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These are the user uploaded subtitles that are being translated: 1 00:00:09,794 --> 00:00:14,874 -In October 1989, the body of a woman was found in a forest 2 00:00:14,941 --> 00:00:19,431 on the outskirts of the village of Deetz in East Germany. 3 00:00:19,501 --> 00:00:21,231 She'd been hit by a hammer, 4 00:00:21,041 --> 00:00:24,191 strangled, and sexually assaulted. 5 00:00:24,261 --> 00:00:26,221 Scattered around her body 6 00:00:26,294 --> 00:00:29,764 was her underwear, stolen from a washing line. 7 00:00:29,834 --> 00:00:32,574 Police had no idea at the time, 8 00:00:32,441 --> 00:00:35,961 but this was the work of a perverted serial killer. 9 00:00:36,034 --> 00:00:37,984 -He did know what he was doing. 10 00:00:38,054 --> 00:00:41,184 He did know that it was wrong, and he chose to do it anyway, 11 00:00:41,254 --> 00:00:44,444 regardless of whatever drives or desires he had. 12 00:00:44,514 --> 00:00:48,994 -The murderer was a 23-year-old man named Wolfgang Schmidt. 13 00:00:49,061 --> 00:00:51,521 He'd been roaming the local woods in search of prey 14 00:00:51,594 --> 00:00:55,234 to satisfy his depraved sexual fantasies. 15 00:00:55,307 --> 00:00:59,187 He became known as the Beast of Beelitz. 16 00:00:58,961 --> 00:01:02,481 -I was on call day and night, and when my phone would ring, 17 00:01:02,554 --> 00:01:03,894 I would sit up straight in my bed 18 00:01:03,961 --> 00:01:06,731 because I thought he had struck again. 19 00:01:06,801 --> 00:01:08,291 -Over the next two years, 20 00:01:08,367 --> 00:01:11,767 he would kill a further four women and a baby, 21 00:01:11,774 --> 00:01:17,474 all to fulfill his own grotesque form of sexual urges. 22 00:01:17,547 --> 00:01:21,597 -You have a man who is completely possessed 23 00:01:21,674 --> 00:01:23,054 by the desire 24 00:01:23,127 --> 00:01:27,627 that he's now feeding the frenzy of his own addiction. 25 00:01:27,707 --> 00:01:30,547 -Wolfgang Schmidt, the Beast of Beelitz, 26 00:01:30,627 --> 00:01:34,647 had become one of the world's most evil killers. 27 00:01:57,501 --> 00:02:00,401 Wolfgang Schmidt had brutally killed five women 28 00:02:00,474 --> 00:02:04,864 and an infant during his near two-year-long killing spree. 29 00:02:04,934 --> 00:02:07,664 He committed his crimes in and around the forest 30 00:02:07,601 --> 00:02:10,371 near the town of Beelitz in East Germany, 31 00:02:10,281 --> 00:02:13,691 but when he was finally captured in 1991, 32 00:02:13,601 --> 00:02:16,371 it was after the fall of the Berlin Wall, 33 00:02:16,441 --> 00:02:19,801 and so he faced the courts of the new unified Germany. 34 00:02:19,874 --> 00:02:24,414 The trial began on the 20th of October, 1992, 35 00:02:24,488 --> 00:02:27,568 just two weeks after Schmidt's 26th birthday. 36 00:02:29,101 --> 00:02:31,431 -The public gallery was jam-packed. 37 00:02:31,507 --> 00:02:34,487 Not one more person could fit in. 38 00:02:34,561 --> 00:02:37,341 Everyone wanted to see Wolfgang Schmidt. 39 00:02:37,414 --> 00:02:40,274 This, of course, has to do with the sensationalism. 40 00:02:40,341 --> 00:02:43,041 It's also clear the more difficult, 41 00:02:42,681 --> 00:02:44,811 the more terrible the crime, 42 00:02:44,888 --> 00:02:48,608 the more people are fascinated. 43 00:02:48,681 --> 00:02:51,041 -Schmidt had murdered five people 44 00:02:51,114 --> 00:02:53,684 and attacked three other women in an attempt 45 00:02:53,754 --> 00:02:58,164 to get sexual gratification from his unique perversion -- 46 00:02:58,001 --> 00:03:01,111 stealing and soiling their underwear. 47 00:03:01,181 --> 00:03:05,871 The only way he could do this was if they were dead. 48 00:03:05,941 --> 00:03:10,231 -There are some elements of 49 00:03:10,301 --> 00:03:13,341 the most extraordinary humiliation 50 00:03:13,414 --> 00:03:17,234 in Schmidt's acts towards women, 51 00:03:17,301 --> 00:03:21,711 and there can be no forgiveness for that. 52 00:03:21,787 --> 00:03:24,947 He was literally out of control. 53 00:03:25,021 --> 00:03:29,241 He was quite literally fulfilling his own fantasies 54 00:03:29,081 --> 00:03:32,231 at the expense of whomever might get in his way. 55 00:03:33,587 --> 00:03:35,377 -It moved the whole country -- all of Germany, 56 00:03:35,454 --> 00:03:38,194 not only the vicinity of Berlin and Brandenburg. 57 00:03:38,267 --> 00:03:39,747 It was on the national news. 58 00:03:39,827 --> 00:03:42,917 Germany was moved. 59 00:03:42,994 --> 00:03:45,734 -Despite the extreme violence and sexual elements 60 00:03:45,801 --> 00:03:47,301 to his crimes, 61 00:03:47,374 --> 00:03:51,254 when he was found guilty and sentenced to 15 years in prison, 62 00:03:50,721 --> 00:03:54,951 Wolfgang Schmidt showed little remorse for his actions. 63 00:03:55,021 --> 00:03:57,221 -I think he was embarrassed, 64 00:03:57,294 --> 00:03:58,834 but he was not ashamed about anything, 65 00:03:58,901 --> 00:04:02,651 least of all the murders. 66 00:04:02,727 --> 00:04:05,177 -During the trial, it became clear 67 00:04:05,254 --> 00:04:07,054 Schmidt's motive for killing 68 00:04:07,121 --> 00:04:10,651 was to indulge his fantasies for wearing women's underwear 69 00:04:10,728 --> 00:04:14,648 and defecating in them to reach sexual satisfaction. 70 00:04:14,521 --> 00:04:18,391 He was diagnosed with a fetish called coprophilia. 71 00:04:18,461 --> 00:04:21,121 -Coprophilia is a very rare paraphilia, 72 00:04:21,194 --> 00:04:23,654 and it's basically a sexual arousal 73 00:04:23,361 --> 00:04:27,301 around human waste, around excrement -- 74 00:04:27,374 --> 00:04:31,454 people becoming sexually excited around this substance. 75 00:04:31,527 --> 00:04:33,747 So it's very, very rare to see this, 76 00:04:33,827 --> 00:04:35,897 even amongst serial killers. 77 00:04:35,974 --> 00:04:39,464 -Any kind of major fetish 78 00:04:39,534 --> 00:04:42,554 almost always becomes uncontrollable. 79 00:04:42,628 --> 00:04:45,938 The same is true of someone who gets an intense satisfaction, 80 00:04:46,014 --> 00:04:50,304 as in this case, from wearing women's clothes. 81 00:04:50,301 --> 00:04:55,031 That satisfaction along with coprophilia 82 00:04:55,107 --> 00:04:57,357 is a very dynamic mixture. 83 00:05:00,414 --> 00:05:03,354 -In time, Schmidt's bizarre and murderous acts 84 00:05:03,421 --> 00:05:05,641 would earn him two monikers. 85 00:05:05,714 --> 00:05:07,844 He was called the Beast of Beelitz 86 00:05:07,681 --> 00:05:12,951 and was also labeled by some as the Pink Giant. 87 00:05:13,028 --> 00:05:14,628 -He became known as the Pink Giant 88 00:05:14,707 --> 00:05:18,977 because he grew to be a 6-foot-1-, 6-foot-2-tall man, 89 00:05:19,054 --> 00:05:22,574 and he loved pink underwear -- ladies' pink underwear -- 90 00:05:22,641 --> 00:05:26,491 which was part of his fetish. 91 00:05:26,561 --> 00:05:30,631 -This killer's story begins just over 50 years ago. 92 00:05:30,707 --> 00:05:35,507 Wolfgang Schmidt was born on the 5th of October, 1966, 93 00:05:35,587 --> 00:05:38,267 in the small town of Lehnin, near Potsdam, 94 00:05:38,341 --> 00:05:41,271 in the former German Democratic Republic. 95 00:05:41,341 --> 00:05:43,231 He, along with his younger brother, 96 00:05:43,307 --> 00:05:47,447 grew up in a rural area just outside the town. 97 00:05:47,527 --> 00:05:49,747 -Well, the family is the first institution 98 00:05:49,821 --> 00:05:53,721 in which we start to learn about men and women's roles in society 99 00:05:53,794 --> 00:05:56,124 and about their relationships with one another, 100 00:05:56,194 --> 00:05:59,314 so what we see in our family in our early years 101 00:05:59,121 --> 00:06:02,431 we take to be our benchmark for normal. 102 00:06:02,507 --> 00:06:05,427 -According to a psychologist's report, 103 00:06:05,501 --> 00:06:08,561 Schmidt's unusual desires began early. 104 00:06:11,547 --> 00:06:14,427 -Wolfgang Schmidt discovered his fetish by coincidence 105 00:06:14,507 --> 00:06:16,377 when he went through his mother's closet 106 00:06:16,454 --> 00:06:19,884 as a 6- or 7-year-old boy and discovered lingerie. 107 00:06:22,554 --> 00:06:27,204 And then he put that lingerie on. 108 00:06:27,274 --> 00:06:29,904 He had the need for a loving, symbiotic relationship 109 00:06:29,974 --> 00:06:31,744 with his mother... 110 00:06:35,407 --> 00:06:36,797 -...which he was able to establish 111 00:06:36,874 --> 00:06:38,524 by wearing her lingerie. 112 00:06:42,494 --> 00:06:45,554 -At first, Schmidt says he felt a childlike pleasure 113 00:06:45,627 --> 00:06:47,787 from wearing his mother's underwear, 114 00:06:47,867 --> 00:06:52,787 and it became a substitute for a close maternal relationship. 115 00:06:52,861 --> 00:06:55,151 -Well, many children are going to experiment. 116 00:06:55,221 --> 00:06:57,331 They're gonna play when they're youngsters. 117 00:06:57,407 --> 00:06:58,777 They're gonna try on the clothes 118 00:06:58,854 --> 00:07:01,234 of their parents, their siblings. 119 00:07:01,041 --> 00:07:04,191 This isn't something that is completely out of the ordinary, 120 00:07:04,267 --> 00:07:06,397 but the real key for me here is, 121 00:07:06,474 --> 00:07:09,154 it's the reaction of other people 122 00:07:09,227 --> 00:07:11,807 when a child engages in this behavior. 123 00:07:11,881 --> 00:07:13,641 Is this something that the parent is gonna 124 00:07:13,714 --> 00:07:15,074 make them feel bad about? 125 00:07:15,141 --> 00:07:16,851 Is it something that the parent's going to 126 00:07:16,521 --> 00:07:18,571 make them feel ashamed of? 127 00:07:18,647 --> 00:07:21,477 Or is it something that's just going to be brushed off 128 00:07:21,554 --> 00:07:23,124 and, "Okay, it's fine. 129 00:07:23,194 --> 00:07:25,334 They're just playing. They're just experimenting"? 130 00:07:25,407 --> 00:07:30,877 -According to Schmidt, his mother reacted with horror, 131 00:07:30,954 --> 00:07:35,414 and she started to lock her underwear away, 132 00:07:35,481 --> 00:07:38,031 but Schmidt had already developed a fondness 133 00:07:38,101 --> 00:07:41,051 for wearing his mother's undergarments. 134 00:07:41,121 --> 00:07:45,091 When he discovered that defecating and urinating in them 135 00:07:45,168 --> 00:07:48,478 increased the overall pleasurable sensation, 136 00:07:48,554 --> 00:07:50,754 he could not stop. 137 00:07:50,827 --> 00:07:54,187 -The thing about him starting to soil the underwear -- 138 00:07:54,267 --> 00:07:56,547 it could have been maybe he was wearing the underwear 139 00:07:56,621 --> 00:07:57,631 when everybody was outside the house, 140 00:07:57,701 --> 00:07:59,111 and then he heard a noise. 141 00:07:59,181 --> 00:08:00,821 He's a kid. He gets scared. 142 00:08:00,894 --> 00:08:02,964 You can't really control it, and it just happened. 143 00:08:03,034 --> 00:08:06,324 Right there, he didn't intend to, 144 00:08:06,394 --> 00:08:10,344 and as he did, something else came over him 145 00:08:10,414 --> 00:08:12,634 that he don't know what it is. 146 00:08:12,708 --> 00:08:14,748 But it was something that made him go, 147 00:08:14,828 --> 00:08:15,788 "Wow. I like this." 148 00:08:15,867 --> 00:08:17,697 Not a sexual thing. 149 00:08:17,774 --> 00:08:21,634 He just simply felt a different excitement, 150 00:08:21,701 --> 00:08:26,371 and when a kid likes something, they will go back to it. 151 00:08:26,448 --> 00:08:28,718 -By the time Schmidt reached puberty, 152 00:08:28,794 --> 00:08:31,114 defecating in his mother's underwear 153 00:08:31,187 --> 00:08:33,937 added a whole different level of enjoyment. 154 00:08:34,014 --> 00:08:36,654 -To get pleasure out of destroying something 155 00:08:36,361 --> 00:08:37,971 that belongs to her, 156 00:08:38,047 --> 00:08:40,217 something that is intimate for her -- 157 00:08:40,294 --> 00:08:42,714 that's really meaningful for me 158 00:08:42,788 --> 00:08:44,358 looking at this from the outside. 159 00:08:44,434 --> 00:08:47,314 And to see him getting pleasure in doing this, 160 00:08:47,388 --> 00:08:49,188 in soiling this underwear -- 161 00:08:49,261 --> 00:08:51,411 that's something that signifies to me 162 00:08:51,481 --> 00:08:54,071 he's enjoying getting a little bit of power back. 163 00:08:56,641 --> 00:08:58,951 -He ritualized that behavior over the years 164 00:08:59,027 --> 00:09:02,067 so that it didn't only become the central element 165 00:09:02,141 --> 00:09:06,571 of his sexuality, but of his entire life. 166 00:09:06,647 --> 00:09:09,247 That means that he really only lives to experience 167 00:09:09,327 --> 00:09:11,197 that kind of sexuality. 168 00:09:14,254 --> 00:09:16,514 -With all the underwear locked away, 169 00:09:16,587 --> 00:09:21,777 Schmidt started to look elsewhere to satisfy his urges. 170 00:09:21,854 --> 00:09:25,704 This was the beginning of his double life. 171 00:09:25,774 --> 00:09:28,754 Ulrich Bauschulte was Schmidt's defense lawyer. 172 00:09:32,627 --> 00:09:34,407 -Often, with his father, 173 00:09:34,121 --> 00:09:37,031 he cleared things from the house to be put in trash heaps, 174 00:09:37,101 --> 00:09:40,561 or as they were called then in the German Democratic Republic, 175 00:09:40,634 --> 00:09:44,524 mullhaufen. 176 00:09:44,594 --> 00:09:47,754 Then he noticed that women's underwear was also thrown away, 177 00:09:47,827 --> 00:09:50,827 and so he began to collect these undergarments. 178 00:09:54,941 --> 00:09:57,521 -Schmidt regularly went into the forest 179 00:09:57,594 --> 00:10:00,604 near the village of Deetz that was near to his home 180 00:10:00,674 --> 00:10:04,234 in search of underwear on makeshift landfills. 181 00:10:04,301 --> 00:10:06,881 He would then defecate with the underwear on, 182 00:10:06,954 --> 00:10:10,894 satisfy his sexual urges, and clean up after 183 00:10:10,961 --> 00:10:12,881 as if nothing had happened. 184 00:10:12,954 --> 00:10:15,394 As he grew to be an adult, however, 185 00:10:15,467 --> 00:10:18,287 this routine would not be enough for him. 186 00:10:18,368 --> 00:10:22,878 He needed an actual woman to fulfill his fantasy. 187 00:10:25,821 --> 00:10:28,961 -That means the woman has to be draped with lingerie. 188 00:10:29,034 --> 00:10:31,334 There has to be mutual defecation, 189 00:10:31,407 --> 00:10:33,437 and then there will be intercourse. 190 00:10:35,814 --> 00:10:39,314 And it became clear to him at some point 191 00:10:39,388 --> 00:10:41,428 that in order to live out this fantasy, 192 00:10:41,507 --> 00:10:46,267 he needed a woman to be entirely at his disposal. 193 00:10:46,347 --> 00:10:50,397 -And the only way Schmidt was going to satisfy his needs 194 00:10:50,474 --> 00:10:52,954 was to murder. 195 00:10:52,721 --> 00:10:57,051 But living in such a remote and sparsely populated area, 196 00:10:57,121 --> 00:10:58,731 the opportunities for Schmidt 197 00:10:58,801 --> 00:11:02,721 to fulfill his unusual fantasies were limited. 198 00:11:05,261 --> 00:11:08,131 -He lived in a very rural community -- 199 00:11:08,201 --> 00:11:11,221 lots of forests, lots of lakes, woods, 200 00:11:11,294 --> 00:11:13,784 so there weren't countless washing lines 201 00:11:13,854 --> 00:11:17,804 with ladies' underwear hanging on them out to dry. 202 00:11:17,874 --> 00:11:21,114 It was quite a complicated search, 203 00:11:21,187 --> 00:11:24,167 but search he did, and he searched rubbish dumps. 204 00:11:24,041 --> 00:11:26,571 He searched as much as he could. 205 00:11:26,641 --> 00:11:29,331 He got pleasure from putting the underwear on, 206 00:11:29,407 --> 00:11:32,677 taking it off, urinating in it, defecating in it. 207 00:11:32,754 --> 00:11:34,514 It was all mixed into this 208 00:11:34,581 --> 00:11:38,441 bodily-function, sexual-arousal dynamic. 209 00:11:42,667 --> 00:11:46,267 -In 1985, Schmidt's life changed. 210 00:11:46,347 --> 00:11:48,347 He signed up to 10 years of service 211 00:11:48,427 --> 00:11:52,597 with the riotant, anti-insurgency police force. 212 00:11:52,674 --> 00:11:54,694 Around that time, 213 00:11:54,201 --> 00:11:58,591 he also met a young woman from a nearby village. 214 00:11:58,661 --> 00:12:00,451 -He develops a double life. 215 00:12:00,527 --> 00:12:02,997 He has this young woman who he's devoted to 216 00:12:03,074 --> 00:12:06,204 and eventually becomes his fiancée. 217 00:12:06,274 --> 00:12:11,134 -At this time, Schmidt appeared to be leading a regular life. 218 00:12:11,208 --> 00:12:14,868 -And he has this very ordered life in the police. 219 00:12:14,947 --> 00:12:17,947 Perhaps he thinks something about the uniform 220 00:12:18,027 --> 00:12:20,507 or the discipline will -- well, how can I put it? -- 221 00:12:20,581 --> 00:12:23,141 "Help me control my urges. 222 00:12:23,081 --> 00:12:25,041 Perhaps there's something about that disciplined environment 223 00:12:25,114 --> 00:12:27,134 which will calm me down." 224 00:12:27,201 --> 00:12:29,681 It's a very male, macho environment. 225 00:12:31,954 --> 00:12:35,614 -But when, in April 1989, he got drunk 226 00:12:35,687 --> 00:12:39,907 and publicly celebrated Adolf Hitler's 100th birthday, 227 00:12:39,981 --> 00:12:42,791 he was dismissed from the force. 228 00:12:42,861 --> 00:12:46,801 It led to catastrophic consequences. 229 00:12:46,874 --> 00:12:48,594 -Well, when we look at the offending behavior 230 00:12:48,661 --> 00:12:49,641 of serial killers, 231 00:12:49,714 --> 00:12:52,164 often we identify particular stressors, 232 00:12:52,234 --> 00:12:55,264 particular things that would have made the difference 233 00:12:55,334 --> 00:12:57,684 between offending and not offending 234 00:12:57,754 --> 00:12:59,334 at that particular point in time, 235 00:12:59,401 --> 00:13:00,671 and I think for Schmidt, 236 00:13:00,741 --> 00:13:03,551 losing his job as a police officer 237 00:13:03,627 --> 00:13:06,207 was very, very significant for him 238 00:13:06,287 --> 00:13:10,867 'cause this was quite central to his sense of identity. 239 00:13:10,941 --> 00:13:15,331 -Schmidt, now 23, got a new job at a local steelworks, 240 00:13:15,407 --> 00:13:18,317 but without the discipline of the police force, 241 00:13:17,761 --> 00:13:20,791 his strange urges grew stronger. 242 00:13:20,861 --> 00:13:21,961 -I'm not in any doubt 243 00:13:22,034 --> 00:13:26,444 that Schmidt was increasingly unraveling 244 00:13:26,514 --> 00:13:29,544 from the moment he lost his job with the police 245 00:13:29,614 --> 00:13:30,514 until the first killing, 246 00:13:30,321 --> 00:13:33,591 which was not all that much later. 247 00:13:33,667 --> 00:13:37,287 It was that ticking time bomb within him 248 00:13:37,367 --> 00:13:39,567 that led inevitably, unfortunately, 249 00:13:39,647 --> 00:13:41,607 to the first killing. 250 00:13:41,681 --> 00:13:46,741 By the autumn that year, he is about to explode. 251 00:13:46,814 --> 00:13:50,014 -Schmidt was on his way to work when he was sidetracked 252 00:13:50,087 --> 00:13:53,917 by his desire to indulge in his deviant fantasies. 253 00:13:53,994 --> 00:13:57,404 He ended up on the outskirts of the small village of Deetz, 254 00:13:57,474 --> 00:13:59,924 where he hid at the edge of the forest 255 00:13:59,994 --> 00:14:01,934 to watch a row of houses. 256 00:14:02,007 --> 00:14:05,727 He was hoping to find women's underwear. 257 00:14:05,801 --> 00:14:08,791 -He goes to the house on the end of the little road 258 00:14:08,867 --> 00:14:11,207 and discovers that there's a tool shed, 259 00:14:11,288 --> 00:14:13,868 and he presumably started by looking for the washing line, 260 00:14:13,947 --> 00:14:16,827 but he goes into the tool shed, and he discovers a hammer. 261 00:14:16,901 --> 00:14:20,291 He then spies the owner of the property, 262 00:14:20,367 --> 00:14:22,867 and I think at that point, 263 00:14:22,947 --> 00:14:28,067 the detonation went off in his head. 264 00:14:28,147 --> 00:14:31,437 -When Schmidt saw Edeltraut Nixdorf 265 00:14:31,081 --> 00:14:32,761 tending to her garden, 266 00:14:32,834 --> 00:14:35,254 he was overcome by an intense urge 267 00:14:35,327 --> 00:14:39,437 to violently assault the 51-year-old woman. 268 00:14:39,514 --> 00:14:42,894 -And probably in the first instance, 269 00:14:42,761 --> 00:14:46,441 without very much premeditation, he simply hit her on the head 270 00:14:46,514 --> 00:14:50,294 with the hammer he'd found in the tool shed. 271 00:14:50,367 --> 00:14:55,077 -The woman screamed and tried to defend herself with a rake, 272 00:14:55,154 --> 00:14:57,604 but Schmidt dragged her into the house, 273 00:14:57,241 --> 00:15:01,661 hit her again with the hammer, and strangled her. 274 00:15:01,734 --> 00:15:04,604 He then proceeded to have intercourse with her. 275 00:15:04,674 --> 00:15:07,964 However, not getting the satisfaction he craved, 276 00:15:08,034 --> 00:15:10,594 Schmidt wrapped her body in a blanket 277 00:15:10,661 --> 00:15:13,381 and started to carry her towards the forest. 278 00:15:13,454 --> 00:15:16,764 Wolfgang Schmidt had killed his first victim, 279 00:15:16,834 --> 00:15:20,184 but it had not gone to plan. 280 00:15:20,254 --> 00:15:22,814 -In terms of his first killing, 281 00:15:22,881 --> 00:15:25,161 that reality didn't quite live up to the fantasy 282 00:15:25,234 --> 00:15:26,704 that he had in his head, 283 00:15:26,774 --> 00:15:29,034 so of course he was going to continue 284 00:15:29,107 --> 00:15:35,087 to try and create that fantasy and make it a reality. 285 00:15:35,161 --> 00:15:36,661 -Schmidt had been spotted 286 00:15:36,734 --> 00:15:39,334 when he carried his victim into the forest, 287 00:15:39,407 --> 00:15:41,947 and the police were called to the scene. 288 00:15:42,021 --> 00:15:43,811 The witness gave a description 289 00:15:43,887 --> 00:15:48,277 of a very tall, strong, and athletic man. 290 00:15:48,354 --> 00:15:51,354 When detectives searched the crime scene in Deetz, 291 00:15:51,427 --> 00:15:55,907 they found underwear scattered around the victim's body. 292 00:15:55,981 --> 00:16:00,251 One of the investigating officers was Volker Kelm. 293 00:16:03,794 --> 00:16:05,474 -These clothes were lying in the area 294 00:16:05,547 --> 00:16:07,317 very close by to the victim. 295 00:16:10,848 --> 00:16:13,528 From this, we concluded that it was a break-in 296 00:16:13,601 --> 00:16:15,811 and that the perpetrator had been disturbed by the victim, 297 00:16:15,887 --> 00:16:17,197 and so he killed her. 298 00:16:20,581 --> 00:16:23,891 -Police also found a vital clue in the house -- 299 00:16:23,967 --> 00:16:26,287 a large footprint. 300 00:16:25,961 --> 00:16:29,361 The boot was military-issue and similar to ones worn 301 00:16:29,434 --> 00:16:33,214 by some police units, but in 1989, 302 00:16:33,121 --> 00:16:37,601 the German Democratic Republic was on the brink of collapse. 303 00:16:37,674 --> 00:16:40,224 Attempts to identify the owner of the boot 304 00:16:40,294 --> 00:16:44,224 from an official list of police recruits proved futile. 305 00:16:44,294 --> 00:16:49,504 For Schmidt, however, this was just the beginning. 306 00:16:49,574 --> 00:16:54,984 -This is a man who is now literally searching for prey. 307 00:16:55,054 --> 00:16:57,914 He wants nothing more than victims, 308 00:16:57,981 --> 00:17:00,931 and he doesn't really mind which shape and form they come in. 309 00:17:01,007 --> 00:17:01,837 They could be older. 310 00:17:01,914 --> 00:17:03,854 They could be younger. 311 00:17:03,927 --> 00:17:07,247 What's important is they are submissive. 312 00:17:06,961 --> 00:17:09,171 -On the 24th of May, 313 00:17:09,248 --> 00:17:12,838 Schmidt was riding his bicycle to meet friends in Ferch, 314 00:17:12,914 --> 00:17:15,834 about eight miles from the town of Beelitz, 315 00:17:15,908 --> 00:17:18,918 when he saw a sign pointing to a landfill. 316 00:17:18,994 --> 00:17:23,024 -Although there weren't copious washing lines for him to search, 317 00:17:23,094 --> 00:17:26,654 there were increasing numbers of illegal landfills 318 00:17:26,728 --> 00:17:28,368 in which were deposited 319 00:17:28,441 --> 00:17:31,521 underwear of all sorts of shapes and sizes, 320 00:17:31,594 --> 00:17:35,894 be it slips, bras, knickers, all kinds, 321 00:17:35,967 --> 00:17:40,777 and that became Schmidt's happy hunting ground. 322 00:17:40,854 --> 00:17:44,244 -While Schmidt searched the landfill for women's underwear, 323 00:17:44,314 --> 00:17:47,954 he was disturbed by a noise. 324 00:17:48,021 --> 00:17:51,401 He spotted a 55-year-old woman, Christa Naujoks, 325 00:17:51,474 --> 00:17:54,004 who lived in a caravan next to the landfill. 326 00:17:57,727 --> 00:18:00,437 -He did not care about the age of his victims at all. 327 00:18:00,281 --> 00:18:03,381 In the fantasies of a perpetrator like that, 328 00:18:03,454 --> 00:18:07,754 the victims appear faceless and ageless a lot of the time. 329 00:18:07,827 --> 00:18:09,347 So it's not about who I do it with, 330 00:18:09,421 --> 00:18:11,751 but rather about what I do, 331 00:18:11,827 --> 00:18:14,397 and with him, the central element of experience 332 00:18:14,474 --> 00:18:18,094 was his fetish. 333 00:18:18,161 --> 00:18:21,561 -As Schmidt approached his victim, she screamed. 334 00:18:21,401 --> 00:18:27,031 He put his arm around her neck and started to tighten his grip, 335 00:18:27,107 --> 00:18:29,907 but Christa managed to get away. 336 00:18:29,981 --> 00:18:32,471 Schmidt then picked up an electric cable 337 00:18:32,547 --> 00:18:34,677 and caught up with her. 338 00:18:34,754 --> 00:18:37,154 He strangled Christa to death, 339 00:18:37,221 --> 00:18:42,961 dragged her into the forest, and sexually abused her. 340 00:18:43,034 --> 00:18:46,104 -The first two murders were really spontaneous. 341 00:18:46,041 --> 00:18:49,041 Wolfgang Schmidt didn't intend to kill anyone. 342 00:18:49,114 --> 00:18:51,044 That's not why he was out there. 343 00:18:53,627 --> 00:18:56,507 But he learned by committing the first two murders 344 00:18:56,587 --> 00:18:58,557 firstly that he was capable of doing it... 345 00:19:00,834 --> 00:19:05,334 ...and, secondly, that when he had sex with corpses, 346 00:19:05,401 --> 00:19:07,361 it was especially arousing to him. 347 00:19:09,754 --> 00:19:13,114 -By the time police arrived at the crime scene, 348 00:19:13,187 --> 00:19:15,087 Schmidt had already left. 349 00:19:15,167 --> 00:19:18,817 Having now found a way to get his deadly needs met, 350 00:19:18,761 --> 00:19:23,441 it wasn't long until Schmidt tried to overcome another woman. 351 00:19:23,514 --> 00:19:27,164 -By now, you have the classic behavioral trait 352 00:19:27,234 --> 00:19:29,794 of escalation. 353 00:19:29,561 --> 00:19:33,111 First murder -- the autumn in October 1989. 354 00:19:33,187 --> 00:19:37,387 Second murder in May 1990. 355 00:19:37,461 --> 00:19:42,251 Not much longer, again in the summer of 1990. 356 00:19:42,327 --> 00:19:44,427 -In July, Schmidt was at a landfill 357 00:19:44,507 --> 00:19:47,477 just outside the city of Brandenburg. 358 00:19:47,554 --> 00:19:50,774 He had already found underwear and pornography 359 00:19:50,847 --> 00:19:53,597 when he realized he was not alone. 360 00:19:53,674 --> 00:19:58,694 He spotted his next victim, a 58-year-old woman. 361 00:19:58,761 --> 00:20:02,921 This time, Schmidt was carrying a knife. 362 00:20:02,994 --> 00:20:06,594 He approached and stabbed her but did not kill her. 363 00:20:06,667 --> 00:20:11,357 He then dragged the woman to a more secluded place. 364 00:20:11,434 --> 00:20:13,724 -He renders her unconscious, 365 00:20:13,794 --> 00:20:17,454 and he's about to rape her, but he gets interrupted, 366 00:20:17,527 --> 00:20:19,827 so he's nearly got to the point 367 00:20:19,907 --> 00:20:21,767 where he's fulfilled his fantasy, 368 00:20:21,841 --> 00:20:24,151 where he's made his fantasy reality, 369 00:20:24,221 --> 00:20:26,281 but he's been stopped in doing so. 370 00:20:26,354 --> 00:20:28,474 -Schmidt fled the scene. 371 00:20:28,541 --> 00:20:32,031 The woman was found in time to call an ambulance. 372 00:20:32,101 --> 00:20:35,681 She survived but was unable to give a description 373 00:20:35,754 --> 00:20:38,734 of her attacker to the local police. 374 00:20:38,801 --> 00:20:41,421 With no formal identification made, 375 00:20:41,494 --> 00:20:43,964 the police could take the case no further. 376 00:20:44,034 --> 00:20:46,634 At this point, they did not make a connection 377 00:20:46,701 --> 00:20:48,891 with the previous killings. 378 00:20:48,761 --> 00:20:51,251 Schmidt laid low for eight months, 379 00:20:51,327 --> 00:20:53,607 but he could not control his urges, 380 00:20:53,681 --> 00:20:57,481 and it would not be long before he struck again. 381 00:20:57,554 --> 00:20:59,794 -When he gets to the fourth victim, 382 00:20:59,867 --> 00:21:01,317 he goes prepared, essentially. 383 00:21:01,394 --> 00:21:03,224 He's got a knife. 384 00:21:03,294 --> 00:21:04,964 He's absolutely determined 'cause he's nearly reached 385 00:21:05,034 --> 00:21:06,714 the point that he wanted to reach. 386 00:21:06,781 --> 00:21:09,471 He's nearly managed to have sexual relations 387 00:21:09,547 --> 00:21:12,977 with a woman who is submissive, who is unconscious, 388 00:21:13,054 --> 00:21:14,804 and he's absolutely determined 389 00:21:14,874 --> 00:21:16,514 that he's gonna make this happen, 390 00:21:16,581 --> 00:21:19,471 so there's a real sense of urgency in him now, 391 00:21:19,547 --> 00:21:22,317 and he's a very, very dangerous man. 392 00:21:22,394 --> 00:21:25,884 -On the 13th of March, 1991, 393 00:21:25,954 --> 00:21:28,934 Schmidt attacked Inge Fischer. 394 00:21:29,007 --> 00:21:30,767 The 34-year-old woman 395 00:21:30,841 --> 00:21:34,591 was walking home through the forest near Beelitz. 396 00:21:38,367 --> 00:21:42,467 -She was stabbed by the killer with a knife from behind. 397 00:21:42,547 --> 00:21:44,867 And here, too, based on the way it was done 398 00:21:44,947 --> 00:21:48,437 and in the circumstances, 399 00:21:48,514 --> 00:21:50,294 we couldn't establish connections 400 00:21:49,961 --> 00:21:52,041 with any previous incidents. 401 00:21:55,774 --> 00:22:00,634 The modus operandi, the way it was done, was different. 402 00:22:00,707 --> 00:22:02,867 One was struck with a hammer. 403 00:22:02,941 --> 00:22:04,071 One was strangled. 404 00:22:04,147 --> 00:22:07,627 One was stabbed. 405 00:22:07,701 --> 00:22:10,801 Two were older women, this time a younger woman, 406 00:22:10,874 --> 00:22:15,974 on a forest path, a cottage, a rubbish dump. 407 00:22:16,041 --> 00:22:19,031 Because we didn't have any matching clues until then, 408 00:22:19,101 --> 00:22:21,141 it was hard for us to see any connections. 409 00:22:26,921 --> 00:22:30,571 -After four attacks, three resulting in murders, 410 00:22:30,647 --> 00:22:32,647 it was still impossible for police 411 00:22:32,561 --> 00:22:37,641 to make a conclusive connection between the crimes. 412 00:22:37,481 --> 00:22:39,931 That meant Schmidt's killing spree 413 00:22:40,001 --> 00:22:42,281 continued unabated. 414 00:22:46,381 --> 00:22:48,701 In the spring of 1991, 415 00:22:48,774 --> 00:22:51,714 Wolfgang Schmidt was leading a double life. 416 00:22:51,781 --> 00:22:56,031 He was engaged to be married and worked at a local steelworks. 417 00:22:56,101 --> 00:22:59,451 At the same time, he was a dangerous sexual predator 418 00:22:59,527 --> 00:23:01,477 who was still on the loose. 419 00:23:01,554 --> 00:23:04,554 One thing had become clear -- it was dangerous for women 420 00:23:04,621 --> 00:23:07,541 to venture into the forest on their own. 421 00:23:07,481 --> 00:23:10,951 Police handed out leaflets and warned local communities, 422 00:23:11,021 --> 00:23:13,271 but the message had not reached a community 423 00:23:13,347 --> 00:23:17,157 of former Russian military families living in the area. 424 00:23:21,954 --> 00:23:25,874 -They had very little contact with the people in the area 425 00:23:25,941 --> 00:23:28,081 and so probably didn't notice what was happening. 426 00:23:30,447 --> 00:23:32,227 One should add that, tragically, 427 00:23:32,301 --> 00:23:34,601 that they were just about to go back home. 428 00:23:39,641 --> 00:23:42,651 -Just nine days after killing his last victim, 429 00:23:42,521 --> 00:23:46,181 Schmidt was prowling the forest behind a hospital. 430 00:23:46,121 --> 00:23:49,991 He spotted a Russian mother, Tamara Petrowskaja, 431 00:23:50,067 --> 00:23:54,887 and her infant son walking home through the woods. 432 00:23:54,561 --> 00:23:56,511 -He's been fantasizing about this -- 433 00:23:56,581 --> 00:23:59,361 this sexual encounter -- for so many years. 434 00:23:59,434 --> 00:24:01,184 It's something that he really wants. 435 00:24:01,254 --> 00:24:03,714 Now the possibility is in front of him, 436 00:24:03,781 --> 00:24:05,361 and there's this one barrier in the way, 437 00:24:05,434 --> 00:24:08,084 and that barrier is the baby. 438 00:24:07,921 --> 00:24:12,081 So he's very instrumental in removing this obstacle 439 00:24:12,154 --> 00:24:14,254 to getting what he wants. 440 00:24:14,321 --> 00:24:17,111 -Schmidt attacked his victim, beat her, 441 00:24:17,187 --> 00:24:19,787 and started to pull her into the forest. 442 00:24:19,867 --> 00:24:23,187 To silence the baby, Schmidt picked up the infant 443 00:24:23,261 --> 00:24:25,221 and threw him to the ground 444 00:24:25,294 --> 00:24:29,154 and then callously kicked him in the chest. 445 00:24:29,227 --> 00:24:33,597 -The most horrific, the most terrifying of Schmidt's crimes, 446 00:24:33,674 --> 00:24:39,554 was the killing of a Russian doctor's wife. 447 00:24:39,621 --> 00:24:41,311 The woman was 44. 448 00:24:41,387 --> 00:24:46,147 Imagine how much she must have prized the child, 449 00:24:46,227 --> 00:24:49,137 particularly at that age. 450 00:24:49,214 --> 00:24:52,794 Unfortunately for her and for her child, 451 00:24:52,861 --> 00:24:55,011 Schmidt comes across them 452 00:24:55,087 --> 00:24:59,557 and is absolutely determined to attack the woman. 453 00:25:06,687 --> 00:25:10,807 -At the crime scene where the baby and the woman died, 454 00:25:10,481 --> 00:25:15,621 there was women's lingerie lying right there at the scene, 455 00:25:15,694 --> 00:25:18,564 and it was clear that it had something to do with the crime. 456 00:25:22,447 --> 00:25:27,957 That's when it occurred to us, "What about the others? 457 00:25:28,034 --> 00:25:30,164 Could this case be linked with the others?" 458 00:25:34,301 --> 00:25:37,451 -Police found women's underwear at the crime scene. 459 00:25:37,527 --> 00:25:39,787 They had now established it was crucial evidence 460 00:25:39,867 --> 00:25:41,267 in all these murders, 461 00:25:41,347 --> 00:25:44,367 and that was a major breakthrough. 462 00:25:44,447 --> 00:25:46,777 The investigators believe the perpetrator 463 00:25:46,854 --> 00:25:49,984 must be someone with a dangerous fetish. 464 00:25:50,054 --> 00:25:52,094 They were coming under increasing pressure 465 00:25:52,167 --> 00:25:55,487 to capture the killer who was now hitting the headlines 466 00:25:55,567 --> 00:25:59,497 as the Beast of Beelitz and the Pink Giant. 467 00:25:59,574 --> 00:26:03,314 Could this be the missing clue that would finally lead them 468 00:26:03,381 --> 00:26:07,011 to this extremely dangerous sexual predator? 469 00:26:09,781 --> 00:26:12,671 -After we were able to establish the relationship 470 00:26:12,741 --> 00:26:16,671 between the underwear and the perpetrator, 471 00:26:16,741 --> 00:26:21,451 naturally, we went to search this angle in particular. 472 00:26:21,521 --> 00:26:23,531 And at the surrounding area of the crime scenes, 473 00:26:23,608 --> 00:26:25,398 we found lairs 474 00:26:25,474 --> 00:26:29,384 where he basically collected the underwear 475 00:26:29,454 --> 00:26:33,864 and where he satisfied himself with it. 476 00:26:33,934 --> 00:26:36,484 And there were bags of underwear that we found. 477 00:26:38,941 --> 00:26:42,581 -Marianne Bohm, then a young prosecutor from West Berlin, 478 00:26:42,654 --> 00:26:46,834 was sent to Potsdam to head up the investigation. 479 00:26:48,727 --> 00:26:51,377 -The case of Wolfgang Schmidt was especially distinguished 480 00:26:51,454 --> 00:26:55,134 by the variety of cases to deal with. 481 00:26:55,001 --> 00:26:56,891 It was because of this anxiety, 482 00:26:56,967 --> 00:26:59,057 because we couldn't catch the perpetrator, 483 00:26:59,134 --> 00:27:02,454 I was on call day and night, 484 00:27:02,521 --> 00:27:03,881 and when my phone would ring, 485 00:27:03,954 --> 00:27:05,254 I would sit up straight in my bed 486 00:27:05,327 --> 00:27:07,037 because I thought he had struck again. 487 00:27:09,841 --> 00:27:12,961 -Schmidt would have known that police were closing in on him, 488 00:27:13,034 --> 00:27:14,654 but he was still free 489 00:27:14,727 --> 00:27:18,777 and still indulging in his now deadly fantasies. 490 00:27:18,854 --> 00:27:20,644 -The main reason why it was tricky for the police 491 00:27:20,714 --> 00:27:25,654 to put all the clues together to go after Schmidt is, 492 00:27:25,728 --> 00:27:26,808 there are two types of serial killers, 493 00:27:26,888 --> 00:27:28,288 or two main types of serial killers. 494 00:27:28,361 --> 00:27:30,511 One is the victim-based serial killer, 495 00:27:30,321 --> 00:27:32,081 and the other one is action-based serial killer 496 00:27:32,154 --> 00:27:33,634 or the violence-based serial killer. 497 00:27:33,707 --> 00:27:37,367 The victim-based goes after a specific kind of victim. 498 00:27:37,447 --> 00:27:39,797 The other kind of serial killer is one that the victim 499 00:27:39,874 --> 00:27:41,514 makes zero difference to them. 500 00:27:41,581 --> 00:27:43,761 What they are after is something else. 501 00:27:43,834 --> 00:27:45,574 Either the violence -- 502 00:27:45,641 --> 00:27:49,741 that is what excites them, is killing the person -- 503 00:27:49,814 --> 00:27:51,994 or some kind of sexual pleasure. 504 00:27:51,561 --> 00:27:54,781 In the case of Schmidt, he didn't care about the victim. 505 00:27:54,854 --> 00:27:57,914 He wanted the sex. 506 00:27:57,981 --> 00:28:00,191 -But as yet, the police had no idea 507 00:28:00,267 --> 00:28:02,367 who they were dealing with. 508 00:28:03,547 --> 00:28:05,707 -The whole problem was that Wolfgang Schmidt 509 00:28:05,787 --> 00:28:09,077 was not known to the police as a sexual perpetrator. 510 00:28:14,301 --> 00:28:16,191 The investigators back then already had 511 00:28:16,267 --> 00:28:22,227 a pretty clear picture of what made this predator tick, 512 00:28:22,301 --> 00:28:24,451 that his way of acting was fetishistic 513 00:28:24,521 --> 00:28:26,151 and that he went into a situation 514 00:28:26,227 --> 00:28:28,077 with an intent of killing. 515 00:28:32,081 --> 00:28:34,001 -It was also clear early on 516 00:28:34,074 --> 00:28:35,804 that they were dealing with a serial killer. 517 00:28:39,354 --> 00:28:42,074 And since there were no leads to Wolfgang Schmidt 518 00:28:42,141 --> 00:28:45,351 that came from the general public either, 519 00:28:45,427 --> 00:28:49,877 it was basically impossible to catch him 520 00:28:49,954 --> 00:28:53,524 unless he was caught in the act at some point. 521 00:28:57,887 --> 00:29:02,697 That means they were looking for a needle in a haystack. 522 00:29:02,774 --> 00:29:05,224 -Two weeks after his last assault, 523 00:29:05,294 --> 00:29:07,594 Schmidt was on the prowl again. 524 00:29:07,667 --> 00:29:10,447 He came across two 12-year-old girls 525 00:29:10,521 --> 00:29:13,161 who were looking for a dead deer in the forest. 526 00:29:13,234 --> 00:29:16,414 -The escalation is very, very common. 527 00:29:16,487 --> 00:29:17,847 So now he escalated. 528 00:29:17,921 --> 00:29:22,151 Maybe he thought, "To have my kind of fetish sex 529 00:29:22,227 --> 00:29:25,827 with two women instead of one." 530 00:29:25,907 --> 00:29:27,637 Maybe he had already been fantasized 531 00:29:27,714 --> 00:29:31,154 about that for awhile. 532 00:29:31,227 --> 00:29:33,597 I'm certain that the reason why he went after that 533 00:29:33,674 --> 00:29:36,984 is because he had done everything prior to that, 534 00:29:37,054 --> 00:29:40,134 and he was always escalating and escalating and escalating 535 00:29:40,207 --> 00:29:42,777 until the day he gets caught. 536 00:29:42,854 --> 00:29:47,154 -Schmidt attacked the girls dressed up in women's clothes, 537 00:29:47,227 --> 00:29:49,727 wearing an apron. 538 00:29:49,801 --> 00:29:52,871 What the girls must have thought almost defies belief. 539 00:29:52,941 --> 00:29:55,001 There's this presumably huge man 540 00:29:55,074 --> 00:29:58,114 dressed up in women's clothes with an apron on. 541 00:29:57,721 --> 00:30:01,201 It is truly bizarre. 542 00:30:00,841 --> 00:30:03,951 This time, they both survive. 543 00:30:04,027 --> 00:30:08,297 This time, they can describe the man who's attacked them. 544 00:30:08,374 --> 00:30:10,374 -Schmidt's disappointment at failing 545 00:30:10,447 --> 00:30:13,577 to fulfill his sexual needs with the two girls 546 00:30:13,654 --> 00:30:16,524 was so intense that the following day, 547 00:30:16,594 --> 00:30:21,114 on the 5th of April, 1991, he struck again. 548 00:30:20,681 --> 00:30:24,461 He broke into the house of a 66-year-old woman, 549 00:30:24,534 --> 00:30:26,964 Talita Bremer, while she slept. 550 00:30:27,034 --> 00:30:31,374 Schmidt found her underwear and became highly aroused. 551 00:30:31,441 --> 00:30:36,561 He strangled her to death and then sexually defiled her body. 552 00:30:36,634 --> 00:30:38,304 -What we've got to remember is, 553 00:30:38,374 --> 00:30:41,274 here is a man that did have some control over his behavior. 554 00:30:41,341 --> 00:30:42,811 Everybody has fantasies. 555 00:30:42,887 --> 00:30:45,427 Everybody has things that they would like to do, 556 00:30:45,501 --> 00:30:48,271 but they know that these things are socially unacceptable 557 00:30:48,341 --> 00:30:50,511 or they are deviant or that they are illegal, 558 00:30:50,581 --> 00:30:54,101 so most people choose not to act on them, 559 00:30:54,174 --> 00:30:55,244 but he did. 560 00:30:58,294 --> 00:31:00,214 He knows what he's doing is wrong, 561 00:31:00,081 --> 00:31:01,981 but he's choosing to do it anyway 562 00:31:02,054 --> 00:31:04,934 because he wants that fantasy that he's created in his head 563 00:31:05,001 --> 00:31:07,331 to become a reality, 564 00:31:07,408 --> 00:31:09,058 and he's always making the decision 565 00:31:09,134 --> 00:31:10,454 that he's gonna try again. 566 00:31:10,521 --> 00:31:11,601 He's gonna try again 567 00:31:11,674 --> 00:31:13,244 'cause, "I've not quite achieved it this time. 568 00:31:13,314 --> 00:31:15,244 I'm gonna do it again." 569 00:31:15,314 --> 00:31:18,894 -The hunt to capture Schmidt was gathering pace. 570 00:31:18,961 --> 00:31:20,371 Thanks to the description given 571 00:31:20,447 --> 00:31:23,487 by the two surviving 12-year-old victims, 572 00:31:23,568 --> 00:31:26,298 police were able to issue an Identi-Kit, 573 00:31:26,374 --> 00:31:28,584 and the prosecution offered a reward 574 00:31:28,654 --> 00:31:33,744 of 20,000 Deutsche Marks for information. 575 00:31:33,814 --> 00:31:35,524 -We received hundreds of bits of information 576 00:31:35,594 --> 00:31:37,914 after we went public with it. 577 00:31:39,881 --> 00:31:41,311 -There were several things 578 00:31:41,387 --> 00:31:43,797 that pointed towards somebody that lived in the area, 579 00:31:43,874 --> 00:31:46,274 that was out and about, that had some sort of occupation 580 00:31:46,347 --> 00:31:47,797 that made him wander the forests, 581 00:31:47,874 --> 00:31:49,524 but that was all we knew. 582 00:31:52,241 --> 00:31:54,191 All of that really became more focused 583 00:31:54,267 --> 00:31:56,337 when the girls were able to tell us 584 00:31:56,414 --> 00:31:58,014 who we were actually looking for. 585 00:32:02,227 --> 00:32:06,707 -By the summer of 1991, East German Wolfgang Schmidt's 586 00:32:06,781 --> 00:32:11,491 deviant fantasies had spiraled completely out of control. 587 00:32:11,568 --> 00:32:14,118 In his extraordinary search for sexual fulfillment, 588 00:32:14,194 --> 00:32:16,524 Schmidt had attacked nine people 589 00:32:16,594 --> 00:32:19,474 and murdered five women and a baby. 590 00:32:19,547 --> 00:32:23,107 But his lust for a bizarre form of gratification 591 00:32:23,181 --> 00:32:25,221 showed no signs of stopping. 592 00:32:25,294 --> 00:32:27,894 On the 1st of August, 1991, 593 00:32:27,967 --> 00:32:30,687 nearly four months after his previous murder, 594 00:32:30,767 --> 00:32:33,677 Schmidt returned to the woods surrounding his home 595 00:32:33,754 --> 00:32:38,324 to try and satisfy his desires. 596 00:32:38,394 --> 00:32:42,764 -With Schmidt, it's not simply about ending his victims' lives 597 00:32:42,834 --> 00:32:45,254 and then sexually abusing them and raping them 598 00:32:45,327 --> 00:32:46,967 after they've died. 599 00:32:47,041 --> 00:32:50,381 It's also about continuing in this behavior 600 00:32:50,454 --> 00:32:53,844 of wearing women's underwear, of soiling this underwear. 601 00:32:53,914 --> 00:32:56,514 He has this routine, he has this ritual, 602 00:32:56,581 --> 00:32:59,431 and he has to have every stage of this ritual 603 00:32:59,241 --> 00:33:01,981 in order to gain sexual satisfaction, 604 00:33:02,054 --> 00:33:04,014 and it's becoming all the more elaborate 605 00:33:04,087 --> 00:33:08,057 and all the more complex with several stages in it -- 606 00:33:08,134 --> 00:33:10,824 wearing women's underwear, soiling the underwear, 607 00:33:10,561 --> 00:33:14,251 identifying a victim, and assaulting that victim. 608 00:33:14,327 --> 00:33:16,367 And all of those elements need to be there 609 00:33:16,447 --> 00:33:20,147 for him to have satisfaction from it. 610 00:33:20,221 --> 00:33:23,781 -Alert to his perverse and murderous activities, 611 00:33:23,854 --> 00:33:27,234 the police were now determined to catch the serial killer 612 00:33:27,307 --> 00:33:29,877 known as the Beast of Beelitz. 613 00:33:34,774 --> 00:33:36,234 -We carried out searches in the woods 614 00:33:36,307 --> 00:33:38,517 for these types of clothing sites... 615 00:33:42,127 --> 00:33:45,037 ...because we firmly believed that there must be more to find. 616 00:33:47,414 --> 00:33:50,284 And we were able to find several of them in the forests 617 00:33:50,354 --> 00:33:53,084 around Beelitz-Heilstatten, at Neuendorf and so on. 618 00:33:56,454 --> 00:33:58,324 We staked out two of these sites. 619 00:34:01,654 --> 00:34:04,484 To do this, we used special observation forces 620 00:34:04,554 --> 00:34:09,104 who were trained for this, 621 00:34:09,174 --> 00:34:13,774 who lay hidden in the woods, who watched, 622 00:34:13,841 --> 00:34:17,081 and then, if they saw him either putting the clothes on 623 00:34:17,154 --> 00:34:20,114 or engaging in any type of sexual act, 624 00:34:20,181 --> 00:34:22,641 they could catch him in the act and arrest him. 625 00:34:24,874 --> 00:34:27,004 -While the police lay in wait, 626 00:34:27,074 --> 00:34:29,394 Schmidt, wearing a bra under his jacket, 627 00:34:29,461 --> 00:34:31,581 was spotted gratifying himself 628 00:34:31,654 --> 00:34:34,674 at another site by two passersby. 629 00:34:34,747 --> 00:34:39,167 When the shocked witnesses reported his abhorrent behavior, 630 00:34:38,681 --> 00:34:43,001 Schmidt was promptly arrested and taken into police custody. 631 00:34:43,074 --> 00:34:47,094 There he was charged with the murders he'd committed. 632 00:34:49,174 --> 00:34:53,094 -He was a very shy, reluctant young man back then who, 633 00:34:53,168 --> 00:34:57,918 as is often the case with sexual killers or killers in general, 634 00:34:57,994 --> 00:35:02,014 he didn't have it written on his forehead that he was a murderer. 635 00:35:02,087 --> 00:35:04,917 He was often described as the nice kid next door. 636 00:35:07,514 --> 00:35:10,274 -His defense lawyer was Ulrich Bauschulte. 637 00:35:13,274 --> 00:35:15,694 -In contrast to his physical size -- 638 00:35:15,767 --> 00:35:19,797 he was well over 1-meter-90 -- 639 00:35:19,874 --> 00:35:22,174 I found, when I spoke to him, 640 00:35:22,247 --> 00:35:27,677 he seemed very small, very shy, 641 00:35:27,754 --> 00:35:31,074 which is astounding when you read and learn 642 00:35:31,147 --> 00:35:33,357 how violently the deaths occurred. 643 00:35:36,174 --> 00:35:37,994 -When confronted with the details 644 00:35:38,061 --> 00:35:39,561 of the murders he'd committed, 645 00:35:39,634 --> 00:35:43,474 Schmidt seemed to show scant remorse for his actions. 646 00:35:44,634 --> 00:35:46,414 -I think it was embarrassing for him, 647 00:35:46,487 --> 00:35:49,187 but he was not ashamed about anything, 648 00:35:48,961 --> 00:35:51,841 not even about the murders. 649 00:35:51,914 --> 00:35:54,134 He was probably embarrassed that he was seen in women's lingerie 650 00:35:54,208 --> 00:35:55,318 and with an apron on. 651 00:35:59,427 --> 00:36:04,117 -The trial was set to begin on the 20th of October, 1992, 652 00:36:04,194 --> 00:36:08,434 just two weeks after Schmidt's 26th birthday. 653 00:36:08,501 --> 00:36:09,741 The interest in the killer 654 00:36:09,814 --> 00:36:11,554 the German tabloids have dubbed as 655 00:36:11,621 --> 00:36:15,001 the Beast of Beelitz and the Pink Giant, 656 00:36:14,641 --> 00:36:17,541 after his fascination with pink underwear, 657 00:36:17,614 --> 00:36:19,174 was immense. 658 00:36:20,707 --> 00:36:23,397 -So there was an unbelievable press hype back then. 659 00:36:26,281 --> 00:36:29,271 We had far too little room in the court for all the press. 660 00:36:29,341 --> 00:36:33,621 Everyone was following it on the news. 661 00:36:33,694 --> 00:36:36,884 -Gisela Friedrichsen was the court reporter 662 00:36:36,954 --> 00:36:39,694 for a renowned West German magazine. 663 00:36:41,947 --> 00:36:43,747 -At the beginning, everyone knew 664 00:36:43,828 --> 00:36:45,558 that Wolfgang Schmidt killed many women. 665 00:36:48,021 --> 00:36:50,631 And then, gradually, all the details 666 00:36:50,701 --> 00:36:53,841 came out into the open through reports in the tabloids. 667 00:36:58,634 --> 00:36:59,874 -And it became very clear 668 00:36:59,947 --> 00:37:01,637 that he must be a very disturbed person. 669 00:37:04,648 --> 00:37:06,188 -The East German press, however, 670 00:37:06,261 --> 00:37:09,151 were less understanding of Schmidt's problems. 671 00:37:09,227 --> 00:37:12,017 -They would have, ideally, wanted to execute him. 672 00:37:12,094 --> 00:37:14,234 They would have cut off everything that could be cut off 673 00:37:14,307 --> 00:37:16,157 from his body and so on. 674 00:37:18,474 --> 00:37:20,694 -Schmidt's mental health was assessed 675 00:37:20,761 --> 00:37:24,021 by Professor Wilfried Rasch, who was the leading 676 00:37:24,094 --> 00:37:27,404 German forensic psychiatrist of his time. 677 00:37:29,974 --> 00:37:33,104 -Professor Rasch explained it brilliantly to the court 678 00:37:33,174 --> 00:37:37,794 how Wolfgang Schmidt developed throughout the years. 679 00:37:37,861 --> 00:37:40,851 It began during his childhood in the search 680 00:37:40,921 --> 00:37:44,551 to have a closer relationship to his mother, 681 00:37:44,621 --> 00:37:49,351 and that naturally evolved into something else as time went by. 682 00:37:49,427 --> 00:37:53,637 That was fetishism and also transvestism. 683 00:37:58,787 --> 00:38:00,817 A combination of these, 684 00:38:00,894 --> 00:38:05,634 which together with inclinations toward coprophilia, 685 00:38:05,701 --> 00:38:07,921 changed and became established. 686 00:38:11,227 --> 00:38:13,407 -Even when we look at cases of serial killers, 687 00:38:13,481 --> 00:38:15,491 we only come across a handful of cases 688 00:38:15,561 --> 00:38:18,851 where people have engaged in this type of behavior, 689 00:38:18,927 --> 00:38:20,987 and, unfortunately, if something like this 690 00:38:20,601 --> 00:38:24,151 isn't nipped in the bud, isn't recognized early on, 691 00:38:24,221 --> 00:38:26,161 it's something that's only going to get worse. 692 00:38:29,914 --> 00:38:32,734 -Schmidt had shared his most intimate secrets 693 00:38:32,601 --> 00:38:34,591 with the psychiatrist, 694 00:38:34,401 --> 00:38:37,211 including revelations about his habit 695 00:38:37,288 --> 00:38:39,148 of defecating in women's underwear 696 00:38:39,227 --> 00:38:41,567 and then wearing it back-to-front 697 00:38:41,641 --> 00:38:43,591 while pleasuring himself. 698 00:38:43,661 --> 00:38:47,571 Professor Rasch concluded that Schmidt's sexual fantasies 699 00:38:47,648 --> 00:38:49,128 began to grow, 700 00:38:49,208 --> 00:38:51,658 and at some point, the balance tipped over, 701 00:38:51,734 --> 00:38:55,404 and he decided to try to do this with a woman. 702 00:38:55,474 --> 00:38:59,194 But when Schmidt failed to achieve sexual gratification, 703 00:38:59,267 --> 00:39:00,257 he snapped, 704 00:39:00,334 --> 00:39:04,924 and that's when his killing spree began. 705 00:39:04,761 --> 00:39:07,441 -When the desire got stronger and stronger, 706 00:39:07,514 --> 00:39:09,674 it ended in those murders. 707 00:39:09,747 --> 00:39:11,687 That's where he got his first kick 708 00:39:11,768 --> 00:39:13,708 and where he noticed that there was a chance for him to move on 709 00:39:13,787 --> 00:39:17,117 to a level that may give him sexual satisfaction. 710 00:39:19,547 --> 00:39:22,547 -Schmidt was cooperative from the beginning, 711 00:39:22,621 --> 00:39:24,841 but when he was confronted with the Identi-Kit 712 00:39:24,914 --> 00:39:26,594 that led to his capture, 713 00:39:26,667 --> 00:39:29,947 his response was rather startling. 714 00:39:32,194 --> 00:39:34,164 -When he saw the picture, he said to me, 715 00:39:34,234 --> 00:39:35,604 "That looks a lot like me, 716 00:39:35,674 --> 00:39:37,764 but it can't be me because I didn't kill anybody." 717 00:39:40,801 --> 00:39:42,761 I didn't really know how to interpret that statement 718 00:39:42,834 --> 00:39:47,254 back then until Professor Rasch conducted the examination 719 00:39:46,961 --> 00:39:48,481 in order to see what it was 720 00:39:48,554 --> 00:39:50,604 that was really wrong with Mr. Schmidt. 721 00:39:52,967 --> 00:39:54,807 The results stated repeatedly 722 00:39:54,887 --> 00:39:56,867 that when he lived out his fantasies, 723 00:39:56,941 --> 00:39:59,521 in his mind, the women had lived. 724 00:40:01,827 --> 00:40:03,667 -All throughout the trial, 725 00:40:03,747 --> 00:40:06,917 Schmidt continued to claim that in his head, 726 00:40:06,994 --> 00:40:09,044 all his victims were still alive. 727 00:40:09,114 --> 00:40:13,364 -So Schmidt's fantasy was all about dominating alive women. 728 00:40:13,001 --> 00:40:15,571 He says, "In my head, they were alive." 729 00:40:15,641 --> 00:40:17,801 Well, in his head, they had to be alive 730 00:40:17,874 --> 00:40:19,314 'cause that was the only way in which 731 00:40:19,387 --> 00:40:23,137 he could get pleasure out of the situation. 732 00:40:23,214 --> 00:40:25,644 -The prosecution had vast amounts of evidence, 733 00:40:25,714 --> 00:40:29,404 such as clothes, undergarments, and the murder weapons, 734 00:40:29,474 --> 00:40:31,524 but they did not play a significant role 735 00:40:31,594 --> 00:40:33,294 during the trial 736 00:40:33,367 --> 00:40:36,907 because Schmidt had confessed to everything. 737 00:40:36,988 --> 00:40:38,708 -Everybody agreed that Mr. Schmidt 738 00:40:38,781 --> 00:40:41,591 belonged in a psychiatric facility. 739 00:40:41,667 --> 00:40:45,187 -Schmidt was sentenced to 15 years in prison 740 00:40:45,267 --> 00:40:47,447 and was admitted to a psychiatric clinic 741 00:40:47,527 --> 00:40:51,847 in Brandenburg, where he remains to this day. 742 00:40:51,927 --> 00:40:55,847 Adding to the price he's paid, Schmidt's fiancée has, 743 00:40:55,521 --> 00:40:59,521 since his incarceration, left him. 744 00:41:01,921 --> 00:41:05,311 -Wolfgang Schmidt is very sexually deviant, 745 00:41:05,387 --> 00:41:09,827 and he most certainly has a personality disorder, as well. 746 00:41:09,901 --> 00:41:13,571 As long as he does not confront what he has done 747 00:41:13,647 --> 00:41:17,927 and gets the appropriate means to help him, 748 00:41:17,441 --> 00:41:21,081 he will always pose a threat to others. 749 00:41:20,921 --> 00:41:24,371 And since, to this day, that has not changed, 750 00:41:24,041 --> 00:41:27,121 there is no chance for him to ever be set free again. 751 00:41:30,334 --> 00:41:32,194 -Many people have issues seeing him 752 00:41:32,261 --> 00:41:36,901 as a typical serial killer because of his modus operandi 753 00:41:36,974 --> 00:41:40,444 varying from one victim to the other, 754 00:41:40,514 --> 00:41:43,484 but essentially, his drive, his motivation 755 00:41:43,121 --> 00:41:45,531 is the same as many other serial killers. 756 00:41:45,401 --> 00:41:47,581 He wants to have power over other people 757 00:41:47,654 --> 00:41:49,454 and to dominate other people. 758 00:41:49,527 --> 00:41:51,547 He shared with other serial killers 759 00:41:51,621 --> 00:41:54,331 a callous disregard for the rights of other people, 760 00:41:54,407 --> 00:41:57,797 for the lives of other people, and for their suffering. 761 00:42:02,334 --> 00:42:04,994 -In a final twist to this story, 762 00:42:05,068 --> 00:42:08,878 in 2009, courts allowed Wolfgang Schmidt 763 00:42:08,721 --> 00:42:11,881 to change his name to Beate Schmidt 764 00:42:11,954 --> 00:42:15,784 when he revealed his desire to transition into a woman. 765 00:42:15,854 --> 00:42:19,924 Schmidt has been undergoing hormone treatment since 2010 766 00:42:19,994 --> 00:42:23,834 but has so far been refused gender-reassignment surgery. 767 00:42:23,907 --> 00:42:27,337 Regardless of his current or future gender, 768 00:42:27,414 --> 00:42:29,644 the bizarre and callous killings 769 00:42:29,714 --> 00:42:31,914 committed by the Beast of Beelitz, 770 00:42:31,981 --> 00:42:33,401 Wolfgang Schmidt, 771 00:42:33,474 --> 00:42:36,634 makes him one of the world's most evil killers. 62766

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