Sewer Murders

The victims were seven boys and male adolescents aged between 11 and 18 from Frankfurt (likely Baseler Platz at the "Tivoli" arcade) or the Offenbach station area where some of them may have worked as prostitutes and met the culprit.

Due to long submersion in the sewage and partly strong damage to the corpses by screw conveyors, the victims were identified relatively late, and on only one, clear signs of blunt force trauma to the head had been found.

The criminal psychologist Rudolf Egg suggested that the suspect might be a single person at the age of about 50 years without family ties or friends.

The quick disposal of the bodies allowed him to carry out his murders even within the densely populated Frankfurt area, without a risk of being caught.

In the home of the suspect, who had known two of the other victims alongside Hildebrandt, police secured a gas pistol, several knives, including a butcher knife, and handcuffs.