Partners in Crime

The true partners in crime, who murdered six people in Greece within a matter of days in order to enrich themselves, were the two 31-year-old Germans Hermann Duft and Hans Wilhelm Bassenauer, who had been best mates since their school days. The two had known each other since their school days. Although Hermann Duft was a locksmith and Hans Wilhelm Bassenauer worked as a plumber, both had a history of committing robberies and other criminal offences from an early age, which is why they had previous convictions. At the beginning of 1969, they decided to drive to Greece, where they arrived on 17 February. Shortly after their arrival, on 5 March, they raided a petrol station near the Greek city of Thebes. In the process, they killed the night watchman as well as a soldier who happened to be there – simply the wrong person in the wrong place at the wrong time. Barely a week later, on 13 March, they murdered a Greek-American stockbroker in Voula. Almost three weeks passed before they killed a taxi driver on 7 April and, just two days later on 9 April, a petrol station attendant not far from Athens. Their final victim was a Greek man whom they murdered on 12 April whilst travelling from Athens to Patras. They then drove back to Athens in his car. The Greek police were initially completely in the dark as to who had committed the ruthless murders, in which the killers had made off with the equivalent of 5,000 marks. But then, on 16 April, they received a crucial tip-off from a woman who had discovered bloodstains in a car with German number plates that had not been moved for several days. The car led the police to the two Germans, who were arrested shortly afterwards as they attempted to retrieve their car. Hermann Duft and Hans Wilhelm Bassenauer were tried shortly afterwards at the Court of Appeal, where they were found guilty and sentenced to death. Although they lodged an appeal, this was rejected by the Supreme Court of Cassation, as was their application to the Pardon Board to have their death sentence commuted to life imprisonment. That same year, on 15 December 1969, the serial killer duo, who had six people to their name, were executed by firing squad. Whilst Hans Wilhelm Bassenauer was shot on the Greek island of Corfu, his best friend was shot dead on the Greek island of Aegina. Thus ended the lives of the two serial killers.