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SERIAL KILLERS			Date Added
	Peter Kürten		October 2003

	Bio
	Full Name	Peter Kürten
	Date of Birth	26th May 1883
	Known Also As	The Monster of Düsseldorf
	Hit Count	13+
	Information & Pictures
	On February 9, 1929, about 9 o’clock in the morning, workmen going to work found in the vicinity of the building upon which they were employed in the Kettwiger-strasse, the body of an eight-year-old girl lying under a hedge. The ground at that point sloped slightly towards the hedge, and as the hedge faced a wide-open space, it was only by chance that the body was discovered. The body was completely clothed and clad in a cloak. The clothing, however, was partially bunt and the underclothing still smouldering. The body, which smelled strongly of petrol, was not in any sort of disorder, for even the opening of the dress or the underpants were not in disarray. A closer examination of the clothing revealed bloodstains from multiple wounds in the breasts, wounds made, quiet obviously through the clothing. On the inner part of the underpants near the external genitalia were two small bloodstains, which under microscopic examination revealed the presence of seminal fluid. In the vagina there was fluid blood, which had flowed from a wound 1 cm in length, at the entrance of the vaginal cavity. The autopsy showed that the burning had affected practically only the clothing. Injuring the skin surface only on the upper part of the thighs, the neck and chin, over which area the skin was blackened and discoloured, while the hair on the head was a black, charred mass, here and there completely burnt off. On the left breast there was a group of thirteen wounds, the face was bloated and livid. The stabs about the left breast were grouped over an area much smaller that a hand. Five of the wounds had penetrated the heart, three had pierced the left and right pleurae, and three had penetrated the liver. In the pleural cavities there was 750 cc of blood. Death must have been swift through internal haemorrhage. The scene of the crime was without a trace of blood. The criminal had attempted to burn the clothing of the body only. There were no traces to suggest that soot had been inhaled and the burning was without vital reaction. In the tissues of the lumbar region there was some 4 cm of blood infiltration. In the stomach was found a mass of chyme, partially digested white cabbage, and remains of meat. The essential factors to be considered for a diagnosis of the cause of death, for a theory as to the time of death, as well as for a motive of the murderer, were the characteristic stabs, the congestion of blood which was found in the head, the nature of the wounds and the condition of the contents in the stomach, and the injury to the genitalia. As far as the congested blood in the head is concerned, one can only suggest that it indicated a forcible strangulation. Death must of occurred very quickly through the heart wounds. There were no physical marks where the strangulation grip had been applied, but some manner of strangulation must have initiated the attack though leaving no traces on the skin of the neck. No calls for help were heard in the rather populous neighbourhood where the crime was committed. The mother deposed that the murdered child had eaten sauerkraut about 2pm and had set out to visit a friend. At 6 o’clock the friend had advised the child hurry home before dark. There was a public footpath, which she could take and which offered her a short cut. Bearing in mind the face that in six hours the stomach could normally complete the work of digestion, then the scarcely digested food found in the stomach indicates that death took place between 6 and 7 o’clock in the evening. The autopsy indicated that the child had been waylaid on her way home. The condition of the genitals revealed an injury of little consequence on the membrane of the vagina. The hymen was torn about 1 cm. Only slight traces of seminal fluid were found on the child’s underclothing. It was clear that an ejaculation could not have taken place in the vagina. From these consideration, one would arrive at the conclusion that the criminal’s objective had not been coitus, but that he must have inserted a finger smeared with semen under the unopened underwear of the child and inserted it into the vagina. This must have been done with force, for in addition to the scratch at the entrance of the vagina, there was also a trace of bruising of the pelvis. The stabs in the skin of the breast were all together and parallel. Some of these showed that the knife had been held with the cutting edge of the blade facing upwards. So concluded from the position of these wounds that the criminal had done the stabbing, as the child lay unconscious on the ground, delivering the blows in swift succession. Otherwise one would have expected the stabbing inflicted on a person still conscious would have been placed irregularly. In addition one would expect to find defensive wounds on the hands. In April 1929, it seemed that the ‘monster’ had been caught. Following two more attacks on women, an idiot named Stausberg was arrested and confessed to the murders. He had a cleft plate and a harelip. The police were soon convinced that, although he was undoubtedly responsible for the latest attacks, he had not committed the murders. He was sent to a mental home. For three months, Kürten satisfied himself with affairs with servant girls, whom he attempted to strangle ‘playfully’.
	PETER KÜRTEN
	On 30 July a prostitute named Emma Gross was found strangled in her room, but it seems that Kürten was not responsible for this. In August, Kürten strangled a girl he referred to as ‘Anni’, and pushed her body into the river, but the body was not recovered, so it is not certain whether this story was Kürten’s invention. Also in late August, a young woman, Frau Mantel, was stabbed in the back as she walked in the western suburb of Lierenfeld, where a fair was being held. Her wound was not serious. In the same month a girl, Anna Goldhausen, and a man, Gustav Kornblum (who were sitting in the park) were stabbed in the back. In neither case were the injuries fatal. Then on August 24, a double murder horrified the city. The bodies of two children, 5 year-old Gertrude Hamacher and 14 year-old Louise Lenzen were found on an allotment near their home. Both had been strangled, and then had their throats cut. Neither had been raped.
	GERTRUDE HAMACHER
	The same Sunday afternoon, a servant girl name Gertrude Schulte was on her way to a fair at Neuss, and was spoken to by a man who called himself Fritz Baumgart. In a wood he attempted sexual intercourse, and the girl said, ‘I’d rather die.’ And the man identified as Baumgart replied, ‘Well, die then.’ And stabbed her several times. But she did not die, and was eventually able to give the police a description of her assailant. These episodes strengthened the police suspicion that there were two maniacs at work, since it seemed unlikely that the same person would kill two children on Saturday and then go out looking for further victims on Sunday. In September, Kürten attacked three more girls and threw one of them into the river after his attempted strangulation. But these events caused little sensation in comparison to the next murder, which occurred in late September. Another servant girl, Ida Reuter, set out for her Sunday afternoon walk and never returned, the next day she was found in a field near the Rhine meadows. Her head had been battered with a heavy instrument (which turned out to be a hammer), and her handbag and underwear were missing, she was found in a position that indicated sexual assault.
	IDA REUTER
	The next case took place a few weeks later, in October. Again the victim was a servant girl, Elizabeth Dorrier. Again she was found near the River Dussel at Grafenberg. Her death was also due to hammer blows to the head, and her hat and coat were missing. On 25 October a Frau Meurer was accosted by a man in Flingern who asked, ‘Aren’t you afraid to be out alone?’ She woke up in hospital, her skin having been broken by a hammer, which had not, however, cracked her skill. Later the same evening, in the centre of the city, Frau Wanders, who was seeking an escort, was accosted and knocked unconscious with a hammer, which had struck her four blows. On 7 November a 5 year-old Gertrude Albermann, was missing from her home. Two days later her body was found near a factory yard, among nettles and brick rubble, she had been strangled and stabbed thirty-six times. At this point Kürten imitated the ‘Ripper’s’ tactics by sending a letter to a newspaper, stating where the body could be found, and mentioning the whereabouts of another body. (Kürten had a great admiration for the Ripper, and had studied the case carefully.) A spot in the meadows at Papendelle was mentioned. This letter led to the discovery of the body of Maria Hahn, who had been dead since August. Her body was dug up, after some days of searching, on August 14, and was found to be completely naked. She had twenty-six stab wounds. Thousands of spectators streamed out to the spot where the body was found. When Kürten was questioned by the police he not only told of the attacks of 1929, but he also gave an account and chart of a long chain of crimes without being questioned. He lengthened this chain with some imaginary links, but he soon brought it back again to the facts. Kürten was born in Koln-Mulheim in 1883, the son of a moulder, a violent man, boastful and given to drunkenness. The family of thirteen was very poor, and lived for a time in a single room. The environment was heavily charged with sex. According to Kürten, all his sisters were oversexed, and one made sexual advances to him. Kürten was apparently not attracted by her, but he attempt incest with another sister – a sister whom his father attempted to rape, and on whose account the moulder served a term in prison. Kürten senior was in the habit of forcing his wife to have intercourse when he came home drunk, and Kürten frequently witnessed his mother being raped. At the age of 8 he ran away from home for a short time, sleeping in furniture vans. He also admitted that his taste for sadism has first been awakened by a sadistic dogcatcher who lived in the same house, and who taught Kürten to masturbate the dogs. Kürten often watched him torturing the dogs.
	PETER KÜRTEN
	Kürten was the third child of thirteen children. His grandfather had served several sentences for theft, and cases of delirium tremens, feeble mindedness and paralysis abound in his family tree on his father’s side. (His mothers side of the family were normal and hardworking people.) When Kürten was 12, the family moved to Dusseldorf. But according to his own confession, he had already committed his first murder. At the age of 9, he pushed a boy off a raft on the banks of the Rhine, and when another boy dived in to help the first one, he managed to push him under the raft, so that both were drowned. In his early teens he ran away from home again and lived as a vagabond and robber – attacking mostly girls and women. His adolescent sexuality was abnormal. He attempted intercourse with schoolgirls and with his sister, and masturbated excessively. From his thirteenth year onward he practiced bestiality with sheep, pigs and goats. He discovered that he received a powerful sexual sensation when having intercourse with a sheep in the Dusseldorf meadows and stabbing it simultaneously. He did this many times between his thirteenth and sixteenth years. At 16 he became an apprentice moulder, and received much ill-treatment, finally he stole money and ran away to Coblenz. There he lived with a prostitute who allowed him to ill-treat her. Finally he was arrested for theft, and received the first of the seventeen sentences that were to take up twenty-seven years of his life. He was then 15. Released from prison 2 years later in 1899, he discovered his mother was divorced from his father, and so decided to keep living as a vagrant. He lived with a prostitute more than twice his age who enjoyed being maltreated, and this developed his sadistic tendencies even further. In November 1899, according to Kürten’s own account, he committed what he supposed to be his first adult murder, strangling a girl while having sexual intercourse with her, he thought she had died, and left her in the Grafenberger Wald. But no body was reported in that month, so it seems likely that the girl woke up and went home, saying nothing to anyone about the encounter. His first prison period, made a real criminal of him, in the cells of the Berger Gate he met hardened criminals and wanted to rival them. He had himself tattooed.
	POLICE SKETCH OF PETER KÜRTEN
	He served two brief sentences about 1900 for minor fraud, and then attempted to shoot a girl with a rifle, and was given two more years. Together with another sentence for theft this brought his prison term to 1904. During this time, he used to dream of revenge, and found that his fantasies of killing excited him sexually. He deliberately committed minor crime infringements of prison regulations to get solitary confinement, so that he could indulge these fantasies freely. On his release he was called up as a conscript to Metz, but soon deserted. He also committed his first cases of arson, setting fire to barns and hayricks. The sight of fire caused him sexual excitement, and he also hoped that tramps might be sleeping in the hay. In 1905 he received seven years for theft (he had been living with another women who was also thieving). He served the term in Munster prison, and had an attack of ‘prison psychosis’, rolling himself in a bundle of silk and lying under the table, claiming to be a silkworm. He also claimed later that he was able to poison some prisoners in the prison hospital. He nursed fantasies of revenge on society, and dreamed of ‘compensatory justice’ – that is, that he could get his own back on his tormentors by tormenting someone that was completely innocent. This kind of illogicality is typical of murderers and psychopaths. As soon as he was released from prison in 1912, he maltreated a servant girl during intercourse, and was soon back in prison for discharging firearms in a restaurant when he tried to accost a woman and was interrupted by the waiter. For this he received one year in jail. On 25 May 1913, he committed his first sexual murder. He had become a specialist in robbing business premises. He entered a pub in Wolfstrasse, on an evening when the family was out at a fair. In one of the bedrooms he found 13 year old Christine Klein asleep. He strangled her, cut her throat with a penknife, and penetrated her sexual organs with his fingers. He dropped a handkerchief with his initials on it. But it happened that child’s name was Peter Klein, and his brother Otto had quarrelled with him on the night of the murder and threatened to do something that Peter ‘would remember all his life’. Otto Klein was arrested and tried but released for lack of evidence. Public opinion was against him, and he was killed in the war, still under the shadow of murder. Kürten later claimed that it was the memory of his suffering in jail that prompted him to murder. A few weeks after this crime, Kürten was again about to attack a sleeping girl when someone woke up and frightened him off. He also attacked an unknown man and an unknown woman with a hatchet, securing sexual orgasms by knocking them unconscious and seeing their blood. (Since the sadist dogcatcher, blood had always been Kürten’s major sexual stimulant). He also burned another hay wagon, and attempted to strangle two women. Then luckily, he spent the next eight years in prison. In 1921 Kürten returned to Altenberg, declaring that he had been a prisoner of war in Russia. Here he met the women who became his wife, at the home of his sister. She had had her own misfortunes, she had been engaged to a gardener for eight years and had been his mistress, then he refused to marry her and she hot him. For this she served a five-year jail sentence. When Kürten met her she was a raw boned, broad shouldered prematurely aged woman. It is difficult to know why she attracted Kürten, perhaps because she seemed solid and reliable, or perhaps because she had suffered. Until the end of his life, ten years later, she continued to be the only human being for whom he felt normal feelings of affection and attachment. At first, she refused to marry him, but, when Kürten threatened to murder her, she consented. Then for two years, he lived a fairly respectable life, working as a moulder in Altenberg, and becoming active in trade union circles and in a political club. But his sadist activities persisted and he was twice charged with maltreating servant girls. In 1925 he returned to Dusseldorf. Then began Dusseldorf’s ‘Reign of Terror’. But it began quietly enough. Like many maniacs of a similar type, Kürten began with a few widely spread attacks, these became steadily more frequent and more violent, until in the year 1929, when they finally reached a climax. Between 1925 and 1928 Kürten admitted four cases of attempted strangulation of women and seventeen cases of arson. The year 1929 began with six more cases of arson on barns and stacks. Then on 3 February, a Frau Kuhn was walking home later at night when a man suddenly attacked her with a knife. She received twenty-four stab wounds, and was in hospital for many months.
	PETER KÜRTEN
	A few days later, on 13 February, a 45 year old mechanic named Scheer was found dead in the roadway in Flingern, he had been drunk when attacked, and stabbed twenty times. On March 9 workman discovered the body of 8 year old Rose Ohliger lying behind a fence on a building site. She had been stabbed thirteen times, there had been some attempt at sexual assault and an attempt to burn the body with paraffin. And so began the series of murders that made the ‘Monster of Dusseldorf’ as notorious as Jack the Ripper, and which finally ended with his arrest on 24 May 1930. It was not surprising that Kürten was not an obvious suspect. Even after his arrest, most of his neighbours and workmates considered that it was a mistake. He was known as a quiet, well-behaved man, a dandy in his dress, intelligent and a good worker. Kürten made a full confession of the murders, although he later withdrew it. Gertrude Schulte picked him out of a number of men paraded in front of her. Kürten’s trial opened on 13 April 1931. In accordance with the German custom, it took place in front of three judges. The jury was out for an hour and a half, and Kürten was sentenced to death nine times for murder. He was executed at 6 o’clock on the morning of July 2, 1931. He enjoyed his last meal – of Wiener schnitzel, chips and white wine – so much that he asked for it again. He told a guard that his one hope was that he would hear the sound of his own blood running into the basket, which would give him intense pleasure. He was guillotined, and seemed cheerful and unconcerned at the last.
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