Joachim Kroll

Case record: Joachim Kroll

Status

Joachim Kroll was sentenced to 9 terms of life-imprisonment on April 8, 1982. He died in prison on July 1, 1991.

Background

Joachim Georg Kroll (17 April 1933 - 1 July 1991) was a German serial killer and cannibal. He was known as the Ruhr Cannibal (Ruhrkannibale), Ruhr Hunter (Ruhrjäger) and the Duisburg Man-Eater (Duisburger Menschenfresser).

Kroll was the son of a miner in Hindenburg (Zabrze), Province of Upper Silesia, and was the last among eight children. He was described as a weak child who used to wet the bed. His education was poor, reaching Grade 3. Later psychiatrists found he had an IQ of 76.

After the end of World War II, Kroll’s family moved to North Rhine-Westphalia. He began killing in 1955, after his mother died.

Around 1960, Kroll went to Duisburg and found work as a toilet attendant for Mannesmann. Afterwards, he worked for Thyssen Industries and went to 24 Friesen street, Laar, a district of Duisburg, where he resumed killing people.

The offence

The corpses of five young women were found in small villages in West Germany. Each body had been raped, stabbed and or strangled, and also mutilated. Parts of the victims had been removed. Slices from the buttocks, thighs, and belly were taken, described as suggestive of a cannibal. The parts were the meatiest parts of the body, and the wounds were about steak size.

Kroll was very particular about where he killed, only killing in the same place on a few occasions years apart. There were a number of other killers operating in the area at the time, and the pattern helped him evade capture.

Kroll would surprise his victims and strangle them quickly. Afterward he would strip the body and have intercourse with it, often masturbating over it again. He then mutilated and cut off pieces to be eaten later. After returning home, he would have intercourse again with a rubber sex doll he had for the purpose.

Investigation

The police questioned people in the area of the murders. One man suggested the name of Joachim Kroll. Kroll had told the man not to use the toilet in their apartment building. When the man asked what it was stopped up with, Kroll replied, "With guts..."

Police searched Kroll’s apartment and found sex gadgets and blow up dolls. Kroll later admitted that he would often masturbate with one hand while strangling the doll with the other hand.

Police also found plastic bags of flesh (frozen), a hand (in a saucepan), and more flesh including assorted viscera (clogged in the toilet).

Kroll confessed to the murders and began to brag about them. He began to confess to murders that the police did not know about. His confession helped him earn a sentence of life imprisonment.

Kroll confessed to the murders of nine other people, described as eight young girls and one man.

Kroll had been watching the young man and his girlfriend having sex in a Volkswagen. Kroll became so sexually aroused that he had decided to rape the girl. Kroll slashed the front left tire of the car. Instead of checking the tire, the young man hit the gas and sped off. After taking a wrong term, the car returned to Kroll. Kroll began waving his arms, as if he were in distress. The young man thought Joachim needed help so he stopped the car. Joachim stabbed the young man in the stomach. His girlfriend hit the gas and tried to run over Kroll, but she missed.

Arrest

On 3 July 1976, Kroll was arrested for kidnapping and killing a four-year-old girl named Marion Kettner (Marion Ketter in the case details).

As police went from home to home, a neighbor approached a policeman and told him that the waste-pipe in his apartment building had blocked up. When the neighbor asked Kroll whether he knew what had been blocking the pipe, Kroll replied, "Guts".

Upon this report, the police went up to Kroll’s apartment and found the body of the Kettner girl cut up. Some parts were in the fridge, a small hand was cooking in a pan of boiling water, and the entrails were found stuck in the waste-pipe. Kroll was immediately arrested.

Trial

Kroll admitted killing Marion Kettner and gave details of 14 other murders and one attempted murder over the last two decades. He said that he often sliced portions of flesh from his victims to cook and eat them, claiming that he did this to save on his grocery bills.

While in custody, Kroll believed that he was going to get a simple operation to cure him of his homicidal urges and would then be released from prison. Instead he was charged with eight murders and one attempted murder.

In April 1982, after a 151-day trial, he was convicted on all counts and was given nine life sentences.

Sentencing

In April 1982, he was convicted on all counts and was given nine life sentences for eight murders and one attempted murder.

Outcome

Kroll died of a heart attack in 1991 in the prison of Rheinbach, near Bonn.

Kroll was convicted of eight murders but confessed to a total of 13. He started to rape and kill in 1955 and continued for two decades in the Duisberg area of Germany.

Timeline

• 8 February 1955 — Irmgard Strehl, 19, was raped and stabbed to death; her disemboweled body was found in a barn in Lüdinghausen.
• 21 January 1955 — Kroll’s mother died.
• 16 June 1959 — Klara Frieda Tesmer, 24, was murdered in the meadows of the Rhine near Rheinhausen.
• 23 April 1962 — Petra Giese, 13, was raped and strangled in Dinslaken-Bruckhausen.
• 4 June 1962 — Monika Tafel, 12, was killed in Walsum; slices of flesh were carved from her buttocks.
• 22 August 1965 — Hermann Schmitz and his girlfriend Marion Veen were attacked as they sat in a car in a lover’s lane in Duisburg-Großenbaum; Hermann was killed and Marion escaped.
• 13 September 1966 — Ursula Rohling was strangled in Foersterbusch Park near Marl.
• 22 December 1966 — Ilona Harke, aged 5, was raped and drowned in a ditch in Wuppertal.
• 12 July 1969 — Maria Hettgen, 61, was raped and strangled at Hückeswagen.
• 21 May 1970 — Jutta Rahn, 13, was strangled walking home from a train station.
• 3 July 1976 — Kroll was arrested for kidnapping and killing a four-year-old girl named Marion Ketter; police found the body cut up in his apartment.
• April 1982 — After a 151-day trial, Kroll was convicted on all counts and given nine life sentences.
• April 8, 1982 — Sentencing occurred: sentenced to 9 terms of life-imprisonment.
• July 1, 1991 — Kroll died in prison.

Other details

Conflicts and related persons

A mechanic, Heinrich Ott, was arrested for the murder of Klara Frieda Tesmer and hanged himself in jail.

For the murder of Manuela Knodt, the police later arrested Horst Otto, who initially confessed to the murder. He was brought to trial and imprisoned for 8 years.

For the murder in Walsum, the town pointed Walter Quicker, a 34-year-old pedophile, as the scapegoat. He hung himself outside of town in a forest.

For the murder in Marl, Adolf Schickel was falsely accused of the crime and committed suicide.

For the strangling of Jutta Rahn, Peter Schay was suspected and spent 15 months in prison. He was eventually released. He confessed to the crime in 1976 after being hounded by his neighbors.

Victim list as given

• Irmgard Strehl — 8 February 1955; 19; raped and stabbed to death; disemboweled body found in a barn in Lüdinghausen.
• Klara Frieda Tesmer — 16 June 1959; 24; murdered in the meadows of the Rhine near Rheinhausen.
• Manuela Knodt — 26 July 1959; 16; raped and strangled in the City Park of Essen; slices of flesh carved from her buttocks and thighs.
• Barbara Bruder — 1962; 12; abducted in Burscheid; her body was never found.
• Petra Giese — 23 April 1962; 13; raped and strangled in Dinslaken-Bruckhausen.
• Monika Tafel — 4 June 1962; 12; killed in Walsum; slices of flesh carved from her buttocks.
• Hermann Schmitz and Marion Veen — 22 August 1965; attacked in Duisburg-Großenbaum; Hermann killed and Marion escaped.
• Ursula Rohling — 13 September 1966; strangled in Foersterbusch Park near Marl.
• Ilona Harke — 22 December 1966; aged 5; raped and drowned in a ditch in Wuppertal.
• Maria Hettgen — 12 July 1969; 61; raped and strangled at Hückeswagen.
• Jutta Rahn — 21 May 1970; 13; strangled walking home from a train station.
• Karin Toepfer — 1976; 10; raped and strangled in Voerde.
• Marion Ketter — 3 July 1976; four-year-old girl; kidnapped and killed; body found cut up in Kroll’s apartment.

Arrest-related physical items found at the time

Police found the body cut up, with parts in the fridge, a small hand cooking in a pan of boiling water, and entrails stuck in the waste-pipe.