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Perks cannot be earned or

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redeemed on select items. Restrictions

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apply. Following

0:30

the First World War, Germany, having never

0:32

found its feet economically throughout the conflict,

0:35

now found itself crumbling under the further weight

0:37

of heavy reparations. Many of

0:39

those that had survived the fighting found themselves

0:42

in a desperate state, carrying out

0:44

all sorts of underground, legally dubious or

0:46

just straight up illegal activities in

0:48

order just to get by. There were

0:50

some that thrived in the lawless

0:52

environment, profiteering from others' misfortune. And

0:55

then there were others, a very select

0:57

few, who not only thrived but positively

0:59

excelled at breaking the law. And

1:02

amongst those, there were one or

1:04

two who did so in some very dark

1:06

ways. Friedrich Harmann

1:08

was one such individual. Trading

1:10

used clothing by day, he carried

1:12

out a series of brutal murders that

1:15

would earn him the monikers of the

1:17

butcher of Hanover, the wolfman, and the

1:19

vampire of Hanover. Perhaps

1:21

even more frightening than his nicknames was

1:23

the attitude of the man himself. He

1:25

once told a shocked audience, Oh,

1:28

believe me, I'm not ill. It's

1:30

only that I occasionally have funny turns. This

1:32

is Dark Histories, where the facts are worse

1:34

than fiction. Hello

1:38

and welcome to Dark Histories, Season 8,

1:41

Episode 9. I literally just

1:43

looked that up and I've almost forgotten already.

1:45

I think it's Episode 9. Pretty sure it's

1:47

Episode 9. It's good to be

1:49

back. Just a quick shout out. I

1:52

just want to thank you for all the messages from people

1:55

sending you condolences about the cat. It's

1:57

very kind and thoughtful. Yeah, it's very

1:59

kind. nice. Thank you very much for all

2:01

those messages. We're back for the bang

2:03

today. I do want to give a

2:05

quick just sort of content

2:08

warning I guess for this episode. I

2:10

don't normally do these. I generally tend to

2:12

think you know it's a podcast called Dark

2:14

Histories. We're all adults. We know what we're

2:16

getting into but with this one

2:18

with the subject matter there is a

2:20

quote later on in the episode that

2:22

is particularly difficult probably for

2:24

if you're a bit squeamish with gore. I would

2:28

probably skip that quote but

2:30

I will give

2:32

you a heads up just before it as well so you

2:35

shouldn't catch anyone

2:38

out but yeah otherwise say the content warning

2:40

just in general. This one's pretty pretty we're

2:42

getting into the colors with this one. It's

2:44

pretty deep down and dark so yeah back

2:47

with the bang. Let's go. This

2:50

episode's called Fritz Harmon the Vampire

2:52

of Hanover. Living

2:57

as a citizen in post-first World War Germany was

2:59

not a particularly easy thing to do even

3:02

in a modern industrialized urban environment.

3:05

With the country being poorly equipped economically

3:07

to survive the war the Allies

3:09

strict blockade on goods and food

3:11

made it increasingly difficult to survive

3:13

without resorting to fairly extreme measures.

3:17

Prior to the war Germany had relied upon

3:19

imports for almost a third of their food

3:21

and farming supplies. With the vast

3:23

majority of men fighting on the front by

3:25

the end of the war the country's food

3:27

production had almost halved despite women and war

3:30

prisoners filling in for part to shortfall. And

3:33

the knock-on effect animals and livestock

3:35

suffered heavily impacting the supply of

3:37

meat and dairy. As

3:40

the government continued to restrict food by enacting

3:42

heavy rationing and price caps food

3:44

riots followed as farmers began selling their

3:46

produce to the highest bidder and

3:49

frustration and desperation kicked in throughout

3:51

the population especially in urban

3:53

areas. Inequality thrived

3:56

as those from rural farming districts or

3:58

those with connections to farmers. the area of

4:00

town, began buying or stealing food

4:02

that they would then sell in the virgin

4:04

and black markets that had become a staple

4:06

of daily life in the cities. The

4:10

illegal markets were such an open problem

4:12

that detectives and informers were tasked with

4:14

spending a huge amount of their time

4:17

scouring the train stations, seeking out the

4:19

smugglers as they returned from food runs.

4:23

By the end of the war,

4:25

malnutrition, starvation and tuberculosis rates had

4:27

all skyrocketed with over 750,000 civilian

4:30

deaths recorded as a consequence

4:32

of food shortages. Pasting

4:35

had brought scant relief. With

4:37

a tank in economy, hyperinflation decimated

4:39

the German mark, compounding the already

4:41

dire situation and leading to the

4:43

continuation of the black markets for

4:45

years following the war.

4:48

Far from solving everyone's problems, the declaration

4:51

of the German Republic in November of

4:53

1918 did little for the general

4:55

population, who had almost no confidence

4:57

in the unstable coalition that had formed

4:59

a government. In

5:02

Hanover, in central northern Germany, 180 miles

5:05

west of Berlin, people felt the

5:08

sting of goods and food shortages, along

5:10

with an increasingly worthless currency as

5:12

much as any other city in the country. In

5:15

a population of just under 500,000, it

5:18

had exploded in seas towards the end of the

5:20

19th century. As industrialization had

5:22

hit the region hard, a

5:25

relatively small city surrounded by thousands of acres

5:27

of woodland, Hanover had grown

5:29

and expanded with the introduction of

5:31

coal mining to the area, with

5:33

surrounding villages transforming into factory hubs.

5:36

Like other urban areas in Germany, the

5:38

black markets in Hanover had thrived throughout

5:41

the war as the railway station became

5:43

a strange mix of travel hub, smuggling

5:45

centre and homeless shelter. Black

5:48

markets nearby sold an assortment of

5:51

nefarious goods, including second-hand clothing, dairy,

5:53

bread and meat from rabbits, goats,

5:56

dogs and cats, many

5:58

of which had been stolen, died from

6:00

disease. By the

6:02

spring of 1924, six years after the

6:04

end of the war, things had

6:06

barely improved. The German mark

6:09

was at an all-time low, with inflation

6:11

having risen to an astronomical scale. And

6:14

then, when things for the majority of

6:16

the German people looked as if they couldn't get any

6:18

worse, the city of Halover

6:20

was thrown into a state of excitement, shock

6:22

and panic, when a considerable

6:24

number of human bones were discovered, seemingly

6:27

discarded into the river, leading

6:29

to a national scandal. Things

6:34

went from bad to strange in Halover, on the 17th of

6:36

May 1924, when a group of three children

6:40

playing by the bank of the river, south

6:42

of the Herrenhausen Gardens, found a

6:44

human skin, and then two or three days later,

6:46

a second skin washed out but on

6:48

the same bone. After being

6:50

examined by the police doctor, it was concluded

6:52

that they had both been the skulls of

6:54

young men, around the ages of eighteen to

6:57

twenty, and whilst they

6:59

sounded fairly concerning, it wasn't until

7:01

two weeks later when two more skulls were

7:03

found that people really began to panic. One

7:07

of the skulls found in June had washed up along the

7:09

river by a mill, whilst a second,

7:11

which had had its scalp removed, had been

7:13

found amongst the sediment on the riverbank further

7:15

to the east. Once

7:17

more, they were examined and determined to

7:19

be of young boys, this time between

7:22

the ages of eleven and thirteen. It

7:24

wasn't until after the second pair of

7:26

skulls had been found in June that

7:28

the results of the examinations were made

7:30

public, confirming that the skulls had been

7:32

forcibly and brutally removed from

7:34

their bodies using a sharp instrument. Rumours

7:39

quickly began circulating as people put forward

7:41

their own theories, whispered through the streets

7:43

and homes, with the two

7:45

most popular ideas surfacing that they were

7:47

either discarded by the nearby medical institute

7:50

in Gertingen or discarded by grave robbers

7:52

who had been caught in the act and had tossed

7:54

them into the river during their getaway. Things

7:57

quickly spiralled into more of a panic however.

8:00

when another group of young boys, playing in a

8:02

patch of marthland, uncovered the discarded

8:04

burlap sack that had been stuffed full

8:06

of brooms. Following

8:09

the discovery, rumours quickly switched from

8:11

thoughts of unscrupulous medical students to

8:14

something much darker, as people

8:16

began to fear that in the largely

8:18

unquestioned butcher injury which had been operating

8:20

with illegal and at times unsavory meats,

8:22

some would have been harvesting homeless young

8:24

boys from the streets to sell their

8:27

flesh on the black markets, which

8:29

quickly led to a moral panic. The

8:32

fears of a deranged murderer on the loose

8:34

were not at all helped by the ever-growing

8:36

list of missing persons, many of

8:38

which were young boys who had run away from home

8:40

in the years following the war, which by

8:42

1924 stood at over 600 names. Spurred

8:47

on by these rumours, Hanoverians organised a search

8:49

party a week later, on 8 June, the

8:53

weekend of a religious holiday, in

8:55

order to try and find evidence that might lead

8:57

to a trace on the boogeyman that had manifested

8:59

in the public mind. Hundreds

9:02

of locals came out in what was the

9:04

largest search in German criminal history, and

9:07

when they discovered a number of

9:09

human bones discarded by riverbanks and

9:11

tossed into hedges, the police, fronted

9:13

by Detective Superintendent Ratz, built

9:16

a temporary dam across the river in the centre

9:18

of town in order to search the riverbed. The

9:22

results were more gruesome than most

9:24

had anticipated, as piles of bones were

9:26

dredged from the exposed riverbed. After

9:29

they had been collected, catalogued and painfully pieced

9:32

together by the court doctor, it

9:34

was determined that they had discovered the remains of at least

9:36

22 people, all of which

9:38

were young men aged between 15 and 20 years old. Many

9:43

of the bones had evidently been in the water for

9:45

some time, but there were plenty that

9:47

showed signs of being recently done. As

9:51

the rumours continued to show more and more

9:53

signs of being horrifyingly realised, the

9:55

officials went to work trying to track this

9:58

butcher of Hanover, before a lot of room,

10:00

suspects were being rounded up as the police

10:02

hauled in hundreds of deviants from around the

10:04

black markets and the nearby Old Town, which

10:07

had long been known as a den of

10:09

vice and illegality. One

10:11

suspect stood out to the police more than others,

10:13

however. Fritz Harmon was

10:16

a local dealer in Suffinhand clothing,

10:18

who had also been known to deal in black market

10:20

meat from time to time, and whilst

10:22

he was well thought of generally, with many

10:24

people thinking him something of a charmer, he

10:27

also had something of a reputation for

10:29

sexually assaulting young boys. He

10:32

was arrested on the 23rd of June, and

10:35

though he denied all accusations at first, it

10:37

didn't take too long before he was confessing

10:40

to far more than the police, or even

10:42

the grisly rumours, had ever imagined. Born

10:48

on the 25th of October 1879, Friedrich

10:51

Heinrich Karl Harmon, better known around

10:53

Hanover as Fritz, had

10:55

grown up in a relatively comfortable environment, though

10:58

his relationship with his parents was never truly

11:00

stable, and his father, an unemployed railwayman who

11:02

had been sacked following an accident that had

11:05

ended up in the death of a train

11:07

driver, was known around Hanover

11:09

as a syphilitic old womaniser who liked to

11:11

drink, despite having married into a

11:13

good position, and using his newfound

11:15

wealth to bankroll the founding of a cigar

11:18

factory. His wife,

11:20

Joanna, who was seven years his senior,

11:22

had endowed upon him a healthy dowry

11:24

consisting of a small fortune in cash,

11:26

along with several properties, and

11:29

it appeared he made the most of his position. Fritz

11:32

had been their sixth child, and following

11:34

his birth, Joanna spent a

11:36

considerable amount of time in bed unwell. Despite

11:39

this, she doted on Fritz in a

11:41

relationship that existed in stark contrast to

11:43

that of his and his father's. As

11:47

Fritz grew up, he showed signs of

11:49

being an intelligent, competent young man, though

11:51

somewhat unusually, he took pleasures in practices

11:53

which at the time were seen as

11:56

feminine activities, such as learning to

11:58

darn clothing with his mother. At

12:01

school, he proved to be a popular boy

12:03

whose teachers praised his exemplary behaviour, and

12:05

scolded him for his below average performance. Twice

12:08

he had to be pulled back to repeat

12:11

years before he finally graduated at the age

12:13

of fifteen. Following

12:16

school, his father set him up with an

12:18

apprenticeship with a locksmith, but

12:20

not taken to the work. In April of

12:22

1895, Fritz signed up as a

12:24

non-commissioned officer, where he was sent

12:26

to the German-French border commune of Nürth-Brizak,

12:28

an 18th century fortress town that housed

12:30

over 5,000 officers.

12:33

Just like in school, Fritz gained a

12:35

reputation for his exemplary behaviour, and he developed

12:38

his skill as a talented gymnast, but

12:40

six months after his enlistment, things

12:42

began sliding downhill. In

12:45

September, he was admitted into the sick

12:47

bay, suffering from what was diagnosed as

12:50

sudden mental disturbance, though

12:52

it sounded an awful lot like anxiety.

12:55

A month later, he was readmitted this

12:57

time showing signs of epilepsy, which

13:00

led him to be discharged a month later upon

13:02

his own request. After

13:05

he returned to Hanover, he started work in

13:07

his father's cigar factory. Given

13:10

the pair's tempestuous relationship, the position was not

13:12

to last, and by the summer of 1896

13:15

Fritz, lost and wayward, had found

13:17

himself arrested after he had developed

13:20

the fairly unsavoury practice of luring

13:22

young boys into dark alleyways or

13:25

sheltered doorways and then sexually abusing them.

13:28

It was the start of what was to

13:30

be a reasonably traumatic period that saw him

13:32

bounce from asylum to hospital and back again

13:35

as he was diagnosed with

13:37

congenital mental deficiency, and

13:39

the town doctor, Dr. Schmalfist, branded

13:42

him incurably deranged. If

13:46

Fritz had been uninfused by the cigar factory,

13:48

he positively hated the asylums and were plead

13:50

with the doctors to not take him back

13:52

there when he was released to the hospital

13:54

for diagnosis. That October,

13:57

he escaped whilst working in the gardens.

14:00

Fleeing to his family home, he was

14:02

rounding out five days later and dragged

14:04

back, kicking and screaming, before being transferred

14:06

to Lagenhagen on the northern outskirts of

14:08

Hanover. Two

14:10

months later, on Christmas Day of 1897,

14:12

he proved just how strong his

14:15

fear and hatred of the asylum system had become

14:17

when he escaped a second time, this

14:19

time choosing to make the 460-mile trek

14:21

to the Swiss border where

14:23

he stayed with relatives in Zurich. Fritz's

14:28

life in Zurich seemed to return to some

14:30

level of normality, and he worked in a

14:32

shipyard for a year before taking a position

14:34

as an assistant pharmacist. In

14:36

April of 1899, now aged

14:39

20, Fritz returned to Hanover,

14:41

with the drama of his escape from the

14:43

asylums two years previous having blown over. But

14:46

things slid almost immediately south, as

14:49

his father once again attempted to force him into

14:51

work with his factory, as Fritz

14:53

continued to rebel. In

14:55

a last-ditch effort to settle him down, his

14:57

parents arranged a marriage to a young lady

15:00

named Erna from a neighbouring household, but

15:02

it was never quite the matrimonial ideal that they had

15:04

hoped, and one year and one

15:07

abortion later Fritz had once more

15:09

enrolled in the military throwing a call-up, this

15:12

time as a marksman in the rifle battalion

15:14

in the village of Colmar, far to the

15:16

self-mess. Sadly,

15:18

Fritz's mother, Johanna, passed away in 1901,

15:22

which punctuated a brief period of happiness

15:24

for Fritz, who had once more found

15:26

military life quite fulfilling. When

15:28

he returned to the battalion after his mother's funeral,

15:31

his mental health caught up with him once more, and

15:34

following a collapse whilst out marching in

15:36

December of 1901, he was hospitalised for

15:38

four months, until he

15:40

was eventually diagnosed with mental

15:42

deficiency and congenital idiocy. He

15:46

spent several more months languishing on a

15:48

hospital ward for patients suffering nervous to

15:50

see this, before finally,

15:52

in July of 1902, he was

15:54

dismissed from service and labelled permanently

15:56

invalid. as

16:00

anyone dubbed as officially unfit to work, were

16:03

legally excluded from ever working again, meaning that

16:05

Fritz was kicked out of the military and

16:07

sent back to Hanover to do his best

16:09

to survive on a military pension that was

16:11

growing more and more worthless by the week.

16:15

Moving in with his sister, he entered into

16:17

a prolonged legal battle with his father, partially

16:19

due to his father withholding his share of

16:21

his mother's inheritance, and partially

16:23

due to their ongoing tensions over his

16:25

father's belief that Fritz's illness was all

16:27

a sham to excuse him from work.

16:30

He was a bitter entanglement that eventually saw

16:33

Fritz arrested for threatening to beat his father

16:35

to death, and his father applied

16:37

to having thrown back in an asylum. The

16:40

charges were eventually dropped when Fritz's siblings

16:42

refused to corroborate their father's story, but

16:45

given the seriousness of his father's accusations, the

16:47

police still felt it prudent to have Fritz

16:50

examined by the doctor, whose report

16:52

made for bleak reading, at

16:54

least as soon as Fritz was concerned. Although

16:58

Harmon is morally inferior, of

17:00

little intelligence, idle, rough, irritable

17:02

and totally egotistical, he is

17:05

not mentally ill as such, and there is

17:07

no official reason to have him committed to

17:09

a lunatic asylum. Following

17:14

the doctor's examination, Fritz was released

17:16

and somewhat amazingly, despite all their

17:18

earlier grievances, he managed

17:20

to secure a loan from his father in

17:23

order to open a fishmonger's, which he did

17:25

under his wife, Erna's name, due to him

17:27

being registered as full-time disabled. On

17:29

the side, he began working as an insurance

17:32

salesman, but when the officials found out

17:34

about this, they ordered him to cease working. This

17:37

would have been a blow by its citizens, but

17:39

at the same time, Fritz's home life with Erna

17:41

was going from bad to worse. Erna

17:43

fell pregnant, and Fritz accused her of

17:46

carrying out an affair, leading to Erna

17:48

tossing him out into the street and

17:50

seeking a separation. This

17:52

Separation by itself would not have overly

17:54

concerned Fritz, who had at this point

17:57

contracted gonorrhea and taken to sleeping exclusively

17:59

with male prostitutes. So, paying young boys

18:01

to spend the night with him, however,

18:04

a second reprogram manifested. in the

18:06

segment the system the shop and such as

18:08

so source of income have emerged to dinner

18:10

and his name. Meaning. That was.

18:12

Now let's penniless on the streets

18:14

and with absolutely nothing. But

18:18

then it it was a stay at see many never stopped

18:20

France. Industries prohibition from what

18:22

he forced his credentials and sound of

18:24

position as an invoice Kaka Paint. Their.

18:28

He made friends with the same out cleaner

18:30

hoots wrong with a ten year old son

18:32

from the trio that would routinely go out

18:35

Nine Scope for the graveyards and rubbed my

18:37

son's selling any fines on the black market.

18:40

At. The same time he began sailing

18:42

and suturing sons from work, leading to

18:44

him eventually genesis and winded up in

18:47

front of a judge facing charges for

18:49

larceny imprisonment. He. Was

18:51

the beginning of what would turn out spare

18:53

long career was bouncing in an hour prison

18:56

as he took on the role of a

18:58

con man, was enormous compulsively to lie, cheat,

19:00

and swindle in any way. The. Monthly

19:03

he found himself arrested for pretending

19:05

speak government sina toss with disinfecting

19:07

the rooms of the recently deceased.

19:10

Instead of watching the rain down, however, he

19:13

would simply clean the man's any valuables. Last

19:16

awaiting trial he was arrested. Been small

19:18

for tents and still a job. Sixty

19:21

pickled eggs, Fulsomely, he

19:23

was just awful enough a crime to

19:25

find himself arrested once again in Nineteen

19:27

Thirteen, on the eve of this as

19:30

well war Anima, five year sentence and

19:32

a cozy south far away from the

19:34

frontlines. He was released

19:36

in April nineteen eighteen. He was given his

19:39

freedom just in time see the Allied armies

19:41

begin their mosques to the German lines and

19:43

the end the war. First

19:46

started to Berlin incest. finding nothing to

19:48

inched in that he returned to Haneda.

19:51

The. Fighting was over. The Germany had

19:54

suffered tremendously. and with the

19:56

country and economic free folk fritz found

19:58

is cooling his years of

20:01

swindling proving the perfect experience to thrive

20:03

in the near wasteland. But

20:05

there was more to life than black markets for Fritz,

20:08

who saw an opportunity for

20:10

much, much more. After

20:16

he returned to Hanover, Fritz set about getting

20:18

back into business. He rented

20:20

a shop at No. 27 Silla Strass, a

20:22

main street running through the centre of Hanover

20:25

with a small room out back which he

20:27

planned to use as a living and office

20:29

space. From this

20:31

base of operations he began working

20:34

the black markets, trading illegally slaughtered

20:36

meat and other small in-demand consumables.

20:39

At the same time he began working as

20:41

a police informant, a position that

20:43

he manipulated to his best abilities, informing

20:46

the police to those criminals that he had

20:48

taken a dislike into and at the same time

20:50

working on the side of the criminals he

20:52

favoured by informing them of police activity that might

20:54

keep them out of trouble with the law.

20:58

His general ammo was to offer a smuggler

21:00

or trader a space initiative to

21:02

store their illicit goods. He would

21:04

then inform the police who would raid the

21:06

shop at the drop-off time capturing the traders

21:09

red-handed. Whenever the police carried

21:11

out a raid using one of Fritz's tip-offs,

21:13

they would be sure to cuff him in

21:15

public in order to maintain the integrity of

21:17

his undercover operations. Working

21:20

as a police informer, he gave Fritz a

21:22

number of incredibly useful perks, not

21:24

least the ability to operate as an

21:26

illicit butcher with a degree of impunity,

21:29

but he also received an official detective

21:32

identification card that gave him an

21:34

element of power and status as well

21:36

as the ability to travel throughout the city

21:38

and enter more or less wherever he looked

21:40

whenever he liked. Using

21:42

these credentials he went about his old business

21:45

of picking up whom his young boys, mostly

21:47

from around the station, were he would offer

21:50

them a place to stay for a price. And

21:54

this was exactly how he picked up the

21:56

17-year-old Friedel Roth from the station in September

21:58

of 1918. A runaway,

22:01

Friedel had been a difficult young man,

22:03

skipping out on school and selling his

22:05

father's clothes whilst he was off fighting in

22:08

the war. After falling

22:10

out with his mother, he ran away on

22:12

25 September, leaving a note for her, telling

22:15

her that he would return once she was nice again.

22:18

Fritz had met him with one of his friends in

22:20

a cafe near the station, and

22:22

after flushing his detective idea about, he offered

22:24

them small gifts before taking them out to

22:27

the woods and sexually assaulting them. A

22:30

month later, after hearing no word from their

22:32

son and after Roth Sr had returned home

22:34

from the war, his parents began

22:36

searching for their own way home, and

22:39

after asking around at the station, they quickly

22:41

found that all evidence seemed to leap into

22:43

Fritz. They

22:45

told the police, who sent a plainclothes officer

22:48

named Braun to his shop, but

22:50

when Braun arrived, rather than Friedel

22:52

Roth, he found Fritz in bed with

22:54

a different 13-year-old boy, which

22:57

led to his arrest for sexual assault and battery.

23:00

It was a remarkably close shave for Fritz,

23:02

who despite being handed down a nine-month

23:05

prison sentence, had only managed to

23:07

avoid a much worse fate, thanks to the fact that

23:09

Braun had failed to carry out a search in the

23:11

room, citing that he had never

23:13

bothered because he had not been told to.

23:16

Had he done so, he would have found

23:18

the head of Friedel Roth wrapped in

23:20

newspaper and stuffed behind the stove.

23:27

Around this time Fritz met Hans

23:29

Graham, a young swindler, twenty-two years

23:31

his junior. Born

23:33

in 1901, he had grown up amongst

23:35

the books of his parents' bookbinding company

23:37

in Hanover, India. Like

23:39

Fritz, he had been held back at

23:41

school, eventually graduating at the age of

23:44

sixteen, where he began an apprenticeship as

23:46

a metalworker. And

23:48

Just like Fritz, he quickly decided that

23:50

that line of work wasn't to his

23:52

liking, and so instead he joined the

23:54

army, serving a brief stint before he

23:56

was unceremoniously kicked out for a repeated

23:58

lack of punctuality. After.

24:00

His return to Hanover you run away

24:02

from home and began a career in

24:04

crime fighting in illicitly obscene she's getting

24:06

greedy and parting say the new in

24:08

the don't see some of the Hilton.

24:12

Hearing. That fritz was handed out to

24:14

take young boys from the other and then

24:16

at the station hands approach France and soda

24:18

And since this amazing money. Or.

24:21

Followed was the blossoming of a business

24:23

and personal relationship that would last several

24:25

years. At times for it's

24:27

like south the hands referring to him

24:30

as like his own to. The

24:32

others he was like a business partner. and

24:35

other times again the to allow users.

24:39

In order to avoid his impending nine

24:41

month prison sentence, Fritz quietly moved from

24:43

his previous address, choosing to rent a

24:46

low key room from an elderly whether.

24:48

It was to fry the place of his trail

24:51

for a few months. They eventually they co op

24:53

with him and tossed him in jail where he

24:55

spent the majority of nineteen Twenty. During.

24:57

this time stance kitchen so busy and

24:59

bring him petty crime for which he

25:01

was eventually arrested and jailed for a

25:03

month before for his release. When.

25:06

They're both embraced. In the New year, they

25:08

rented a room in a hotel together before

25:10

securing longer term lodgings in In In. Countless

25:13

times they just might do for gentlemen and

25:15

told the Michaels they were running a treatise.

25:18

The. Whole thing that they were suing people

25:20

into the place that they were less

25:23

than two respectable business when they were

25:25

in reality scamming and stating excluding into

25:27

by begging in the more well to

25:29

do areas passing themselves off as returning

25:31

war veterans in desperate need of dating

25:33

or by simply stating it from laundry

25:35

these kids. He. Made them

25:38

think we're living which translates to spend

25:40

on gambling and women. He.

25:42

Was a cozy little race to the

25:44

local. Up with him eventually and boost

25:46

arrested in January of Nineteen Twenty one.

25:48

I'm most hands my to scram as

25:51

any punishment. Fritz spent three weeks in

25:53

prison. With.

25:55

a local newspapers running notices warning

25:57

people against the scanners the season

26:00

a new way to make money. Unwilling

26:02

to move too far from the lucrative trade

26:04

of second-hand clothing, they simply cut

26:06

out the middleman and took to stealing clothes

26:08

directly from walking lines. That

26:11

summer they rented a room at number 8 Noi

26:13

Strath in the south-east of Hanover, situated

26:15

by the river. Fritz

26:18

told the landlord that he was renting

26:20

it primarily for business storage but would

26:22

be installing hands there overnight as a

26:24

matter of security. He was sparsely decorated

26:26

with a built-in wardrobe in the cubbyhole under

26:28

the stairs and an old bed in a

26:30

washstand. Freedom was

26:32

short-lived once more, however, and Fritz was

26:35

arrested again in August, serving a further

26:37

six months in jail. Whilst

26:39

knocked up, Hans continued to live on Noi

26:41

Strath, filling the landlady that his boss had

26:43

gone away on business. For

26:46

six months, Hans sublet the room out

26:48

to a trio of prostitutes, whilst it

26:50

became a den of drinking, noise and

26:52

violence. When the landlady eventually had enough of

26:54

his trouble, she kicked Hans out in February of

26:56

1922, a month before

26:59

Fritz's release. When

27:01

Fritz returned in March, he was forced to

27:03

break into his own room, only to find

27:05

it completely empty. After some

27:07

back-and-forth with the landlady, who wanted Fritz out

27:10

as well, he managed to secure the room

27:12

for the foreseeable future thanks to the local

27:14

tenancy laws. Shortly

27:16

after, Hans returned and the two slipped

27:18

back into their old way of life,

27:20

trading in used clothing, illicit meat, which

27:23

Fritz said he obtained from a mysterious

27:25

butcher known only as Carl, and with

27:27

their room serving as something of a

27:29

social hub for prostitutes and homeless young

27:31

boys. It didn't

27:33

take too long for strange rumours to begin

27:35

circulating around the place, as

27:37

people questioned where the meat was really

27:40

coming from, and why Fritz left late

27:42

at night carrying a large wax cloth

27:44

sack slung over his shoulder. Desartly, many

27:47

people began to suspect that Fritz was trafficking

27:49

young boys to Africa, where he would sell

27:51

them to her foreign legion. In

27:56

February of 1923, Fritz and Hans met a young, 16-year-old

28:00

pianist from Berlin named Fritz

28:02

Frank, who had been homeless and sleeping

28:05

at the station. Frank

28:07

had originally travelled from Berlin where he had robbed

28:09

his parents in order to sell their belongings on

28:11

the black market before running away to Hanover with

28:13

a friend of his. Fritz

28:16

set Frank's friend up with enough money to sleep

28:18

in a nearby hostel whilst he took Frank home

28:20

with him. For a

28:22

while, Frank partied with Fritz, Hans and their

28:25

prostitute friends, Eli and Dorschen, until one day

28:27

Fritz sent them all out for the evening,

28:29

claiming that he had a meeting with the

28:32

detective superintendent about his informant

28:34

work. The next morning, when Eli returned to Fritz's place

28:36

in order to clean, she found

28:38

the boy laying in the bed, pale as a sheet.

28:42

Panicked, she asked Fritz what was wrong with him, and

28:44

Fritz told her to be quiet and that the

28:46

young boy simply wanted to sleep before ordering her

28:49

to return later that day. When

28:51

she did return, the door was locked and Fritz

28:53

yelled to her to come back later that evening.

28:57

That night Fritz finally allowed her

28:59

to enter, but strangely the room inside

29:01

had been cleaned from top to bottom already.

29:04

Agitated, Fritz asked her if she could

29:06

smell anything bad before explaining

29:09

to her that Frank had gone away

29:11

to Hamburg. If this

29:13

wasn't odd enough, Frank's clothing was

29:15

still lying on the bed. Two

29:18

days later, when Eli and Dorschen were

29:20

cleaning the room once more, they came

29:22

across Frank's cigarette holder in a drawer,

29:25

and considerably worse, they found

29:27

a foul smelling bucket in a cubby hole full

29:29

of pieces of meat that had been crudely covered

29:31

with a bloody apron. By

29:34

now, the two women were sufficiently panicked,

29:36

and so grabbing a few small cubes

29:38

of the flesh, they hightailed it to

29:40

the police station, where they presented it

29:42

to the police detective Muller and explained

29:44

their suspicions. As it

29:46

happened, Muller knew Fritz very well, given that

29:48

he was Fritz's contact at the police station

29:50

for his position as an informant. Somewhat

29:53

disbelievingly, he took the meat

29:55

samples from the girls and handed the move

29:57

to the police surgeon, Alex Shekfitz, who gave

29:59

them a cursory sniff before declaring it to

30:01

be a couple of lumps of pork, a

30:04

quite impressive feat under normal silicon stances that

30:07

was made all the more spectacular given that

30:09

he had had a cold at the time

30:11

that had blocked his nose entirely. Just

30:14

to be safe Miller arranged for a search

30:17

of Fritz's place but nothing untoward was found

30:19

and so all suspicion was dreamed. A

30:22

month later Fritz met Wilhelm Schulz at the

30:24

station, a 16 year

30:26

old writer's apprentice who accompanied Fritz home

30:28

one night and then after setting off to

30:30

work one day was never seen or heard

30:32

from again. That

30:35

month Fritz also went into partnership with

30:37

a retired police commissioner named Olferman who

30:39

had recently folded his own detective agency.

30:43

Knowing Fritz as a good informant he suggested

30:45

that the two open their own detective agency

30:47

and it was a deal that Fritz jumped

30:49

on that would further extend his credibility amongst

30:51

the locals along with his credentials that would

30:53

now be at such a level that he

30:55

would be able to meet, seduce and

30:58

ultimately kill with complete

31:00

impunity. May

31:02

turned out to be a busy month for Fritz. After

31:05

first killing Roland Hutch, a 16 year old

31:08

student who had run away from whom

31:10

to fulfill his dream of joining the Marines he

31:12

turned his hand to Hans Sonnenfeld, a

31:14

19 year old Hanoverian who had spent his

31:16

time hanging out with other loose ends around

31:18

the station and whom Fritz slept with and

31:20

then murdered. Roland Hutch's

31:23

parents did contact the police to report their son

31:25

missing but the police who saw Roland

31:27

as just another down and out runaway failed to

31:29

follow up his parents please and the

31:31

missing report was quickly lost on the desk of

31:34

a disinterested officer. Months

31:37

later Fritz had been sent into the

31:39

13 year old son of his neighbour,

31:41

Ernest Ehrenberg, whose parents owned a shoemaker

31:43

shop. Ernest had fled from

31:45

his mother after he had carried out a delivery

31:47

for one of his father's customers and misstayed the

31:49

payment on his way home. Fritz

31:51

consoled Ernest and then took him

31:53

home. His parents never saw him

31:55

again. much

32:00

for Fritz, however, as he was becoming more and

32:02

more aware of the rumours circulating the neighbourhood concerning

32:04

the fact that a lot of young boys were

32:07

seen coming and going from his room, though

32:09

significantly fewer seemed to be going. After

32:12

a tobacconist and his wife from the shop opposite Fritz's

32:15

lodgings attempted to follow him one night whilst he had

32:17

been out taking a sec of body parts out to

32:19

the river, Fritz made the decision

32:21

to move on to a new base of operations,

32:24

moving from his room on Noyce Strass and renting

32:26

a room in an old wooden frame tavern whose

32:28

landlord was an acquaintance of his. Between

32:31

August and September Fritz killed

32:33

three young boys, eighteen year

32:35

old Heinrich Strass, seventeen year old

32:38

Paul Bronuszewski and seventeen year

32:40

old Richard Graf, all three of

32:42

whom had been runaways that he had met at the

32:44

train station where he had offered them a place to

32:46

stay and the promise of finding them a job before

32:48

taking them home, sexually assaulting them

32:50

and then killing them. Disposing

32:54

of the bodies was always a rather difficult

32:56

affair for Fritz, but there was one potential

32:58

avenue he used which allowed him to not

33:00

only be a gracious and generous host but

33:03

also to earn a good income. Fritz

33:06

began selling meat at half the usual price

33:08

to the landlord of the tavern that he lived

33:10

above and though he assured them that

33:12

it was always horse or pork, no

33:14

one was ever quite sure where the meat came from

33:16

and the taste was said to be somewhat unusual.

33:20

At other times Fritz used the tavern kitchen

33:22

to make sausages or mints which he served

33:24

to his guests, earning him a

33:26

good reputation amongst the locals. Over

33:29

the next six months Fritz continued to kill

33:32

at least another seventeen young boys. Wilhelm

33:34

Erdner was a sixteen year old locksmith son

33:36

who had run away from whom, as

33:39

was Herman Volf, both who were killed

33:41

in October of 1923. Thirteen

33:44

year old Heinz Brinkmann, seventeen year old

33:46

Adolf Honepel and eighteen year old Adolf

33:48

Hennies were all murdered by Fritz prior

33:50

to Christmas in the usual manner, all

33:53

being runaways that he had whipped off the streets

33:55

and then slaughtered in his room. Ernest's

33:58

speaker and Heinz Brinkmann were killed. Eric Koch were both

34:01

17 years old when Fritz met and murdered them

34:03

both in January of 1924. Ernest

34:06

Speaker was one of the few murders that

34:08

Fritz really remembered carrying out. When

34:11

he woke up in bed next to the dead boy, he

34:13

said that it had found him stiff and blue. I

34:16

pulled him out of bed by the hands, laid him on

34:18

the floor and cut him up. These

34:22

murders were followed by 17-year-old Villy

34:25

Senga and 15-year-old Herman Spicart, both

34:28

of whom were killed in February. In

34:30

April, another 17-year-old runaway who had fallen for

34:33

his parents' good humour by skipping

34:35

school and lying to them had run away

34:37

from home and been sleeping rough around the

34:39

station before Fritz came across him. Late

34:42

that month, he killed 22-year-old Herman

34:44

Bach. That case was

34:46

unusual, not least because of his age, but also

34:48

due to the fact that he had been known

34:50

to Fritz for several years before he had killed

34:52

him. After two had met

34:54

in 1921 at the station, Bach

34:56

was a labourer by trade. He spent most of his

34:59

time hanging around wasting time in the hovels of the

35:01

old town. Fritz

35:03

had used him as an assistant in

35:05

several of his detective cases informing the police,

35:07

whilst also having himself some of his

35:09

second-hand clothing from time to time. When

35:12

Bach's neighbour approached Fritz to see if he knew of his

35:14

whereabouts and to suggest that they were putting him missing to

35:17

the police, Fritz assured them that

35:19

since he was so well known to the station, he

35:21

would take care of it. Of

35:23

course, he did not. Despite

35:25

the obvious suspicion from Bach's neighbour, it didn't

35:28

seem to stop Fritz from wearing Bach soon,

35:30

which he later said he had bought from the missing man. The

35:34

spring of 1924 saw Fritz murder

35:36

another seven young boys, Wilhelm

35:39

Eppel, Robert Witzel, Heinz

35:41

Martin, Fritz Wittig, Friedrich Ebeling,

35:43

Friedrich Koch and Erich de

35:45

Vri. All the while Fritz was

35:47

getting on with his business as usual, skulls

35:49

had begun turning up in the river and

35:52

the citizens of Hanover were spiraling into

35:54

a moral panic. stones

36:00

pulled from the riverbed or in the marshes

36:02

and bushes along the banks multiplied. At

36:05

the same time, the police found the prisoner

36:07

to close up the case, ratcheting up just

36:09

as quickly as panic and fear ripped through

36:11

the streets of Hanover and quickly spread to

36:13

wider Germany via the press, who were posting

36:15

details of the fines in the hope of

36:18

prompting any witnesses or people with potential leads

36:20

to come forward. The police

36:22

had been questioning people throughout the old town,

36:24

extensively, where they found one name pop

36:26

up over and over again. Fritz

36:29

Harmon As it happened,

36:31

Fritz was well known to the police, not

36:33

only for his work as an informant, but for

36:36

his continuous trips to jail for swindling and

36:38

sexual assault. As a matter

36:40

of fact, they had searched his home on

36:42

several occasions before, but in most cases nothing

36:44

criminal had ever been found, and

36:46

in those that had wound up with an arrest, it

36:48

was never for anything like murder. For

36:51

all the reports of him being a conman, a

36:53

thief and a sexual predator, there were reports that

36:55

he was a perfectly amiable gentleman, and

36:58

there was no doubt that he had been helpful for the

37:00

police in the past. Still,

37:02

he rose as the number one suspect, and so

37:04

the police agreed in a course of action. Seeing

37:08

as how all of the officers in Hanover were

37:10

well known to Fritz, they enlisted the aid of

37:12

two young policemen from Berlin, who were to go

37:14

undercover and pretend to be runaways dossing at the

37:16

station. Whilst doing so, they

37:18

would keep a close eye on Fritz and hopefully

37:21

find out just what rumours about him were true,

37:23

if any at all. As

37:25

luck would have it, none of this plan ended

37:28

up being necessary, as just as the groundwork was being

37:30

laid on the 22nd of June 1924, a young 15-year-old

37:32

boy named Karl Fromm was arrested

37:36

at the station for being a homeless

37:38

runaway, travelling on stolen papers. In

37:41

what was pure coincidence, Fromm had been handed

37:43

to the place by Fritz himself, only

37:46

if now Fromm was at the station, he had his

37:48

own story to tell. According

37:50

to him, he had been approached by Fritz whilst he

37:52

had been sleeping at the station, and

37:54

Fritz had invited him back to his house. He

37:57

had then spent several days at his home being

37:59

sexually assaulted. The officer on

38:01

duty at the time, aware that Fritz

38:03

was a suspect in an active investigation and

38:06

completely unaware of how dangerous he was thought

38:08

to be, took it upon

38:10

himself to march over to Fritz's home in the

38:12

early hours of the morning on the 23rd June

38:14

where he arrested Fritz and had him thrown in

38:16

jail. At

38:19

first Fritz denied all the allegations against

38:21

him, but eventually as

38:23

he was intentionally starved, force-fad laxatives,

38:25

sleep deprived and severely beaten for

38:28

a week, he confessed to

38:30

the murders of dozens of young men. The

38:32

cries and chants from the being crowds of

38:35

parents of missing children who had camped outside

38:37

the police cells and heavily pressured the police

38:39

into acting, on threats of them

38:41

carrying out their own mob justice, had

38:43

probably helped millions along too. In

38:46

the end Fritz confessed to so many murders

38:48

that he could not remember which of the missing

38:50

boys were killed by his hands at all and

38:53

which were not, nor could he remember how

38:55

he carried any of them out. When

38:57

asked how many he had killed he said

38:59

simply, maybe 30, maybe 40,

39:02

I don't know, there are some you don't know

39:04

about, but it's not those that you think. For

39:08

many of the murders Fritz never gave

39:10

the police any specific information on how,

39:12

when or why he had killed each

39:14

victim, but he did relay an

39:17

incredibly disturbing general overview of how he went

39:19

about disposing of a body that gave a

39:21

telling insight into how systematic he had created

39:23

the task. For the squeamish

39:26

out there you may want to skip ahead

39:28

now. I

39:31

never intended to kill those youngsters, some of the

39:33

boys did come back several times, I

39:35

then wanted to protect them from me, I knew

39:37

that if I got going something would happen and

39:39

that made me cry. I said

39:42

to them don't drive me wild, because if I

39:44

weren't wild I would bite them and suck their

39:46

necks. Some of the boys

39:48

at the cafe Krupke liked to muffle or prevent

39:50

their partner from breathing, sometimes we

39:52

scrapped for hours, it's not easy for

39:54

me to get going. Lately it's happened

39:57

more often, it used to worry me, oh God,

39:59

where's that? As it went to end, I would

40:01

throw myself on top of those boys. They

40:03

were worn out by the antics and the debauchery.

40:06

I bit through the Adam's apple. Must have

40:08

throttled them at the same time. I

40:11

would collapse on the dead body. I'd go and

40:13

make myself some strong black coffee. I'd

40:15

put the body on the floor and cover the face with the

40:17

cloth so it wouldn't be looking at me. I'd

40:20

make two cuts in the abdomen and put the

40:22

intestines in a bucket. I'd dip

40:24

a towel in the blood collecting in the abdominal

40:26

cavity and keep doing that until it had all

40:28

been soaked up. Then I'd make

40:30

three cuts from the ribs towards the shoulders, take

40:33

hold of the ribs and push until the bones

40:35

around the shoulders broke. I'd

40:37

then cut through that area. Now

40:39

I could get the heart, lungs and kidneys and chop

40:41

them up and put them in my bucket. Then

40:44

I'd take the legs off and the arms. I'd

40:47

take the flesh off the bones and put it in my

40:49

wax cloth pack. The rest of the flesh

40:51

went under the bed or in the cubby hole. It

40:54

would take me five or six trips to take everything out

40:56

and throw it down the toilet or into the river. I'd

40:59

cut the penis off after I'd emptied and cleaned

41:01

the chest and stomach cavities. I'd cut

41:03

it into lots of little pieces. I

41:06

always hated doing this but it couldn't help it. My

41:08

passion was so much stronger than the horror of the

41:11

cutting and chopping. I'd take the

41:13

heads off last. I'd use a little kitchen knife to

41:15

cut around the scalp and cut it up into little

41:17

strips and squares. I'd put the skull

41:19

face down on a straw mat and cover it with

41:21

rags so that you wouldn't hear the bangin' so much.

41:24

I'd hit it with the blunt edge of an axe until

41:26

the joints of the skull split apart. The

41:28

brain went into the bucket and the chopped up bones

41:30

into the river rocks at the castle. Or

41:33

else I went to Ellen Ride where it's nice

41:35

and marshy and threw the pieces in the ground

41:37

and trampled over them. Whether

41:40

or not it was the torture or the fact that

41:42

the evidence had been piled up against him Fritz

41:44

had finally crumbled. Though he maintained

41:47

that the skulls were not victims of

41:49

his as, like he said, he

41:51

smashed the skulls in his existence to pieces. During

41:54

the week that he had maintained his innocence the police

41:56

had raided his home and collected hundreds of items of

41:59

clothing from his house. his room and from witnesses

42:01

who had come forward admitting to having dealt with fritz

42:03

in the past. Many

42:05

of the pieces were put on display and the public

42:07

had been invited to come and see if any of

42:09

them could be identified as having belonged to the missing

42:11

boys. It turned out that many

42:13

of them could, including a green

42:15

school hat that had belonged to Ernest

42:17

Ehrenberg and several items

42:19

belonging to Heinrich Strauss, Paul

42:22

Broniskowski, Hermann Wolf,

42:24

Heinz Brinkman and Adolf Hennys, several

42:26

of which had been hand stitched

42:28

by their own mothers. It even turned

42:30

out that when Fritz had been arrested he

42:32

had been wearing Hermann Broch's suit. Meanwhile,

42:35

throughout the questioning, mobs had

42:37

continued to form in the streets of Hanover, at one

42:39

point storming a home of a group of women who

42:42

were rumoured to have been in league with Fritz. The

42:44

police were forced to rush round and beat their

42:46

way through the crowds in order to rescue the

42:48

women from the lynch mob who were intent on

42:50

closing the case in their own way. On

42:55

16th August Fritz was sent for a medical

42:57

examination, returning eleven days later, where he was

42:59

left to sit in jail and await trial

43:01

which would open on 4th December at the

43:04

Hanover courthouse in front of two judges

43:07

and six jury members. Hans

43:09

Granz, who had been arrested several weeks after Fritz,

43:11

was to be tried at the same time. Fritz

43:15

had had no money for a defence lawyer and

43:17

with the job not proving to be too popular,

43:19

he had inhanded the services of

43:22

an elderly, relatively inept, legal representative

43:24

who was described as a nice

43:26

fellow in the pub but powerless

43:28

and slightly presumptuous. With

43:30

the opening indictment read aloud to all members

43:32

of the trial, plus the eighty or so

43:35

audience members, all sitting below the glass ceiling

43:37

of the old courthouse, Fritz was

43:39

placed on charge of murdering twenty-seven young

43:41

boys, with Hans accused of two cases

43:44

of instigating murder. The

43:46

trial then kicked off in dramatic fashion,

43:48

as Fritz attempted to drag his accomplice

43:50

Hans down with him, yelling

43:52

out that Hans had done more than simply instigate

43:55

two of the murders. Granz

43:57

didn't just bring the boys to me to kill. He

44:00

didn't just use all sorts of tricks to get me

44:02

going, he showed the boys how to do it.

44:05

He took advantage of my madness and for days

44:07

on end he would try to persuade me to

44:09

kill boys whose trousers that he wanted. He

44:11

killed too. He did worse things than me." Following

44:15

this shook and outburst, over 200 witnesses began

44:18

their flow through the room, some

44:20

with legitimate information to share the trial, whilst

44:22

others had simply decided to make up some

44:24

fiction in order to be a part of

44:26

the drama and excitement. Police

44:28

false witnesses were not the only part of the

44:31

trial that bordered on farcical, as

44:33

the police officials looked to close ranks in order

44:35

to avoid any of the blame for having left

44:37

Fritz in the wild for so long. During

44:40

his incarceration and trial he was well

44:42

looked after, provided his statements

44:44

concerning the police were favourable. At

44:47

the same time, the medical expert who had been

44:49

called into the trial happened to be the same

44:51

man that had declared him fit and healthy way

44:53

back in 1908 and who had not been

44:56

keen to have had his diagnosis deemed faulty

44:58

at best, or at worst

45:01

seen as shouldering part of the blame. The

45:04

expert forensics officer called in was Shaq Fitts

45:06

who had sniffed the meat samples given to

45:08

him whilst having a cold and not declared

45:11

them as pork, and all of this started

45:13

from a raft of small illegal inconsistencies that

45:15

plagued the whole affair along with

45:17

the sensationalist press coverage, by

45:20

now dubbing Fritz as the Hanover

45:22

Vampire or the Werewolf. Finally

45:25

after fifteen days of drama,

45:27

pressure, confusion, fantasy and absurdity,

45:30

the experts handed over their reports stating

45:32

that although they believed Fritz to have

45:35

had a pathological personality there was no

45:37

illness which had robbed him of his

45:39

free will and he therefore should take

45:41

the full responsibility for his crimes. At

45:44

10am on 19th December 1924 Fritz

45:47

received twenty-four death sentences whilst Hans

45:49

was handed two for his part

45:51

in two of the murders. Fritz

45:55

accepted them quietly, only stating that

45:57

he would go to the beheading block happily. hands,

46:00

appealed, though it was later rejected.

46:03

At six a.m. on the morning of

46:05

April 15, 1925, Fritz was

46:08

handed a cigar and a cup of coffee as

46:10

per his final wishes, before he was

46:12

marched from his cell and had his head

46:14

placed on the guillotine in the grounds of the Hanover

46:16

prison. His final words were

46:18

recorded as, I am guilty,

46:21

gentlemen, but, hard though it may be, I want

46:23

to die as a man. I repent, but

46:26

I do not fear death. The

46:30

trial of Fritz Harman had been one of

46:32

extreme dramas throughout Germany, and even after the

46:35

execution, just as things had begun to calm

46:37

down, there was to be one final

46:39

twist that threatened to turn the whole thing upside down.

46:42

A Hanoverian messenger had come across a

46:44

letter seemingly tossed aside in the

46:47

street, addressed to Hans-Grand's

46:49

father, claiming to be from

46:51

Fritz, and written on 5 February, months

46:53

before his execution. In

46:56

the letter, Fritz confessed to having fabricated

46:58

his accusation against Hans. Hans-Grand's

47:01

cheated on me and lied to me terribly

47:03

for years, but I still couldn't stay away

47:05

from him because I had no one else in the world. Grand's

47:08

had absolutely no idea that I killed. He

47:10

never saw anything. Grand's only

47:12

knew that I was perverse and went around with

47:14

young people. When things were

47:17

discovered about my murdering, the post forced me

47:19

to tell untruth. I was

47:21

afraid of being ill-treated again, so I agreed

47:23

to everything and said things about Grand's that

47:25

weren't true. I, Fritz

47:27

Harman, called upon Heaven as my witness that

47:30

Grand's is innocent. Grand's

47:32

wasn't even guilty of dealing in seeming good. Grand's

47:35

never bought anyone to me, and had Grand's known

47:37

of me killing, he would have prevented it. I

47:39

can't take his guilt to the grave with me and

47:41

call upon my mother as witness who is sacred to

47:43

me and who is with God. Hans-Grand's

47:46

has been sentenced unjustly, and

47:48

that's the fault of the place, and also because

47:50

I wanted revenge. His

47:52

letter seems to take several liberties. Hans

47:55

had been arrested several times and found guilty

47:57

for dealing in stolen goods, for example. So

48:00

was it simply nothing more than the pangs of

48:02

conscience, or was there more to it? The

48:05

police had, without question, tortured a confession from

48:07

him, but had they tortured an

48:09

accusation too? Whatever

48:12

the meaning behind the letter, Grant was re-trayed

48:14

in January of 1926, and whilst the

48:17

outcome was the same, finding him guilty on

48:19

two instances, his death sentence

48:21

was overturned in favour of two twelve-year

48:23

sentences to be served concurrently. Upon

48:27

his release, he was entered into the Saxonhausen

48:29

concentration camp until his liberation at the end

48:31

of the Second World War, when he

48:33

moved back to Hanover to see how his life finally passing

48:35

away in 1979 at the age of 74. In

48:41

the end, Friedrich Harman readily admitted

48:43

to having killed fourteen of the victims

48:45

he set trial for, and was found guilty

48:47

of twenty-four of the twenty-seven he was

48:49

accused of in total. At

48:51

one point, he admitted to having killed between

48:53

fifty and seventy young boys, though

48:56

in reality the true number of his victims will

48:58

likely never be known. He

49:00

denied ever having sold any of their flesh as

49:02

meat. Throughout the

49:05

trial, when he was shown photographs of his victims,

49:07

he would simply shrug his shoulders frequently,

49:09

claiming to not recognise them, and

49:12

with a resignation in his voice, he would

49:14

tell the police to choose it to him all the same. When

49:17

the bone fragments were entered into court, alongside

49:19

the bloody bucket and the blood-stained

49:21

camp bed that had been taken from his room, he

49:23

continued to deny that any of the skulls had anything

49:25

to do with him. In

49:28

eighty years, his child would stir a degree

49:30

of controversy, mainly on the treatment

49:32

of mentally ill patients, and of

49:34

the practices of the police who had essentially

49:37

tortured a confession from Fritz, and

49:39

who had been suffering from immense pressure to

49:41

not only keep their own noses clean, but

49:44

also to calm the bay in mobs who

49:46

had very clearly become set on lynching Fritz

49:48

themselves if the officials were to fail. Following

49:53

his execution, Fritz's head was

49:55

submitted for medical examination before being

49:57

donated to the Goettingham Medical School.

50:00

where it remained until 2014 and it was

50:02

finally cremated. So

50:10

that was the story of Fritz

50:12

Harmon and I guess there's quite a lot

50:14

to talk about after these short adverb breaks.

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52:52

So yeah, the story of Fritz Harmon told you back

52:54

with a bang. A pretty

52:57

dark apologies for

52:59

the gore segment. That

53:02

one, I

53:04

guess, part of Fritz's confession.

53:07

But I just thought it was really important

53:09

to show his thinking and his

53:12

attitude towards the murders. I thought it

53:14

was really an interesting

53:17

example of how detached and

53:19

systematic he made. Or

53:22

how detached he was from the process and how systematic

53:24

he'd made it. Which I think

53:26

goes a long way to prove how

53:28

many people he had killed.

53:30

But yeah, I mean, a bit about the

53:32

story in general. Sources are of course really

53:34

hard to find for this story. In

53:38

English, they're incredibly hard to find. And

53:42

old sources are a little bit tough to

53:44

read, mainly

53:46

due to their depiction of gay

53:49

men in the 1920s. So

53:51

you end up sort

53:53

of having your left kind

53:55

of trying to read between the lines because you know

53:58

about what how he really acted. than what he was

54:00

really like. Because a lot of

54:02

it is unfortunately just grafted onto him

54:05

by a bunch of what were essentially

54:07

prejudiced academics because the best source for

54:10

this is written by an academic, a

54:12

psychologist who was around in the time

54:14

and actually spoke to Harmon.

54:16

But unfortunately his account, although it's

54:19

really thorough, it's incredibly

54:21

homophobic. So you are sort of

54:23

say left trying to work out

54:26

how for its Harmon actually was minus

54:29

all the prejudicial language. So

54:32

it's quite difficult. But yeah, an

54:34

interesting story. Where

54:36

do you start really? I mean, so much of it was

54:38

sort of horrible and toxic and

54:41

problematic. His relationship

54:43

with Hans Grands, for example,

54:45

was just incredibly problematic. I

54:48

mean, everything they did

54:50

was problematic. But don't

54:53

get on deep into it. It seemed like

54:55

Hans was at

54:57

least considered himself heterosexual.

55:01

But he was clearly in a sexual relationship with Fritz.

55:04

But according to him, it was

55:06

because he was to manipulate him,

55:10

basically get money out of him and use

55:12

him as his kind of partner in crime.

55:14

Now, whether or not that's because he didn't want

55:16

to admit that he was gay

55:19

or bisexual or whatever, it

55:22

would have been the case because a lot of the

55:24

difficulty of finding people who

55:27

Fritz had assaulted was the fact that

55:29

because he was an assault

55:31

by another man, people

55:33

were ashamed of

55:36

coming forward to admit that because obviously it

55:38

was a huge taboo. I mean, it's obviously

55:40

even now it's a taboo, sexual assault, a

55:42

lot of people struggle with coming forward because

55:45

of the shame and the guilt and all

55:47

the rest of it that they feel of

55:50

that at times. So you can imagine back

55:52

then when being gay was obviously a huge

55:54

taboo in itself. It was

55:56

like a double whammy, I guess.

55:58

So whether Hans

56:01

Grands is honest and he really was a

56:03

heterosexual who was just in

56:05

a sexual relationship with Fritz in

56:08

order to manipulate him. I

56:11

don't know if that's true or not but either

56:13

way to be honest it's incredibly problematic. And

56:16

there's a lot of other things in this that are just

56:18

difficult to know what was true and what was not. So

56:20

for example Fritz's

56:23

confession in general was clearly tortured out of

56:25

him, obviously coerced

56:28

and I don't think in

56:30

modern times it wouldn't

56:33

stand up in court, it

56:35

wouldn't be accepted. There

56:37

are reports back in

56:39

the day and there's a newspaper report, one

56:42

particular report that I found that described

56:44

him after he'd confessed as sitting

56:46

in his cell and crying and

56:48

being a broken man and they

56:51

essentially interpreted this behaviour as like

56:53

him sort of guilty

56:56

and being like a broken man because of his

56:58

overcome by his guilt. But

57:00

I frankly interpreted that as him being

57:03

a broken man because he'd been tortured for a week.

57:05

And if that's the case, how much of

57:08

his confession can you believe what's true and

57:10

what's not? It is certainly true that he

57:12

ended up basically saying like when

57:15

the police would come up to him with a name he

57:17

would say, I can't remember but yeah why not, let's just

57:19

stick it on the list and maybe probably did kill

57:22

him. Now was that because

57:24

he killed so many people that he forgot or

57:26

was that because he was trying to intentionally blank

57:28

it out or was it

57:30

because he was just admitting to whatever the police were

57:32

throwing at him because he was desperate to get

57:36

out of the beatings and the torture? Now that's not

57:38

to say I don't think he was guilty, I think

57:40

he absolutely was guilty of every single one of those

57:42

murders and I think he was probably guilty of a

57:44

lot more that he got away with. But

57:46

I just don't think the details that we

57:49

know are probably that

57:51

reliable. How

57:54

far from the truth they are, I don't

57:56

know. And the ultimate truth is that, you

57:58

know, that the

58:00

fundamental at the core, we probably

58:02

got it, the police probably got it right, you

58:04

know, like he did kind of look at people, how

58:08

true said the details, I just don't know.

58:11

And one part that I probably do believe him is that he said

58:13

that none of the skulls that were

58:18

dragged out of the river were his because he smashed down all

58:20

the pieces. And I believe

58:22

that I think, you know, at that point was he

58:24

got to lose, say, no, they were mine too, if

58:26

they really were. And I

58:28

say judging by that quote that I gave that

58:30

you know, the way he made it so systematic, I

58:33

think he was incredibly efficient with his

58:35

disposal of the bodies. I don't so I generally

58:37

do believe that those skulls had nothing to do

58:40

with him. But

58:42

say that doesn't mean I think he's innocent

58:44

in any way, shape or form, I think he

58:46

probably got away with a lot more than

58:48

we know. But yeah, another

58:51

interesting side which is completely

58:53

away from is

58:55

the police, like how guilty were they or

58:57

how complicit at least were they in what

58:59

was going on? Because it sounds to me

59:01

like everybody knew what was happening, like everyone

59:04

had at least an idea. And

59:06

the police almost certainly had an idea. But

59:08

because he was useful as an informant, and

59:11

the people that were going missing were

59:13

essentially homeless runaways that no one really

59:15

cared about. They basically just turned a blind eye

59:17

to it, it was, you know,

59:20

there is definitely elements

59:22

of that in the trial. And

59:25

the psychologist who

59:28

wrote the

59:30

account that I was saying about, Theodore

59:32

Lessing, his name is, he

59:35

actually accuses the police basically

59:38

of being corrupt and

59:41

of knowing a lot more than they

59:43

let on, basically. But I think they

59:45

knew a lot. And I think he

59:47

got away with killing for a lot

59:49

of years, really fraction of. But

59:52

you know, you rarely hear that side

59:54

of the story, because obviously, the story is

59:56

always focusing on the murders and the murderer. But

59:58

it's not really a good thing to do. In this

1:00:00

case, you've got one that I

1:00:02

think Theodore Lesson puts it in a really nice

1:00:04

way. You wouldn't even have something like that. You

1:00:07

can't try the snake without considering the marshland that

1:00:09

it lived in or something like that, which I

1:00:12

thought was a pretty politic

1:00:14

way of putting that. But yeah,

1:00:16

basically, you don't want the people,

1:00:18

the locals doing. The

1:00:21

bit about the meat is another one that's interesting. I

1:00:24

assume probably you want

1:00:26

to include it because it's kind

1:00:28

of a sensationalist part of the story,

1:00:30

isn't it? And it's interesting if it's

1:00:32

true. But he never

1:00:35

admitted to ever selling any human

1:00:37

meat. He said he never did. He said that he

1:00:39

never sold any of the human meat. I

1:00:41

don't believe that. But I

1:00:44

don't know why he would lie about it again because at this point,

1:00:46

what more was he going to have to lose? He might as

1:00:49

well have been truthful. Yeah, I'm

1:00:51

not sure. I think he probably did. I think

1:00:53

it sounds like he definitely did. I think he

1:00:55

definitely sold it to his landlord

1:00:58

in the tavern below. I think he probably

1:01:01

made the sausages and the minstings of them as well. Yeah,

1:01:04

then of course, I suppose the

1:01:06

last thing to really talk about was

1:01:09

the confession letter that

1:01:11

was found on the street that was written by him. I

1:01:14

think that's all complete and utter nonsense. I

1:01:17

think it's impossible that Hans Gran didn't know

1:01:19

what he was saying because obviously that letter,

1:01:21

it was a lot longer. I only quite

1:01:23

read a part of it. But

1:01:25

basically the letter was exonerating Hans

1:01:27

of any guilt whatsoever

1:01:29

saying that he didn't even know. I think

1:01:31

part of the quote that actually included said

1:01:33

if he'd have known about the murders, he

1:01:36

would have tried to stop them. It's completely nonsense.

1:01:39

There's no way that Hans

1:01:41

didn't know every other thing that

1:01:43

was happening in her house because he was coming

1:01:45

and going daily. He was in a relationship

1:01:47

with Fritz. He

1:01:50

absolutely knew what was happening. He was selling

1:01:52

all the clothes. He without

1:01:54

a doubt knew what was happening. But

1:01:57

yeah, outside of that, I don't know.

1:02:00

There's not too much mystery for this one, other

1:02:03

than I guess who was the murderer in the

1:02:05

shadows that killed the people that left

1:02:07

the skulls intact, who knows, I guess we're never going to

1:02:09

find that out. An

1:02:12

interesting story, I'd say it definitely fits

1:02:14

into the Dark History criteria, I think.

1:02:17

So yeah, I hope you enjoyed the story. It was a

1:02:19

bit of a grim one, bit of a gruesome one. We're

1:02:21

back in a couple of weeks with

1:02:24

something a little bit more spooky. But

1:02:28

yeah, until then, if you'd like to

1:02:30

contact me, my email address is contact

1:02:32

at darkhistories.com. You can also

1:02:34

get in touch with me on all social

1:02:36

media and have a website, darkhistories.com. You

1:02:38

can find all the links to everything in there. Everything

1:02:40

is also in the show notes. You can also find ways that

1:02:42

you can support. So if you'd like to, it

1:02:45

doesn't always have to be financial. I do have

1:02:47

a Patreon if that's your bag and you have

1:02:50

a Patreon to spare. But if not, there

1:02:52

are plenty of ways that you can support.

1:02:55

If you need to sign up to P P

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P P P

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1:04:12

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