A Serial Killer in Nazi Berlin

The Chilling True Story of the S-Bahn Murderer

By: Scott Andrew Selby

Narrated by: Don Hagen

Length: 7 hrs and 22 mins

Publisher's summary

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 raping 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.

©2014 Scott Andrew Selby (P)2014 Gildan Media LLC

Critic reviews

“Scott Selby’s recreation of the hunt for the wartime S-Bahn Murderer meticulously recreates one of the most horrific but fascinating murder investigations of twentieth century Germany.”(Paul French, Midnight in Peking: How the Murder of a Young Englishwoman Haunted the Last Days of Old China)

Chilling historical true-crime

A well-written history of the case, mostly from the perspective of the police attempting to investigate it while being corralled by the political upheaval of the time.

interesting but repetitive

The story is fairly sanitized. Just the facts no information from the victims who survived (which may not have been possible to gather from the resources). Although it is well researched it seems like the author was trying to make it longer in any way they could so the same fact is stated over and over. I mostly blame the editors for this but it does make it somewhat annoying to listen to at times.

Killing women in War Torn Berlin~ 3 STARS~

PLOT: serial killer rapes and kills in World War 2 Berlin~

Berlin....and Germany is the heart of World War 2. Nazi Germany's capital city is in blackness due to bombing of Belin and a serial killer is using the darkness to KILL and rape women. People in apartments can have gardens on the edge of Berlin for food. A serial killer uses this to advantage. He takes to the "garden" areas at night and soon is molesting and killing woman. He gets a sexual high from the thrills of the sex and violence. He then progressing to the rail way and soon is tossing women off trains where also gets yes more sexual thrills. As his violence and kills add up the Berlin police finally get clues to who he could be. The Nazi Propaganda keeps the "killings" secret from the public to avoid discrediting the Nazi regime. but eventually the police use posters and word of mouth help develop a "early" profile of the likely killer. This is a good book some interesting thoughts into both the "early mindset" of a killer and the arrogant and secretive Nazis. Eventually the killer slips up but his cunning slips up his confessions leading to even more speculation of his crimes. Worth listing too once. Before DNA testing and criminal profiling the Berlin police use plain old leg work and logic to capture a killer.

Stress Free

Excellent narrator. His modulation describing crime was historical and didn't make you visualize gore; therefore, it was not stressful.

Interesting subject poorly told

This could have been a great cat and mouse story, but Selby's telling is plodding and repetitive.