Manfred Seel

Manfred Adolf Seel (October 30, 1946 – August 26, 2014), nicknamed The Hesse Ripper and Jack the Ripper of Schwalbach, was a suspected German serial killer. He is believed to have committed five murders in the Frankfurt Rhine-Main area between 1971 and 2004, and is currently under investigation for four other unresolved deaths.[1] Seel died of esophageal cancer before his alleged crimes were uncovered.

Manfred Seel
Born
Manfred Adolf Seel

(1946-09-30)September 30, 1946
Königstein im Taunus, Greater Hesse, Germany
DiedAugust 26, 2014(2014-08-26) (aged 67)
Schwalbach am Taunus, Hesse, Germany
Cause of deathEsophageal cancer
Other names"The Hesse Ripper"
"Jack the Ripper of Schwalbach"
"Alaska"
Conviction(s)Died before he could be arrested
Details
Victims5–9
Span of crimes
1971–2004
CountryGermany
Date apprehended
Never apprehended

Life

Manfred Seel grew up as an only child in Kronberg im Taunus, Hesse, West Germany. After attending secondary school in Oberursel in 1957, Seel completed an apprenticeship for chemography in the Georg Stritt printing company on Mainzer Landstraße in Frankfurt. Between 1967 and 1969, Seel began his two years of compulsory military service, serving in the Raketenartilleriebatallion 52 at the Steuben kaserne in Giessen. In 1973, after receiving his abitur, Seel studied art and social history at the Goethe University Frankfurt but did not graduate.[2] He married in 1973; his wife died in 2013. His only child, a daughter, was born in 1979.

Seel was described by neighbours as a friendly and inconspicuous man who occasionally had angry outbursts. According to eyewitness testimony, Seel regularly visited local prostitutes in the early 1990s. One prostitute contacted a helpline for local sex workers and reported being abused by Seel, warning other women about his violent behaviour.[3][4][5] In 1996, Seel checked into a rehab clinic in Erbach im Odenwald to treat alcoholism.

Seel died in 2014, one year after he was diagnosed with esophageal cancer. A few weeks after his death, Seel's daughter and her partner discovered human remains in a rented garage near his household. Since September 2015, the LKA Working Group Alaska has cited Seel as a prime suspect in several murders which are currently being investigated.[6] Alaska was a nickname of Seel's, as he was known to often wear fur clothing in warm seasons and because Alaska was one of his preferred destinations.[7] Seel was previously considered a "blameless citizen".[8] The investigation lead into Frankfurt's red-light district and several cold cases concerning the murders of prostitutes.

Murders

The murders attributed to Seel were brutal and exhibited sexual sadism. The victims were killed by "harsh violence in sexually relevant zones".[9] The killer would gather certain organs or body parts such as genitals, arms or legs, which he later kept in hidden places as trophies. He also probably returned to the crime scenes for sexual gratification.

The victims always had different parts removed. Investigator Frank Hermann said at a press conference: "Sometimes it's a right leg, sometimes a left arm - if you put it together, you could actually make a new body by doing that". The police acknowledge that Seel may have had an accomplice. The reason for this is forensic trace evidence and the extreme injury pattern on a corpse, which only could have been possible by the interaction of two perpetrators. The State Office of Criminal Investigation is currently appealing to the public for further information about the perpetrator and his victims. Also, they are looking for any surviving victims, with the help of whom conclusions could be drawn for the perpetrator, his motive or the course of events.[10]

Yes, this is definitely the most extraordinary case I've ever worked on. The violence is so despicable and unfathomable, it eclipses everything else I've experienced.

— Detective Chief Superintendent Holger Thomsen, "Alaska" special commission[11]

Modus Operandi

The police saw Seel as a misogynist or a misanthrope.[12] On the hard drives of several PCs in his basement, investigators found five terabytes of violent pornography, in both photo and video format. According to criminal psychologist Lydia Benecke, Seel saw his victims as objects for the satisfaction of his sadistic fantasies and low self-esteem. The humiliation, dehumanization and control over the victims, along with a greatly diminished sense of empathy, probably played a major role in the murders.[13] The "trophy hunting" and the storage of body parts may have served another desire as well.[14]

According to the criminal psychologist Helmut Kury, Seel felt "lust for violence and aggression" and most likely lacked "emotional vibration ability".[15] He assumes that the "social aide" of his personality and the construction of a bourgeois facade served to conceal his perverse inclinations. The offender was capable of acting intelligently. He had not acted spontaneously and in the affect, but his deeds (selection of the victims and the course of action) was planned. The cause of his sadistic tendencies could have been early childhood developments. Seel's killing instinct, according to the investigators, probably expired between 1971 and 1991, as he had been in a psychologically stable phase due to changing circumstances such as marriage and family formation.

Victims

The police assume that between 1971 and 2004, Seel murdered at least five women. He mostly targeted drug-addicted sex workers from the street, who are classified as a high-risk group because they can be easily addressed and their disappearance is usually not noticed immediately. The murders show large behavioral matches, including a recognizable "signature" of the perpetrator.[16] The commonality of the ritualistic murder series was that all victims were killed by strangulation. In addition, the victims' breasts and pubic areas were defaced, and all body parts or organs were removed. Seel is associated with the unsolved murders of the following women:

  • February 1971 – Gudrun Ebel (19), cleaner and geriatric care assistant. She may have been Seel's first victim. Her body was discovered on February 6, 1971 in a garden shed in Bad Vilbel. According to the investigators, the killer displayed sadistic behavior, and had opened her lower abdomen with a knife, removing her uterus.[17] Authorities assume that the killer lured her into a gazebo and murdered her there.[18]
  • April 1971 – Hatice Erülkeroglu (23), Turkish geriatric nurse. There may have been a connection between this victim and Seel, as he was trained at, and later worked in, the immediate vicinity of the Johanna Kirchner retirement home in Frankfurt. The killer and the victim could possibly have been in an adjacent "party venue", a disused railway carriage on a former brownfield site, which often served as a meeting place for young lovers.[19] The victim, who was attacked on the Camberger Bridge, suffered massive injuries to her head and the genital area had been mutilated, suggesting that the killer had a sexually sadistic personality structure.
  • June 1991 – Gisela Singh (36), a heroin-addicted, HIV positive sex worker. Her body was discovered by mushroom pickers fourteen days after her disappearance under a pile of rice at a parking lot in the Hofheim forest.[20] Singh was working on the bar in Frankfurt-Kaiserstrasse. She was last seen on June 14, 1991 at Café Fix (a drug counseling center on Frankfurt's Moselstrasse). Shortly before, she had undergone medical treatment for advanced HIV.[21] In her handbag, a ticket for the E3414 express train from Karlsruhe to Heidelberg was found in addition to a small tube and a disposable syringe, which had been stamped the same day.[22] Investigators sought a middle-aged suitor named "Hans", who was driving a blue Opel Rekord with a Darmstadt licence plate.[23] Later, it was pointed out that Seel had been one of Singh's suitors. Singh had been strangled and her abdomen and thighs were mutilated. At the time of the discovery, the body was already badly decayed and the head partially skeletonized.
  • December 1993 – Dominique Monrose (32), a drug-addicted, homeless sex worker from Martinique. She was last seen alive on December 3, 1993. The police assume that she had been killed that same day. Her torso was found in a garbage bag on Friedberger Landstraße. The culprit had severed her head with a knife. Her various body parts were found stored in plastic bags at various points on the so-called Offenbacher Kreuz on the Bundesautobahn 661. It is assumed that the killer had kept her torso in a freezer for about ten days, to be able to deal with it for longer. Monrose was known to have interfered with the scene by undercutting the usual market prices. She had undergone a methadone program and lived with a former suitor who reported her disappearance.[24]
  • July 1996 – Pia Isabel Heym (27), bank employee.[25] The severed head of the mentally ill woman who was reported missing since July 1996, was found in a small garden in Sachsenhausen. According to the police Heym took tablets for the treatment of schizophrenic features. She may have been another victim of Seel.
  • July 1998 – Julie Anna Schröder (18), drug-addicted sex worker who worked on the street. She disappeared in July 1998 from the Frankfurt station district. The woman is said to have been in bad health. The police assume that it was a homicide, and her body has not yet been found.
  • September 1999 – Gabriele de Haas (32), a drug-addicted sex worker who disappeared in 1999. It is alleged that the culprit had chatted with her in a forum.[26] The police assume that it was a homicide, and her body has not been found yet.
  • April 2004 – A skeletonized woman's head was found wrapped in aluminum foil in Offenbach. Although her face was reconstructed with the help of forensics, her identity remains unknown.[27]
  • 2004 – Britta Simone Diallo (43). According to testimonies, Seel had apparently carried out a housing settlement for her. The sex worker, who had no fixed abode and was last seen alive in the autumn of 2003 and not reported missing, had been tortured before her death. Remains of her body (feet and thighs in a state of extreme decay) had been hidden in a blue plastic bin by Seel in his garage in Schwalbacher Nordstrasse. The body parts were found on September 10, 2014 by Seel's daughter, which led the authorities to posthumously point at Seel as the prime suspect.[28] The injuries suffered by Diallo were very much in line with the pictures found on Seel's computer, and it is believed that a manga comic owned by Seel may have been used as a template.[29] It can not be ruled out with certainty that Diallo was still alive when Seel severed her arms and legs with a handsaw. In the area of the knees, pelvis, breasts and in the vaginal area eight nails were found.[30] In addition, the body had several stab wounds and cuts. LKA chief Sabine Thurau called this act "the peak of Seel's sexual preferences". Due to the cruel accompanying circumstances, the investigator Frank Hermann almost excluded a single act and had his team of DNA analysts, profilers and specialists systematically investigate further victims.[31]

At the time, Seel's participation in the murder of Tristan Brübach was not excluded. The 13-year-old student was killed in 1998 in an underpass of the Liederbach Canal near Höchst by an unknown person. Since the murder was committed in the vicinity of the Höchst station, in a relatively busy area, the perpetrator had to act very quickly and functionally. The police considered based on the similar modus operandi (paralleled the Singh murder case: the shoes of the killed were arranged in a specific pattern in pairs next to the body). A dactyloscopic analysis of fingerprints on the victim's exercise book was negative. In October 2017, the head of the press office of the Frankfurt police said that Seel had been excluded as a suspect.[32] The public search for Tristan's murderer will be resumed "soon".[33]

Investigation status

With no evidence of fingerprints on his clarinet, the 2017 investigation focused on, among other things, on potential corpse deposits and DNA testing on garments worn by the victim. Since these are old cases, with correspondingly poor quality of the evidence, the analysis will probably last even longer in order to rule out any traces of deception.[34] Also, it still to be determined if there is a second offender. This hypothesis could neither be verified nor ruled out. The police exclude a possible victim circle, the exact number is not known, and outside the Rhine-Main area according to current knowledge largely from.[35] So far no concrete results have been achieved.[36] For the deeds of Seel, so far there are only indictments.[37] The latest findings (as of December 2017) of the investigation state that Seel as probably active only in the Rhine-Main area and that there were no comparable cases in the Federal Republic and in Europe during this period.[38] The special commission and working was meanwhile dissolved, and only the homicide commission can determine anything further.

Media

The true crime thriller Wolfswut, written by German bestselling author Andreas Gößling, which plays in Berlin instead of Frankfurt, is based on Seel's crimes.[39] The well-known German author Nele Neuhaus has also announced that she was inspired by the crimes of the "Hesse Ripper" Manfred Seel in one of her Taunus thrillers, which will be published in November 2018.[40]

See also

References
  1. "Police ask: Who knows Manfred Adolf Seel?". Archived from the original on 2016-06-16. Retrieved 2018-08-06.
  2. Georg Leppert (2016-05-19). "Schwalbach: Familienvater als Serienmörder". fr-online.de. Retrieved 2016-06-20.
  3. Murder series on prostitutes. The perfect victims
  4. Hotline Streetwork and counseling for women involved in prostitution, idh, integrative drug help e.
  5. ots (2016-05-19). "LKA-HE: Hessisches Landeskriminalamt ermittelt in Serienmord in Hessen/ PM im Nachgang der Pressekonferenz 19.05.2016". Presseportal.de. Retrieved 2016-06-20.
  6. "Serienmorde in Hessen: Grausames und sadistisches Vorgehen". Spiegel Online. 2016-05-19. Retrieved 2016-06-20.
  7. Sören Kittel (2016-05-19). "Ermittler von Schwalbach blicken in menschliche Abgründe". abendblatt.de. Retrieved 2016-06-20.
  8. Gruesome details on the Schwalbach serial killer, Hessenschau, May 19, 2016
  9. He liked to drink beer too much, The double life of a serial killer, BILD-Zeitung, May 20,
  10. Hesse State Criminal Investigation investigates serial murder in Hesse.
  11. Alexander Jürgs (2016-05-22). "Das Muster des Serienmörders". welt.de. Retrieved 20 June 2016.
  12. Julia Jüttner (2016-05-22). "Mutmaßlicher Serientäter Manfred Seel: Morde eines Menschenhassers". Spiegel Online. Retrieved 2016-06-20.
  13. Katharina Iskandar (2016-05-20). "Man sieht Leuten nicht an, dass sie Verbrecher sind". FAZ.net. Retrieved 2016-06-20.
  14. Ira Schaible (2016-05-21). "Lustmörder wie Manfred Seel töten aus Sadismus und Nekrophilie". Stern.de. Retrieved 2016-05-21. Rudolf Egg, Kriminalpsychologe: „Er wollte das bei sich haben, um eben diese Glücksgefühle zu verlängern.“
  15. "Kriminalpsychologe über den Serienmörder Manfred Seel". Badische Zeitung. 2016-05-28. Retrieved 2016-06-20.
  16. Julia Jüttner (2016-05-21). "Profiler über Manfred Seel: "Der Täter suchte bewusst einen jungen Menschen"". Spiegel Online. Retrieved 2016-06-20.
  17. Alexander von Paleske (2016-05-19). "Frauenmorde in Frankfurt - Die Spuren führten ins Nichts, nun nach Schwalbach?". oraclesyndicate.twoday.net. Retrieved 2016-06-20.
  18. Katharina Iskandar (2016-05-19). "Nach Jahrzehnten hellen sich die Fälle auf". FAZ.net. Retrieved 2016-06-20.
  19. Maintower Kriminalreport Extra: The serial killer from Schwalbach.
  20. amt mit Agenturen (2016-05-19). "Serienmörder in Hessen: Manfred S. und seine möglichen Opfer". stern.de. Retrieved 2016-06-20.
  21. Murder case of Gisela S. in Aktenzeichen XY ungelöst. Broadcast of January 10,
  22. "Gisela Singh". Sexindustry-kills.de. Retrieved 2016-06-20.
  23. Niklaus Mehrfeld (2011-12-10). "Ein Freier war ihr Mörder". Kreisblatt.de. Retrieved 2016-06-20.
  24. "Dominique Monrose". Sexindustry-kills.de. Retrieved 2016-06-20.
  25. Slain, stabbed, strangled. These 75 murders were never solved.
  26. dpa (2016-05-20). "Manfred S.: Das perfekte Doppelleben des mutmaßlichen Serienmörders aus Schwalbach". msn.com. Archived from the original on 2016-05-21. Retrieved 2016-06-20.
  27. "BKA Unbekannte Tote". Bka.de. Archived from the original on 2016-06-12. Retrieved 2016-06-20.
  28. "POL-MTK: Gemeinsame Pressemitteilung der Staatsanwaltschaft Frankfurt am Main und der Polizeidirektion Main-Taunus". Presseportal.de. 2014-10-10. Retrieved 2016-06-20.
  29. "Britta Simone Diallo". Sexindustry-kills.de. Retrieved 2016-06-20.
  30. Alexander Jürgs (2016-05-26). "Eine Klarinette soll Serienmörder Manfred S. entlarven". welt.de. Retrieved 2016-06-20.
  31. Andrea Löbbecke/DPA (2016-05-20). "Serienmörder in Hessen: Soko "Alaska" - auf der grausamen Spur von Manfred Seel". stern.de. Retrieved 2016-06-20.
  32. Tristan Case: Smash hot track - Internet search continues on www.hessenschau.de. Archived 2018-08-06 at the Wayback Machine October 9, 2017 Archived August 6, 2018, at the Wayback Machine
  33. Katharina Iskandar (2016-05-24). "Die Hoffnung heißt Technik". FAZ.net. Retrieved 2016-06-20.
  34. "That's not finished" How many people did Manfred S. kill?
  35. Interview with serial killer Manfred S. "Such victims found in Frankfurt".
  36. A year ago, the deeds of Manfred Seel shocked.
  37. Chronicle: The History of the Frankfurt Police. Frankfurter Rundschau, 26.06.2017
  38. "Puzzles around Manfred Seel still unresolved". Archived from the original on 2017-12-26. Retrieved 2018-08-06.
  39. Andreas Gößling: Wolfswut.
  40. Nele Neuhaus: Template for the next thriller is the case of the Hesse-Ripper Manfred Seel.
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