Karl Denke - The Cannibal of Ziebice

January 24, 2016

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HELLO AGAIN DEAR READERS!

I must apologize for my lack of getting another article published any sooner

but all that matter's is that I have not forgotten about you, and so here we are with

today's little tidbit of knowledge

Does the Boogyman really exist? Oh, I think he does! But He is not one person

but several, dozens in fact and with each of these pages you are able to see that as fact.

I do hope you enjoy today's entry onto my blog.

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Karl Denke

“The Cannibal of Ziebice”

     We do not know a lot about Karl Denke’s early life.

     We do know that he was born in Munsterberg/Silesia in Germany (today’s Ziebice, Poland) on August 12, 1870. He was considered a somewhat dull child, if not retarded in nature by the age of ten, and upon reaching the age of twelve he left home and went to work as an apprentice with a gardener. His father died when Karl was twenty-five and his brother took over the family farm while Karl received a small amount of money with which he was to buy land. He did but proved to be such a poor farmer, he sold the land and bought a house in town on what is now Stawowa Street. Not long after, he was forced to sell this house and move into a small apartment and shed in the backyard of the house.

     Karl Denke enjoyed a decent reputation in this town of 8 thousand.  He led an honest, lower middle class lifestyle.  He helped beggars, and even allowed some of them to stay overnight in his apartment.  It was no wonder, then, that Ziębice Police agreed to give him a vending license.  The peddler sold leather suspenders, belts, shoe laces, etc. In Wrocław, he also offered pickled “boneless pork.” And between 1918 and 1924, he also ran a rooming house  where many of his tenants would refer to him as “Papa.” Generally well liked by the community also was an organ blower at the local church. But it was on December 21, 1924, that the world came crashing down upon him and the truth of who and what he was came to light. One of Denke's tenants, a coachman by the name of Gabriel, heard cries for help which seemed to emanate from Denke's room, downstairs. Afraid the landlord might be injured, Gabriel rushed down to help only to find a young man staggering along the corridor, blood streaming from his open scalp. Before he fell unconscious on the floor, the victim blurted out that "Papa" Denke had attacked him with an ax. Police were summoned and arrested Denke, scouring his flat for evidence. 

     They turned up identification papers for twelve traveling journeymen, plus assorted items of male clothing. In the kitchen, two large tubs held meat pickled in brine; with the assorted bones and pots of fat, detectives reckoned that it added up to thirty victims, more or less. In Denke's ledger, they found listed names and dates, with the respective weights of bodies he had pickled dating back to 1921. In a report given by Fredrich Pietrusky in 1926 the discovery was described in this way: 

     “The first findings made in Denke’s house during the search were bones and pieces of meat. The latter were in a salt solution found in a wooden drum. There were altogether fifteen pieces with skin. Two parts of the breast, which is strongly hairy. The torso is cut through the middle, three fingers above the navel. Its lateral limit is the front shoulder blade. In the piece of the anterior abdominal wall, the middle of the navel is visible. The remaining pieces belong to the side and back parts. The largest is about forty by twenty centimeters large. Particularly striking was a very clean anus with hand large parts of both buttocks. The meat is brownish red and does not feel as if the body would have lost much blood. On the back some soft-bluish discoloration is visible as well as livor mortis, which leads to the conclusion that the disassembly of the body took place several hours after death.

     There is no evidence of vital reaction of the bodies to the cuts made, which means that the latter were not made while the victims were still alive. Nevertheless some skin and muscles from the necks were missing, as well as extremities [arms and legs], head and sexual organs. Lesions could not be determined, nor the nature of death or the tool of crime. In three medium-sized pots filled with cream sauce, some cooked meat, partially covered with skin and human hair was found. The meat was pink and soft. All pieces seemed cut from the gluteal area [buttocks]. One pot had only half a portion. Denke must have eaten the other piece shortly before being arrested.”

     The next part of the report is concerned with findings, that didn't seem to have anything in common with the transforming of human tissue. Nevertheless further investigation revealed that Denke experimented with human leather and soap making based on human fat, although his methods remained utterly primitive.

     "Among Denke’s suspenders, three pairs were made of human skin. They are about six centimeters wide and seventy centimeters long. The leather is not smooth and at one spot broken. It seems not tanned but only free of sub-skin tissue and dried. At one spot it is obvious, that he made the cuts under the nipples, which are still clearly visible. Four are patched with human skin taken from the pubic area. [...] Some traces of louse nits were also discerned under microscope. All suspenders show traces of use and one of them Denke was found on Denke himself. Beside suspenders, Denke had also leather straps cut out of human skin, that he treated with shoe polish and parts of which were sawn together with pieces and rags of cloth. Many of these laces were made of human hair: one sample was one centimeter long, grey-white and - according to study - was taken from the head. From which area of the body came the other pieces, this cannot be said.”

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     The majority of Denke’s victims were vagabonds and runaways, the first believed to be Emma Sander, age 25, in 1909 and his last attempt was on that December day in 1924, Vincenz Oliver who escaped his being killed and only wounded. He has been credited with at least thirty murders over a fifteen year time span, but some claim that number to be much higher. We also will never know why he murdered and cannibalized his victims, even selling some of the victim’s meat and flesh at the Wroclaw market. Karl Denke hanged himself in his cell with a pair of his own suspenders the day after his arrest in 1924.