SinisterCrimes
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Portrait of Peter Kürten
Unknown. Likely a family member or employer, c. 1928 or 1929., Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Perpetrator

Peter Kürten

Born
26 May 1883
Died
2 July 1931, aged about 48
Record
Wikidata Q60291 · Wikipedia

Perpetrator in The Düsseldorf Murders

Factory worker with a long criminal record; convicted of nine murders and seven attempted murders and guillotined in Cologne.

1929–1931 · Düsseldorf, Rhine Province · Executed

For fifteen months Düsseldorf hunted a killer it could not see. The break came from a survivor's letter, misaddressed and opened at the post office. Read the case.

Dated events

  1. Peter Kürten is born in Mülheim am Rhein, near Cologne.

  2. Kürten is arrested near St Rochus church after his wife goes to the police.

  3. Kürten is convicted of nine murders and seven attempted murders and sentenced to death.

  4. Kürten is guillotined at Klingelpütz prison in Cologne.