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