Six dead, two seriously injured, one serial killer.
In the spring of 1990, Arthur Gatter terrified the Frankfurt homeless scene and put the police on the alert. The serial killer attacked his homeless victims while they were sleeping, bludgeoning them beyond recognition with a machinist’s hammer. To this day, Arthur Gatter’s series of murders is considered one of the bloodiest in post-war German history.
You can hear the full case in the “Tatort Deutschland” podcast.
Here is the episode on Spotify. And here at Apple.
The cruel deeds
︎ February 2, 1990, two o’clock in the morning: A security guard finds the body of the homeless man Hans Peter († 43), known as Peterchen, in the arcades of Frankfurt’s Weißfrauenstraße. Hans Peter’s skull was smashed in, his face mutilated.
︎ Just five days later, the hammer killer strikes again: Kurt H. is found in a Frankfurt park with severe head injuries. The investigators reconstruct: Before the 22-year-old was brutally attacked, Kurt H. celebrated in a gay club. However, since he is not homeless, the police are initially making no connection between the two acts. Two days after the attack, Kurt H. died in the hospital.
▶︎ On April 2, 1990, the hammer murderer continued his bloody deeds, murdering the homeless Helmut R.
▶︎At the beginning of May, the serial killer almost fell into a murder frenzy, attacking several homeless people within a very short time. The bloody record: three dead.
︎ Almost three weeks later, the gay Brazilian Anderson S. († 32) was murdered: the victim had previously arranged to have sex with a stranger in the bushes. There, however, the Brazilian was ambushed by the hammer killer. Severely injured, Anderson S. flees onto a park bench. But his killer follows him and kills him with a hammer.
▶︎ On May 22, the hammer murderer commits his last act: the homeless Heinrich O. is murdered in a block of flats not far from the Main. But the brutal attack is loud and draws the attention of a local resident. This alerts the police and can even give a personal description of the killer: short, fat, male.
The arrest follows a little later at a subway station near the crime scene. The evidence is clear: the arrested man is carrying a machinist’s hammer and there is a blood-smeared knife in his plastic bag.
Bloodbath at the crime scene: This is where the hammer murderer struck
The culprit
The Hammer Killer is Arthur Gatter. He is 50 years old. During his interrogation, Gatter talks about a “mission order,” a voice from beyond that controlled him. Signs, such as symbols on the sleeping bags or the Frankfurt subway network, would have led him to his eight victims. In the BILD newspaper (May 23, 1990 issue), forensic psychiatrist Reinhard Redhardt is quoted as follows: “Gatter probably feels like an avenger, as an executor against a social fringe group, which he denies the right to live.”
As early as 1987, three years before the start of the series of murders, Arthur Gatter was diagnosed with schizophrenia. Unbelievable: In February 1990, Gatter is even on trial after slashing car tires and cutting wires. The judge ruled at the time: No danger to the public and let Arthur Gatter go. Meanwhile, the Frankfurt police are already chasing a – still unknown – serial killer.
After his arrest, Gatter was transferred to the Gießen psychiatric hospital. But the trial of the hammer murderer will never happen: on December 12, half a year after his arrest, Arthur Gatter hanged himself in his cell.
Mug shot of hammer killer Arthur Gatter
