Killer Stories with Harvey Guillén - “The Berlin Butcher” Carl Großmann

Episode Date: August 16, 2021

Carl Großmann’s entire life was marked with an obsession with sexual dominance. As a young man, he violated children and animals as a way to emphasize his own power. But when World War I left Berlin in a state of desperation, Großmann found a new, horrific way to satisfy his murderous cravings. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Due to the graphic nature of this episode, listener discretion is advised. This episode contains discussions of assault, rape, murder, child sexual abuse, and mutilation that some listeners may find disturbing. Extreme caution is advised for listeners under 13. He was doing it again. Helena Itsich could hear it from the other side of the wall. Carl Grossman had brought another woman back to his apartment in the middle of the night, and now the two of them were fighting.

It was always the same, muffled shouting, thumping, and the sound of a woman screaming. But what could she expect? Helena and her husband, Monheim, lived in the Silesian train station district, one of the poorest areas in Berlin. They shared a cramped building with dozens of other people who were just trying to survive in post-World War I, Germany. Even still, Grossmann was starting to get on her nerves. First, it was the unsavory house guests. Then it was the shouting in the middle of the night. But worst of all was the smell.

The foul stench of rotting meat always slithered its way into her apartment from his. Now, in the midst of another sleepless night, Helena considered getting up, knocking on the door, and asking her neighbor to keep it down, to give them some peace. But just then, the screaming suddenly stopped. The floor was filled with the heavy, chilling sound of complete silence. It was just like always, Helena thought. But lately, she was starting to suspect that something was wrong,

and maybe she was the one who would finally get to the bottom of it. Hi, I'm Greg Poulson. This is Serial Killers, a Spotify original from Parcast. Every episode, we dive into the minds and madness of serial killers. Today, we're telling you the gruesome story of Carl Friedrich Wilhelm Grossmann, also known as The Berlin Butcher. I'm here with my co-host, Vanessa Richardson. Hi, everyone.

You can find episodes of serial killers and all other Spotify originals from Parcast for free on Spotify. In the first part of this episode, we'll follow Grossman as he navigates Germany after the disastrous end of World War I. And watch as his dark impulses take over. Later, we'll look at how Grossman got away with so much carnage before he was caught, and why much of his story remains a mystery to this day. We've got all that and more coming up. Stay with us. This episode is brought to you by ZipRecruiter.

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Slow burns, second chances, chemistry you can feel through the screen. Your next obsession is waiting. Watch only on Prime. In times of terrible hardship, a few good Samaritans often step up to the plate. They take it upon themselves to do the right thing and help those in need. And in post-war Germany, people needed help. The economy was collapsing. There was no food, no work, and many people, particularly women, had no way to support their families.

Enter Carl Grossmann. Though he lived in one of the poorest neighborhoods in Berlin, he somehow always had enough money to spare. It was the exact miracle these women were desperate to find. Or so they thought. On the surface, Grossman was a charitable man, someone people could turn to when things got really rough. But below this charming image simmered something evil. Of course, by the time his victims discovered they'd cross paths with a grizzly Berlin butcher,

it was already too late. But how exactly did Carl Grossman become such a ghoulish figure? It's hard to say. In many ways, Grossman's life was no different than any other working-class person in Germany. He was born in 1863 in the northeastern town of Neurupin and had six siblings. Unfortunately, that's about all we know of his early childhood. And as far as we can tell, his upbringing was unremarkable. But then, around 1878, when he was only 14, Grossman left school to work at a textile factory.

Interestingly, the decision was virtuous in nature. as Grossman was keen to provide for his family. But it appears his wages weren't so reliable. So two years later, Grossman packed up and moved to Berlin in search of better work. This period in Grossman's life was marked by a string of short-lived jobs. He was an agricultural laborer, a butcher's apprentice, basically anything that could help him make ends meet. And as far as we can tell, Grossman took well to these jobs, particularly his work in the meat industry.

He quickly became skilled at breaking down carcasses and finding the finest cuts of meat. While Grossman initially took up these posts to help support his family, it's possible that the straight and narrow path wasn't as lucrative or as exciting. Perhaps that's why in 1884, when he was 20 years old, Grossman began his criminal career. At first, he dabbled in petty crimes like stealing. Whenever he was caught, he'd be thrown in jail for a few nights, released and that was that, but things were only just beginning. After several years, his behavior shifted into far more alarming territory. In 1896, Grossman was

charged with unnatural sexual assault of a sheep. The following year, he was convicted of sexually assaulting a 12-year-old girl. Shortly after that, in 1890, he raped two young girls. The details of these crimes are murky, but as far as we can tell, he was. tell it was as if a switch had been flipped. For years, Grossman had lived his life in relative obscurity, simply getting by. But now, the 35-year-old was a sexual predator, seeking out ways to dominate vulnerable people and animals. Vanessa is going to take over on the psychology here and throughout the episode. Please keep in mind that Vanessa is not a licensed psychologist or a psychiatrist, but we've done a lot of research for this show. Thanks, Greg.

According to psychoanalyst and psychotherapist Lynn Yannick, sexual abusers often seek out victims who are unable to fight back. She writes that incidents of abuse typically arise within asymmetrical power dynamics, where the perpetrator occupies a more powerful or dominant position in relation to the victim. In cases of child sexual abuse, the power imbalance is even more pronounced. Psychologist Stephen J. Rosetti argues that perpetrator, of child sexual abuse intentionally take advantage of their power over children, and that level of dominance makes the abuser feel strong. But as strong as Grossman felt abusing children and animals, he couldn't escape the consequences of his actions.

In 1890, he was charged and convicted of raping the two young girls, and received a 15-year sentence. Once again, we don't know much about his experience inside a German penitentiary, and frankly, we don't know much about the first first few years of his life after he was released. But we do know that at the time of his scheduled release, World War I was just beginning. Needless to say, the Germany that 50-year-old Carl Grossman returned to was very different from the one he left. Suddenly, a massive number of the country's young men were gone, shipped off to Belgium, Romania, basically anywhere that needed German soldiers.

That left millions of German women with the dual responsibility of running the household and finding a way to support their family. This, of course, was no easy task, and as the war raged on, it became harder and harder to find ways to survive. Even when the war came to an end in 1918, the country nose dived into a depression of epic proportions. Over a million German soldiers were dead, and the government was crumbling. For countless women, things were desperate. Many of them had lost their husbands, and suddenly found themselves with no safety net. With limited opportunities in rural areas, many women came to Berlin for work.

More specifically, they came to the Silesian train station district, a low-income neighborhood typically home to sex workers and people living with drug addiction. It was a place for people with nowhere else to go. It was also the place that Grossman called home, and unlike the crowds of impoverished Berliners, he was the rare exception. Somehow, in the devastating war years and the even worse period that followed, Grossman never seemed to struggle for money. Unfortunately, we don't know much about how he supported himself,

but as Grossman was a man in a job market saturated by women, he likely had an edge. It's also possible that his experience as a butcher gave him a skill set that many of his female counterparts didn't have. Whatever the case, he continued to thrive and showed no sign of faltering. And by late 1919, the 56-year-old had established a tidy life for himself in the the Silesian train station district.

He lived in a small apartment in one of the many tenements that populated the neighborhood, and he had a habit of offering his help to women in need. He gave them clothes, a meal, or a bed to sleep in for a few nights, and for desperate mothers who were struggling to feed their children, this offer was a godsend. But for Grossman, this was something very different. He knew these women were vulnerable, knew they'd risk everything. And he planned to make them to make them.

to make them pay a heavy price. Up next, Grossman becomes a new kind of butcher. Massive spiders, fierce crocodiles, violent kangaroos. With all of the dangers lurking within Australia, one species remains feared above the rest. Humans. Hi listeners, it's Alastair from Parkast, and I'm hosting a new Spotify original called Crime Down Under.

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Now back to the story. By the end of World War I, the people of Germany were desperate. Years of fighting had devastated the country in countless ways. For millions, even just a scrap of food or a place to sleep was hard to come by. This kind of vulnerability created a vacuum where crafty individuals could take advantage of a seller's market. And Carl Grossman was more than happy to be someone's last resort. By late 1919, the 56-year-old was something of an institution for those who were down on their luck, a person you could rely on for some used clothes or a few nights stay in his apartment.

The people in his care were almost always women, sex workers or single mothers with nowhere else to go. For them, Grossman's compassion was the only hope they had. And he counted on it. He knew that these women had no bargaining power. Once they crossed the threshold of his apartment, Grossman could demand almost anything in exchange for the most basic items. And everything that he offered came with a price. In the beginning, that price always.

seemed to be sex. In order to earn his charity, dozens of women agreed to have sex with him, but these transactions rarely ended well. In one case, a woman who will call Sandy went back to Grossman's after he promised her help. When she arrived in the dingy apartment, Grossman poured her a cup of coffee and she took a few sips. Soon after that, everything went black. The next thing Sandy remembered was waking up in Grossman's bed, but as she regained her faculty, she realized she couldn't move. Her arms and legs were tied to the bed frame, and suddenly she felt a throbbing pain between her legs.

She realized that Grossman had raped her while she was unconscious. This wasn't the only time Grossman committed such an offense. He often drugged and raped the women he brought back home. But other times, he didn't even bother waiting for the drugs to take effect. On one occasion, while Grossman was having sex with a woman as payment, he turned violent. He bound her arms to his bed and beat her, and at some stage, he let her go.

Interestingly, Grossman wasn't discreet about his sexual appetites. In fact, the sounds of his victim's cries echoed through the hallway of his tenement. But no one in the building ever intervened. It seemed people just accepted that he had some unsavory practices and that he liked to invite women to stay with him. But if anyone suspected the women were being genuinely hurt, they never said a word. What's more, none of his victims ever alerted the police.

Despite the abuse, they kept their mouth shut. Of course, Berlin law enforcement wouldn't have been much help. While many of the women who frequented Grossman's apartment weren't sex workers, the fact that they were trading sex for food and shelter, even unwillingly put them in a precarious position. You see, at this time, prostitution was tolerated in many German cities, so the transaction itself wouldn't have raised any serious flags. However, sex workers had to officially register with the police

and undergo regular medical examinations. If the government found out about what was happening, all of Grossman's guests would have had to officially register, and it's likely they didn't want to go through that process. That's because being registered as a sex worker often made it difficult for women to find employment outside of that world. But this wasn't the only problem. German citizens were required by law to register their address with authorities.

This meant that the women who lived at Grossman's apartment did so illegally. Even if they felt inclined to tell the police about his abuse, they'd be risking a fine that they couldn't afford. The options were these. Withstand the brutality of Karl Grossman or risk legal trouble of their own, and all of his victims chose the former. Of course, these women had a valid reason. They were struggling just to get by.

But the case of Grossman's neighbors is another issue entirely. Despite likely knowing that these attacks crossed the line, they remain silent bystanders. Popularized by social psychologists Bib Latine and John Darley, the bystander effect is a relatively natural phenomenon. According to them, two things make up the bystander effect, the presence of social influence and the diffusion of responsibility. If a single person is in the presence of a group, that person. person may feel less responsible for taking action against a violent act, and socially, that person will then look to others for a sign on how to react to the crime being committed, so if no one else makes a move to help, that individual won't either.

In the case of Karl Grossmann, the bystander effect was also heavily influenced by German cultural norms. At the turn of the century, it was considered unacceptable to interfere with a man's domestic life, particularly when it came to women. What's more, this period in German society was marked by a general acceptance of violence against women. The sound of a woman screaming wasn't exactly shocking, especially not in a rougher neighborhood like the Silesian train station district. It's possible that the brutality of Grossman's behavior was whispered about in the neighborhood, but it was never treated as criminal. What he did behind closed doors was nobody's business but his own. So Grossman continued sexually abusing and assault.

assaulting women in his apartment. But by the end of 1919, something in him apparently changed. For whatever reason, violent sex no longer satisfied his cravings. It wasn't enough to dominate a woman in this way. Now he wanted to kill them. Once again, we don't exactly know what caused this shift. It's possible he accidentally went too far in the bedroom and got lost in the moment.

It's also possible that he'd always fantasized about taking someone's life and finally felt ready. Whatever the case, he brought women back to his apartment like he always did. But now, his guests never seemed to leave. As far as we can tell, no one noticed this chilling shift. As always, his neighbors didn't seem to care. They were only aware of Grossman's activities if he made too much noise. And even then, the other tenants just considered that a mild annoyance. like a dog barking, certainly not something to investigate.

And with no one questioning his actions, Grossman didn't feel the need to be subtle. The sound of feet tramping up a stairway often woke his neighbors as he brought women home. After that, things would be quiet for a while. But then, without fail, more noise emanated from his apartment. The sounds of Grossman's voice and a higher, more panicked voice from his female visitor. Sometimes neighbors could hear the sharp crack of Grossman's. striking his guest or of a door slamming shut, but eventually the shouting would cease, and that would be that. The neighbors would return to peaceful sleep.

But for the women who went back to Grossmont's apartment, the experience was something out of a nightmare. Once the door closed, he likely wasted no time in attacking. He lunged at his latest victim, throwing her down onto his bed before tying her up and raping. her. Afterwards, he wrapped his hands around her neck and throttled her. We do know that sometimes strangling wasn't violent enough. In some cases, he beat his victims to death with his bare hands, striking the woman's head over and over with his fists until she went limp. It was a horrific display of sadistic fury. But for Grossman's neighbors, all it amounted

to was a series of grunts and muffled cries. And no one seemed to think it was a problem, at least not one they should be worried about. This silence between Grossman and his neighbors persisted through 1919 and into the new decade. Of course, this likely had more to do with the changing economic and political landscape. Even though the war was over, German citizens were still fighting daily battles of their own. Employment was still scarce, and food, particularly meat, was even harder to find. More and more young women rushed to the city in search of work. For Grossman, the consistent influx of women was fantastic news.

His appetite was insatiable, and by 1920, he had perfected his methods. He brought women home multiple times per week. And while we don't know much about the individual murders, it isn't hard to imagine what happened behind closed doors. After raping and killing his victims, Grossman stood over their lifeless bodies, breathing heavily from exertion. But with his... His thirst for violence satiated, the next part was more tedious.

He had to get rid of them. But he couldn't just carry their bodies out of the bustling tenement. There were too many people, too many witnesses who might spot him and finally alert the authorities. So Grossman did what he was best at. He used his skills as a butcher to hack away at the corpses. He likely set up a station for himself, unrolling a tarp onto the floor and gathering his tools, a cleaver and smaller butcher's knives. Then he dragged the limp body onto the designated spot.

It's hard to imagine someone so callously carrying out this task on another human, but for Grossman, this wasn't a woman or even a person at all. She was like any other animal. He could trace his finger along the flesh to find the space between joints, the perfect spot to cut. After breaking down the bodies into smaller parts, he wrapped them in brown paper and walked out the door. As he traveled through town, he held these packages close to his chest, making his way through the throng of people on the crowded sidewalks. Sometimes Grossman walked his discreet packages to the Englebeckin Reservoir or the Louisinstadt Canal.

There, he threw the chunks of human remains into the water. It appears all of this went wholly unnoticed. You see, at this stage, the waterways around Berlin were filthy and filled with all kinds of trash. Occasionally, even a dead body or two floated to the oily surface of the water. So with no one that concerned about what was in the water, Grossman flew under the radar. But there was one development that was impossible to ignore. At some point, a foul smell began emanating from Grossman's apartment. It was the kind of rotten scent that makes a person recoil.

Things got so bad that several neighbors finally spoke up, but Grossman was prepared. He told them that some chicken had spoiled in the summer heat. As shocking as it may sound, everyone believed him. The tenement was cramped and overcrowded, and it was common for all sorts of unsavory smells to slither their way through the walls. So once again, his neighbors ignored the troubling signs, and Grossman continued dumping the remains of his victims into the Berlin Wall. waterways. But the river was only one option. Some investigators who studied the case after its

conclusion suspected that Grossman realized there was a much more economical way of disposing of his victim's flesh. After all, there was a meat shortage. Coming up, a trail of bloody remains leads to Grossman's front door. Want to support your gut health? Take Activia's gut health challenge by enjoying two Activia yogurt today for two weeks and see if you feel a difference. With billions of probiotics and 20 years of scientific expertise, Activia is one of the easiest and tastiest ways to start your gut health ritual. Try Activia today. Enjoying Activia twice a day for two weeks as part of a balanced diet and healthy lifestyle

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only at Yamava Resort and Casino, celebrating its 40th anniversary. You in? Must be 21 to enter. Now back to the story. By the end of 1919, 56-year-old Carl Grossman had perfected his method of killing women, and thanks to his experience as a butcher, he knew exactly how to get rid of their bodies. At first, he cut up their remains and tossed the flesh into the Berlin waterways,

but it didn't take long for him to realize that he could make a killing financially. Even though the war was over, living in Berlin was still a nightmare. Food shortages were the norm, and things weren't getting any better. Meat was particularly hard to come by, and extremely expensive when it was available. Without much supply, butchers were losing business fast. So they were more willing to accept meat from wherever they could get it, including regular Joe's off the street. Carl Grossman understood this desperation.

Thanks to his experience as a butcher's apprentice, he would have known how to break down a body and find the most valuable cuts of meat. Perhaps he also knew that butchers weren't likely to ask questions. They'd believe him if he said that the pound of ruby red flesh was beef. So, investigators have speculated that at some point in 1919, Grossman realized he could solve two issues at once. He could get rid of the bodies and make enough money to entice new vulnerable women into his home. If it worked, he could do whatever he wanted.

He'd be unstoppable. Carl Grossman is a unique psychological case when it comes to motive. On the one hand, he gained sexual gratification from raping and murdering women. But on the other hand, he was an opportunist and potentially used his victim's corpses to make money. So what kind of killer was he? As it turns out, the answer is a little complicated. Sexologist Magnus Hirschfeld wrote about Grossmann's sadistic nature in his 1930 work,

Sex and Crime, describing him as a sexual murderer. These kinds of killers gain sexual satisfaction from raping and murdering their victims, thrive on the intimate violence of sexual assault. But Grossman wasn't just a sexual criminal. Writing about the so-called professional criminal, criminologist Robert Hindle described Grossman as an economic criminal, someone who murders for financial benefit. These kinds of people seek out crimes that will make them the most money. And for Grossman, selling women's flesh as meat would have been a lucrative business. It's difficult to find information about serial killers who do both, who murder out of a sexual lust for violence, and who use their victims'

bodies for financial gain. But that may have been exactly what Grossman did. Needless to say, Grossman is certainly an unusual serial killer, and his life remains a mystery in many ways. We know very little about his beliefs about women or sex or death, and although we know that he killed women between 1919 and 1921 with no interference, we have no. no idea how many women he killed. Without that information, the best anyone can do is speculate. However, it seems clear that Grossman wasn't concerned with getting caught. By 1921, the 57-year-old had seemingly turned his sadistic practice into a lucrative business, and it appears he didn't think twice about the panic screams of his victims. That's likely because Grossman counted

on the continued discretion of his neighbors. For about two years, no one had caused him any trouble, but late in the summer of 1921, that all changed. Privately, some of the other tenants had begun to wonder about what exactly went on inside Grossman's apartment. Helena Izzick and her husband Monheim were particularly curious. They lived next door to Grossman and were familiar with the startling signs of his late-night activities. They constantly heard him fighting with women and smelled the foul stench that emanated from his

apartment. But like everyone else in the building, Helena and Monheim had largely ignored these red flags. But everything changed when Berlin police started posting warnings throughout the Silesian neighborhood. The butchered remains of several women had washed up on the shores of various waterways around the city. It seemed there was a killer on the loose. When Helena and Monheim saw these notices, they began to suspect that the criminal was someone very close to home. They replayed the countless.

nights they'd heard Grossman abusing women and the sudden, chilling silences that followed. At first, they tried to find any shred of proof to explain away the signs pointing to their neighbor. Surely, someone had seen these women leave the apartment, or perhaps they thought the visitors had left in the middle of the night. But it didn't work. Every attempt to justify Grossman's behavior only made Helena and Monheim even more convinced. It had to be him. But how could they know for sure? It was their word against a man who was known as the Good Samaritan of the Silesian train station district. They knew they needed some kind of proof, and eventually the Itzix had an idea that would seal Carl Grossman's fate.

They bore a hole in their neighbor's door. Unfortunately, we don't have any details about the scenes of violence that Helena and Monheim witnessed that August, but we can guess. They likely saw him bring a woman into his apartment, rape her, and strengthen her. her to death. They may have also witnessed the aftermath of Grossman kneeling over her body with a butcher's knife hacking away. It's unclear how long the I-6 monitored Grossman before notifying the authorities, but before the month was up, they'd seen more than enough and alerted police. And Grossman had no idea that he'd been found out, so he carried on with business as usual. On August 21st, he roamed the streets of the Silesian train station district looking for another victim,

and by the afternoon, he set his sights on 35-year-old Marie Nitcha. When he approached her on the street and struck up a conversation, she told him that this was her first day of freedom after spending a month at the Moabit prison. Grossman likely latched onto that detail and offered to buy her a celebratory drink, So the two went to a local pub and drank their fill. Then eventually, he invited her back to his apartment. Like so many women before her, Marie likely climbed up the creaking stairs,

thinking herself lucky to have met such a charitable man. Of course, she had no idea that this friendly stranger had murderous intentions. When they got inside, Grossman offered Maria a cup of coffee. Then, while she wasn't looking, he tipped a fine powder into her cup before handing it to her. It didn't take long for the drugs to take effect. Marie quickly grew dizzy and collapsed.

After that, Grossman likely threw her onto his bed, bound her to the bed frame, and raped her. When he was done with the vicious assault, he untied her and dragged her into the middle of the room. With his bare hands, he beat her head over and over again, until a dark sheen of blood covered his hands. And just like countless times before, he paused for a moment to stare down at his latest victim.

Now that the fun was over, it was time to go to work. But as he prepared to set up his butcher station, there was a sudden knock at the door. It was the police, and they called out that they wanted to ask him some questions. In a panicked, gruff voice, Grossman responded that it was far too late for him to take new visitors and suggested the police come back another time. Then he grabbed Marie's corpse, looking around for the best place to hide her. But the officers could hear the fear in Grossman's voice, and with a swift sudden motion, they broke through the door.

What the police found inside was a tableau of horror. Grossman was hunched over in the middle of the room, his face a mix of fury and terror. His arms were slick with blood, and on the ground at his feet lay the beaten, lifeless body of Marie Nietzsche. Things moved very quickly after that. As far as we know, Grossman made no effort to escape. He was taken away to jail, his clothes still damp from the blood. After his arrest, Grossman spent several weeks in interrogation.

Investigators were convinced that he was responsible for the many dismembered corpses that had been found in the Berlin waterways, and they wanted him to admit his guilt. However, Grossman proved to be a difficult nut to crack. After a string of interviews, he only admitted to killing Marie Nietzsche and two other women. Even with this ghastly admission, the police weren't convinced that they were getting the whole picture. The severity of Marie's death, coupled with the information from Helena and Monheim-Itschik, painted Grossman as a man who had killed many, many times. They weren't the only ones who thought that way.

While prosecutors prepared for Grossman's trial, the story of the butcher of Berlin spread throughout the city. The tale was so horrific that it felt like something out of a crime novel, a man who killed countless women and supposedly sold their flesh to local meat vendors. It was gruesome to the point of morbid fascination. And the public was fascinated. Grossman's notoriety grew so great that newspapers in other countries began reporting on the case. A publication in Washington, D.C., wrote about Grossman as if he was a comic book villain.

describing him as history's worst degenerate and a, quote, beast in human form. Needless to say, his trial was the event of the year, and as the proceedings began in July of 1992, all eyes were on the witness box. Several of Grossman's living victims detailed their experiences at the hand of the butcher, and with the evidence police had already gathered, the butcher's fate seemed certain. But then, just a few days in the time. into the trial, a guard found 59-year-old Grossman dead in his jail cell. He died by suicide rather than face the punishment that was surely coming. His sudden death threw the case into a bizarre state of limbo. The testimony of his living victims had cemented Grossman's reputation as a violent,

horrific beast of a man. But with no defendant, there could be no conviction. As a result, there was no true sense of closure. Even still, authorities, authorities were determined to know the truth. In the months following the aborted trial, police attempted to piece together any evidence they could find. But with Grossman dead, they were merely grasping at the dark. To this day, it still isn't clear how many women Carl Grossman murdered. The estimated number varies from a dozen to a hundred,

and at this point it seems foolish to hope that the mystery will ever be solved. Grossman took that secret to his grave. Thanks again for tuning in to serial killers. We'll be back soon with a new episode. For more information on Karl Grossman, amongst many sources we used, we found the chapter, Prostitutes, Respectable Women and Women from Outside by Soss Elder, from the book Crime and Criminal Justice in modern Germany, extremely helpful to our research. You can find all episodes of serial killers and all other Spotify originals from Parcast for free on Spotify.

We'll see you next time. Killer Week. Serial Killers is a Spotify original from Parcast. Executive producers include Max and Ron Cuddler, sound design by Juan Borda, with production assistance by Ron Shapiro, Trent Williamson, Carly Madden, and Bruce Kitovich. This episode of Serial Killers was written by Georgia Hampton,

with writing assistance by Jane O. and Joel Callan, fact-checking by Bennett Logan, and research by Brian Petrus and Chelsea Wood. Serial Killers stars Greg Paulson and Vanessa Richardson. Hi there, it's Alistair from Parkast. You may have heard of the Somerton Man, Azaria Chamberlain, or the Wonder Beach murders. But do you know the whole terrifying truth? Be sure to check out my new series, Crime Down Under, where we travel to the land down under

to explore the most shocking true crime cases in Australian history. Follow the Spotify original from Parkast, Crime Down Under, and catch a new episode every Sunday, free and only on Spotify. Ryan Reynolds here from Mint Mobile, with a message for everyone paying big wireless way too much. Please, for the love of everything good in this world, stop. With Mint, you can get premium wireless for just $15 a month. Of course, if you enjoy overpaying, no judgments, but that's weird. Okay, one judgment. Anyway, give it a try at mintmobile.com slash switch.

Up front payment of $45 for three-month plan, equivalent to $15 per month required. Intro rate first three months only, then full price plan options available. Taxes and fees extra. See full terms at mintmobile.com. A beloved 75-year-old man washing up, getting ready for bed, is brutally beaten and killed. Despite an exhaustive investigation, the killer avoids arrest and then strikes again. I'm Global News crime reporter Nancy Hicks. You might listen to a lot of true crime podcasts this year, but they're not Crime Beat.

Search for and follow the award-winning podcast Crime Beat on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, and wherever you find your favorite podcasts.