Peter Kürten
Vampire of Düsseldorf
Jailed seventeen times for mainly minor offenses. Learned the thrill of the kill when he was very young, when he drowned two playmates. Had fantasies about killing very large numbers of people -- many thousands if he could. Convicted of nine murders, but possibly Kurten killed as many as thirty. For fifteen months Kurten held the city of Dusseldorf in a state of fear.
Timeline
| 26 May 1883 |
Peter Kurten born, Cologne-Mulheim. |
| 1894 |
Family moves to Dusseldorf. |
| 1899 |
Assaults a girl, Grafenberger. |
| 25 May 1913 |
Murders and molests Kristine Klein, age 10. |
| Jul 1913 |
Murders Gertrud Franken. |
| 9 Feb 1929 |
Body of Rosa Ohliger found in Dusseldorf, stabbed 13 times including in the vagina. |
| 21 Aug 1929 |
Three people in suburb of Lierenfeld stabbed independently of each other. |
| 23 Aug 1929 |
Murders five-year-old Gertrude Hamacher and fourteen-year-old Louise Lenzenand at the fairgrounds in Flehe. |
| Sep 1929 |
Ida Reuter raped and murdered. |
| 12 Oct 1929 |
Elizabeth Dorrier murdered. |
| 7 Nov 1929 |
Gertrude Albermann stabbed to death, later found after a newspaper receives a map to her corpse. |
| 14 May 1930 |
Assaults a young woman, Maria Budlick, but lets her go after she claims to not remember the way to Kurten's house (on Mettmanner Strasse.) Budlick goes the the police and shows them Kurten's house. |
| 21 May 1930 |
Maria Budlick and the police visit Kurten. |
| 23 May 1930 |
Kurten confesses to his wife. |
| 24 May 1930 |
Kurten's wife turns him into the police. |
| 14 Apr 1931 |
Trial begins. Kurten is convicted of nine murders and seven attempted murders. |
| 2 Jul 1931 |
Peter Kurten executed by guillotine at Klingepultz Prison, Cologne. |
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