"The Monster of Dusselfdorf"
At the age of nine Peter Kurten went rafting with friends, when returning Peter was alone, his friends had drowned, this may have been his first murder. By his teens Kurten became a frequent jailbird and this being the basis for his life, he would spend 27 of 47 years in prison.
None of those exploits for which he was previously incarcerated earned him his name. It would be a time of fear, and in particular a year of fear in which he would earn his name as the "Monster of Dusseldorf."
In 1929 he attacked around 23 people, sometimes more than one a day, the town and surrounding areas was in a panick, and the police were baffled. At first it seemed, and quite logically that it was not one man commiting these murders, rapes, and assaults. The reason behind the local forces logic was that the murders were not in one particular style neither were the attacks and the close occurrences in time which some of the crimes occurred made it seem to be illogical that one man was the source.
Nine thousand people were questioned, and the police would investigate three thousand clues, and even consult psychics. In November 1929 Kurten sent a letter to a newspaper, that directed the police to the remains of five year old girl as well as the body of a housemid, which after postmortem it would show that she had been sexually violated after death.
In May 1930 he went for a stroll in the woods with a young women, he attempted to choke and rape her but after her resistance he let her go, telling her not to notify anyone of his acts. This of course was sloppy and the police were soon informed by the woman.
He quickly confessed to all of his crimes as if he had been eagerly awaiting to tell someone, he revealed at least 79 crimes and 13 murders, he also told the police he drank the blood of one of his victims. Despite trying for the insanity plea Kurten was sentenced to death and met the guillotine on July 2nd 1931.
