Free Men Of Flesh And Blood by Emilia Clark Page A

hunter, as well as fresh cut unvarnished pine is
much more likely to prove fatal than hardwood or crossbow-fired
polished wooden darts. This is because it is not the wood itself
that causes the reaction, but the enzymes that are found in the
resin of many varieties of wood. A scented pine forest can lead to
an asthma-like attack that may be fatal to the vampire.
     
    Injuries that would lead
to almost instant death in a human being are a minor nuisance to a
healthy vampire, therefore, a vampire hunter will most like behead
the vampire as they would heal too fast from a gunshot or stab
wounds.
     
    The Merriam-Webster
dictionary defines the word vampire as “ the reanimated body of a dead person believed to come from
the grave at night and suck the blood of persons
asleep. ” Since the word was first coined
in 1734, the myth of the vampire has grown, entering into popular
culture with the publication of Bram Stoker’s, Dracula. Throughout
the ages, human killers have been fascinated by the blood of their
victims. Here are some of history’s most notorious “vampire”
killers…
     
     
     

CHAPTER 1: FRITZ
HAARMANN
    The Vampire of
Hanover
    October 25, 1879 – April
15, 1925
     

     
    Friedrich Heinrich Karl
"Fritz" Haarmann, also known as the Butcher of Hanover and the
Vampire of Hanover was a German serial killer who is believed to
have been responsible for the murder of 27 boys and young men
between 1918 and 1924. He was convicted, found guilty of 24
murders, and executed.
     
    Haarmann was born in
Hanover on October 25, 1879, the sixth child of poor parents. He
was a quiet child who shied away from boys' activities such as
sports and preferred to play with his sisters' toys. He was also a
poor student. At the age of 16, at the urging of his parents,
Haarmann enrolled in a military academy at Neu Breisach. He
initially adapted to military life, and performed well as a trainee
soldier. After just one year in the academy, however, he began to
suffer seizures and was discharged for medical reasons.
     
    Haarmann returned to
Hanover and took employment in a cigar factory. He was arrested in
1898 for molesting children, but a psychologist declared Haarmann
was mentally unfit to stand trial, and he was sent to a mental
institution indefinitely. However, only six months later, Haarmann
escaped and fled to Switzerland, where he worked for two years
before he returned to Germany.
     
    Once back in Germany, he
again enlisted in the military, but this time under an alias, and
in 1902, he was again discharged under medical terms. He was
awarded a full military pension and returned to live with his
family and took employment in the small business his father had
established. After an argument with his father, Ollie, led to a
violent fight between them, Haarmann was arrested, charged with
assault and again sent for psychiatric evaluation. This time, a
doctor did not diagnose Haarmann as mentally unstable. A court
discharged Haarmann and he returned to live with his family.
Shortly after that, Haarmann attempted to open a small shop of his
own, but the business soon went bankrupt.
     
    For the next ten years,
Haarmann lived as a petty thief, burglar, and con artist. He was
frequently arrested and served several short prison sentences. He
gradually began to establish a relationship with Hanover police as
an informer, largely as a means of redirecting the attention of the
police from himself, and later admitted that the police began to
view him as a reliable source of information regarding Hanover's
criminal network.
     
    In 1914, at the age of 35,
Haarmann was convicted of a series of thefts and frauds and was
imprisoned just as World War I began. Upon his release in 1918, he
was struck by the poor quality of the German economy because of the
loss the nation had suffered in World War I. The country was
bankrupt. Fritz Haarmann immediately reverted to the criminal life
he had lived before he was arrested in 1914. The new state