20. You Did Not Want to Accept Papa Denke’s Gifts of “Pickled Pork”
That the respected and admired “Papa Denke” had tried to murder a young man in his home with an ax was a big enough shock for the good people of Munsterberg, but worse was to come. A bigger shocker was in Karl Denke’s kitchen, where police found two large tubs that contained meat getting pickled in brine. The meat was attached to human bones. When they tallied the various bits and pieces, investigators estimated that Denke had been in the process pickling up to thirty people.
Police also found a notebook, in which Denke had listed the names of many more victims, as far back as 1921. It included the dates of their murders and the weight of their pickled bodies. Investigators did not get the opportunity to grill Denke about his motives or get him to shed some light on his macabre deeds: he used a handkerchief to hang himself in his cell on his first night behind bars. Evidence gathered, however, revealed that Denke routinely ate his victims. He also fed their meat to guests, jarred and sold it as pickled pork, or gave jars of “pickled pork” to his neighbors as gifts.