What killer was known as the "Vampire of Dusseldorf"?

Peter Kürten was the killer known as the "Vampire of Düsseldorf." He was a German serial killer whose crimes terrorized Düsseldorf and nearby areas during the late 1920s.

Kürten committed murders and sexual assaults between 1929 and 1930, and he confessed to earlier crimes as well. He was convicted in 1931 of nine murders and several attempted murders, then executed by guillotine at Klingelpütz Prison in Cologne on July 2, 1931.

The nickname came from reports that Kürten sometimes drank blood from victims' wounds. The press also associated the name with the brutality of his attacks and the panic his crimes created. He was additionally called the "Düsseldorf Monster."

The case became one of the most notorious criminal investigations of the Weimar Republic and later influenced books, films, music, and crime studies. A common mix-up is confusing Kürten with fictional vampires or with other famous German killers; the historical "Vampire of Düsseldorf" specifically refers to Peter Kürten.