A Serial Killer in Nazi Berlin
The Chilling True Story of the S-Bahn Murderer
The true story of Paul Ogorzow, a serial killer in the heart of the Third Reich.
As the Nazi war machine caused death and destruction throughout Europe, one man in the Fatherland began his own reign of terror.
This is the true story of the pursuit and capture of a serial killer in the heart of the Third Reich.
For all appearances, Paul Ogorzow was a model German. An employed family man, party member, and sergeant in the infamous Brownshirts, he had worked his way up in the Berlin railroad from a manual laborer laying track to assistant signalman. But he also had a secret need to harass and frighten women. Then he was given a gift from the Nazi high command.
Due to Allied bombing raids, a total blackout was instituted throughout Berlin, including on the commuter trains—trains often used by women riding home alone from the factories.
Under cover of darkness and with a helpless flock of victims to choose from, Ogorzow’s depredations grew more and more horrific. He escalated from simply frightening women to physically attacking them, eventually assaulting and murdering them. Beginning in September 1940, he started casually tossing their bodies off the moving train. Though the Nazi party tried to censor news of the attacks, the women of Berlin soon lived in a state of constant fear.
It was up to Wilhelm Lüdtke, head of the Berlin police’s serious crimes division, to hunt down the madman in their midst. For the first time, the gripping full story of Ogorzow’s killing spree and Lüdtke’s relentless pursuit is told in dramatic detail.
Reviews & Praise
“Onboard an electrified speeding train in Nazi Berlin, Scott Andrew Selby reveals an equally electrifying story of the railroad employee who could not stop murdering.”
Robert Graysmith
New York Times Bestselling Author of Zodiac
“An expertly told detective story, in which the author presents a fascinating case without digesting the facts for his readers…As a chronicle of unknown German history, few recent books are as compelling.”
PopMatters.com
“Scott Selby’s true story is both intriguing and exciting—and made even more compelling because as the investigators search for a killer they are urged on by government officials committed to an official policy of mass murder.”
Howard Blum
New York Times Bestselling Author of American Lightning
“A compelling read.”
Maclean’s
“In the darkest days of tyranny, in a blacked-out Berlin in the grip of panic but with a politically neutered police force, the hunt for a serial killer becomes a game of cat-and-mouse that reaches far up the chain of the Nazi state…Scott Selby meticulously recreates one of the most horrific but fascinating murder investigations of twentieth-century Germany.”
Paul French
New York Times Bestselling Author of Midnight in Peking
“A fascinating story.”
Newsday
“A chilling, fast-paced narrative full of shocking twists…A unique and riveting historical account of a lone predator hunting in the shadows of World War II Berlin.”
Julian Rubinstein
Author of Ballad of the Whiskey Robber
“Darkly fascinating…It’s a story of determined detective work by a police officer with a surprisingly clear sense of justice given his surroundings. And it’s a story of the ways that killers rise and fall on multiple levels, one that still resonates decades later.”
Deborah Blum
New York Times Bestselling Author of The Poisoner’s Handbook