00:00:06
-For three decades,
a relentless serial killer
00:00:09
was targeting women across
the industrial heartland
00:00:12
of West Germany.
00:00:14
Between 1955 and 1976,
he confessed to killing at least
00:00:19
14 victims, the youngest of them
a 4-year-old girl,
00:00:23
but the authorities had no idea.
00:00:26
-The fact that he got away
with this for so long,
00:00:28
I think we should really ask
ourselves a lot of questions.
00:00:31
How does somebody like this go
under the radar for that long?
00:00:34
-He killed with such stealth
00:00:36
that others were blamed
for his murders.
00:00:38
-[ Speaking German ]
00:00:40
-Everyone kept saying he was
the alleged child murderer,
00:00:44
and that drove my father
to his death.
00:00:48
-In 1976, the police captured
the actual killer,
00:00:53
a 43-year-old man
named Joachim Kroll.
00:00:56
He demonstrated how
he'd killed his victims
00:00:59
in a series of chilling
reconstruction pictures.
00:01:02
-In my view, Kroll is among
the most depraved serial killers
00:01:09
we've seen in Europe
in the 20th century.
00:01:13
-Joachim Kroll, the man dubbed
the Duisburg Cannibal,
00:01:16
had carved his place in history
00:01:19
as one of the world's
most evil killers.
00:01:22
♪♪
00:01:29
♪♪
00:01:37
♪♪
00:01:44
It was a series of murders that
shocked the whole of Germany.
00:01:48
For 21 years, between
the mid-1950s and the mid-'70s,
00:01:53
Joachim Kroll murdered
at least 14 people
00:01:56
by strangling them to death.
00:01:59
His youngest victim,
Marion Ketter,
00:02:01
was just 4 years old.
00:02:03
The discovery of her dismembered
body in the summer of 1976
00:02:08
left the nation in a state
of complete disbelief.
00:02:12
For years, Kroll took care
to strike away from his home
00:02:15
in Duisburg,
a town in Ruhrgebiet,
00:02:18
West Germany's
industrial heartland,
00:02:21
but Marion Ketter lived
right on his street.
00:02:24
Police were knocking on doors,
00:02:26
searching for the missing
4-year-old girl in July, 1976,
00:02:31
when they made
a gruesome discovery.
00:02:35
Bernd Jagers was a young
detective on the detective
00:02:37
on the Duisburg murder squad.
00:02:41
-[ Speaking German ]
00:02:44
-The whole thing was
only discovered
00:02:46
because Joachim took a girl
from the neighborhood.
00:02:49
Before that,
he would travel further,
00:02:51
and the crime scenes
were far away from Duisburg.
00:02:54
That is the reason why it
took us so long to catch him.
00:02:58
This time, he took a girl
from the neighborhood
00:02:59
who he knew by sight.
00:03:01
He took her to his flat,
sexually abused her
00:03:04
and then killed her.
00:03:09
When a 4-year-old goes missing,
00:03:10
the alarm bells
go off everywhere.
00:03:13
Of course,
you use a lot of personnel
00:03:14
to try and find this girl,
and when we got there,
00:03:18
other colleagues were
already on the scene,
00:03:21
and we then went inside the flat
and experienced
00:03:23
something terrible.
00:03:28
♪♪
00:03:31
-The story of this twisted
killer begins
00:03:33
more than 80 years ago.
00:03:36
Joachim Kroll was born on
April 17, 1933,
00:03:41
the sixth of nine children.
00:03:43
His family lived
in Upper Silesia
00:03:45
in the far east of Germany
00:03:47
until they got driven out of
the end of the second World War.
00:03:52
-Joachim Kroll was
the son of a coal miner
00:03:56
born in East Germany.
00:03:57
Weakly, unprepossessing child,
barely intelligent,
00:04:02
he had an IQ of 79.
00:04:04
-[ Speaking German ]
00:04:07
-They lived in
very cramped circumstances,
00:04:10
only two rooms
for a family of 11.
00:04:12
always in
financial difficulties.
00:04:16
And also his relationship
with the family
00:04:18
weighed heavily on him because
he was hardly able to develop
00:04:21
any kind of close relationship
with his siblings.
00:04:28
Joachim Kroll was lonely
in his own family
00:04:31
because he learned that he
didn't matter much as a human.
00:04:38
He didn't experience
any motherly
00:04:39
or fatherly love at home,
00:04:42
and therefore couldn't develop
a feeling of self-worth.
00:04:47
He was withdrawn and shy.
00:04:51
He was afraid to even speak
00:04:54
because he was
physically abused.
00:04:59
-He was a bit of a victim,
a bit of an outcast,
00:05:01
even within his own family,
and then when he went to school,
00:05:05
he didn't really
fit in there, either.
00:05:07
He had quite a low IQ.
00:05:09
He wasn't particularly bright.
He was a bit slow.
00:05:12
So that made him a bit
of a target there,
00:05:14
and then later on, he was
drafted into the Hitler Youth.
00:05:18
You know, perhaps his father
thought this was a way
00:05:21
of sorting him out and making
him, you know, a real man,
00:05:25
but that didn't really
work out either
00:05:28
because he didn't fit in
with that particular culture.
00:05:31
So here is somebody who's always
been something of an outsider,
00:05:35
somebody who doesn't
always fit in,
00:05:37
who isn't really
accepted anywhere.
00:05:39
-[ Speaking German ]
00:05:41
-When the Red Army came,
all the Germans were driven out,
00:05:45
and for the Kroll family,
it was an odyssey
00:05:48
because they went from
place to place to find
00:05:50
another home somewhere.
00:05:52
Kroll had to watch women being
raped, people being killed,
00:05:56
how small boys played
with explosives
00:05:58
and blew themselves up
in the process.
00:06:01
So as a young man, Joachim Kroll
00:06:04
had already been
badly traumatized.
00:06:08
-[ Speaking German ]
00:06:10
You have to bear in mind
00:06:12
that Joachim had always
been teased and bullied.
00:06:15
Even in his own family,
he was always the loser.
00:06:18
When one of them did something,
his siblings would always say
00:06:20
"Joachim did it,"
so he would be beaten again.
00:06:23
-There's quite a few pieces
of the jigsaw puzzle
00:06:26
falling quite neatly
into place here for Kroll.
00:06:30
So he started off life
as an outsider,
00:06:34
not really got many decent
social relationships.
00:06:37
He's quite isolated,
and he's somebody
00:06:40
who is becoming
increasingly introverted,
00:06:42
and that's always
a dangerous thing.
00:06:45
-While working on farms
as a teenager,
00:06:48
Kroll was regularly beaten
by his superiors
00:06:51
whenever he made a mistake.
00:06:53
-He went to work on a farm,
quite a tough environment.
00:06:57
He didn't get on
particularly well
00:06:58
socially in this environment.
00:07:01
He worked with people
on the farm.
00:07:03
This included women, who he
would make inappropriate
00:07:06
passes at because he just didn't
have the social skills
00:07:09
to form normal relationships
with the opposite sex.
00:07:12
He was quite aggressive
in his approach to them.
00:07:15
So he was often rejected
by the women
00:07:17
that he would try
and develop relationships with,
00:07:20
and I think that that served to
just isolate him even further.
00:07:24
-During his time on the farm,
Kroll also developed
00:07:28
a morbid fascination
with the butchery of animals.
00:07:32
-Back in those days,
slaughtering animals on farms
00:07:35
isn't the kind of cold, clinical
approach that's taken today.
00:07:39
It was incredibly brutal.
It was incredibly bloody.
00:07:42
He wasn't repulsed
by these scenes of gore
00:07:46
and blood and violence
that other people might be.
00:07:50
-[ Speaking German ]
00:07:55
-When he saw a pig being
slaughtered for the first time,
00:07:58
it had a lasting effect on him.
00:08:00
He started sweating.
His pulse was racing.
00:08:03
It was basically a very positive
00:08:05
and almost ecstatic experience
that he didn't expect to feel.
00:08:09
He was completely overwhelmed
by these sensations
00:08:11
that were
totally unknown to him.
00:08:20
-So he's a bit different,
00:08:22
and he's developing a tolerance
to violence and to death.
00:08:27
-Kroll's delight in the blood
and gore of the slaughterhouse
00:08:30
even manifested into
sexual acts with animals.
00:08:34
-[ Speaking German ]
00:08:38
-If fantasies of sexual violence
develop during puberty,
00:08:42
and he was in puberty
when he was working on farms,
00:08:45
then you can never
get rid of them.
00:08:46
There, he experienced
these sexual things,
00:08:49
which aroused him --
the warm blood
00:08:51
and where
he satisfied himself.
00:08:53
Then afterwards, he lived out
his fantasies on the animals
00:08:56
with sexual acts with cows
and anything that was available,
00:08:59
and something like that
will never go away.
00:09:03
-When we look at sex,
we look at what is it?
00:09:05
What does it represent?
00:09:06
Essentially,
it represents power.
00:09:08
Now, here's somebody who hasn't
had a lot of power,
00:09:10
who hasn't had a lot of control
over the things
00:09:12
that have been happening
in his life,
00:09:14
but when he's involved
in the slaughtering of animals,
00:09:16
he's feeling in control
in this situation.
00:09:18
And this is something
that he quite enjoys.
00:09:21
It's the first time,
I think, in his life
00:09:23
that he's got control
over what's going on.
00:09:25
-Kroll's fantasies
translated into behavior
00:09:29
that was becoming
more and more grotesque.
00:09:33
When he lived in a hostel
for single men,
00:09:35
and he took a cat
into his room,
00:09:37
he had this idea
that he wanted to see
00:09:38
what the insides looked like.
00:09:42
He took a hammer, struck the cat
and skinned it
00:09:46
and took a closer
look at its intestines.
00:09:49
-And that really does show
this kind of childlike curiosity
00:09:54
that he's got and the complete
lack of boundaries around
00:09:57
how to behave appropriately.
00:10:00
-His violence towards animals
took a more humanlike turn
00:10:04
when Kroll began experimenting
with blow-up dolls.
00:10:07
-[ Speaking German ]
00:10:11
-Because Kroll didn't manage
to get access to women,
00:10:14
he procured himself
several rubber dolls instead,
00:10:17
which he draped with clothing,
00:10:19
but then also hanged them
with a rope
00:10:21
and imagined that
the women would then die.
00:10:24
He got a particular
kick out of that.
00:10:31
-It was only a matter of time
before Kroll's perverse behavior
00:10:35
would lead him to kill.
00:10:38
When he was arrested
three decades later
00:10:41
for the gruesome murder
of 4-year-old Marion Ketter
00:10:44
in July, 1976,
00:10:46
the police found communication
with Kroll extremely difficult.
00:10:51
-[ Speaking German ]
00:10:53
-Well, we just simply thought
00:10:55
if someone does
something like this,
00:10:57
other things or fantasies
must have played a part.
00:11:01
-Kroll was so withdrawn
that police decided
00:11:04
he might open up more
if just one detective tried
00:11:07
to form a rapport with him.
00:11:09
-[ Speaking German ]
00:11:11
-I said to our boss, "I would
like to talk to Joachim alone."
00:11:15
So the two of us sat down
in the interview room,
00:11:17
and I tried
with absolute mundane
00:11:19
and trivial subjects
to get through to him.
00:11:22
To get through to this man now
was, of course, not easy.
00:11:28
I then tried with something
we found out
00:11:29
through interviews
with his neighbors --
00:11:31
that he would often work
on the moped that he owned,
00:11:34
that he would fix it
and adjust it,
00:11:35
and that he also repaired
his own television,
00:11:38
and so I tried
to go down this route,
00:11:40
and all of a sudden,
I noticed that he realized,
00:11:43
"Someone is listening to me
when I talk about myself
00:11:46
and is actually
asking questions,"
00:11:48
and that was the moment when
trust was gradually built up,
00:11:51
where I was fortunate enough
to kindle a spark of trust,
00:11:54
so he'd also discussed
other things with me.
00:12:04
-Kroll was ready
to talk to the police.
00:12:06
They had no idea that the quiet
man sitting before them
00:12:10
was responsible
for the barbaric killing of
00:12:13
at least 14 people
over the past 21 years.
00:12:17
His confession would stun
the whole of West Germany.
00:12:22
As detectives continued
with their interrogations,
00:12:25
Kroll began to open up.
00:12:28
-[ Speaking German ]
00:12:31
-My colleague, Bernd Jagers,
did it all the right way.
00:12:35
He's the one who
broke the ice because
00:12:38
without his special
relationship with Kroll,
00:12:40
all these murder confessions
00:12:42
would probably
never have been possible.
00:12:45
So therefore, he deserves
the very highest respect.
00:12:52
He gave Kroll the feeling,
"I don't see you as
00:12:55
a beast or man-eater,
but just as a human being,
00:12:59
and that's exactly
how I'll treat you.
00:13:01
Let yourself go, do that,"
and Kroll did that,
00:13:04
and then, day after day,
he confessed to new murders.
00:13:10
-Kroll told detectives that
he'd committed his first murder
00:13:14
when he was 22 years old,
in February, 1955,
00:13:19
just three weeks after
the death of his mother.
00:13:23
-[ Speaking German ]
00:13:28
-Joachim Kroll's
murderous career
00:13:29
started when the only person
he could relate to,
00:13:32
his mother, died.
00:13:35
His mother was, above all,
00:13:37
the most important person
in Kroll's life,
00:13:39
in contrast with his father,
who beat him regularly.
00:13:43
She was the only
positive figure in his life.
00:13:46
He looked up to her
and didn't have to be afraid.
00:13:49
So when this pillar broke,
there was no halt
00:13:51
to his sexual
pathological development.
00:14:02
-The victim was 19-year-old
Irmgard Strehl.
00:14:06
Kroll had attacked her
in the town of Ludinghausen,
00:14:09
an hour's drive
northeast of Duisburg.
00:14:13
-So he sees this woman, and he
tries to make a pass at her,
00:14:16
to grab her and kiss her,
00:14:18
and understandably,
she doesn't react well to this.
00:14:21
-[ Speaking German ]
00:14:23
-That rejection stunned him
so much that he thought,
00:14:26
"I'm a human being,
and I want to live my sexuality,
00:14:30
so I have to find another way,"
00:14:32
and so violence
was the only solution.
00:14:35
-As a result, he kind of
shuffles her off into the woods,
00:14:38
where he sexually assaults her,
00:14:41
and he kills her,
and then he mutilates her body.
00:14:45
So this is somebody
who appears to be,
00:14:48
you know,
kind of sub-human in a way.
00:14:51
Why don't we put
his first murder in context?
00:14:53
The only way that
he's felt powerful
00:14:55
and that he's felt in control
00:14:57
is when he's been
killing animals on the farm.
00:14:59
So when he kills
his first victim,
00:15:01
this is another
exercise of power.
00:15:04
It's another exercise
of control.
00:15:06
But what's particularly
important about this one
00:15:08
is that he's crossed a line.
00:15:10
He's killed a human being.
He's killed an individual.
00:15:13
And I think this is a line
00:15:15
that he will cross
time and time again.
00:15:18
-Kroll began to confess
to a murderous career
00:15:21
that had lasted
for the previous 21 years.
00:15:24
He had developed
a familiar M.O. --
00:15:27
sneaking up behind people
and strangling them to death.
00:15:31
-Kroll was one of the few people
00:15:35
who almost fulfilled the
stereotype of a serial killer.
00:15:40
He did have slightly
staring eyes and a small,
00:15:44
rather weasely, ratlike face.
00:15:47
He tended to be furtive
in all his movements.
00:15:51
He targeted women,
but they had to be inert.
00:15:55
Well, the only way that Kroll
could be assured
00:15:58
that his female victims
were inert was to kill them.
00:16:03
He would strangle them rapidly,
often by surprise,
00:16:11
usually in isolated places.
00:16:15
He was the sort of chap
you probably would have wanted
00:16:18
to cross the street to avoid.
00:16:20
-The main effect of
strangulation
00:16:23
is that it blocks
the blood supply to the brain
00:16:25
and it blocks the blood coming
back from the brain to the body.
00:16:29
That's far more
immediately damaging
00:16:32
than pressure on the windpipe
or blocking off the air supply.
00:16:35
So once you've blocked
the blood supply to the brain,
00:16:38
once the arteries
aren't supplying it with blood,
00:16:41
you've literally got
about 10 seconds
00:16:43
before you lose consciousness,
so it's quick.
00:16:46
-As Detective Bernd Jagers
00:16:48
continued with his
daily interrogation of Kroll,
00:16:52
the story began to captivate
the German press,
00:16:55
who dubbed the killer
"The Duisburg Cannibal."
00:16:59
-His nickname at one point
was the Ruhr Cannibal
00:17:01
or the Ruhr Hunter
because he regularly boasted,
00:17:05
in the wake of his capture,
that he ate the victims.
00:17:11
He said it was the only meat
he could eat.
00:17:15
-[ Speaking German ]
00:17:17
-You have to explain
that back then,
00:17:18
there were all kinds of stories
published in the press,
00:17:21
wild stories,
none of which were true.
00:17:24
Let's say that<i> Bild-Zeitung</i>
00:17:25
published interviews
word-for-word in the newspaper,
00:17:28
but we never actually
talked to the<i> Bild-Zeitung.</i>
00:17:31
They published such things as,
"Now Joachim Kroll
00:17:34
is being given cake
or potato fritters
00:17:35
so that he will confess
to the next murder."
00:17:38
This is, of course,
total nonsense.
00:17:41
Now we were there every day,
00:17:43
also the weekends in order
to keep Joachim's spirits up.
00:17:46
So I just asked him,
"What would you like to eat?"
00:17:49
Which is quite normal.
00:17:51
He would say,
"I would like a piece of cake."
00:17:53
Then of course,
we would go and get cake,
00:17:56
but that was just about
being human
00:17:58
and not to get
a murder confession.
00:18:00
No one would confess to murder
because of that.
00:18:04
-[ Speaking German ]
00:18:09
-You have to imagine
Kroll is built up in the media
00:18:12
as a monster, a man-eater,
a cannibal, and then the police
00:18:15
go and serve him
with his favorite food.
00:18:19
In the end, it was also just
a tactic to get Kroll to talk,
00:18:23
and using these means
has to be allowed.
00:18:30
-Having gained
the confidence of Kroll,
00:18:32
the police got a clear insight
into the perverse fantasies
00:18:36
that ultimately motivated him
to commit his appalling crimes.
00:18:40
-[ Speaking German ]
00:18:41
-He needed this killing.
00:18:43
He needed this seeing
how to kill,
00:18:45
and that gave him
sexual gratification,
00:18:48
but the corpses in themselves
no longer interested him.
00:18:51
He just left them.
00:18:53
He did not cover them up,
nothing at all,
00:18:55
and then he got the bus or train
00:18:57
or whatever home
in a completely normal way.
00:19:01
-Kroll tended to minimize
his behavior,
00:19:04
and, as criminologists,
00:19:05
we call this
techniques of neutralization.
00:19:08
So rather than describing them
00:19:10
as the horrendous
things they are,
00:19:11
he described them
as these funny feelings,
00:19:14
you know, something that was
a bit of a quirk
00:19:17
or something that was a bit odd.
00:19:18
So he's minimizing
what he's doing
00:19:20
by describing it in that way.
00:19:24
-Between 1955 and 1976,
00:19:28
Kroll told detectives that
he'd killed at least 14 people
00:19:32
and that he could take them
to some of the crime scenes.
00:19:36
Officers decided to drive him
to a series of
00:19:39
cold case locations throughout
the Ruhrgebiet region.
00:19:42
They hoped by allowing him
to reenact the murders,
00:19:46
it may help them identify
his unknown victims.
00:19:49
The police captured photographs
00:19:51
of these macabre
reconstructions.
00:19:55
-[ Speaking German ]
00:19:58
-We as interrogators
had no files, nothing at all.
00:20:02
We drove behind them.
00:20:03
They stop somewhere, then
Joachim got out, and we asked,
00:20:06
"Joachim, have you been
here before?"
00:20:08
and if he recognized something,
then he said,
00:20:10
"Yes, I have been here before."
00:20:13
He then looked at it all
and went with us into the forest
00:20:15
depending on what
crime scene it was.
00:20:18
He then could describe
how it had looked at that time.
00:20:20
That was incredible.
He had a photographic memory.
00:20:23
He did not know where he was,
00:20:25
but he just had
this photographic memory.
00:20:29
-Kroll would try and identify
a specific tree or shrub,
00:20:33
but he couldn't always find
what he was looking for.
00:20:38
-We would find a few places
where a forest used to be,
00:20:41
but now they were
high-rise buildings.
00:20:43
Then he didn't know anymore,
and he said, "I'm sorry.
00:20:45
I can't say if I was here.
I don't know."
00:20:48
Of course, this was
sometimes frustrating,
00:20:50
but you have to live with that
after such a long time.
00:20:54
-Kroll took the police
to the town of Essen,
00:20:57
half an hour's drive
from his home in Duisburg
00:21:00
where he told them how he killed
61-year-old Maria Hettgen
00:21:04
outside of her house in 1969.
00:21:07
-[ Speaking German ]
00:21:09
-He walked around
the lake all day.
00:21:11
It was nice weather
and had this feeling.
00:21:13
It had slowly turned to dusk,
and he wanted to go home,
00:21:16
but then he saw the old lady,
whom he immediately addressed
00:21:18
and said, "Do you want
to have sex with me?"
00:21:21
She did not want to, of course.
00:21:23
He snatched her and pulled her
into a wooded area,
00:21:26
and then he killed her there.
00:21:29
-He doesn't seem to have
a particular victim type,
00:21:32
which is something that we do
tend to see in serial killers.
00:21:36
So this could suggest
that these crimes
00:21:38
are completely opportunistic,
that he's not consciously
00:21:41
targeting a particular
group of people.
00:21:44
-Using the information gathered
in these fact-finding missions,
00:21:48
the police were able
to piece together
00:21:50
Kroll's history of murder.
00:21:52
-[ Speaking German ]
00:21:58
-We could only use
what Joachim Kroll told us
00:22:00
during the reenactment
during the interrogation,
00:22:04
and we would ask
a few questions
00:22:05
about whether or not
anything more had occurred.
00:22:07
Well, we asked,
"Joachim, what did you do then?
00:22:10
What happened then?"
Questions like that.
00:22:13
These answers convinced us that
he is not inventing the stuff
00:22:15
and that he really wants
to get it off his chest.
00:22:22
After spending
three months with Joachim
00:22:24
and looking into
more than 100 cases,
00:22:26
at some point
the defense said,
00:22:28
"That's enough.
Joachim Kroll will no longer
00:22:30
go into the car
with the police."
00:22:33
So we could not continue to go
00:22:35
to all the unsolved
crime scenes.
00:22:37
This may have also resulted
in solving other unsolved cases.
00:22:41
That was a shame.
00:22:45
-As new crimes
were revealed to detectives,
00:22:48
they soon realize that Kroll
was confessing to murders
00:22:52
that had already been solved.
00:22:54
Some of these innocent men
who had been wrongly accused
00:22:58
were in prison
and some had even ended up dead.
00:23:03
He had confessed to the murder
of 14 people and led detectives
00:23:07
to the location
of many of the crime scenes.
00:23:11
One of these victims
was 13-year-old Jutta Rahn.
00:23:15
Kroll had strangled and killed
her in the town of Breitscheid
00:23:19
in 1970, six years
before his arrest,
00:23:23
but in a time
before DNA evidence existed,
00:23:27
the police had focused
their investigation
00:23:30
on Jutta's boyfriend.
00:23:33
-[ Speaking German ]
00:23:36
-For the police and also
for the prosecutor,
00:23:38
the matter was resolved,
00:23:40
and because of that,
it was not on the list,
00:23:43
and then Joachim went with us
into the forest
00:23:45
and explained what he had done.
00:23:47
This was the first story
where we then said,
00:23:50
"Hey, we have somebody here
who is in the know.
00:23:53
We're not here with somebody
who is not quite so clever.
00:23:57
He wants to show us
what he's done,
00:23:59
and now we have a crime
for which someone else
00:24:01
has almost been sentenced,
and he has another
00:24:03
20 to 30 people
that he might have killed."
00:24:07
-A blood group classification
expert later confirmed
00:24:11
that Jutta's boyfriend could
not have been the perpetrator,
00:24:14
and he was acquitted,
but he was not the only man
00:24:18
who had been mistakenly
accused of a Kroll murder.
00:24:22
One man had even made
a false confession
00:24:24
about killing 16-year-old
Manuela Knodt,
00:24:28
who was in fact murdered
by Kroll in 1959.
00:24:32
-[ Speaking German ]
00:24:39
-After some time, this man
went to the police
00:24:41
and told them
that he killed this girl.
00:24:43
He really went to prison
for the crime
00:24:45
but then said during his trial,
"It wasn't me.
00:24:48
I only said that because
I had financial problems,
00:24:51
family problems.
I was on the street.
00:24:53
I needed somewhere to go
and confessed to this crime."
00:24:57
It was, of course, no longer
treated as an unsolved case
00:24:59
by the police.
00:25:00
The case had been closed.
00:25:02
It had come to a trial,
and he had been convicted.
00:25:09
-Following Kroll's
arrest in 1976,
00:25:13
the convicted man wrote
an astonishing letter,
00:25:16
which was published
in the press.
00:25:19
-[ Speaking German ]
00:25:20
-This man had already turned
to our boss at the murder squad.
00:25:24
He wrote a letter then saying
that he was not the perpetrator,
00:25:26
and that the perpetrator must
still be walking around free.
00:25:30
We went to that scene,
to the crime scene,
00:25:32
and Joachim got out and said,
"Yes, I was here, too."
00:25:35
He went into the forest
and again
00:25:37
looked for a very specific bush
00:25:39
and a specific place,
and he said, "Here it was,"
00:25:42
and we immediately did
a reconstruction.
00:25:45
So that was the second story
where an innocent person
00:25:48
had served time in prison,
00:25:49
and the matter
was considered as solved.
00:25:55
-Another man who was falsely
accused was Walter Quicker,
00:25:59
a farmer from Walsum,
a suburb of Duisburg.
00:26:03
He lived less than a mile
from the spot
00:26:06
where 11-year-old Monika Tafel
was killed in June, 1962.
00:26:11
-[ Speaking German ]
00:26:14
-The young happened to be out
and about that day
00:26:17
and bumped into Joachim Kroll,
00:26:19
who was out looking for
a new victim to kill and rape.
00:26:23
Without the slightest
hesitation,
00:26:25
he kept turning around to check
if anyone could see him,
00:26:28
approached the girl,
dragged her into a field,
00:26:31
strangled her, and then
sexually assaulted her.
00:26:37
-But in 1962, Joachim Kroll
was just a phantom,
00:26:42
and a few days after the brutal
killing of Monika Tafel,
00:26:46
the police arrested
Walter Quicker.
00:26:49
His daughter, Marlies, was just
6 years old at the time.
00:26:53
-[ Speaking German ]
00:27:02
-My father was suspected
of raping and murdering
00:27:05
an 11-year-old girl 150 meters
from his family home.
00:27:17
People who lived in the area
00:27:20
and also from among
his acquaintances made claims.
00:27:23
They expressed suspicions,
which the police reacted to.
00:27:27
And I think it was
five days after
00:27:30
the child's body was found,
00:27:32
they arrested him
at his workplace.
00:27:41
No one could have seen him
00:27:42
because on the day of the
disappearance, he was at work.
00:27:45
So in that sense,
he also had a kind of alibi.
00:27:51
He was accused, and I know
that some people
00:27:54
who were very close to me
00:27:56
made negative comments
about my father.
00:28:02
-The murder of Monika
had left the community
00:28:05
in a state of shock.
00:28:07
People were keen to keep
their children within sight
00:28:10
because no one knew
where the killer lived
00:28:13
or when he'd strike again.
00:28:15
-[ Speaking German ]
00:28:22
-This created an oppressive
atmosphere in the area,
00:28:26
and at the same time,
people voiced their suspicions.
00:28:29
One person suspected the next.
00:28:31
It was a hard time for everyone,
00:28:35
and no one insisted
that it wasn't him.
00:28:38
The accusations were there,
apart from my mother.
00:28:42
She always said,
"It wasn't him."
00:28:50
-Walter was only held
in police custody
00:28:53
for a few days before
being released without charge,
00:28:57
but people in the area
continued to see Marlies' father
00:29:01
as the killer.
00:29:03
-[ Speaking German ]
00:29:06
-So after he was released,
people avoided him,
00:29:10
and people called out
behind him, "Murderer,"
00:29:12
and stuff like that.
00:29:15
It was the case that people
really avoided him in the area.
00:29:20
-Just six months
after his arrest,
00:29:22
the false accusations became
too much for Walter to take.
00:29:26
-[ Speaking German ]
00:29:35
-On the evening of
the 10th of December,
00:29:37
he left the house, and that was
the last time he was seen.
00:29:41
On the 15th of December, 1962,
00:29:44
he was found hanging
from a tree by some children.
00:30:02
I was 9 years old when I really
grasped what had happened,
00:30:06
and it appalled me.
00:30:08
It touched me inside,
and I often stood
00:30:11
and looked at the spot
where the girl was murdered.
00:30:18
-When Kroll confessed
to the murder
00:30:20
of 11-year-old Monika Tafel
following his arrest in 1976,
00:30:26
it came as a huge relief
to Marlies,
00:30:29
but in a way,
Walter Quicker had become
00:30:31
yet another victim
of Joachim Kroll.
00:30:35
-[ Speaking German ]
00:30:43
-My grandmother came out
with the remark,
00:30:45
"So it wasn't him after all."
00:30:48
This remark affected me
very deeply,
00:30:51
and I didn't ever discuss it
with anyone else
00:30:53
because I had to process
the fact
00:30:55
that the pressure
of being the daughter
00:30:57
of a suspected murderer
had disappeared.
00:31:14
My father had been
rehabilitated.
00:31:17
I don't know what other people
said about that afterwards.
00:31:21
I only know what I heard
and what I felt myself,
00:31:25
and that's the only thing
that counted for me.
00:31:32
-Before Kroll was arrested,
a whole series of other men
00:31:35
came under suspicion
as part of the investigation,
00:31:38
and that is of course
particularly tragic
00:31:41
because these were always
men who, at the end of the day,
00:31:44
had nothing to do
with the crime.
00:31:47
-Kroll saw no problem with that.
00:31:49
No, that's their problem.
00:31:52
That would be their difficulty.
I can get away with it.
00:31:55
And to get away with it
for 21 years
00:31:57
so consistently,
with so many deaths,
00:32:00
in such a small area
is horrifying,
00:32:04
but also remarkable.
00:32:06
-In total, two men were
falsely accused or imprisoned,
00:32:10
and three men committed suicide
in relation to Kroll's murders,
00:32:15
another five victims
of the callous killer.
00:32:18
After his arrest in July, 1976,
it appeared to detectives
00:32:23
that Kroll was almost relieved
to be captured.
00:32:27
-[ Speaking German ]
00:32:28
-He wanted this sensation gone,
00:32:30
which had always led him
to commit these crimes.
00:32:32
So he really felt the need,
and he thought that
00:32:34
when he told his story
that it would go away somehow.
00:32:38
-In terms of what Kroll
expressed about his punishment,
00:32:41
it is quite childlike
and quite immature in a way
00:32:44
because he thought that
he would just go to hospital
00:32:47
and his funny feelings
would be cured,
00:32:49
and then he'd be able
to go home.
00:32:51
So this implies quite a kind of
simplistic interpretation
00:32:54
of his own problems.
00:32:58
-But Joachim Kroll could not
make these murders
00:33:00
simply disappear.
00:33:02
He would have to face justice
for his crimes.
00:33:05
Kroll may have gone on
to kill many more women,
00:33:08
but one costly mistake
had led to his capture,
00:33:11
and a gruesome discovery in his
home had stunned the country.
00:33:17
-He presented to the world
as friendly,
00:33:22
plausible, agreeable
to his neighbors in Duisburg.
00:33:29
The local children
would visit him,
00:33:32
although I think sometimes
their parents
00:33:34
must have been
a little suspicious.
00:33:36
He was known as Uncle Joachim.
00:33:38
-[ Speaking German ]
00:33:40
-We also tried to speak to those
around the neighborhood,
00:33:43
asked who knows him,
who had contact with him.
00:33:46
People said he was a bit weird,
a bit odd somehow,
00:33:48
but he was
dear old Uncle Joachim,
00:33:51
and in reality, he was a wolf
in sheep's clothing.
00:33:54
-Behind this facade
of Uncle Joachim
00:33:56
and, "Oh, I like to look
after you girls and boys,
00:33:59
and they come around to see me,
and I'll give them sweets,"
00:34:01
was this man who was
very, very angry,
00:34:04
who wanted to make society
well aware
00:34:09
that they were living
by a thread,
00:34:10
and he could cut it
at any moment that he chose.
00:34:14
-Kroll usually did
his killing miles away
00:34:17
from his Duisburg home,
00:34:20
but in July, 1976,
suffering with a bad leg,
00:34:24
he finally struck
within his own community
00:34:27
when he kidnapped and murdered
4-year-old Marion Ketter.
00:34:31
It was the mistake
that led to his capture.
00:34:34
-[ Speaking German ]
00:34:36
-His crime scenes
got closer and closer,
00:34:38
and therefore it was the dumbest
thing he could really do
00:34:41
was take a girl
from the direct neighborhood,
00:34:43
but as I said,
his feeling was greater,
00:34:46
and if he had thought about it,
he should have said,
00:34:48
"This, what I am doing now,
is nonsense.
00:34:51
They will catch me."
00:34:53
-Door-to-door questioning
throughout the neighborhood
00:34:56
led the police
directly to Kroll.
00:34:58
Inside his home was
an horrific crime scene.
00:35:01
Detectives found a saucepan on
the stove with body parts in it.
00:35:06
Worse still were the contents
of the refrigerator.
00:35:11
-There was this girl
completely dismembered,
00:35:13
upper arm, forearm placed
on corresponding shelves
00:35:17
so that he only had
to take something out
00:35:19
and add it to the pan.
00:35:21
That was unfathomable for us.
00:35:23
-When we look at cannibalism,
00:35:25
we're essentially
looking at those
00:35:27
who consume
the bodies of other humans,
00:35:30
and this is something
that we do see
00:35:33
sometimes in cases
of serial murder,
00:35:36
and it is about power,
and it's about control again.
00:35:39
It's about completely
possessing your victim.
00:35:42
So not only have you
taken away their life,
00:35:45
you're now mutilating their body
and consuming it.
00:35:49
-Kroll disposed of other
parts of the body
00:35:51
by flushing them
down the lavatory.
00:35:54
-[ Speaking German ]
00:35:55
-But that blocked the toilet
00:35:57
and that of his neighbor
below, as well.
00:35:59
The neighbor approached
him and said,
00:36:01
"Hey, something
is blocked here."
00:36:05
-One of the horrifying things
of Kroll's crimes
00:36:08
was that he took pleasure
00:36:11
in taking out
the intestines of his victims,
00:36:13
and he told a neighbor who was
asking him what the smell was,
00:36:17
and he said rather flippantly,
"Oh, it's guts,"
00:36:21
which it literally
was intestines,
00:36:23
and the neighbor complained.
00:36:25
Kroll was nothing if not brazen.
00:36:28
-Kroll claimed he had
butchered a rabbit
00:36:31
and would make sure the remains
were removed from the pipe.
00:36:35
-[ Speaking German ]
00:36:36
-He did that, too, and he took
it to the waste bins
00:36:38
in the courtyard
where he disposed of it.
00:36:42
He was seen by this neighbor,
who then told our colleagues,
00:36:45
who were walking around,
asking questions,
00:36:47
"Who has seen this girl last?"
00:36:49
This neighbor told them
of his observations,
00:36:52
and so they checked
the waste bin
00:36:54
and found that this was
not from a rabbit,
00:36:56
but that they
were human innards.
00:36:59
-Kroll had kidnapped
and murdered
00:37:01
the helpless 4-year-old
just days before.
00:37:05
-[ Speaking German ]
00:37:10
-He felt particularly attracted
to this young girl.
00:37:13
He always stood up in the attic
00:37:15
looking down
into the playground,
00:37:16
saw Marion playing,
and got this funny feeling,
00:37:20
"I want to have this girl,
00:37:21
and I will snatch her up
at the next opportunity,"
00:37:25
and the 4-year-old girl did then
come into his flat with him,
00:37:28
and then he strangled her,
00:37:30
and after that did
all these awful things
00:37:33
that one can scarcely bear
to talk about.
00:37:38
-[ Speaking German ]
00:37:39
-Well, I was shocked
because I had a son
00:37:42
who was not that much older.
00:37:44
I had not been in
the homicide division long,
00:37:46
only for two years.
00:37:48
That was something where you
had to more than just swallow.
00:37:51
I have seen many things,
00:37:53
but this was something
completely new to me
00:37:55
that a human being was able
to do such a thing.
00:38:01
-Kroll had evaded detection
for so long
00:38:04
and had no remorse whatsoever
for the suffering he'd caused.
00:38:10
-He was not capable of feeling
any sort of empathy
00:38:13
towards anybody,
especially his victims.
00:38:16
They were simply objects to him
00:38:18
that he wanted
to manipulate and kill,
00:38:21
and then he was content.
00:38:26
-Joachim Kroll never cared
about what he did.
00:38:29
He did not even ask
what her name was.
00:38:31
He did not care.
His tingling feeling was gone.
00:38:35
Her body remained there.
00:38:36
He got up, possibly
cleaned himself up,
00:38:40
and then the matter
was done for him.
00:38:42
There was not even
a reaction like,
00:38:44
"When I count them up,
you'd be able to prove so many.
00:38:46
That is so bad."
00:38:48
Such things we did not hear
from him.
00:38:50
In that regard,
he was totally emotionless.
00:38:55
-Although he had confessed
to killing at least 14 people,
00:38:59
the police officially charged
Joachim Kroll
00:39:02
with eight murders.
00:39:04
-On the 4th of October, 1979,
00:39:07
Kroll's hearing
began in Duisburg.
00:39:10
As the details of Kroll's
00:39:12
gruesome sexual deviance
were revealed,
00:39:15
the case caught
the public's imagination
00:39:17
in a way few others have.
00:39:21
-[ Speaking German ]
00:39:23
-The, in some cases,
excessive media coverage
00:39:26
obviously contributed to Kroll
becoming a case of the century,
00:39:30
but on the other hand,
00:39:32
from a criminologist's
perspective,
00:39:33
one has to say that there hasn't
been a comparable case
00:39:36
in Germany at least
since the second World War
00:39:40
where so many people have been
killed over such a long period.
00:39:45
-Over the next
two and a half years,
00:39:47
the court was only
in session 151 times,
00:39:50
but in April, 1982,
00:39:53
Kroll was convicted of all eight
murder charges against him.
00:39:57
He was sentenced
to life imprisonment.
00:39:59
The 49-year-old was immediately
sent to Rheinbach Prison.
00:40:05
-[ Speaking German ]
00:40:11
-In my view,
Kroll wasn't mad or bad,
00:40:14
but was a human being
who had failed in social terms,
00:40:17
sexually and in his work life,
00:40:19
and who on this basis committed
the most terrible crimes.
00:40:23
In my opinion, Joachim Kroll
00:40:25
would not have become
a serial killer
00:40:27
if he had been valued
as a human being.
00:40:32
-Whilst most of his victims
were young,
00:40:35
there was somebody
who was in their 60s.
00:40:37
So there was an array
of victims.
00:40:40
It wasn't a particular type,
00:40:42
and the fact that he got away
with this for so long,
00:40:44
I think we should really ask
ourselves a lot of questions,
00:40:47
you know, as a society.
00:40:49
How does somebody like this go
under the radar for that long?
00:40:52
-On July 1, 1991, nine years
after being convicted,
00:40:58
Joachim Kroll died
of a heart attack
00:41:00
in Rheinbach Prison.
00:41:02
He was 58 years old.
00:41:05
-I think Kroll did some
incredibly evil things
00:41:09
which really do kind of breach
not just legal codes,
00:41:12
but social and moral ones,
as well,
00:41:15
and what's interesting for me is
what made him into this person
00:41:19
that did these evil things?
00:41:22
He didn't really have very much
in the way of monitoring
00:41:25
of his behavior
or any breaks on his behavior.
00:41:27
So I think when you have
a situation like that,
00:41:30
you can have somebody
00:41:31
who turns into someone
capable of real evil.
00:41:35
-The news of Kroll's demise
00:41:37
was of scant
consolation to Marlies Woywod.
00:41:41
-[ Speaking German ]
00:41:54
-After I heard about it,
I felt hatred for Kroll
00:41:58
and would have liked
to wish on him
00:41:59
that everything he did
to the children
00:42:01
at to the adults
would be done to him,
00:42:04
and I'm sorry that he died
so early,
00:42:09
and this anger I have will
probably never go away.
00:42:18
-Had he not kidnapped
Marion Ketter close to home
00:42:22
in one of his very few mistakes
in this killing spree
00:42:25
of 20 years or more,
00:42:27
then I'm absolutely sure
he would have continued to kill.
00:42:30
If there is ever anyone
who could be said
00:42:33
to epitomize
what the word "evil" means,
00:42:36
I would say
it was Joachim Kroll,
00:42:39
a genuinely evil man who defiled
the world he inhabited.
00:42:44
-For 21 years,
West Germany was haunted
00:42:47
by an almost-invisible killer.
00:42:50
Joachim Kroll was so ordinary
00:42:52
that he blended
into the background.
00:42:55
While other men were accused
of his most vile crimes,
00:42:58
he continued to murder
for his own gratification,
00:43:01
regardless of the consequences.
00:43:04
His capture came as a shock
to the whole country,
00:43:07
who will remember Kroll
00:43:09
as one of the world's
most evil killers.
00:43:12
♪♪
00:43:20
♪♪
00:43:28
♪♪
