Manfred Seel

Manfred Adolf Seel (October 30, 1946 – August 26, 2014), also known as the Hesse Ripper, Jack the Ripper of Schwalbach and Alaska, was a suspected serial killer believed to have committed five murders in the Frankfurt Rhine-Main area of Germany between 1971 and 2004, and is currently under investigation for other unresolved deaths.

Seel died of esophageal cancer before his alleged crimes were uncovered.

Seel was born on October 30, 1946, and grew up as an only child in Kronberg im Taunus, Hesse, West Germany.

After attending secondary school in Oberursel in 1957, he completed an apprenticeship for chemography in the Georg Stritt printing company on Mainzer Landstraße in Frankfurt.

Between 1967 and 1969, Seel began his two years of compulsory military service, serving in the Raketenartilleriebatallion 52 at the Steuben kaserne in Giessen.

Seel's killing instinct, according to the investigators, probably expired between 1971 and 1991, as he had been in a psychologically stable phase due to changing circumstances such as marriage and family formation.

The police assume that between 1971 and 2004, Seel murdered at least five women.

In 1973, after receiving his abitur, he studied art and social history at the Goethe University Frankfurt but did not graduate.

Seel married in 1973; his wife died in 2013.

His only child, a daughter, was born in 1979.

Seel was described by neighbours as a friendly and inconspicuous man who occasionally had angry outbursts.

According to eyewitness testimony, he regularly visited local prostitutes in the early 1990s.

One prostitute contacted a helpline for local sex workers and reported being abused by Seel, warning other women about his violent behaviour.

In 1996, Seel checked into a rehab clinic in Erbach im Odenwald to treat alcoholism.

Seel died in 2014, one year after he was diagnosed with esophageal cancer.

A few weeks after his death, Seel's daughter and her partner discovered human remains in a rented garage near his household.

Since September 2015, the LKA Working Group Alaska has cited Seel as a prime suspect in several murders which are currently being investigated.

Alaska was a nickname of Seel's, as he was known to often wear fur clothing in warm seasons and because Alaska was one of his preferred travel destinations.

Seel was previously considered a "blameless citizen".

The investigation led into Frankfurt's red-light district and several cold cases concerning the murders of prostitutes.

The murders attributed to Seel were brutal and exhibited sexual sadism.

The victims were killed by "harsh violence in sexually relevant zones".

The killer would gather certain organs or body parts such as genitals, arms or legs, which he later kept in hidden places as trophies.

He also probably returned to the crime scenes for sexual gratification.

The victims always had different parts removed.

Investigator Frank Hermann said at a press conference: "Sometimes it's a right leg, sometimes a left arm – if you put it together, you could actually make a new body by doing that".

The police acknowledge that Seel may have had an accomplice, citing forensic trace evidence and the extreme injury pattern on a corpse which only could have been possible by the interaction of two perpetrators.

The State Office of Criminal Investigation is currently appealing to the public for further information about Seel and his victims.

Also, they are looking for any surviving victims, with the help of whom conclusions could be drawn for the perpetrator, his motive or the course of events.

"Yes, this is definitely the most extraordinary case I've ever worked on. The violence is so despicable and unfathomable, it eclipses everything else I've experienced."

The police saw Seel as a misogynist or a misanthrope.

On the hard drives of several PCs in his basement, investigators found five terabytes of violent pornography, in both photo and video format.

According to criminal psychologist Lydia Benecke, Seel saw his victims as objects for the satisfaction of his sadistic fantasies and low self-esteem.

The humiliation, dehumanization and control over the victims, along with a greatly diminished sense of empathy, probably played a major role in the murders.

The "trophy hunting" and the storage of body parts may have served another desire as well.

According to the criminal psychologist Helmut Kury, Seel felt "lust for violence and aggression" and most likely lacked "emotional vibration ability".

He assumes that the "social aide" of his personality and the construction of a bourgeois facade served to conceal his perverse inclinations.

The offender was capable of acting intelligently.

He had not acted spontaneously and in the affect, but his deeds (selection of the victims and the course of action) were planned.

The cause of his sadistic tendencies could have been early childhood developments.