Fritz Haarmann

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German serial killer, dubbed by the press as the 'Butcher of Hanover' (German: Der Schlächter von Hannover), who committed the sexual assault, murder, mutilation and dismemberment of a minimum of 24 boys and young men between 1918 and 1924 in Hanover, Germany. Haarmann also became known as the 'Vampire of Hanover' (der Vampir von Hannover) and the 'Wolf Man' (Wolfsmensch) because of his preferred murder method of biting into or through his victims' throats. The sixth and youngest child born to Johanna (née Claudius) and Ollie Haarmann, he was his mother's favourite. After five months of military service in his youth, he began to suffer periodic lapses of consciousness which would be diagnosed as being "equivalent to epilepsy" in October 1895. From youth, he served several prison terms for indecency (first in July 1896) and was committed several times to an insane asylum (first in February 1897). In September 1918, he and his friend, 24-year old Hans Grans, began luring about two boys a week to his den, where they then butchered them and sold the flesh as pork, horse or other meat. On one occasion in April 1924, Haarmann's landlady and her family became ill after eating sausages in skins Haarmann had claimed were sheep's intestines. According to Haarmann, he had never actually intended to murder any of his victims, but would be seized by an irresistible urge to bite into or through their Adam's apple—often as he manually strangled them—in the throes of ecstasy, before typically collapsing atop the victim's body. When asked by police how many victims he had killed, Haarmann claimed, "Somewhere between 50 and 70." Described by the judge at his trial as being "forever degraded as a citizen," Haarmann was found guilty of 24 of the 27 murders for which he was tried and sentenced to death by beheading in December 1924. He was subsequently executed at 6 AM on 15 April 1925 by guillotine in the grounds of Hanover prison. After serving a 12-year sentence, Hans Grans continued to live in Hanover until his death in 1975. Link to Wikipedia biography