Jan. 9, 2026
Silesia: The Forgotten Cannibal of Münsterberg
This episode is part of Season 36: Serial Killers in History—a single-episode deep dive into one of the most disturbing and least-known serial killers of the Weimar era.
December 1924. A homeless stonemason narrowly escapes death in a small Silesian town. What police discover in the aftermath reveals twenty-one years of murder hidden behind the most respectable facade imaginable—a church organ blower who sold his victims as pork at public markets. The story of Karl Denke forces us to confront how society's indifference to its most vulnerable creates perfect hunting grounds for predators.
The Victim
Vincenz Olivier was a homeless stonemason wandering the streets of Münsterberg in search of work, food, or somewhere warm to sleep. Like dozens before him, Olivier was invisible to society—the kind of man whose disappearance would never make headlines, whose death would never prompt an investigation. He accepted an offer of twenty pfennigs to write a letter for a respected local citizen. That simple act of desperation brought him face-to-face with a killer who had evaded detection for over two decades. When Denke dictated a bizarre opening line and Olivier turned his head in confusion, that moment of hesitation saved his life—and exposed one of history's most methodical murderers.
The Crime
Karl Denke operated his killing enterprise from 1903 to 1924, targeting society's invisible people: homeless vagrants, unemployed journeymen, recently released prisoners, and travelers seeking work during Germany's economic collapse. His reputation as "Papa Denke"—the charitable organ blower who helped travelers—was his hunting tool. He would offer small payments for simple tasks, then strike from behind with a pickaxe as victims sat distracted at his desk. After death came systematic processing that would have impressed a professional butcher. Denke dismembered bodies, pickled flesh in brine, rendered human fat for soap, and tanned human skin to manufacture leather goods. He held an official vendor's license and sold his "boneless pickled pork" at public markets in Breslau.
The Investigation
When police searched Denke's apartment on Christmas Eve 1924, they discovered a museum of murder. Two wooden tubs filled with pickled human flesh. According to Friedrich Pietrusky's 1926 forensic report, 351 human teeth were recovered and sorted in containers. Belts, suspenders, and shoelaces crafted from tanned human skin. A ledger documenting thirty-one victims by name—and their slaughter weight. The evidence documented at least thirty victims, with estimates suggesting forty or more. Denke's suicide by hanging with a handkerchief in his holding cell before interrogation meant the full scope of his crimes would never be known. Among verified victims: confectioner Adolf Salisch and fur dealer Rochus Pawlick (Denke's last known victim before Olivier's escape). Victims ranged from sixteen to seventy-six years old. The case revealed significant weaknesses in law enforcement practices, as his victims' marginal status meant their disappearances were never investigated.
Historical Context
Karl Denke operated during one of Germany's most turbulent periods—the Weimar Republic era marked by hyperinflation, widespread poverty, and social displacement following World War I. Meat shortages made cheap protein precious as gold, and no one questioned why a gentle church organ blower had steady supplies of quality meat. His crimes coincided with those of other notorious German killers Fritz Haarmann and Peter Kürten, yet while those names echo through criminal history, Denke became a footnote. His immediate suicide prevented any sensational trial. After World War II, Münsterberg became Polish Ziębice, German residents were expelled, records scattered, and the case fell between German and Polish historiography—nearly lost entirely.
Sources: Friedrich Pietrusky forensic report (1926), Lucyna Biały research (1999), Casefile Podcast Episode 212, German criminal archives
Resources
The location of Denke's crimes was Teichstraße 10 (now Stawowa Street 13) in Ziębice, Poland. Note: Sources conflict on whether the original structure still stands—a 1999 report indicated the building had been replaced by newer construction. For those interested in Weimar-era crime, Fritz Lang cited Denke as one of several inspirations for his 1931 film "M," alongside Fritz Haarmann, Carl Großmann, and Peter Kürten (the primary model). Casefile Podcast covered this case in Episode 212, titled "The Forgotten Cannibal" (May 21, 2022).
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WEBVTT
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[SPEAKER_00]: December 21, 1924, late afternoon in Munsterburg, Saliza.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Winter darkness was already settling over the medieval market town, the kind of cold that made desperate men do desperate things.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Vincent Olivier, a 35-year-old homeless carpenter, had been wandering these streets looking for work, for food, for anywhere warm to sleep,
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[SPEAKER_00]: When the Great Bearded Man, at 19 Tri-Strasse, offered him 20 Finigs to write a simple letter, it seemed like Providence.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Papa Dinky, everyone in Monsterburg knew him, the church organ player, the kind landlord who helped travelers find lodging, the man who sold meat at fair prices during these hard
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[SPEAKER_00]: Olivier set at the desk and Dinky's ground floor apartment, pinned in hand, ready to earn his 20 phenagues.
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[SPEAKER_00]: The old man dictated the opening, add-off, do Fedor wants, all of her paused, confused.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Add-off, you fat slob.
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[SPEAKER_00]: He turned his head to ask what this strange letter was about.
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[SPEAKER_00]: In his peripheral vision, Olivier saw the 64-year-old man, raising a pickaxe toward the back of his skull.
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[SPEAKER_00]: The blade meant for the base of his brain, stuck in his temple instead, opening an 8-centimeter gash, two-centimeter-wide, blood poured down his face, but Olivier was alive, conscious, fighting.
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[SPEAKER_00]: He wrestled the weapon away from Dinky.
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[SPEAKER_00]: The old man was stronger than he looked, but desperation gave Olivier strength.
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[SPEAKER_00]: He broke free, stumbled to the door, and staggered into the street screaming for help.
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[SPEAKER_00]: A coachman named Gabriel found him first.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Olivier believed in barely coherent, managed to gasp out what had happened.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Father Dinky, the beloved Papa Dinky, and attacked him with an axe.
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[SPEAKER_00]: The pedestrians looked at each other, Papa Dinky, impossible, there had to be a mistake.
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[SPEAKER_00]: But the blood was real, the wound was real, someone called the police.
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[SPEAKER_00]: When officers arrived at Dinky's apartment, they found him calm, dismissive.
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[SPEAKER_00]: It was self-defense he explained, the vagrant had been violent, threatening he'd had no choice.
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[SPEAKER_00]: But Olivier's injuries told a different story, the axe wound, the terror, the desperate escape, a judge ordered Dinky held for questioning
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[SPEAKER_00]: At the police station, they placed him in a holding cell, standard procedure.
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[SPEAKER_00]: They'd question him in the morning.
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[SPEAKER_00]: When Olivier was stable enough to give a full statement, morning never came.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Sometime in the night, Carl Dinky fashioned a news from his closing.
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[SPEAKER_00]: He hanged himself in his cell, before anyone could ask him a single question, before he could explain anything.
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[SPEAKER_00]: done could be revealed.
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[SPEAKER_00]: He chose his own end.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Just like the 30 people he killed over 21 years.
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[SPEAKER_00]: When police searched his apartment the next day, they found a museum of murder.
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[SPEAKER_00]: two wooden tubs filled with pickled human flesh.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Over 400 human teeth sorted and containers, belts, suspenders, and shoelaces crafted from tan human skin, a ledger documenting 31 victims by name, and their slaughter weight.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Carl Dinky had been murdering homeless vagrants and selling their flesh as pork at weekly markets for over two decades.
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[SPEAKER_00]: All-while-playing organ at the local church.
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[SPEAKER_00]: All-while his neighbors called him Papa.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Hello friend, welcome to foul play.
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[SPEAKER_01]: Carl Denker was born on the 11th of February 1860 in Ober, Conzendorf, Celicia, in what was then Prussia and is today Poland, to family of farmers.
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[SPEAKER_01]: The youngest of three siblings his early life was marked by hardship and strict discipline.
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[SPEAKER_01]: His father, a demanding man who valued hard work above all else, often subjected young coal to harsh punishment for even minor transgressions.
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[SPEAKER_01]: despite this challenging upbringing, Denko showed early signs of business acumen and social adaptability.
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[SPEAKER_01]: He was often described as softly spoken and quiet, and the teachers at his elementary school said he was difficult to deal with one of the worst pupils at the school
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[SPEAKER_01]: Following a particularly difficult confrontation with his father, when he was just 12 years old, Danka decided it was time to run away from home.
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[SPEAKER_01]: This early independent shaped his future, forcing him to learn self-reliance and develop the social skills that would later serve as his perfect cover.
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[SPEAKER_01]: He took on various apprenticeships starting as a gardener, eventually establishing himself as a landowner and business man in Munsterbe.
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[SPEAKER_01]: At the age of 25, Denka's father died and his eldest brother inherited the childhood home that he did receive some money from the estate.
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[SPEAKER_01]: He used the money to purchase a piece of land after deciding that he wanted to become a farmer, but his endeavour failed and he sold it shortly afterwards.
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[SPEAKER_01]: He re-invested the money in a house which he rented out, was inflation rose and he was forced to sell it.
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[SPEAKER_01]: Though he refused to move and lived in a small apartment to the right of the house's ground floor, his next venture was to acquire a small shop and avenging license and sell goods.
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[SPEAKER_01]: Rather than specialise he sold anything in everything, from leather goods to meat.
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[SPEAKER_01]: The irony of Denke's position as a church organ player was not lost on those who would later investigate his crimes.
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[SPEAKER_01]: Every Sunday he was sit at the organ, playing hymns while his fellow congrents sang, completely unaware that the same hands touching those sacred keys had committed unspeakable acts.
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[SPEAKER_01]: His participation in church activities and his reputation for charitable works created a perfect shield against suspicion.
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[SPEAKER_01]: as his crimes continued, danker became increasingly bold in his actions, yet paradoxically more entrenched in the community's good graces.
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[SPEAKER_01]: He would often so meet and other goods to the neighbours, claiming they came from his non-existent farm.
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[SPEAKER_01]: His reputation for fair dealing and honest business practices only grew stronger, even as the number of his victims increased.
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[SPEAKER_01]: The town's people's trust in Papadenga was so complete that even when travellers disappeared after taking lodgings with him.
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[SPEAKER_01]: No one thought to question the kindly landlord who played organ at their church.
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[SPEAKER_00]: His first known victim was Ida Loner.
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[SPEAKER_00]: a vagrant traveling through Munsterburg in February 1903.
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[SPEAKER_00]: She was the first name in his ledger, but marked as victim number 11.
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[SPEAKER_00]: What happened to the first 10, Dinking Never recorded?
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[SPEAKER_00]: They're lost to history.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Their deaths known only to the man who killed them.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Over the next 21 years, Dinky developed a methodical system of murder.
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[SPEAKER_00]: He targeted society's invisible people, homeless vagrants, unemployed, journeymen, recently released prisoners and mental patients, eye-tenorant workers, looking for an opportunity.
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[SPEAKER_00]: People who wouldn't be missed, people whose disappearances wouldn't be investigated.
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[SPEAKER_00]: his reputation as Papa Dinky, the charitable church organist, who helped travelers with his hunting tool.
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[SPEAKER_00]: He'd offer small payments, typically 20 phynics, for simple tasks, write a letter, help with some work, come inside for a meal.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Once seated at his desk, distracted by pin and paper, victims were struck from behind with a pickaxe.
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[SPEAKER_00]: The blow targeted the base of the skull, meant to be instant, efficient.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Some, he strangled.
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[SPEAKER_00]: All murders occurred in his ground floor apartment, with its convenient separate entrance, where neighbors couldn't see who came and went.
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[SPEAKER_00]: after death came systematic processing that would have impressed a professional butcher.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Dinky dismembered bodies with saws and axes separated flesh from bones with methodical precision.
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[SPEAKER_00]: He pickled strips of meat and two large wooden tubs filled with salt brine.
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[SPEAKER_00]: The same brine solution used for preserving pork.
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[SPEAKER_00]: He rendered human fat for soap, he boiled bones clean, then ground them for fertilizer, or stored them in his garden shed.
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[SPEAKER_00]: And most grotesquely, he tanned human skin to manufacture leather goods, the very belts, suspenders, and shoelaces, he sold up weekly markets.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Dinky held an official vendor's license from the butcher's guild of Brazelha, a thirties hadn't expected his goods, approved his business, given him legal standing to sell meat products at public markets, including the prestigious Hall of a Target Market Hall in Wattswaff.
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[SPEAKER_00]: During the post-war years when meat shortages made cheap protein precious as gold, his boneless pickled pork found eager buyers.
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[SPEAKER_00]: No one questioned why the gentle church organized had such a steady supply of quality meat.
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[SPEAKER_00]: His larger document at everything
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[SPEAKER_00]: Each entry included the victims' slaughter weight, dead weight, naked weight, disemboweled weight.
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[SPEAKER_00]: The accounting of a man who saw human beings as livestock.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Among his documented victims, Adolf Solish, a confectioner, Rakuush Pavlik, a fur dealer, killed
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[SPEAKER_00]: Yohan Matushak, Andreas Pai-Kart, Paul Guller, Rudolf Fiedler, Edward Krabish, Joseph Schultz, Carl Riker, Michael Heider, ages rained from 16 to 76 years old, 26 men, 4 women, all invisible
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[SPEAKER_00]: Dinky didn't pray on them, despite their vulnerability.
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[SPEAKER_00]: He prayed on them because of it, because society had already declared these lives expendable, because no one would come looking for them.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Because in Walmart, Germany's economic catastrophe, homeless vagrants disappeared every day, and no one cared enough to ask why.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Christmas Eve, 1924.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Three days after Dinkie's suicide, police conducted a full search of his apartment at 19 Tri-Strasse.
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[SPEAKER_00]: What they found, defied comprehension.
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[SPEAKER_00]: In his single-ground floor room, two large wooden tubs containing human flesh, pickled and brine solution, ready for sale.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Three pots help partially consumed cooked human meat, a pot of human skin and aorta pieces, sat in a gelatinous mass.
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[SPEAKER_00]: a bowl of amber-colored human fat, gleamed in the winter light.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Blood stains covered the apartment, including his bed, where he'd slept among his victims remains for years.
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[SPEAKER_00]: In his garden shed, they found a barrel filled with clean and cooked bones, over 480 individual pieces, and teeth, stored in containers, sorted, like coins, grim trophies of decades of murder.
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[SPEAKER_00]: on windowsills and tables, identification papers, from dozens of victims, many recently released from prisons or mental hospitals, in his closet, blood stained clothing, including one woman's skirt, hanging on walls, belts, suspenders, and shoelaces, made from
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[SPEAKER_00]: the suspenders he'd worn on his own body, found after his suicide, were crafted from human skin, with the nipples still visible, the same man who played church organ on Sundays had worn human beings as clothing.
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[SPEAKER_01]: Most disturbing were the numerous leatherf goods found throughout the residence, belts, shoelaces, braces, and suspenders, all of which were later confirmed to be made from human skin.
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[SPEAKER_01]: The sheer volume of evidence suggested that Denk had been operating his gruesome enterprise for years.
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[SPEAKER_01]: Among the items discovered were piles of clothing belonging to his victims, carefully sorted and stored.
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[SPEAKER_01]: Human bones were found stripped clean of flesh, many showing signs of having been boiled.
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[SPEAKER_01]: A detailed report of these were made.
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[SPEAKER_01]: Sixteen females, with one pair of remarkably strong ones, two pairs of very thin ones, six pairs and two left females, fifteen medium sized pieces of long bones.
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[SPEAKER_01]: Four pairs of elbow bones, seven heads of radii, nine lower parts of radii.
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[SPEAKER_01]: eight lower parts of the elbow, a pair of upper shin bones, a pair of lower elbows and radii, which extremity still remain well connected, a pair of upper arms and a pair of upper arm heads, a pair of collar bones, two shoulder blades, eight heels and ankle bones, 120 toes
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[SPEAKER_01]: Several large barrels contain waterpaired to be piercled human flesh, suggesting that Denker had developed efficient methods for preserving his victim remains.
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[SPEAKER_01]: Perhaps most shocking was the revelation that Denker had been selling products made from his victims, unsuspecting townspeople.
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[SPEAKER_01]: He had developed a reputation for producing high-quality leather goods and meat products, which he sold at local markets.
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[SPEAKER_01]: The investigation revealed that much of this merchandise was actually derived from human remains.
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[SPEAKER_01]: Denker had even supplied local restaurants with what he claimed was pork, but was later suspected to be human flesh.
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[SPEAKER_01]: The impact on monster bears community was devastating, the revelation that a trusted member of their society had not only murdered dozens of people, but had potentially fed human flesh to his unsuspecting neighbours, shattered the community sense of security.
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[SPEAKER_01]: The fact that he had operated so openly, selling his products at local markets, and maintaining regular social interactions, forced people to question their ability to truly know those around them.
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[SPEAKER_01]: The case exposed significant weaknesses in law enforcement practices at the time.
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[SPEAKER_01]: Denk is ability to operate undetected for so long, revealed the lack of coordination between different police jurisdictions, and the absence of systematic missing persons investigations.
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[SPEAKER_01]: His victims primarily societies most vulnerable members highlighted the need for greater protection of marginalised populations,
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[SPEAKER_01]: The legacy of Carl Denke's crimes extends far beyond the borders of Munsterber, and the era in which he operated.
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[SPEAKER_01]: His case became a crucial analyst for changes in German law enforcement, particularly in how police departments communicate across jurisdictions about missing persons cases.
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[SPEAKER_01]: Perhaps the most significant impact of the Denker case was its influence on the development of criminal profiling, is a ability to maintain a respected public persona, while committing horrific acts, help shape our understanding of how serial killers can integrate themselves into society.
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[SPEAKER_01]: The case stands as one of the earliest documented examples of what criminologists now call the organised killer.
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[SPEAKER_01]: Someone who can maintain a seemingly normal life while methodically planning and executing their crimes.
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[SPEAKER_01]: The historical significance of the case also lies in its timing.
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[SPEAKER_01]: A caring during the tumultuous period of the Vyma Republic Denka's crimes exposed the dark underbelly of a society in crisis.
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[SPEAKER_01]: His ability to exploit the widespread poverty and displacement of the post-war period serves as a grim reminder of how societal breakdown can create perfect conditions for predatory behaviour to flourish.
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[SPEAKER_01]: The lessons learnt from this case about the importance of thorough investigation that need to protect society's most vulnerable and the danger of assuming virtue based on social
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[SPEAKER_00]: Carl Dinky killed at least 30 people, probably more.
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[SPEAKER_00]: His crimes were as horrific as those of his infamous contemporaries, Fritz Hammond, and Peter Curtin, the so-called vampire of Dusseldorf.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Yet while those names echo through criminal history, Dinky became a footnote, the forgotten cannibal.
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[SPEAKER_00]: His immediate suicide prevented any sensational trial.
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[SPEAKER_00]: A few articles appeared in local solution papers in December 1924.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Left wing newspapers accused authorities of suppressing the story to protect the reputation of the church and the butcher's guild.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Within weeks, the case vanished from headlines.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Within years, it was overshadowed by other monsters.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Then came World War II, Moonstaburg became Polish Zeebies, German residents were expelled, records scattered, the case fell between German and Polish historiography, two German for Polish scholars, two geographically displaced for Germans, a 21-year killing spray reduced to academic footnotes, then nearly lost entirely
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[SPEAKER_00]: The house at Stavova Street 13, formerly Tristasa, passed to new owners who had no idea what had happened there.
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[SPEAKER_00]: In the 1970s, human bones were discovered in a neighbor's garden during renovations.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Dequise disposal methods still surfacing half a century later.
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[SPEAKER_00]: In 1999, research at Lucina Biawe, custodian of the Solution Library at Wattwaff University.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Accidentally, we discovered the case, while preparing a catalog of Solution Press Archives.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Her research identified 20 victims by name, documented the Butcher's Guild license, brought academic attention to crimes that had nearly been forgotten forever.
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[SPEAKER_00]: In 2013, German criminologist Armin Ruders published a comprehensive monograph with psychological analysis.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Two films about Dinky appeared in April 2024, 100 years after his crimes, with sold out screens in Germany.
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[SPEAKER_00]: The house still stands.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Gray once story building.
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[SPEAKER_00]: At Stavova Street 13, in Zeebeese, Poland.
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[SPEAKER_00]: over 120 years old.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Largely unchanged since 1924.
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[SPEAKER_00]: The family who was owned it since 1972 had it blessed by a Catholic priest.
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[SPEAKER_00]: They've posted no photo signs, their hostile to dark tourists.
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[SPEAKER_00]: A journalist was reportedly threatened with an axe.
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[SPEAKER_00]: No memorial plaque marks the site, no acknowledgement of what happened there.
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[SPEAKER_00]: You can see it on Google Street View, the ordinary looking building where at least 30 people were murdered, processed and sold as pork.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Ida Lana, Adolf Solish, Rochester Pollock, Johanna Motasheg, Andreas Pichart, Paul Gauler, Rudolph Fiedler, Edward Kribish, Joseph Schultz, Carl Reiter,
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[SPEAKER_00]: Michael Hader, and at least 20 more whose names weren't preserved, whose stories, who they were, who loved them, what dreams they carried as they wandered desperate roads seeking work, are lost to history.
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[SPEAKER_00]: They were invisible in life, intended to be invisible in death.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Their humanity reduced to weights and a ledger.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Only Vincent's Olivier survived to tell the story.
23:35.332 --> 23:47.271
[SPEAKER_00]: That turn of his head, that moment of confusion, over a bizarre phrase, a doll you fat slob, saved his life, and exposed two decades of murder.
23:48.668 --> 23:57.346
[SPEAKER_00]: Carl Dinky became the forgotten cannibal, not because people didn't know about him, but because forgetting was easier than remembering.
23:58.328 --> 24:09.090
[SPEAKER_00]: Because his victims were people's society had already decided, didn't matter, because the same forces that enabled his crimes and difference to the vulnerable.
24:09.070 --> 24:18.679
[SPEAKER_00]: Trust in respectable facades, economic desperation that makes certain lives expendable, made it easier to look away.
24:20.241 --> 24:22.463
[SPEAKER_00]: Those forces haven't disappeared.
24:23.464 --> 24:28.889
[SPEAKER_00]: Society's indifference to the vulnerable creates perfect hunting grounds for predators.
24:30.231 --> 24:32.473
[SPEAKER_00]: When we decide, life's don't matter.
24:33.374 --> 24:34.955
[SPEAKER_00]: We don't just fail the victims.
24:35.756 --> 24:37.558
[SPEAKER_00]: We enable
24:40.306 --> 24:44.292
[SPEAKER_00]: Until next time, thanks for listening, friend.
00:05.347 --> 00:10.936
[SPEAKER_00]: December 21, 1924, late afternoon in Munsterburg, Saliza.
00:12.418 --> 00:20.692
[SPEAKER_00]: Winter darkness was already settling over the medieval market town, the kind of cold that made desperate men do desperate things.
00:22.274 --> 00:32.451
[SPEAKER_00]: Vincent Olivier, a 35-year-old homeless carpenter, had been wandering these streets looking for work, for food, for anywhere warm to sleep,
00:33.983 --> 00:43.232
[SPEAKER_00]: When the Great Bearded Man, at 19 Tri-Strasse, offered him 20 Finigs to write a simple letter, it seemed like Providence.
00:45.174 --> 01:00.008
[SPEAKER_00]: Papa Dinky, everyone in Monsterburg knew him, the church organ player, the kind landlord who helped travelers find lodging, the man who sold meat at fair prices during these hard
01:01.355 --> 01:08.785
[SPEAKER_00]: Olivier set at the desk and Dinky's ground floor apartment, pinned in hand, ready to earn his 20 phenagues.
01:09.947 --> 01:17.577
[SPEAKER_00]: The old man dictated the opening, add-off, do Fedor wants, all of her paused, confused.
01:18.999 --> 01:20.581
[SPEAKER_00]: Add-off, you fat slob.
01:22.584 --> 01:30.214
[SPEAKER_00]: He turned his head to ask what this strange letter was about.
01:31.409 --> 01:38.997
[SPEAKER_00]: In his peripheral vision, Olivier saw the 64-year-old man, raising a pickaxe toward the back of his skull.
01:40.218 --> 01:57.096
[SPEAKER_00]: The blade meant for the base of his brain, stuck in his temple instead, opening an 8-centimeter gash, two-centimeter-wide, blood poured down his face, but Olivier was alive, conscious, fighting.
01:57.076 --> 02:00.240
[SPEAKER_00]: He wrestled the weapon away from Dinky.
02:01.101 --> 02:06.487
[SPEAKER_00]: The old man was stronger than he looked, but desperation gave Olivier strength.
02:07.869 --> 02:13.496
[SPEAKER_00]: He broke free, stumbled to the door, and staggered into the street screaming for help.
02:15.157 --> 02:17.781
[SPEAKER_00]: A coachman named Gabriel found him first.
02:18.722 --> 02:24.028
[SPEAKER_00]: Olivier believed in barely coherent, managed to gasp out what had happened.
02:25.443 --> 02:30.550
[SPEAKER_00]: Father Dinky, the beloved Papa Dinky, and attacked him with an axe.
02:33.194 --> 02:39.283
[SPEAKER_00]: The pedestrians looked at each other, Papa Dinky, impossible, there had to be a mistake.
02:40.405 --> 02:46.033
[SPEAKER_00]: But the blood was real, the wound was real, someone called the police.
02:47.347 --> 02:52.292
[SPEAKER_00]: When officers arrived at Dinky's apartment, they found him calm, dismissive.
02:53.273 --> 03:00.420
[SPEAKER_00]: It was self-defense he explained, the vagrant had been violent, threatening he'd had no choice.
03:02.062 --> 03:13.033
[SPEAKER_00]: But Olivier's injuries told a different story, the axe wound, the terror, the desperate escape, a judge ordered Dinky held for questioning
03:14.262 --> 03:18.786
[SPEAKER_00]: At the police station, they placed him in a holding cell, standard procedure.
03:19.767 --> 03:21.028
[SPEAKER_00]: They'd question him in the morning.
03:21.969 --> 03:27.453
[SPEAKER_00]: When Olivier was stable enough to give a full statement, morning never came.
03:28.554 --> 03:32.898
[SPEAKER_00]: Sometime in the night, Carl Dinky fashioned a news from his closing.
03:34.059 --> 03:44.168
[SPEAKER_00]: He hanged himself in his cell, before anyone could ask him a single question, before he could explain anything.
03:45.515 --> 03:46.938
[SPEAKER_00]: done could be revealed.
03:48.201 --> 03:49.925
[SPEAKER_00]: He chose his own end.
03:51.008 --> 03:55.177
[SPEAKER_00]: Just like the 30 people he killed over 21 years.
03:56.741 --> 04:02.494
[SPEAKER_00]: When police searched his apartment the next day, they found a museum of murder.
04:05.613 --> 04:09.138
[SPEAKER_00]: two wooden tubs filled with pickled human flesh.
04:10.641 --> 04:25.984
[SPEAKER_00]: Over 400 human teeth sorted and containers, belts, suspenders, and shoelaces crafted from tan human skin, a ledger documenting 31 victims by name, and their slaughter weight.
04:27.280 --> 04:35.494
[SPEAKER_00]: Carl Dinky had been murdering homeless vagrants and selling their flesh as pork at weekly markets for over two decades.
04:36.936 --> 04:39.721
[SPEAKER_00]: All-while-playing organ at the local church.
04:41.023 --> 04:43.567
[SPEAKER_00]: All-while his neighbors called him Papa.
04:45.591 --> 04:48.816
[SPEAKER_00]: Hello friend, welcome to foul play.
04:52.087 --> 05:02.701
[SPEAKER_01]: Carl Denker was born on the 11th of February 1860 in Ober, Conzendorf, Celicia, in what was then Prussia and is today Poland, to family of farmers.
05:03.583 --> 05:07.928
[SPEAKER_01]: The youngest of three siblings his early life was marked by hardship and strict discipline.
05:09.070 --> 05:17.301
[SPEAKER_01]: His father, a demanding man who valued hard work above all else, often subjected young coal to harsh punishment for even minor transgressions.
05:18.310 --> 05:24.580
[SPEAKER_01]: despite this challenging upbringing, Denko showed early signs of business acumen and social adaptability.
05:25.842 --> 05:34.176
[SPEAKER_01]: He was often described as softly spoken and quiet, and the teachers at his elementary school said he was difficult to deal with one of the worst pupils at the school
05:34.156 --> 05:42.788
[SPEAKER_01]: Following a particularly difficult confrontation with his father, when he was just 12 years old, Danka decided it was time to run away from home.
05:44.010 --> 05:52.342
[SPEAKER_01]: This early independent shaped his future, forcing him to learn self-reliance and develop the social skills that would later serve as his perfect cover.
05:53.564 --> 06:01.395
[SPEAKER_01]: He took on various apprenticeships starting as a gardener, eventually establishing himself as a landowner and business man in Munsterbe.
06:01.375 --> 06:10.105
[SPEAKER_01]: At the age of 25, Denka's father died and his eldest brother inherited the childhood home that he did receive some money from the estate.
06:11.307 --> 06:19.216
[SPEAKER_01]: He used the money to purchase a piece of land after deciding that he wanted to become a farmer, but his endeavour failed and he sold it shortly afterwards.
06:20.358 --> 06:26.505
[SPEAKER_01]: He re-invested the money in a house which he rented out, was inflation rose and he was forced to sell it.
06:27.599 --> 06:37.879
[SPEAKER_01]: Though he refused to move and lived in a small apartment to the right of the house's ground floor, his next venture was to acquire a small shop and avenging license and sell goods.
06:38.681 --> 06:43.009
[SPEAKER_01]: Rather than specialise he sold anything in everything, from leather goods to meat.
06:46.499 --> 06:52.208
[SPEAKER_01]: The irony of Denke's position as a church organ player was not lost on those who would later investigate his crimes.
06:53.369 --> 07:02.864
[SPEAKER_01]: Every Sunday he was sit at the organ, playing hymns while his fellow congrents sang, completely unaware that the same hands touching those sacred keys had committed unspeakable acts.
07:03.845 --> 07:11.697
[SPEAKER_01]: His participation in church activities and his reputation for charitable works created a perfect shield against suspicion.
07:11.677 --> 07:19.812
[SPEAKER_01]: as his crimes continued, danker became increasingly bold in his actions, yet paradoxically more entrenched in the community's good graces.
07:20.894 --> 07:25.724
[SPEAKER_01]: He would often so meet and other goods to the neighbours, claiming they came from his non-existent farm.
07:26.725 --> 07:33.398
[SPEAKER_01]: His reputation for fair dealing and honest business practices only grew stronger, even as the number of his victims increased.
07:34.643 --> 07:41.393
[SPEAKER_01]: The town's people's trust in Papadenga was so complete that even when travellers disappeared after taking lodgings with him.
07:42.034 --> 07:45.760
[SPEAKER_01]: No one thought to question the kindly landlord who played organ at their church.
07:48.484 --> 07:50.948
[SPEAKER_00]: His first known victim was Ida Loner.
07:52.143 --> 07:55.811
[SPEAKER_00]: a vagrant traveling through Munsterburg in February 1903.
07:57.614 --> 08:02.304
[SPEAKER_00]: She was the first name in his ledger, but marked as victim number 11.
08:03.627 --> 08:07.154
[SPEAKER_00]: What happened to the first 10, Dinking Never recorded?
08:08.617 --> 08:09.779
[SPEAKER_00]: They're lost to history.
08:10.721 --> 08:13.527
[SPEAKER_00]: Their deaths known only to the man who killed them.
08:14.840 --> 08:19.626
[SPEAKER_00]: Over the next 21 years, Dinky developed a methodical system of murder.
08:21.088 --> 08:34.506
[SPEAKER_00]: He targeted society's invisible people, homeless vagrants, unemployed, journeymen, recently released prisoners and mental patients, eye-tenorant workers, looking for an opportunity.
08:36.068 --> 08:42.096
[SPEAKER_00]: People who wouldn't be missed, people whose disappearances wouldn't be investigated.
08:43.409 --> 08:50.841
[SPEAKER_00]: his reputation as Papa Dinky, the charitable church organist, who helped travelers with his hunting tool.
08:52.304 --> 09:03.983
[SPEAKER_00]: He'd offer small payments, typically 20 phynics, for simple tasks, write a letter, help with some work, come inside for a meal.
09:05.701 --> 09:13.672
[SPEAKER_00]: Once seated at his desk, distracted by pin and paper, victims were struck from behind with a pickaxe.
09:15.215 --> 09:20.342
[SPEAKER_00]: The blow targeted the base of the skull, meant to be instant, efficient.
09:21.704 --> 09:22.846
[SPEAKER_00]: Some, he strangled.
09:23.947 --> 09:32.299
[SPEAKER_00]: All murders occurred in his ground floor apartment, with its convenient separate entrance, where neighbors couldn't see who came and went.
09:33.460 --> 09:38.569
[SPEAKER_00]: after death came systematic processing that would have impressed a professional butcher.
09:39.791 --> 09:46.763
[SPEAKER_00]: Dinky dismembered bodies with saws and axes separated flesh from bones with methodical precision.
09:47.965 --> 09:52.774
[SPEAKER_00]: He pickled strips of meat and two large wooden tubs filled with salt brine.
09:53.876 --> 09:57.021
[SPEAKER_00]: The same brine solution used for preserving pork.
09:58.334 --> 10:07.949
[SPEAKER_00]: He rendered human fat for soap, he boiled bones clean, then ground them for fertilizer, or stored them in his garden shed.
10:09.472 --> 10:20.730
[SPEAKER_00]: And most grotesquely, he tanned human skin to manufacture leather goods, the very belts, suspenders, and shoelaces, he sold up weekly markets.
10:22.938 --> 10:43.714
[SPEAKER_00]: Dinky held an official vendor's license from the butcher's guild of Brazelha, a thirties hadn't expected his goods, approved his business, given him legal standing to sell meat products at public markets, including the prestigious Hall of a Target Market Hall in Wattswaff.
10:45.331 --> 10:54.932
[SPEAKER_00]: During the post-war years when meat shortages made cheap protein precious as gold, his boneless pickled pork found eager buyers.
10:56.475 --> 11:02.328
[SPEAKER_00]: No one questioned why the gentle church organized had such a steady supply of quality meat.
11:03.731 --> 11:05.635
[SPEAKER_00]: His larger document at everything
11:06.796 --> 11:14.686
[SPEAKER_00]: Each entry included the victims' slaughter weight, dead weight, naked weight, disemboweled weight.
11:16.127 --> 11:22.315
[SPEAKER_00]: The accounting of a man who saw human beings as livestock.
11:22.335 --> 11:36.212
[SPEAKER_00]: Among his documented victims, Adolf Solish, a confectioner, Rakuush Pavlik, a fur dealer, killed
11:37.745 --> 12:07.347
[SPEAKER_00]: Yohan Matushak, Andreas Pai-Kart, Paul Guller, Rudolf Fiedler, Edward Krabish, Joseph Schultz, Carl Riker, Michael Heider, ages rained from 16 to 76 years old, 26 men, 4 women, all invisible
12:08.778 --> 12:12.102
[SPEAKER_00]: Dinky didn't pray on them, despite their vulnerability.
12:13.364 --> 12:21.775
[SPEAKER_00]: He prayed on them because of it, because society had already declared these lives expendable, because no one would come looking for them.
12:23.016 --> 12:32.929
[SPEAKER_00]: Because in Walmart, Germany's economic catastrophe, homeless vagrants disappeared every day, and no one cared enough to ask why.
12:35.137 --> 12:36.961
[SPEAKER_00]: Christmas Eve, 1924.
12:37.302 --> 12:45.360
[SPEAKER_00]: Three days after Dinkie's suicide, police conducted a full search of his apartment at 19 Tri-Strasse.
12:46.522 --> 12:49.028
[SPEAKER_00]: What they found, defied comprehension.
12:50.358 --> 12:59.995
[SPEAKER_00]: In his single-ground floor room, two large wooden tubs containing human flesh, pickled and brine solution, ready for sale.
13:01.057 --> 13:11.134
[SPEAKER_00]: Three pots help partially consumed cooked human meat, a pot of human skin and aorta pieces, sat in a gelatinous mass.
13:12.633 --> 13:17.142
[SPEAKER_00]: a bowl of amber-colored human fat, gleamed in the winter light.
13:18.485 --> 13:26.862
[SPEAKER_00]: Blood stains covered the apartment, including his bed, where he'd slept among his victims remains for years.
13:29.255 --> 13:47.128
[SPEAKER_00]: In his garden shed, they found a barrel filled with clean and cooked bones, over 480 individual pieces, and teeth, stored in containers, sorted, like coins, grim trophies of decades of murder.
13:48.256 --> 14:14.365
[SPEAKER_00]: on windowsills and tables, identification papers, from dozens of victims, many recently released from prisons or mental hospitals, in his closet, blood stained clothing, including one woman's skirt, hanging on walls, belts, suspenders, and shoelaces, made from
14:15.458 --> 14:33.602
[SPEAKER_00]: the suspenders he'd worn on his own body, found after his suicide, were crafted from human skin, with the nipples still visible, the same man who played church organ on Sundays had worn human beings as clothing.
14:36.181 --> 14:46.118
[SPEAKER_01]: Most disturbing were the numerous leatherf goods found throughout the residence, belts, shoelaces, braces, and suspenders, all of which were later confirmed to be made from human skin.
14:47.200 --> 14:51.788
[SPEAKER_01]: The sheer volume of evidence suggested that Denk had been operating his gruesome enterprise for years.
14:53.010 --> 14:58.560
[SPEAKER_01]: Among the items discovered were piles of clothing belonging to his victims, carefully sorted and stored.
14:58.540 --> 15:04.408
[SPEAKER_01]: Human bones were found stripped clean of flesh, many showing signs of having been boiled.
15:05.249 --> 15:07.031
[SPEAKER_01]: A detailed report of these were made.
15:08.273 --> 15:20.169
[SPEAKER_01]: Sixteen females, with one pair of remarkably strong ones, two pairs of very thin ones, six pairs and two left females, fifteen medium sized pieces of long bones.
15:21.050 --> 15:26.978
[SPEAKER_01]: Four pairs of elbow bones, seven heads of radii, nine lower parts of radii.
15:27.667 --> 15:57.437
[SPEAKER_01]: eight lower parts of the elbow, a pair of upper shin bones, a pair of lower elbows and radii, which extremity still remain well connected, a pair of upper arms and a pair of upper arm heads, a pair of collar bones, two shoulder blades, eight heels and ankle bones, 120 toes
15:58.565 --> 16:07.477
[SPEAKER_01]: Several large barrels contain waterpaired to be piercled human flesh, suggesting that Denker had developed efficient methods for preserving his victim remains.
16:08.940 --> 16:15.729
[SPEAKER_01]: Perhaps most shocking was the revelation that Denker had been selling products made from his victims, unsuspecting townspeople.
16:17.091 --> 16:23.560
[SPEAKER_01]: He had developed a reputation for producing high-quality leather goods and meat products, which he sold at local markets.
16:24.535 --> 16:29.489
[SPEAKER_01]: The investigation revealed that much of this merchandise was actually derived from human remains.
16:30.592 --> 16:37.752
[SPEAKER_01]: Denker had even supplied local restaurants with what he claimed was pork, but was later suspected to be human flesh.
16:38.744 --> 16:54.203
[SPEAKER_01]: The impact on monster bears community was devastating, the revelation that a trusted member of their society had not only murdered dozens of people, but had potentially fed human flesh to his unsuspecting neighbours, shattered the community sense of security.
16:55.425 --> 17:06.338
[SPEAKER_01]: The fact that he had operated so openly, selling his products at local markets, and maintaining regular social interactions, forced people to question their ability to truly know those around them.
17:08.579 --> 17:12.663
[SPEAKER_01]: The case exposed significant weaknesses in law enforcement practices at the time.
17:13.864 --> 17:24.235
[SPEAKER_01]: Denk is ability to operate undetected for so long, revealed the lack of coordination between different police jurisdictions, and the absence of systematic missing persons investigations.
17:25.056 --> 17:36.848
[SPEAKER_01]: His victims primarily societies most vulnerable members highlighted the need for greater protection of marginalised populations,
17:38.161 --> 17:45.213
[SPEAKER_01]: The legacy of Carl Denke's crimes extends far beyond the borders of Munsterber, and the era in which he operated.
17:46.115 --> 17:56.473
[SPEAKER_01]: His case became a crucial analyst for changes in German law enforcement, particularly in how police departments communicate across jurisdictions about missing persons cases.
17:57.584 --> 18:14.584
[SPEAKER_01]: Perhaps the most significant impact of the Denker case was its influence on the development of criminal profiling, is a ability to maintain a respected public persona, while committing horrific acts, help shape our understanding of how serial killers can integrate themselves into society.
18:15.925 --> 18:21.972
[SPEAKER_01]: The case stands as one of the earliest documented examples of what criminologists now call the organised killer.
18:22.795 --> 18:28.423
[SPEAKER_01]: Someone who can maintain a seemingly normal life while methodically planning and executing their crimes.
18:29.705 --> 18:32.969
[SPEAKER_01]: The historical significance of the case also lies in its timing.
18:33.871 --> 18:42.002
[SPEAKER_01]: A caring during the tumultuous period of the Vyma Republic Denka's crimes exposed the dark underbelly of a society in crisis.
18:41.982 --> 18:54.815
[SPEAKER_01]: His ability to exploit the widespread poverty and displacement of the post-war period serves as a grim reminder of how societal breakdown can create perfect conditions for predatory behaviour to flourish.
18:56.056 --> 19:10.150
[SPEAKER_01]: The lessons learnt from this case about the importance of thorough investigation that need to protect society's most vulnerable and the danger of assuming virtue based on social
19:12.931 --> 19:16.937
[SPEAKER_00]: Carl Dinky killed at least 30 people, probably more.
19:17.818 --> 19:28.213
[SPEAKER_00]: His crimes were as horrific as those of his infamous contemporaries, Fritz Hammond, and Peter Curtin, the so-called vampire of Dusseldorf.
19:29.655 --> 19:37.065
[SPEAKER_00]: Yet while those names echo through criminal history, Dinky became a footnote, the forgotten cannibal.
19:38.345 --> 19:42.070
[SPEAKER_00]: His immediate suicide prevented any sensational trial.
19:43.311 --> 19:47.617
[SPEAKER_00]: A few articles appeared in local solution papers in December 1924.
19:49.559 --> 19:58.390
[SPEAKER_00]: Left wing newspapers accused authorities of suppressing the story to protect the reputation of the church and the butcher's guild.
19:58.410 --> 20:01.174
[SPEAKER_00]: Within weeks, the case vanished from headlines.
20:02.275 --> 20:06.040
[SPEAKER_00]: Within years, it was overshadowed by other monsters.
20:07.555 --> 20:36.988
[SPEAKER_00]: Then came World War II, Moonstaburg became Polish Zeebies, German residents were expelled, records scattered, the case fell between German and Polish historiography, two German for Polish scholars, two geographically displaced for Germans, a 21-year killing spray reduced to academic footnotes, then nearly lost entirely
20:38.318 --> 20:47.255
[SPEAKER_00]: The house at Stavova Street 13, formerly Tristasa, passed to new owners who had no idea what had happened there.
20:48.478 --> 20:54.109
[SPEAKER_00]: In the 1970s, human bones were discovered in a neighbor's garden during renovations.
20:55.492 --> 20:59.820
[SPEAKER_00]: Dequise disposal methods still surfacing half a century later.
21:01.859 --> 21:10.533
[SPEAKER_00]: In 1999, research at Lucina Biawe, custodian of the Solution Library at Wattwaff University.
21:11.635 --> 21:18.045
[SPEAKER_00]: Accidentally, we discovered the case, while preparing a catalog of Solution Press Archives.
21:18.025 --> 21:30.820
[SPEAKER_00]: Her research identified 20 victims by name, documented the Butcher's Guild license, brought academic attention to crimes that had nearly been forgotten forever.
21:32.382 --> 21:42.835
[SPEAKER_00]: In 2013, German criminologist Armin Ruders published a comprehensive monograph with psychological analysis.
21:42.815 --> 21:51.675
[SPEAKER_00]: Two films about Dinky appeared in April 2024, 100 years after his crimes, with sold out screens in Germany.
21:53.178 --> 21:54.602
[SPEAKER_00]: The house still stands.
21:55.804 --> 21:57.127
[SPEAKER_00]: Gray once story building.
21:57.969 --> 22:02.359
[SPEAKER_00]: At Stavova Street 13, in Zeebeese, Poland.
22:02.862 --> 22:04.885
[SPEAKER_00]: over 120 years old.
22:06.086 --> 22:08.209
[SPEAKER_00]: Largely unchanged since 1924.
22:08.249 --> 22:15.318
[SPEAKER_00]: The family who was owned it since 1972 had it blessed by a Catholic priest.
22:16.640 --> 22:21.125
[SPEAKER_00]: They've posted no photo signs, their hostile to dark tourists.
22:22.447 --> 22:26.372
[SPEAKER_00]: A journalist was reportedly threatened with an axe.
22:26.352 --> 22:32.006
[SPEAKER_00]: No memorial plaque marks the site, no acknowledgement of what happened there.
22:32.968 --> 22:42.572
[SPEAKER_00]: You can see it on Google Street View, the ordinary looking building where at least 30 people were murdered, processed and sold as pork.
22:45.117 --> 23:02.856
[SPEAKER_00]: Ida Lana, Adolf Solish, Rochester Pollock, Johanna Motasheg, Andreas Pichart, Paul Gauler, Rudolph Fiedler, Edward Kribish, Joseph Schultz, Carl Reiter,
23:02.836 --> 23:19.647
[SPEAKER_00]: Michael Hader, and at least 20 more whose names weren't preserved, whose stories, who they were, who loved them, what dreams they carried as they wandered desperate roads seeking work, are lost to history.
23:21.230 --> 23:24.956
[SPEAKER_00]: They were invisible in life, intended to be invisible in death.
23:25.837 --> 23:28.902
[SPEAKER_00]: Their humanity reduced to weights and a ledger.
23:30.424 --> 23:33.810
[SPEAKER_00]: Only Vincent's Olivier survived to tell the story.
23:35.332 --> 23:47.271
[SPEAKER_00]: That turn of his head, that moment of confusion, over a bizarre phrase, a doll you fat slob, saved his life, and exposed two decades of murder.
23:48.668 --> 23:57.346
[SPEAKER_00]: Carl Dinky became the forgotten cannibal, not because people didn't know about him, but because forgetting was easier than remembering.
23:58.328 --> 24:09.090
[SPEAKER_00]: Because his victims were people's society had already decided, didn't matter, because the same forces that enabled his crimes and difference to the vulnerable.
24:09.070 --> 24:18.679
[SPEAKER_00]: Trust in respectable facades, economic desperation that makes certain lives expendable, made it easier to look away.
24:20.241 --> 24:22.463
[SPEAKER_00]: Those forces haven't disappeared.
24:23.464 --> 24:28.889
[SPEAKER_00]: Society's indifference to the vulnerable creates perfect hunting grounds for predators.
24:30.231 --> 24:32.473
[SPEAKER_00]: When we decide, life's don't matter.
24:33.374 --> 24:34.955
[SPEAKER_00]: We don't just fail the victims.
24:35.756 --> 24:37.558
[SPEAKER_00]: We enable
24:40.306 --> 24:44.292
[SPEAKER_00]: Until next time, thanks for listening, friend.
