Lutz Reinstrom was a master furrier who lived in Rahlstedt, a district in the east of Hamburg. On May 22, 1996, the Hamburg Regional Court convicted him of the murders of two women, the first in March 1986 and the second in October 1988. It sentenced him to life imprisonment and ordered preventive detention to follow, the measure German courts call Sicherungsverwahrung. He was 48 years old. His defense announced an appeal, and later reports describe him as a prisoner at Hamburg's Santa Fu prison.
He first appeared before a court in 1992 on a separate charge, extortionate kidnapping. The murder case grew out of the inquiries that followed that trial. The proceedings that ended in 1996 ran for about 100 hearing days, with 186 witnesses and five expert witnesses called.
Reinstrom was a Kürschnermeister, a furrier who had passed the master examination. His age is on record at different points in the proceedings: 44 in December 1992, 46 at the start of the trial in January 1995 and 48 at the verdict. His date of birth, his upbringing and his family circumstances are not on record. A psychiatric expert who testified in March 1996 described him as of slightly under-average intelligence with low self-esteem. Before the trial began, Reinstrom had refused to cooperate with a court-appointed psychiatrist.
The court found that two women had died at his hands, one in March 1986 and one in October 1988. The first was 61 years old and was the wife of a man for whom Reinstrom had once worked. The second was 31 years old. Their names are not on record.
The indictment charged that the deaths were committed on aggravating grounds including greed and cruelty. Those were the prosecution's allegations, which the court tested over the course of the trial.
The first legal proceeding against Reinstrom concerned another woman, the partner of his former employer. The charge arose from a kidnapping in September 1991 in which a ransom of 300,000 marks was demanded. The woman survived. The indictment of 1995 also listed two older women, aged 65 and 64, who had been targeted in early 1990 and in August 1991 and who had not made complaints to the police.
Reinstrom stood trial for extortionate kidnapping in May 1992. Two later outlets, the Hamburger Allgemeine Rundschau in October 2021 and kino.de in an article about a television series, state that he received a sentence of three years. A report in the Berliner Kurier in January 2023 places that conviction in 1991.
Authorities received their first hints about the two earlier deaths in May 1992, around the time of the kidnapping trial. A criminal investigator who had testified at that trial pressed for further inquiries, and in December 1992 an investigation of two killings was opened.
By mid-December 1992 a special commission of the Hamburg state criminal investigation office was working on the case. Its head said he suspected that other women might also have been affected. No charge arising from that suspicion is on record.
The indictment ran to 204 pages. It charged two counts of murder, together with extortionate kidnapping and attempted aggravated robbery. The trial was held before the Schwurgerichtskammer, the jury chamber of the Regional Court, with Gerhard Schaberg as presiding judge. It began on January 11, 1995, in Chamber 22. It rested on circumstantial evidence, and Reinstrom denied the charges from the first day.
On the first day Reinstrom told the court that he was not a murderer and that he had killed no one. He also accused the prosecutor, Angelika Hauser, of passing files to the media. On February 22, 1995, his defense announced a motion to suspend the proceedings, arguing that prosecutors were holding back statements Reinstrom had made in other proceedings that would clear him. The prosecution refused the defense access to those files, saying that the purpose of the investigation could be put at risk.
In February 1995 taz reported that prosecutors were examining three further, similar cases against him, which were not part of the trial. A prosecution spokesperson said in August 1995 that the matters under investigation were not part of the main trial.
By March 1996 the trial had run for 82 hearing days. Reinstrom denied having killed either woman and offered accounts of accidental or natural deaths. The evidence heard had not established the cause of either death. The psychiatric expert who testified that month did not exclude diminished criminal responsibility altogether but considered it unlikely.
The case turned at a hearing on April 29, 1996. Reinstrom admitted that he had caused the death of one of the two women, the 31-year-old, and said that he had lost control of himself. The admission came on the 90th hearing day. On May 20, 1996, he made his closing statement and said again that he was not a murderer.
The Regional Court gave its verdict on May 22, 1996. It convicted Reinstrom of two murders and imposed life imprisonment, followed by Sicherungsverwahrung. The prosecution had sought a life sentence and said it was satisfied. The defense had asked for acquittal or at least for no conviction for murder, and announced a Revision. A dpa report printed in taz on May 23, 1996, quoted the presiding judge as saying that the severity of the crimes could hardly be exceeded.
The defense announced a Revision on the day of the verdict. The outcome of the appeal is not on record. Later reports treat the sentence as in force: in October 2021 the Hamburger Allgemeine Rundschau wrote that Reinstrom was still in prison at Santa Fu, and in January 2023 the Berliner Kurier said the same. No release hearing or review of the preventive detention is on record, and his status after January 2023 is not on record.
In 2014 the zu Klampen publishing house issued a book on the Hamburg case by Heinrich Thies. A six-part German television drama series is loosely based on the case. Its central character is a fictional killer named Raik Doormann, and the series is not a record of the real proceedings.
Three matters remain open. First, taz reported in February 1995 that prosecutors were investigating three further, similar cases involving Reinstrom, and in December 1992 an investigator voiced a suspicion about other women. No charge from those inquiries is on record, and Reinstrom was convicted of two killings only. Second, one account from March 1996 places both deaths in 1988; the verdict gives March 1986 and October 1988. Third, the three-year sentence at the 1992 kidnapping trial is on record only from later years, and one account gives a different year for that conviction.
March 1986: the first of the two women dies.
October 1988: the second woman dies.
Early 1990 and August 1991: two earlier kidnapping allegations listed in the 1995 indictment; neither woman made a complaint.
September 1991: the kidnapping that led to the first trial.
May 1992: kidnapping trial in Hamburg; authorities receive first hints about the earlier deaths.
December 1992: the murder investigation opens; the special commission begins work.
January 11, 1995: murder trial begins at the Landgericht Hamburg.
February 22, 1995: defense motion to suspend the proceedings.
March 1996: trial at 82 hearing days.
April 29, 1996: Reinstrom admits causing the death of one of the women.
May 20, 1996: his closing statement.
May 22, 1996: verdict of two murders; life imprisonment and Sicherungsverwahrung.
October 2021 and January 2023: reports that he remains at Santa Fu.