Isabella Mueller (crime writer)
People kill for a wide variety of reasons. Yet never before in German criminal history have people been murdered in an attempt to secure the release of a criminal serving a life sentence. Yet this is exactly what happened in the summer of 1977. The first victim of this unusual motive for murder was 26-year-old Gabriele Evans, who was brutally murdered in her flat in Wuppertal on 19 July by her ex-boyfriend Reiner Sturm. He first struck Gabriele with a wine bottle, then strangled her and finally stabbed her repeatedly with a knife until she was dead. Afterwards, Reiner Sturm, a former prisoner, left a note demanding the release of his prison friend Heinz Otto Bartels, who was serving a life sentence for murder. Following the murder, Reiner Sturm met up with his 23-year-old acquaintance Marlies Roth, whom he struck down with a hammer two hours after his first murder, strangled her, and beat her with a whip until he finally slit her throat with a razor blade. At the scene of the crime, he left the following message: “So that you don’t take this as a joke – release Otto Bartel!”. Reiner Sturm then set off for Frankfurt am Main to visit his homosexual acquaintance. This was the 28-year-old bank clerk Wolfgang Goeritz, whom Reiner Sturm had met in a pub. A few days later, after a nationwide manhunt had been launched, Reiner Sturm left the flat to kill a hated acquaintance in Wuppertal. As he was unable to track him down, he returned to Wolfgang’s flat, where he slit his throat on 25 July. A day later, he rang a private detective. He pretended to be the victim. The private investigator was supposed to take him to the police station, as he had important information. When the private detective recognised Reiner Sturm, the latter willingly allowed himself to be driven to the Frankfurt-Nordend police station, where he was immediately arrested. He made a full confession regarding the three murders. He simply wanted his prison friend Heinz Otto Bartel, whom he had met whilst serving time at the prison in Werl, Westphalia, to be released. Reiner Sturm had been involved in a bank robbery at a branch of Dresdner Bank in Frankfurt-Eschersheim. For this, he had been sentenced to three years’ imprisonment; whilst serving this sentence, he met Bartel. After his release, he had only one wish: that the highly intelligent Heinz Otto Bartel be set free, whatever the cost. Reiner Sturm was a child of divorce who dropped out of two apprenticeships after finishing primary school. He then attended a nautical college in Bremen and spent several years at sea. When he had had enough of that, he scraped by as a casual labourer. Sturm even worked as a pimp on the Reeperbahn in Hamburg’s St. Pauli district. He himself performed there as a transvestite and was also available as a call boy. After his release from prison, not only had his fiancée and his best friend turned their backs on him, but he was also left with a mountain of debt that had almost driven him to suicide. His only support was his former cellmate, Heinz Otto Bartel. During the trial at the Wuppertal Assize Court, Sturm showed no remorse whatsoever; in the press, he was dubbed ‘the Beast of Wuppertal’. Reiner Sturm even mocked his victims, claiming they were ‘no loss to humanity’. On top of that, he threatened to kill the prosecutor. On 23 November 1978, Reiner Sturm was sentenced to life imprisonment for three counts of murder committed for base motives. As Reiner Sturm had seriously injured two fellow prisoners whilst in custody, he was transferred to the high-security wing of Cologne Prison. On 29 April 1998, Reiner Sturm was transferred to Aachen Prison, where he remained incarcerated until his death on 27 August 2003.
