your blood.” There is ocular evidence that a man who had knifed another in a quarrel licked the hot blood from the victim’s hand.
A very curious case was reported in the London police news of 1894. A man aged thirty, was charged with ill-treating his wife’s illegitimate daughter, aged three. The acts had lasted over a period of many months; her lips, eyes, and hands were bitten and covered with bruises from sucking, and often her little pinafore was stained with blood. “Defendant admitted he had bitten the child because he loved it.” Here we have true vampirish qualities and inclinations.
The Daily Express, 17th April, 1925, gave the following:
“Vampire Brain. Plan to Preserve it for Science.”
Berlin. Thursday, April 16th. The body of Fritz Haarmann, executed yesterday at Hanover for twenty-seven murders, will not be buried until it has been examined at Göttingen University.
“Owing to the exceptional character of the crimes—most of Haarmann’s victims were bitten to death—the case aroused tremendous interest among German scientists. It is probable that Haarmann’s brain will be removed and preserved by the University authorities.—Central News.”
The case of Fritz Haarmann, who was dubbed the “Hanover Vampire” was reported in some detail in The News of the World, 21st December, 1924, under the heading: “Vampire’s Victims.” Haarmann was born in Hanover, 26th October, 1879. The father, “Olle Harmann,” a locomotive-stoker, was well-known as a rough, cross-grained, choleric man, whom Fritz, his youngest son, both hated and feared. As a youth, Fritz Haarmann was educated at a Church School, and then at a preparatory school for non-commissioned officers at New Breisach. It is significant that he was always dull and stupid, unable to learn; but it appears a good soldier. When released from military service owing to ill-health he returned home, only to be accused in a short while of offences against children. Being considered irresponsible for his actions the Court sent him to an asylum at Hildesheim, whence however he managed to escape and took refuge in Switzerland. Later he returned to Hanover, but the house became unbearable owing to the violent quarrels which were of daily occurrence between him and his father. Accordingly he enlisted and was
