Peter Kürten

Peter Kürten
Mugshot of Peter Kürten taken in 1931
Born	(1883-05-26)May 26, 1883 Mülheim am Rhein, Germany
Died	July 2, 1931(1931-07-02) (aged 48) Cologne, Germany
Cause of death	Decapitation by guillotine
Other names	The Vampire of Düsseldorf The Düsseldorf Monster
Criminal penalty	Death
Motive	Sexual gratification / to "strike back at oppressive society"
Conviction(s)	Arson Attempted murder Burglary Theft Murder
Killings
Victims	Murders: 9 (possibly over 60) Attempted: 7 Sexual assaults: unknown
Span of killings	26 May 1913–7 November 1929
Country	Germany
State(s)	Rhine Province, Prussia
Date apprehended	May 24, 1930

Peter Kürten (26 May 1883 – 2 July 1931) was a German serial killer known as both The Vampire of Düsseldorf and the Düsseldorf Monster, who committed a series of murders and sexual assaults between February and November 1929 in the city of Düsseldorf.

In the years prior to these assaults, Kürten had amassed a lengthy criminal record for offenses including arson, theft and attempted murder. He also confessed to the 1913 murder of a 10-year-old girl in Cologne.^[1]

Kürten became known as both the The Vampire of Düsseldorf and the Düsseldorf Monster because the majority of his murders were committed in and around the city of Düsseldorf.^[2]

Early life

Peter Kürten was born into a poverty-stricken, abusive family in Mülheim am Rhein, as the eldest of thirteen children. As a child, he witnessed his alcoholic father repeatedly sexually assault his mother and his sisters. He followed in his father's footsteps, and was soon sexually abusing his sisters. He engaged in petty criminality from a young age, and was a frequent runaway. He later claimed to have committed his first murders at the age of nine, when he drowned two young boys with whom he had been swimming.

Kürten moved with his family to Düsseldorf in 1894 and received a number of short prison sentences for various crimes, including theft and arson. As an adolescent, he was employed by the local dogcatcher, a job which allowed him to indulge in cruelty to animals.^[3]

Kürten progressed from torturing animals to attacks on people. He committed his first recorded murder in 1913, strangling a 10-year-old girl, Christine Klein, during the course of a burglary. His crimes were then halted by an eight-year prison sentence. In 1921, he left prison and moved to Altenburg, where he got married. In 1925, he returned to Düsseldorf, where he began the series of crimes that would culminate in his capture, trial, death sentence and subsequent execution.

Murders

On 8 February 1929, he assaulted a woman, molested and murdered an eight-year-old girl. On 13 February, he murdered a middle-aged mechanic, stabbing him 20 times. Kürten did not attack again for six months, stabbing three people in separate attacks on 21 August; murdering two foster sisters, aged five and 14, two days later; and stabbing another woman on 24 August.^[4]

In September, he committed a single rape and murder, brutally beating a servant girl with a hammer in woods that lay just outside of Düsseldorf.

In October, he attacked two women with a hammer. On 7 November, he murdered a five-year-old girl by strangling and stabbed her 36 times with scissors. After the crime he sent a map to a local newspaper disclosing the location of her grave. The variety of victims and murder methods gave police the impression that more than one killer was at large: the police had over 900,000 different names on their potential suspect list.

The November murder was Kürten's last, although he did engage in a spate of non-fatal hammer attacks from February to March 1930. In May, he accosted a young woman named Maria Büdlick; he initially took her to his home, and then to the Grafenberger Woods, where he raped (but did not kill) her. Büdlick led the police to Kürten's home. He avoided the police, but confessed to his wife, knowing that his identity was known by the police, and told her to inform the police in the belief that she would be rewarded by the authority. On 24 May, he was located and arrested.

Kürten also admitted to drinking the blood of at least one of his victims.^[5]

Trial and execution

Peter Kürten confessed to 79 offenses, and was charged with nine murders and seven attempted murders. He went on trial in April 1931. He initially pleaded not guilty, but after some weeks changed his plea. He was found guilty and sentenced to death.

As Kürten was awaiting execution, he was interviewed by Dr. Karl Berg, whose interviews and accompanying analysis of Kürten formed the basis of his book, The Sadist. Kürten stated to Berg that his primary motive was one of sexual pleasure. The number of stab wounds varied because it sometimes took longer to achieve orgasm; the sight of blood was integral to his sexual stimulation and he even inquired if he would be able to hear his blood gush as the blade of the Fallbeil came through his neck.

Kürten was executed on 2 July 1931 by guillotine in Cologne.^[6]

Analysis

Peter Kürten said to the legal examiners that his primary motive was to "strike back at oppressive society." He did not deny that he had sexually molested his victims, but he always claimed during his trial that this was not his primary motive.

In 1931, scientists attempted to examine irregularities in Kürten's brain in an attempt to explain his personality and behavior. His head was dissected and mummified and is currently on display at the Ripley's Believe It or Not! museum in Wisconsin Dells, Wisconsin.^[7]

Cultural references

Fritz Lang's 1931 film M, in which a serial child killer terrorizes Berlin, is often said to have been based upon Peter Kürten, but Lang denied that Kürten was an influence. Because of the similarities between Kürten and the film's villain, Hans Beckert, the film was known as The Vampire of Dusseldorf in some countries.

Julius Ševčík filmed a movie Normal (2009) about Peter Kürten. Peter Kurten is played by Slovak actor Milan Kňažko.

The first biopic about Peter Kürten was Robert Hossein's The Secret Killer (Le Vampire de Düsseldorf, 1965).^[8]

Playwright Anthony Neilson's work Normal: The Düsseldorf Ripper (1991) is a fictional account of Peter Kürten's life, is told from the point of view of his defense lawyer. It was adapted for the screen as Angels Gone, and also released under the title Normal.

Kim Newman included Peter Kürten as a minor character in his novel The Bloody Red Baron (1995),^[9] serving as a "batman" (military servant) to Manfred von Richthofen, the "Red Baron".

The heavy metal band Church of misery made a song about Peter Kürten named The Düsseldorf Monster^[10]

Further reading

• The Monster of Dusseldorf: The Life and Trial of Peter Kürten by Margaret Seaton Wagner, 1932.
• The Sadist by Karl Berg, 1945.
• Peter Kurten: A Study In Sadism by George Godwin 1938.

References

• Lane, Brian and Gregg, Wilfred (1992). The Encyclopedia of Serial Killers. Berkley Books.
• Fuchs, Christian [1996] (2002). Bad Blood. Creation Books.
• Cummins, Joseph S. (2001). "Cannibals: Shocking True Tales of the Last Taboo on Land and at Sea." Lyons Press.

Authority control WorldCat VIAF: 47565783 LCCN: n88229389 ISNI: 0000 0000 6153 1690 GND: 119173581