Peter Kürten, the Vampire of Düsseldorf
(May 26, 1883 – July 2, 1931)
He was one of the most famous serial killers in Germany. At 9, he committed his first murders when he drowned two classmates while they were bathing in the Rhine. He was hired as dogcatcher, an activity that enabled him to experience the “pleasure” of torturing and killing stray dogs. In May 1913, Kürten allegedly wandered by a seemingly empty house with the intent to steal. But inside was Khristine Klein, a thirteen year old girl who was sleeping in her room. Peter strangled and beheaded her.
In 1925, Kürten returned to Düsseldorf to start his worst series of crimes. One of his victims, an eight-year-old girl, was stabbed thirteen times and, after drinking her blood, the murderer burned her body with gasoline. The year 1929 was the bloodiest for Kürten, who reached the height of his insanity when he killed a five-year-old girl and sent the map of the tomb to a local newspaper. The murders triggered a massive hysteria in the city of Düsseldorf. No one dared to walk unaccompanied. Authorities offered an enticing reward in exchange for clues about the identity of the murderer, and they received up to 900,000 letters. In May 1930, Kürten strangled a woman to sexually assault her but he left her alive after experiencing an orgasm. Shortly after that, the identity of the most wanted man in Germany was discovered. Deeply frightened, he surrendered and confessed his crimes. He was sentenced to death by guillotine. The sentence was executed in Cologne on July 2, 1931. Kürten’s last words were, “When you have beheaded me, will I be able to hear the noise of my own blood gushing from my neck even for a moment?” The year of his execution, the director Fritz Lang made a film about his life.
Carl Panzram
(June 28, 1891 - September 5, 1930)
He was an American serial killer with countless pseudonyms, such as “Carl Baldwin” in Oregon, “Jeff Davis” in Idaho and Montana, “Jefferson Davis” in California and “Jack Allen,” “King John” and “John O’Leary” in New York. Son of Prussian immigrants, he grew up on the family farm. People who knew him claimed he was an alcoholic and a thief. He left home at age 14 saying he had been the victim of a gang rape by some homeless men. Panzram was especially known for his ruthless crimes and especially for his habit of raping his victims, both male and female. He was executed at Leavenworth on September 5, 1930. Thomas Gaddis wrote a book about Panzram in 1970 called “Panzram: A Journal of Murder.” This work was adapted into a film in 1996, and the murderer was played by actor James Woods.
Joe Ball, the Butcher of Elmendorf
(January 7, 1896 - September 23, 1938)
After fighting in Europe during World War II, Ball began selling bootleg liquor in the middle of Prohibition. Towards the end of Prohibition, he opened a bar in Texas. Soon after that, the disappearance of a young employee was reported. Two months later, two other girls disappeared. One of them, Hazel Brown, had previously opened an account in the bank. At that time, the Texas Rangers began tracing missing young waitresses. Ball’s neighbor said he had seen him dismembering what appeared to be a human body and that he was throwing the fragments to his hungry pets. On September 24, 1938, the police went to Joe’s bar. While they were conducting the registration, Ball took a gun and shot himself in the head.
Marcel Petiot, Dr. Eugene
(January 17, 1897 - May 25, 1946)
French physician during the German occupation of France in World War II, he claimed to have the means to force people sought by the Germans to leave France. He claimed he could provide them a safe passage to South America through Portugal, in exchange for 25,000 francs per person. Once the victims were under his control, Petiot told them that the Argentine government required that immigrants were vaccinated against various diseases. Using this excuse, he injected them with cyanide. Once dead, he took their possessions. Petiot would submerge the bodies in quicklime or incinerate them. The Gestapo discovered him in April 1943. Under torture, his accomplices confessed that Dr. Eugene was Marcel Petiot, who was arrested and tortured. After escaping, he took refuge in Yonne. In 1944, police went to Dr. Petiot’s house, alerted by a greasy black smoke and an unbearable stench coming out of the fireplace in his home. Petiot proudly explained that these were the remains of Nazi collaborators who had been killed by the French Resistance and had been entrusted to him to be discarded. The agents took for granted that they were German soldiers. By the time they found that it wasn’t true, Petiot was gone. The registration of the house revealed 150 kilos of charred human body tissue and many other bodies in the well of a parking lot containing quicklime. Petiot was arrested after a letter from his own hand sent to the Resistance newspaper was intercepted. He was found guilty of only 24 crimes. Petiot was guillotined on May 25, 1946 in Paris, in the prison of La Santé. Far from being scared, at the time of his execution he said: “Gentlemen, please do not look. What follows will not be pretty.”
John Reginald Halliday Christie
(April 8, 1899 - July 15, 1953)
From English origin, he strangled his victims after leaving them unconscious with gas and raping them. During his arrest, Christie confessed to seven murders. He also admitted being responsible for the murder of Beryl Evans, whose death had been attributed to Timothy Evans, who had been executed for it in 1950. This error contributed to the abolition of capital punishment for murder in the UK, in 1965. Christie was judged only for the murder of his wife Ethel and was found guilty. He did not appeal, and on July 15, 1953 was hanged at Pentonville Prison. After been tied up for execution, Christie complained that his nose itched. The executioner said, “It will not bother you for long.”
Ed Gein
(August 27, 1906 - July 26, 1984)
Killer and grave robber, he was only charged with two murders. But he was famous for his pastime of making furniture and clothing with human remains. In November 1957, police found, in Gein’s house, Bernice Worden’s body hanging from the ankles, beheaded and open at the torso. They also found ten female heads, lampshades and seats made of human skin, soup bowls made of skulls, and a necklace made of human lips and many other macabre items. Ed Gein admitted that he opened the graves of recently deceased women, stealing bodies and tanning skins. He admitted having killed Mary Hogan, but denied having had sex with the dead, arguing that “they smelled really bad.” He was declared mentally ill and spent the rest of his days in a mental institution where he had notoriously good behavior. He died in 1984, at age 77. While Ed Gein was in detention, his van was auctioned. The buyer made a great deal -- he took the vehicle on a tour for several cities, charging those who wanted to see its interior.
John George Haigh, the Acid Bath Murderer
(July 24, 1909 - August 6, 1949)
English murderer during the 1940s, he killed several people to rob them, and then dissolved their bodies in sulfuric acid. Arrested on February 20, 1948, Haigh confessed his crimes, but in exchange for the rights to his story, the News of the World paid his defender to achieve declaring him mentally insane. Based on the reports of the experts, the prosecution claimed that he was faking his insanity and had acted with malice and forethought, moved by greed. The Daily Mirror reported that he drank the blood of his victims, stressing that Haigh was a vampire. The newspaper was sued by Haigh’s lawyers and sanctioned by the court to pay 10,000 pounds, while the editor was sentenced to three months in prison. Nevertheless, Haigh was convicted for the murders of six victims and sentenced to death by hanging. The execution took place on August 6, 1949 at Wandsworth Prison. In 2002 a British television producer made a TV series called A Is for Acid based on Haigh’s life.
Josef Mengele
(March 16, 1911 - February 7, 1979)
German doctor, anthropologist and officer, he was infamous during World War II. Unlike his genocidal colleagues -- devotees of the global slaughter -- Mengele selected prisoners, isolated them and performed deadly, torturous experiments on them. Covered by the regime, his serial crimes were tried as part of the Jewish genocide. He chose victims with better physique, or pregnant women to experiment with their fetuses. His aberrations, justified as allegedly scientific experiments, were endowed with the sinister appearance of a false kindness. Mengele left Auschwitz on January 17, 1945, shortly before the arrival of the Red Army troops. His amazing ability to escape at the right time made him a fugitive for life. With the help of a network of former SS members, Mengele sailed to Argentina in July 1949. Initially living in Buenos Aires and its surroundings, he then fled to Paraguay in 1959 and Brazil in 1960. Half the world wanted to take him to trial. Despite requests for extradition by the government of then West Germany and Mossad’s clandestine operations, Mengele always managed to avoid his detention. He was drowned while swimming at a beach in 1979 and was buried under a false name. His remains were exhumed and identified by forensic examination in 1985.
Harvey Glatman Murray, the Murderer of the Lonely Hearts
(December 10, 1927 - September 19, 1959)
When Glatman moved to Los Angeles in 1957, he began visiting modeling agencies looking for victims to offer them work in magazines. He then took them home, tied them and sexually abused them while taking pictures. Later, he strangled them and threw their bodies in the desert. Glatman was arrested in 1958, caught as he tried to kidnap who could have been his fourth victim. He confessed to the other three murders. He was charged with two first-degree murders and executed in the gas chamber of San Quentin State Prison on September 18, 1959.
Glatman’s killing career inspired a movie and a TV series. This is one of the dialogues based on Glatman’s own statements: “The reason why I killed those girls was because they asked me to.” The police officer replied, “They asked you?” Glatman concluded, “Sure. They said they would rather be dead than be with me.”
Albert DeSalvo, the Boston Stranglern
(September 3, 1931 - November 25, 1973)
When he was young, he was sold as a slave along with his sister to a farmer in Maine for nine dollars. Later the farmer returned them. Then his father taught Albert to steal. In November 1943, 12-year-old DeSalvo was first arrested for theft. After completing his sentence, DeSalvo joined the Army where he was honorably discharged.
Between June 14, 1962 and January 4, 1964, 13 single women between 19 and 85 years old were killed in the Boston area. Most of them were sexually assaulted in their apartment and then strangled with items of their own clothing. Without any sign indicating forced entry into their homes, it was assumed that they knew the murderer or had voluntarily allowed him to enter. On October 27, 1964, after attacking a young woman in East Cambridge, he suddenly left saying, “I’m sorry.” The description provided by the woman led police officers to identify DeSalvo and when his photo was published, many women identified him as the man who had assaulted them. Only after he was accused of rape did DeSalvo elaborate on the rest of his crimes. Sentenced to life imprisonment in 1967, he escaped with two fellow inmates from Bridgewater State Hospital, triggering an extraordinary chase. The next day, he surrendered. He was transferred to the maximum security prison known as Walpole. Six years later, he was killed in the hospital by an unidentified perpetrator. Despite his confession, the changes in the modus operandi of the murders and other details have raised some doubts about whether DeSalvo was indeed the Boston Strangler. In 1968, a film about his life was released, starring Tony Curtis in the leading role.
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