10 of the world’s stomach-churning cannibal Serial Killers

Joachim Kroll

Between February, 8, 1955, and July, 3, 1976, a relatively unknown German serial killer unleashed terror in Germany and claimed the lives of 14 people, though the killer said there could have possibly been more he simply forgot about. Joachim Kroll would later become known as the Ruhr Hunter, the Duisburg Man-Eater, and the Ruhr Cannibal for his bizarre, cannibalistic crime spree that spanned over 20 years.

Committing his first murder in 1955, Kroll stabbed and killed a young 19-year-old German girl before dismembering her body. It should be noted here that there is usually an escalation in serial murder from being more timid, often killing out of necessity more than pleasure, to more twisted and bloody as killers embrace their homicidal ways. But it seems Kroll jumped in without a care in the world, as if his dark desires were so great that he had the mind of a mad butcher within him since birth, awaiting to be unleashed upon society.

Unlike other cannibal murderers, Kroll would cannibalize almost every single one of his victims, slicing pieces of their bodies off to consume. All of the victims were found stripped, raped after death, and with pieces of their flesh removed. Like Toole, Kroll would also later state that his murders had to do with a simple inability to buy food, also stating that cannibalizing young children was the only meal he found truly satisfying.