Fritz Haarmann

Vampire of Hanover

HANOVER, Germany: Born in 1879 the sixth child of a poor family, Haarmann was said to be mildly retarded, epileptic, and bisexual. (Considering left-handedness in Germany at this time was considered a retardation, these lables must be taken with a bit of skepticsim.) But apparently, as a preteen, Haarmann liked to dress up as a girl and openly expressed hatred for his bad-tempered father. (One must allow for the time-period when looking at the details of this case and note that a possible contributing factor in Haarmann's pathology may have been sexual abuse committed by his father, tho there is no proof.) When he was seventeen, Haarmann was arrested for child molesting. The psychiatrist declaired him "incurably feeble-minded" and sent him to an assylum at Hildesheim for six months. He ecaped, hid out in Switzerland for a time before returning to Hanover.

Haarmann made a slight attempt to settle himself down, getting himself engaged to a young girl he got pregnant. When the child was stillborn, he called off the wedding and joined the army. His superiors declaired him a model soldier. He was given a medical discharge for neurasthenia.
He spent his twenties as a petty criminal, in and out of jail. After the war, which he sat out behind bars, Haarmann did another nine-month jail term for child molestation. Upon his release, he moved to Hanover's unsavory Old Quarter and met a young prostitute named Hans Grans. Police records show that the pair were responsible for the deaths of twenty-seven young refugees, but Harrmann's official tally is estimated at closer to fifty murders. Unofficially, his count may be much higher. From 1918 to 1923, there were approximately six hundred young boys between 15 and 18 years of age reported missing from the Hanover area. A large amount at any given time, despite the fact of war.

As reported, Haarmann would promise his victims a good meal and beer at his home on Cellarstrasse 27. After a solid dinner and a lot of srtong beer, Haarmann would jump his victim, sinking his teeth like an animal into the boy's throat. He would rip the flesh, drinking the blood until the boy died. Generally they died after he had severed the windpipe, and on more than one occasion, he nearly severed the head completely.

To get rid of the bodies, the pair would carve portions into appetizing steaks and take them to sell on the black market, Schieber Open-air Market, in the crime-infested city of degenerates that frequented hanover in the early 1920s. The rest of the remains, the unedible portions of the body and clothing, etc. were tossed into the nearby Leine Canal.
But it wasn't until May of 1924 that bones and skulls began appearing on the Canal bank. Haarmann's name kept appearing in the files, so the police decided to pay him a visit. At the rooming house, they discovered bundles of clothing from the missing boys, kept to sell instead of dropping into the canal.
Haarmann broke down under questioning and confessed. He began recounting, with unconcealed excitement, the long and grisly details of his crimes. He was happy to put his signature to the confession of his crimes.

Haarmann was found guilty at Hanover Assizes in December of 1924. He asked to be beheaded. His wish was granted by sword in the city marketplace. His brain was removed from the skull and sent to be examined by forensics at Goettingen University.

Grans was jailed for life, but later the sentance was commuted to twelve years imprisonment because Haarmann had confessed to being the actual killer and instigator of events.

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