Are vampires real? And if they are, how do you really kill a vampire?
“How do we kill vampires?” is a question that always seems to come out on top of other domestic concerns. Like; “What are vampire families like?”, “How do vampires decorate on a budget?”, & “Where do vampires keep their money?”. Getting rid of bloodsuckers always seems to be the highest priority. The people of the Weimar Republic in Germany, had a plan – guillotine them!
From 1918 to 1924, the city of Hanover was stalked by a terrifying menace: a killer who did away with his victims by viciously biting their necks. Newspapers of the day asked – are vampires amongst us? Less than a quarter of a century after Bram Stoker wrote his iconic novel, this German town seemed to have a vampire problem of its own. The unknown killer was nicknamed the Vampire of Hanover. People hesitated to be alone on the streets at night as the killer claimed at least two dozen victims in a six year period.
Were the people of Hanover simply gripped by vampire fever, or was there something supernatural lurking in the shadows? For years, no one was quite sure. Then, in 1924 there were two important developments in the world of vampires. First, Stoker’s novel Dracula was adapted into a play by Irish actor and playwright Hamilton Deane. Later that same year, the Vampire of Hanover was finally caught- and found to have been nothing more than a man, all along.
And along came Fritz
Friedrich Heinrich “Fritz” Haarmann was born October 25, 1879. Fritz was a quiet, well-behaved child, if not an academically gifted one. He was briefly apprenticed to a locksmith when he was fourteen- imagine, a vampire who not only doesn’t need to wait for permission, he can actually unlock your door whether you let him in or not!
In 1897, the year that Bram Stoker’s Dracula was first published for audiences around the world, Haarmann’s world shrank considerably. He was locked away in a mental asylum and declared incurably deranged- though his mother helped him escape shortly afterwards. He served in the military before beginning a career as a petty thief unable to hold down a job due to his habit of robbing his employers.
Between 1905 and 1913 he began robbing graves with a former co-worker, though he spent the bulk of those years in jail for various petty crimes. What made him escalate from theft and grave robbing to murder in 1918? To hear Haarmann tell it, World War 1. He had been arrested in 1913 and caught with a hoard of stolen goods, so he spent the war in prison, though on a work release program. When he was freed in 1918, though, he jumped right back into crime, claiming that the desolation of post WW1 Germany contributed to his choices.
Crimes of opportunity
More likely, it was the influx of young men returned from the war that inspired Haarmann’s depravity. Especially when he found a willing partner, Hans Grans, 20 years his junior, to set up a home with. For six years, young men went missing from the streets of Hanover. For six years, police did nothing about it- even when the trails of multiple missing men ended at Haarmann’s door.
Why did the police ignore his crimes for so long? How did Haarmann get away with so many murders? Perhaps it was because he began two occupations in 1918. The year Fritz Haarmann became a serial killer, he also became a police informant.
Harmann hid in plain sight, and he did it very well. Between dropping tips for the police about illegal activity in the area, Haarman lured young men to his residence by promising them food or assistance, then strangled them and gave them a “love bite”– his name for a vicious bite to the Adam’s apple, which led to him biting through several victims’ tracheas.
Once his unfortunate target was dead, Haarmann would dismember them and throw their body into the Leine River. Everything went according to plan until 1924, when skulls began to wash up in Hanover. One skull was concerning. Two was a pattern. When all was said and done, police recovered over 500 pieces of bone. Even then, police did not question Fritz Haarmann.
The one who got away
It was a potential victim, Keith Fromm, who would eventually be Haarmann’s downfall. He became enraged at the boy before getting him alone to kill him, eventually reporting him to the police for using forged papers. When Fromm countered by accusing Haarmann of depravity, finally someone took notice. In all, he initially confessed to 14 murders.
How could he have gone undetected for so long? How could the police he regularly reported to not have realized something was wrong? How could the man he lived with, Hans Gans, not have become suspicious? Haarmann claimed Gans was, in fact, the mastermind behind their acts that, if things had been Gans’ way, the death toll would’ve been in the hundreds.
The black (& red) market angle
As it was, too many lost their lives to the Vampire of Hanover, also called the Butcher of Hanover, and the Werewolf of Hanover during his six year reign. The Butcher even sold body parts from his victims as “black market pork” to unsuspecting housewives. He was tried for his crimes in December of 1924, accused of 27 murders, confessing to 14, and eventually found guilty of 24.
On April 15, 1925, Friedrich Heinrich “Fritz” Haarmann was executed by guillotine on the grounds of the prison in Hanover, ending his bloody reign of terror. The Butcher of Hanover’s head is preserved in a jar to this day. That is, if guillotining a vampire is actually enough to kill it.