Vagrancy and sex offenses Berlin court records showed that his earliest available conviction was in 1882 at age 19 for vagrancy, with the court in
Rixdorf noting that he already had an extensive history for begging and unemployment. In the following four years, he was convicted of theft, attempted blackmail, threat, and property damage. He was jailed thrice for assault in the years 1886, 1887, and 1888. Between 1886 and 1887, Großmann served in the
Imperial German Army, in the 12th Grenadier Regiment in
Frankfurt an der Oder (most likely referring to ), until he was discharged for a criminal arrest for rape, spending one year in prison. In 1889, Großmann received another one-year sentence by for aggravated assault. Upon his release in 1890, Großmann worked for numerous butcher shops and slaughterhouses in
Berlin-Mitte, subsidizing his income as a
peddler of
matches and other households items. In relation to his unsolicited sales, he was jailed twice for begging, once for fraud and once for trespassing, serving a total jail time of six months and two weeks by 1893. Großmann left Berlin in 1894 after failing to find steady employment and became a
vagrant traversing
southern Germany during the late 1890s, making a living through
begging, peddling, and theft. Over the years, Großmann was sentenced at the courts of
Heidelberg,
Dresden,
Aachen,
Ludwigsburg, and
Mannheim. In the
Neckar area of
Baden and
Württemberg, his arrests were primarily for vagrancy, trespassing, and fraud. One-off convictions included physical insult, resisting arrest, and
bestiality. On 3 January 1896, a gardener couple had alerted police after hearing their nanny goat screaming, with officers finding Großmann inside the stable, at the hooves of the animal and hiding under an
Inverness coat. He first claimed to have only trespassed for nightly shelter, but an examination of the goat showed that it had severe swelling around the genitalia while Großmann was "wet around the knees" and had the
fly of his pants open. He was subsequently sentenced to 10 months imprisonment for
sodomy by a court in Mannheim. After being released on 1 April 1899, Großmann molested a ten-year-old girl and raped a four-year-old girl. A court in
Bayreuth sentenced him to 15 years imprisonment for the rapes on 4 October 1899; the four-year-old died of an
infection from a complete tearing of the
perineum inflicted during the attack shortly after the judgement. During his sentence at
Ebrach prison, Großmann continued his violent behaviour and received 55 citations for unprovoked fights with fellow inmates.
Murders After his release from prison in August 1914, Großmann again moved to Berlin. Despite the start of
World War I just a few days earlier, he was not drafted due to his age. Initially supporting himself with peddling, Großmann rented out the kitchen habitation in the third-floor apartment of Mannheim Itzig at Lange Straße 88, in the area around
Berlin Ostbahnhof, known at the time for its high rates of crime, unemployment, and prostitution. Although Großmann was a one-room lodger, he often had the apartment to himself as Itzig and his family were rarely home. Neighbors described Großmann as a quiet man, only remembered for his particularly repulsive looks and stench. Residents admitted to often hearing loud noises and screaming from his flat, but did not think more of it, believing Großmann was only having rough sex with prostitutes, which was not uncommon in the quarter. Großmann sold meat on the
black market and managed a sausage stand at Andreas Square outside the train station. According to admissions made to the court after his arrest, Großmann kept constant savings of around 10,000 mark from his income as a peddler. so Itzig did not question this further and left after being paid off with 50
marks, supposedly to keep quiet about his solicitation habits. Großmann fell asleep next to the body and dismembered her two hours later when he woke up. Großmann only named the victim as "Martha", but she has since been identified as 30-year-old Elisabeth Barthel. On 14 August 1921, Großmann was booked on assault charges for getting into a fight with a man who had confronted Großmann over the disappearance of his sister, 29-year-old Johanna Sosnowski, who Großmann later confessed to killing on 3 August. Großmann was released without trial date and the allegation was not further investigated. Only two victims, the missing Frieda Schubert and Johanna Sosnowski, could be definitively identified. Some of the remains were estimated to have been in the water for 8 to 14 days. The body parts belonged to at least 23 women, but the sheer amount led some investigators to suspect that Großmann may have murdered up to 100 women and girls. Dismembered human remains had been washing up since March 1920, but it is difficult to estimate the exact number of victims due to the corpses of
Reichswehr officers also having been thrown into the Spree during the
Kapp Putsch and retrieved bodies not being thoroughly examined following that event. A 5000 mark reward was issued for help in identifying the suspected murderer of the unknown women. Police asked through newspaper columns for residents to come forwards and identify the bodies. In August 1921, at least twelve people answered the request, leading to three possible, but unconfirmed identifications as Else Thiese, Margarete Simon, and Wilhelmine Poppel, as well as one accusation against a certain Ernst Brandt, which was also not investigated. Police at the time and later assessment by historians have dismissed the cannibal rumours, popularly called "Braut auf der Stulle" ("[a] broad on sliced bread"), as unfounded and likely an invention by
tabloid newspapers to boost sales. ==Arrest==