Often cited as a real vampyre, Peter Kurten-- the so-called Dusseldorf Vampyre-- was a serial killer who operated in Germany during 1929-30. He was born Mulheim Germany, one of 10 children, the son of an alcoholic, brutal father. He lieved part of his youthful years with the town dogcatcher and remembered enjoying killing the unclaimed dogs. Kurten was only nine when he first killed a person. He pushed a playmate into the water and repeated the act with a second boy who attempted to save the first.
His next known attempt at homicide was eight years later when he tried to rape and kill a young woman. He was sent to jail for four years for his unsuccessful effort. He lived on the streets after his release from prison, but a year later was back in jail for a series of thefts and burglaries. He would later claim to have killed two of his prisonmates by posioning. In 1913 back on the street in Dusseldorf, he killed again. He murdered a 10-year-old girl. He cut her throat with a knife and reportedly had experienced an orgasm as the blood spurted out.
It was not until 1929 that Kurten began the series of crimes that were to earn him his place in criminal history. In February of that year, he attempted the murder of one woman and succeeded in the murder of two children, one male and one female, all by stabbing. His attempts at murder, often unsuccessful, did not aid police. They accused a mentally-ill man to be convicted of the murder of the boy Kurten had actually killed.
That summer, he was more successful, killing nine people in August alone. He continued his killing through the winter of 1929-30. In May he attempted the strangling death of a young woman and then inexplicably stopped and let her go. She identified him, and he was arrested. During his crime spree, he had thoroughly confused the police by continually changing his method of killing. Only as he began his confession and accurately related the circumstances of each crime wan any doubt of his having perpetrated them removed. He was convicted and executed by decapitation on July 2, 1931.
Kurten was certainly not a vampyre in any traditional sense. Superfically, he demonstrated a vampyric trait in his obsession with blood, but he was like neither the vampyre of folklore, or that of the modern literary and cinematic tradition. His history of vampyrelike crime fits more properly into the history of serial murder. Kurten's life inspired two moviews, M (1931) and Le Vampire de Dusseldorf (1964).
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