"On board 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, author of
Zodiac,
Auto Focus, and
Black Fire "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 "[Selby] meticulously re-creates one of the most horrific but fascinating murder investigations of twentieth-century Germany."--Paul French, author of
Midnight in Peking
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 auxiliary signalman. But he also had a secret . . .
Due to Allied bombing raids, the Nazi high command instituted a total blackout throughout Berlin, including on commuter trains. Under cover of darkness and with a flock of helpless victims, Ogorzow escalated from simply frightening women to physically attacking them, eventually raping and murdering them, and even casually tossing their bodies off the moving trains. 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.
INCLUDES PHOTOGRAPHS