Casefile True Crime - Case 212: The Forgotten Cannibal

Episode Date: May 21, 2022

On December 21 1924, itinerant beggar, Vincenz Olivier, knocked on the door of an apartment building on the outskirts of Münsterberg in Weimar, Germany. Father Denke, the elderly man who answered the door, gladly offered Vincenz 20 pfennigs to help him write a letter to his brother. Vincenz accepted and was welcomed into Father Denke’s home... --- Narration – Anonymous Host Research & writing – Holly Boyd Creative direction – Milly Raso Production and music – Mike Migas Music – Andrew D.B. Joslyn This episode's sponsors: DoorDash – Get 25% off and FREE delivery for your first order of $15 or more with promo code ‘CASEFILE’ ExpressVPN – Get 3 extra months free with a 12-month plan For all credits and sources please visit casefilepodcast.com/case-212-the-forgotten-cannibal

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Music In December 1924, amid the growing post-war recession and the aftermath of a crippling hyperinflation, Germany was transfixed by a monster. Described as debonair and over-polite, 45-year-old Fritz Harman freely confessed to the sexual assault and murder of numerous boys and young men. While some details of his crimes were deemed too gruesome for publication, there were still plenty of grim fodder for the media to report on. They dubbed Harman the Vampire of Hanover and the Wolfman after he claimed to have killed his victims by biting through their necks for his own sexual gratification. Then, using his skills as a professional butcher, Harman dismembered his victims and disposed of their remains in a nearby river. This earned him the additional title of The Butcher of Hanover. It was also rumoured that he'd consumed his victims' flesh, though evidence and experts soundly disputed this claim.

On December 191924, Fritz Harman was convicted on 24 counts of murder and sentenced to death. In a dramatic display that typified the man he was, Harman declared that he would, quote, go to the decapitating block joyfully and happily. Following news of Harman's fate, the German people breathed a collective sigh of relief. The monster had been defeated, or so they thought. The morning after the Vampire of Hanover was condemned, a second monster emerged 600 kilometres away in the town of Munsterberg. Music 41-year-old Vincent Solivier was a stoneworker by trade. As a younger man in the pre-war years, he might have been a traditional journeyman, travelling throughout the region and honing his craft in exchange for meals and board.

But by December 1924, the economic hardship that had swept Germany had reduced Vincent's to a wandering beggar. On Sunday, December 21, Vincent's woke from his first night's sleep in the Munsterberg Evangelical Homeless Shelter. Now known as Jaubitzer in Poland, Munsterberg was a town of about 9,000 people located in what was then the lower Schlesian region of Weimar, Germany. At its heart were the town hall and a small town square, enclosed by densely packed tenement housing that extended a few hundred metres on all sides. Old fortification walls from the Middle Ages partially framed the township, overlooking the farmland and forests beyond. Vincent Solivier set off late in the morning with the intention to beg on the outskirts of Munsterberg, making his way out the northern edge of town he soon found himself walking along Teiststraza. The semi-rural residential street consisted of two-storey, grey brick apartment buildings, each standing a respectable distance from its neighbour.

Vincent's approached building number 10. Winter had stripped the trees in the garden bare and a thin layer of snow covered the courtyard. He knocked on the first door and was greeted by Mrs. Voight, a woman in her 40s who lived with her husband and two adult sons. Touched by Vincent's plight, Mrs. Voight handed him 20 fennigs, enough to buy six eggs or nearly a kilo of potatoes. Inspired by this windfall, Vincent's decided to try his luck with the other residents of number 10. Vincent's headed to a flat at the rear of the property and was no doubt pleased when its sole male occupant answered the door as he was known for his generosity towards travellers and beggars. The old man, aged in his 60s, invited Vincent's into his tiny one-room home, offering to match Mrs. Voight's 20 fennigs in exchange for a small favour. Short of sight and unable to write a letter to his brother, he requested that Vincent's sit at the table and transcribe what he dictated.

Happy to oblige, Vincent's entered the flat and closed the door behind him. Minutes later, Mrs. Voight heard a loud crash followed by shouting. The commotion had arisen from the rear of number 10, where Father Denka lived. She sent her two sons to investigate and upon arriving at Father Denka's flat, they found his front door open and chaos unfolding inside. Father Denka was locked in a fierce struggle with Vincent's Olivier as the men grappled for control of a pickaxe. The Voight brothers dove into the fray and pulled the pair apart. The brothers then called for their father, who took possession of the pickaxe. As Vincent's was ushered out into the hallway, he told the Voight's through gulping breaths that the old man had tried to kill him.

For those who knew Father Denka, the possibility that he would try to kill someone was absurd. But blood was flowing from Vincent's head, so it was clear that something had happened. Vincent's didn't want to get police involved, aware he'd be reprimanded for begging in the first place. He just wanted to retrieve his hat from Denka's and be on his way. The Voight's escorted him back in, finding Father Denka standing in the middle of the room flushed red and visibly trembling. His eyes fixated on Vincent's as the younger man retrieved his hat off the sideboard. Through clenched teeth, Denka told the Voight's that the beggar had tried to rob him. Despite Vincent's objections, the Voight's believed this was a matter for the police and escorted him to the local station.

Vincent's maintained that he didn't do anything to provoke the man they called Father Denka, but officers were unconvinced. Father Denka was a well-known and respected member of the community who'd lived in Munsterburg for over 30 years without incident. They arrested Vincent's Olivier on suspicion of begging and vagrancy and placed him in a cell. They were not completely unsympathetic to Vincent's condition, however. A doctor was summoned to treat his head wound, which turned out to be a long, wide gash to the right side of his temple. The seriousness of this wound, coupled with Vincent's insistence that he was the victim, prompted police to bring Father Denka in for questioning. Denka told officers that he had paid Vincent's 20 fenigs to pen a letter on his behalf. Vincent's then tried to rob him of the remainder of his coins, inciting the altercation.

The police were willing to believe Father Denka's version of events, however, just to be sure, they decided to keep him in a holding cell at the station while they investigated further. Townsfolk were appalled to learn that the admired Father Denka was in police custody based on the accusations of an itinerant beggar. As a younger man before the war, Father Denka had been a dedicated Lutheran who performed the esteemed role of processional cross-bearer during funerals at the local evangelical church. He was not an ordained minister or a pastor. Rather, the term father was affectionately given to him by the people of Munsterburg in response to his gentle nature and unconditional generosity. Despite only scraping by himself, Father Denka welcomed the vulnerable and destitute into his home, offering them a few coins in exchange for odd jobs. Before they departed, he'd gift them with a handmade craft. Father Denka's first name was Karl. Karl Denka moved to Munsterburg in his late 20s, where he bought a small farm using the inheritance he'd received following his father's death. Denka's lack of financial know-how resulted in him paying about three times what the farm was worth.

Though Denka wasn't particularly close to his family, his siblings worried that his inadequate farming skills and limited intelligence would cause him to run the property into the ground. Claiming they were looking out for his best interests, they applied to have him deemed legally incapable in an effort to rescind the farm purchase or establish some form of guardianship. The application was ultimately dropped and Denka, betrayed by his siblings' actions, withdrew even further away from his family and public life in general. The concerns held by his family proved true when Denka was eventually forced to sell his farm. He bought the tenement property at number 10 Taistraza with the proceeds, residing in the rear flat while renting out the remaining rooms. When the post-war hyperinflation set in, Denka desperately needed more cash. He sold number 10 but was able to remain in his room as a tenant. He made a living making armchairs and woven bread baskets and selling salted pork and bones at the local meat market.

When meat became scarce during the war and the years that followed, Denka resorted to the illegal slaughter of dogs to maintain his stock. Given his good reputation and the desperate times, the authorities were prepared to look the other way. True to his kind-hearted nature, Father Denka initially offered his garden as a playground for local sick children, but eventually reclaimed the space to make additional income. During on the skills he'd learned as an apprentice gardener in his teens, he began cultivating and selling rhubarb. As a result, Denka was regarded as the rhubarb king. Although well regarded as a generous man, a father, and a king, Denka was not without flaws. Despite the country's economic woes, Karl Denka was strong and well fed, exposing his gluttonous love for food. He was known to consume two pounds of meat in a single meal.

He also harboured chauvinistic attitudes towards women. An eccentric loner, Father Denka had nevertheless indeared himself to the people of Munsterburg. His fight with Vincent Solovier was an uncharacteristic blight on his otherwise impeccable reputation. Father Denka was set to spend the night in a cell as police determined what exactly took place between him and Vincent Solovier. At 9.30 that evening, a sergeant went to check on the old man and was confronted by a shocking sight. Father Denka was suspended about half a metre off the floor by a handkerchief tied around his neck. The abrupt suicide of Father Denka was equal parts confounding and unexpected. Whether out of staunch adherence to the letter of the law or in retaliation for the death of Father Denka,

Vincent Solovier was charged with begging and vagrancy and remanded for trial in three weeks time. Father Denka's estranged family were notified of his death, but they refused to collect his body or pay for his funeral. So it was left to the local authorities to arrange his burial. Two days later on Christmas Eve, the police attended Father Denka's apartment to take inventory of any cash or valuable items that could be sold to cover the cost of his burial. Upon entering, they were struck by how filthy the cramped space was. A foul stench hung in the air and every surface, including the floor, was covered in jars, pots, bowls, half woven baskets and bundles of rags. Among the clutter were piles of papers that detailed Denka's rhubarb sales. As officers flipped through the pages, they uncovered something strange.

Tucked between them were personal documents pertaining to other men. There was a prison release card in the name of Herman Moeller and a hospital discharge form for a man named Johann Tomola. Failing to find anything of significant monetary value from their cursory search of the flat, officers headed out to the backyard and into a small wooden shed. Inside, Father Denka had built a mezzanine level with some scaffolding to increase storage capacity. From below, the officers could see at least one wooden barrel sitting up there. Clothes and other bundles of laundry took up the majority of the remaining space. There was also a large wooden bucket about 40cm in diameter on the ground. It contained various cuts of cured meat settled in a salt solution.

This wasn't an unusual finding given Father Denka's livelihood. Yet, there was something about the meat that didn't look right. Aware that Father Denka had previously slaughtered dogs for food, attending officers took a closer look into the bucket. One of the pieces of meat caught their attention. The realisation dawned. It wasn't fur sprouting from the pale meaty substance. It was human chest hair. The wooden bucket contained a total of 15 pieces of human flesh, including two portions from a man's torso and a large piece from a buttock.

A medical examiner determined that the salted meat mass had come from three different men and had been pickled less than a month prior. As police catalogued the array of clothing found in the wooden shed, it became clear that the items were unlikely to have belonged to Denka. There were coats, trousers, shirts, vests and hats of various sizes, most of which had been washed clean. Those that hadn't were stained with blood. Within the large wooden barrel that sat atop the mezzanine level were hundreds of cleaned and cooked human bones. More were found in a small pond behind the shed and in the surrounding woodlands. In total, 480 individual bones were discovered, indicating that at least eight people had been butchered at the hands of Karl Denka. The gruesome discoveries continued in Denka's flat.

Two tin boxes, one labelled pepper and the other salt, didn't contain condiments. They actually held dozens of pulled human teeth. More were found in a wallet and several paper bags, bringing the total amount of individual teeth found to 351. The director of the local dental institute conservatively predicted that they belonged to at least 25 individuals. Traces of human blood were found on a wood saw and a tree saw. Blood was also identified on the pickaxe that Denka had wielded when he fought Vincent's Olivier. A gelatinous yellow mass in a bowl on a table was confirmed to be human fat. Three enamel pots on the iron stovetop contained portions of cooked human flesh covered in a creamy sauce.

Some with hair still protruding from the skin. One of the pots was half empty. The horrific discovery of Karl Denka's crimes offered an explanation as to why the old man had abruptly and inexplicably taken his own life after coming to the attention of police. Karl Denka's neighbours recalled his midnight strolls into the nearby woods and observed him carrying in large parcels but returning empty handed. They considered it odd but didn't think it was up to anything sinister. On many occasions they had witnessed him hauling pots of meat from his flat to the wooden shed and pouring the bloody contents of his buckets into the courtyard drainage. At the time, their only real curiosity was where he got his dog meat in such high volumes. They occasionally noticed a foul smell coming from Denka's apartment but it always disappeared once they raised the issue with him.

They assumed that the chopping and soaring sounds emanating from his place at all hours of the night was just Denka constructing his armchairs. As news of Denka's disturbing appetite spread, more people looked back at their own experiences with the introverted builder butcher with heightened suspicion. A woman insisted she had once seen a human navel on Denka's dining table. One winter, children had found a thumb frozen in the pond. It also emerged that two other beggars had managed to escape Denka's attacks a year or so earlier. One had broken free from a chain wrapped around his neck. The other ran out of Denka's apartment covered in blood. Knowing they would likely be charged with begging and vagrancy, neither reported the assault to the police.

Denka's family offered insight into what cultivated his disturbed mindset. They described him as a lazy and petulant child who long suffered with a bedwetting problem. He started his first words when he was about six years old, with many viewing his silence as a lack of intelligence. As he grew, so did his indifference toward his family and people in general. He was said to have had no fear, harboured no disgust, and appeared emotionally numb. This family described his fascination with the Daniel Defoe's 18th century novel, Robinson Crusoe. Particularly the passages describing and illustrations depicting cannibals eating their victims. Karl Denka's crimes made headlines across Germany and the world.

Many likened his actions to the vampire of Hanover, Fritz Harman. However, where Harman did not eat the flesh of his victims, Denka most assuredly did. A meticulous record keeper, Denka had documented his victims' details on pages found within the piles of paperwork in his flat. His first victim was listed simply as Eda, with February 21, 1903 as her date of death. Investigators would later determine that this woman was Eda Launa, who disappeared that day while en route to visit a friend. In total, Denka had filled four pages with victims' details. The final entry on the list did not include a name, only a date of death, November 17, 1924, a month prior to his suicide. According to Denka's list, this person was victim number 31. Karl Denka had been killing for 21 years.

The majority of Denka's victims were travelling craftsmen, carpenters, locksmiths, blacksmiths, mechanics and gardeners. No doubt intentionally selected as they wouldn't be noticed as missing. They were mostly males in their late 50s to early 60s, however four women did appear on the list. Denka's youngest victim was a 15-year-old boy named Avald Koernig, who was murdered during the war on August 15, 1915. His oldest victim was a 75-year-old baker named Julius Busch, whose life was taken on March 13, 1921. There was also a separate list of shorthand names that corresponded with the victim list. Next to each name was a number that represented their slaughter weight. That was the net weight of their body after their blood, organs, head and genitals had been removed.

Investigators concluded that Denka had prepared just over £2,500 of human flesh for consumption. The sheer amount raised genuine fears that he had sold some of the meat as skinless-corned pork to marketplaces in the region's capital. This prospect horrified one newlywed couple as all the meat served at their wedding feast months prior had been purchased from Karl Denka. Yet there was no evidence to indicate that Denka sold human flesh to others. He did serve meat to visitors at his flat, though its origin could no longer be ascertained. Nevertheless, meat consumption in Munsterberg dropped significantly in the weeks following Karl Denka's death. The revelation that Denka was a prolific cannibal serial killer was horrifying enough. However, the discovery of other seemingly innocuous items would only heighten his depravity.

In addition to those in Denka's wooden shed, more bundles of clothing and material had been found in his flat. All had been neatly tied with narrow straps of human skin. Closer inspection of the bread baskets revealed that they too were woven from the skin of Denka's victims. The police also discovered three pairs of yellowish-brown suspenders, each about 6 cm wide and 70 cm long. All had been made from strips of dried human skin. At least one pair had been cut vertically from a man's torso, as two nipples were clearly visible. Another had been repaired with patches of skin from a man's pubic region. No one noticed at the time, but Denka had been wearing this pair when he died in his cell.

It was now abundantly clear that Vincent's Olivier had been telling the truth all along. He had not attempted to rob Father Denka as the old man had alleged. After entering Denka's apartment, Vincent had placed his hat on the small console and sat down at the table, while Denka hovered behind him a little to the right. Denka wanted Vincent to address the letter to his brother, followed by the words, you fat paunch. Amused by the phrase, Vincent laughed and turned his head to share the joke with Denka, just in time to see a pickaxe swinging down towards him. Unable to dodge the blow completely, Vincent was struck on the right side of his skull. He regained his awareness just as Denka raised the pickaxe for a second time. Vincent quickly wrapped his hands around the pickaxe's handle and the two men wrestled for control.

Despite Denka's age and short stature, it was a fairly even physical match. The pair pushed each other around the tiny space, crashing into the table and sending glass jars and crockery pots smashing to the ground. Vincent was able to wrench the pickaxe out of Denka's hands, open the door and scream for help. The old man threw himself upon Vincent's in crazed determination. Finally, the two Voight brothers appeared and the fight was over. Karl Denka had no doubt intended for Vincent's Olivier to be victim number 32. In the early hours of December 31, 1924, Karl Denka's body was buried in an unmarked grave. Twelve days later, many of his personal effects were reduced to ashes in a bonfire.

Despite barely escaping with his life, on January 15, 1925, Vincent's Olivier stood trial and was sentenced to a further 10 days in prison for begging and vagrancy. Denka's victim list suggested he had murdered and consumed a total of 31 people, but investigators were certain the true number was much higher. Other pages among Denka's paperwork belonged to wandering craftsmen whose names were not on his list, but whose clothing were in his possession. Despite his initial notoriety, Karl Denka eventually faded from public consciousness. Although he was far more prolific and arguably more disturbed than the vampire of Hanover Fritz Harman, the latter's vocal theatrics ensured Denka was forgotten in his shadows. Thus, Karl Denka became known as the Forgotten Cannibal. 25-year-old Emma Sander lived in the small town of Neuhoof, less than six kilometres north of Munsterburg. On December 21, 1909, Emma vanished while on her way to work.

In the coming days, her naked torso, arms and head were found separately in the woods outside of town. Her lower legs were recovered near a railway line. Emma had been choked unconscious, then killed by a method of slaughter popular with butchers for its efficiency and lack of blood splatter known as the mutton sting. Given this procedure and the expertly performed dismemberment of Emma's body, authorities concluded that her killer was a trained butcher. Suspicion quickly fell onto a local butcher named Edouard Troutman. It was well known that Emma Sander had been terrified of Troutman ever since she rejected his marriage proposal. A witness at Troutman's trial testified that Troutman had declared that he would beat Emma to death if he were ever alone with her. He was also seen wearing a leather coat with sheep wool lining that looked remarkably like one that had belonged to Emma.

The day after Emma had disappeared, the distinct smell of burning leather and wool had emanated from Troutman's house. Harboring a reputation for violence, Troutman often spouted threats such as, I'll turn you into sausage and I'll cut your head off. He had even once attempted to murder one of his instructors. One master butcher under whom Troutman spent time as an apprentice testified that he'd seen Troutman carry out at least four mutton stings. Despite Edouard Troutman's claims of innocence, he was convicted of Emma Sander's murder in February 1911 and sentenced to 12 years in prison. Troutman was released in January 1923. 15 years after Emma Sander's murder, Carl Denker's crimes were exposed.

The name Emma was listed in his notes as his second victim. There wasn't a surname, but Denker had included her date of death, which coincided with the date Emma Sander had disappeared. Authorities soon realized that they had made a terrible mistake. Edouard Troutman was telling the truth. He did not kill Emma Sander. Troutman's conviction for the murder of Emma Sander was overturned in March 1926. The jury's guilty verdict had been questionable given the time frame in which Troutman had apparently committed the crime. He visited the Neuhulf Inn at the time Emma was set upon.

This permitted him a strict five-minute window in which he confronted, strangled, bled out and dismembered the young woman. Even a skilled butcher such as Troutman could not have completed such lengthy procedures in so little time. Emma was the only victim whose slaughter weight was not recorded on Carl Denker's list. As Detective Polka noted, this was because Denker hadn't used any of the meat for himself. A strange injury found on one of Emma Sander's lower legs now made grim sense. A long, wide strip of skin had been removed from her shin. Thank you for watching.