Case 212
The Forgotten Cannibal
On December 21 1924, itinerant beggar, Vincenz Olivier, knocked on the door of an apartment building on the outskirts of Münsterberg in Weimar, Germany. Father Denke, the elderly man who answered the door, gladly offered Vincenz 20 pfennigs to help him write a letter to his brother. Vincenz accepted and was welcomed into Father Denke’s home.
Two days later, police discovered a gruesome scene inside the apartment that sent shock waves throughout the community.
CREDITS
EPISODE:
Research & writing – Holly Boyd
Creative direction – Milly Raso
Narration – Anonymous Host
MUSIC:
‘Flatline intro’ and ‘Come play with me’ intro and outro – www.dl-sounds.com
Audio production – Mike Migas
Scoring – Mike Migas and Andrew Joslyn
OTHER:
Logo and website design – Paulina Szymanska
RESOURCES
JOURNALS & REPORTS
About criminal dismemberment of bodies – German journal for all forensic medicine (Pietrusky)
The mass murderer Denke and the Trautmann case. A miscarriage of justice – Archiv für Kriminologie (Polke)
From the dark pages of the history of Ziębice – Karl Denke mass killer and cannibal – Dr Lycyna Bialy
ARCHIVED NEWSPAPERS ARTICLES
German mass murderer’s confession – The Scotsman
A human vampire – The Advertiser
Butcher who murdered 24 is sentenced – The Evening Independent
German mass murderer – Aberdeen Press and Journal (Press Association, Foreign Special)
German vampire fate – Nottingham Evening Post (telegraph)
Six Gruesome Murders bared – Madison Wisconsin State Journal (United Press)
Murderer and Cannibal Too. German ogre eats his victims. Human skin braces – The People
Braces made of human skin. Worn by wholesale murderer – Weekly Dispatch (London)
Cannibal man worked 10 years – Canton Daily News
Six skeletons are unearthed – Canton Daily News
Amazing story of German Cannibal. Human flesh sold as goat meat – Nottingham Evening Post
Everything will be right – Allgemeine Zeitung