Christman Genipperteinga

Christman Genipperteinga
1581 woodcut of Genipperteinga's capture (right) and execution (left)
Died	26 June 1581
Cause of death	Breaking on the wheel
Children	6
Criminal penalty	Death
Details
Country	Spanish Netherlands, Holy Roman Empire
Killed	964

Christman Genipperteinga (died c. 26 June 1581) was a possibly fictitious German serial killer and bandit of the 16th century. He reportedly murdered 964 individuals over a 13-year period, from 1569 until his capture in 1581.^[1][2] Although records of Genipperteinga's alleged crimes first emerged shortly after his death, starting in 1581, historians are uncertain of Genipperteinga's existence.^[3][4][5] Similar tales of other serial-killing bandits were circulated in the Holy Roman Empire during and after his alleged life.

According to Caspar Herber, the first pamphleteer to tell Genipperteinga's story, Christman Genipperteinga was born in Körpen, (Kerpen), a town near Cologne.^[6] Thirteen years prior to his execution, he began living in a furnished cave complex near Bernkastel in a wooded upland area called Fraßberg.^[1][6] From there, he had a good view over the roads going to and from Trier, Metz, Thionville, and Luxembourg.^[1] Genipperteinga committed highway robbery and hid his ill-gotten gains in his cave. He also committed mass murder and infanticide, with the bodies of his victims allegedly being thrown down a mine shaft connected with his cave complex.^[7]

Genipperteinga kidnapped a young female traveller from Boppard as a sex slave, killing the children he fathered with her and hanging their corpses. Herber's account also includes a line of verse attributed to Genipperteinga regarding the fate of his children:

"Tanzt liebe Kindlein tanzt, Gnipperteinga euer Vater macht euch den Tanz"
("Dance, dear little children, dance, Gnipperteinga your father is making the dance for you")^[7]

Genipperteinga's downfall came after he permitted the woman he had enslaved to venture into the town of Bernkastel, whereupon she revealed her kidnapper's scheme to the town officials. She eventually lead thirty armed men to capture Genipperteinga, where they found an immense amount of booty, in the form of wine, salted meat, suits of armour, weaponry, coins, and other valuables.^[8] The value was estimated as exceeding 70,000 Gulden.^[2][1]

Chronicles assert that Genipperteinga kept a diary in which he detailed the murders of 964 individuals, as well as a tally of the loot gained from them.^[1] In addition to this evidence, he readily admitted to the murders, adding that if he had reached his goal of a thousand victims, he would have been "satisfied".^[8][2]

On 17 June 1581 Christman Genipperteinga was found guilty, and was condemned to death by the breaking on the wheel. Allegedly, he survived nine days of torture before he perished.^[9][10]

Whether Genipperteinga actually existed remains uncertain. The sensational story is not attested to in contemporary local records, and the only accounts of his life come from a series of late 16th century pamphlets, all derivative from a 1581 publication by Caspar Herber of Cochem.^{[citation needed]} No other publications of or references to Caspar Herber survive.^[11] Genipperteinga is one of the most prominent of a series of 16th-century German alleged serial killers, and his story shares attributes with those of a handful of other bandits. Genipperteinga's story entered local folklore, and was reprinted in altered forms on several occasions as late as the 19th century.^[12][2] Notably, compared to other 16th-century bandit's tales, depictions of supernatural abilities, contracts with the devil, and cannibalism are absent from the 1581 account of Genipperteinga,^[7] while claims of cannibalism appeared in some later versions of his life story.^[13]

• Sawney Bean, contemporary possibly fictional Scottish bandit and cannibal
• List of serial killers before 1900