German Fritz Haarmann became known in the 20s of the twentieth century under the nickname Hanoverian Bloodsucker. He was the youngest son of a rude, uncouth worker and lived in the industrial city of Hanover, hating and fearing his father.
In adolescence, he was detained for bullying his younger children, but, ascertaining the limitations of his mental development, the court found him insane and sent him for treatment.
Haarman escaped from the hospital and returned home, and then after several major quarrels, his father sent him to the army. But he did not serve long and, released due to illness, was again at home. He was repeatedly arrested for hooliganism and robbery.
After serving his imprisonment, in 1918, it seemed, he began a normal life, opening a butcher shop and amassing a considerable capital in the hungry post-war period. At the same time, he became an informant for the Hanoverian police, informing her about the criminal elements in the city, since he knew them well. As it turned out later, he used his connection with the police to carry out terrible bloody deeds.
Near the railway station of Hanover, there were constantly many boys and young people who moved from city to city in search of work. Since the police knew Haarman as their assistant, he was allowed to enter the third class waiting room at night. There he woke up some guy sleeping on a bench, officially demanded to show a ticket, asked where and why he was going.
Then, in an outburst of supposed benevolence, he offered to spend the night with him in more tolerable conditions. Few had a sixth sense of Haarman's vile intentions. Most of the young people obediently followed him like lambs.
In the closet behind the store, Haarman, a strong man of large build, strangled his victim and sank his teeth into her throat. Few invented vampires could compete in bloodlust with this living bloodsucker!
The career of a vampire ended unexpectedly, barely having time to begin, thanks to a thin sheet of paper. His first victim was a 17-year-old Friedel Rothe. He sent a postcard to his mother, who received it at the very time when her son fell victim to Haarman. Rothe reported that he had just been offered shelter by some "detective."
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The worried mother reported to the Hanover police, and they quickly figured out that this "detective" could most likely be Haarman. We went to his apartment. He was caught with another victim and arrested. At that time, the police did not manage to find the severed head of Friedel Rothe, which, as Haarman showed years later, "was hidden under a newspaper behind a curtain." He later threw her into the canal.
Haarman (center) during the investigation
However, instead of convicting the killer, he was sentenced to nine months in prison for … indecent behavior. And of course, when he was released, he continued his criminal practice!
According to official figures, Haarman's victims were 24 young men before he was captured again, although some witnesses claimed that he killed and drank 50 young men. The oldest was 18 and the youngest 12. Haarman was assisted in his seven-year epic of murders by a certain Hans Granet. This outwardly unremarkable young man, who did not arouse the slightest suspicion, often led to the maniac of his future victims; he lured one boy just because he liked his new trousers, another because of his bright shirt.
Haarman was helped to conceal the consequences of the atrocities due to the proximity of the canal, which ran behind his house. The many skulls and bones found in it in the spring of 1924 became material evidence of his crimes.
… The clouds thickened at another attempt to lure a young man named Fromm. Thog began to loudly object and resist, which attracted the attention of the police. Delay both. The police searched Haarman's home and found several dismembered bodies. The maniac himself admitted 27 murders, but the police were never able to prove some of them.
However, no details of the atrocities caused such a shock to the inhabitants of Hanover as one detail of the indictment: Haarman added meat from the soft parts of the bodies of his victims to sausages, which he not only ate himself, but also sold to visitors to his shop.
At the trial in 1924, when he was charged with 24 murders, he declared that he was insane and was in a state of trance when committing atrocities.
The court rejected this statement, taking into account the "purposeful deliberate activity" of selecting victims and luring them to my home and also "butchering" bodies.
The court sentenced him to death, and Grans - to life imprisonment. And although the word "vampirism" was not officially spoken at the trial, the death penalty was ordered through beheading.
On April 15, 1925, the head of a Hanoverian vampire rolled into a basket, chopped off by a heavy blade of a sword - an unusual method for killing criminals in 20th-century Europe. Summers did not find this surprising: “It was more than just a coincidence with the usual vampire practice of separating the head from the body. This is the most effective way to eliminate villainy."
Drawings from the graphic novel "Haarmann" (2010)