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Old 03-19-2021, 05:12 AM   #5 (permalink)
Trollheart
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Killer: Gilles de Rais
Epithet: n/a
Type: Lust
Nationality: French
Hunting ground(s): Champtocé-sur-Loire and Machecoul, France
Years active: 1432 - 1440
Weapon(s) used: Various
Signature (if any):
Victims: Believed to be anything from 100 to 200 (one estimate claims 600)
Survivors:
Caught by: The Bishop of Nantes
Fate: Hanged and burned

In terms, then, of actual sexual serial killers who killed for their own pleasure, it seems we have a candidate for the first, not counting Caligula, who I still think is something of a special case. It was said that Gilles de Rais, a baron in medieval France, consorted with - or tried to consort with - demons and dabbled in the occult, but none of his spells came to anything. Frustrated, he turned to luring children to his castle, where they would be fed and clothed and made a fuss of before being sodomised (yes, this again unfortunately) and then, well. Some were torn open and their intestines ripped out, some were beheaded, some were burned, some were drowned - and, oh dear: it seems some were, ah, interfered with after their deaths.

Although there have been efforts to exonerate him and paint him as a victim of the Catholic Inquisition, I tend to the belief that the stories are, mostly, true. His accomplices, after all, both corroborated them and so far as I can read, they weren’t tortured. They must have known that pleading guilty to aiding this sadistic madman would earn them a spot on the gallows right beside him, as it did, so if there was no truth in it why confess? So let’s just assume then that he was guilty. If he was, then he certainly seems to have amassed the biggest body count up to that point, at least of the killers known. Like I say above, the true number has never been ascertained, and though one estimate does claim he murdered up to 600 children, this seems unlikely, even given his protected status as a noble. So the slightly more conservative figure of 100 - 200 seems more likely. Either way, it’s a damning total.

The man’s sadism seems to have been boundless. Accounts speak of him sitting on the stomachs of children who were dying by his hand or at his command, and laughing as they died; of picking up severed heads and admiring them, and, as mentioned above, of doing things to their dead bodies. He’s also known to have hung up his victims alive and masturbated over them. Nice guy. And these are kids, remember: his victims are said to have ranged in age from six years old to eighteen, mostly boys but not all.

His undoing seems to have come when he captured a cleric in May 1440 and attracted the attention of the Bishop of Nantes, his crimes soon coming to light after his arrest, and within a month he had confessed. He was charged on counts of heresy, sodomy and murder, found guilty - along with his accomplices - and hanged and then burned on October 26. The shame was so great that afterwards his family changed their name. Twice.

Timeline: 1564 - 1682


Killer: Peter Stumpp
Epithet: “The Werewolf of Bedburg”
Type: ?
Nationality: German
Hunting ground(s): Bedburg, Cologne
Years active: 1564 - 1589
Weapon(s) used: Hands and teeth
Signature (if any):
Victims: 14
Survivors: None
Caught by:?
Fate: Broken on the wheel, beheaded and burned

A supposed real-life werewolf, Peter Stumpp (many other spellings and aliases, but let’s go with this one) confessed to having dabbled in the black arts, having had congress with demons and as a result having received a magic belt which allowed him to shape-shift into the form of a werewolf. In this form he carried out fourteen of the most atrocious murders, mostly children, entailing tearing them apart and eating them. This included two fetuses which were said to have been torn from the bodies of two pregnant women and consumed while their hearts were “hot and raw”. He was said to have killed and eaten his own son, whose brain he consumed, and also confessed to having incest with his own daughter.

Because this was in the sixteenth century, and therefore claims of witchcraft and lycanthropy were readily accepted, we will never know for sure how he killed his victims, but it seems likely he simply tore them apart. As most were children this may not have been too difficult particularly if he was in the grip of a murderous psychosis at the time.

After his trial he was (unsurprisingly) sentenced to death, which included being broken on the wheel - a system that allowed the flesh to be torn from his body while he was yet living - his arms and legs were chopped off to prevent him returning from the grave, then his head was severed and his body burned, his head placed on a pole on top of a monument to warn others against consorting with dark powers.

Killer: Peter Niers
Epithet: n/a
Type: Comfort ?
Nationality: German
Hunting ground(s): France, Germany, Netherlands
Years active: 1566 - 1581
Weapon(s) used: Various
Signature (if any):
Victims: 544 confessed to (under torture)
Survivors: None
Caught by: Townsfolk of Neumarkt
Fate: Broken on the wheel and quartered while still alive

More superstition and acts of magic abound in the oft-told story of Peter Niers, leading member of a band of thieves and robbers who roamed the German countryside, ranging as far as France and the Netherlands. Niers was said to be a powerful magician, and used the fetuses of pregnant women he slew to perform dark arts, which were supposed to confer on him certain powers, including that of invisibility and shape-shifting. Again we’re dealing with the sixteenth century here, where such claims would be taken very seriously, though there are accounts of his using various disguises, which is probably more likely.

As part of a robber band, Niers ranged far and wide but it was in his native Germany he was caught. The story is that he left his literal “bag of tricks” behind him in the tavern, so he hadn’t the magical artifacts needed to allow him to shape-shift, or whatever he did. When he was recognised at the local baths it wasn’t long before he was arrested. Thereafter he was tortured over three days, which is why you kind of have to take his confession with a pinch of salt. But when he did confess he was given a pretty gruesome death: broken on the wheel like our friend the Werewolf of Bedbugs, sorry Bedburg, and then quartered - while still alive!


Killer: Christman Genippertheinga
Epithet: None
Type: Comfort
Nationality: German
Hunting ground(s): Fraßberg, Germany
Years active: 1569 - 1581
Weapon(s) used: Unsure - hands?
Signature (if any):
Victims: 964
Survivors: None; technically, one
Caught by: Betrayed by the woman he had sexually enslaved
Fate: Broken on the wheel

Another feared robber, but one who stayed in the one lair, a cave high up in the hills, which afforded him a good view of the roads leading into the town, Christman Genippertheinga would attack French and German travellers, even killing his own partners if it suited him. He met a young woman shortly after he arrived in the area and menaced her into being his slave, and swearing never to betray him. By him she had six children, all of whom Christman killed, and then hung up from the roof of the cave. It was said that as the wind moved the bodies to and fro he would sing “Dance, der little children, dance; Genippertheinga your father is making the dance for you.”

When the girl finally persuaded him to let her go visit relatives in the town, she, held fast to her oath (which were sacred things in those days; they believed you could go to Hell for breaking one) cried at a stone, and villagers brought her to the mayor, who assured her that her immortal soul would not suffer if she told them what was wrong. When Christman was arrested her howled at her for betraying him, but he admitted to the murders, actually upset that he had not reached his goal of one thousand. It took him nine days to die on the wheel, as the executioner deliberately kept him alive by giving him strong drink, so that he might suffer as much as possible and last as long as they could stretch his agony out for.

There is uncorroborated evidence that Christman may have also been a cannibal, eating his victims (including the hearts of his children) and even force-feeding his slave human flesh, but the story changes on down through the decades and it’s hard to be sure. All we can be sure of is that he was definitely a killer, a serial killer, and a monster.
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Last edited by Trollheart; 05-18-2022 at 12:23 PM.
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