# Simon Bingelhelm

Simon Bingelhelm (1565 – 2 June 1600), called The Thousand Devils of Halberstadt, was a German robber and serial killer. He was executed for multiple crimes in an area now known as Saxony-Anhalt.

## Capture

In the spring of 1600, a man who was believed to be the "Thousand Devils of Halberstadt" was arrested. He was brought to Gröningen, the location of the Diocese of Halberstadt at the time, and which was the residence of Duke Henry Julius of Brunswick. There, the suspect was imprisoned and interrogated, sometimes under torture.

## Confessions

In the course of the interrogations, the man stated that his civil name was Simon Bingelhelm, and that he was born in Halberstadt.
He confessed to numerous burglaries and theft offences, primarily in Halberstadt, but also in Wernigerode, Reddeber, Falkenstein, Hoym, Aschersleben, Seehausen, Ballenstedt, Eilenstedt, Heimburg, Klein Quenstedt, Westerhausen, Dardesheim, Prenzlau, Salzwedel, Haldensleben, Neuhaldensleben, Calvörde, Derenburg, Herzberg, Oschersleben, Schermcke, Krottorf and Quedlinburg.
He allegedly said that he was the arsonist behind the fire at Drübeck Abbey monastery in 1599, and that he watched the fire from a neighbouring mountain. He had a chalice from Rade church and had stolen eleven talers from the poverty box of St. George's Church in Derenburg. He broke into the Martinique Church with others and stole the poor box. In Helmstedt, he stabbed a man for two groschen and a pawn near Bernburg. At Benzingerode he killed a young woman, eight days before the Pentecost in 1599. In the forest between Hornburg and Osterwieck, he tried to rape an 18-year-old girl and later killed her.
In the interrogations, the man confessed to a total of 71 crimes, including involvement in 26 murders. Among other things, he is said to have attacked a pregnant woman, whom he killed with his cronies. They supposedly slashed her body to remove her unborn child, from whose entrails he then made candles for his next burglary. He was involved in the robbery and killing of at least five infants.
During the interrogation, this was recorded:
   "Admit that he, Black Hans, Pothans, Rickel and the fat Marten zu Hessen [on the highway from Halberstadt to Wolfenbüttel] took a child of 3 or 4 years before the gates of a man. The same is a Jew to Berßel want to sell, but which, because it was a Medlein not keep the child. If they had taken it and buried it on the Huy in the Long Meadow in the ground up to the armpit and thrown after it with beards, Pothans had thrown off the child's head. The head at Huy-Neinstedt put back in a cave and the other buried in the ground. The child would always have laughed when thrown at it. He confesses that he, Schwartze Hanß, Pothans, and Rickel, had four children of three and four years old, stolen, [...] hetted the children to the eight days in the Danneils cave in the Huy, and asked him to negotiate with the Jews to help, but which children do not want the Jews. Derwegen beaten the same death, three in Jürgen Holtz about Schwanebeck and in the Warta one Sarckstedt buried."

## Execution

On his execution on 2 June 1600, in Gröningen, he was "attacked with pincers for honour, dragged to the town court, then quartered".