Joachim Kroll, known as the Ruhr Hunter, murdered and cannibalized victims in West Germany for two decades. This article covers his crimes, the discovery in a clogged toilet, his trial, and his death.
The Clogged Toilet and the Capture of Joachim Kroll ⏱ 0:00
•Marion—or Monika Ketter according to some sources—disappeared from a playground in Duisburg on Saturday, July 3, 1976.•After door-to-door searches yielded no useful information, Oskar Müller, a resident of Friesenstraße, went to use the shared toilet and met his neighbor Joachim Kroll, who warned him it was clogged to the brim and full of guts.•Inside, Müller saw blood-red, foul-smelling water and something that looked like intestines; he ran outside and told officers searching for Marion.•Police sealed the room, called a plumber and a forensic expert, and found lungs, kidneys, intestines, and a heart, all small.•Kroll claimed he had butchered a rabbit for stew and thrown the entrails into the bowl, though the kitchen did smell like stew cooking.•During a search of his three-room apartment, a detective stirred the pot and pulled out a human hand boiled among carrots and potatoes; more pieces of meat were found in the refrigerator and freezer.Background and Early Life ⏱ 7:17
•Joachim Georg Kroll was born on April 17, 1933, into a miner's family in Hindenburg, Upper Silesia (now Poland); he was the last of eight children according to some reports, or the sixth of nine according to others.•He suffered from nocturnal enuresis, had poor health, and his IQ was 76 points, well below average; his father was captured by the Russians during World War II and never returned.•After the war, the family moved to North Rhine in 1947 to West Germany, settling in a two-room apartment for eight people; young Joachim lived with six sisters (some sources say four, as his brothers had left home).•He attended school for about five years and received the rest of his education on a farm, which he later blamed for his actions.•In early 1955, when Kroll was 22 and still living with his family, his mother died; three weeks later he committed his first rape and murder.•In 1957 he moved to Duisburg, attacked several women, worked as a toilet cleaner at Mannesmann and then Thyssen Industries, and eventually settled in Laar, a district of Duisburg.Victims and M.O. of the Ruhr Hunter ⏱ 10:26
•Kroll believed he had killed or attempted to kill about 14 people, but admitted "There could have been more"; his first murder was on February 8, 1955 — Irmgard Strehl, only 19, stabbed, violated, and strangled near Wahlstede (some sources say Lüdinghausen).•A year later he killed the younger Erika Schületter in Kirchhellen; in March 1959 he attacked a 23-year-old homeless woman named Erika in Rheinhausen (she survived), and on June 16, 1959, killed Klara Frieda Tesmer, found strangled on a meadow near the Rhine, age nearly the same as the first.•Manuela Knodt was strangled and dumped in a forest park in Essen on July 26; Kroll cut pieces from her thighs and buttocks with a long knife, left a significant trace on her face and below her abdomen — police suspected a gang.•A detained young man (not Kroll) confessed to Manuela's murder, retracted it, and served five of an eight-year sentence.•In 1962, Barbara Bruder disappeared from Burscheid-Kleinhamberg (her remains were never found); that same year, Petra Giese was strangled with her own scarf, and Monika Tafel was snatched in Walsum, both with buttocks and thigh pieces cut off.•On August 22, 1965, Kroll attacked a couple in a Volkswagen near a lake outside Duisburg; Hermann Schmitz, 25, was stabbed in the heart, but his girlfriend Ria (or Marion) jumped into the driver's seat, honked, screamed, and slammed the gas pedal, escaping.•On September 15, 1966, 20-year-old Ursula Rohling was found strangled in bushes near Duisburg, naked from the waist down; her fiancé became a suspect, and he threw himself into the Main River. Kroll later confessed to her murder.•Ilona Harke was drowned in an icy stream in Wuppertal about three months later; Kroll took a piece from her shoulder to cook.•In June 1967, Gabriele D. was strangled outside Gräfenhausen but a shift siren from a nearby coal mine scared Kroll off; she was in a coma for over a week, and her parents refused to report the incident out of fear.•Maria Gätken, 61, was attacked in 1969–1970; Kroll struck her, dragged her into bushes, strangled her, and violated her. Ten months later he followed Jutta Rahn and killed her. Karin Töpfner was also raped and strangled.Arrest, Confession, and Trial ⏱ 9:55
•After his arrest in 1976, police questioned the 43-year-old suspect about murders in the district; he readily confessed to Marion Ketter's murder, then after a few days revealed responsibility for a series of similar crimes.•He took responsibility for murders for which other men had been suspected and convicted, and showed police locations of some crimes, surprising investigators who had not linked the cases to one perpetrator.•Kroll began raping and murdering adult women and young girls at age 22.•During the trial, Kroll admitted he once tasted the flesh of an early victim on a whim and realized he liked it; he hunted women or girls from whom he thought he could get tender meat, and sometimes mutilated bodies without taking pieces.•He admitted he was suffering from an illness and asked for treatment so he could return home, naively believing he would be fixed.•He showed neither shame nor remorse, placing him in the category of psychopathy with sexual sadism.•He was charged with eight counts of murder and one count of attempted murder, though he confessed to 14 murders and one attempt.•The trial began on October 4, 1979, in courtroom number 2011 in Duisburg and ended in April 1982, lasting 151 days.•Because the death penalty was abolished after the war, he received nine life sentences to be served consecutively at Rheinbach prison.Psychological and Criminological Explanations ⏱ 25:22
•In "The Psychopath: Emotion and the Brain," Blair, Mitchell, and Blair examine problems with neurocognitive systems involved in emotional learning associated with repetitive aggression; psychopaths are unable to learn from consequences.•Martingale notes Kroll explained his deviance through a puberty incident in which he felt sexual arousal watching the slaughter of pigs.•Schlesinger distinguishes impulsive serial killers (disorganized, no clear pattern) from compulsive killers, who act from a strong internal drive, have a plan and a sense of purpose; their murders are determined by internal psychogenic sources with minimal environmental influence.•Compulsion is similar to addiction; compulsive killers repeat crimes, maintaining a similar method because the fusion of sexuality and aggression eroticizes violence.•The fantasy alone is not sufficient — many people have violent fantasies but do not act them out; what is lacking is the appropriate state of tension, and action relieves the pressure.•Given the low number of compulsive killers, many things must have gone wrong across biological, psychological, and environmental areas before such a dangerous criminal is born.Death and Cultural Aftermath ⏱ 30:30
•On July 1, 1991, at the age of 58, Joachim Kroll died of a heart attack in prison.•Musician Chatscot created a musical project inspired by Kroll, "Ruhr Hunter," with albums titled things like "Torn This"; one reviewer noted the music induces an extreme sense of devastation, almost leading to depression, and it found an audience among black metal fans.•The author of the Club Moreal site organized an art project entirely dedicated to Kroll's murders, compiling a biography from German magazines and newspaper sources, likely the most complete in the world.•The Belgian artist behind the project had previously created exhibits about serial killer Ed Gein and the Manson family.Key Takeaways
•Joachim Kroll was caught on July 3, 1976, after a neighbor found human remains clogging the shared toilet at Friesenstraße 11 in Duisburg.•Kroll confessed to about 14 murders and one attempted murder, but admitted "There could have been more."•His first murder was Irmgard Strehl on February 8, 1955, when he was 22.•Kroll mutilated victims, sometimes taking flesh home to cook and eat; he said he wanted to know the taste of human flesh.•The trial lasted 151 days, from October 4, 1979, to April 1982; he received nine life sentences.•Kroll died of a heart attack on July 1, 1991, at age 58, after entering Rheinbach prison.Conclusion
Joachim Kroll escaped detection for 20 years despite an IQ of 76 and crimes across a small region. He died in prison, leaving a trail of victims and collateral damage, including Ursula Rohling's fiancé, who took his own life after being falsely suspected.
