Men Of Flesh And Blood by Emilia Clark Page B

of
Germany provided him with even more opportunities to operate on the
environs of the criminal system, and because of the increase in
crime because of the poverty the nation was enduring, police again
began to rely on Haarmann as a mole.
     
    Between 1918 and 1924,
Haarmann committed at least 24 murders, although he is suspected of
murdering a minimum of 27. Haarmann's first known victim was a
17-year-old youth named Friedel Rothe. When Rothe disappeared in
September 1918, his friends told police he was last seen with
Haarmann. Under pressure from Rothe's family, police raided
Haarmann's apartment, where they found their informer in the
company of a semi-naked teenage boy. They charged Haarmann with
sexual assault, and he was sentenced to nine months imprisonment.
Haarmann avoided his sentence throughout 1919, and during this
time, met a young runaway named Hans Grans, who was consequently to
become his lover.
     
    Haarmann served his
nine-month imprisonment between March and December 1920. Again, he
regained the trust of the police and became an informer again.
Shortly after his release, Haarmann moved into a new apartment and
Hans Grans moved into Haarmann's apartment with him.
     
    Haarmann's subsequent
victims largely consisted of young male commuters, runaways and,
occasionally, male prostitutes who hung around Hanover's central
station and Haarmann would lure them back to his apartment and then
kill by biting through their throats, sometimes while sodomizing
them. All of Haarmann's victims were dismembered before they were
discarded, usually in the Leine River. The belongings of several
victims were either sold on the black market or retained by either
Haarmann or his lover, Hans Grans.
     
    Rumor also had it that
Haarmann would sell meat from the bodies of his victims as canned
black pork. Although no physical evidence was ever produced to
confirm this, Haarmann was known to be an active trader in
contraband meat. Haarmann's accomplice and live-in partner, Hans
Grans, sold the possessions of several of the victims cheaply on
the black market. He kept other possessions for himself, and
Haarmann initially claimed that although Grans knew of many of his
murders, and personally urged him to kill two of the victims so he
could obtain their clothing and personal possessions, was otherwise
not involved in the murders.
     
    Haarmann was eventually
apprehended when numerous skeletal remains, which he had dumped
into the Leine River, washed up downstream in May and June 1924.
The police decided to drag the river and discovered more than 500
human bones, which were later confirmed as having come from at
least 22 separate human individuals. Suspicion quickly fell upon
Haarmann, who had convictions for molesting children and had been
connected to the disappearance of Friedel Rothe in 1918. Haarmann
was placed under surveillance and on the night of June 22, was seen
prowling Hanover's central station. He was quickly arrested after
trying to lure a boy to his apartment. His apartment was searched
and the walls were heavily bloodstained. Haarmann tried to explain
this was a by-product of his illegal trade as a butcher.
     
    However, clothing and
personal items known to be possessions of several missing youths
were also found in his home. Under interrogation, Haarmann quickly
confessed to raping, killing, and butchering young men since 1918.
When asked how many he had killed, Haarmann claimed "somewhere
between 50 and 70". The police, however, could only connect
Haarmann with the disappearance of 27 youths, and therefore he was
charged with 27 murders.
     
    Fritz Haarmann's trial
began on December 4, 1924 and it was spectacular, it was one of the
first major media events in Germany. The term "serial killer" had
not yet been coined, and the public and press were at a loss for
words to describe the case. Haarmann was concurrently referred to
as the "werewolf", a "vampire", and "The Wolf Man". Apart from the
cruelty of what Haarmann had