimed Grans urged him to kill handsome boys, but was otherwise not involved in the murders.
Haarmann was eventually apprehended when numerous skeletal remains, which he had dumped into the river Leine, washed up. His trial was very spectacular; it was one of the first major media events in Germany. There were no concepts or expressions for his crimes; he was called a "werewolf", a "vampire" and a "sexual psychopath" at the same time. But apart from the cruelty of what Haarmann had admittedly done, even more scandalous — shaking German society at the very core — was the involvement of the police in the case: Haarmann cheated on thieves and dealers. He had also been used as an informant by the police who failed to identify Haarmann as the murderer.
Haarmann was beheaded, though it was not entirely clear if he would rather have to be locked up in an asylum for being in a state of diminished responsibility. But public opinion was heated and would not have approved of Haarmann just being locked away. Haarmann was found guilty and executed, even though serious doubts about his state of mind remained. Grans received a 12-year sentence. What became of him after his release is not known.
Haarmann became known as "The Butcher of Hanover." A film titled The Tenderness of the Wolves was released in Germany in 1973 dramatizing Haarmann's crimes. It starred Kurt Raab as the killer and featured Rainer Werner Fassbinder in a minor role. Another film based on the murder spree, Der Totmacher (The Deadmaker; 1995), starred Götz George as Haarmann. It was based on the protocols of the psychiatric examinations of Haarmann by Erich Schultze, one of the main psychiatric experts in the trial.
The classic film M (1931), directed by Fritz Lang and starring Peter Lorre, was inspired by Haarman's crimes, as well as those of Düsseldorf child killer Peter Kürten (Haarman is mentioned by name in the film, along with another well-known German serial killer, Karl Grossmann).
The American heavy metal band Macabre have made two songs about him: "Fritz Haarmann, the Butcher" on Gloom and "Fritz Haarmann, Der Metzger" on Murder Metal.
Haarmann was eventually apprehended when numerous skeletal remains, which he had dumped into the river Leine, washed up. His trial was very spectacular; it was one of the first major media events in Germany. There were no concepts or expressions for his crimes; he was called a "werewolf", a "vampire" and a "sexual psychopath" at the same time. But apart from the cruelty of what Haarmann had admittedly done, even more scandalous — shaking German society at the very core — was the involvement of the police in the case: Haarmann cheated on thieves and dealers. He had also been used as an informant by the police who failed to identify Haarmann as the murderer.
Haarmann was beheaded, though it was not entirely clear if he would rather have to be locked up in an asylum for being in a state of diminished responsibility. But public opinion was heated and would not have approved of Haarmann just being locked away. Haarmann was found guilty and executed, even though serious doubts about his state of mind remained. Grans received a 12-year sentence. What became of him after his release is not known.
Haarmann became known as "The Butcher of Hanover." A film titled The Tenderness of the Wolves was released in Germany in 1973 dramatizing Haarmann's crimes. It starred Kurt Raab as the killer and featured Rainer Werner Fassbinder in a minor role. Another film based on the murder spree, Der Totmacher (The Deadmaker; 1995), starred Götz George as Haarmann. It was based on the protocols of the psychiatric examinations of Haarmann by Erich Schultze, one of the main psychiatric experts in the trial.
The classic film M (1931), directed by Fritz Lang and starring Peter Lorre, was inspired by Haarman's crimes, as well as those of Düsseldorf child killer Peter Kürten (Haarman is mentioned by name in the film, along with another well-known German serial killer, Karl Grossmann).
The American heavy metal band Macabre have made two songs about him: "Fritz Haarmann, the Butcher" on Gloom and "Fritz Haarmann, Der Metzger" on Murder Metal.
6. Carl Großmann (26 - 50+)
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| (Carl Friedrich Wilhelm Großmann) |
Carl Friedrich Wilhelm Großmann (13 December 1863 – 5 July 1922), was a German serial killer who cannibalized his victims. He committed suicide while awaiting execution without giving a full confession leaving the extent of his crimes and motives largely unknown.
Span of killings: 1913 - 1921
Date of arrest: 21 August 1921
A.K.A.: "The Berlin Butcher"
Born: December 13, 1863, Neuruppin, Germany
Died: July 5, 1922 (aged 58)
Cause of death: Suicide by hanging
Proven victims: 26
Possible victims: 50+
Location: Berlin, Germany
Status: Sentenced to death. Committed suicide by hanging himself in his cell on July 5, 1922
Little is known about Carl Großmann's early life, except that he had sadistic sexual tastes and had several convictions for child molestation. On 21 August in 1921 when he was in his mid fifties, Großmann was arrested at his apartment in Berlin after neighbours heard screams and banging noises, followed by silence. The police did burst into the apartment, finding on the bed the body of a young woman who had recently been murdered. Großmann was taken into custody and charged with first degree murder. Neighbours reported that he seemed to have had a steady supply of female companions, mostly destitute-looking young women, over the previous few years. Many went into the apartment, but few emerged from it.
During World War I, Großmann sold meat on the black market and even had a hotdog stand at a train station near his home. It is believed the meat contained the remains of his victims, their bones and other inedible parts having been thrown into the river. How many lives Großmann took is not known. Only the body of his final victim was found, along with bloodstains in the apartment that indicated at least three other persons had been butchered in the few weeks leading up to his arrest. Some have suggested as many as 50 women entered Großmann's apartment and ended up being murdered, dismembered and eaten by unwitting customers of Großmann's meat business.
Carl Großmann was convicted of murder and was sentenced to death. Before his sentence could be carried out, he hanged himself in his own cell.
During World War I, Großmann sold meat on the black market and even had a hotdog stand at a train station near his home. It is believed the meat contained the remains of his victims, their bones and other inedible parts having been thrown into the river. How many lives Großmann took is not known. Only the body of his final victim was found, along with bloodstains in the apartment that indicated at least three other persons had been butchered in the few weeks leading up to his arrest. Some have suggested as many as 50 women entered Großmann's apartment and ended up being murdered, dismembered and eaten by unwitting customers of Großmann's meat business.
Carl Großmann was convicted of murder and was sentenced to death. Before his sentence could be carried out, he hanged himself in his own cell.
5. Stephan Letter (29 - 80+)
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| (Stephan Letter) |
Stephan Letter (born 17 September 1978) is a German former nurse and serial killer known to be responsible for the killings of at least 29 patients while he worked at a hospital in Sonthofen, Bavaria between January 2003 and July 2004. The acts have been described as Germany's largest number of killings since World War II.
Span of killings: 2003 - 2004
Date of arrest: July 2004
A.K.A.: Nurse - "Angel of Death"
Born: 17 September 1978, Herdecke, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany
Proven victims: 29
Possible victims: 80+
Criminal penalty: Life imprisonment
Location: Sonthofen, Bavaria, Germany
Status: Sentenced to life in prison on November 20, 2006
Letter was a nurse at a hospital that treated a large elderly population. During his employment from January 2003 to July 2004, a pattern of more than 80 deaths occurred on his shifts. Officials exhumed the bodies of more than 40 patients, but another 38 had already been cremated. Letter became a suspect after officials learned that large quantitites of drugs, including the muscle relaxant lysthenon, had gone missing from the hospital. Unsealed medication vials were found in Letter's apartment.
In February 2006, Letter was brought to trial for the deaths of 29 patients. Charges included 16 counts of murder, 12 counts of manslaughter and one count of killing on request. Most of the patients were older than 75, but they ranged in age from 40 to 94 years old. Letter also reportedly gave an inappropriate injection to a 22-year-old soldier with minor injuries from a fall; she lost consciousness but recovered. He confessed to some of the killings, but insisted that he acted out of sympathy and a desire to end the suffering of sick patients. However, the prosecution indicated that Letter was not the assigned nurse for some of the patients and that some of the patients were in stable condition and due to be released from the hospital. That November, Stephan Letter was found guilty of the murders and was sentenced to life imprisonment.
Letter's killings have been characterized as the worst killing spree in Germany since World War II.
In February 2006, Letter was brought to trial for the deaths of 29 patients. Charges included 16 counts of murder, 12 counts of manslaughter and one count of killing on request. Most of the patients were older than 75, but they ranged in age from 40 to 94 years old. Letter also reportedly gave an inappropriate injection to a 22-year-old soldier with minor injuries from a fall; she lost consciousness but recovered. He confessed to some of the killings, but insisted that he acted out of sympathy and a desire to end the suffering of sick patients. However, the prosecution indicated that Letter was not the assigned nurse for some of the patients and that some of the patients were in stable condition and due to be released from the hospital. That November, Stephan Letter was found guilty of the murders and was sentenced to life imprisonment.
Letter's killings have been characterized as the worst killing spree in Germany since World War II.
4. Karl Denke (30 - 40+)
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| (Only known photograph of Karl Denke, after his suicide) |
Karl Denke (August 12, 1870 – December 22, 1924) was a serial killer from Germany.
The son of a wealthy farmer, Denke was born 12 August, 1870, in Oberkunzendorf (near present Ziebice Poland). At the age of 12 he ran away from home; little else is known about his early life.
Karl Denke lived in Munsterberg, Silesia, Germany (now Ziebice Poland). He is believed to have killed between 30 and 40 people, primarily journeymen and homeless persons.
Reports state that he had been engaging in cannibalism for several years prior to his capture. There are rumors that he actually sold human meat. He killed all his victims in his house on Stawowa Street.
Span of killings: 1909 - 1924
A.K.A.: "The Cannibal of Ziębice"
Date of arrest: December 22, 1924
Born: August 12, 1870, Oberkunzendorf, Münsterberg, Silesia, Kingdom of Prussia (now Ziębice, Poland)
Died: December 22, 1924 (aged 54), Münsterberg, Silesia, Germany (Weimar Republic) (now Ziębice, Poland)
Proven victims: 30
Possible victims: 42+
Location: Münsterberg, Silesia, Kingdom of Prussia (now Ziębice, Poland)
Status: Committed suicide by hanging himself with his suspenders, in his cell, on December 22, 1924
Apparently, Karl Denke was well liked in the community before his arrest. He is known to have been called “Vatter Denke” (which translates to Father Denke or Papa Denke) by the locals. He also served as the organ blower for his local church.
On December 21, 1924, a coachman by the name of Gabriel, heard cries for help which seemed to emanate from Denke's room. Gabriel rushed down to help and found a young man named Vincenz Olivier staggering along the corridor, blood streaming from his open scalp.
Before he fell unconscious on the floor, the victim blurted out that "Vatter" Denke had attacked him with an ax. Police were summoned and arrested Denke, scouring his apartment for evidence. They turned up identification papers for twelve traveling journeymen, plus assorted items of male clothing.
In the kitchen, two large tubs held meat pickled in brine; with the assorted bones and pots of fat, detectives reckoned that it added up to thirty victims, more or less. In Denke's ledger, they found listed names and dates, with the respective weights of bodies he had pickled dating back to 1921. He killed himself in prison the night of his capture.
Reports state that he hung himself with a noose fashioned from a handkerchief, leaving historians with no explanation or motive for his actions.
For those interested in how rumors get started, there are a few different versions of Karl Denke's story in print and on the Internet. There are a couple of myths:
1. He was not an innkeeper - apparently this rumor was started because of a bad German translation.
2. He died in 1924, not 1942. At one point, someone reversed the numbers and printed the information with 1942 as the year of his death. This has been repeated by several others.
3. Many sources say that he hung himself with suspenders, rather than a handkerchief. While that makes more sense, it is apparently untrue.
On December 21, 1924, a coachman by the name of Gabriel, heard cries for help which seemed to emanate from Denke's room. Gabriel rushed down to help and found a young man named Vincenz Olivier staggering along the corridor, blood streaming from his open scalp.
Before he fell unconscious on the floor, the victim blurted out that "Vatter" Denke had attacked him with an ax. Police were summoned and arrested Denke, scouring his apartment for evidence. They turned up identification papers for twelve traveling journeymen, plus assorted items of male clothing.
In the kitchen, two large tubs held meat pickled in brine; with the assorted bones and pots of fat, detectives reckoned that it added up to thirty victims, more or less. In Denke's ledger, they found listed names and dates, with the respective weights of bodies he had pickled dating back to 1921. He killed himself in prison the night of his capture.
Reports state that he hung himself with a noose fashioned from a handkerchief, leaving historians with no explanation or motive for his actions.
For those interested in how rumors get started, there are a few different versions of Karl Denke's story in print and on the Internet. There are a couple of myths:
1. He was not an innkeeper - apparently this rumor was started because of a bad German translation.
2. He died in 1924, not 1942. At one point, someone reversed the numbers and printed the information with 1942 as the year of his death. This has been repeated by several others.
3. Many sources say that he hung himself with suspenders, rather than a handkerchief. While that makes more sense, it is apparently untrue.
3. Bruno Lüdke (51 - 86+)
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| (Bruno Lüdke) |
Bruno Lüdke (3 April 1908 – 8 April 1944) was an alleged German serial killer. Nazi police officials connected him to at least 51 murder victims, mainly women, killed in a 15-year period, which began in 1928 and ended with his arrest in 1943.
Span of killings: 1928 - 1943
Date of arrest: March 18, 1943
A.K.A.: "The Gross"
Born: April 3, 1908, Köpenick, Germany
Died: April 8, 1944 (aged 36)
Location: Germany (Weimar Republic), Nazi Germany
Status: Declared insane, he was sent to the SS-run 'Institute of Criminological Medicine' in Vienna. Died from a chemical injection on April 8, 1944
Arrest
Born in Köpenick, Lüdke had a mild intellectual disability (he could not, for example, tell interrogators how many minutes there were in an hour) and worked as a coachman. He was well known by the local police as a petty thief and peeping tom. On 31 January 1943 a woman was found murdered in the woods near Köpenick, strangled with her own shawl. The victim showed signs of post-mortem sexual abuse and her purse was missing. Police brought in Lüdke for questioning on 18 March 1943, where he quickly confessed to murdering not only the woman but also several other victims, and was taken into custody. Witnesses report Lüdke showed signs of physical abuse and he stated that 'they would kill me if I didn't confess'.
Lüdke was never put on trial for any of the killings. Declared insane, he was sent to the SS-run 'Institute of Criminological Medicine' in Vienna, where medical experiments were carried out on him until his death when an experiment went wrong in 1944.
Controversy
The 50-odd crime scenes showed no similarities in modus operandi, signature, or motive. No fingerprints were ever found and no evidence against Lüdke has ever been presented.
A Dutch former Chief of police named Jan Blaauw took an interest in the case and investigated original police reports. He found them inconclusive, incoherent, and vague. He also expressed his disbelief that a semi-illiterate, who once got caught stealing a chicken, could evade authorities for nearly 20 years, let alone get away with murder.
Many believe Lüdke to be the victim of a frame-up, carried out by an ambitious Kriminalkommissar (chief homicide investigator) Franz, the heavily censored Reichskriminalpolizeiamt, and the budding Nazi government, that had little patience with people with intellectual disabilities.
A 1957 movie, Nachts, wenn der Teufel kam, affirmed the image of Lüdke as one of Germany's worst serial killers. Attempts at reopening the case by members of the Kriminalrat (the German Internal affairs division) Faulhaber yielded no results. The true nature of the 51 murders remains unsolved to this day.
Born in Köpenick, Lüdke had a mild intellectual disability (he could not, for example, tell interrogators how many minutes there were in an hour) and worked as a coachman. He was well known by the local police as a petty thief and peeping tom. On 31 January 1943 a woman was found murdered in the woods near Köpenick, strangled with her own shawl. The victim showed signs of post-mortem sexual abuse and her purse was missing. Police brought in Lüdke for questioning on 18 March 1943, where he quickly confessed to murdering not only the woman but also several other victims, and was taken into custody. Witnesses report Lüdke showed signs of physical abuse and he stated that 'they would kill me if I didn't confess'.
Lüdke was never put on trial for any of the killings. Declared insane, he was sent to the SS-run 'Institute of Criminological Medicine' in Vienna, where medical experiments were carried out on him until his death when an experiment went wrong in 1944.
Controversy
The 50-odd crime scenes showed no similarities in modus operandi, signature, or motive. No fingerprints were ever found and no evidence against Lüdke has ever been presented.
A Dutch former Chief of police named Jan Blaauw took an interest in the case and investigated original police reports. He found them inconclusive, incoherent, and vague. He also expressed his disbelief that a semi-illiterate, who once got caught stealing a chicken, could evade authorities for nearly 20 years, let alone get away with murder.
Many believe Lüdke to be the victim of a frame-up, carried out by an ambitious Kriminalkommissar (chief homicide investigator) Franz, the heavily censored Reichskriminalpolizeiamt, and the budding Nazi government, that had little patience with people with intellectual disabilities.
A 1957 movie, Nachts, wenn der Teufel kam, affirmed the image of Lüdke as one of Germany's worst serial killers. Attempts at reopening the case by members of the Kriminalrat (the German Internal affairs division) Faulhaber yielded no results. The true nature of the 51 murders remains unsolved to this day.
2. Peter Niers (544 - 544+)
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| (Peter Niers (or Niersch)) |
Peter Niers (or Niersch) was a German bandit, and reputed serial killer who was executed 16 September 1581 in Neumarkt in der Oberpfalz, some 40 km distant from Nuremberg. Based on confessions extracted from him and his accomplices under torture, he was convicted of 544 murders, including 24 fetuses cut out of 24 pregnant women — allegedly, the fetal remains were to be used in magical rituals (he was believed to be an extremely powerful black magician, with many supernatural abilities) and for acts of cannibalism.
Information about Niers is based on the contemporary ballads, "true crime" reports and official warrants circulating, as well as the aforementioned confessions extracted under torture.
Span of killings: ??? - 1581
Date of arrest: 1581
A.K.A.: "Peter Nirsch", "Peter Niersch", "Peter Nyers", "Peter Nyersch"
Born: ???
Died: September 16, 1581
Number of victims: 544
Possible victims: 544+
Criminal penalty: Death
Location: Holy Roman Empire, Germany
Status: Broken on the wheel, then quartered while still alive
Modus Operandi
Peter Niers was one of the leading figures in a loosely-knit network of robber-killers roaming the countrysides, a network constantly changing in its composition — sometimes joining together for major raids, at other times splitting up into smaller groups to pursue robberies and killings on smaller scale over different areas. Historian Joy Wiltenburg writes:
Of course the profession of robbery required some roving, whether the principals had been itinerant beforehand or not. It was in the spaces outside cities that these bands operated, particularly in woods and mountains and along unfrequented roads. The gang led by Niers and Sumer reportedly started in Alsace, but after gathering a group of twenty-four (...) near Pfalzburg, they separated to rob and murder. Accordingly, they were caught in different places- one in the imperial city of Landau, one at Kirchweyler am Rhein; four at Strasbourg; nine at Pfalzburg; and six at Koblenz.
This way of operating does not seem to have originated with the gang led by Niers and Sumer; apparently, Niers had a mentor in crime called Martin Stier, who from the 1550s until his arrest and execution in 1572 had led a gang of 49 bandits ostensibly working as shepherds, murdering and robbing their way from the Netherlands to Württemberg. Wiltenburg adds that, "Shepherds were widely regarded as dishonourable, especially in the thinking of urban guilds." She proffers an example of such thinking from a novel published in 1554, where the young antihero gradually slides down the social scale to that of a herdsman, and finally hits the bottom as a wandering minstrel. "Far from civilized society and alone with the animals, he has time to think over his misdeeds. Members of such a group were unsurprising suspects".
Throughout his career as a murderer (said to have spanned some 15 years according to a folk song), Niers was finally found guilty of having murdered 544 individuals, including 24 pregnant women and the fetuses Niers had cut out of their wombs for acts of cannibalism and to use in rituals of magic.
First arrest and escape
In 1577, some of the gang members were caught, including Niers himself. Monika Spicker-Beck, for example, notes that a Claus Strikker confessed in April that 10 years earlier, he had worked together with Niers, and helped him murder a twenty-year-old woman in Gottswald. Also, an accomplice named Peter Oblath drew up a list of 14 gang members, including the name of Peter Niers. Joy Wiltenburg notes that Niers himself was arrested and tortured in Gersbach. There, he confessed to 75 acts of murder, but somehow managed to escape. Over the next few years, until his final arrest in 1581, a number of pamphlets, ballads and stories were written and circulated detailing his cannibalism and mastery of the black arts. For example, it was said that when Niers' and Sumer's gang gathered at Pfalzburg, they had a meeting with the Devil, who gave his blessing to the gang's ambitions, even providing Niers and Sumer with monthly pay along with granting supernatural powers to Niers. Even earlier than this, however, it seems that Niers learned how to become invisible from his mentor Martin Stier, and that the only reason he was finally caught was because he was deprived of his bag containing the magical materials to make himself invisible. A critical component of such magical material was thought to be the remains of fetuses; during the casting of the spell the fetus hearts were eaten. Joy Wiltenburg mentions also another use of fetal black magic: To concoct the flesh and fats of infants into magic candles that, when lit, would allow them to rob houses without awaking the inhabitants.
Peter Niers was credited with other supernatural powers as well, in particular the ability of physical transformation; various stories attributed him with the ability to change his shape into that of a log or a stone, but according to a late ballad, he could also become a goat, dog, or cat at will.
A contemporary account, however, suggests more mundanely that Peter Niers was a master of disguise: In a circulated warrant from 1579, based on confessions from his captured underlings, when Niers was thought to operate in the Schwarzwald area, it is stated that he frequently changed his appearance and costume, sometimes masquerading as a common soldier, at other times as a leper, and a number of other disguises. The same warrant states, however, that some things stayed constant: He always had a lot of money on him, he carried two loaded pistols in his trousers, and a huge two-handed sword.
The folk song mentioned above has a few particulars on his physical appearance; he was described as "rather old," two of his fingers were crooked, and he had a long scar on his chin.
Final arrest, torture and execution
A late ballad contains the circumstances under which Niers was discovered, leading to his arrest and execution. He arrived at Neumarkt, and lodged in an inn called "The Bells." A couple of days later, he felt a desire to wash himself, and went to a public bath house, leaving behind his precious bag with magical materials to be kept safe by the inn-keeper. At this time, Peter Niers had achieved notoriety, and his physical appearance had circulated in warrants and pamphlets. One of those at the bath house, a cooper, recognized him, and gradually a mumbling and whispering spread among the bath house guests that the stranger might, indeed, be the wanted arch-killer. Peter Niers himself was oblivious to the changing mood, and two citizens slipped out of the bath house and went to the inn. There, on request, the inn keeper gave them Niers' bag, they opened it, and it contained several cut off hands and hearts from murdered fetuses. The townspeople reacted quickly, and a force of eight men was gathered that apprehended Peter Niers. When he understood they had found out what he carried in his sack, he admitted to his identity, and that he was guilty, and confessed to his many murders.
The detailed manner of the final torture and execution of Peter Niers was as follows, spanning 3 days. On the first day, strips of flesh were torn from his body, and heated oil was poured into his wounds. On the second day, his feet were smeared by heated oil, and then held above glowing coal, thereby roasting him. On the third day, 16 September 1581, he was dragged to the place of execution, he was broken by the wheel, slamming the wheel 42 times down upon him. Still alive, he was finally dismembered by quartering.
Peter Niers was one of the leading figures in a loosely-knit network of robber-killers roaming the countrysides, a network constantly changing in its composition — sometimes joining together for major raids, at other times splitting up into smaller groups to pursue robberies and killings on smaller scale over different areas. Historian Joy Wiltenburg writes:
Of course the profession of robbery required some roving, whether the principals had been itinerant beforehand or not. It was in the spaces outside cities that these bands operated, particularly in woods and mountains and along unfrequented roads. The gang led by Niers and Sumer reportedly started in Alsace, but after gathering a group of twenty-four (...) near Pfalzburg, they separated to rob and murder. Accordingly, they were caught in different places- one in the imperial city of Landau, one at Kirchweyler am Rhein; four at Strasbourg; nine at Pfalzburg; and six at Koblenz.
This way of operating does not seem to have originated with the gang led by Niers and Sumer; apparently, Niers had a mentor in crime called Martin Stier, who from the 1550s until his arrest and execution in 1572 had led a gang of 49 bandits ostensibly working as shepherds, murdering and robbing their way from the Netherlands to Württemberg. Wiltenburg adds that, "Shepherds were widely regarded as dishonourable, especially in the thinking of urban guilds." She proffers an example of such thinking from a novel published in 1554, where the young antihero gradually slides down the social scale to that of a herdsman, and finally hits the bottom as a wandering minstrel. "Far from civilized society and alone with the animals, he has time to think over his misdeeds. Members of such a group were unsurprising suspects".
Throughout his career as a murderer (said to have spanned some 15 years according to a folk song), Niers was finally found guilty of having murdered 544 individuals, including 24 pregnant women and the fetuses Niers had cut out of their wombs for acts of cannibalism and to use in rituals of magic.
First arrest and escape
In 1577, some of the gang members were caught, including Niers himself. Monika Spicker-Beck, for example, notes that a Claus Strikker confessed in April that 10 years earlier, he had worked together with Niers, and helped him murder a twenty-year-old woman in Gottswald. Also, an accomplice named Peter Oblath drew up a list of 14 gang members, including the name of Peter Niers. Joy Wiltenburg notes that Niers himself was arrested and tortured in Gersbach. There, he confessed to 75 acts of murder, but somehow managed to escape. Over the next few years, until his final arrest in 1581, a number of pamphlets, ballads and stories were written and circulated detailing his cannibalism and mastery of the black arts. For example, it was said that when Niers' and Sumer's gang gathered at Pfalzburg, they had a meeting with the Devil, who gave his blessing to the gang's ambitions, even providing Niers and Sumer with monthly pay along with granting supernatural powers to Niers. Even earlier than this, however, it seems that Niers learned how to become invisible from his mentor Martin Stier, and that the only reason he was finally caught was because he was deprived of his bag containing the magical materials to make himself invisible. A critical component of such magical material was thought to be the remains of fetuses; during the casting of the spell the fetus hearts were eaten. Joy Wiltenburg mentions also another use of fetal black magic: To concoct the flesh and fats of infants into magic candles that, when lit, would allow them to rob houses without awaking the inhabitants.
Peter Niers was credited with other supernatural powers as well, in particular the ability of physical transformation; various stories attributed him with the ability to change his shape into that of a log or a stone, but according to a late ballad, he could also become a goat, dog, or cat at will.
A contemporary account, however, suggests more mundanely that Peter Niers was a master of disguise: In a circulated warrant from 1579, based on confessions from his captured underlings, when Niers was thought to operate in the Schwarzwald area, it is stated that he frequently changed his appearance and costume, sometimes masquerading as a common soldier, at other times as a leper, and a number of other disguises. The same warrant states, however, that some things stayed constant: He always had a lot of money on him, he carried two loaded pistols in his trousers, and a huge two-handed sword.
The folk song mentioned above has a few particulars on his physical appearance; he was described as "rather old," two of his fingers were crooked, and he had a long scar on his chin.
Final arrest, torture and execution
A late ballad contains the circumstances under which Niers was discovered, leading to his arrest and execution. He arrived at Neumarkt, and lodged in an inn called "The Bells." A couple of days later, he felt a desire to wash himself, and went to a public bath house, leaving behind his precious bag with magical materials to be kept safe by the inn-keeper. At this time, Peter Niers had achieved notoriety, and his physical appearance had circulated in warrants and pamphlets. One of those at the bath house, a cooper, recognized him, and gradually a mumbling and whispering spread among the bath house guests that the stranger might, indeed, be the wanted arch-killer. Peter Niers himself was oblivious to the changing mood, and two citizens slipped out of the bath house and went to the inn. There, on request, the inn keeper gave them Niers' bag, they opened it, and it contained several cut off hands and hearts from murdered fetuses. The townspeople reacted quickly, and a force of eight men was gathered that apprehended Peter Niers. When he understood they had found out what he carried in his sack, he admitted to his identity, and that he was guilty, and confessed to his many murders.
The detailed manner of the final torture and execution of Peter Niers was as follows, spanning 3 days. On the first day, strips of flesh were torn from his body, and heated oil was poured into his wounds. On the second day, his feet were smeared by heated oil, and then held above glowing coal, thereby roasting him. On the third day, 16 September 1581, he was dragged to the place of execution, he was broken by the wheel, slamming the wheel 42 times down upon him. Still alive, he was finally dismembered by quartering.
1. Christman Genipperteinga (970 - 970+)
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| (Woodcut print showing a breaking wheel similar to the type used on Christman Genipperteinga) |
Christman Genipperteinga was a German bandit and serial killer of the 16th century, he reportedly murdered 964 individuals starting in his youth over a 13-year period, from 1568 until his capture in 1581.
He used to hang the babies that he had strangled, stretched them out and dance around them singing, “Dance dear, little child, dance! Genipperteinga your father has made the dance for you!”
Span of killings: 1568 - 1581
Date of arrest: May-June, 1581
A.K.A.: "Christian Gnipperdinga", "Christoff Grippertenius", "Christmann Gropperunge"
Born: ???, Kerpen
Died: June 17, 1581 (or, more accurately the execution started on 17th June… he had been condemend to The Wheel, as normal for aggravated murder in that era and took nine days to die)
Proven victims: 970 (In his 1597 manuscript, Julius Sperber noted that Christoff Gnippentennig at Bergkesel murdered 964 people in addition to six of his own children.)
Possible victims: 970+
Criminal penalty: Death
Location: Bergkessel, Holy Roman Empire, Germany
Status: Execution by the breaking wheel
This article retells the story of Christman Genipperteinga as contained in a contemporary pamphlet from 1581, as well as placing that pamphlet, and reports of similar type, within the literary and historical context in which they appeared.
Origins
Christman Genipperteinga came from Kerpen, a couple of miles ("zwo Meylen") southwest of Cologne.
Lair
For about seven years Christman lived in a cave/mine complex some distance ("ein grosse Meyl") away from Bergkessel (possibly Bernkastel-Kues), in a wooded upland/mountain area called Frassberg. From there, he had a good view over the roads going between Trier, Metz, Dietenhoffen and Lützelburger Landt.
The cave complex is described as being very cleverly built, just like an ordinary house inside, with cellars, rooms and chambers, with all the household goods that ought to belong in a house.
Criminal activity and methods
Christman preyed upon both German and French travelers. It is said that a party of 3, 4 even 5 travellers might not be safe from him. Nor was he averse to double-crossing his own partners in crime in order to get his hands on the whole booty, rather than his "just share". Once they had helped bring the loot to his cave, he served them poisoned food or drink, with rarely anyone surviving beyond 5 hours. He is said to have thrown their bodies into a mine shaft connected with his cave complex.
Shortly after he took up residence at Frassberg, Christman met an intended victim, the young daughter of a cooper in Popert (In some versions - "Dorothea Teichner"). She was traveling to Trier to meet her brother. Struck by her beauty, however, he changed his mind and ordered her under death threats to come and live with him. He made her swear she would never betray him, and for the next 7 years, she served his sexual wants. Whenever he went out to find new victims, he bound her with a chain so that she could not escape. He fathered 6 children with her but at birth he killed them, pressing in their necks (original: "hat er den Kindern das Genick eingedrückt").
Christman used to hang up their bodies, and stretched them out (orig: "aufgehängt und ausgedehnt"). As the wind made the little corpses move, he said:
("Dance dear, little child, dance! Gnipperteinga your father has made the dance for you!")
Downfall
Christman finally relented to the woman's repeated pleadings that she might be allowed to meet other people, and granted her expressed wish to visit Bergkessel under condition of a renewed oath not to betray him. But once there, seeing the little children running about in the streets, she had a breakdown, and went down on her knees in lamentation:
(All mighty God! You know of all matters, including the oath I am bound to concerning what I should not reveal to any human. So now I will wail over my condition (to this stone) and despair that I for the seventh year have suffered, and what I have had daily to witness upon my own flesh and blood)
And she began to wail and weep bitterly. Many commiserated with her, but when anyone asked her about what her troubles were, she refused to reveal them. Brought before the mayor, she was urged to tell her story, and assured by many learned men, by reference to Scripture, that if it was a matter of life and the soul, then she ought to confess. She then confessed everything she knew. In order to catch Christman off guard, the following scheme was hatched: She was given a sack of peas, and with these, she marked the way to the cave complex.
On 27 May 1581, 30 armed men set out to capture him. He was asleep when they came, because she had made him relax with gentle words while she deloused his hair. As the armed men barged in, Christman cried out: "Oh, you faithless betrayer and whore, had I known this, I would have strangled you long ago".
Within Christman's cave complex, an immense amount of booty was found, in the form of wine, dried and/or salted meat, suits of armour, firearms and other weaponry, trade goods, coin and other valuables. The value was estimated as exceeding 70,000 Gulden. The author of the 1581 Herber account notes that one might well have made a full year's market out of the booty found in Christman's cave.
Confession, trial and execution
Christman kept a diary in which he detailed the murders of 964 individuals, as well as a tally of the loot gained from them. The diary was found among his possessions. In addition to this evidence Christman readily admitted to the murders, adding that if he had reached his goal of a thousand victims, he would have been satifisfied with that number.
On June 17, 1581, Christman Genipperteinga was found guilty, and was condemned to death by the breaking wheel. He endured nine days on the wheel prior to expiring, kept alive in his sufferings with strong drink every day, so that his heart would be strengthened.
Another version
In another version of the Papedöne tale, he is said to have been active from 1314-1322. In this version, he used to hang the skulls of his murder victims from the branches of a tree, and used a rod to strike them to produce a melody, to which he sang the little song cited above. After having murdered six abducted maidens, he grew so fond of the seventh, that he couldn't bear killing her. Taking her once to the city of Lübeck, she recognized her brother in the crowd, but didn't speak out. Instead, she bought a bag of groats, and clandestinely marked the way back to Papedöne's lair, so that he eventually was caught.
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| (Front page of Caspar Herber's 1581 account of Christman Genipperteinga) |
Origins
Christman Genipperteinga came from Kerpen, a couple of miles ("zwo Meylen") southwest of Cologne.
Lair
For about seven years Christman lived in a cave/mine complex some distance ("ein grosse Meyl") away from Bergkessel (possibly Bernkastel-Kues), in a wooded upland/mountain area called Frassberg. From there, he had a good view over the roads going between Trier, Metz, Dietenhoffen and Lützelburger Landt.
The cave complex is described as being very cleverly built, just like an ordinary house inside, with cellars, rooms and chambers, with all the household goods that ought to belong in a house.
Criminal activity and methods
Christman preyed upon both German and French travelers. It is said that a party of 3, 4 even 5 travellers might not be safe from him. Nor was he averse to double-crossing his own partners in crime in order to get his hands on the whole booty, rather than his "just share". Once they had helped bring the loot to his cave, he served them poisoned food or drink, with rarely anyone surviving beyond 5 hours. He is said to have thrown their bodies into a mine shaft connected with his cave complex.
Shortly after he took up residence at Frassberg, Christman met an intended victim, the young daughter of a cooper in Popert (In some versions - "Dorothea Teichner"). She was traveling to Trier to meet her brother. Struck by her beauty, however, he changed his mind and ordered her under death threats to come and live with him. He made her swear she would never betray him, and for the next 7 years, she served his sexual wants. Whenever he went out to find new victims, he bound her with a chain so that she could not escape. He fathered 6 children with her but at birth he killed them, pressing in their necks (original: "hat er den Kindern das Genick eingedrückt").
Christman used to hang up their bodies, and stretched them out (orig: "aufgehängt und ausgedehnt"). As the wind made the little corpses move, he said:
("Dance dear, little child, dance! Gnipperteinga your father has made the dance for you!")
Downfall
Christman finally relented to the woman's repeated pleadings that she might be allowed to meet other people, and granted her expressed wish to visit Bergkessel under condition of a renewed oath not to betray him. But once there, seeing the little children running about in the streets, she had a breakdown, and went down on her knees in lamentation:
(All mighty God! You know of all matters, including the oath I am bound to concerning what I should not reveal to any human. So now I will wail over my condition (to this stone) and despair that I for the seventh year have suffered, and what I have had daily to witness upon my own flesh and blood)
And she began to wail and weep bitterly. Many commiserated with her, but when anyone asked her about what her troubles were, she refused to reveal them. Brought before the mayor, she was urged to tell her story, and assured by many learned men, by reference to Scripture, that if it was a matter of life and the soul, then she ought to confess. She then confessed everything she knew. In order to catch Christman off guard, the following scheme was hatched: She was given a sack of peas, and with these, she marked the way to the cave complex.
On 27 May 1581, 30 armed men set out to capture him. He was asleep when they came, because she had made him relax with gentle words while she deloused his hair. As the armed men barged in, Christman cried out: "Oh, you faithless betrayer and whore, had I known this, I would have strangled you long ago".
Within Christman's cave complex, an immense amount of booty was found, in the form of wine, dried and/or salted meat, suits of armour, firearms and other weaponry, trade goods, coin and other valuables. The value was estimated as exceeding 70,000 Gulden. The author of the 1581 Herber account notes that one might well have made a full year's market out of the booty found in Christman's cave.
Confession, trial and execution
Christman kept a diary in which he detailed the murders of 964 individuals, as well as a tally of the loot gained from them. The diary was found among his possessions. In addition to this evidence Christman readily admitted to the murders, adding that if he had reached his goal of a thousand victims, he would have been satifisfied with that number.
On June 17, 1581, Christman Genipperteinga was found guilty, and was condemned to death by the breaking wheel. He endured nine days on the wheel prior to expiring, kept alive in his sufferings with strong drink every day, so that his heart would be strengthened.
Another version
In another version of the Papedöne tale, he is said to have been active from 1314-1322. In this version, he used to hang the skulls of his murder victims from the branches of a tree, and used a rod to strike them to produce a melody, to which he sang the little song cited above. After having murdered six abducted maidens, he grew so fond of the seventh, that he couldn't bear killing her. Taking her once to the city of Lübeck, she recognized her brother in the crowd, but didn't speak out. Instead, she bought a bag of groats, and clandestinely marked the way back to Papedöne's lair, so that he eventually was caught.