The Berlin court says a doctor was committing heinous serial murders for over three years before German authorities stopped him. At least fifteen people are confirmed victims, with women being the vast majority.

The court said it was convinced after hearing the evidence that the doctor killed 12 women and three men during home visits between September 2021 and July 2024.

Prosecutors had described him as acting out of “a lust for murder.” They said he administered deadly cocktails of sedatives, including an anesthetic and a muscle relaxant that “paralysed the respiratory muscles, leading to respiratory arrest and death within minutes.”

On at least five occasions, prosecutors said, he set fire to victims’ apartments to cover up the killings.

Authorities have said they are still investigating dozens of other deaths possibly linked to Johannes M.

The victims, who were receiving care at the time, were aged between 25 and 94.

Burning nearly half their homes seems like the kind of clue that makes the timeline of inaction even worse. Indeed, it was the fires that tipped off police in 2024.

In the first case on June 11, firefighters who arrived at the scene were able to revive the victim, an 87-year-old woman, but she died at a hospital shortly afterward. On July 8, investigators say, the suspect killed a 76-year-old woman.

Further alleged killings of women, who were 72 and 94, followed on July 15 and 24.

Dozens of other deaths is an understatement, by a lot, given over 90 suspected murders. A German doctor, killing many dozens of patients, for years, and burning their homes.

Not yet seeing this story getting the kind of international coverage, given a long-time serial murderer and arsonist who abused his position of power and trust, that I would have expected.

Reminds me of the German “Rambo” nurse who was enabled by colleagues, killing hundreds of patients for sport.

In the early 2000s, Högel — whose nickname “Resuscitation Rambo” came from his predilection for dramatic resuscitations — was working at Oldenburg Clinic, where physicians noticed an unusual number of emergencies and deaths when he cared for patients. But the pattern was never reported to authorities…. Instead of alerting authorities, hospital leaders encouraged him to move on to another clinic — and later provided him with what police described as a “spotless” reference when he applied to a second facility in Delmenhorst. Once he arrived in Delmenhorst, the pattern intensified. A later review of hospital records found that out of 411 deaths recorded over three years in the intensive care unit, 321 occurred during or shortly after Högel’s shifts….

Hundreds murdered, and the staff and institutions around him didn’t stop it. Rambo was finally turned in by another nurse, a whistleblower, who had observed him injecting a patient with drugs to cause harm.

The BBC offers its readers this perspective on patient and guardian consent in the new Berlin case.

He told the court he had convinced himself that he was doing the right thing, sparing them “suffering and infirmity”.

“Throughout it all, I thought this was the best thing for everyone,” he said.

What’s next from the BBC, Hitler quotes about how he believed his Holocaust was for good? Do they even have senior editors anymore? He murdered people and lit their homes on fire!