Horst David

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Horst David (born November 22, 1938 in Breslau ) is a German serial killer . The investigation of his murder of the prostitute Fatima Grossart is considered a milestone in German criminal history because it was here that it was possible for the first time to clear up an act almost 20 years ago with the help of the automated fingerprint identification system .

Life

After completing his apprenticeship as a painter, David lived in Hainsacker near Regensburg . In 1963 he married and had two sons with his wife.

He stayed away from home for days at times. He spent these times in Munich and Hamburg and probably other major German cities, where he spent a lot of money on women. As a result, his family found themselves in financial difficulties.

After resigning from his job and separating from his wife, he moved to Regensburg in 1984 and lived on welfare .

The murders

On August 22, 1975 he murdered Waltraud Frank during one of his excursions in Munich and Fatima Grossart two days later. The two prostitutes were strangled and their homes searched. David later stated that he had an argument with both victims because they had asked for more money for their services than had been agreed.

Eighteen years after the murders in Munich, on September 7, 1993, David's neighbor Mathilde Steindl was found strangled in her apartment. The police, who included David as the main suspect in the investigation, arrested him after fingerprints were found in the dead person's home. However, there was no conviction because David had apparently been temporarily authorized to stay in his neighbor's apartment.

The police routinely sent his fingerprints to the Bavarian State Criminal Police Office . The “Automated Fingerprint Identification System” (AFIS), which was still new at the time, recognized in 1994 a match with fingerprints secured nineteen years earlier from the dead Fatima Grossart.

In the following police interrogations, David initially stated that he had not been in Munich in August 1975 and that he had not visited any prostitutes. When faced with the evidence, he admitted the murders of the two prostitutes. He later admitted more murders. In addition to the one on his neighbor, he also confessed the following:

  • on April 12, 1981 to the 59-year-old pensioner Barbara Ernst
  • on January 26, 1983 to the 67-year-old pensioner Martha Lorenz
  • on October 27, 1984 to the 70-year-old pensioner Maria Bergmann
  • on January 12, 1992 to the 84-year-old pensioner Kunigunda Thoss

The three victims from 1981 to 1984 wanted to hire him to help renovate their apartments, but refused to lend him money or pay advances. Kunigunda Thoss had revealed to him little by little over 20,000 German marks borrowed. Until Horst David's confession, three of the deaths were not recognized as murders because he draped the corpses in such a way that household accidents were assumed.

David confessed to seven murders. According to the then investigator Josef Wilfling , financial aspects always played a role in these . He is believed to have committed other murders. This is supported by, among other things, his unusually old age when his first proven act and his day-long trips. Josef Wilfling said that the short period between the first two acts, the details of the circumstances and his behavior indicated that David already had experience in this regard at the time.

David was sentenced to life imprisonment in December 1995 by the Munich District Court I. He is serving his sentence in the Straubing correctional facility .

literature

  • Rudolf Schröck: The honest man. The story of the women murderer Horst David. Knaur, Munich 2004, ISBN 3-426-77721-5 .

Movies

  • The man whom women trusted - the serial killer Horst David. Director: Walter Harrich (ARD, 2008), with Ulrich Tukur and others (documentary with play scenes and interviews).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Petra Hollweg: The soul of the murderer. In: Focus. No. 16, 1997.
  2. ↑ www.mittelbayerische.de February 28, 2016
  3. ↑ Gisela Friedrichsen : Rather a matter of philosophy? In: Der Spiegel . No. 52 , 1995, pp. 62-63 ( online ).
personal data
SURNAME David, Horst
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German choir director and serial killer
DATE OF BIRTH November 22, 1938
PLACE OF BIRTH Wroclaw