The S-Bahn Murders: A Serial Killer in Nazi Berlin

During World War II, as Allied bombs fell on Berlin and the city was plunged into nightly blackouts, women riding the suburban S-Bahn train network began disappearing. The first body, that of 26-year-old nurse Elfrida Franca, was found by the tracks in December 1940. The forensic pathologist, Dr. Waldemar Zimon, noticed unusual head wounds inconsistent with an accidental fall from a moving train. That same evening, another corpse arrived at the morgue with a nearly identical injury. The police realized they had a serial killer on their hands.

A Killer in the Darkness

The S-Bahn was the backbone of Berlin’s wartime transport, carrying workers to factories that fueled the German war effort. With most young men conscripted, women now filled the industrial workforce and rode the trains at night. The blackout order, issued on the first day of the war, made every carriage pitch black—no lights visible from above, streetlights either off or shrouded. As one historian notes, "It's a perfect scenario for a serial killer." Crime surged under cover of darkness, and dead bodies were common enough that the first murder might have gone unnoticed. But the pattern of bludgeoning, with a weapon later identified as an 18-inch length of lead telephone cable, linked the killings. The common factor was proximity to the S-Bahn in east-central Berlin.