Düsseldorf, Germany was the city of choice for Peter Kürten, who had been arrested and convicted on more than one occasion for arson, fraud, and various other charges. But in 1929, he would become Düsseldorf’s worst nightmare. Part one can be found here.
On February 3rd, 1929, Peter Kürten’s reign of terror over Düsseldorf really took hold. He began stalking Apollonia Kühn, an elderly woman, while she was on her way home. Hidden from view, Kürten grabbed her by the lapels of her coat, and dragged her in the obscured view of some bushes, shouting at her: “No row! Don’t scream!”. Then, dragging her into the undergrowth, Kürten proceeded to stab her with a pair of sharpened scissors 24 times. Apollonia survived her injuries.
Kürten’s next attack took place on February 8th, 1929. He strangled 8-year-old Rosa Ohliger, and then stabber her with the scissors. During the attack, Kürten spontaneously ejaculated, and proceded to insert his ejaculate into Rosa with his fingers. Kürten attempted to hide Rosa’s body by dragging her beneath a hedge. Several hours later, Kürten returned to Rosa’s rudimentary grave, and set her aflame with kerosene. She was found the following day.
On February 13th, 1929, five days later, 45-year-old Rudolf Scheer was murdered in Flingen Nord. Kürten stabbed him 20 times. When Rudolf’s body was discovered, Kürten approached the scene, with the other onlookers, and discussed the scene with police. When asked how he’d heard about the murder, he told them he’d heard through the telephone gossip mill.
Police were quick to conclude that all three attacks were committed by the same perpetrator. They knew that the killer had committed all the murders in the suburb of Flingen Nord, and all of them had been stabbed, with at least one of the wounds being inflicted on their temple. The lack of apparent motive – such as robbery – also led them to the conclusion that the same killer had attacked all three individuals.
The attacks subsided until the summer of 1929, though Kürten later claimed to have strangled four women between March and July of that year.
On August 8th, 1929, Kürten met Maria Hahn, with whom he arranged a date. A few days later, on August 11th, Kürten took Maria out on a date in the Neandertal district of Düsseldorf. He later lured her into a meadow, where he brutally raped, strangled, and stabbed Maria. He buried her body in a cornfield. Weeks later, he returned to Maria’s burial site, and intended to nail her body to a tree in order to shock the public. However, he found her body too badly decomposed, and too heavy, to move forward with his plan. He placed her body back in her grave, embracing and caressing her, and then reburied her.
Feeling frustrated that Maria had yet to be found, three months after he’d murdered her, Kürten sent an anonymous letter to police. In the anonymous letter, he claimed responsibility for the murder, and led police to her burial site, drawing a crude map for them to follow. Maria Hahn’s body was discovered on November 15th, 1929.
Not wanting to be discovered by police, Kürten stopped using scissors to stab his victims, and instead began using a knife following Maria’s murder.
On August 21st, 1929, Kürten stabbed three people in the early morning: an 18-year-old teenage girl, a 30-year-old man, and a 37-year-old woman. Each attack was separate, though they occurred closely together. All three survived their attacks. They told police that their attacker did not speak a word, and was silent throughout.
The citizens of Düsseldorf were on edge, and afraid. Their feelings were not helped when sensationalist German news media covered the attacks, in excruciating detail. They also discovered a tidbit that the police had been trying to keep under wraps. They discovered that the perpetrator had been drinking the blood of his victims. The killer was then known as the “Vampire of Düsseldorf”.
Feeling the pressure, police wanted to solve the case quickly. Soon, their sights were set on a man named Stausberg. Stausberg was a man who had a difficulty in learning, and had been accused of similar crimes beforehand. For no known reason, he confessed to being the Vampire of Düsseldorf. Stausberg was committed to an asylum, and police believed that the case was solved.
A few days after Kürten’s knife attacks, he attended a fair in the suburb of Flehe. There, he found two foster sisters – one aged 5, the other 14, walking around the fairgrounds, on their way home. Kürten lured the girls toward him, then sent 14-year-old Luise Lenzen on an errand, promising her some money. He then picked up 5-year-old Gertrude Hamacher, lifting her off the ground by her neck, strangling her. He then cut her throat, and left her body I a patch of runner beans.
When Luise returned, Kürten attempted to strangle her as well, before stabbing her in the torse. He bit her, and cut her throat, sucking her blood from the wounds.
Following the attack, realizing that the Vampire of Düsseldorf was still active, the conviction against Stausberg was overturned, and the case re-opened for investigation.
Following the attack on the foster sister, Kürten then assaulted 27-year-old housemade Gertrude Schulte. When she declined his invitations for sex, he shouted at her: “Well, die then!” before proceeding to attack her with a knife. Gertrude survived the attack. She described her assailant to police as being around 40 years old. She could offer no stronger description.
Following his attack on Gertrude, Kürten attempted to strangle one victim, and stab another in September of 1929. Wanting, once again, to lead police off his trail, he moved on from knife attacks to hammer attacks.
On September 30th, 1929, Kürten convinced 31-year-old Ida Reuter to accompany him to a café. Then, the pair took a walk through the local Hofgarten, near the Rhine River. Once lured close to the river, Kürten attacked Ida, hitting her over the head with a hammer. He also sexually assaulted her during the attack.
Eleven days later, on October 11th, 1929, Kürten convinced 22-year-old Elizabeth Dörrier to have a drink with him at a café. They then took the train to Granfenberg, where they walked along the Kleine Düssel River. Once by the river, Kürten struck Elizabeth in the head with a hammer, then sexually assaulted her. Elizabeth was found at 6:30 AM, barely breathing. She succumbed to her wounds the following day.
On October 25th, 1929, Kürten attacked two more women with his hammer. They both survived, though the second attack was halted when the hammer broke.
On November 7th, 1929, Kürten lured 5-year-old Gertrude Albermann to accompany him. He led the child to a section of deserted allotments. There, he held her by the throat, strangling her. Then, he stabbed her with a pair of scissors in the left temple. As she fell to the ground, Kürten proceeded to continue to stab her 34 more times. Kürten left Gertrude’s body in a pile of nettles, propped up against a factory wall.
The savagery of the murders, as well as the diversity in victimology, left investigators completely flummoxed as to how to apprehend the Vampire of Düsseldorf. By the end of 1929, investigators has received well over 13,000 letters from the public, varying in content from attempts at assistance, to outright distress.
Not wanting to leave any stone unturned, police painstakingly investigated every single lead. This resulted in over 9,000 individuals interviewed, 2,650 clues pursued, and over 900,000 names compiled in a list as the “official” suspect list. In short, the investigation was incredibly large, and absolutely thorough.
On November 9th, 1929, a communist newspaper received an anonymous letter. This letter contained a map which revealed the location of Gertrude’s body. When compared to the letter that had led to the discovery of Maria Hahn’s body, investigators found that the same individual had written both letters. It was clear the the Vampire of Düsseldorf was taunting them, and criticizing their investigation.
Between February and May of 1930, Kürten maimed up to ten victims in various hammer attacks. All of the victims of these attacks survived, and many were able to provide police with a description of the man who attacked them. It appeared as though the Vampire’s lethal attacks had come to an end.
On May 14th, 1930, an unknown man approached Maria Budlick at Düsseldorf station. He engaged Maria in conversation, and found that she had travelled from Köln to Düsseldorf looking for lodgings, and employment. Kürten offered to take Maria to a local hostel.
Maria accepted his invitation, but began to argue with him when he started to lead her towards a scarcely populated park. A man noticed the kerfuffle, and approached the pair, asking Maria if the man she was arguing with was bothering her. When Maria nodded yes, the man she’d been arguing with simply walked away.
Maria’s saviour then invited her to his own apartment to eat and drink. Maria guessed that the man had ulterior motives, and informed him that she was not interested in having sex with him. The man agreed, and told Maria that he would lead her to a hotel instead.
Rather than head towards a hotel, the man lured her into the Grafenburg Woods. There, he attempted to strangle her, and attempted to sexually assault her. Maria screamed, and the man released her.
The man who had saved, then attacked Maria was none other than Peter Kürten.
Maria did not go to police about her attack. Instead, she wrote about it in a letter to a friend. However, the letter was not addressed correctly, and was opened by a post office clerk on May 19th, 1930. The clerk, after reading the contents of the letter, sent it onwards to the Düsseldorf police. The letter was read by Chief Inspector Ernst Gennat of the Berlin Police. Chief Inspector Gennat believed that Maria’s attacker could be the Vampire of Düsseldorf.
When he interviewed Maria, she revealed that her attacker had ultimately let her go when she began screaming because she had sworn to him that she could not remember the address of his apartment. However, she remembered it vividly, and gave the address to police. Once at the apartment, Maria confirmed the address, and the landlady confirmed to police that the tenant inhabiting the apartment was Peter Kürten and his wife Auguste. The couple were not home at the time.
Kürten knew that his run as the Vampire of Düsseldorf was about to be over. He knew it was only a matter of time before Maria told someone of the attack. He confessed to Auguste that he had attacked Maria, and found lodgings elsewhere, in order to lay low.
He returned to the apartment he shared with Auguste on May 23rd, 1930. Then, he confessed to her that he was, indeed, the Vampire of Düsseldorf. He asked his wife to turn him in, wanting her to collect the reward that was being offerred for his capture. The following day, Auguste contacted police.
Auguste told police that although she’d been aware of his previous stints in prison, she’d been completely unaware of his culpability as the Vampire. She informed them that her husband had confessed all to her, and had wanted her to turn him in. She told them that he had wanted her to meet with him outside of St. Rochus church later that day.
Peter Kürten, the Vampire of Düsseldorf, was arrested at gunpoint.
Peter Kürten admitted his guilt readily, with little to no remorse. He also confessed to the unsolved murder of Christine Klein, and the attempted murder of Gertrude Franken in 1913. In total, Kürten admitted to to 68 crimes – 9 murders, and 31 attempted murders. H ewas adamant that he had not tortured any of his child victims.
Along with this confession, Kürten also confessed to police and psychiatrists that it was the sight, smell, and taste of his victims’ blood that he sought. He informed them – shamelessly – that the sight of blood was often more than enough to bring him to orgasm. He further admitted to drinking the blood from many of his victims, and relishing in doing so.
While Kürten was awaiting trial, he was interviewed extensively by Dr. Karl Berg, who intended to use Peter Kürten as a psychological study subject.
During these interviews, Kürten expressed that the main motive for his crimes was in seeking sexual pleasure. He also expressed that he had first begun to fantasize about these things while in prison, especially while he was in solitary confinement. He craved the sight of blood in order to bring himself to completion.
Kürten told Dr. Berg that his choice of weapon was inconsequential – he merely went with whatever was on hand, and changed things up to avoid suspicion. When asked about his surviving victims, Kürten admitted that he wasn’t so much concerned with murdering them. He would let them go as he achieved sexual satisfaction before the attack could lead to him killing his victim.
His seeking sexual pleasure aside, he also told Dr. Berg and police that he had also sought to cause chaos in order to “strike back” at a society that he felt had oppressed him unjustly. He felt his repeated incarcerations were unfair, and sought his own form of twisted revenge.
As his trial neared, Dr. Berg, as well as other psychologists, all ruled that Peter Kürten was legally sane, and competent to stand trial, as he had fully been able to appreciate the criminality of his actions.
On April 13th, 1931, the trial of Peter Kürten, the Vampire of Düsseldorf, began. He was charged with 9 counts of murder, and 7 counts of attempted murder. Kürten initially pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity to all of the charged – despite what he had confessed to police, and psychologists.
Several days into the trial, after hearing his confession, as well as his wife’s confession, fromt he prosecution, Kürten informed his defence attorney that he wished to change his plea to guilty. He further expressed that he did not feel remorse over his actions, nor did he believe himself to possess a conscience. He stated that he often thought back on his crimes fondly.
In challenging the expert testimony that Kürten was competent to stand trial, his defence attorney argued that the “sheer range of perversions” as shown by his client clearly pointed to an unstable mind. The experts respectfully disagreed. Dr. Berg further stated that though some aspects of Kürten’s extensive interviews could not be true, these aspects could be attributed to Kürten’s own narcissistic personality.
On April 22nd, 1931, after 10 days of trial and testimony, the jury retired to consider their verdict. Less than two hours later, they found Peter Kürten guilty of 9 counts of murder, and 7 counts of attempted murder. He was sentenced to death.
Peter Kürten did not appeal the conviction, though he did petition the Minister of Justice for a pardon, as the Minister was known as an opponent of capital punishment. On July 1st, 1931, the petition was denied.
That evening, he received his last meal. His meal consisted of Wiener Schnitzel, fried potatoes, and a bottle of white wine. He asked for a second helping, which prison staff granted.
On July 2nd, 1931, at 6:00 AM, Peter Kürten was led to the grounds of Klingelputz Prison, in Cologne. His last words were reported as: “Tell me, after my head is 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? That would be the pleasure to end all pleasures.” He was then executed by guillotine.
In the aftermath of his execution, Peter Kürten’s head was bisected and mummified. The brain as removed for forensic analysis, which showed no abnormalities.
Dr. Karl Berg’s extensive interviews with Kürten were compiled as the first psychological study of a sexual serial killer. They also formed the basis of his book, The Sadist, forever immortalizing the gruesome legacy of the Vampire of Düsseldorf.
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Sources:
Peter Kürten Biography – Biography.com Editors – biography.com
Peter Kürten: The Sadistic Crimes of the Vampire of Düsseldorf – Katie Serena and Jaclyn Anglis – All That’s Interesting
Peter Kürten: The Vampire of Düsseldorf – Crime and Investigation
The Sickest of the Sick: Peter Kürten, A Cannibal, Sexual Sadist, and Necrophiliac – Harrison Tenpas – Ranker
True Crime All The Time podcast – Peter Kürten
Peter Kürten Wikipedia page