Rudolf Pleil

"You underrate me, I am Germany's greatest killer. I put others, both here and abroad, to shame."
 

Rudolf Pleil was a little chubby guy. He always seemed happy, smiling constantly. He served in Hitler's army, working on Germany's East/West border. this is where Pleil decided to look for a new career.

In the beginning Pleil was just a thief. He'd find lone refugees crossing to the West and rob them, occasionally touching them up a bit along the way. This changed in March, 1946.

Pleil beat Eva Miehe, then raped her. For some reason he chose to take this one a step further and smashed he skull in with a single blow from an axe. He later said the murder was for 'sexual gratification'.

Pleil went on to copy this M.O. frequently. At time he had accomplices with him during the murders. Karl Hoffmann and Konrad Schuessler went out with Pleil occasionally, although it was always Pleil who finished the victim off. The only changes in his M.O. is the choice of weapon. He variously changed between axes, knives, mallets, rope and bricks.

Pleil's murders were eventually stopped when he killed a travelling salesman, the only male victim, with an axe. He was charged with, and found guilty of, manslaughter. He was sentenced to twelve years jail.

While in prison he set about writing his memeoirs, which contained descriptions of 25 murders. Once this was discovered police looked into his crimes. Obviously at this time it was hard to track down people in Germany, and the case was going nowhere until Lydia Scmidt came forward to tell a rather interesting story about her run in with Pleil. She had been raped, beaten and left for dead. Luckily for her, but not for pleil, she had survived and now the police had something. When questioned about the murders he had written about Pleil wasted no time admitting to them. He also had no trouble ratting on his friends. Karl Hoffmann and Konrad Schuessler were charged for various crimes, included some of being accessory to murder.

Pleil was charged with, and found guilty of, 9 murders. He was sentenced to life in prison.
In February 1958 Pleil carried out his final act. He was found hanged in his prison cell.
 

"Every man has his passion; some like whist, I prefer killing people."

Interesting Stuff

Pleil seemed to have a weird set of ethics. He had no problem with the rape and murders, but on one occasion he bashed one of his accomplices for beginning to decapitate one of the victims. It seemed that Pleil thought the act of decapitation was disgusting.

In jail he wrote his life story, calling it 'Mein Kampf' (sound familiar???).
Pleil signed it "by Rudolf Pleil, death dealer (retired)."

During Pleil's trial it came out that Pleil had applied for the job of Hangman. On his application he had written that if they needed any convincing of his skill they should check out a certain well. Obviously this was laughed at and ignored. When eventually checked, there was a strangled corpse found in the well.

During Pleil's trial he continuously interrupted, demanding the charges be lifted to 25 murders, not 9.