Joachim Kroll: The Ruhr Hunter

Joachim Kroll

Joachim Kroll, commonly known as "The Ruhr Hunter", was a faultless example of a man who had been affected by mental illness, but capably dodged police discovery for almost twenty-one years. Kroll was classified as somebody who preferred young children for friends, had a weak vocabulary and a short memory, acted impetuously, and was incapable of understanding or accepting consequences. Usually serial killers who deal with a mental handicap need an associate to assist them rape their victims, ditch the bodies, and help them to cover their tracks. Even with an IQ of just 76, Kroll managed to do all of these things by himself. His methods and time span of his murders led the police in a totally different direction such as looking for someone who was incredibly intelligent, but had no guess of it being an inferior individual with a third-grader’s skills (Wellman 1).

Joachim George Kroll was born into the town of Hindenburg on April 17, 1933.

He was raised as the eighth child in a mining family. Kroll’s father was sent to war during World War Two where he became a prisoner and passed away. Kroll and his family then moved to an insufficient two-bedroom apartment that he shared with his six sisters and one brother. Joachim attended school there for a minor of five years, and then followed by working on the family farm. He continued living with his mother until he was twenty-two, possibly because of fearing being alone in the “real world” (Wellman 1).

Kroll finally ended up moving to Duisburg, the northwestern part of Germany. He accomplished a job as a lavatory assistant after his mother passed away in 1955. Could this have been a part of why Kroll starting his new journey of committing murder? He ena... ... middle of paper ...

...t the murders, which demonstrated that he didn't commit everything for attention. He also had no idea that he was even being searched. He blamed his abnormality on witnessing pigs being slaughtered as a young man. It was burned into his head for the rest of his life, he explain to the policeman. His second reason for committing the crimes were that his grocery bill was drastically expensive. He used the meat from his victim's buttocks, forearms, and calf’s for meat. He described his hunger and how the flesh of young children happened to be the tastiest meat he could find (Wellman 4).

The ongoing trial lasted 151 days. It began October 4, 1979, and ended in April 1982.

Kroll was sentenced to nine consecutive sentences in prison, but passed away of a heart attack on July 1st, 1991 at the age of fifty-eight. The infamous Ruhr Hunter will never be forgotten.