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Hi friends, how are you today? My name is Bailey Sarian and today is Monday, which means it's Murder, Mystery, and Makeup Monday. Thank you so much. If you are new here, hi, my name is Bailey. And on Mondays I sit down and I talk about a true crime story that's been heavy on my...
and I do my makeup at the same time. If you're interested in true crime and you like makeup, I would say, hey, subscribe. Let's get into today's story. Cannibal!
So today our story is about a guy named Karl Denke. Now he was born in like 1870 in Silesia, which is now considered southern Poland. Just a disclaimer, there wasn't like too much information available because this story is so old and also a language barrier. So it's just, you know, I'm working with what I got here. Okay, cool. Cannibals.
Let's discuss, shall we? Let's discuss. So Carl was born in 1870. He was like the son of a farmer in a pretty wealthy farming community. Things were okay in the late 1870s, apparently. People were hanging in there, doing good work, making things work. There really just isn't much to say about his life growing up, but I'm guessing it wasn't all rainbows and lollipops because...
First of all, we're here. Second of all, Carl apparently ran away from home at the age of 12. Couldn't find why, when, what, what'd he do? Where'd he go?
But that's what happened. So fast forward to when Carl's 25 years old and his father dies. And again, his father or his family, Carl's family was like doing pretty well. So they're kind of, they're wealthy. So when he dies, he ends up leaving Carl, his son, some of the money, some of the family wealth. And then he ends up, the father, he ends up leaving his wealthy farm to Carl's older brother. I guess this was kind of upsetting to Carl, but I mean, he got some money.
You know, that's cool. You got money, but he wanted the farm. So with the money that he inherited from his father, he bought a different and smaller farm close by. So after taking care of the land and getting it to be in like a really good spot, he turns it around and he sells the smaller farm to make some kind of profit, which he does. Honestly, this Carl guy's kind of smart.
because he turns it around, sells it. Then he used that money to buy a two-story house, okay, way nicer. He's like, I don't need a farm. I got a house. So he's living in this little town. I think it's called Zibitzi. I apologize for offending all of you for saying that incorrectly if I did. So it was here in this small town that Carl settled down. He got his house. He's got his shop and
and this is the place he would call home. Carl kind of brought a little bit of the farm into this town, and he was establishing a business that sold all kinds of pork. Yeah, lots of pork, pork-related products. One of his most popular selling products was his pickled pork, and he also sold leather goods. So you could get some pickled pork and then also pick up a belt. That's a good deal, you know? I'm gonna get some pickled pork. I'm gonna get a belt. I'm gonna get a belt.
Now, Carl made quite the name for himself in town because he was, like, really good at doing pork stuff. He was porking away. And he did it so well that he expanded his sales and sold products in nearby towns. And, like, again, pork was his thing. He was expanding the business. He was traveling to different towns selling his meat. I mean...
This dude was really making a name for himself. Good for him, he was hustling hard. So besides Carl being a little entrepreneur, he also was really well known in town as just being an all around great guy. Yeah, everyone's like,
"Yeah, I know him. He's great. Love him." Carl would be kind of like considered a pillar in the community. Now, Carl, he didn't have a wife. He didn't have kids. He had a house though, right? But he was considered a very good, very moral, upstanding, kind citizen. In fact, he even had a nickname in town. Yeah, his nickname was Vata Denke, which means "papa."
Yeah. He was like, I guess, like the father figure in town. And a lot of people considered him a dad. They loved him. Carl over here was also a very religious man. He remained active, an active member at his local evangelical church. And he was there every Sunday. Never missed a day. Plus, on top of that, he also played organ. You know, which, honestly, I love the organ. I kind of wish I played it. But it's so creepy. Duh.
Like, you know, it's fitting is what I'm getting at. He was also the designated cross bearer for all processions and funeral. Funerals, plural. Cool. Way to go, Carl.
To everybody in the community, it just seems like Carl is building a real priest-like, dedicated bachelor reputation. And no one thought he was weird at all. You know, back then, if you looked at someone funny, you were considered weird, a witch, whatever. So they loved this guy and no one thought he was weird. They loved him. He was the town's pork guy. On top of all this, Carl also loved to give back.
He always offered travelers, like if new people came into town, he would offer them a place to stay, give them food, somewhere to sleep, and kind of act like his home was a boarding house. So everyone in town knew, like, hey, if you're ever struggling, if you're out of
work if you're maybe running away from something shady papa uh denke had your back you know like he's the guy you would go to he would feed you house you offer you work if you needed cash like this guy was jesus it seemed you know like it just seemed like he was just a saint no red flags i don't like these stories because it's like what are you supposed to look out for
Let me paint a picture for you like where we are in history. I guess World War I was happening or just had happened and it was like a really, really dark and difficult time for Germany and the regions that were like lumped together around them. So the Weimar Republic was formed in 1918, directly after Germany lost the war to the Allies. Now the scene was not good. There was mass starvation, hyperinflation,
political unrest, and there was a ton of internal conflict. To sum it up, this period of time was so turbulent for the region that Hitler, who would be considered an insane person in all respects, really didn't take that long to seize power and do some horrible things afterwards, right? This is the political, social, economic scene where people like Papa Donke
were considered basically angels. So with so many people suffering and so many people literally starving to death in what was basically a brand new country, him offering free room and board as well as a job opportunity every now and then was an incredibly...
Sweet deal. Even when the economic instability came to Carl's front door and cost him the house he was living in, he continued to help transients by letting them stay in the ground floor apartment of the building that he was renting. And again, everyone's like, well, that Carl.
Carl sure is a great guy. He makes great burgers, you know? So that's our Carl. He's a beloved neighbor, salesman, organ playing church man who would give the shirt off his back to anyone in need. So imagine the surprise and honestly the straight up disbelief you would feel when a rando from out of town accuses Carl, Saint Carl, of assaulting him.
Liar. On December 24th, 1924. Yes. On Christmas Eve, a neighbor heard screaming coming from Carl's apartment. Oh yeah. So the neighbor, his name is Gabriel. He's hearing the screaming and he's like, oh my God, I gotta go help whoever is... So he goes over there and he's like, what's going on? What's going on? And he sees someone that he doesn't know, a stranger. His name is
Vince and this guy is like out in the hallway. He's bleeding from his head now this gash in this guy's head It wasn't like just a small cut to the forehead my friends. Oh my name. No, no It was a giant gash in this man's head He had been struck by a hatchet or an axe or something of that nature. There was a splitting situation Happening on his head. I wouldn't know what I would do. I'd be like, um, I
"Stay there, I'm gonna go get help or something." But before the victim passed out because of his massive head wound, he looks at Gabriel in the eyes and is like, "The man who did this to me, his name is Carl Denke." And then he fainted. Mm-hmm, mm.
So police show up and this man was immediately taken to the police station. Yeah, they took him to the police station first and they're like, "Hey, we're gonna get you a doctor." And I was like, "Okay, but why didn't they just take him to the doctor first?" I mean, his head is split open, but then again, who am I? Shut up, Bailey.
You weren't there. It was different times. This man's taken to the police station. They get him a doctor and they're like, hey, can you give us a statement? Like who did this to you? What happened to you? Can you talk to us? Again, this man was like, it was this man named Carl Denke was the one who hit him in the head with an ax. Oh yeah. Hit him in the head with an ax. It was said that when the neighbor found Gabriel and he said it was Carl who hit him in the head, the neighbor, his first reaction was to gasp.
quite loudly, it was said. And he's like, "Denke is a gentleman." The neighbor was absolutely floored, offended, did not believe him. So police take down his statement. And once he leaves, they're kind of like, "Yeah, we don't believe him." Instead, they labeled this man, the victim, as a drunk. He's a drunk, he's being sloppy, he must be confused. There's no way that Carl would do anything of this nature. And they just didn't take it seriously.
So police figure that they should bring in Carl. They should bring him in for questioning just so they can like get to the whole bottom of the story, set everything straight. So they do that. They bring in Carl. So Carl comes in and he actually kind of surprises police officers because he's like, yeah, I did it. I'm responsible for that guy's head wound.
And they're like, well, why'd you do it? You know, why would you do that? And Carl told police officers that he hit him with the ax because he was acting in self-defense. He said that this man was trying to, or at least attempted to assault and rob him. So the ax was like the closest thing that Carl had. So he grabs it because we all got an ax on hand. So you grab that ax, he's just, you know, and attacked him.
Self-defense, makes sense. Closet acts, we all got one. So police are like, "All right, that sounds like it fair. Sounds like that could be correct."
So police are like, "Well, we're gonna have you, Carl, stay here overnight, spend the night here. You'll have your own cell, and we're just gonna try and figure everything out, set everything straight, and then you should be free to go in the morning." So Carl's like, "All right, fine, whatever." So they put Carl into a cell, and they leave him there until they could figure out, you know, get things worked out, get things sorted out. You understand. Now, accounts kind of vary depending on the source at this point.
But while police were starting to investigate, at 11:30 PM that same evening, Carl committed suicide by hanging himself. Now talk about a guilty man right there. Carl hung himself just a few hours after bringing him in. Like he did not wait that long.
Now, I don't know what you think of that, but to me, that means guilty as hell. Whatever it is that he did, he did something. Once police got word that Carl had killed himself, police headed over to Carl's house and they went there to search for evidence or just for any type of like evidence
information because if he just did that, if he killed himself, they're like, he probably had something going on that he wanted to hide. It's still Christmas Eve, 1924. Police go into Carl's home for evidence related to this crime. Remember the guy getting his head split open. That's what they're here for. And they first noticed a very strong smell. They're like...
It smells like vinegar, but they really didn't think much of it given to the fact that Carl, he sold pickled pork as his income. So vinegar is just part of the game. So they're kind of like, oh man, it stinks in here, but pickled pork makes sense. So a lot of Carl's neighbors would actually go directly to him, knock on his door, knock, knock, hello.
Carl would answer. They're like, "Hey, your place stinks and it's coming into my place, okay? You know, like this is disgusting. Clean it up or I'm gonna complain." And then Carl would tell the neighbors, well, he would play like the smallest little violin, you know, 'cause he would tell them like, "I'm suffering from a mysterious illness nobody has the answer to." And the only treatment he found that worked needed an ingredient that he could only get
from dogs, their bodies. I don't know what it was, but he said he got it from dogs. That's what he tells the neighbors, like you guys, wild times. So that was a smell. And he was like, how dare you guys be rude? I have a mysterious illness. And they left him alone, you know? But yeah, that must've been very stinky. What police found in the apartment matched up with what people knew of
Carl. Supplies for pickling. He had jars filled with goods. Fresh pork was in like the ice box. There was also a lot of materials so he could make soap. Leather tanning and lots of like leather working stuff. It's just like all the little things he needed to sell and make his goods, right? Normal. So while police are looking around the home, they also find a pile of
which they figured were pig bones because he's the pork guy, pigs have bones, right? Yes. But then upon further inspection in the kitchen, one of the officers comes across a dish, very suspicious dish, you know, it has something weird in it. So he gets a little closer to it and he sees that it's a dish of 240 teeth.
Not just any teeth. These were human teeth. Huh? Yeah. I was wondering, like, how did he determine 240? Did he sit there and count? Or was that later? Either way, he found the dish of teeth. So once they come across the teeth, that's when officers start to look around the home. And they're like, wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute. If that's human teeth, like, how do we know that all this stuff we're looking at is actually pig-related and not human?
Do you know what I'm saying? Like they were like, oh shit, this is not good. And sure enough, they were actually right. The pile of bones were sorted through and they were not pig bones. Police found in total two shoulder blades, a pair of collar bones, 16 femurs, 15 medium sized pieces of long bones, four pairs of elbow bones,
Seven heads of radii, nine lower parts of radii, eight lower parts of the elbow, a pair of the upper shin bone, lower elbows. There was upper arms. There were upper arm heads, eight heels, ankle bones, 120 toes. I know, that's random. 65 feet, 150 pieces of ribs. Bro.
You good? They find that pile of bones that they thought were pigs in this guy's house. They go through it and that's what they come across. That long list of nonsense. And they're like, where the F did he get all this stuff? Where did he get all of that? 65 feet? What's he doing? Is he a foot guy? 120 toes. Anyways, so they find that.
Okay, they go into Carl's bedroom. I don't even want to know what's in there. But they go in there and they see suspenders, belts, shoelaces, all goods that he sold as part of his business. But his closet, they open up his closet and it was full of like bloodstained clothing. Just bloody trousers and shirts and whatnot. All of it though was covered in blood. Why is it in there, Carl?
So remember in the beginning I said Carl sold his pork products, pork related products. He was a pork loving guy. He was a porker. But also he sold leather goods like wallets, belts, stuff like that. Well, of course, maybe you have guessed by now, but Carl over here, he was not just selling any normal products.
leather goods, normal wallets and belts. Instead, he was making leather goods out of human skin. Oh yes, he was ed-gaining it. I mean, Carl wasn't making nipple belts, but he was making human skin belts. Just as questionable, I would say. They even found some products that had like human hair kind of used as like little details. Kind of cute, but again, human hair. So
No. So police were like, we should probably send a sample of Carl's pickled pork to a lab and have them test it to make sure it's actual pork. Right? So they do that. And while they're waiting for the lab to come back with the results, police keep searching his place. And that's where they would find documentation that not only proved
Carl's crime against the Axe Wound survivor, but also against 31 other people. Oh yeah. You see Carl over here, he liked to keep things organized, I guess, or maybe he just liked journaling. He liked a diary because he had a journal or like a spreadsheet of all the names, date of death, and the weight of the meat he was able to remove from each body.
He was like, "Yeah, this one was real juicy." I don't know what this guy was doing. Why? Carl also had a collection of documents from his victims. There were items like legal identification, money, their wallets, you know, just stuff that were on the victims at the time. Carl also had a large collection of newspaper clippings of people who had recently been released from local prisons and hospitals. So that kind of, I was like, "What? Why was he doing that?" But it makes sense now
because this is full speculation, but I think it's spot on. Maybe like considering these people as his next victims because they're vulnerable, they're needing a place to stay, they just got released from prison or a hospital. They were probably easy targets for Carl. So that's why he had this huge collection of like, ooh, like all these people just got released. I should hit him up. Later, examinations by police managed to identify 20
of the victims within Carl's records. Though it's possible he had even more victims than the 31 he originally recorded. But the material evidence in his apartment indicated that he may have killed as many as like 40 people, especially because they found all those teeth.
The math ain't mathin', you know? So most of Carl's victims were generally reported to be middle-aged men, but the ages, they ranged from 16 years old all the way up to 75, 76. So he was pretty flexible with his ages. So because Carl had recorded all of the dates that his victims had died, it showed that he had been killing and pickling people for at least
10 years. Investigators also came across an entry in his diary that indicated to them that Carl may have murdered someone as early as 1903. So this dude has been busy. He would allegedly, I don't want him coming after me, that his ghost, lure people into his home with the promise of a job or like a place to stay, but they never left.
Next thing you know, they're baking or something. You're probably wondering at home, what in the hell happened in this man's life that turned him into a goddamn cannibal? Sadly, we'll never really know. No real confession except for the one right before Carl had killed himself. That was kind of, that wasn't a confession, but I mean, it could be considered a confession. So I guess later on, it would come out that like Carl had told one of the police officers, like before he had obviously killed himself,
that he had exclusively eaten human meat for three years. Carl, that's all he had been eating. He told a police officer this. And this guy thought like, oh, whatever. Like, he's just joking around. You're so funny, Carl.
but he was being serious obviously this dude is a little up he's a little off oh oh oh oh oh oh oh remember all that pork that they had sent to the lab well you could probably guess it was definitely not pork nay nay it was indeed human meat carl had been selling
Human meat. Oh, yeah, yeah. Everyone in the town, when they found out that they had been eating human meat, they were rightfully freaked the hell out. Could you imagine? There was a report that there was an entire wedding that had ordered Carl's special meat. Bro, on your wedding day, you straight up ate people. Could you imagine? My life would be ruined. Oh.
Gross. On your wedding day? I mean, maybe on another day. But your wedding day? Gross.
Come on. Again, there's no trial, no real confession, but there were a few folks who had like a great old time with this story. And those people were the press. The press loved this. They went bonkers. They're losing their shit. Their heads are exploding over this one. So many different theories, opinions, blah, blah, blah, you know? And of course they even use this as an opportunity to make it into like a political issue in different cases.
And it was getting people talking. When Carl was most active killing people, this is a time when everyone was literally like starving to death. So some had reported that it was the government's fault and the lack of resources that drove an upstanding model citizen to literally eat people. And it's the government you should be blaming, not Carl.
Papa, Carl, you should all be ashamed. In fact, there might be something kind of to that, even though it sounds like a stretch, you know, like, you should be mad, government, a little, anyways, because Carl wasn't the only prominent cannibal working in Germany around this time.
Omnet Ney, he was just one of a few. Cannibalism was all the rage during this time. There were two highly visible cannibals also around this same time.
One was Fritz Harman, who was called the Butcher of Hanover or the Vampire of Hanover. And he committed at least 24 murders during the years of 1918 to 1924 and was called the Vampire because his preferred killing method was to bite into his victims' necks.
Yeah. They never actually found any actual evidence that he ate his victims, but they did know that he dismembered some of them and also sold contraband meat that was always, quote, boneless, diced, and often sold as ground meat. I wonder how many times we've eaten human meat. We didn't even know it.
Oh my God. So another delightful man went by the name of Carl, a different Carl Grossman, which is kind of fitting, but he was known as Jack the Slaughterer or the Berlin Butcher. Oh, side note, I don't know where they got the name Jack from Carl.
I always have these types of questions and rarely any answers. But anywho, this demon, his murders spanned from 1918 to 1921, where he was also known to kill and dismember his victims, and then he would sell the meat. Ah yeah, I don't know.
Okay, I'm just trying to figure out like what, didn't it taste different? I can't, I don't know. Nobody noticed that their friends were like going missing and stuff. Nobody found hair in their meat. I mean, come on, what is going on over there? Anyways, that guy, this other Carl guy, this demon guy, he was making hot dogs and stuff out of the meat. So two Carls, one cup. They both loved to make food, hot dogs, the pickled pork. It's just like,
Is that a fetish to watch people eat the, is it? I don't know. I should have looked that up. What is that? That's a side note, but cannibals always interest me the most just because it's so far opposite than anything I've ever known. Hopefully you could feel the same way too. You're not eating people, but it's just fascinating because it just doesn't make sense, right?
I don't know. So the one problem that investigators would have with these types of humans would be that they would rarely come across any evidence because the evidence would be eaten. Yeah, I mean, that's the best way to put it. The evidence was eaten. So it's kind of like there's, yeah, there's no solid evidence except for in this Carl case. They found obviously all the meat and the bones and all that. But in the other cases, they really had a hard time.
So the press at this time was using these three other stories to build this like larger issue that these extremely tough times basically are breeding serial killers. And not only that, it's driving people to eat other humans out of hunger. This is like the narrative that they're putting out there. And it kind of makes sense, right? Like, you know, you can't be mad at it. It kind of makes sense. Don't come for me. It's not like I'm saying like, yes, eat people, but...
whatever or maybe it was just people trying to find some kind of answer since these crimes were just so brutal and disgusting that maybe it helped to think like hey maybe they were just really hungry you know maybe that kind of helped with the anxiety of it all well in the end
This definitely had a lasting effect in the neighborhood, the area where Carl was selling his stuff. The neighbors in his community, they were very upset. They were very nervous about eating meat. Rightfully so, I wouldn't blame them. I probably would become a vegetarian. Also in the area, in this town, a lot of businesses that sold meat were actually forced to close down. And now everyone in that town are vegans.
Just kidding. But like, it would make sense. I mean, I wonder what other secrets this man had. Well, there you have it, friends. That's the story of Carl Denke and his house of horrors. Horrors. Not horrors. Horrors. This man was like truly...
And I don't know, like, was he starving or was he a sicko? If he were just starving, I think personally he would maybe tell his customers like, hey, it's not pork. It's your neighbor, your old neighbor. His name's Brad. Remember him? Yeah. That's who you're gonna eat. Like maybe he would tell people that. But why would he tell people that? Thank you so much for hanging out with me today. I hope you have a wonderful rest of your day. Other than that, I'll be seeing you guys later. Have a good day. Make good choices. Goodbye.