out that he had read Paul Uhlenhuth’s recently published paper, “A Method for the Investigation of Different Types of Blood,” so he went to Uhlenhuth and asked him to examine the stains on Tessnow’s clothing. Over the course of four days, Uhlenhuth applied his method, which involved dissolving the stains in distilled water, to more than one hundred spots that he found on the material. While some stains did test positive for the presence of wood dye, in seventeen stains Uhlenhuth also detected traces of both animal and human blood. The animal blood proved to be from a sheep. He also found human blood on the rock believed to have been the weapon used on the boys. So much for Tessnow’s claim of innocence.
With this evidence, and the circumstances, Tessnow went to trial and Uhlenhuth appeared as an expert witness to explain to the judge and jury how his analysis worked. Tessnow was convicted of the murder of both Stubbe boys and sentenced to be executed. Thus a depraved killer was finally stopped.
It’s assumed that, while he was not tried for the murders of the girls in Lechtingen, he was also responsible for them. He apparently suffered from the sort of bestial bloodlust that Krafft-Ebing had documented in other sex murderers and seemed non-discriminating as to whether it was children or animals that he ripped into pieces. Although it was never determined whether his behavior was compulsive or committed during fits of psychosis, he fit the pattern of those “werewolf” killers who had been studied. Even today, what Krafft-Ebing identified is applicable to some of the most extreme cases of bloodlust and cannibalism.
Dr. Stephen Giannangelo has studied serial killers who derive a joy from their killing sprees in The Psychopathology of Sexual Murder . He says that they experience a “pervasive lost sense of self and intimacy, an inadequacy of identity, a feeling of no control.” These things then manifest in an ultimate act of control—murder. Such killers develop deviant sexual motivations that become consuming fantasies that issue in an initial murder. When they find reward in that, they continue to look for other opportunities, refining their approach and acting out further deviance. The form it takes is influenced by whatever image or object is a sexual hot button in their fantasy. Bestial paraphilias that encourage savage attacks are obviously potentially dangerous.
We will see similar cases later in this book, including the next one. Fortunately, the killers met their match in brilliant, indefatigable investigators.
Sources
Baring-Gould, Sabine. The Book of Were-wolves. Blackmask Online, 2002, first published in 1865.
Douglas, Adam. The Beast Within. New York: Avon, 1992.
Giannangelo, Stephen. The Psychopathology of Serial Murder. Westport, CT: Praeger, 1996.
Guiley, Rosemary Ellen. Vampires, Werewolves, and Other Monsters. New York: Checkmark Books, 2005.
Lee, Henry C., and Frank Tirnady. Blood Evidence: How DNA Revolutionized the Way We Solve Crimes. Cambridge, MA: Perseus, 2003.
Masters, R.E.L., and Eduard Lea. Perverse Crimes in History. New York: The Julian Press, 1963.
Oosterhuis, Harry. Stepchildren of Nature: Krafft-Ebing, Psychiatry, and the Making of Sexual Identity. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000.
Thorwald, J. The Century of the Detective. New York: Harcourt, Brace and World, 1964.
Von Krafft-Ebing, R. Psychopathia Sexualis with Especial Reference to the Antipathic Sexual Instinct. Revised edition. Philadelphia: Physicians and Surgeons, 1928.
Wilson, Colin, and Damon Wilson. Written in Blood: A History of Forensic Detection. New York: Carroll and Graf Publishers, 2003.
Wonder, A. Y. Blood Dynamics. San Diego, CA: Academic Press, 2001.
THREE
ALBERT FISH:
Deciphering a Deadly Document
On June 5, 1928, the New York Times ran an article about a missing child and a man who had taken her away two days earlier, on Sunday afternoon. New York, New Jersey, and Long
With this evidence, and the circumstances, Tessnow went to trial and Uhlenhuth appeared as an expert witness to explain to the judge and jury how his analysis worked. Tessnow was convicted of the murder of both Stubbe boys and sentenced to be executed. Thus a depraved killer was finally stopped.
It’s assumed that, while he was not tried for the murders of the girls in Lechtingen, he was also responsible for them. He apparently suffered from the sort of bestial bloodlust that Krafft-Ebing had documented in other sex murderers and seemed non-discriminating as to whether it was children or animals that he ripped into pieces. Although it was never determined whether his behavior was compulsive or committed during fits of psychosis, he fit the pattern of those “werewolf” killers who had been studied. Even today, what Krafft-Ebing identified is applicable to some of the most extreme cases of bloodlust and cannibalism.
Dr. Stephen Giannangelo has studied serial killers who derive a joy from their killing sprees in The Psychopathology of Sexual Murder . He says that they experience a “pervasive lost sense of self and intimacy, an inadequacy of identity, a feeling of no control.” These things then manifest in an ultimate act of control—murder. Such killers develop deviant sexual motivations that become consuming fantasies that issue in an initial murder. When they find reward in that, they continue to look for other opportunities, refining their approach and acting out further deviance. The form it takes is influenced by whatever image or object is a sexual hot button in their fantasy. Bestial paraphilias that encourage savage attacks are obviously potentially dangerous.
We will see similar cases later in this book, including the next one. Fortunately, the killers met their match in brilliant, indefatigable investigators.
Sources
Baring-Gould, Sabine. The Book of Were-wolves. Blackmask Online, 2002, first published in 1865.
Douglas, Adam. The Beast Within. New York: Avon, 1992.
Giannangelo, Stephen. The Psychopathology of Serial Murder. Westport, CT: Praeger, 1996.
Guiley, Rosemary Ellen. Vampires, Werewolves, and Other Monsters. New York: Checkmark Books, 2005.
Lee, Henry C., and Frank Tirnady. Blood Evidence: How DNA Revolutionized the Way We Solve Crimes. Cambridge, MA: Perseus, 2003.
Masters, R.E.L., and Eduard Lea. Perverse Crimes in History. New York: The Julian Press, 1963.
Oosterhuis, Harry. Stepchildren of Nature: Krafft-Ebing, Psychiatry, and the Making of Sexual Identity. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000.
Thorwald, J. The Century of the Detective. New York: Harcourt, Brace and World, 1964.
Von Krafft-Ebing, R. Psychopathia Sexualis with Especial Reference to the Antipathic Sexual Instinct. Revised edition. Philadelphia: Physicians and Surgeons, 1928.
Wilson, Colin, and Damon Wilson. Written in Blood: A History of Forensic Detection. New York: Carroll and Graf Publishers, 2003.
Wonder, A. Y. Blood Dynamics. San Diego, CA: Academic Press, 2001.
THREE
ALBERT FISH:
Deciphering a Deadly Document
On June 5, 1928, the New York Times ran an article about a missing child and a man who had taken her away two days earlier, on Sunday afternoon. New York, New Jersey, and Long
Similar Books
