Of course other bones were yet to be uncovered over the years to come. The last pieces (including head bones) were found in the late 1940's, just after World War II, by now Polish inhabitants of the house.

"Considerably more revealing was Denke’s dental collection. We received a total of three hundred and fifty-one teeth.

These were found in a moneybag and in two tin boxes, on which "Pepper" and "Salt" was written, as well as in three paper bags, which were destined to keep pepper. They were partly sorted according to their size: the molars were in the moneybag, while the others in the two boxes and in the paper bag. In yet another paper bag were teeth that belonged probably to a single person, and in a third bag three lower incisors were found with strongly atrophic structure - this one came probably from an old individual. All teeth, with the exception of six, were well preserved.

[...]

The investigation led us to very notable results. The remains of the bones were definitely of a minimum of eight victims, however other circumstances of the case make it likely that the number of victims was much higher. The teeth that were found belonged certainly to at least twenty people [...]. Professor Euler noted however that some individual teeth appear more than twice as often than is statistically expected (this concerns second premolars and incisors), which suggests that there might have been even more victims.

The fact that the majority of victims suffered from caries leads us to think that the number of victims was higher. In addition, it must be stated that people in old age lacked proper dental treatment. Professor Euler estimates cautiously that the teeth belonged to at least twenty-five individuals.

The extractions were done in different ways. Some teeth seem to have been taken out quite easily due to senile atrophy, while others were rather solidly rooted and extracted with force. In many cases we discerned parts of the alveolar wand. Some specimens, especially the molars and premolars show fractures in tooth enamel that couldn’t have occur during victims’ lifetime. On some there are traces of claws with very sharp edges. The appearance of some roots seems to justify the assumption that the jaw had been cooked in advance. Individual teeth have been broken - probably in the process of extraction. Again Denke had no luck".

The last remark sounds a little odd...

"Especially interesting is the answer to the question of the age [of the victims]. From the list later mentioned we know nearly all victims. There are no young individuals among them. Now, there are four wisdom teeth, that clearly came from the same people [or individual?], that have peculiarities usually found on the teeth of the fifty year old. The investigation of the other teeth showed that at least four-fifths of the victims were seniors. Professor Euler summarized that among the victims there was certainly one person who was not older than sixteen years [seemingly he did not figure on the mentioned list], while the majority were significantly older than forty years; two individuals were probably twenty to thirty year old and one between the thirtieth and fortieth year of his life.

The tests did not give satisfactory results concerning the sex of the individuals, nor their jobs. For obvious reasons, nothing specific can be said about the time that elapsed after their death. What is certain is only that some teeth have been extracted years ago. The pulling out of the teeth of young people must have taken place many weeks ago.

In any case, the study of the teeth brought much more information regarding the number and age of the victims, than could be learned from the bones, but it must be taken into consideration that the latter were only partially recovered. [...]"

Next part of the report is concerned with findings, that didn't seem to have anything in common with the transforming of human tissue. Nevertheless further investigation revealed that Denke experimented with human leather and soap making based on human fat, although his methods remained utterly primitive.

"Among Denke’s suspenders, three pairs were made of human skin. They are about six centimeters wide and seventy centimeters long. The leather is not smooth and at one spot broken. It seems not tanned but only free of sub-skin tissue and dried. At one spot it is obvious, that he made the cuts under the nipples, which are still clearly visible. Four are patched with human skin taken from the pubic area. [...] Some traces of louse nits were also discerned under microscope. All suspenders show traces of use and one of them Denke was found on Denke himself"

"Beside suspenders, Denke had also leather straps cut out of human skin, that he treated with shoe polish and parts of which were sawn together with pieces and rags of cloth. Many of these laces were made of human hair: one sample was one centimeter long, grey-white and - according to study - was taken from the head. From which area of the body came the other pieces, this cannot be said.

In addition to various old clothes, which were in the apartment, there were forty-one large and small bundles of rags, bent together with straps. The investigation lead to no results concerning these old, worn-out clothes. [...]

Equally strange was Denke’s collection of coins. This consists of round flat unfired clay pieces, size ranging from a Pfennig to fifty Pfennigs, which have on just one side the image of a real coin.

A large number of ID cards and private papers of several persons were found in Denke’s room as well as account books on revenue from the garden, on working hours and so on. They were relatively well managed and clear. More attention was attached to some loose sheets of paper on which names of thirty men and women appear. In front of every name there is a date - probably the date of death of the person. At No. 31 there is only a date. The record is chronological. Numbering starts only at number eleven. In case of women, only the first name is indicated, the notes for men are much more detailed, usually with date of birth, place of stay and status of the person concerned. The assumption that this is the list of victims is justified by the fact, that ID cards found in Denke's room belonged to people whose whereabouts could not be identified otherwise [...]. By the appearance of the sheets, we can assume, that the list has not been made in one day.

On one side (of the sheets) are the initials of the name followed by a number, which most likely indicates the weight of the person concerned. On another slip of paper, next to a name stands what follows: 'dead, 122, naked 107, disemboweled 83'. This last figure is then repeated next to the name of the person concerned in the last table.

[...]

Of tools used for the killings and fragmentation of the bodies, these can be said:

- three axes;

- a large wood saw;

- a tree saw;

- a pickaxe;

- and three knives.

All these have been seized by us with the exception of the axes and the tree saw, which are sent to be tested for traces of human blood. The saw is a large tool, with which - as the microscopic examination revealed - also wood have been sawn. The detection of human blood succeeded. However we suppose that he used much finer tools - probably the tree saw - to cut heads and the pelvic bones. The pickaxe was used for the last assassination attempt and human blood can be stated on this tool as well. It has a length of forty centimeters and is pointed forward. As for the knives, we could not make things all clear".

Then Dr. Pietrusky's report continues with information about Denke himself, but these are pretty scarce: the killer have had a reputation of good, if somewhat recluse citizen. As a child he was believed to be dull. He wasn't able to learn and he didn't speak (he only begun to speak at age of six). Teachers declared him an idiot and often punished him. "He's very obstinate and lacks respect for teachers" - they noted.

As adult he was treated with suspicion but rather because of his solitary status and sexual indifference. He was said to be "neither man nor woman".

His family stated that he never showed signs of fear or disgust, however he had no violent temper - they thought. He had accepted their invitation only once, but it was memorable anyhow: his brother recalled that Karl had eaten 2 pounds of meat! He described him as Vielfraß - the glutton. Nevertheless Karl's good manners, humble behavior and occasional charity earned him the nickname of Vater Denke - 'Father Denke'.

Denke's personality is far from established. All we know about him comes from documents or sparse remarks of his relatives and co-citizens made only after his death (little doubt people became biased by the shocking revelations found in his apartment). His crimes were not motivated sexually and his conduct seems rather rational. From all information that we have, we can assume that he was an extremely selfish, retarded man, unable to distinguish moral categories. Probably he didn't mean to harm people but his need for food was primordial. After a series of failures at school, farming, business, he found a simple and effective means of procuring food (and probably income) by killing vagabonds he met at the train station. He could gain their trust quite easily and take them home virtually unnoticed (the train station was a short walk from his place and both were on the outskirts of town).

At the end we shall also ask one pertinent question: how could Denke's crimes be perpetrated for at least fifteen years completely unnoticed by anyone in Münsterberg, including his neighbors?

And symptoms were abundant! Some time before Vincenz Oliver escaped the killer in extremis, at least two men managed the same (but they didn't report the fact to police, as it seems):

- once an apprentice covered in blood ran out of Denke's appartment; he was never heard of again;

- some time later a vagabond complained to Denke's neighbors that he had been asked to write a letter and soon after found himself with a chain on his neck. He was stronger than Denke and made his way outside. Nobody reporter these to police.

Other facts occurred as well. For instance repeated complaints of Denke's neighbors about a strong penetrating smell from his apartment. The neighbors noticed as well he always had plenty of meat, even in the worst period of inflation. They assumed however it was dog meat, so gave little attention to it, even though black market slaughter of dogs was illegal. Nor the buckets of blood he poured into the courtyard made them think. He was often heard hammering and sawing at night, but no neighbor would become suspicious: after all he was preparing the dishes to be sold at the morning market...

It is quite remarkable as well that he was probably often seen going out at night with large heavy bags and returning home with empty hands some time later. What was he doing, what was in the bags, why at night? Where did the old garments and shoes, that he was selling come from?

It seems plausible that some neighbors were suspicious about Denke, but as long as nobody from the town was hurt, he remained safe.

Born 8/12/1870, died 12/22/1924

The son of a wealthy farmer, Karl Denke was born in Oberkunzendorf (near present Ziębice Poland). 

Details on this serial killer are sketchy, but here is a summary of the information I have:

Karl Denke lived in Munsterberg, Silesia, Germany (now Ziębice Poland). He is believed to have killed between 30 and 40 people, primarily journeymen and homeless persons. Reports state that he had been engaging in cannibalism for several years prior to his capture. There are rumors that he actually sold human meat. He killed all his victims in his house on Stawowa Street. 

Apparently, Karl Denke was well liked in the community before his arrest. He is known to have been called "Vatter Denke" (which translates to Father Denke or Papa Denke) by the locals. He also served as the organ blower for his local church.

On December 21, 1924, a coachman by the name of Gabriel, heard cries for help which seemed to emanate from Denke's room. Gabriel rushed down to help and found a young man named Vincenz Olivier staggering along the corridor, blood streaming from his open scalp. Before he fell unconscious on the floor, the victim blurted out that "Vatter" Denke had attacked him with an ax.

Police were summoned and arrested Denke, scouring his apartment for evidence. They turned up identification papers for twelve traveling journeymen, plus assorted items of male clothing. In the kitchen, two large tubs held meat pickled in brine; with the assorted bones and pots of fat, detectives reckoned that it added up to thirty victims, more or less. In Denke's ledger, they found listed names and dates, with the respective weights of bodies he had pickled dating back to 1921.

He killed himself in prison the night of his capture. Reports state that he hung himself with a noose fashioned from a handkerchief, leaving historians with no explanation or motive for his actions.

His life was investigated by Lucyna Biały (the custodian of Silesian Library of Wrocław University) in the summer of 1999. Mrs Biały based her research on the German press of twenties. Her work was published by editor Tadeusz Dudź in "Gazeta Wyborcza" and "Gazeta Wrocławska". This article is one of the ones below.

The Household Equipment Museum in Ziębice held an exhibition from July-August of 1999. The exhibit was entitled "An ancient iconography of Ziębice" and featured tools used by Karl Denke in his crimes.

The information in the article is likely to be the most accurate information available currently on Karl Denke.  It is from a very reliable source, and is much closer to the original sources than anything I have gotten my hands on yet. 

For those interested in how rumors get started, there are a few different versions of Karl Denke's story in print and on the Internet. There are a couple of myths:

1. He was not an innkeeper - apparently this rumor was started because of a bad German translation. No German sources that I have found say that he was an innkeeper, but most English sources do.

2. He died in 1924, not 1942. At one point, someone reversed the numbers and printed the information with 1942 as the year of his death. This has been repeated by several others.

3. Many sources say that he hung himself with suspenders, rather than a handkerchief. While that makes more sense, it is apparently untrue.

The story of the Cannibal of Ziębice was resurrected by Lucyna Biały, the curator of the archive of old printed materials in the University Library at Piasek in Wrocław. She came across the story by accident while preparing a catalog of the Silesian press. She presented it in Ziębice during a scientific conference. The title of her report was Casus Denke- The Ziębice Cannibal. The first to mention the cannibal from Ziębice was the Ząbkowice-Ziębice Journal Frankestein- Murnsterberger Zeitung (for the less informed Frankestein was the name of Silesian Ząbkowice before the war).

The information appeared on December 25, 1924. A more thorough account was provided by Ziębice’s newspaper, published tri-weekly, Munsterberger Zeitung. From it, one could infer that this person, who carried the cross at funerals of the Evangelist commune, and helped beggars and people in need, was a monster. It is hard to believe, but it happened…

Karl Denke was born August 12, 1870. His family was quite wealthy; they were farmers. Karl was a hard child to raise. He ran away from home at the young age of 12. When he graduated from elementary school, he started apprenticing with a gardener. He started life on his own at the age of 25. It was then that his father died, the farm was taken over by his older brother, and he himself bought a piece of land with the money from his inheritance. However, farming did not go well for him, so he sold his land. He bought himself a little house on present Stawowa Street in Ziębice. Unfortunately, his savings were devoured by the uncontrollable inflation of his time. He had to sell his house, but he did not move out. He still lived in a little apartment on the right side of the ground floor of the house. And he still occupied the shop standing next to the house.

It was Sunday, December 21^st, 1924, when a man covered in blood ran into a police station. He swore by all things holy that it was Denke, who did this to him. The policemen could not believe it possible that poor, nice Karl, enjoying unimpeachable opinion in a town of eight thousand, would do such a thing to this bloodied wretch of a beggar.

However, Vincenz Olivier would not change his testimony. Denke was arrested. The very same night, when a guard looked into his cell, he was dead. He had hanged himself. How desperate he must have been to do it with a noose made from… a handkerchief.

After the corpse was returned to the family, the policemen went to his house. It was Christmas of 1924, the happy day, on which the Lord of the Universe was born. But, the Christmas Eve of 1924 was a sorrowful one. The economical crisis abound, money was losing its value from one day to the next, and a regular family could not afford to put anything decent on their table. The policemen were saddened even more. What they saw in Denke’s shop, could have caused even the most formidable policeman, who had served the longest in the law enforcement profession, to tremble in fear.

including one skirt. On the window seal, lay various kinds of documents with the names of people released from prisons or hospitals. Jars of pickled meat (the laboratory analysis showed quickly, that it was of human origin), human bones prepared for thermal processing, instruments for the production of belts, leather straps, and other products from human skin were found. Denke even processed human hair, using it to make shoe laces. He would sell it all door to door, the permission for which he received from city officials. The meat, with the permission of Wrocław butchers, he sold in Wrocław. It was a time of crisis and every gram of meat would find a buyer… The policemen were able to identify the names of 20 victims of the Ziębice Cannibal. It is believed however, that he pickled in his manufacturing shop about 40 residents.

For now, the local cannibal has only a small place in a museum in Ziębice. However, it is not impossible that he will be granted even a bigger exhibit. After all, not all towns can boast their own cannibal!

Only after turning over the corpse to Denke’s relatives did the police – on Dec. 24^th – go to his apartment to secure the property of the suicide victim.  What the constables saw in his apartment and shed sent them into a state of terror.