I chose Peter Kurten because, as a serial killer, there’s a lot more to him than what his crimes told. Something that sets him apart from most was his sadistic tendencies, meaning he received sexual pleasure from inflicting pain and other brutal acts on someone. While in mid brutality, Kurten would reach a climax in his sexual excitement, this lead some to go as far as identifying him to have been a psychopath. Kurten’s unusual obsession with bestiality sets him in a specific category from other sadistic killers.
The slitting of throats of sheep and goats during intercourse was what he most enjoyed, leading to his infamous calling card later found on the bodies of his human victims. Saliva smears would later be found on their bodies, indicating he progressed to drinking the blood of humans, which is how Peter Kurten obtained the name “The Vampire of Dusseldorf” from the public. Social conflict theory suggests that the upbringing, peer groups and role models of a person are key influences leading to their criminal behavior.
I strongly believe that Kurten falls under this theory because of his upbringing through poverty, subjection to sexual violence and the introduction to bestiality, all of which definitely molded his crude and heinous interests. These interests, however landed him in and out of jail for 24 years, and he’s even been recorded saying his revenge on society is due to the treatment he received while in the penal system. Kurten didn’t have the privilege of an education, along with the lack of interaction with those beside his family may have been a problem.
I also believe that the only father figure he had, his family’s poverty and Early Life Future known Vampire of Dusseldorf, Peter Kurten, was born in 1883 into a poverty stricken family in Mulheim am Rhein Germany as the third eldest of thirteen children. As a child, him and his family lived within the walls of a one room home, subjecting he and the rest of the children to an immense amount of sexual violence on his father’s behalf with nowhere to go in order to avert.
The Kurten household was a destructive place, often times as a child Kurten witnessed his father rape his mother and sisters, on top of which he also had a known tendency of habitual alcoholism that the children were subjected to see and feel the wrath of. This up close and personal daily subjection to such brutality must have had an influence on Kurten, he became a frequent runaway and also found a sense of escape from his home life through developing somewhat detrimental relationship with a boarder who lived with the family, around the age of eight.
Although the name of the man is unknown, it is said he was a degenerate dogcatcher who taught Kurten the sadistic ways of torture and the sexual pleasure he could get from it. Seeking out the dogs no one claimed, Kurten and his neighbor would torture them until their death, deriving sexual pleasure and even masturbating to it. The stray dogs became not enough to fulfill his rapidly growing beasitality tendencies, and within five years his sexual urges eventually progressed to sheeps and goats found in nearby stables.
It was within these interactions that Kurten became aware of the satisfaction he got at the sight of blood. He reached the point of orgasms through stabbing pigs and sheep, but again that soon to became not enough for him. Aside from his new found beasitality intrest, he also found an attraction to arson. Setting people’s homes on fire gave him a source of entertainment, it’s speculated that he had done it for the reaction the fires would bring to the public. His hand in arson followed him throughout his years as a child and into his teens.
However, at the age of nine, Peter Kurten claims to have had committed his first murders; while rafting with two classmates on the Rhine river. Kurten pushed one of the friends overboard and the other boy jumped in to help the first drowning friend, but Kurten held him under the water until he suffocated to death. Unfortunately, the two boys deaths were attributed to an accident, allowing Kurten to avoid consequence in what would be the start of a long-running murderous career.
Crime Summary Peter Kurten, was en route for his life of violence from just about day one, due to the living conditions he experienced and was subjected to, to his unattainable subdue lust for beasitalty and attraction to blood. It’s not too unanticipated that he leads a life of crime. Kurten’s deviant behaviour began at such a young age, thanks in part to the dog catcher who roomed with him and his family. The man would ultimately introduce Kurten into a new world of violence of sexual sadism in bestiality.
Despite being only nine at the time and not facing any charges for the brutal and objectionable acts against the animals he tortured, his actions ignited a kind of bloodlust in him. This need to hurt other living things and disturbed moral choices allowed for a dangerous escalation. Kurten even claims to have drowned two school friends. Again, he is not charged as the case was ruled an accident, but now his deviance has evolved into intentional malice. Between childhood and the age of sixteen of which he became an independent, Kurten began to progress into petty crimes such as acts of arson.
Not for the sheer fact that he was a pyromaniac, but that he got entertainment from seeing the reactions his fires would receive. He also began to steal to provide for his family and as a source of things to do to pass the time. Eventually he couldn’t take anymore of his home life and ran away to start a new life. Through young adulthood, Kurten stuck to his petty crimes as a means of survival, he stole food and clothes until he found a way that fit more of his interests. Continuing his pattern of crime that he had begun to form, Kurten found further encouragement with a prostitute twice his age.
While living with her for some time his sadistic tendencies grew as she was a masochist who enjoyed being abused and other harsh treatments only fed his urges to transfer his actions from animals to humans. Bouncing around from prostitute to prostitute, Kurten’s sadistic urges seemed at ease for the time being, considering he could fulfill his malice lifestyle freely. Occasionally committing small crimes in order to go back to jail, as he would find pleasure being in solitary confinement, where he could fantasize about brutal sexual acts.
May 1913, Peter Kurten was once again released from prison and began prowling the streets, where he found himself breaking into an inn. First victim, ten year old Christine Klein, was found asleep in her room and Kurten proceeded to slit her throat and brutally enact sexual acts with his hands. Once done, he simply just left the scene and was not caught or charged. A year later in 1914 he deserted Kaiser Army, due to being unsuited, ill disciplined and ultimately jailed for desertion. Setting fires, attacking people, sabotaging railways, all means to kill as many people as possible.
At this point in his life, Peter Kurten has been sentenced to jail at least thirty times, however only for petty crimes and never murder. Once released again in 1921 from his army sentence, he decided to move to the small town of Altenburg to live with his sister, where he would meet his wife to be, Frau. His wife, also being a former prostitute, did some jail time for previously shooting her last fiance for leaving her at the alter. Soon married and continued to live in Altenburg until 1925 while Kurten was employed in a factory as a moulder until their move to Dusseldorf, where everything changed.
Kurten’s self control was wearing thin and, between 1925-1928, he attacked four women in the new town, strangling them to the point of unconsciousness during sex. February 9, 1929, eight year old Rosa Ohliger became the next victim. She was stabbed three times, then proceeded to have been set on fire, to which Kurten claimed to have had an orgasm at the midst of her attack. Still desiring blood, Kurten attacked again on August 23, 1929, this time claiming two victims within twenty-four hours.
Stabbing and killing five year old Gertrude Hamacher on the night of the 29th and then fourteen year old Louise Lenzen the following morning. As the body count rose, so did Germany’s fear of the blood lusting monster quickly targeting citizens. Peter Kurten developed the title, “The Vampire of Dusseldorf”, from the public and rightfully so as three more murders were committed in September and October. Bodies were being found with traces of saliva at the sites of wounds, concluding that whoever was attacking, was also drinking the blood of the victims.
While the murders continued the last known victim was five year old Gertrude Albermann, who was strangled and stabbed repeatedly on November 7, 1929. Capture and Punishment Kurten’s brutal attacks increased substantially, although not all of his victims died, he was still walking free thanks to his nondescript appearance. German police were stumped when surviving victims could only describe their attacker as a tall white man, fitting the description of relatively half the residents of Dusseldorf.
His faith that may have lead to the fall of The Vampire of Dusseldorf, in 1930. After his long killing spree year in 1929, an unemployed servant, Maria Budlick, came to Dusseldorf in search for a job. On May 14, 1930, Kurten and Maria met in passing near the Dusseldorf train station. “Saving” her from a potential threat of The Vampire of Dusseldorf, he offered to take her in. Maria refused to have sex with Kurten once in the apartment, so he offered to take her back to the train station, while on the way back Kurten raped then left Maria at the station, alive.
When later asked why he didn’t kill her, he responded with “I had no intention of killing her as she offered no resistance…. I also did not think that Budlick would be able to find her way back to my apartment in the rather obscure Mettmanner Strasse”. However, Maria remembered the name of the street and Kurten’s apartment quite vividly. Leading the police back to 71 Mettmanner Strasse some time after the initial altercation. Unfortunately, when Maria saw Kurten, she froze, giving him the time to pack a bag and flee before being caught.
Immediately after Kurten fessed up to his wife about being the vampire of Dusseldorf and the situation with Maria, he warned her that the police were coming for him and that she’d be without any income should be be found and apprehended. His wife responded that he should kill himself and she would do the same, but Kurten had a different plan in mind. Frau could turn him in for being The Vampire of Dusseldorf instead, collect the reward and he would have time to carry out another epic attack beforehand. To Kurten’s dismay, however, his wife went to the police immediately and he lost the chance at a big finale.
Arrested on May 24, 1930 outside St. Rochus Church, Kurten freely confessed all his crimes, revealing an almost photographic memory of his life’s work. His trial was held in April of 1931, sentenced to death while being convicted of only nine murders. Before Peter Kurten, the so-called Vampire of Dusseldorf, was beheaded, he inquired the prison psychiatrist about a thought of his: “Tell me, after my head has been chopped off will I still be able to hear; at least for a moment, the sound of my own blood gushing from the stump of my neck? Kurten was clearly a sick individual, even up to his execution in July, 1993, he still only thought of the pleasure that blood brought him. Kurten’s mummified head can be found haunting the building of the Ripley’s Museum in Orlando, Florida. Kurten may not have been a vampire in the literal sense, but he did demonstrate the traits of the traditional vampire.
