Peter Kürten Vampire Killer Brain

Peter Kürten, known as the “Vampire of Düsseldorf,” terrorized Germany between 1929 and 1930 with a series of brutal murders and assaults. The German serial killer admitted that he sometimes drank the blood flowing from his victims’ wounds because it gave him sexual excitement. Police eventually captured Kürten after a massive manhunt in Düsseldorf, and a court sentenced him to death. Authorities executed him by guillotine in July 1931 at Cologne Prison. Afterward, scientists removed and bisected his brain for study, preserving the head in an attempt to understand the psychology behind his crimes.

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