Editing Fritz Haarmann (section)

==Trial==
The trial of Fritz Haarmann and Hans Grans began on 4 December 1924. Haarmann was charged with the murder of twenty-seven boys and young men who had disappeared between September 1918 and June 1924. In fourteen of these cases, Haarmann—who insisted upon conducting his own defence—acknowledged his guilt,<ref name=Ludington/> although he claimed to be uncertain of the identification of the remaining thirteen victims upon the list of charges.<ref name=Olean>{{cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/4531609/times-herald/|title=Insame Plea Believed Behind Acts|date=15 December 1924|work=Olean Evening Times|access-date=24 March 2022}}</ref> Grans pleaded not guilty to charges of being an accessory to murder in several of the murders.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1928&dat=19241206&id=EKwgAAAAIBAJ&pg=2571,4866547|title=The Lewiston Daily Sun |via= Google News Archive Search|access-date=26 February 2017}}</ref> Initially, following a thorough security search, all members of the public were permitted access to the courtroom, although by the third day<ref name=Pitt>{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1144&dat=19241206&id=sA8bAAAAIBAJ&pg=3148,3175095|title=Public Excluded as Slayer Tells of Wholesale Crimes|access-date=14 December 2017|newspaper=The Pittsburgh Press|date=6 December 1924}}</ref> the judge excluded all spectators from the courtroom as each murder was discussed in detail, due to the ongoing [[libido|carnal]] and gruesome nature of the revelations.<ref name="news.google.com"/><ref name=Pitt/>
[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 102-00921, Hannover, Prozeß gegen Friedrich Haarmann.jpg|right|thumb|Hans Grans (head bowed) is escorted into court, December 1924.]]

The trial was one of the first major modern media events in Germany, and received extensive international press coverage, being described as the "most revolting [case] in German criminal history."<ref name="AAAAIBAJ 2714"/> Varying sensational headlines—in which Haarmann was variously referred to by such titles as the "Butcher of Hanover," the "Vampire of Hanover," the "Wholesale Murderer," and the "Wolf Man"—continuously appeared in the press.<ref>{{cite news|last=Watson|first=Dr. Jun|url=https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/245401362|title=Murder for Profit and Pleasure|date=23 March 1946|work=The Telegraph|access-date=2 September 2023}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=Haarmann is Condemned at Hanover|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=K_JGAAAAIBAJ&pg=PA1|access-date=11 November 2024|work=The Warsaw Union|date=19 December 1924}}</ref>

Although Haarmann denied any [[premeditation]] in the crimes,<ref name="ReferenceG">{{cite web|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1955&dat=19241219&id=LaQhAAAAIBAJ&pg=3285,3792815|title=Butcher Says He Would Kill More if He Was Freed |newspaper=Reading (PA) Eagle |date=19 December 1924 |page=1 |via= Google News Archive Search|access-date=14 December 2017}}</ref> and remained adamant the ultimate reason he killed was a "mystery" to him,<ref name="news.google.com"/> he readily confessed to having killed fourteen of the victims for whose murder he was tried and to retaining and selling many of their possessions, although he denied having sold the body parts of any of his victims as contraband meat.<ref name="Ludington"/> Haarmann's denial that he had either consumed or sold human flesh would be supported by a medical expert, who testified on 6 December that none of the meat found in Haarmann's apartment following his arrest was human.<ref name="AAAAIBAJ 2714"/>

When asked to identify photographs of his victims, Haarmann became taciturn and dismissive as he typically claimed to be unable to recognize any of his victims' photographs; however, in instances where he claimed to be unable to recognize his victims' faces but the victims' clothing or other personal belongings had been found in his possession, he would simply shrug and make comments to the effect of, "I probably killed him,"<ref name=Pitt/> or: "Charge it to me; it's alright with me."<ref>{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1893&dat=19241215&id=_ycrAAAAIBAJ&pg=5092,708824|title=Slayer of 30 Near Collapse at his Trial|access-date=16 December 2017|newspaper=The Southeast Missourian|date=15 December 1924}}</ref> For example, when asked to identify a photograph of victim Alfred Hogrefe, Haarmann stated: "I certainly assume I killed Hogrefe, but I don't remember his face."<ref>Monsters of Weimar {{ISBN|1-897743-10-6}} pp. 108–09</ref>{{refn|group=n|In their interrogations of Haarmann, investigators noted that he would only confess to murders for which sufficient [[Real evidence|physical]] or [[circumstantial evidence]] existed attesting to his guilt.}}

Numerous exhibits were introduced into evidence in the opening days of the trial, including 285 sections of the [[skeleton|skeletal structure]]—particularly skulls and thigh bones<ref>{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=861&dat=19241202&id=9f1HAAAAIBAJ&pg=5176,7286714|title=Trial of Fiend in Germany so Revolting No One Admitted|access-date=20 December 2017|newspaper=The Victoria Advocate|date=2 December 1924}}</ref>—recovered from the Leine and forensically determined as belonging to young men under 20 years of age,<ref>{{cite web|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=888&dat=19241207&id=zKMwAAAAIBAJ&pg=5177,1944206|title=Try German For Killing Thirty Men Since 1918| newspaper=St. Petersburg Times |date=7 December 1924 |via= Google News Archive Search|access-date=26 February 2017}}</ref> the bucket which he used to store and transport human remains, and the extensively bloodstained camp bed upon which he had killed many of the victims at his Rote Reihe address.<ref name="AAAAIBAJ 2714"/> As had been the case when earlier asked whether he could recognize the photographs of any of his victims, Haarmann's demeanour became dismissive upon the introduction of these exhibits; he denied any of the skulls introduced into evidence belonged to his victims, stating he had almost invariably "mashed" the victims' skulls, and had thrown only one undamaged skull into the Leine.<ref>The Encyclopaedia of Serial Killers {{ISBN|0-7472-3731-X}} p. 207</ref>

Several acquaintances and criminal associates of Haarmann testified for the prosecution, including former neighbours who testified to having purchased [[Head cheese|brawn]] or mince from Haarmann, whom they noted regularly left his apartment with packages of meat, but rarely arrived with them. Haarmann's landlady, Elisabeth Engel, testified that Haarmann would regularly pour chopped pieces of meat into boiling water and would strain fat from meat Haarmann claimed was pork.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/248279270|title=A Black-marketeer Who Murdered for Profit|access-date=4 April 2019|newspaper=The Daily Telegraph|date=15 February 1948}}</ref> This fat would invariably be poured into bottles. On one occasion in April 1924,<ref name="Monsters of Weimar p. 60"/> Haarmann's landlady and her family became ill after eating sausages in skins Haarmann claimed were sheep's intestines. Another neighbour testified to the alarming number of youths whom he had seen entering Haarmann's Neue Straße apartment, but whom he seldom observed leaving the address. This neighbour assumed Haarmann was selling youths to the [[French Foreign Legion|Foreign Legion]];<ref name="Monsters of Weimar p. 54"/> another neighbour testified to having observed Haarmann throw a sack of bones into the Leine River. Two female acquaintances of Hans Grans also testified how, on one occasion in 1923, they discovered what they believed to be a human mouth boiling in a soup kettle in Haarmann's apartment;<ref name="AAAAIBAJ 2714"/> these witnesses testified they had taken the item to Hanover police, who simply replied the piece of flesh may be a pig's snout.{{refn|group=n|The precise origins of the contraband meat in which Haarmann had traded were never established.}}
[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 102-00922, Hannover, Prozeß gegen Friedrich Haarmann.jpg|right|thumb|Haarmann (seated in front of chalkboard sketch of his apartment), during his trial in 1924]]

===Police scrutiny===
By the second week of the trial, testimony was introduced about how much the police knew about Haarmann's criminal activities after his 1918 release from prison.<ref name="Reading (PA)Eagle Dec. 14, 1924">{{cite web|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1955&dat=19241214&id=KKQhAAAAIBAJ&pg=3628,2809946|title=German Police Knew About Slayer's Doings|newspaper=Reading Eagle |via= Google News Archive Search|access-date=26 February 2017}}</ref> The police apparently never suspected him for any of the cases of missing boys and young men in Hanover in 1923 and 1924, even though some of the victims were last seen in his company, and he had a long criminal record that included charges of sexual assault and battery.<ref>Monsters of Weimar {{ISBN|1-897743-10-6}} p. 19</ref>