The Cop Who Became a Serial Killer

The Policeman as Murder Machine

Norbert Pöhlke was born in 1955 in the German city of Ludwigsburg and worked as a criminal investigator with the local police when he committed an unprecedented series of murders between 1984 and 1987. The man entrusted with protecting the public killed eight people in the Stuttgart-Ludwigsburg region — including his own wife Christa (32) and his two daughters Marina (8) and Stefanie (6). He staged all his murders as robbery attempts, often wearing a stocking mask, which earned him the nickname "The Masked Man."

The first victim of the murder spree was killed on May 19, 1984, in Ludwigsburg's Poppenweiler district. Pöhlke shot down an entire family: Kurt G. (57), his wife Erika (55), their son Thomas (27), and his three-year-old daughter Vanessa. Neighbor Helga S. (36) was also murdered. The brutality of this act would keep the region in a state of fear for years.

The Perpetrator Investigates Himself

The perverted aspect of Pöhlke's approach was that as a criminal investigator, he was assigned to investigate parts of the case against "The Masked Man." He manipulated case files, directed suspicion toward innocent people, and used his insider knowledge to stay one step ahead of the investigation. This dual role — both perpetrator and investigator — made this case one of the most shocking examples of police crimes