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