After the unsuccsessful murder attempt of a lodger in 1924, German Karl Denke's crimes were at least partially uncovered. Police investigating the botched attack searched Denke's home, which doubled as a cheap hotel, found numerous identity papers of persons who had presumably stayed at the house and never left. When a thorough search of the premises revealed vats filled with human remains that reportedly came from at least thirty different bodies, Denke was arrested and held over for trial.

The cannibal killer cheated the courts, though, by hanging himself in his cell, leaving many specifics of the case unknowable. It is widely believed that his total kills may have been much more than what could be ascertained by authorities on the theory that previous victims may have already been completely consumed by Kenke and his parade of unwary lodgers, at least those that did not become part of a meal themselves.