'I want to be beheaded. It'll only take a moment, then I'll be at peace.'

Fritz Haarmann at his trial

Deep forests and sprawling valleys form much of the province of Hannover - enchanting nucleus of Lower Saxony, which lies at the foot of the Mittlebirge mountain range. The North German plain and coast of the North Sea are not far.

On Saturday, 17 May 1924, a shadow fell over the city that bore the same name as its province, when children playing near Herrenhausen Castle found a skull washed up on the riverbank. They thought it might be human and they were right.

A week later, another human skull was found at the same location. Mid-June saw the discovery of two more. The flesh had been stripped from each skull and all had been cleanly separated from the torso by a sharp instrument, most likely a butcher knife. Forensic examination revealed that the skulls belonged to young males in their late teens - possibly between the ages of eighteen and twenty - though one had clearly belonged to a much younger boy.

Fritz Haarmann. 

Days later, more children pulled a sack from marshland. Inside, a cluster of bone fragments. Once more they proved human and a hastily launched police investigation intensified. Officers and volunteers trekked through town in search of additional body parts. Given the locations of previous discoveries, Hannover’s central river, the Leine, was designated an area “of interest.”

Though the search team suspected the river would yield more human remains they were shocked as anybody by the sheer scale of the watery graveyard. In excess of five hundred chopped up pieces of once living people were dragged from the River Leine and a panicked public sought answers to questions such as: How could this be happening in their nice town? And; would the police catch the killer or killers before he/they could strike again?

Also: Was there a suspect?

There was.

His name was Fritz Haarmann, a stocky yet effeminate-looking, moustachioed man of average height, with small, shiny, animal’s eyes and a round, cheerful face. He did not look like a killer they thought, but then who does?

In the wake of the initial discoveries, Haarmann had been reined in along with most of the city’s convicted sex offenders, and endured a number of grilling sessions from police. However, the questioning proved to no avail, as in addition to being a sexually-deviated criminal, Haarmann, through long experience was also a seasoned one. He gave the cops nothing and in the end they had no choice but to release him without charge.

But they kept coming back to Fritz Haarmann, investigating him repeatedly throughout May and June of that year. The police knew that his rooms had been searched six years earlier in the hunt for one of two missing boys. The child in question was not found but another boy was - naked in Haarmann’s bed. Choosing to confess at this stage to having violated other youngsters, Haarmann was charged with assault and battery and ended up doing nine months worth of prison time for the offence. Not for the want of trying on the part of the officers involved, no concrete evidence pointing to the man’s guilt in any of the homicides could be established.

In the meantime, the press were playing their dutiful part, releasing appeals for information and providing the people of Hannover and its environs with details of the multiple skull and body part finds. Investigators had their fingers firmly crossed as to whether anyone would come forward with an authentic clue, as secretly they were fighting a losing battle in apprehending the murderer. The sheer amount of skeletal remains discovered, and still no conclusive arrest having been made, helped create a very negative public opinion of them. The country demanded that the case be solved, quickly.

Human bones recovered from the banks of the River Leine.

To this end, and under intense pressure, the police sought to bring to ground their star suspect, Fritz Haarmann. Since the corpses had all been boys, and Haarmann was a known and clearly predatory homosexual, it was decided that two young policemen from Berlin would position themselves at Hannover train station, posing as homeless men in need of a hot meal and a warm bath - in short, a Good Samaritan. They knew this would appeal to Haarmann, who had a habit of approaching the young and in need and offering them his help.

It was fully expected that once Haarmann got the two officers back to his flat, things would take a sinister turn. His home was therefore staked out in the hope of catching a violent killer red-handed.

In the early morning hours of Sunday, 22 June 1924, police at Hannover train station observed Fritz Haarmann in the company of a 15-year-old boy. The pair appeared to be having some kind of dispute, which culminated in the older man storming over to the officers and reporting the teenager for travelling using “false documents.”

Incensed at Haarmann’s boldness in reporting him to the authorities, the lad, Karl Fromm, explained to police that it was not he who had done wrong, but rather Haarmann who had crossed the line. Fromm told officers he had been approached by Haarmann a few days previously, agreed to go to the man’s flat, and spent the time since then being repeatedly sexually assaulted by him. Fromm even revealed how one morning he awakened with a knife blade pressed tightly against his throat. His host was looming over the bed, studying him keenly. When he realised Fromm was awake, Haarmann asked him if he was afraid of death. Though Haarmann passed this off as a joke, naturally the boy was shaken.

A vice squad officer, who happened to be at the police station when they brought Haarmann in, heard this and decided to take the man into custody immediately. Karl Fromm had had an incredibly narrow escape; he just didn’t know it yet.

Proving, as ever, quite the nut to crack, Haarmann put up his trademark ex-con’s ‘brick wall’ and let the police drive themselves crazy. Whilst he was being detained, investigators probed his home for evidence of murder. They came up with a large array of clothing and bedding, some several hundred garments and various possessions, and confiscated the lot. More items were later taken from Haarmann’s acquaintances and soon identified by worried parents as belonging to their missing sons.

The net was drawing tighter around their prime suspect. Unmoved, Haarmann deftly explained away the various apparel by stating that as his business revolved around dealing in used goods, which included clothes and fabrics, he had come by them quite innocently. He certainly hoped the police weren’t suggesting that he had pulled them from the bodies of kidnapped and murdered boys!

As the questioning continued, the officers took note of the fluctuating behaviour pattern their suspect exhibited. Mostly cautious and obviously hardened by his dealings with the law, he would occasionally lapse from his ‘deny everything’ routine, and become exceedingly chatty and seeking of approval. His defensiveness and embarrassment were displayed in the almost constant licking of his lips and the nervous habit he had of plucking at his fingers. When visibly stressed he would blink his eyes incessantly.

Haarmann did allow that he preferred sex with young boys rather than females, even conceding that he had had intercourse with a number of the missing youths. However, he claimed that all had been consensual and denied knowing where his young partners had gone after they left his flat.

No, the blood traces present on a number of items found in his home had not come from his killing people, he forcefully declared. Rather, they were a result of nosebleeds and common domestic accidents.

As the questioning continued, the naturally bright Haarmann used his sharp wits to successfully field difficult questions from his interrogators. Having a somewhat adverse effect for the man who was not quite as clever as he thought, this demonstrated a mind shrewd enough to have gotten away with murder. His arrogance and contempt for those he viewed as less intelligent than himself would assist his undoing.

While Haarmann was being questioned, Frau Witzel, the anxious mother of one of the missing boys, was seated near the Chief Commissioner’s office. Just then, a young man and woman strolled into the station. Instantly, Frau Witzel recognised the jacket the man was wearing. Involving nearby officers she demanded to know where he had obtained the item. Strangely enough, it had been acquired from “Herr Haarmann.” An identification card was duly produced from the pocket of the trousers that bore the name ‘Witzel.’

The Witzels’ son, Robert, had vanished on his way to visit the circus on the night of 26 April 1924. When the first skulls were found, Herr Witzel was persuaded to view one of the crania. It was expected he could confirm Robert’s irregularly-shaped jawbone. He could and did.

By the time Fritz Haarmann was confronted with the Witzel boy’s trousers and identification, his bluster was nearing conclusion. The previously unflappable prisoner was now a man ready to blow. In the coming days, Haarmann was subjected to a torrent of psychological pressure from his police handlers, resulting in many outbreaks of fury and hysterics on his part, until finally, after almost a week, he caved and offered to make a full confession.  

The game was certainly up and all that remained now it seemed, was to relieve the burden. Unlike the case of U.S. serial murderer and cannibal, Jeffrey Dahmer, decades later in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, who had felt an overwhelming need to confess as soon as he was arrested, Haarmann had resiliently held out to the last.

One wonders if Haarmann would have lasted quite so long had police discovered the full extent of the horrors he was capable of, as with Dahmer, who was literally surrounded by human offal when placed in handcuffs. Haarmann at least had taken the precaution of cleaning up after each killing before carefully preparing the foundations for the next. Dahmer by comparison, it must be assumed, had come crashing to the end of a long and terrifying continuum and simply no longer cared.

From the moment of his capitulation, Fritz Haarmann the psychopathic killer was replaced by Fritz Haarmann the cooperative prisoner. In truth, he claimed, it would be quite therapeutic for him to unburden himself of such awful secrets. He would tell his captors absolutely everything they wanted to know and welcomed the opportunity to take them on a ghoulish tour of death and depravity, the likes of which they could scarcely have imagined.

*

He was the youngest of six children. Born on Thursday, 25 October 1879 and named Friedrich Heinrich Karl, perhaps he was destined to become a fiend. His parents were an unusual pair, diametrically opposed both in personality and the way in which they dealt with their young brood.

Little Fritz’s father, known exclusively as 'Old Haarmann', was almost certainly a manic-depressive. His were the blackest of moods, with Fritz often on the receiving end. Bitter, and constantly pursuing other women to take out his frustrations on, he was an ill-tempered misogynist who cared not a bit for raising a family.

He was employed as a locomotive stoker when he married the woman who would one day give birth to Germany’s worst serial killer.  Johanna Claudius was seven years her husband’s senior. The marriage was certainly practically advantageous to the avaricious Haarmann. Johanna, from wealthy stock, ensured her man had access to several homes and a lot of cash. She was a meek, unintelligent person, perfectly accustomed to turning a blind eye to her husband’s endless infidelities and steady decline toward alcoholism.

By the time Fritz was born, she was 41-years-old.  His arrival left her permanently weakened and despite the fact that much of her time was spent in bed, the child was clearly her favourite and the recipient of whatever energies she had remaining. She doted on the boy, showering him with gifts and spoiling him at every opportunity. He was also treated more as one might expect a little girl to be, persuaded that playing with dolls was far more worthwhile than going out and involving himself in typical young male activities.

His father was the complete antithesis, berating Fritz constantly and blaming him for whatever he could. Inherent confusion and emotional uncertainty were instilled in Fritz from the very beginning. His love for his mother bordered on fanaticism and his hatred of his father was intense, a life-time loathing of Old Haarmann.

Fritz’s elder brother, Wilhelm, was the first in the family to be convicted of a sex offence. Each of his three sisters appeared to suffer from varying types of obsessive-compulsive disorders and would all divorce their husbands soon into their married lives. Another brother died in World War 1 and Fritz’s eldest brother went on to become a factory foreman, law-abiding to a fault and a devoutly passionate advocate of traditional family values. The only sibling Fritz was genuinely close to was his sister, Emma, with whom he would often be found playing with dolls.

Despite his overtly feminine traits, there was another far less gentle progression in his character development. It was noted by those around him that young Fritz gained immense pleasure from frightening people. This often took the form of jumping out at his sisters and tying them up so tightly they could not escape their bonds. Haarmann would delight in leaving them trussed for varying lengths of time while he periodically returned to terrorise them.

Another of his tricks was to dress up a dummy he found and leave it resting on the staircase, giving the impression in the gloom of an actual human body, lying dead. He enjoyed telling the most lurid ghost stories to the girls, and tapping on their windows late at night when everybody was in bed was also part of his repertoire.

He was remembered by school friends as being a “mummy’s boy,” pampered and spoilt, and one whose entire personality seemed governed by his mother. Certainly, as a result of having everything done for him he lacked resolve and frequently allowed himself to be led by others, unaware of how to proceed alone or complete tasks for himself.

Bright in his studies and effervescent in his play, he was far from reclusive, however. He made friends easily and entertained them with his wild antics. Class clown was certainly a role with which he felt at ease. He had discovered that by pulling stunts and capers he could get the attention of other children, who came to rely on him to get some naughty fun started. It was clearly a coping mechanism for a boy to whom the concept of proceeding independently was quite alien.

As Haarmann grew into a young man, the already doomed relationship between him and his father deteriorated yet further. The two would argue all the time, the now strapping lad, unafraid of his drunken father’s wrath, challenging him more and more as they fought. Threats exchanged between the pair were commonplace. One that seemed to upset Fritz more than any other was being committed to a “mental asylum.” This was a genuine fear of his. His father knew it too and often referred to him as a “lunatic” whose predetermined path in life would inevitably lead there. Fritz retaliated by branding his father a murderer. Allegedly, the elder Haarmann had slain a man some years earlier and Fritz threatened that he could have him imprisoned if he decided to tell the police.

In spite of the denunciations, neither would ever act on their words. One thing they did not do was inform on one another. Both were accomplished con men and Fritz’s flair for deception was directly learned from the old man. If ever a scam was to be pulled they would invariably work together, turning up in court if one ended up in the dock and speaking out in the other’s defence.

By the time Fritz was sixteen, he had decided on a career as a locksmith, but failed his apprenticeship. As an alternative he attended a training school for non-commissioned officers at Neu-Breisach. He proved to be a competent gymnast and an even better soldier. His non-confrontational approach ensured he could be relied upon to follow orders and was not the type to rebel against authority. Not outwardly at least.

Fritz Haarmann seemed on the cusp of a career with the German army, a position which may well have taught the youth a few values that his contrasted upbringing at the hands of his divergent parents had warped. Unfortunately for him, he had begun to experience “blackouts,” often fainting in front of people.

A number of serial killers believed to have been prone to similar periodic losses of consciousness, incurred head injuries. Haarmann was no exception, having fallen from some bars during an army exercise and sustaining a concussion.

The Gloucester builder who also happened to be one of Great Britain’s most diabolical sexual sadists and killers, Frederick West, once crashed his motorcycle and was out cold for a number of hours. He also fell from a fire escape, again injuring his skull. Family members reported how his personality changed after the accidents, became acutely aggressive and often lapsed into the foulest of moods. None of this behaviour was present before the accidents.

John Gacy, the Illinois, construction contractor, who slaughtered thirty-three young men and boys, was another. As a child, Gacy had been hit in the head with a swing, knocking him unconscious. He continued to experience intermittent fainting and dizzy spells into his teens and early adulthood. However, in Gacy’s case, these incidents of “passing out” would routinely occur at the most convenient times for him - such as when he was being challenged about some misdeed - suggesting the episodes were not entirely beyond his control and that perhaps he was looking for distraction and sympathy.

In Haarmann’s case, these bouts do seem to have been genuinely debilitating. He also suffered from epilepsy, and occasional seizures led to his move to the military sick bay, an environment in which he was not at all happy. He disliked the association with being “sick.” There was nothing wrong with his brain. He definitely was not a “loony,” as dad claimed. He had to get out of there.

In November 1895, this is just what he did, discharging himself not only from the sick bay but army life for good. He would go and work for Old Haarmann instead, and to hell with the bickering and the rows that would most assuredly follow.

Removed from the disciplined structure of army life, Fritz Haarmann’s natural lack of motivation kicked in once more. Rudderless again, he became lazy and was always on the lookout for the easy life. However, his marked drop in enthusiasm for work was not matched by his burgeoning appetite for sexual perversion, something guaranteed to bring the light into his eye.

Fritz had known he was gay from an early age and owing to the general attitude toward homosexuality at the time, was not something to be discussed openly. Father would definitely not have approved. In fact, it would have given the old man ample ammunition with which to further bludgeon his son. Being sexually attracted to other boys was not the only card Haarmann was playing close to his chest. It is uncertain when his interests had darkened and begun to encompass paedophilia. What is a matter of public record is Fritz Haarmann's first arrest, in July 1896, charged with sexually assaulting children.

The streets of Hannover, where as a police informant Haarmann kept tabs on other criminals. He was raping and murdering young boys throughout this period.

The brush with the law did little to deter him and soon his attacks had escalated to an almost daily occurrence. Inevitably he soon acquired the dubious reputation of town child molester.

Publicly reviled, he was again arrested and forced to submit to a psychiatric evaluation. Deemed incalculably demented, he was promptly farmed out to an asylum for the criminally insane. Suddenly, at the age of eighteen, Haarmann’s worst nightmare had come true. Father had been right. He was mad.

Unsurprisingly, institutional life did not suit the patient and he was soon plotting his escape. This was no significant feat as the security at the asylum was far from effective. Seizing an opportunity, Haarmann fled the country to Switzerland, where he lasted for two years before gravitating back to Hannover. Home again, he was somehow able to convince folk that he was now “back to normal,” posed no further risk, and could be trusted to remain at liberty within the community.

Now twenty, somewhat unusually given his perverse urges, he was able to set the wheels of marriage in motion with an attractive local girl named Erna Loewert. It was hoped by parents and family alike that the wedding of the pair would finally quell Fritz’s “strangeness” and lead to some measure of happiness, above all normality, in the couple’s life together.

Not likely. It took Fritz very little time to deduce that this was not the way he wanted things to be. Marriage, he found, did not suit him in the slightest. Then there was the military, which beckoned him once more. Now he was no longer a “lunatic” and had not experienced a seizure or blackout in some time, he felt quite capable of taking another stab at the forces.

This failed. Although he developed into quite the excellent soldier he was unable to control his illness indefinitely. Though he would reminisce fondly about his time in the army, it was destined not to last. The year was 1901 and Johanna Haarmann, died. Without his beloved mother, Fritz soon buckled. In October, while out on exercise, he collapsed, suffering a breakdown. Having spent four months in the military hospital he was diagnosed as having a mental deficiency. As such he was clearly unfit to continue in the capacity of soldier.

So, once again, this mentally fractured, despondent young man found himself back alongside the one he hated most of all. Old Haarmann had lost none of his reserve for castigating his son. The pair resumed where they had left off, constantly at one another’s throats, arguing and fighting with all their historical vigour. The threats to have Fritz “committed” again, began anew. Haarmann was drifting perilously close to the abyss. Adjudicated mentally ill, rootless, and damaged by a life he viewed as unfair and harsh, the young man turned next to crime.

As well as burglarising many homes and properties, he would demonstrate his natural flair for deception, quickly becoming an efficient confidence trickster. Ultimately, his various criminal outings were uncovered, leading to numerous periods of imprisonment. Haarmann seemed unconcerned at being behind bars, certainly a different perspective to the one he held of being in the asylum. Over the next two decades he would spend a third of his time in jail.

Upon his release in 1918, having established a number of useful contacts while incarcerated, he involved himself with a smuggling ring. Haarmann knew that he could make a very tidy living bringing in goods during this time of post-war food shortage and massive inflation, and proved quite proficient at operating within the crooked sphere. It soon became lucrative for him.

But none of his old urges had departed. Haarmann was habitually sexually offending, preying on the young and subjecting them to animalistic assaults. Being of a devious persuasion made it easier for him to weigh up and evade responsibility for his sex crimes. He was acquiring a mental cloak of invincibility.

And there were things he would like to do to these boys that if caught for, he would never see the light of day again. His desires were growing more craven and he was enjoying experimenting with how far sexual boundaries could be pushed. As time would tell, very far indeed.

*

Apparently the boys drove him “wild.” He told his police interrogators he warned them not to but if they continued to arouse him he would bite them and suck the blood from their necks. Invariably the two of them, young boy and predator, would be “wrestling around” by this stage. Haarmann explained that all the boys enjoyed a bit of roughhousing as a prelude to sex and admitted that for him this kind of pursuit was great foreplay.

As Haarmann struggled with a boy, his body pressed against him, he claimed to have always made one last ditch effort to relinquish the inevitable. It is doubtful he resisted with any real conviction and in the next instant would batten upon them, the vampire of nightmare, sinking his teeth into their throats, biting deep, puncturing the Adam’s apple, sometimes severing the carotid artery. He would keep his mouth pressed tightly over the wound, greedily guzzling at the warm flow of blood. Haarmann surmised that this horrible action must have throttled the unfortunate victim.

When asked of his plans for Karl Fromm, the killer readily admitted he had only arranged to have Fromm taken into custody in the first place because he knew the boy would have ended up like all the rest.

Was Haarmann fabricating? Had he really allowed the lad to escape? The author would be inclined to take him at his word, as the boy had been firmly within his clutches for some time and was not murdered. There had been ample opportunity for Haarmann to dispatch Fromm, yet for reasons known only to him, he had not. As altruism could not realistically be claimed by this psychopath, one explanation may be that Haarmann enjoyed toying with Fromm, in the secret knowledge that he could have killed him at any stage, and exercised his power over Fromm’s life, like a god, allowing the boy to live as a display of his total control over events.

The police's questions continued: How had he killed so many boys? What had he done to them after he had buggered them and bitten their throats out? Why would he serve up the flesh of one victim to that of an unwitting other, as part of a meal that was a prelude to death?

The police knew that two women, who had cleaned the apartments where Haarmann lived, once made a disturbing discovery in an area beneath the stairs. In the shadows sat a large, cauldron-like pot. Inside were chunks of meat. Closer inspection revealed that some pieces were matted with hair. There was also a blood-caked apron nearby. The cleaners did not know what to make of this and upon their later return both items had vanished.

Haarmann was asked to describe what he did when disposing of the corpses. In a colourless monologue, delivered in his curious “old woman’s voice,” he quietly recounted a practice in abject horror:

“I’d put the body on the floor and cover the face with a cloth so it wouldn’t be looking at me. I’d make two cuts into the abdomen and put the intestines in a bucket. I’d dip a towel in the blood collecting in the abdominal cavity and keep doing that until it had all been soaked up. Then I’d make three cuts from the ribs towards the shoulders, take hold of the ribs and push until the bones around the shoulders broke. I’d then cut through that area. Now I could get the heart, lungs and kidneys and chop them up and put them in my bucket. Then I’d take the legs off, then the arms. I’d take the flesh off the bones and put it in my wax cloth bag. The rest of the flesh went under the bed or in the cubby-hole. It would take me five or six trips to take everything out and throw it down the toilet or into the river. I’d cut the penis off after I had emptied and cleaned the stomach cavities. I would cut it into lots of little pieces. I always hated doing this, but I couldn’t help it - my passion was so much stronger than the horror of the cutting and chopping.

“I’d take the heads off last. I used the little kitchen knife to cut around the scalp and cut it up into little strips and squares. I’d put the skull, face down, on a straw mat and cover it with rags so that you wouldn’t hear the banging so much. I’d hit it with the blunt edge of an axe until the joins on the skull split apart. The brain went in the bucket and the chopped up bones in the river opposite the castle.”

Haarmann told the police his murderous rampage began in September 1918, when he killed and dismembered a young boy. The lad's friends, who knew he had been seduced by the smooth-talking con man, accompanied Haarmann to his home at 17 Cellarstrasse, and led police there. This was the occasion they found Haarmann asleep in bed with another youngster. They hauled him in for questioning, unaware that the murdered boy’s severed head was currently wedged behind Haarmann’s kitchen-stove.

Given nine months for indecently assaulting a minor, Haarmann’s sentence was suspended until the following year. Towards the end of 1919, Haarmann was scouting his preferred pick-up arena at Hannover station when he spied Hans Grans for the first time.

A small-time thief and vagabond, Grans was on the run. He had been eking out a living trading in second-hand clothes, which he often distributed at the train station.  Establishing that Haarmann was gay, the boy offered the older man his sideline services as a male prostitute. Haarmann was more than happy with the arrangement and led him back to 17 Cellarstrasse. The pair engaged in sex that night and also discovered they had a lot in common. They soon became not only good friends, but regular partners in both a sexual and criminal sense, consorting with one another on what scams to pull during the day, and ending up in bed together that night after counting their loot.

The more time Grans spent in the company of the sexually-depraved Haarmann, the more he listened as he regaled him with tales of the perversions he so enjoyed. Drawn to his magnetic personality, Hans willingly allowed his indoctrination to Haarmann’s twisted philosophies.

When it was time for him to serve his earlier imposed sentence on the underage sex conviction, Haarmann gave himself up and kept his head down while in prison.

Released upon an unsuspecting public in December 1920, he once again teamed up with Grans and the pair embarked on an orgy of thieving and conning. Typically, they burgled establishments or bluffed their way into receiving laundry and clothing they would then sell at the market. When unable to acquire an item through bluster, they simply stole it.

To supplement these swindles, there was Haarmann’s disability allowance from his “mental deficiency” days. In conjunction with their immoral earnings, this ensured the pair was never short of finances.

They soon relocated to 8 Neuestrasse, an address in the centre of what Hannoverian’s called “the haunted area.” As well as talk of the supernatural, it was an area synonymous with crime and deprivation; the perfect place then for a homicidal criminal and his protégé to blend into and continue their nefarious activities.

Around this time, Haarmann elected to further increase his income by becoming a paid-up police informant. This not only afforded him the added benefit of securing another wage, it also allowed him to continue his illegal activities with virtual impunity. Police would be less inclined to pay attention to his own crimes if he was a valuable commodity to them and facilitating the arrests of others.

Haarmann proved quite the industrious super-grass and solidified a number of indispensable ties with his handlers. He could not have been happier. He was making good money, the police were his “friends” and from a criminal perspective, the sky was the limit. It was February 1923 when Fritz Haarmann chose to further abuse his arrangement with the police and get himself back on the road to wholesale slaughter.

His modus operandi rarely changed. Most effective was the offer of food and money, or posing as a police officer. Both are now tried and trusted ruses of the organised serial killer. Haarmann is an early example of the cunning strategist, chillingly adept at luring potential murder victims. In the years since, his simple methods have been emulated time and again by killers like Ted Bundy, Kenneth Bianchi and John Gacy, all of whom sometimes posed as cops to abduct victims. We are reminded also of the London-based killer of at least twelve men, Dennis Nilsen, and the “Rostov Ripper,” Andrei Chikatilo in the luring of the homeless and disenfranchised with offers of warmth, sustenance and companionship.

According to Haarmann's confession, one night Hans Grans arrived unannounced at his home. A corpse was also present. Aghast but by no means showing pangs of conscience, Grans left Haarmann to it.

Haarmann admitted he had slain at least twenty-seven boys in just over a year. His questioners would have had a hard time believing this astonishing figure were there not ample evidence to support it. As well as racking up this incredible death toll in a comparatively short space of time, Haarmann had also indulged in a terrifying catalogue of torture and mutilation. The sadist in Haarmann was never far removed as he casually confessed his enjoyment at murdering two abducted victims at the same time. These “double” slayings had taken place a number of times in his career, and recalling the details to police clearly excited him.

Haarmann (Top - Front Centre) proved a jovial prisoner who enjoyed his outings with the police. He is pictured here (Left, in prison uniform) at Hannover Prison, where he was housed on death row.

From a psychological standpoint, Fritz Haarmann was obviously a narcissist of the highest calibre. He revelled in sharing the more lurid details of his crimes, enjoying the shock registered in the eyes of hardened officers. He bragged of the ease with which he had taken so many lives, attributing his “success” to his perceived vast intellect. At times he would appear depressed, at others positively hyperactive while sharing his dark secrets. Compulsively showcasing just how great he thought he was, very much like a child seeking approval, was the way Haarmann operated during his questioning by police.

A by-product of his narcissism, he was also psychopathic, incontrovertibly damaged by a childhood of skewed and smothered affection from his mother and ridicule and coldness from his father, whose only encouragement to his son came from bestowing the edict that the ability to decieve was something to be cultivated. Thus, learning to con and thieve by observing his father, coupled with outlandish cosseting from his mother, ensured that Haarmann matured only physically, He did not understand values, and to a latter extreme, was unable to appreciate the sanctity of human life.

Haarmann’s conscience was castrated in his emotional development. He did whatever he wanted, whenever he wanted, to whomever he wanted. The double murders he committed, and the obvious excitement that accompanied them, are common among serial murderers. Having two victims present is a heady thrill indeed for this kind of predator. He thrives on the idea of one victim realising the other has either been killed, or soon will be, and knowing they are next. It was a progression for Haarmann, who was striving for bigger and bolder highs, something even more outrageous to subject his victims to. This baleful evolution was manifest in Haarmann’s subsequent consumption of the flesh he methodically filleted from the bones of his dead victims.

As with most murderers of Haarmann’s ilk, there came a pronounced increase in the volume of his slayings. In fact, his killings grew close enough  together for Fritz Haarmann to estimate that by early 1924, he was murdering a boy in his flat once every other week.

Each time Haarmann wanted a victim he went and found one, almost exclusively at Hannover train station, offering a boy he liked the look of accommodation, an employment opportunity, or food and money in exchange for sexual favours. There was always his tried and tested standby of pretending to be a plainclothes policeman as well.

His was a schooled hunter’s ability at selecting the weakest from the pack. Those boys that appeared disillusioned and adrift were snapped straight up and because of the transient nature of most of the victims; estranged family and friends often did not report disappearances to the police for weeks and sometimes months. This suited the man behind this admirably.

Though his own lure was remarkably effective, and there were undoubtedly many youngsters prepared to accompany him home, Haarmann sometimes engineered the presence of Grans, the younger man, who helped put those that may have otherwise been cautious, at their ease.

Sometimes, Haarmann said, he would pay Grans to go out and pick up the boys himself, bringing them back to 8 Neuestrasse, where Haarmann would be waiting. After the victims had been violated - often enduring the special agony of Haarmann chewing on their penis - choked and bitten to death, the corpse was ready for disposal. Their clothes and personal belongings were placed in a sack that Haarmann or Grans would later introduce into their thriving underground market network. Haarmann then donned his butcher’s apron, assembled his dissection tools and set about taking the body apart. Once cut in many pieces the next phase of the ritual was the complete removal of the flesh. Haarmann had a use for this.

In subsequent police statements, witnesses spoke of times when no visitors were allowed into Haarmann’s rooms. The two windows overlooking the Neuestrasse and the landing of the apartment building were covered over. Even the keyhole in the door was blocked. For one as gregarious, good-humoured and “open” as Herr Haarmann, this kind of secrecy was worthy of note. Naturally, his neighbours had wondered just what he had been up to in there. 

One evening, Haarmann brought a gift to the door of his landlady, Frau Engel. Smiling, he entered her living-room, carrying a bowl loaded with meat he told her was pork. In the kitchen, he covered the bowl with a cloth and set about boiling some water. Pouring the pan of water into the bowl, he carefully strained the fat from the meat, which was then minced. The “pork” was fantastic, Haarmann claimed, and he had a new sideline in peddling such quality cuts. If she needed any more, she knew where he was.

Friends recalled how in the winter of 1923, Haarmann appeared at their home to prepare for them a delicious meal of sausages and schnitzel. Asked what type of sausage he was cooking, Haarmann said it was formed of sheep’s intestines. The grateful recipients agreed the sausage was particularly well seasoned, and tasted more like brains. But not everyone was so happy with the meat they purchased from Herr Haarmann and a number of customers complained, saying they had become quite unwell after consuming it.

In fact, the enterprising new butcher on the block had almost ended up with his head on it when one disgruntled buyer took a portion of Haarmann’s wares down to the police station, believing the meat looked distinctly "human." Fortunately for the killer, a police analyst concluded that rather than coming from a person, it was instead from a pig.

Haarmann, who regularly sampled slivers of his own “meat,” agreed that human flesh was very similar to pork, both in taste and texture.

It was learned that Fritz Haarmann and Hans Grans were very well established in the community as traders of garments and meat. As a consequence they were also respected, particularly the easily approachable Haarmann, who must have thought himself something of a superhuman, the more accolades he received from satisfied customers - and of course with every murder he got away with.

Having killed a score of boys, not only escaping detection for each slaughter, but profiting from them as well, Haarmann had been flying high. Convinced of his invulnerability to eventual apprehension and prosecution for his crimes, he allowed his cruelty to become more audacious and contacted a distraught family of one of the boys he had kidnapped, raped and cannibalised, posing as a criminologist.

Haarmann had read in the newspaper about a reward being offered for information about the missing youth. His purpose for approaching the family appears two-fold; greed, and sadism. Sitting down to talk about the boy with his parents, Haarmann spent the whole time laughing at their pain and misery and shamelessly tried to extract payment from them, for his services.

Under close guard, Fritz Haarmann was taken from the police station and driven around the city to confirm where skeletal remains had already been found and show investigators where more were concealed. Under Haarmann’s guidance, more bones were recovered from within bushes and further dredged from lakes. Haarmann had obviously been very busy depositing human remnants throughout Hannover.

When word of Haarmann’s arrest and confession hit the papers, the police were deluged with visits from townsfolk who had purchased either clothing, or more ominously "meat," from Haarmann.

Hans Grans, having been implicated by his lover, was soon arrested.

*

The trial of the pair commenced on Wednesday, 4 December 1924. Of the two, Haarmann played it more naturally, giving the impression that he was a real person, albeit somewhat deranged, rather than some mythical beast with ice flowing through its veins.  In contrast, Grans appeared granite-tough, unconcerned with the fate awaiting him. Where Haarmann had bantered back and forth with journalists and jury alike, Grans remained silent, staring rigidly ahead, as if part of his psyche had shut down and self -preservation dictated that he was not a part of any of this. The only emotions Grans displayed as the proceedings got underway were anger and resentment toward the man who had gotten him into this predicament in the first place. At times the former lovers would quarrel vehemently, oblivious of courtroom spectators, until admonished by the judge to desist.

Hans Grans stood accused of instigating two counts of murder. Due to his resolute, inscrutable attitude at trial, the jury came to regard him as the more capable of the two. Though they did concede that Haarmann was the serial killer and probable cannibal, Grans, who came over as being both coldly clinical and one willing to do anything for money, was most assuredly going along for the ride with him.

At 10.00 am on Thursday, 19 December 1924, Fritz Haarmann, variously dubbed by the German press the “Werewolf,” “Vampire” and the “Butcher of Hannover,” was sentenced to death for twenty-four of the twenty-seven charged murders. As to the fate of Hans Grans, the jury chose to believe the story of a convicted, psychopathic killer of twenty-four people. He was also sentenced to death. Grans later appealed, and this was rejected. It looked as though he would be accompanying Haarmann into the next world.

Fritz Haarmann, who had expressed his to the Court his wish to be executed in time for Christmas, so that he might be reunited with his mother to celebrate the festive time with her in Heaven, instead saw in the New Year on death row at Hannover prison. He wiled away his final days penning his memoirs. Fantasising about his murders in what he referred to as his “true confession,” he completely exonerated Hans Grans of any knowledge of the crimes. It has been suggested on the strength of Haarmann’s final writings that Grans' death sentence was overturned, and he served twelve years in prison before being released.

In the interim, there was only one place Fritz Haarmann was going. On 15 April 1925, the flesh-peddling, serial sex killer of at least twenty-seven young boys was sent on his way, perhaps not bound for Heaven, courtesy of the executioner’s blade.

Mass grave of Haarmann's identified victims.