William Kunnecke

William Kunnecke (1850 – disappeared September 3, 1919), known as the Human Monster, was a German-American murderer and suspected serial killer, convicted of murdering farmhand Andrew Demler in South Dakota and suspected of two previous killings in Idaho. He was found guilty of Demler's murder and sentenced to life imprisonment at the South Dakota State Penitentiary, from where he escaped in 1919, never to be seen again.

Move to America William Kunnecke emigrated to the United States from Germany in 1884. He first settled in Mountain Home, Idaho, where he ran a shoe shop. He married Regina Kopp through a marriage bureau in 1896. He bought a herd of sheep, tending to them near Rocky Bar, while his wife worked at the farm. Eventually, the herd grew at a mysteriously rapid rate and the couple had to hire farmhands, several of whom later disappeared under suspicious circumstances.

Murders Koeninger In 1895, Regina's nephew, known only by his surname Koeninger, arrived from Germany. William quickly employed him as a farmhand. Koeninger remained there for a year and a half, but then suddenly disappeared in the area of Trinity Mountain's lakes. He rode out to the farm and questioned the sheep herder, who claimed that Andrew had quit and gone off to New York through Pierre. During this time, he tried to escape on three separate occasions, and on one of them, he was found with a saw made from an old caseknife, a stove poker, a large bottle and a stick. After being punished for this, he proceeded to go on a six-day long hunger strike, tried to kill himself by eating a bar of soap, In the meantime, there was a report of a human skeleton found at Kunnecke's old farm, which later turned out to be animal bones.

Eventually, William Kunnecke confessed to Demler's murder, although he claimed it was in self-defense. On September 3, 1919, while watering the prison lawn, he managed to slip through the gate unnoticed, when it was opened so some work teams could go through.

Detective agencies through the entire USA were notified about him, but although he spoke with a distinct German accent, he travelled only at night, successfully evading police. One report claimed that a man matching Kunnecke's description was seen at El Paso, Texas, before making his way over the border into Mexico, but this has not been conclusively proven, and his ultimate fate remains unknown.