Latest / Wicked and Grim: A True Crime Podcast / Joachim Kroll - The Ruhr Cannibal - Part 1

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Joachim Kroll - The Ruhr Cannibal - Part 1 · Wicked and Grim: A True Crime Podcast

0:07
Speaker 1: For twenty one years, a serial killer operated across western
0:11
Speaker 1: Germany without being identified. He was targeting vulnerable women and children,
0:16
Speaker 1: while police pursued false leads and, in some cases, the
0:20
Speaker 1: wrong suspects entirely. His victims, though mostly children, ranged in
0:26
Speaker 1: ages from just four years old to sixty one, and
0:29
Speaker 1: the crimes stretched across multiple cities, making the pattern difficult
0:33
Speaker 1: to see until it was far too late. When investigators
0:37
Speaker 1: finally uncovered the truth in nineteen seventy six, A toilet
0:41
Speaker 1: clogged with human organs is what finally identified him, and
0:45
Speaker 1: police quickly realized they were not dealing with a single murder,
0:49
Speaker 1: because you see, he seemed very eager to share stories
0:53
Speaker 1: of his actions. This is the story of one of
0:57
Speaker 1: the longest running serial murder cases in modern German history.
1:02
Speaker 1: This is the story of Jaquem Kroll a k a.
1:07
Speaker 1: The Ruer Cannibal.
1:09
Speaker 2: My name's Ben, I'm Nicole and you're listening to Wicked
1:13
Speaker 2: and Grim, a true crime podcast. Warning the following.
1:21
Speaker 1: Material audience, listener, dis.
1:45
Speaker 2: You did warn us.
1:46
Speaker 1: I did mm hmm.
1:48
Speaker 2: You and your whole serial killers down a rabbit hole spree.
1:53
Speaker 1: On my serial killer spree.
1:56
Speaker 2: You're in your serial killer era.
1:58
Speaker 1: Oh my god, I'm in my I've been in my
2:00
Speaker 1: serial killer era for a while, but I'm dipping my
2:03
Speaker 1: toes again, let's put it that way. But yeah, we
2:06
Speaker 1: got an interesting serial killer story for you today and
2:09
Speaker 1: it is part one of two parts today. So make
2:13
Speaker 1: sure you're buckled up. You're ready for part one. You
2:15
Speaker 1: got to drink handy and you're ready to hear all
2:19
Speaker 1: about some wicked things, some very grim things. Wicked and
2:25
Speaker 1: grim in fact, if you will, but we are. We
2:28
Speaker 1: got some cool news. We are only a few episodes
2:32
Speaker 1: away from our four hundredth episode here on Wicked and Grim.
2:35
Speaker 2: Mm hmm, this is going to be three.
2:39
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's bonkers if you go back right now, like
2:42
Speaker 1: as this episode is released immediately. We got a few
2:45
Speaker 1: errors in our numberings, so don't count those as fact.
2:48
Speaker 1: We are three ninety five at the moment. We got
2:50
Speaker 1: to go back and do some editing because I made
2:52
Speaker 1: some mistakes along the ways. But thanks for Nicole, she
2:56
Speaker 1: went back and did a whole like calculation and documentary
3:00
Speaker 1: with the administration.
3:02
Speaker 2: Honestly, I was probably spending I bet you ten hours,
3:07
Speaker 2: well maybe eight eight to ten hours today doing a
3:10
Speaker 2: bit of a deep dive on getting all of our
3:12
Speaker 2: episodes together on like a spreadsheet and one number we
3:15
Speaker 2: actually are and stuff.
3:16
Speaker 1: Yeah, so thank you for that. Now I need to
3:18
Speaker 1: go back and fix it all. And I'm pretty pumped
3:20
Speaker 1: actually have the numbers fixed, because I've known for a
3:23
Speaker 1: little while that I've made an error at some point. Yeah,
3:26
Speaker 1: but yeah, soon the numbers are all going to be correct.
3:27
Speaker 1: And this is episode three ninety five or yeah, almost
3:31
Speaker 1: four hundred. We're gonna have to do something cool for
3:32
Speaker 1: episode five hundred.
3:34
Speaker 2: Oh go, I thought you were going to say four hundred.
3:36
Speaker 2: Four hundred is also kind of cool. Yeah, but five
3:38
Speaker 2: hundred is a bigger deal for sure.
3:40
Speaker 1: I just don't have enough time to plan anything cool
3:43
Speaker 1: for four hundred right now. Really, we can do something.
3:46
Speaker 1: We'll have to do something.
3:46
Speaker 2: I'll think of something.
3:48
Speaker 1: Okay, you'll think of something.
3:49
Speaker 2: It doesn't have to be huge, but maybe I'll try
3:51
Speaker 2: to think of just something.
3:53
Speaker 1: Okay, Nichole's going to think of something. Yeah. In the meantime,
3:56
Speaker 1: like I said, this is part one, but I also
3:59
Speaker 1: have something else that Nicole did something here. She went
4:03
Speaker 1: and she bought a spray for our dogs. Our dogs
4:06
Speaker 1: smell amazing.
4:08
Speaker 2: I was like, what did I do?
4:09
Speaker 1: It's like dog perfume almost, it's like a dog freshener.
4:12
Speaker 2: Yeah, that was exploring Amazon and hey, what's this click purchase?
4:19
Speaker 2: You know, probably don't actually need this, but it's kind
4:22
Speaker 2: of cool.
4:22
Speaker 1: Well, now, when we snuggle our dogs, they smell amazing,
4:25
Speaker 1: not like musty, dirty dogs, because sometimes they get into stuff.
4:30
Speaker 1: They get their noses digging in dirt or rolling in
4:32
Speaker 1: whatever grass and they can stink. But now we can
4:36
Speaker 1: cover up that stink with whatever's in that bottle.
4:40
Speaker 2: Yeah. I mean, I don't know if they particularly love
4:42
Speaker 2: it though, but over they're getting used to it. I'm
4:45
Speaker 2: sure the more we spray it, the more they'll be
4:47
Speaker 2: okay with it.
4:48
Speaker 1: I think so for sure. But all that aside, though,
4:51
Speaker 1: I think we should just get into the story. Are
4:53
Speaker 1: you ready for this?
4:54
Speaker 2: I sure am. Honestly, twenty one years seems very long.
5:00
Speaker 2: Quite intrigued to see how this lasted to that extent.
5:03
Speaker 1: Well, I think a big part of it, I'll tell
5:06
Speaker 1: you now, A big part of it was the fact
5:08
Speaker 1: that this happened in the era it happened. Oh, it
5:12
Speaker 1: was active, you know, in the fifties and in the sixties. Okay,
5:16
Speaker 1: so I mean DNA, that sort of stuff, that analysis
5:21
Speaker 1: wasn't exactly prominent like it is today.
5:24
Speaker 2: There you go, that makes sense.
5:25
Speaker 1: And again we've covered stories where if an incident happens
5:29
Speaker 1: in one city and then another one happens in another city,
5:32
Speaker 1: back then, correlation and communication between departments and precincts, all
5:36
Speaker 1: that sort of stuff was basically non existent, and if
5:39
Speaker 1: it did happen, it was very slow. Right, So that
5:42
Speaker 1: also played to his favor as well.
5:45
Speaker 2: I mean, gosh, already, it just feels like it sucks
5:48
Speaker 2: that he had something play into his favor. But let's
5:50
Speaker 2: hear all about him, all right.
5:52
Speaker 1: Well, I will warn you with this. This is a
5:54
Speaker 1: German case, and I'm going to do my best with
5:56
Speaker 1: many of the German pronunciations, but I am not even
5:59
Speaker 1: close to being German. I'm going to do my best.
6:03
Speaker 1: I'll tell you that I did my research, I practiced
6:06
Speaker 1: on many pronunciation websites, and I'm going to do my best.
6:09
Speaker 1: But while recording pronunciations tend to leave me at times.
6:13
Speaker 2: Honestly, all you can do is your best.
6:14
Speaker 1: Well, thank you, and if you may wish me luck,
6:17
Speaker 1: i'd appreciate it. But if you're ready, let's get into it.
6:20
Speaker 2: You got this.
6:22
Speaker 1: Jokim George Krohl was born on April seventeenth, nineteen thirty three,
6:27
Speaker 1: in the city of Hindenburg in Upper Salensia, then part
6:31
Speaker 1: of Germany and today known as Zabras Poland. He was
6:35
Speaker 1: the sixth of nine children born into a working class
6:38
Speaker 1: family headed by a coal miner, and, like many families
6:41
Speaker 1: in industrial Germany during the nineteen thirties, the Krolls lived modestly,
6:46
Speaker 1: and the arrival of another child meant another mouth to
6:49
Speaker 1: feed during a period when economic hardship was already very common. Now,
6:54
Speaker 1: the Germany of Jokim's childhood was a country that was
6:58
Speaker 1: undergoing enormous change. Adolf Hitler, for example, had come into
7:02
Speaker 1: power only months before his birth, and as he grew older,
7:05
Speaker 1: the Nazi regime became an unavoidable part of everyday life.
7:10
Speaker 1: Political rallies, military parades, wartime propaganda, and increasing government control
7:15
Speaker 1: shaped the world around him. Yet for many children, daily
7:18
Speaker 1: life remained focused on far simpler concerns, you know, things
7:22
Speaker 1: like family or school, work and survival. Even when the
7:26
Speaker 1: Second World War began in nineteen thirty nine, Jokim was
7:30
Speaker 1: six years old, and the conflict would dominate the remainder
7:33
Speaker 1: of his childhood. Food shortages became increasingly common. Many essentials
7:38
Speaker 1: and goods and all that sort of thing were rationed,
7:40
Speaker 1: and countless German families found themselves separated by military service
7:44
Speaker 1: and the chaoses of war. The Croal family experienced those
7:49
Speaker 1: hardships directly when Jokim's father was taken prisoner during the conflicts,
7:54
Speaker 1: as well, leaving his mother responsible for raising nine children
7:58
Speaker 1: largely on her own. By all accounts, jo Keem struggled
8:01
Speaker 1: from a very early age. Later psychological evaluations placed his
8:05
Speaker 1: IQ between approximately seventy six and seventy eight, which is
8:10
Speaker 1: well below average.
8:13
Speaker 2: Now.
8:13
Speaker 1: I think, as far as my research goes, I didn't
8:15
Speaker 1: like go too much into research as far as IQ,
8:18
Speaker 1: I just did a little quick google. From my understanding,
8:20
Speaker 1: the average IQ sits somewhere around the range of eighty
8:23
Speaker 1: five to one oh five. Okay, School seemed to be
8:29
Speaker 1: rather difficult for him. Teachers reported views of him being
8:32
Speaker 1: a very slow learner, and he often fell behind his
8:35
Speaker 1: classmates academically. He also suffered from persistent bedwetting, something that
8:40
Speaker 1: continued well beyond the age at which most children grow
8:43
Speaker 1: out of it, and in the social environment of the time,
8:46
Speaker 1: that was often enough to make a child the target
8:48
Speaker 1: of ridicule, and several accounts suggest Jokem was frequently teased
8:52
Speaker 1: by other children. At the end of the war in
8:55
Speaker 1: nineteen forty five, it didn't bring immediate stability into the
8:59
Speaker 1: Kroll family. Germany's defeat triggered one of the largest population
9:03
Speaker 1: movements in European history, as borders were redrawn and millions
9:07
Speaker 1: of ethnic Germans were displaced from territories that were no
9:10
Speaker 1: longer part of Germany. Around nineteen forty seven, the Krohal
9:14
Speaker 1: family left Upper Silentia and relocated west to North Rhine Westphalia,
9:21
Speaker 1: in the rural region. For Yokim, the move offered little
9:25
Speaker 1: opportunity for a fresh start. He continued struggling academically and
9:29
Speaker 1: eventually left school with very few qualifications. So, like many
9:33
Speaker 1: working class boys of the period, he entered the labor
9:36
Speaker 1: force at a young age and took whatever work he
9:39
Speaker 1: could find. Among his earliest jobs was agricultural labor on
9:44
Speaker 1: local farms, where he became familiar with routine slaughter and
9:47
Speaker 1: butchering livestock. The work was physically demanding but required little
9:52
Speaker 1: formal education, making it one of the few realistic employment
9:55
Speaker 1: options available to him. Now. Outside of work, Joachim remained
10:00
Speaker 1: socially isolated. He found it difficult to form friendships and
10:04
Speaker 1: appeared uncomfortable in many social situations. Family members later described
10:09
Speaker 1: him as shy, withdrawn, and heavily dependent on his mother,
10:13
Speaker 1: who remained the most important person in his life well
10:16
Speaker 1: into adulthood. While his brothers and sisters gradually built lives
10:20
Speaker 1: of their own, Jokim seemed unable to develop the same independence,
10:24
Speaker 1: and that dependence became increasingly significant as he entered his twenties.
10:29
Speaker 1: He was employed, but only in low skilled labor positions.
10:33
Speaker 1: He had no meaningful romantic relationships, few close friends, and
10:37
Speaker 1: little sense of direction. The person who provided most of
10:41
Speaker 1: the structure and stability in his life continued to be
10:43
Speaker 1: his mother, and on January twenty first, nineteen fifty five,
10:48
Speaker 1: she passed away. Jokim was twenty one years old, and
10:53
Speaker 1: the loss removed one of the constant figures that had
10:55
Speaker 1: existed throughout his childhood, throughout the war years, even in
10:59
Speaker 1: the difficul periods that followed. For a young man who
11:03
Speaker 1: already struggled with independence and social connection, it was a
11:07
Speaker 1: devastating blow. At twenty one years old, he possessed very
11:12
Speaker 1: little education, worked low paying jobs, and continued to find
11:15
Speaker 1: social situations very difficult. While post war West Germany was
11:19
Speaker 1: beginning to experience economic growth and recovery, Jokim appeared unable
11:23
Speaker 1: to establish a stable place for himself within that changing society.
11:27
Speaker 2: So it was a very different era. Yes, I feel
11:31
Speaker 2: like nowadays kind of the things you described about, like
11:35
Speaker 2: him sort of still being attached to his mom at
11:37
Speaker 2: twenty one or whatever, twenty nineteen doesn't seem like terrible.
11:42
Speaker 1: No, Nowadays it certainly isn't. I mean, people are much
11:44
Speaker 1: more connected in more modern day and age.
11:47
Speaker 2: But back then, I guess it wouldn't have been quite
11:49
Speaker 2: as normal.
11:50
Speaker 1: I mean, not necessarily that it's not normal, but it
11:53
Speaker 1: was the only connection, too write. Even if you go
11:57
Speaker 1: in today's standard, if you have a twenty something year
11:59
Speaker 1: old individual and the only real relationship they have is
12:02
Speaker 1: with their parents, it's not necessarily bad, but there's probably
12:06
Speaker 1: something that explains it, you know.
12:08
Speaker 2: What I mean.
12:09
Speaker 1: I suppose, and in this case it's the same. It's
12:11
Speaker 1: not that it was bad to say anything, but he
12:14
Speaker 1: was heavily reliant, and you know, there was reasons for it, and.
12:18
Speaker 2: He wasn't necessarily progressing like his siblings were exactly. But
12:23
Speaker 2: I mean also his upbringing, stuff you know, having to
12:26
Speaker 2: be like growing up during a war and stuff that
12:29
Speaker 2: wouldn't have been easy.
12:31
Speaker 1: No, I imagine being in Germany during World War Two.
12:33
Speaker 1: I mean, during anywhere in World War two was not
12:36
Speaker 1: exactly a pleasant experience, I'm sure, but it sounds like
12:39
Speaker 1: where he was it was definitely not one of the
12:42
Speaker 1: nicer places, exactly. I mean, we all have learned many
12:45
Speaker 1: things in World War One and World War Two and
12:48
Speaker 1: the Nazis and all that sort of stuff. It sounds
12:50
Speaker 1: like it would be a heavy situation to live through. Now.
12:53
Speaker 1: One of the areas where he struggled most was his
12:55
Speaker 1: relationship with women. In fact, he found it extremely difficult
12:59
Speaker 1: to speak to women or to form any sort of
13:01
Speaker 1: romantic relationships. While many young men at his age were marrying, dating,
13:06
Speaker 1: or starting families, Jokim was just isolated. And because of this,
13:10
Speaker 1: he saw himself as sexually inadequate, and he deeply feared
13:14
Speaker 1: rejection that would follow suit with it. Now, whether those
13:18
Speaker 1: fears were justified or largely self created, they appeared to
13:22
Speaker 1: have become an increasingly important part of how he saw himself,
13:26
Speaker 1: and as the years passed, that isolation only grew worse.
13:31
Speaker 1: Jokim moved between various labor positions and jobs throughout the
13:35
Speaker 1: rural region, working where he could find employment and rarely
13:38
Speaker 1: remaining socially connected to the people around him. Coworkers generally
13:42
Speaker 1: described him as quiet and withdrawn rather than openly aggressive.
13:46
Speaker 1: He was not someone who attracted attention. Instead, he often
13:49
Speaker 1: drifted through life on the edges of social groups, interacting
13:52
Speaker 1: with others when necessary, but rarely forming any sort of relationships.
13:57
Speaker 1: The more isolated he became, the more his inner world
14:00
Speaker 1: appeared to have replaced his real one. Psychiatrists who later
14:05
Speaker 1: examined him concluded that he had begun developing fantasies centered
14:08
Speaker 1: on control, domination, in sexual violence. Unlike normal relationships, which
14:15
Speaker 1: required mutual interests, emotional connection, and consent, these fantasies placed
14:20
Speaker 1: him in complete control of another person. The rejection and
14:24
Speaker 1: humiliation that he feared in real life no longer existed
14:28
Speaker 1: in this mindset. Instead, everything unfolded according to his specific wishes. Now,
14:35
Speaker 1: what makes this period very significant is that nothing outwardly
14:38
Speaker 1: suggests that he was developing this underneath the surface. To
14:43
Speaker 1: neighbors or coworkers or anyone he met. Joachim was simply
14:47
Speaker 1: an awkward young laborer struggling to find his place in
14:50
Speaker 1: the world. But internally, however, something was definitely changing. Now
14:56
Speaker 1: for most people, fantasies remain fantasies just that, but for
15:00
Speaker 1: Yokim that would not be the case. On February eighth,
15:05
Speaker 1: nineteen fifty five, nineteen year old mguards Strel was traveling
15:10
Speaker 1: near the village of Walsted in northren Westphalia. Erngard's life
15:15
Speaker 1: had already been filled with instability. She had spent time
15:18
Speaker 1: in institutional care and had recently left a youth home
15:22
Speaker 1: in Lower Saxony. Like many young people struggling to find
15:25
Speaker 1: their footing in post war Germany, she was moving from
15:28
Speaker 1: place to place, attempting to build an independent life with
15:32
Speaker 1: few resources and little support. Now, at some point that
15:36
Speaker 1: day she encountered Yalkeim. The exact circumstances of their first
15:42
Speaker 1: interaction were never fully established and are mostly recounted through
15:47
Speaker 1: Jokim later on in investigations and questioning. But what we
15:51
Speaker 1: do know is that Yokim persuaded in Guard to accompany
15:55
Speaker 1: him to a road near a wooded area near Hernstein,
15:59
Speaker 1: and there Yoo Kim began to make sexual advances towards Ingard.
16:03
Speaker 1: Now some reports say he tried to kiss her, but
16:06
Speaker 1: whatever the exact advance was. When Ingard rejected him, Jokim
16:11
Speaker 1: attacked her and forced her away from the road into
16:13
Speaker 1: a secluded area. With a violent struggle that followed. Now,
16:18
Speaker 1: Mingard fought back fiercely, leaving evidence that she had actually
16:21
Speaker 1: attempted to defend herself, and according to Yakim's later confession,
16:25
Speaker 1: he began to stab her and left multiple wounds in
16:28
Speaker 1: her neck before ultimately strangling her to death. Now what
16:33
Speaker 1: happened afterwards, though, would later become one of the most
16:36
Speaker 1: significant aspects of the investigation, because, rather than fleeing the scene,
16:42
Speaker 1: Jokim remained with Mgard's body for an extended period of time,
16:46
Speaker 1: and there he engaged in necrophilia with her body. Afterwards,
16:52
Speaker 1: he also subjected the body to further mutilation, including stabbing
16:55
Speaker 1: her stomach and opening the abdominal cavity with a long
16:59
Speaker 1: knife and disemboweling her.
17:01
Speaker 2: Oh my gosh, this guy is creep. He's nasty.
17:05
Speaker 1: Yeah, So he was clearly reveling in this first experience.
17:10
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, which is honestly quite alarming, because you I
17:15
Speaker 2: would feel like your first kill, I guess you would
17:18
Speaker 2: be like, holy shit, what did I do? Or a
17:20
Speaker 2: little bit like taken aback, But he seemed like he
17:24
Speaker 2: was just like fully in.
17:26
Speaker 1: Definitely, now, there's a few things we could we can
17:29
Speaker 1: definitely break this down a little bit more, because he
17:32
Speaker 1: had those those fantasies, right, the domination type fantasies, having
17:36
Speaker 1: the complete control sort of thing, which is clearly what
17:40
Speaker 1: he's doing here, right. He overpowered her, he killed her,
17:44
Speaker 1: then raped her remains, and then after that there's a
17:48
Speaker 1: lot of discussion in regards to him actually disemboweling her,
17:52
Speaker 1: his work as a butcher on farms, that sort of thing.
17:56
Speaker 1: There's a lot of parallels drawn between the two of
17:59
Speaker 1: basically gutting an animal, cutting, yeah, and opening her stomach.
18:03
Speaker 2: But why though this is quite different Obviously.
18:07
Speaker 1: It's most likely just morbid curiosity exploring his first kill,
18:11
Speaker 1: reveling in the moment, that sort of thing, seeing what
18:14
Speaker 1: he likes, like, Oh, I'm curious about this, I'm going
18:17
Speaker 1: to try and he cuts open her stomach and sees now.
18:21
Speaker 1: For several days, nobody knew what happened to Ermgard. The
18:24
Speaker 1: wooded location delayed discovery, and wintery can of conditions also
18:29
Speaker 1: made searching rather difficult. And eventually, however, her body was
18:33
Speaker 1: found and it was concealed amongst some brush near roadway.
18:37
Speaker 1: Police were immediately confronted with a very serious homicide investigation,
18:41
Speaker 1: and from the beginning they faced significant challenges. There were
18:46
Speaker 1: no eyewitnesses, there was no obvious suspect, and the forensic
18:50
Speaker 1: tools available in nineteen fifty five, well, they were limited
18:53
Speaker 1: compared to what those are available today to modern investigators.
18:57
Speaker 1: But still detectives carefully document the scene and collected what
19:01
Speaker 1: evidence they could. As investigators attempted to reconstruct Erngard's final movements,
19:08
Speaker 1: they quickly discovered how little they actually knew because she'd
19:12
Speaker 1: been living in a transient style life, so establishing a
19:16
Speaker 1: complete timeline proved very difficult. Witnesses were scarce, and many
19:20
Speaker 1: of the people who may have encountered her in the
19:22
Speaker 1: days before her death could not provide any useful information,
19:26
Speaker 1: and so the investigation just gradually stalled. Police explored various
19:31
Speaker 1: leads and considered multiple possibilities, but none produced any viable suspects,
19:37
Speaker 1: and as the weeks turned into months, the likelihood of
19:39
Speaker 1: solving the case just diminished, and eventually Erngard's murder joined
19:45
Speaker 1: the growing list of unsolved homicides sitting in police files
19:49
Speaker 1: across post war Germany. But for Jachim, the outcome was
19:54
Speaker 1: very significant because he had just committed murder, he escaped detection,
19:59
Speaker 1: and he just said simply returned to his ordinary life
20:01
Speaker 1: and continued working his labor jobs. At the time, investigators
20:06
Speaker 1: believed they were dealing with a single unsolved homicide. What
20:09
Speaker 1: they could not have known, no, was that Ermguard's murder
20:13
Speaker 1: was only the beginning.
20:15
Speaker 2: Mm hmm. Yeah. This was just him like reving up
20:18
Speaker 2: and the fact that he didn't have to face literally
20:21
Speaker 2: any consequences. He I'm sure to he had questioned or anything.
20:24
Speaker 1: Nope, nothing.
20:26
Speaker 2: It just made him be like, I'm I can do this.
20:29
Speaker 1: Yeah it honestly, I believe fully it fueled his fantasy. Yeah,
20:34
Speaker 1: fueled the fire because he had this fantasy of being
20:36
Speaker 1: in control and dominating and doing what he wanted, and
20:40
Speaker 1: now he's doing something that the authorities can't even stop.
20:45
Speaker 1: He got away with murder. The authorities have no clue, nothing,
20:48
Speaker 1: that it's even him.
20:49
Speaker 2: Mm hmmm, gosh, that feels just so gross.
20:53
Speaker 1: Now. For roughly a year after the murder of Ermguard,
20:56
Speaker 1: Joachim disappeared from the attention of law enforcement. Not that
20:59
Speaker 1: he was on their radar, but you know what I mean. Now.
21:01
Speaker 1: Whether he truly stopped killing during that period or simply
21:05
Speaker 1: committed crimes that were never connected to him, remains unknown.
21:09
Speaker 1: But what is clear is that when he resurfaced in
21:11
Speaker 1: later investigations, he did so with a growing confidence that
21:15
Speaker 1: came from having successfully escaped justice once already. And this
21:19
Speaker 1: next known victim was twelve year old Erica shoe Litter.
21:25
Speaker 1: On March third, nineteen fifty six, Erica was murdered near Kirchellen. Now,
21:31
Speaker 1: compared to many of Joakim's later crimes, relatively little information
21:35
Speaker 1: actually survived with the circumstances of Erica's death. Investigators would
21:40
Speaker 1: eventually conclude that she had been attacked. She had been
21:44
Speaker 1: sexually assaulted and killed after encountering her attacker in a
21:48
Speaker 1: secluded area. Years later, Jokim admitted personal responsibility, though by
21:54
Speaker 1: then much of the physical evidence had long since disappeared,
21:57
Speaker 1: and the case officially remained unsolved. For the next several years,
22:03
Speaker 1: Jokim again faded into the background. He continued working various
22:07
Speaker 1: labor jobs and moved through communities without attracting any attention. Then,
22:12
Speaker 1: during the summer of nineteen fifty nine, the killings once
22:15
Speaker 1: again resumed. On June sixteenth, nineteen fifty nine, twenty four
22:20
Speaker 1: year old Clara frieda tesmer, spent part of the evening
22:24
Speaker 1: socializing in Reinhausen before beginning the journey home. At some
22:28
Speaker 1: point along the way, she encountered Jakim near the Rhine Meadows. Now,
22:33
Speaker 1: like the murders before, much of what we know came
22:36
Speaker 1: from the information years later from Jokim himself, and he
22:40
Speaker 1: told investigators that he approached Clara and attempted to force
22:44
Speaker 1: himself on her and grabbed her arm when she pulled
22:47
Speaker 1: away and resisted. Though that's when the encounter immediately escalated
22:52
Speaker 1: into violence. According to Yakim's confession, he struck Clara on
22:57
Speaker 1: the head and attempted to overpower her, but she fought
23:01
Speaker 1: back and continued resisting as he tried to remove her clothing. Now,
23:06
Speaker 1: during the struggle, both tumbled down and nearby embankment and
23:10
Speaker 1: rather than abandoning the attack, Jokim grabbed her by her
23:13
Speaker 1: throat and squeezed, choking her until she stopped moving. Investigators
23:19
Speaker 1: later concluded that Clara died from strangulation following the prolonged struggle,
23:25
Speaker 1: and after killing her, he finished removing Clara's clothing and
23:30
Speaker 1: engaged in sexual activity with her body, repeating the necrophilia pattern. Then,
23:36
Speaker 1: before he left, he cut portions of her flesh from
23:39
Speaker 1: her body, removing it from her butt and her thighs now.
23:44
Speaker 1: The following day, a group of local boys riding bicycles
23:47
Speaker 1: through the Rhine Meadows discovered Clara's body. The discovery launched
23:51
Speaker 1: a major homicide investigation that quickly attracted public attention. Detectives
23:57
Speaker 1: worked to reconstruct her final hour's, interview witnesses and tracing
24:01
Speaker 1: her movements through Ryinhausen in the hope that someone had
24:04
Speaker 1: seen the person responsible, but despite those efforts, investigators found
24:09
Speaker 1: themselves with very little evidence capable of identifying the killer.
24:14
Speaker 1: Now is pressure mounted to solve this murder. Suspicion eventually
24:18
Speaker 1: focused on local mechanic Heinrich Aught. While police concentrated their
24:24
Speaker 1: attention on Aught, Jokim simply continued living his life completely unnoticed,
24:29
Speaker 1: and the investigation into Clara's murder would become one of
24:32
Speaker 1: the earliest examples of a pattern that would repeat itself
24:35
Speaker 1: through Yachim's killing spree, and that is, an innocent man
24:40
Speaker 1: becoming the focus of a murder inquiry while the real
24:43
Speaker 1: offender quietly walked away. Investigators launched a major inquiry and
24:49
Speaker 1: worked to reconstruct her final movements. As often happens in
24:53
Speaker 1: homicide cases, attention eventually focused on a local suspect whose
24:58
Speaker 1: circumstances appeared suspicious. He was arrested and spent months in
25:02
Speaker 1: custody while police attempted to build their case, and to
25:06
Speaker 1: no surprise, the evidence ultimately proved insufficient, so the suspect
25:12
Speaker 1: was released and the investigation stalled.
25:15
Speaker 2: But still though he was released, I'm sure his name
25:18
Speaker 2: kind of still got dragged for the mud exactly.
25:21
Speaker 1: That is a big heavy portion of this, because there
25:23
Speaker 1: are victims of this, you know, falsely being accused and
25:27
Speaker 1: that sort of thing, whose names do get dragged through
25:29
Speaker 1: the mud, and it affects them afterwards.
25:31
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, it would affect their whole the rest of
25:33
Speaker 2: their life.
25:34
Speaker 1: Yeah. Now, just six weeks later, another victim disappeared. On
25:39
Speaker 1: July twenty sixth, nineteen fifty nine, sixteen year old Manuela
25:44
Speaker 1: Nott was attacked in the Bredny area of Essen, near
25:48
Speaker 1: a wooded parkland frequented by local residents. Her body was
25:52
Speaker 1: later discovered concealed among vegetation, and investigators immediately recognized that
25:57
Speaker 1: this was not a typical homicide. Evidence indicated that the
26:01
Speaker 1: killer had raped her, likely after she was already killed,
26:05
Speaker 1: then used a knife to remove flesh from her thighs
26:08
Speaker 1: and butt. The discovery alarmed detectives, but they struggled to
26:13
Speaker 1: understand what they were seeing, and the unusual nature of
26:15
Speaker 1: the crime generated considerable public attention.
26:19
Speaker 2: What the shit is his skin? Thing? Is that? What
26:22
Speaker 2: trophies that he's taking?
26:24
Speaker 1: Well, there's a bit of a hint in the title
26:27
Speaker 1: of this episode.
26:29
Speaker 2: H shit. Okay, I kind of want shit an ass
26:34
Speaker 2: Then okay, that's that's nasty.
26:37
Speaker 1: Yeah, but we'll get into those details. Don't worry now.
26:41
Speaker 1: Parents became increasingly cautious. Newspapers covered the investigation extensively, and
26:47
Speaker 1: residents wanted reassurance that police were making progress, but there
26:51
Speaker 1: wasn't much progress. Instead, the case joined a growing list
26:55
Speaker 1: of unsolved murders. Now, looking back, the significance of nineteen
27:00
Speaker 1: fifty nine becomes very clear. Until then, the earlier murders
27:04
Speaker 1: could still be viewed as isolated tragedies connected only by coincidences.
27:09
Speaker 1: But by the end of the summer, however, multiple young
27:11
Speaker 1: victims had been killed under circumstances that shared very troubling similarities.
27:16
Speaker 1: And unfortunately nobody recognized that pattern. And it's likely because
27:21
Speaker 1: the murders occurred in different locations, they were investigated by
27:24
Speaker 1: different police departments and different people, and they lacked this
27:28
Speaker 1: centralized coordination that modern investigators take for granted. So as
27:32
Speaker 1: a result, each case was largely treated as its own mystery.
27:37
Speaker 2: Yeah, because nowadays, if there was two murders with pieces
27:41
Speaker 2: of skin removed in the same spot like that, I
27:43
Speaker 2: think it would be flagged pretty quickly that they were related.
27:48
Speaker 1: It would be Yeah. Now, for yakem this oversight proved invaluable,
27:53
Speaker 1: and by nineteen sixty two he had spent seven years
27:56
Speaker 1: already avoiding detection. The four murders he had committed so
28:00
Speaker 1: far remained unsolved, and none of the investigations had brought
28:04
Speaker 1: police any closer to identifying the man responsible. Then on
28:08
Speaker 1: Easter Monday, April twenty third, thirteen year old Petra Geese
28:13
Speaker 1: attended a local fair near Dinslachen Brookhausen. Like many children
28:19
Speaker 1: enjoying a holiday event, she spent time among crowds, attractions,
28:23
Speaker 1: and families gathered for celebrations. At some point during the day, however,
28:28
Speaker 1: Petra became separated from those around her and she encountered Jachim.
28:34
Speaker 1: Now exactly how he convinced her to leave the area
28:37
Speaker 1: remains unclear, but investigators later concluded that he succeeded in
28:41
Speaker 1: getting the young girl into a nearby wooded location away
28:45
Speaker 1: from public view, and when Petra failed to return home,
28:49
Speaker 1: concern quickly spread throughout the community. Search efforts began almost immediately,
28:55
Speaker 1: but the outcome was tragic. On April twenty fourth, Petra's
28:59
Speaker 1: bond was discovered concealed among bushes in a wooded area
29:03
Speaker 1: outside Dinslachen Bruckenhausen. Investigators quickly determined that the thirteen year
29:09
Speaker 1: old had been sexually assaulted, raped and strangled, and once again,
29:13
Speaker 1: pieces of her flesh had been cut away and taken
29:16
Speaker 1: from the scene. While detectives understood that the injuries were
29:21
Speaker 1: highly unusual, they had no way of knowing they were
29:24
Speaker 1: encountering a pattern that had already appeared in several earlier crimes.
29:29
Speaker 1: As investigators searched for a suspect, attention eventually focused on
29:34
Speaker 1: someone else. Police turned to a fifty two year old
29:38
Speaker 1: man named Vincenzen Kuhn. Now, the case against Kuhn appeared
29:43
Speaker 1: very convincing, convincing enough that he was ultimately even arrested, convicted,
29:49
Speaker 1: and imprisoned for the crime. Oh boy, and for police
29:53
Speaker 1: and the public alike, it seemed that Petra Giese's killer
29:57
Speaker 1: had been found. Yet in reality, the the actual murderer
30:00
Speaker 1: remained completely unknown and still at large.
30:05
Speaker 2: Oh my gosh, that's so sad.
30:08
Speaker 1: Yes, so they have the wrong man behind bars.
30:12
Speaker 2: Huh how does that? I mean? I guess it, especially
30:15
Speaker 2: back then, could be fairly easy to do.
30:17
Speaker 1: Well, I'm not saying it's fairly easy, but it definitely
30:20
Speaker 1: would be much easier than today. Yeah, I think standards
30:23
Speaker 1: are a little bit different, for sure. But we even
30:25
Speaker 1: still hear today of you know, investigators not following the
30:29
Speaker 1: evidence and following their.
30:31
Speaker 2: Gut, and you know, they get an idea in the
30:33
Speaker 2: in their head and then they just like full send
30:35
Speaker 2: to it tunnel vision right without you know, thinking other
30:38
Speaker 2: of other options exactly.
30:40
Speaker 1: So it can still happen to today. It can still
30:43
Speaker 1: happen today, which is very unfortunate. But yeah, in this
30:47
Speaker 1: case they have the wrong man behind bars. And unfortunately,
30:51
Speaker 1: only weeks later, another child disappeared. On June fourth, nineteen
30:55
Speaker 1: sixty two, twelve year old Monica Taffle left home for
30:59
Speaker 1: school in Walsam, but she never arrived. At first, family
31:04
Speaker 1: members hoped that there was a simple explanation, but as
31:07
Speaker 1: the hours passed, concern gave way to alarm and teachers
31:11
Speaker 1: while they had not seen her, friends could not account
31:14
Speaker 1: for her whereabouts, and nobody seemed to know what had
31:17
Speaker 1: happened after she left home that morning. Police launched an
31:20
Speaker 1: extensive search, and for a week, officers and volunteers combed fields,
31:26
Speaker 1: wooded areas and pathways surrounding the communities in search for her. Then,
31:31
Speaker 1: on June eleventh, a police helicopter participating in the search
31:35
Speaker 1: spotted what appeared to be human remains in a wooded
31:38
Speaker 1: area below. Those remains were that of Monica. The discovery
31:44
Speaker 1: devastated the community and intensified fears that another child predator
31:48
Speaker 1: was operating in the region, investigators worked tirelessly to identify
31:52
Speaker 1: a suspect, eventually focusing on a man named Walter Quicker,
31:56
Speaker 1: a former member of the French Foreign Legion, and his
32:00
Speaker 1: arrest generated considerable publicity and briefly reassured the residents that
32:05
Speaker 1: the case might be solved. They had the man, Yet
32:08
Speaker 1: as the investigation progressed, the evidence failed to support that conclusion,
32:13
Speaker 1: and he was eventually released.
32:15
Speaker 2: Oh thank goodness.
32:16
Speaker 1: While the murder remained unsolved.
32:18
Speaker 2: Oh, this just keeps happening. And this guy is probably
32:21
Speaker 2: just freaking laughing away. And he is also a pedophile,
32:27
Speaker 2: just a freaking serial killer madman. But he's also like
32:30
Speaker 2: a freaking child predator. Yeah, which is I don't know, well,
32:34
Speaker 2: obviously way more disturbing.
32:36
Speaker 1: Well, he's literally all the worst things put into one person. Yeah,
32:41
Speaker 1: you have murderer, you have child predator, you have necrophilia.
32:45
Speaker 1: There's another one that's on the list that is in
32:47
Speaker 1: the title of this episode that haven't discussed yet. It's
32:50
Speaker 1: all there.
32:51
Speaker 2: He is just numerous monsters wrapped into a very unpleasant present.
32:58
Speaker 1: Exactly. Now Here's the thing though, Although the case against
33:02
Speaker 1: Walter Quicker he had collapsed, right, but the damage was
33:07
Speaker 1: already done. Walter struggled under the weight of public suspicion.
33:12
Speaker 1: His reputation was completely ruined, his personal life deteriorated, and
33:17
Speaker 1: he became increasingly isolated, and on October fifth, nineteen sixty two,
33:23
Speaker 1: he died by suicide.
33:25
Speaker 2: Oh shit, so that has to be added to this
33:30
Speaker 2: guy's Like, what do you call.
33:32
Speaker 1: That victim list? Victim count?
33:34
Speaker 2: Ugh? Yeah, so sad.
33:38
Speaker 1: Then just three months later, a third child vanished. On
33:42
Speaker 1: September third, nineteen sixty two, twelve year old Barbara Bruder
33:47
Speaker 1: left home intending to visit a playground. However, unlike the
33:51
Speaker 1: previous cases, investigators would never discover a crime scene, a body,
33:55
Speaker 1: or any clear evidence explaining what had happened to her.
33:58
Speaker 1: Barbara simply appeared. Police organized searches, interviewed witnesses, and pursued
34:04
Speaker 1: numerous leads, but the investigation produced very few answers. The
34:09
Speaker 1: lack of physical evidence made the case extraordinarily difficult to solve,
34:13
Speaker 1: and over time again joined a list of growing unsolved
34:17
Speaker 1: disappearances and murders in Western Germany. Now years later, Joachim
34:21
Speaker 1: would confess to Barbera's murder, but even then, important questions
34:26
Speaker 1: remained unanswered because her body was never recovered. Throughout the
34:31
Speaker 1: year of nineteen sixty two, three young girls would be
34:35
Speaker 1: linked to Jakim Krohl's activities. Within a period of less
34:38
Speaker 1: than five months, one innocent man was also falsely convicted,
34:42
Speaker 1: and another had come under intense suspicion and took his
34:46
Speaker 1: own life. The pattern of false convictions continues throughout this story,
34:51
Speaker 1: appearing again and again, and by the mid nineteen sixties,
34:55
Speaker 1: Yochim had already spent a decade avoiding detection. He continued
34:59
Speaker 1: working ordinary jobs, moving between communities, attracting very little attention
35:03
Speaker 1: along the way, and then in August of nineteen sixty five,
35:07
Speaker 1: he committed one of the most unusual attacks of his
35:11
Speaker 1: known killing spree. On the evening of August twenty second,
35:16
Speaker 1: twenty five year old Hermann Schmidtz and his fiancee Maryan
35:20
Speaker 1: Veen droves to a secluded area near Duisburg Grobenbaum. Like
35:27
Speaker 1: many young couples of the era, they'd chosen a quiet
35:30
Speaker 1: location where they could spend time together away from the city.
35:33
Speaker 1: Think lover's Lane kind of situation. I don't know that's
35:37
Speaker 1: exactly what they were doing, but that's kind of my presumption. Now,
35:41
Speaker 1: at some point during the evening, Jokim noticed the parked vehicle.
35:45
Speaker 1: Yalkem then approached the couple's Volkswagen and slashed one of
35:48
Speaker 1: its tires, causing a flat It was an act that
35:51
Speaker 1: appears to have been very intentional, intending to lure one
35:55
Speaker 1: of the occupants out of the vehicle to create an
35:57
Speaker 1: opportunity of attack, and it worked.
36:00
Speaker 2: Worked.
36:01
Speaker 1: When Herman exited the car to investigate well, Yolkim pounced
36:06
Speaker 1: and immediately attacked him with a knife. The assault was
36:09
Speaker 1: sudden and violent, and Hermann suffered a fatal stab wound
36:12
Speaker 1: to the chest and collapsed near the vehicle. For Marian,
36:16
Speaker 1: the situation changed from ordinary to a desperate fight for
36:20
Speaker 1: survival in seconds as Yokim turned his attention to her.
36:24
Speaker 1: She reacted quickly, and rather than remaining trapped inside the vehicle,
36:28
Speaker 1: she climbed to the driver's seat, started the car and
36:30
Speaker 1: drove it directly towards Yakim. Now that unexpected response forced
36:35
Speaker 1: him to leap out of the way, and it was
36:37
Speaker 1: enough to save her life because Jokim then fled the
36:40
Speaker 1: scene and Marian was able to get help. But herman, however,
36:44
Speaker 1: died from his injuries.
36:45
Speaker 2: Okay, that's pretty fast thinking on her part. Definitely, she
36:49
Speaker 2: did really good there. Especially she probably knew right that
36:53
Speaker 2: her lover had just been killed.
36:55
Speaker 1: Yeah, most likely.
36:56
Speaker 2: I mean it would put her like adrenaline going, but still,
36:59
Speaker 2: like you, just devastated. And the fact that she thought
37:02
Speaker 2: of that is kind.
37:03
Speaker 1: Of impressive, I know, right, And the fact that he
37:05
Speaker 1: was likely not too far from the car, so she
37:09
Speaker 1: would have had to have done it like really quickly.
37:11
Speaker 2: Yeah, really quick on her feet.
37:14
Speaker 1: Now, this murder stood out from many of Yo Kim's
37:17
Speaker 1: earlier crimes because investigators finally had something that they hadn't
37:20
Speaker 1: actually possessed before, which was a surviving witness. Marian provided
37:26
Speaker 1: police with a description of the attacker and a detailed
37:29
Speaker 1: account of the events that unfolded, but unfortunately the encounter
37:33
Speaker 1: had been so brief, chaotic, and terrifying because well, imagine
37:39
Speaker 1: being in her shoes. So while her information helped, well,
37:43
Speaker 1: it wasn't really enough to identify the man, and once
37:46
Speaker 1: again Yo Kim escaped, and the following year brought another victim.
37:52
Speaker 1: On September thirteenth, nineteen sixty six, twenty year old Ursula
37:56
Speaker 1: Roling spent the evening with her boyfriend Adolf Schickel, before
38:01
Speaker 1: beginning the journey home through Forsterbush Park in marl However,
38:05
Speaker 1: she never arrived. When Ursla was reported missing, police launched
38:09
Speaker 1: a search of the area, and two days later her
38:12
Speaker 1: body was discovered within the park. As investigators attempted to
38:16
Speaker 1: reconstruct her final movements, suspicion naturally fell upon her boyfriend
38:20
Speaker 1: Adolf Schickel, one of the last known people to see
38:23
Speaker 1: her alive. He was questioned extensively and became a central
38:27
Speaker 1: figure in the investigation, despite a lack of evidence linking
38:30
Speaker 1: him to the crime. Now, the constant scrutiny eventually became
38:34
Speaker 1: overwhelming for him, and in January of nineteen sixty seven,
38:39
Speaker 1: Adolf Schickel died by suicide.
38:42
Speaker 2: Oh Man, another one.
38:44
Speaker 1: Another suicide from being falsely accused and scrutinized of murder
38:50
Speaker 1: Grigg and again, while the real killer was just unidentified
38:55
Speaker 1: and on the loose. This bastard, now before the year ended,
38:59
Speaker 1: yuk Ke would strike again. On December twenty second, nineteen
39:03
Speaker 1: sixty six, five year old Ilona Hark disappeared. Yeah you
39:09
Speaker 1: heard me right, You're glaring at me? Heard me? Right,
39:11
Speaker 1: five year old Ilona Hark disappeared Goodness. According to Yakim's
39:16
Speaker 1: later confession, he abducted the child and transported her through
39:20
Speaker 1: multiple communities using public transportation, even before eventually reaching a
39:25
Speaker 1: remote area near Uckswagen. When Ilona's body was eventually recovered,
39:31
Speaker 1: investigators faced yet another child homicide with no obvious suspect.
39:36
Speaker 1: The five year old had been taken far from the
39:38
Speaker 1: place where she disappeared and left in a remote wooded
39:41
Speaker 1: area near a small ditch. Investigators determined that she had
39:46
Speaker 1: been raped and died by drowning, a conclusion that immediately
39:51
Speaker 1: distinguished the case from many of the others of the
39:54
Speaker 1: unsolved cases in the region. Yet, despite the seriousness of
39:57
Speaker 1: the crime, detectives once again found themselves with very few leads.
40:03
Speaker 2: Gosh, this fucker is messed up.
40:05
Speaker 1: Yeah he is.
40:06
Speaker 2: Like Holy I'm just like I can feel myself heating
40:09
Speaker 2: up because I'm getting angry.
40:11
Speaker 1: I can like feel your blood boiling.
40:13
Speaker 2: Across the stable, oiling because the fact that she was
40:16
Speaker 2: five years old and he was able to just like
40:19
Speaker 2: travel with her because everyone thought that he was her dad. Probably, Yeah, like,
40:25
Speaker 2: what the actual shit is happening here?
40:28
Speaker 1: Yeah? Now, rightfully so. The case generated public outrage and
40:33
Speaker 1: renewed fears that a dangerous predator was operating somewhere within
40:36
Speaker 1: the region. Yet despite the attention, police remained unable to
40:41
Speaker 1: identify the person responsible, and by the end of nineteen
40:45
Speaker 1: sixty six, Yachim had spent more than eleven years killing
40:48
Speaker 1: without being caught. At this point, the victims varied in age,
40:52
Speaker 1: background circumstance. Some were children, some were adults. One attack
40:57
Speaker 1: had even left a survivor who could describe her attack
41:00
Speaker 1: or somewhat, Yet none of these investigations had succeeded in
41:03
Speaker 1: identifying him. The most remarkable part was that Jokim himself
41:08
Speaker 1: remained entirely ordinary in the eyes of those who were
41:11
Speaker 1: actually around him on the day to day basis, and
41:14
Speaker 1: each passing year, Jokim became more confident in his ability
41:17
Speaker 1: to operate without any consequences, But that confidence nearly ended
41:25
Speaker 1: on June twenty second, nineteen sixty seven. On that day,
41:30
Speaker 1: ten year old Gabrielle Puetmann was walking through a rural
41:34
Speaker 1: area near Boatrip when she encountered Joakim. According to information
41:39
Speaker 1: investigators later obtained after his arrest, he managed to lure
41:43
Speaker 1: the young girl away from a main pathway into a
41:46
Speaker 1: nearby meadow, and once there he attempted to gain her
41:50
Speaker 1: trust and isolate her even further. But what happened next
41:54
Speaker 1: would make Gabrielle one of the most important figures in
41:57
Speaker 1: this entire case. See. An unexpected interruption occurred. A nearby
42:04
Speaker 1: coal mine was changing shifts, and the surroundings filled with
42:10
Speaker 1: the sounds of the mine sirens, signaling the end of
42:13
Speaker 1: the workday. Within minutes, the roads and pathways that had
42:16
Speaker 1: been relatively quiet began filling with workers who were heading
42:20
Speaker 1: too home and to work, and faced with the possibility
42:24
Speaker 1: of being seen, Jachim abandoned the attack and fled the area.
42:30
Speaker 1: So as a result, Gabrielle, thankfully, thankfully, she survived. But remarkably, however,
42:35
Speaker 1: the incident did not immediately lead to his capture. Exactly
42:38
Speaker 1: how the encounter was handled at the time is a
42:41
Speaker 1: little unclear, but what is known is that the event
42:43
Speaker 1: never became the breakthrough investigators desperately needed. The opportunity was
42:48
Speaker 1: simply lost. Now two years later, another homicide investigation began.
42:54
Speaker 1: On July twelfth, nineteen sixty nine, sixty one year old
42:58
Speaker 1: Maria Hetkin was near Baldeny Lake in Essen, a popular
43:04
Speaker 1: recreational area frequented by walker, cyclists, families, and many people
43:09
Speaker 1: going outdoors. Now, Maria was not a child or a
43:12
Speaker 1: young woman, which was different than most of the others see.
43:16
Speaker 1: While Joachim often targeted young victims, opportunity also frequently played
43:21
Speaker 1: a larger role in his victim type. Think seeing the
43:24
Speaker 1: couple in lover's lane, for example. Now Jokim encountered Maria
43:29
Speaker 1: in a secluded area and then attacked her. When her
43:33
Speaker 1: body was discovered, police launched yet another murder investigation, where
43:36
Speaker 1: they discovered she was raped and strangled to death. But
43:40
Speaker 1: beyond that, the investigation proved well rather useless. It produced
43:45
Speaker 1: very few useful leads, and the case once again stalled.
43:50
Speaker 1: The following year brought another tragedy. On May twenty first,
43:57
Speaker 1: nineteen seventy, thirteen year old Judah ra On disappeared while
44:01
Speaker 1: walking home from the Whostal Railway station. Part of her
44:05
Speaker 1: route took her through a wooded area, and somewhere along
44:08
Speaker 1: that journey she encountered Jachim. When she failed to return home,
44:13
Speaker 1: concern quickly spread through her family and community as the
44:17
Speaker 1: hours passed without any sign of the young girl, police
44:20
Speaker 1: launched a major search operation. Investigators retraced her route, interviewed witnesses,
44:26
Speaker 1: and examined surrounding woodlands, hoping to uncover some sort of
44:29
Speaker 1: clue that would explain her disappearance. Now, the search ultimately
44:34
Speaker 1: led to tragedy, as Judah's body was later discovered, confirming
44:39
Speaker 1: the fears that had been growing since the moment she vanished.
44:43
Speaker 1: Investigators determined that the thirteen year old had been raped
44:47
Speaker 1: and killed by strangulation, and once again, despite the seriousness
44:51
Speaker 1: of the crime, investigators found little evidence capable of identifying
44:55
Speaker 1: the person responsible, and there was still no clear indication
44:59
Speaker 1: that her was connected to any large series of unsolved
45:03
Speaker 1: killings stretching across western Germany. Now, during the investigation, police
45:09
Speaker 1: focused their attention on a local man named Peter Shay. Now,
45:14
Speaker 1: Peter was arrested and spent approximately fifteen months in custody
45:18
Speaker 1: while authorities attempted to connect him to the murder. The
45:21
Speaker 1: case against him attracted a lot of attention, and for
45:24
Speaker 1: a time many believed investigators had found the killer. Ultimately, however,
45:29
Speaker 1: police were unable to prove that he was responsible, and
45:33
Speaker 1: so he was released. Once again, an innocent man had
45:37
Speaker 1: fallen under suspicion while the real offender remained free. For Jachim,
45:44
Speaker 1: the pattern was all too familiar. Another victim was dead,
45:48
Speaker 1: another investigation had reached the wrong conclusion, and another opportunity
45:52
Speaker 1: to stop him had simply slipped away. And I think
45:58
Speaker 1: that's where we'll stop for part one.
46:00
Speaker 2: Oh man, Okay, you might not like this. I may
46:06
Speaker 2: not like it, Okay, but this guy in this story
46:10
Speaker 2: is like, all I can think of is this is
46:13
Speaker 2: why women would pick the bear?
46:16
Speaker 1: Why would I not like that? Well, I totally understand.
46:19
Speaker 2: Because I know, like, there's so many good guys in
46:22
Speaker 2: the world, right that like that you would be totally
46:25
Speaker 2: fine encountering in the woods. Yes, but this is this
46:28
Speaker 2: story is why females I think, are like, no, I
46:32
Speaker 2: would freaking pick the bear.
46:34
Speaker 1: Okay, I totally understand what you're saying. I totally understand
46:39
Speaker 1: the would you want to encounter a man or a
46:41
Speaker 1: bear in the woods. I totally get the I'd pick
46:44
Speaker 1: the bear portion, But there is so much psychology that
46:49
Speaker 1: goes into that question. We would have to do several
46:52
Speaker 1: episodes if we want to break that down.
46:54
Speaker 2: We would. But this guy, like he's freaking terrifying and
46:57
Speaker 2: what and what he's doing, yes to all these people
47:00
Speaker 2: in you know, wooded areas is kind of his jam.
47:04
Speaker 1: I guess one hundred percent. And it comes down to like,
47:07
Speaker 1: if if it's an I pick the bear because of
47:12
Speaker 1: worst case scenario, a bear is going to kill you
47:15
Speaker 1: and your life is over.
47:16
Speaker 2: And that's that well, and the bear doesn't necessarily know better.
47:19
Speaker 1: Well exactly, And if you pick if you meet a
47:22
Speaker 1: man and worst case scenario, that's the assumption is it's
47:25
Speaker 1: worst case scenario. Worst case scenario, this man could rape you,
47:30
Speaker 1: capture you, hold you captive, torture you, and then kill
47:34
Speaker 1: you and slowly it'd be pain. It'd be like, it's
47:37
Speaker 1: so much worse. I get it. And this man is
47:40
Speaker 1: one of those people that would one hundred and ten
47:42
Speaker 1: percent do the worst case scenario to you if you
47:45
Speaker 1: came across him, and.
47:47
Speaker 2: If you're alone in the woods, he like you're his type, yes, right,
47:53
Speaker 2: he goes after you. And the fact that he has
47:54
Speaker 2: no discrimination of age is kind of wild to me.
47:58
Speaker 2: How he has like one victim that's five and another
48:01
Speaker 2: one that's in their sixties. Yeah, that's mind blowing.
48:04
Speaker 1: Well again, in the intro of this story, I gave
48:09
Speaker 1: away another little bit of detail. His youngest victim is four.
48:14
Speaker 2: Holy frig Okay, yeah, that is just that is. I
48:21
Speaker 2: don't know. I don't freaking know. I cannot understand that.
48:26
Speaker 2: I know, I don't this guy, I yeah, he is
48:30
Speaker 2: messed up. He's seriously messed up.
48:32
Speaker 1: We cover people that we call monsters on this show
48:35
Speaker 1: because they are monsters, but in every sense of the word,
48:41
Speaker 1: there is occasionally an individual that is verbatim the definition
48:47
Speaker 1: of a monster, and this is one of them. There's
48:49
Speaker 1: people who do monstrous things and you can label them
48:51
Speaker 1: as a monster because they are. But through and through
48:54
Speaker 1: this guy is a fucking pure bread monster.
48:58
Speaker 2: Yeah. There ain't any good there none, none.
49:03
Speaker 1: And ironically enough, there is a portion that we'll talk
49:06
Speaker 1: about in part two where it seems like he's good
49:11
Speaker 1: and it just makes it so much worse.
49:14
Speaker 2: Okay, gosh, yeah, okay, so we probably going to get
49:17
Speaker 2: even more bothered part two, is what you're saying.
49:21
Speaker 1: Yeah, definitely, okay, because.
49:23
Speaker 2: I've I've already even lost count how many victims he
49:26
Speaker 2: had he's had, and I'm sure it gets worse.
49:29
Speaker 1: So well, we'll go through the remainder the remainder of
49:32
Speaker 1: the story in part two. Thank you for being here.
49:34
Speaker 1: I'm just gonna leave it at that until part two.
49:38
Speaker 2: Until Oh okay my turn, Stay Wicked. I was gonna
49:43
Speaker 2: set you up because I thought you were going to
49:44
Speaker 2: keep going anyway, Stay Wicked. Thank you for being here.
50:17
Speaker 2: The thing, oh oh