Jasper Hanebuth
In some ways, Jasper Hanebuth resembled a modern-day serial killer more than many of his contemporaries. Hanebuth was a veteran of the Thirty Years War, and in conflict learned to kill. Following the war, or at any rate his own part in it Hanebuth became a highwayman operating largely in the Eilenreide – which today still exists as an inner-city park in Hanover, Germany.
Hanebuth didn’t waste time approaching his victims and demanding money or other valuables. He preferred to shoot his victim from a distance, only approaching after the victim was already dead and no witnesses had made an inconvenient appearance.
Often Hanebuth would find that the killing yielded but little treasure, which he didn’t seem to have minded too much. At least 19 were murdered in the forest by the cautious thief. He disposed of the bodies by throwing them down a hole to be fodder for wild animals and pigs.
Hanebuth later expanded his activities to include using Hannover merchants to market his illegally acquired gains, which protected him from the authorities for a short time. His greed got the better of him and one former partner, feeling cheated, turned him in. After the requisite torture to obtain a confession, death upon the wheel became his fate on February 4, 1653.