by Jack Bowman - 2007
In pre-Nazi Berlin there are two serial killers that stand out. One is Peter Kürten and the other is Fritz Haarmann. The newspapers of the day were plastered with them. Fritz Lang's "M" was the model for serial killer movies to come. Even though Alfred Hitchcock's "Psycho" was inspired by the Ed Gein exploits of the late 1950's these two serial killers were the outstanding ones associated with pre-Nazi Berlin. "M" premiered on May 11th of 1931 in Berlin. Some still consider this one of the finest movies ever made. Fritz Lang denied it but it is believed that Peter Kürten was the inspiration for "M". The serial killers as super villains started in the 1920's with newspaper stories of the sadistic murders. The other major serial killer of that time was Fritz Haarmann. It is interesting to note that the popularity of psychics dominated. More than 300 psychics/spiritualist offered to find the serial killers. These murders were considered sex murders.
Stills from Fritz Lang's "M"
DAYTON - My first encounter with the Dayton Underground film scene was when I was invited by Chris to a film opening, around 1994, in an apartment located off Brown Street near the University of Dayton. It was located in a house and about 20 people were in attendance. The films were in black and white. One involved homosexuality where a person dressed as a priest paddled another male that was on all fours. Another involved a "snuff" film where the female was repeatedly stabbed. The female in actuality was not killed because she was at the film showing as well as most of the other actors. One of the films somehow involved a shotgun that was sawed off at both the barrel and the stock, and drugs. I didn't really get the plot then and still do not these years later.
Rob Avery is Dayton's true horror film maker. He uses digital video since the cost in comparison to film is hundreds of percent less. I acted, as Nursery Rhyme Jack, in his best known film "Slashers Gone Wild". Since independent (Underground) film makers have to do almost all of the work or get actors without cost they are also specialized in their type of film, even within the genre. Rob was a specialist in prop making. He learned most of his skills from the Pennsylvania School of Art and Design. He told me his goal was to make his films more horrible than any that had been made before. Rob thinks that he met Jeff Dahmer when he was a child because they both frequented the same "kid friendly" store when Jeff lived in Huber Heights.
Adolf and Fred performing at the Canal Street Tavern. (early 1990's)
Front Street Warehouse, located on E. 2nd Street, has been Dayton's Artists colony since the late 1960's. I was a member of the Photo Co-op that was located on the third floor in the middle 1990's.
One of the most colorful characters was Fred. Fred was a girl with short cropped hair and usually wore a light brown pea coat and looked a lot like a female Nazi prison guard. She was a female, I was assured by people that had seen her nude. At a Santa Clare Art Hop she did open her blouse and show me her new tattoo. It was a spiral that surrounded her breast. Fred invited me to a Hell's Angel's Pig Roast in Kentucky one time. I declined because I wasn't sure that I wasn't going to be the pig. But it did indicate that the avant-garde art crowd trusted me even though I did not live their life style. I did appreciate them in that they were brave enough to live an alternate life style. The first time I was introduced to Fred we walked into her room that was inside her studio. She was sniffing a line of coke from the table. Adolf was there as well as three men in their lower twenties wearing baseball caps and flannel shirts. I don't recall if this was the early days of the Grunge look or not. I noticed that she had on a stand, on her table, a paperback copy of "The Great Houdini" published in 1969 by Scholastic Paperback. I knew the publishing date and publisher because I also had a copy of the same book. We started talking about her unique "Performance". She had a gynecologist chair in he studio and would strip male volunteers to their underpants and strap them into their chair. She would then cut them with razors. She photographed them and kept an album readily available for all to see.