A MATCH MADE IN HELL: DANIEL AND MANUELA RUDA

July 6, 2000, West Germany – Daniel and Manuela Ruda, self-described Satanic Vampires, invited their friend Frank Hackert, 33, to their apartment for a “party”. Unbeknownst to Hackert, he was not only the guest, he was to be offered to Satan as a sacrifice in what the Ruda’s considered their entrance fee to Hell where they would sit beside Satan for all eternity. Beginning with a blow to the back of the head with a hammer by Daniel, his alleged command from Satan, Manuela proceeded to stab Hackert a ritualistic 66 times. After carving a pentagram into Hackert’s chest with a scalpel, they collected the blood into a bowl, drank it and waited for their transformation into supernatural vampires that would then be welcomed into Hell by the Devil himself. They waited excitedly for Satan to reward them for their service to him. They waited and waited. But the only reward they would receive was mortal punishment for a brutal murder.

Daniel Ruda always thought himself different and superior to those around him. He’d always felt detached from his fellow humans and it is described that even as a child he often flinched at physical contact. In his early twenties, he became involved in Germany’s neo-Nazi movement, canvassing for the National Democratic Party in 1998’s general election. His taste for the macabre and extreme led him in the direction of the German Gothic community where he met other extremists that practiced satanic rituals and drank each other’s blood. Persuaded by Germany’s extreme right-wing political leaders, Daniel and other young Goths wore neo-Nazi symbols and attended concerts featuring neo-Nazi bands that encouraged the movement. The Party did poorly in the election however, causing Daniel to become disenchanted and he drifted away from the movement and into a black metal band called Bloodsucking Freaks. But the band did not provide the outlet he desired.

Bored and angry, Daniel at 23 years old embraced Satanism as it provided the extra “edge” he was looking for to channel his eccentricities. In August 2000, convinced he was Satan’s chosen Messenger, he decided to place an ad in the classified section of Metal Hammer, a black metal magazine, which read: “Black-haired vampire seeks Princess of Darkness who hates everything and has bidden farewell to life”.

Manuela Ruda, nee Bartel, was three years younger than Daniel but had already traveled to London and Scotland in search for a community of other alienated Goths where she would feel acceptance. Manuela was a normal child, good student and well adjusted until the age of 13 when she became angry and began biting people on the street. Though sent to a psychiatrist for her bazaar behavior, she remained undiagnosed and out of control. At 14 she claimed to have been visited by the Devil and began experimenting with radical “punk” haircuts and clothes chosen for shock value. She frequented any demonstration that allowed her to engage in the act of rebellion. At 16, she had dropped out of school and ran away to London where she found work in a Gothic nightclub in Islington, North London and gravitated toward London’s Goth scene, particularly the Satanist and vampire subcultures that followed black metal. She extended her experimentation with vampirism by attending “bite parties” where willing participants licked blood from each other’s arms. Her thirst for the extreme still not satisfied at 17, she travelled to Scotland and met up with other Goths and began cutting her own arms and sleeping on graves. Photographs of her from this time show a very unhappy, overweight teenager that still looked as though she felt out of place.
In 1998, Manuela travelled back to Germany where she met up with a former friend that described her as “desperate to be the center of attention and loved being photographed”. She kept people at an emotional distance which eventually was an easy feat as her behavior and dress became more and more extreme. She had two teeth removed and animal fangs put in their place to stand out from “the ignorant masses surrounding her”, shaved her hair on each side of her head and donned tattoos of satanic symbols. In October 2000, Manuela claimed to have pledged her soul to Satan’s service in a ceremony and vowed to take his every word as law. Her following of black metal at this point led her to the fateful magazine with Daniel’s ad inside. And so it begins.

Psychiatrists have commented that Daniel and Manuela by themselves most likely would’ve grown out of the Satanism, Vampirism and would’ve perhaps kept their Gothic interest limited to the clothes and music. By themselves, their eccentricities would’ve most likely remained harmless, eventually fading as they grew older. But together, they were a match made in hell.

For the German youth culture like Daniel and Manuela, Satanism provided an outlet for their anti-establishment angry energy. Influenced by such philosophers as Aleister Crowley (1875-1947) and Anton LaVey (1930-1997) the satanic movement offered a lifestyle of self-indulgence and clandestine rituals that appealed to the dark side of an angry teenager and/or young adult. The Church of Satan, founded by LaVey in 1966, is an “organization dedicated to the acceptance of man’s true nature which is that of a carnal beast, living in a cosmos that is indifferent to their existence” according to the organization’s website. The concept that Satan represents pride, liberty and individualism or the Will can easily be manipulated into occult practices to a person feeling disconnected and superior from his or her peers. Although LaVey’s ideology never intended for ritual sacrifice and required total responsibility for one’s choices, his teachings have been distorted by many people looking to exploit the religion into the occult stereotype that it is used as a platform for murder.

In a later volume of his Satanic Bible, LaVey published instructions for the “lycanthropic ritual” which guides the practitioner though the steps of transformation into a werewolf “as much like a vampire”. For vampires, the sensation of undergoing transformation into another creature is essential to the lore. The traditional vampire has achieved a kind of romantic allure as a powerful, mystical creature that lives in the shadows. The Vampire was a human being who has been dead and buried who returns to travel about at night, drinking blood from victims, which sustains his undead corpse. Modern vampires believe the drinking of blood is symbolic of ingesting the essence of a living soul. The intimacy associated with the act serves to feed the fetishistic thrill of the lifestyle. Manuela Ruda was especially attracted to this ideology and was gravely disappointed when she was not given the power to fly after drinking the blood of her sacrificial victim, Frank Hackert.

According to the Diagnostic & Statistical Manual, there is no such thing as a “vampire psychosis”. Rather the idea that one is a Vampire is suggestive of a recognized mental illness in which one is out of touch with reality. After their arrest, Daniel and Manuela had both been diagnosed by three separate psychiatrists as having Narcissistic Personality Disorder. The Mayo Clinic defines NPD as a “mental disorder in which people have an inflated sense of their own importance and a deep need for admiration and is characterized by dramatic, emotional behavior”. The person usually has fragile self-esteem and limited ability to establish meaningful relationships in all areas of their life. According to Professor Norbert Leygraf, one of the most outstanding forensic psychiatrists in the German Republic, treatment would be a lengthy process and may fail given that the couple was incapable of developing feelings of guilt.

It’s no wonder Daniel and Manuela felt instant attraction to one another. Both were outcasts, angry and shared the common link of Satanism with an almost desperate desire to channel that anger in the most extreme ways. They moved in together in an apartment in Witten where they decorated the living room with an alter fashioned from imitation skulls and a coffin in the bedroom where Manuela liked to sleep. Completed with special cemetery lights that illuminated the torture devices hanging from the walls in dungeon-like living quarters, the apartment was far from warm and cozy.

While Daniel maintained a normal façade during the day at his job, Manuela stayed inside often in her coffin in the dark. Eventually Satanism became the foundation of their relationship. They theorized over and over that they couldn’t be with Satan unless they had given him an offering first. With the line between reality and role-play blurring, the couple married on June 6, 2001. To complete Satan’s symbolic 6-6-6, they decided to offer their “gift” on July 6.

Frank Hackert, known as Hacki, was a co-worker of Daniel’s who was described as warm, entertaining, popular, normal and loved the Beatles. He liked to give people the benefit of the doubt and befriended the Ruda’s despite their vast differences. Manuela thought he would make a perfect court jester for Satan because of his witty sense of humor, therefore he was chosen for the “honor”. Their plan was to kill Hackert, drink his blood, commit suicide and enter through the gates of Hell to take their rightful places beside Satan.

When ingesting the blood did not transform them into supernatural or immortal beings and no sign from the Devil was received, the couple panicked and fled. They took a road trip through the German towns infamous for the crime known as “The Case of Satan’s Children” which held significance to the Ruda’s. The crime centered around Hendrik Mobus, founder of the neo-Nazi black metal band Absurd, who was convicted of a satanic ritual murder of 15-year-old Sandro Beyer in 1998 and sentenced to 8 years. Because he had been under 18 at the time of the murder, he was released but parole was revoked when he performed the Hitler Salute at a concert which is illegal in Germany. In 1999 he fled to the United States where he was captured by US Marshalls and as of 2001 was awaiting extradition back to Germany. Mobus was a kind of folk-hero to Daniel and Manuela.

Back home, Manuela’s mother received a farewell letter from her daughter saying “I am not of this world” and “I must liberate my soul from the mortal flesh” which was interpreted as a suicide note. Worried for her daughter despite the trials of raising her, she contacted the police who then went to the apartment and discovered the decomposing body of Frank Hackert along with a list of 15 names thought to be potential victims. The search for Hacki’s killers ensued.

Feeling abandoned by Satan and unsure what to do, the Ruda’s drove around until they were caught on July 12 near Jena in Eastern Germany. They surrendered willingly although Daniel claimed to have no memory of the murder. The perpetual attention seeker, Manuela was able to recall every detail and happily reiterated the event to the police. In custody, Daniel bit his own veins and then asked for a doctor which was odd behavior for a self-described vampire. He reportedly told his lawyers that he wanted to be more famous than Charles Manson.

His outrageous behavior at their 2002 trial was certainly an avid attempt at infamy. Daniel and Manuela seemed to play to the audience by flaunting their eccentricities. They struck angry poses for the media cameras; threatened the jury; made devil’s horns signals to the public and Hacker’s family whom they openly mocked by staring at them and flicking out their tongues to lick their lips. Manuela requested through her attorney that the windows be blackened out because the sunlight hurt her eyes. The judge denied this request but did allow her to wear sunglasses though the trial.

When on the stand, Daniel did not show remorse. He insisted that the Devil made them do it - they were only obeying orders, acting as instruments. He explained “If I kill a person with my car and half his bloody head is left on my bumper, it’s not the car that goes to jail. It’s the driver who is evil. I have nothing to repent because I did nothing.” Manuela at the time agreed with her husband.

On January 31, 2002, Judge Arno Kersting-Tombroke declared the Ruda’s mentally fit and sentenced Daniel to 15 years and Manuela to 13 years to be served in a psychiatric unit of the prison. The court also ordered that they must never be allowed to meet again which neither Daniel nor Manuela resisted because the marriage was never about love. In a final mocking gesture the smiling couple shared a last passionate kiss for the cameras before being escorted out. Judge Kersting-Tombroke’s summed up the event with the comment that “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.

The couple divorced shortly after the trial. Both Ruda’s have claimed to have distanced themselves from the “black scene”. Daniel wrote a book in which he claimed he lied when he said that Satan had ordered the murder. He said he was not a Satanist but that he was trying to protect his wife who was the driving force behind the murder. Unfortunately the book only served to reinforce his mental illness and led to denial of early release in 2011 after serving two-thirds of his sentence. Although a new psychiatrist reported in January 2013 that Daniel is no longer a threat, he remains in prison due to his unwillingness to undergo therapy since 2004. Manuela willingly received therapy and appears to have repented. After serving her sentence, she has been released and her whereabouts are currently unknown.

This case has all the elements of a horror story: Satanism, Vampirism, Gothic Rebels, Rituals, Mental Illness and murder. Daniel and Manuela Ruda sought to express their fantastic ideals in extreme ways that eventually led up to the senseless death of a loved human being. It is difficult to wrap one’s mind around what made them take such measures to fulfill a fantasy. We can only hope that the Ruda’s are not placed on a pedestal by other angry, mis-guided teens gravitating toward the Gothic culture.