Carl Grossman - The German Butcher

Butcher by trade and butcher by nature, this was a very apt description of Carl Grossmann.  He wreaked havoc in Berlin as the great war was raging.  Berlin suffered from severe shortages, particularly in meat.  Grossmann decided to fill that gap.  In the worst and most gross way imaginable.  He started out by renting a room, and getting the landlord to make an entrance to the kitchen that he had exclusive use of, and that he could use the kitchen without any interference.  Despite this odd request, the landlord was grateful for the money Grossmann handed over.  But the landlord was not to know that Grossmann had an appalling criminal record.  He had more than two dozen arrests, with three of these for assaulting children.  He was  given hard labour each time for these offences.

    Grossmann begged his way around until he found a job as a butcher.  Grossmann was observed having a regular stream of women calling at his room but instead he took them to the kitchen.  This was thought to be strange but obviously Grossmann had a very powerful libido, and on top of that, he was very intimidating.  He was never bothered.  What went on in the kitchens was truly obscene.  He first had sex with the women, then he killed them and meticulously dismembered and carved them up.  He then sold them to Berliners as pork or beef.  He carried on this sick practice right into peacetime.  He was a silent killer and butcher, and received no problems from the landlord because he always paid his rent on time.

    His luck ran out in August 1921 when he had a prostitute visit him.  He had sex then, in his usual routine, he killed her. But she fought him and the noise alerted the landlord, who brought the Police.  They forced their way into the kitchen to find the dead woman and Grossmann busy sharpening knives, ready to dissect.  Grossmann refused to say how many women he had murdered but there was a suggestion of at least 50.  He was tried, convicted and given the death sentence.  Grossmann hanged himself in jail in July 1922, cheating the executioner.