Tadeusz Ensztajn
Born1913
Płock, Poland
Diedunknown 1934 (?)
Other namesThe Vampire of Łowicz
Conviction(s)Murder
Rape
Criminal penalty15 years in prison
Details
Victims6–7
Span of crimes
February – July 1933
CountryPoland

Tadeusz Ensztajn (born 1913 in Płock, date of death unknown) was a Polish serial killer and rapist, called the Vampire of Łowicz. In the period from February to July 1933, he raped and murdered seven women in Łowicz and its vicinity, and solely raped three others.[1]

Life

He was born in 1913, conceived as a result of his mother being raped by a Russian soldier.[2] When he was still young, his mother gave him to an orphanage in Łódź, where he also graduated from 3rd grade elementary school. As a teenager, he escaped from the orphanage and began to wander around Poland, during which he was arrested twice for riding a train without a ticket.[3] It is known that during his wandering he worked as a bookseller.

Ensztajn came to Łowicz from Poznań in February 1933. Here, he committed six of the seven murders attributed to him. He would hit his victim with an iron peg or a stone in the head, then rape and murder them.[4] All of his victims' faces were mutilated. After the crime he wandered throughout the streets of the city in order to get rid of the traces. When after the sixth murder more law enforcement officers appeared, Ensztajn went to Włocławek, where he killed another person.

Two teens contributed to the killer's capture, who forced Ensztajn to go on a common wedding, during which he told about the crimes he committed. Guests managed to alert a policeman who chased after him. The murderer was captured on the territory of the reformate monastery in Włocławek. Soon he was linked to a series of murders in Łowicz. When he was transported on a local vision to Łowicz, at the railway station a crowd of people tried to kidnap Ensztajn at the hands of the police in order to make a lynching on him, but the police managed to control the situation.[5]

Ensztajn's trial took place in the District Court in Włocławek. Although during the interrogations he confessed to his crimes, during the trial he denied involvement and blamed them on somebody else. On August 23, 1934, he was sentenced to 15 years in prison and 10 years of loss of civic rights. The moral negligence of the accused was considered a mitigating circumstance.[6]

What happened to him after is unknown.

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Wampir wypiera się zbrodni" [The vampire denies the crime] (in Polish). Głos Poranny. 22 August 1934. Retrieved 19 December 2015.
  2. ↑ "Wampir wypiera się zbrodni" [The vampire denies the crime] (in Polish). Głos Poranny. 22 August 1934. Retrieved 19 December 2015.
  3. ↑ "The "Vampire" process. What do the witnesses say?". Retrieved 19 December 2015.
  4. ↑ "The "Vampire" process". Detective. Retrieved 19 December 2015.
  5. ↑ "The grim confession of a vampire from Łowicz". Express Illustrated. Retrieved 19 December 2015.
  6. ↑ "Ensztajn did not plead guilty to the end" (PDF). Echo. Retrieved 19 December 2015.
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