Editing Fritz Haarmann (section)

===Confession===
Faced with this latest evidence, and upon the urging of his sister,<ref name="Monsters of Weimar p. 64">Monsters of Weimar {{ISBN|1-897743-10-6}} p. 64</ref> Haarmann confessed to raping, killing, and dismembering many young men in what he initially described as a "rabid sexual passion"<ref name="Monsters of Weimar p. 64"/> between 1918 and 1924. According to Haarmann, he never actually intended to murder any of his victims, but would be seized by an irresistible urge to bite into or through their [[Adam's apple]]<ref name="nydailynews.com"/>—often as he manually strangled them—in the throes of [[Ecstasy (emotion)|ecstasy]], before typically collapsing atop the victim's body. Only one intended victim had escaped from Haarmann's apartment after he attempted to bite into his Adam's apple, although this individual is not known to have reported the attack to police.<ref name="The Milwaukee Journal Jan. 19, 1933"/>

All of Haarmann's victims' bodies were disposed of via dismemberment shortly after their murder, and Haarmann was insistent that he found the act of dismemberment extremely unpleasant; he had, he stated, been ill for eight days after his first murder.<ref>Cannibal Serial Killers {{ISBN|1-5697-5902-2}} p. 225</ref> Nonetheless, Haarmann was insistent that his passion at the moment of murder was invariably "stronger than the horror of the cutting and the chopping" which would inevitably follow, and would typically take up to two days to complete.<ref name=Ludington>{{cite web|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=110&dat=19241207&id=nXZOAAAAIBAJ&pg=5624,5147990|title=Murderer of 14 Men Asks for Speedy Death |newspaper=Ludington (MI) Sunday Morning News |date=7 December 1924 |via= Google News Archive Search|access-date=26 February 2017}}</ref>

To fortify himself to dismember his victims' bodies, Haarmann would pour himself a cup of strong black coffee,<ref>Cannibalism: The Last Taboo! {{ISBN|1-859-58495-0}} p. 117</ref> then place the body of his victim upon the floor of this apartment and cover the face with cloth, before first removing the intestines, which he would place inside a bucket. A towel would then be repeatedly placed inside the [[abdominal cavity]] to soak the collecting blood. He would then make three cuts between the victim's ribs and shoulders, then "take hold of the ribs and push until the bones around the shoulders broke."<ref name="Monsters of Weimar p. 80"/> The victim's heart, lungs, and kidneys would then be removed, diced, and placed in the same bucket which held the intestines before the legs and arms would be severed from the body. Haarmann would then begin [[Kitchen knife#Paring|paring]] the flesh from the limbs and torso. This surplus flesh would be disposed of in the toilet or, usually, in the nearby river.<ref>The World's Most Evil Murderers {{ISBN|978-1-405-48828-0}} p. 18</ref>

[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 102-00824, Hannover, Prozeß gegen Friedrich Haarmann.jpg|right|220px|thumb|Fritz Haarmann (centre) with police detectives, November 1924]]

The final section of the victims' bodies to be dismembered was invariably the head. After severing the head from the torso, Haarmann would use a small kitchen knife to strip all flesh from the skull, which he would then wrap in rags and place face downwards upon a pile of straw and bludgeon with an axe until the skull splintered, enabling him to access the brain. This he would also place in a bucket, which he would pour, alongside the "chopped up bones" in the Leine.<ref name="Monsters of Weimar p. 81"/>

Haarmann was insistent that none of the skulls found in the Leine belonged to his victims, and that the [[Forensic anthropology|forensic identification]] of Robert Witzel's skull was mistaken, as he had almost invariably smashed his victims' skulls to pieces. The exceptions being those of his earliest victims—killed several years prior to his arrest—and that of his last victim, Erich de Vries.<ref name="Monsters of Weimar p. 65"/> Although insistent that none of his murders were [[malice aforethought|premeditated]], investigators discovered much circumstantial evidence suggesting that several murders had been planned hours or days in advance, and that Haarmann had both concocted explanations for his victims' disappearances and dissuaded acquaintances of his victims from filing [[missing person]]s' reports with Hanover police.<ref>Monsters of Weimar {{ISBN|1-897743-10-6}} p. 110</ref> Investigators also noted that Haarmann would only confess to murders for which there existed evidence against him; on one occasion, Haarmann stated: "There are some [victims] you don't know about, but it's not those you think."<ref name="ReferenceL">Monsters of Weimar {{ISBN|1-897743-10-6}} p. 34</ref>

When asked how many victims he killed, Haarmann claimed, "Somewhere between fifty and seventy." The police, however, could only connect Haarmann with the disappearance of twenty-seven youths, and he was charged with twenty-seven murders—some of which he claimed had been committed upon the insistence of Grans,<ref name="ReferenceF">Chronicle of 20th Century Murder {{ISBN|978-0-425-14649-1}} p. 82</ref> who was arrested on 8 July, and formally charged with being an [[accessory to murder]] one week later.<ref name="ReferenceE"/>{{refn|group=n|In his initial confession to police, Haarmann stated that although Grans knew of many of his murders, and personally urged him to kill two of the victims so that he could obtain their clothing and personal possessions, Grans was otherwise not involved in the murder of the victims.}}

On 16 August 1924, Haarmann underwent a psychological examination at a [[Göttingen]] medical school; on 25 September, he was judged competent to stand trial and returned to Hanover to await trial.<ref name="Monsters of Weimar p. 65"/>