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Thread: Fritz Haarman - The Butcher of Hanover

  1. #1
    hoxharding Guest

    Fritz Haarman - The Butcher of Hanover

    Crimes
    From 1919 to 1924, Haarmann committed at least 24 murders, and possibly many more. Haarmann's victims were young male vagrants and male prostitutes who hung around railway stations, whom Haarmann would lure back to his apartment and then kill by biting through their throats in a kind of sexual frenzy. Rumours had it that Haarmann would then peddle meat from the bodies of his victims as black market pork, but there was no evidence. His accomplice and live-in partner, Hans Grans, sold the clothing of his victims, and Haarmann claimed Grans urged him to kill handsome boys, but was otherwise not involved in the murders.
    Haarmann was eventually apprehended when numerous skeletal remains, which he had dumped into the river Leine, washed up. His trial was very spectacular; it was one of the first major media events in Germany. There were no concepts or expressions for his crimes; he was called a "werewolf", a "vampire" and a "sexual psychopath" at the same time. But apart from the cruelty of what Haarmann had admittedly done, even more scandalous â?? shaking German society at the very core â?? was the involvement of the police in the case: Haarmann cheated on thieves and dealers. He had also been used as an informant by the police who failed to identify Haarmann as the murderer.
    Haarmann was beheaded, though it was not entirely clear if he would rather have to be locked up in an asylum for being in a state of diminished responsibility. But public opinion was heated and would not have approved of Haarmann just being locked away. Haarmann was found guilty and executed, even though serious doubts about his state of mind remained. Grans was charged found guilty of inticement to murder in a single case of 24 deaths concerned and also sentenced to death, despite the discovery of a letter from Haarmann, declaring Grans's innocence.
    The case stirred much discussion in Germany, not only about the death penalty but also about the correct approach towards mentally ill offenders, about investigation methods of the police and the role of their informants, and last but not least about homosexuality - the case, of course, fueled prejudice against homosexuality.[1

  2. #2
    Kellycatt1 Guest
    I have never heard of this one. Thank you posting it.

  3. #3
    Lisamarie Guest
    what a story!

  4. #4
    Reecy Guest
    I've read about this nutcase. There were 27 victims. The victims were identified by their remains and their belongings were found in the possession of the accused.

    When asked how many did you kill? He answered 30 or 40 I don't remember.

  5. #5
    Rosebud666 Guest
    Bump.

    Haarman's head is still kept at the Department of Forensic Medicine at the University here in Göttingen:



    It is not on public display.

  6. #6
    deanfan Guest
    I never heard of this one, thanks for posting.

  7. #7
    lynn wilson Guest
    Must be getting close to Holloween LOL i thot it looked like he had a Micheal Myers mask on

  8. #8
    Rosebud666 Guest
    Quote Originally Posted by lynn wilson View Post
    Must be getting close to Holloween LOL i thot it looked like he had a Micheal Myers mask on
    Nah, that's just the effect of being in a jar of formaldehyde for three-quarters of a century or so.

    Wish I knew somebody in the Forensics Department who could sneak me into their collection. My only contact at the med school teaches anesthesiology - all he does is save you from the other masked men in the OP room.

  9. #9
    Rosebud666 Guest
    The newspaper Goettinger Tageblatt announced today that the university's Department of Forensic Medicine has parted with the pickled head of the infamous "Butcher of Hannover".

    The grisly relic, which had been kept at the university for 90 years, was quietly cremated and buried in an anonymous grave already last spring.

  10. #10
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    They should have put it on Ebay.

  11. #11
    Rosebud666 Guest
    Quote Originally Posted by findadeathaddict View Post
    They should have put it on Ebay.
    LOL. If I ever meet the head of forensic medicine (the Herr Doktor, not Fritz), I'll pass along the suggestion. Still, I suppose it's too late now.
    There actually was some talk of making the head an exhibit in the new grand museum of science they are planning to open here. I suspect that is one reason why it was finally destroyed, in order to head this development off at the pass.

    Judging from the photo I posted above (since I never got to meet Fritz face to face), his prison haircut still looked remarkably good after spending nearly a century in formaldehyde.

  12. #12
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    Quote Originally Posted by Rosebud666 View Post
    LOL. If I ever meet the head of forensic medicine (the Herr Doktor, not Fritz), I'll pass along the suggestion. Still, I suppose it's too late now.
    There actually was some talk of making the head an exhibit in the new grand museum of science they are planning to open here. I suspect that is one reason why it was finally destroyed, in order to head this development off at the pass.

    Judging from the photo I posted above (since I never got to meet Fritz face to face), his prison haircut still looked remarkably good after spending nearly a century in formaldehyde.
    It really does. Amazing what that stuff can do.

  13. #13
    StewartGilliganGriffin Guest
    Never heard of this guy before. I have to say "The Butcher Of Hanover" is a pretty cool handle. Not as good as Jack The Ripper or The Zodiac but pretty cool.

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