This Day in True Crime History: Peter Kurten

Peter Kurten was convicted on this day in 1931. He received nine death sentences after only a 90 minute deliberation. His formal charges included nine murders and seven attempted murders, but Kurten had initially confessed to 79 individual criminal acts when he was arrested. 

Kurten was born May 26, 1883 and was executed by guillotine on July 2, 1931. 

Kurten was born and raised in extreme poverty in Cologne, Germany. Britannica reports that he was the third of thirteen children and that his father was an abusive alcoholic who was imprisoned for attempting to molest Kurten’s then 13 year-old sister.

Kurten claimed to have drowned two of his school friends before the age of 10. As a teenager, he committed several petty crimes, and as an adult was sentenced to prison almost 30 times. He is more infamously known for his reign of terror in the Dusseldorf area during 1929, when he committed an array of serial murders of sadistic and sexual natures. 

His trial was a national event, not only because of the nature and number of his crimes, but because of how candidly he confessed to his crimes. Kurten recounted details of his many crimes to the psychologist Karl Berg, who wrote a book (The Sadist) based on this interview. His book became a classic of criminological literature, in which Berg claimed that Kurten was a sexual psychopath and that his crimes were a perfect example of Lustmord (murder for pleasure). While on trial, he was placed in a special cage to prevent escape. He received 9 death sentences and was executed by guillotine.

There are a great many stories about Kurten, who was known as the Vampire of Dusseldorf. For example, crimeandinvestigation.co.uk writes that he married a former prostitute, practiced beastiality, and looked forward to his execution because he wanted to know what the sound of his blood gushing out of his neck would sound like. Without going into too many gory details, it is sufficient to say that Kurten was famous for his many violent and sexual acts. The court he was tried in declared him to be mentally hale, not suffering from any known mental illness, and therefore responsible for all his crimes. This verdict only adds to the horror of Kurten’s life story.