Peter Kürten was born on May 26, 1883, in Mülheim am Rhein, Germany. He was the oldest of thirteen children, but two of his siblings died young. His family lived in a small, one-bedroom apartment. Both of Kürten’s parents were alcoholics, and his father was abusive. He regularly beat his wife and children, especially when drunk. There were instances where he forced his family to watch as he abused their mother. In 1897, Kürten's father was jailed for sexually assaulting his eldest daughter, who was only thirteen at the time. After this incident, Kürten's mother separated from his father and later remarried, moving the family to Düsseldorf.

As a child, Kürten displayed troubling behaviors. At the age of five, he attempted to drown a friend while playing. When he was nine, he reportedly pushed another school friend into the water, leading to the deaths of both boys. These events were ruled accidental by authorities.

Kürten was not only a victim of his father's abuse but also often faced physical violence at home. Being the oldest son, he was frequently targeted by his father's anger. This abuse affected his school life; he was a good student initially, but due to the violence at home, he often ran away. He spent days and weeks living on the streets, joining with petty criminals and social misfits. This lifestyle led him to engage in various minor crimes to survive.

By the age of thirteen, Kürten became friends with a dog-catcher who lived nearby. He would accompany this man and participate in the torture and killing of animals. This marked the beginning of Kürten's troubling relationship with violence and life.

At thirteen, Kürten also entered a relationship with a girl his age, but it was not completely consensual. He later began engaging in disturbing acts with animals in local stables, which included stabbing them. After leaving school at fourteen, he started an apprenticeship as a moulder, as his father insisted. However, this apprenticeship lasted only two years. Kürten stole money from home and his employer and ran away to Koblenz.

In Koblenz, he briefly dated an older prostitute and began a life of petty crime. He was arrested shortly after for theft and sentenced to a month in prison. Upon his release, he continued to commit crimes and was imprisoned multiple times throughout his life. He served several years in prison for various offenses before his life took a darker turn.

On May 25, 1913, Peter Kürten committed his first confirmed murder. He broke into a tavern in Mülheim am Rhein, where he found a nine-year-old girl named Christine Klein asleep. Kürten strangled her and then cut her throat with a pocket knife. He experienced a feeling of pleasure as he heard the blood dripping from her wounds.

After the murder, Kürten returned to the area the next day to listen to the locals discussing the crime. He found satisfaction in their outrage and disgust. In the following weeks, he visited Christine's grave and felt excited while touching the soil covering it.

A couple of months later, on July 14, Kürten attempted to murder a 17-year-old girl named Gertrud Franken as he broke into another home in Düsseldorf. He strangled her but managed to escape before she woke and realized what was happening. He was caught shortly after for a series of burglaries and sentenced to six years in prison.

Upon his release in 1921, Kürten returned to Düsseldorf and began committing more crimes. In February 1929, he attacked Apollonia Kühn, stabbing her 24 times. She survived the assault. Soon after, he strangled a nine-year-old girl, Rosa Ohliger, before stabbing her multiple times and attempting to burn her body.

On August 11, 1929, Kürten murdered Maria Hahn. He strangled her, stabbed her, and later buried her body but returned multiple times to the site, admitting a fascination with it. Over the next few months, he continued his violent spree, attacking random victims with a hammer and scissors.

Kürten's last known fatal attack occurred on November 7, 1929, when he murdered a five-year-old girl named Gertrude Albermann. He strangled her and stabbed her multiple times before hiding her body.

His actions garnered widespread attention, leading to a massive police investigation. Detectives linked many of the attacks to one perpetrator, the "Vampire of Düsseldorf," due to their brutality and similarities.

Kürten wrote letters to newspapers, claiming responsibility for his murders and taunting the police. Finally, on May 24, 1930, he was apprehended after a failed attack on a woman named Maria Budlick.

Kürten confessed to numerous crimes, including nine murders and several attempts on other lives. He provided chilling details about his motivations, tying them to a need for control and pleasure derived from violence.

In April 1931, he stood trial and was found guilty on multiple counts. He was sentenced to death and executed by guillotine on July 2, 1931. His head was later preserved and is now displayed in a museum.