Fritz Haarmann 1879-1925 { Hanover Vampire }
Born and raised in Germany, Haarmann enlisted in military school before joining the German army. After being discharged from the army, Haarmann was arrested for various offenses against children. After the trial, he was sent to an asylum and considered insane.
After being released from the asylum, Haarmann rejoined the German army serving with an elite unit. He distingushed himself in World War One. After Germany's defeat, he was discharged in 1918 and opened up a cook shop. Haarmann hawked meat in his little shop and to get a little money, he became a police informer. It was then that Haarmann began one more gruesome activity.
In 1919, Haarmann met Hans Grans, a fellow homosexual, and together they would prey on young men. At night, in the main Hanover railway station, Haarmann would seek out various young boys, ages between 12 to 18, who were either runaways or refugees. He would talk to them, winning their trust and freindship. Haarmann would ask the youngsters if they would like to go back to his house for food and shelter. Here at the railway station he found an endless supply of victims. Bringing home the young men, Haarmann would sexually assault them before murdering the boys. After killing them, the bodies would be cut up in butcher style, and disposed of, all under Gran's watchful eye.
Haarmann also found victims at the Cafe Kropcke, which was a homosexual gathering place for young boys. Here Haarman found even more victims for his heinious crimes.
Haarmann was finally arrested for having an indecent relationship with an eighteen year old man. As the police came into the house, the head of one of the victims was wrapped in a newspaper, stuffed underneath an oven. Later it was disposed of in a canal.
At the trial, Haarmann was acussed of killing twenty-four people. It was alleged that Haarman sold to some of his customers cut body parts for consumption. Haarmann also made sausages out of his victims in his kitchen and often cooked them and shared the sausages with his customers. The clothes and personal property of the victims was sold in his store to earn extra money. Police found that part of the reason that Haarmann was able to dispose of the bodies was that the shop was next to a river. Bones and skulls were thrown into the river with ease. Police would find the bones but could not find their origins because they would float down the river. It was Haarmanns vampire like behavior, that he liked to bite the throats of his victims and suck some of the blood was the reason of his nickname Hanover Vampire.
In the end Haarman was found guilty for his crimes. At the trial it was proven that he killed twenty-four young men, but the number of people he killed could be as high as one hundred. Haarmann was executed in April 1925 and recieved immortality by having his brain removed and given to scientist at Gottingen University for study.
John Haigh 1910-1949 { Vampire of London or Acid Killer }
John Haigh was born in a strict religious family. As members of the Plymouth Brethren, they were forbidden any and all worldly pleasures nor was John allowed to have any friends in the house. Johns mother believed in the interpretation of dreams and saw to it that John believed also. It was this influence that led John to dream the same dream, night after night, when he was young. A dream of a forest of crucifixes that turned into trees. And on the branches of these trees, ran dew or rain that turned into blood. Blood that ran from the trunks all red and shiny. John dreamed that he had a cup that filled up with blood from the trees and said "drink" to which John would. Then the dream vanished. John would then wake up in a semi-comatose state, sweaty, still seeing the cup full of blood in his dream.
Haigh gained the name of Vampire of London because he always drank the blood of his victims. He would hit them on the head, knocking them out. Then he would make some kind of incision on the side of the neck. With the blood coming out, John would use a glass to trap the blood from the body so he could drink it. To keep from being prosecuted, John would dispose of the bodies by putting them into drums of sulphuric acid.
John Haigh showed no remorse for any of the killings that he had committed. He had no concern for right or wrong. It was his destiny. He had an absence of sexual content in his cravings, a characteristic behavior in other serial killers. John Haigh, the Vampire of London, was brought to trial and executed in 1949.
Peter Kurten 1883-1931 { Vampire of Dusseldorf }
Peter, the son of an alcoholic and a manic depressive mother, was a truck driver. He was a well dressed bespectaled little man with a mustache who seemed nondescript in life. Peter suffered from haematodipsia, a sexual thirst for blood, which consumed him. Peter would later marry a woman, who only married him because he threatened her life.
Peter Kurten's killing started at an early age when he drowned his playmate. At the age of thirteen, he practiced sadistic acts against sheep. When he became an adult, his thirst for blood turned to humans. He would strangle and rape his victims in a sexual frenzy. Afterwards, he would slit their throats, drinking their blood to an orgasmic conclusion. Peter had no remorse about the killings yet when he went home to his wife he was the devoted husband by day!
Kurten was caught after he confessed to his wife. She promtly went to the police. He was tried for killing twenty-nine people during his reign of terror, ruining the city's reputation among European tourists. He was tried and sentenced to death nine times over in accordance with German law. Peter never appealed aganst his sentence and awaited his execution with calmness but no remorse. During his stay in jail before death, he often wrote to the families of his victims. To the mother of a five year old victim he said that while some alcoholics needed liquor, he needed blood. In 1964 his story was told in a French-Italian film,"Le Vampire de Dusseldorf".
