written by Matthew Gorman

OVER THE YEARS, many a captured killer has denied responsibility for their brutal crimes by claiming to be operating under the undue influence of some outside force, a notion harkening back to an age when crazed and violent persons were thought to be possessed by evil spirits. Often the accused will claim to have committed the murder or murders under the dominant sway of some demon or even of The Devil himself. This was the case in such high profile trials as that of Nightstalker, Richard Ramirez and the infamous BTK killer, Dennis Rader, as well as several others. These “satanic killers”, as they have been dubbed by former F.B.I. profiler, Kenneth Lanning, often feel they are not to blame for their crimes as their wills have been entirely subverted by the incontrovertible orders or influence of some infernal agent. But no murder case brought before the courts has been more rife with such alleged Satanic influence than that of German “vampire” Satanists, Daniel and Manuela Ruda, a gothic couple who claimed that the grisly murder they carried out was, in fact, ordered by Satan and that they were powerless against his machinations. In short, they both claim that the Devil made them do it.

German-born Manuela Ruda claimed that the Devil first contacted her at age 14 during a visit to Britain. As a result, she fell into the gothic scene in England and became fascinated with devil worship.

After returning home to her small town of Witten, Germany, Manuela was soon overcome by wanderlust again and at age 16 she journeyed to the Scottish Highlands where she ended up working in a hotel. Manuela explained to the court how she enjoyed the emptiness of the landscape, the ancient cemeteries, and the lingering gloom brought about by the low-laying clouds. After the hotel season was over, Manuela went to live in a cave on The Isle of Skye with a strange 62-year-old man named Tom Woolridge (a.k.a Tom Leppard). Tom was tattooed from head to foot with leopard-print markings and his eccentric personality and lifestyle seemed to fuel Manuela’s thirst for the bizarre.

After Scotland, Manuela returned to London where she worked in a gothic club in Islington (North London) and became involved with a group of friends interested in vampirism and Satanism. This contingent of gothic youths would attend “bite parties” (where human blood was imbibed from the necks of willing donors) and practice satanic rituals. Manuela claimed that she and her ghoulish friends would also sleep atop graves at night (hey, aren’t vampires suppose to sleep during the day?), and she claimed that she even allowed herself to be buried alive just to see how it felt. After this time in London, Manuela considered herself to have been “initiated” and believed that she was now a vampire. After returning to Germany she actually had her canine teeth removed and surgically replaced with the fangs of an animal to complete her vampiric transition.

Manuela met fellow German Daniel Ruda through a personal advertisement posted in the back of the magazine Metal-Hammer. The ad read: “Raven-black vampire seeks Princess of Darkness who hates everyone and everything.” Upon meeting, the two quickly bonded and they were soon inseparable.

The couple traveled together to England and Scotland during the late 90s but eventually made their home in the industrial city of Bochum, Germany. Their apartment was decorated with cemetery lights and broken headstones (likely stolen from local graveyards), as well as a large collection of axes, knives, and machetes. The couple also kept a satanic altar complete with human skulls (possibly stolen from the numerous graves that the sinister couple had admittedly disinterred) and a satin-lined, oak coffin adorned with an inverted crucifix in which Manuela sometimes slept.

In 2001, Daniel Ruda was about to lose his job selling auto parts when he allegedly had a dream in which he claimed that The Devil had told him to marry Manuela on June 6th (6/6), which he did, and then to find for the pair a sacrificial victim. The plan was to claim a victim and then for both he and Manuela to commit suicide so that they could go to Hell to live with Satan. The murderous part of this plan would be realized one month after the couple’s marriage (as per the alleged dream’s instructions) in July of 2001 when the two would murder Daniel’s coworker, 33-year-old Frank Hackerts (named as Frank Haagen in some accounts) in cold blood.

Hackert was invited to the Rudas’ apartment unaware of the fate that awaited him. Upon Hackerts’ arrival, Manuela Ruda claimed that “strange beings” were present. “We were not alone,” she explained to the court, “There was a presence there, a powerful force.” Manuela then went on to describe the attack on Hackert instigated by her husband, Daniel Ruda:

“We were sitting on the couch the whole time, then my husband stood up,” she said. “He had terrible, glowing eyes and hit out with the hammer. Frank stood up and said something, or wanted to say something. The knife was glowing and a voice told me: ‘Stab him in the heart.’ He then sank. I saw a light flickering around him. That was the sign that his soul was going down. We said a satanic prayer. We were then exhausted, and alone, wanted to die ourselves. But the visitation was too short. We could no longer kill ourselves.”

The brevity of the actual murder in Manuela’s account, however, was uncorroborated by the physical evidence. In reality, Hackerts likely suffered several blows to the face with Daniel Ruda’s hammer, was stabbed (likely by both of the Rudas) 66 times, and was left with a pentagram carved into his torso and a scalpel protruding from his body. The couple then drained Hackerts’ blood into a bowl and drank it as well as putting out numerous cigarettes on his back. Following the murder, the Rudas had sex in Manuela’s coffin and left Hackerts’ corpse to decompose next to it for a week before their apprehension.

During the week following the killing, Manuela Ruda claims that the couple tried unsuccessfully several times to end their own lives. Some accounts state the two were arrested at their apartment while other reports insist that the two were apprehended at a gas station with a newly purchased chainsaw. The couple had made a list of more victims that they had planned to murder with the chainsaw so as not to meet Satan “empty-handed” they explained. One report claims that the list – comprised of around fifteen names – was actually written in Hackerts’ blood on a wall of the couple’s apartment, although this particular detail is unsubstantiated by any other report. Whatever the case, the two were arrested and subsequently charged with murder.

During their trial, the Rudas remained unrepentant and made a mockery of the court proceedings by rolling their eyes, sticking out their tongues, and making a barrage of lewd gestures and comments. Manuela Ruda told the court that she had signed over her soul to Satan two and a half years prior, and said that she felt that neither she nor her husband were guilty of murder as they were under the control of The Devil. Not surprisingly, Daniel Ruda concurred, telling the court, “If I kill a person with my car and half his bloody head is left on my bumpers, it is not the car that goes to jail. It is the driver who is evil. I have nothing to repent, because I did nothing."

Psychiatric experts informed the court that they believed the couple to be suffering from "severe narcissistic personality disturbances". Because of this, the prosecutors, themselves, did not push for the life sentences typically handed down in such circumstances. Even they were convinced that the two defendants truly believed themselves to be under the influence of the Devil at the time of the murder.

The Judge, one Arnjo Kerstingtombroke, however, did not agree. He told the courtroom: "This case was not about Satanism but about a crime committed by two people with severe disorders. Nothing mystical or cult-like happened here; just simple, base murder." But in light of the aforementioned testimony from psychiatric professionals, the judge grudgingly mitigated the couples’ sentences all the same. 26-year-old Daniel Ruda and 23-year-old Manuela Ruda were sentenced to 15 and 13 years respectively in a maximum-security psychiatric ward. It is quite possible, however, that the two might not be released upon the conclusion of their individual sentences depending upon the opinions of the psychiatric staff at such time.

Daniel Ruda’s lawyer, Hans Reinhardt, later admitted that he felt that the story of satanic possession was simply a ruse, and that his client had committed the brutal murder in order to become famous. Reinhardt said he believed this to be true due to comments that Daniel Ruda had made to him at one point to that very effect.

Well, there you have it, the sordid tale of Daniel and Manuela Ruda, a couple of dorkish, vampire-wannabes who still refuse to accept the blame for something they insist The Devil made them do. And if you actually think for one minute that these two fucking idiots are cool in any way, shape, or form, then you are a sad, sack of shit that should probably be beaten to death with a hammer. Ciao!