16. The Middle Ages’ Scariest Outlaw
Medieval German bandit Peter Niers (died 1581) was a black arts practitioner, and one of history’s most prolific serial killers. He began his criminal career as a highwayman in Alsace, present day France, and eventually headed a gang of about 24 bandits. He also became a key figure in a loose network of bandit and highwayman gangs that joined forces on occasion to conduct major operations that required large numbers of men. His criminal activities spanned a large territory that included western France, the Rhineland, and Bavaria in southern Germany. He was no run-of-the-mill outlaw, however.
What set Niers apart from other bandits was his bloodthirstiness and gratuitous cruelty. He was not content to simply rob or kill his victims. He liked to torture those who fell into his hands and slew them in a variety of fiendishly inventive ways. As he confessed after his arrest, he murdered 544 people over a fifteen-year period, and cut the fetuses out of the wombs of 24 pregnant women. The fetuses were used as ingredients in his black magic, and he consumed them in horrific cannibalistic acts. He was captured in 1577, and under torture, confessed to 75 murders in the previous eleven years. However, he escaped before he could be executed, and went on to commit many more depravities.
