Born as Peter Kürten on May 26, 1883, to alcoholic abusive parents in Mulheim am Rhein, Germany. He was eventually referred to as the Vampire of Dusseldorf and the Dusseldorf Monster. Between February and November of 1929; Kurten committed no less than 9 murders, along with many attempted murders. Prior to this crime spree; in the years leading up to 1929; he was no stranger to the criminal world. Such activities included sexual assaults, burglary, arson, theft, threatening behavior, and attempted robbery, among other crimes. Aside from the crimes and murders that he was eventually convicted for; he confessed to the 1913 murder of a 9-year-old girl in Mulhein am Rhein as well as the attempted murder of a 17-year-old girl in Düsseldorf. Kürten’s moniker came from the fact that he would occasionally attempt to drink the blood from his victims' wounds. Another moniker, the "Düsseldorf Monster" was attributed to him, both because the majority of his murders were committed in and around the city of Düsseldorf, AND the savagery he inflicted upon his victims' bodies. Peter Kurten was executed in July 1931 at 48 years old. He is the German serial killer whose “widely analyzed career influenced European society’s understanding of serial murder, sexual violence, and sadism in the first half of the 20th century.”
For this episode, I tried to stick to the dates and the facts that we knew about him/his criminal life. In part 2, We will delve more into our thoughts regarding his crimes and behavior. So, join us tomorrow for Part 2 - where Brittany (from Where the Weird Things Are Podcast and I will do a deep dive discussion about the case, the people involved, our thoughts regarding nature vs nurture, and much more. Tune in and join the conversation on Facebook!
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