Read Extreme Evil - Taking Crime to the Next Level (True Crime) for Free Online
too old to learn new, more moral tricks. With sexual deviance, violence and crime prevalent in many areas of Berlin, Grossman was able to blend into the background and continue with his evil ways. After living at various squalid addresses in the eastern part of the city, he took an apartment on Lange Strasse 88/89 in the centre of the Friedrichschain district – a notorious den of iniquity.
It was here in his fourth floor studio where he would begin to bring back women from the area, mainly prostitutes and single ladies down on their luck. Grossmann would lure them to his abode with promises of food, shelter and clothing, In return their benefactor demanded sex, a simple and common exchange during these hard times, but as his gluttonous lust for debauchery grew so the liaisons became all the more dangerous.
Pretty soon Karl – as he now called himself – had become somewhat of a personality around town. He was often to be found peddling his sausages outside the Silesian train station and picking up women around the fountain at Alexanderplatz, just one block north of his home. His neighbours also could not miss the steady stream of female companions as they noisily traipsed up the stairs to his top floor flat. What they failed to spot was that many of the women never left the apartment alive.
S IMPLY T HE W URST
With domestic violence commonplace during the Weimar era, it is still surprising the fellow residents at Lange Strasse 88/89 turned a deaf ear to the violent screams coming from behind Grossmann’s door. Even when concerns were raised at the malodorous stench emanating from within, he was able to satisfy them with fictitious tales of chicken meat gone bad.
The truth was far more sinister. The Berliner butcher would lace his victims’ drinks with a sedative then pleasure himself with their bound and unconscious bodies. Once his sadistic fun was over he would bash in their brains and begin the process of dividing up the corpse into small parts, removing the women piecemeal from the studio in small paper packages to dump in the nearby river.
One might think it could not get much worse than this, however there exists a rumour some believe true. It is said that many of his victims did not end up thrown into water but rather placed into his sausages and sold outside the Silesian train station, turning the unwitting German public into cannibals.
N EIGHBOURHOOD W ATCH
As Grossmann hacked his way through the female population of Berlin, unsurprisingly human remains began showing up in the numerous waterways. It was not long before the police realised they had a serial killer on the rampage. A total of twenty-three bodies between 1918 and 1921 had been discovered.
When police posted public notices around the capital in early August 1921, Grossmann’s neighbours finally began to suspect there might be more to the man on the top floor. Now regarding their neighbour with extreme suspicion they kept a watchful eye on the lothario’s movements, especially when bringing lovers back to the flat. At one point Helene and Mannheim Itzig, a couple living down the corridor from Grossmann, went as far as to drill a hole through his door in order to catch sight of his evil actions.
Consequently, when residents heard the usual violent screams followed by an eerie silence on Sunday 21 August, they decided it was time to call the authorities. The police rushed straight over and broke down the door to a scene of pure horror.
Inside the dingy room thick with the foul stench of blood and viscera, they found the body of a woman in a semi-state of dismemberment. Over her stood Grossmann covered in her blood. Further examination of the apartment found that at least three others had been butchered in recent weeks.
The identity of the victim was found to be thirty-five-year-old Marie Nitsche, a down-at-heel ex-con who had only just been released from a month-long stay at Moabit prison. She had met Grossman on the street
It was here in his fourth floor studio where he would begin to bring back women from the area, mainly prostitutes and single ladies down on their luck. Grossmann would lure them to his abode with promises of food, shelter and clothing, In return their benefactor demanded sex, a simple and common exchange during these hard times, but as his gluttonous lust for debauchery grew so the liaisons became all the more dangerous.
Pretty soon Karl – as he now called himself – had become somewhat of a personality around town. He was often to be found peddling his sausages outside the Silesian train station and picking up women around the fountain at Alexanderplatz, just one block north of his home. His neighbours also could not miss the steady stream of female companions as they noisily traipsed up the stairs to his top floor flat. What they failed to spot was that many of the women never left the apartment alive.
S IMPLY T HE W URST
With domestic violence commonplace during the Weimar era, it is still surprising the fellow residents at Lange Strasse 88/89 turned a deaf ear to the violent screams coming from behind Grossmann’s door. Even when concerns were raised at the malodorous stench emanating from within, he was able to satisfy them with fictitious tales of chicken meat gone bad.
The truth was far more sinister. The Berliner butcher would lace his victims’ drinks with a sedative then pleasure himself with their bound and unconscious bodies. Once his sadistic fun was over he would bash in their brains and begin the process of dividing up the corpse into small parts, removing the women piecemeal from the studio in small paper packages to dump in the nearby river.
One might think it could not get much worse than this, however there exists a rumour some believe true. It is said that many of his victims did not end up thrown into water but rather placed into his sausages and sold outside the Silesian train station, turning the unwitting German public into cannibals.
N EIGHBOURHOOD W ATCH
As Grossmann hacked his way through the female population of Berlin, unsurprisingly human remains began showing up in the numerous waterways. It was not long before the police realised they had a serial killer on the rampage. A total of twenty-three bodies between 1918 and 1921 had been discovered.
When police posted public notices around the capital in early August 1921, Grossmann’s neighbours finally began to suspect there might be more to the man on the top floor. Now regarding their neighbour with extreme suspicion they kept a watchful eye on the lothario’s movements, especially when bringing lovers back to the flat. At one point Helene and Mannheim Itzig, a couple living down the corridor from Grossmann, went as far as to drill a hole through his door in order to catch sight of his evil actions.
Consequently, when residents heard the usual violent screams followed by an eerie silence on Sunday 21 August, they decided it was time to call the authorities. The police rushed straight over and broke down the door to a scene of pure horror.
Inside the dingy room thick with the foul stench of blood and viscera, they found the body of a woman in a semi-state of dismemberment. Over her stood Grossmann covered in her blood. Further examination of the apartment found that at least three others had been butchered in recent weeks.
The identity of the victim was found to be thirty-five-year-old Marie Nitsche, a down-at-heel ex-con who had only just been released from a month-long stay at Moabit prison. She had met Grossman on the street
Similar Books
The Mark of Zorro
JOHNSTON MCCULLEY
Shame the Devil
George P. Pelecanos
The Flyer
Marjorie Jones
Wicked Whispers
Tina Donahue
Second Sight
Judith Orloff
Wronged (The Cuvier Widows Book 1)
Sylvia McDaniel
QuarterLifeFling
Clare Murray
The Brethren
Robert Merle
Taken and Kept (Reluctant BDSM)
Elaine Cara