Fritz Haarmann was known for turning his victims into sausages.
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Introduction

Fritz Haarmann (also spelled Haarman) was born in Germany on October 24, 1879, and was later given the nickname the “Vampire Butcher” of Hanover Germany. He grew up with his very strict authoritarian father, with whom he didn’t get along. Haarmann made the decision to join the military since he really didn’t have that much money and considered himself a poor student. Upon returning to Hanover, he was accused of molesting children and was sent to a mental institution. He managed to escape the institution and thought it would be best to go back to live with his father. The two did not get along still, they were constantly arguing and even physically fighting. He decided he could no longer live with his father and turned to street life.

Living on the Streets

Living on the streets put a lot of pressure on Haarmann, which caused to participate in violent crimes, which put him in jail a few times. He was finally released in 1918 and things were starting to look good for him. He found a job as a butcher at a shop and also worked as a police informant. The rumors were true about him molesting children, he would molest little boys. He would find lost boys sleeping at the Hanover railway station and ask the boys to see their tickets. If they didn’t have one, he would offer the boy a place to stay overnight. The boys usually had nowhere else to go and would take the offer, never to be seen or heard from again.

Haarmann met his love interest, a 24-year old male prostitute named Hans Grans, in 1919. They moved in together and Grans later would help Haarman molest boys and murder them. Grans would pick out them out based on if the clothing that they would wear. They would take the boys, molest them, and murder them. That is, until 5 years later when they became suspects.

Victims Found

In 1924, a police officer found human body parts along the banks of the Leine River, about the same time the Haarmann was put into jail for indecent exposure. While in jail, the police went and searched his rented apartment, finding bloodstains. The stains were tested and found to be human, this then became a more serious search which led to outside of the house. They found pieces of 22 corpses.

The police weren’t going to charge Haarman until more evidence came up, which is what happened next. A mother of a missing boy identified a piece of clothing that was worn by her son before he disappeared, which was then traced back to Haarmann. He was then questioned by police, and confessed to murdering the children, and told him that Grans was an accomplice to murder.

The Confessions

He confessed, telling the police his victims were between the ages of 12 to 18 years old. Grans would select the boys, they would then take them to the butcher shop where he would over-feed them, praise them, and sexually assault them. He would then bite their jugular vein, and drink their blood. If biting their necks wouldn’t kill the boys, Grans would beat them to death. He was known as the vampire killer because the boys would be found with these bite marks. Grans would take some of the victims clothes and all of the rest were sold through Haarmann’s butcher shop. To get rid of some of the bodies, Haarmann would grind up the flesh and would sell it as meat or sausages. There was also another man in on the murders, his name was Charles, who worked with Haarmann as a butcher. He would help grinding the meat and cutting up the bodies. It was said an unaware coworker helped make the human sausages, cooked it, and him and Haarmann both ate the sausages.

Conclusion

While in court, Haarmann said he wasn’t insane, but told the jury when he would commit these murders he would be in a trance and wouldn’t know what he was doing. The court didn’t believe him because his confessions were very descriptive and was well aware what was happening. He was then accused of 24 murders, but some think that he killed about 50 boys. Haarmann himself said he killed around “30 to 40″ boys. He was judged as sane and was executed, beheaded on April 15, 1925. His final death wishes were that his grave read, “Here lies Mass-Murderer Haarman,” and requested Grans to lay a wreath on his grave every year on his birthday. Grans was sentenced to life in prison and Charles disappeared.

After his execution, Haarman’s head was kept in a jar, preserved so that scientists could examine the structure of his brain, and one can find his head at the Gottingen medical school.

A Memorial to his Victims

A memorial to Haarmann's victums was constructed in Hannover, Germany.

Many victims still remain unidentified. Those that are known can be read in order of their death as follows:

• Friedel Rothe 17
• Fritz Franke 16
• Wilhelm Schulze 17
• Roland Huch 15
• Hans Sonnenfeld 18
• Ernst Ehrenberg 13
• Heinrich Strauss 18
• Paul Bronischewski 17
• Richard Graf 17
• Wilhelm Erdner 16
• Hermann Wolf 16
• Heinz Brinkmann 13
• Adolf Hannappel 15
• Adolf Hennies 19
• Ernst Speiker 17
• Heinrich Koch 18
• Willi Senger 19
• Hermann Speichert 15
• Alfred Hogrefe 16
• Hermann Bock 22
• Wilhelm Apel 15
• Robert Witzel 18
• Heinz Martin 14
• Fritz Wittig 17
• Friedrich Abeling 11
• Heinrich Koch 16
• Erich de Vries 17

John Haigh was known for using acid to desolve his victims.

Introduction

John George Haigh was born on July 24, 1909 and was later known as the “Acid Bath Murderer.” Haigh grew up with strict parents who were members of the Plymouth Brethren. His parents, John and Emily brought their son up in a house with a 10 ft. tall fence around it, which confined Haigh from the outside world. He was very intelligent which led to scholarships. He received one for the Queen Elizabeth Grammar School, then later to Wakefield Cathedral, where he became a choirboy. He had many friends and was soon an apprentice for a firm of moter engineers. He then left that job and took a few jobs in insurance and advertising, until he was suspected of stealing cash and was fired at age 21. He was married for a short time at age 25, and had no interest in sex after things didn’t work out. His wife did give birth while he was in prison but gave the baby up for adoption. For the next ten years he ended up in prison three times for fraud and being dishonest.

The Dreams

Some interesting things about his childhood might have led up to his murders later on in life. At the age of six he became fasinated with blood and would often hurt himself so that he could taste his blood. He was also interested in the Holy Communion and the Crucifixion. He also had some pretty intense dreams, most of his dreams were about railways accidents filled with bleeding people. These dreams stopped but then came back to him in 1944. When Haigh was 35, and out of prison, he injured his head and blood went into his mouth. He began to have the dreams with bloody people and would also have dreams about a forest filled with crucifixes that would turn into bleeding trees. He would taste the blood, when he would wake up he would crave the taste of blood. The dreams were in a weekly cycle increasing from Monday through Friday.

Covering up the Crimes

While he was in prison this gave him time to think. He thought the perfect way to get rid of bodies would be to destroy it with sulphuric acid. When he came back home in 1944, he rented a storeroom and bought vats of acid. He first experimented with mice and observed that it only took about a half an hour for the body to completely dissolve. Right after being freed from prison, he became an accountant at an engineering firm.

It Begins

One night he ran into his friend McSwan, where he introduced Haigh to his parents who told him they invested in property. On September 6, 1944, people had been searching for McSwan and he was no where to be found. Later, it was determined that Haigh hit him over the head, cut his neck open, and began collecting cup fulls of blood. Then to dispose of the body, he took McSwan to his basement. He put McSwan’s body in a 40-gallon drum and poured concentrated sulphuric acid all over top of him. He would then drink the blood which he said made him feel “relieved.” Two days later the body turned into a mud-like consistancy and was poured down a manhole. He told McSwan’s worried parents that their son went to Scotland to avoid being drafted into the military. He later went over to the McSwans’ house after frequent inquiries from his parents about why their son hasn’t come back yet when the war was about to end. He then took them to his house where he murdered them on July 2, 1945. He then stole the pension cheques and sold their properties and was left with a lot of money. He went along killing for the next 4 years (5 years in all). He then killed and robbed another couple acting like he was interested in a house they were selling.

Conclusion

He was arrested then put on trial. He could’ve been making up the blood-drinking in order for him to appear insane, but he would talk about his dreams before he would kill and about how he would crave blood. He was hanged in London in 1949 and claimed to have killed 9 people even though he was convicted of six murders.

James Brown was a sailor convicted of murder.
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James Brown was the name of a Portuguese sailor who set sail out of Boston with a crew of sailors in 1867. Two of the crew members went missing, the captain of the ship searched the boat and found James Brown sucking blood from one of the dead crew members. He found the second man laying lifeless on the boat with no blood. Brown was convicted of murder and was ordered to be hanged. President Andrew Jackson got involved and gave the man life in prison in Ohio. In 1892 he was transfered to the National Assylum in Washington, D.C.

Gilles Garnier, a hermit accused of being a werewolf.
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The Gilles Garnier werewolf case took place in 1873. Gilles Garnier was described as an old hermit that lived in the forest near Amanges, France with his wife, Apolline. He was described as having a long beard, pale face, walked with a hunch, and had a pale complexion. The town only saw him around, he rarely spoke to any of the townspeople and wasn’t a suspect until later in the werewolf attacks that occurred in the area.

The Attacks

In the fall of 1873, a few reports of missing children and witnesses telling parliament that a werewolf took the children to Dole. The authorities ordered the peasants to hunt the werewolf down. On November 8th a scream was heard from deep in the woods from a girl, which caught the curiosity of the local peasants. When they reached the child they saw her trying to defend herself against the wolf. The wolf was scared off into the woods and a few of the peasants thought that the wolf had the same features of the hermit, Gilles Garnier.

The Confession

On November 14th, a ten-year old boy went mysteriously missing and Gilles was captured and immediately put on trial. He and his wife both confessed that he was a werewolf. He talked about how he also attacked and killed a 12-year old back in September. He took her clothes off, chewed up, and ate the girl’s legs and arms. He enjoyed the taste so much that he brought some meat back for his wife. He also admitted to attacking another young girl and later strangling a ten-year old to death and enjoyed eating his legs, arms, and belly. He also killed a young teen boy, he didn’t get to eat him because he was scared off by some peasants. The men that claimed to have seen him all said that they saw him in human form, not in wolf form. He was then sentenced to death, where he was burned alive.

Fire can hide many crimes.
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Also Known As: Gilles de Rais, Marechal de Retz

Introduction

The Gilles de Laval was a murder case from the 15th century. Gilles de Laval was a French nobleman and the oldest son of Guy de Laval, a noble of Brittany, France. Gilles inherited his father’s estate at the age of 20 and married a wealthy woman named Catharine de Thouars in 1420. His grandmother died in 1432 and his fortune increased. He had a spending problem and most of his money was gone in less than two years. He sold much of his land but spent alot of time in his Castle of Machecoul which had a moat surrounding the castle. The drawbridge would come down and servants would give the poor food and money. Rumors went around the town about children who went to beg were led into the kitchen and never came back out.

The Accusations

In 1440 Gilles was accused of murdering children and performing sacrificial rituals to the devil. The matter reached the Duke of Brittany, but he just ignored it for a little while. But he then finally he agreed to arrest him and have him taken to court. His servants and wife all left except for two, Henriet and Pontou. Henriet was believed to be his mistress. Parents began to testify against him telling the judges that they haven’t seen their children since they went to that castle. They believed their children were murdered then burned.

A Letter

The investigators told the testimonies to the duke of Brittany. The duke didn’t know what to do, that is until he recieved a strange letter in the mail from Gilles himself confessing to the gruesome crimes. He wanted to spend the rest of his life in a Carmelite monastery and all of his money to go to the poor.

His trial was on October in 1440, where he was said to have mental instabilities. He told the court that he would concentrate on God and dressed in all white like a Carmelite. He was charged with murdering over 200 children and burning each and every one in his giant fireplace. After it was said he was guilty he denied everything, saying everything was false.

Unknown to him Henriet and Pontou confessed to helping him with all the crimes. Henriet said she helped remove all of the children’s corpses, which were in the Castle of Chantonce, owned by Gilles, and were taken to Machecoul where they were burned. It was said that the children were killed in a particular room where Henriet and other servants tortured the children and would stab them in the jugular so that the blood would splatter. Gilles would stand underneath and take a blood shower. After they died Gilles would cry and pray in his bed while the ashes were hurled out the window into the moat. Other bodies were severely burned they were stashed in a hayloft at Castle Marchecoul.

The story that she told in the court room was so grotesque and many didn’t believe her. She told them that it was true and he enjoyed chopping the children’s heads off. She said he was inspired by the Roman Empire and took great pleasure in torturing and killing children. The minute after he read about the Romans he started committing murders. She also described in great detail how he would sit on the child’s chest and cut the throat half-way and would take the blood and rub it on his beard and hands. He would order the servants to hang the infants until almost dead, take them down and cut their throats open. She confessed that a little girl was crying on the steps because she recently lost her mother, he brought the little girl in and brutally killed her. Her body was thrown out of the tower, but somehow her body got caught on a nail and anyone could see it. Pontou had to go down on a rope and take the body down.

The Trial

His trial was October 24th, he thought he would be able to retire to a monastery. When he learned what Henriet and Pontou said about him, he was in shock. It got to him and he finally broke down and confessed to everything. He told everyone he cut throats, strangled children, chopped off their heads with cleavers, bashed their skulls with a hammer, and would cut them open to examine their organs. He told the jury he killed about 800 people, about 120 of those were done in a single year. He confessed to being involved with the devil, which they considered witchcraft. His trial lasted a few hours, he tried to bribe them with giving them everything he owned to go to the monastery and was denied.

Gilles gets his wish

On October 26th, the two servants were hanged and burned and their ashes were thrown in the wind. Gilles preached to the public about God and resisting the devil before burning to death. His body was taken down before it was all gone in the fire and was placed in a coffin . It was carried away by six Carmelites and six women in white robes. His dream of going to the monastery was fullfilled, they took his remains to the monastery.

The gandillon werewolf of France.
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The strange case of the Gandillon werewolf took place in France in 1598. The events started when a young girl named Pernette from the Gandillon family walked around on her hands and knees believing that she was a wolf. She roamed around the woods one day acting like a wolf and came across a boy and girl, both brother and sister, picking berries. Pernette went crazy for blood and started to attack the girl. The girl’s little brother, aged four years old, grabbed a knife and tried to protect his sister while getting a huge gash on his neck but both made it out of the woods alive. They told the townspeople what happened and a mob of peasants went after Pernette and destroyed her.

Not very long afer the incident, Pernette’s brother Pierre, kidnapped children and took them to witch sabbats. He was said to have an ointment that he received from the devil that made him transform into a wolf. When he was a wolf he would run around killing people and animals, and to turn back into a human he would roll in the wet grass. He wasn’t the only one that used the ointment, his son also claimed that he used it and killed two goats. Once the spirit becomes the animal, the body lies in bed in a trance. They were both accused of witchcraft, and both had scratches all over their bodies and bite marks. The two men were taken into prison where they didn’t turn into wolves, but they did run about on all fours howling uncontrollably. It was believed they couldn’t take the shape of a wolf because they didn’t have access to the ointment.Pierre’s daughter also confessed that she sold her soul to the devil who took the form of a black cat.

The djadajii casts vampires' spirits into the fire.
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The djadadjii is a vampire hunter from Bulgarian lore. He catches vampires by imprisoning them in bottles. He first takes a bottle with the vampire’s favorite food, then use holy sacred pictures of Jesus or the Virgin Mary, which scares the vampire from his hiding place. He goes in the bottle, then the djadadjii seals it, then quickly dispenses the bottle into the fire to destroy him.

Incubus, a painting of the late 19th century.

The case of Johannes Cutius occurred in 1653 in Silesia, present day Poland. Cutius was a 60-year old man that got kicked in the groin by his horse and fell fatally ill. Right before he was about to die, he said that he was an evil man and made a pact with the devil. His oldest son witnessed a black cat scamper up to his body and furiously scratch the old man’s face right after he died. There was also a violent storm that lasted until he was finally buried on the right side of an alter, which was considered a hallowed spot.

Only 2 days after he was dead, the town started rumors that the form of the old man was seen at night as an incubus. He began to sexually assault woman, and acted as a poltergeist, by beating people up, throwing things across the room, and even shaking houses. It was also said that he put blood all over the alter at the church, turned milk into blood, sucked on the utters of a cow, ate chickens, and created awful smells. They dug him up and saw that he was bloated and fresh blood came out from a vein in his leg. They cut him into many pieces and burned his body. They then threw the ashes into the river.