Part One

1. Greetings
2. Preface
3. Introduction
4. Chapter 1 - The Beginning
5. Chapter 2 - Kenzo Tenma
6. Chapter 3 - Eva Heinemann
7. Chapter 4 - Heinrich Lunge
8. Chapter 5 - Kinderheim 511
9. Chapter 6 - Multiple Personalities
10. Chapter 7 - Rudi Gillen
11. Chapter 8 - Underground Banks
12. Chapter 9 - Karl Schuwald
13. Chapter 10 - Lotte Frank
14. Chapter 11 - Julius Reichwein
Part Two
1. Chapter 12 - Czech and Germany
2. Chapter 13 - Jan Suk
3. Chapter 14 - Karel Ranke
4. Chapter 15 - The Red Rose Mansion
5. Chapter 16 - Anna
6. Chapter 17 - Sobotka
7. Chapter 18 - Jaromir Lipsky
8. Chapter 19 - Fritz Verdeman
9. Chapter 20 - Martin
10. Chapter 21 - Peter Čapek
11. Chapter 22 - Grimmer's Notebook
12. Chapter 23 - Herman Führ
13. Chapter 24 - Collapse
14. Chapter 25 - Ruhenheim
15. Chapter 26 - Ruhenheim
16. Chapter 27 - Ruhenheim
17. Chapter 28 - Ruhenheim
18. Chapter 29 - Ruhenheim
19. Chapter 30 - Ruhenheim
20. Final Chapter

Afterword from the Translator

Commentary from The Nameless Monster
(Obluda: Kterâ Nemá své Jméno, 2008)
Omake
 Introduction
The suburb of Nonnburg in Salzburg, Austria was a
quiet neighborhood south of Hohensalzburg
Fortress, with little connection to the more famous
tourist attractions of the area, such as the
birthplace of Mozart and the setting of The Sound of
Music. After Tuesday November 14th, 2000, it
became the spotlight of all of Austria.

That night, the St. Ursula Emergency Clinic,

located on the north side of Market Square in the
center of town, was receiving no emergency calls
or incoming patients, and so on-duty doctor Ernst
Lerner, intern Paul Hosch and nurse Rosemarie
Berg were relaxing in the staff break room,
drinking coffee and enjoying a discussion about
their favorite soccer players.

They heard receptionist Hanna Ruplechter's scream

at 1:05 AM. Rushing to the lobby of the clinic, Hosch
saw a large man wearing glasses and an
expressionless face, covered in blood. Hosch's initial
reaction was that an injured man had come directly
to the hospital for help, but when he saw
Ruplechter's blood-splattered body lying on the
floor, he instantly realized what had happened. The
man was holding a bloody axe in his right hand.

Hosch moved to run back to the break room and

call for help, but before he could fully react, the
man had knocked him over and continued to walk
down the hallway and into the break room. Hosch
struggled to stand up and called out the names of
his co-workers. The next thing he saw was Nurse
Berg burst out of the room and collapse, bleeding
profusely from the head.
At this point, Hosch's memories become unclear. It
is thought that he then ran out of the hospital and
to a nearby public phone across the street, to alert
the police.

After the Salzburg Police received the call, Senior

Patrol Officer Benjamin Graber and Officer Hermann
Maier arrived at the hospital at 1:54 AM. The
officers walked into the hospital alongside Hosch,
who had been hiding in the darkness. Later, both
officers would describe what they saw the bodies of
two women, the floor slick with blood — as an
unbelievably horrific sight.

Graber and Maier left Hosch in the lobby and

advanced to the break room. They heard voices. In
the room they witnessed the body of Dr. Lerner, his
head not quite severed from his body, and a
towering, bloody man, standing still with an axe in
his hand.

For some reason, he smiled at the officers. After

muttering a strange message, he pushed the axe
against his neck, severing the carotid artery, and
died.

"One, two, three... My mission is complete," the man

said, according to Officer Graber.

The mystery killer's identity was soon discovered:

Gustav Kottmann, age 29. He was already wanted
as a serial killer for murdering seven men and
women over Vienna, chiefly couples inside their
cars, over the last five years.

Kottmann had apparently hitchhiked his way to the

western border of Austria. He had not made any
murders and thus successfully evaded the police for
an entire year, a surprising length of time for the
average serial killer. This enabled him to make his
way to the little town on the German border.
The Salzburg police hold the position that this was a
recurrence of his (particular brand of) serial killing.
Despite his other murders being exclusively sexual
crimes targeting couples, there was no hint of
sexual nature to this incident. The police attributed
this to rising, uncontrollable urges. He happened to
see the lights on in this particular hospital, so he
grabbed an axe and entered.

With Kottmann's suicide, the St. Ursula Clinic

murders marked the grisly end to a string of axe
murders.

But is this really true?

At the time, I was working freelance — on my

first assignment for the newspaper Idee — and
was given this case. I reported on the rough
details of the incident in the way that it was just
presented to you, as did the rest of the media.
But during my work I began to feel doubts in my
mind that lead me to entertain a theory. As I dove
back into the case with this new theory in mind, I
began to see new truths emerge that differed
from what was reported in the media. I even
began to have doubts about the killer —
Kottmann and his undeniable actions themselves.

"One, two, three... My mission is complete,"

Kottmann's last words on this earth. What was this
mission, and who did he receive it from? And why
didn't he commit any murders for the year up to
this point? Where was he hiding while the police
labeled him a "wanted" suspect? I delved into
Gustav Kottmann's life, seeking the answers to these
three questions.

Kottmann was born the eldest of four children in

Kaiserin, a North Austrian town close to the Czech
border. His father Hans owned a farm, which went
out of business when Gustav was five years old.
After that, he repaired bicycles
and such for friends and nearby farmers, but
constantly had trouble seeing eye-to-eye with his
hirers and spent most of his time unemployed and
soaked in alcohol. Gustav's mother Marlen was
considered to have even worse alcoholism than her
husband, with an unchecked temper that frequently
raged out of control.

Kottmann was brought into a hospital in a comatose

state at age twelve. His parents told the medics that
a load of firewood had fallen onto the boy's head,
but the doctor's analysis stated he had probably
been struck with a blunt object. We can't very well
ask Kottmann now whether or not his parents
abused him. But because his brothers and sisters
were eventually put in a foster home due to
negligent care at home makes the possibility
extremely high. The fact that Kottmann sustained
this damage to the head is another important clue
to understanding him. Though not yet explained by
modern science, many mass murderers have the
shared experience of having taken damage to the
head, fallen unconscious and reawakened despite
heavy odds, at some point in their childhood years.

Kottmann was a large boy with very hard-to-read

facial expressions. He had a tendency to skip
school, and thus his marks were far from stellar. He
began working at a supermarket at age sixteen, but
only lasted a total of three months after his
supervisor told him he didn't stand a chance. For a
while after this, he took up a job that his father had
left after quarrelling with the employer — chores at
a nearby farm — and supported the entire family on
his own. It was at this time that he became skilled
with the axe.

But Kottmann's period of good behavior would only

last a few more months. He was soon arrested by
the police for his first crimes — voyeurism and
theft. He escaped a prison sentence, but had
attracted the notice of the local police,
and had no choice but to move away from his family
and live in Klosterneuburg.

He was hired to work at a bookstore in his new

neighborhood, and momentarily behaved himself
during the period of his employment. Surprisingly,
Kottmann had a love for books. He was especially
enthralled with Krone Books' infamous but popular
occult series, "Dorn in the Darkness." He often told
his 19-year old coworker that he would someday
"receive a mission and be given powers of darkness,
just like Dorn."

When comparing the events of Dorn in the Darkness

to the crimes Kottmann would eventually commit,
there are several similarities. The main character,
Dorn, sells his soul to an evil sorceror and gains
dark powers in return. He uses these powers to
exterminate evil in society, using a variety of
merciless brutal methods (in some of the books, an
axe is used). But as he kills each wicked evildoer,
that evil begins to bury itself in his soul, sending
him on the path of crime. In the first story, he is
assaulted by the urge to shoplift and watch women
changing... but Dorn does not fall prey to his
desires. It is when he is nearly overcome by the
urges that he sees a storybook.

Storybooks are a very vital part of the series. When

Dorn reads a storybook that has been written for the
sole sake of its child readers, his conscience wins
over. When he comes into contact with a storybook
written by a wicked author, his intents move in that
direction. As the series progresses, Dorn turns to
violence, sexual crime and theft, even attempting
suicide out of regret for his crimes, until finally, a
storybook completely cleanses his heart and
transforms him into a hero. In addition to being a
story about good and evil, the Dorn series is chock-
full of sex and violence. While Dorn typically defeats
his evil enemies with magic, it is the B-
movie "young couple having sex in the car at
night" that always ends up dead. The death
scenes typically involve brutal dismemberments,
as well.

The creator of this complex protagonist and simple

story, Fritz Weindler, clearly displays both a longing
for and disgust with the concept of free sex. This
philosophy has also clearly affected Kottmann's axe
murders. As one reads Dorn in the Darkness, it
becomes apparent that despite not reaching the
level of popular literature, it has a powerful and
mysterious persuasiveness to it that justifies murder
within the story.

Weindler, the author of Dorn in the Darkness, died a

sudden death in 1992 (some say it was suicide). The
series ended prematurely, at five volumes. In the
fifth book, Dorn was nearly at the gates of evil, his
body poisoned by cocaine. His magic was dwindling,
growing weaker the more powerful his enemies
were. If a new, enigmatic magician hadn't stepped
into the story, Dorn's heart would have fallen
entirely to evil. This progression promised readers
that the magician would become a regular
companion of Dorn's in following volumes.
The first volume of the axe murderer Kottmann's
favorite series, Dorn in the Darkness. Enjoys a cult
status, with 2.5 million total copies of the five volumes
sold. Still in print in Austria, Germany and the
Netherlands.

It was about this time that Kottmann quit his job

without a word, and a few months later committed
his first assault. It was as if he were trying to
become Dorn, to revive the story and bring it to a
conclusion...He caught a man and woman having
sexual intercourse in a park and admonished them.
After getting into an argument, he pummelled the
man unconscious and then beat the woman (but
did not rape her) almost to the point of brain
damage.

After only a two year sentence in prison (due to lack

of evidence for the state to hand him a harsher
sentence), Kottmann left Klosterneuberg and moved
to Vienna. He worked part-time at a supermarket
during the day, and enjoyed his thrilling life hunting
amorous pairs in the evening. His first axe murder
— Rudolf Gross, inside an automobile in a parking
garage, along with his girlfriend Ana Dohrman,
whom he raped and beat to death. However, after
several months the police were still without any
leads on the case, and they never investigated
Kottmann in connection to the murders (The Vienna
police narrowed the search down to axe killers guilty
of sexual crimes, but as Kottmann's first incident in
Klosterneuberg was classified as a simple "beating,"
he was never put on the list of suspects.)

This incident was Kottmann's first taste of homicide,

and sent him on his five-year reign of terror across
Austria. While he wasn't what anyone would call a
brilliant man, Kottmann managed to consistently
evade the search nets of the police by both
disobeying the general standard among serial killers
of committing their murders on a regular,
measurable basis, and by not taking any kind of
memento from his victims.
This is, of course, not to say that the police were
sloppy or careless in their investigation.

In October 1999, Kottmann made a critical mistake.

When attacking a couple at a remote drive-in
theater, he failed to notice the presence of the
Doberman in their vehicle.

Bit deeply on the thigh, Kottmann ran back to his

car and escaped, but ran into some onduty police
officers. He tried to throw them off by driving
toward Mayerling, but it was only a matter of time
until he would be caught and arrested. But all the
police eventually found was his van, abandoned
after Kottmann hitched a ride on the
Schneebergbahn.
Kottmann stayed off the radar for more than a year,
before reappearing at the slaughter in the Salzburg
hospital...

The police are quick to point out Kottmann's

incredible good fortune. It is indeed difficult to
explain how he managed to evade the authorities.
It would be impossible for a man over two meters
tall and a hundred kilograms to use forms of transit
such as buses, trains or hitchhiking and escape the
notice of anyone in the vicinity. Even more
mysterious is that despite police all over Austria
and even Germany responding to over thirty
thousand similar eyewitness reports, not one
corresponded to the man they were looking for.

Where did Kottmann hide? How did he travel? And

was he really smart enough to pull these off on his
own?

I can't help but get the feeling that Kottmann was

most likely working with an accomplice. But the
police dismissed this theory out of hand. They
claimed that his crimes were clearly the work of a
single man. Kottmann killed his victims by himself
— this is undeniable fact. Then what about co-
operatives?
The detective in charge of the case laughed and
asked me, "So he was bitten by a dog and finally
chased down that night, until someone just magically
came to his aid?"

Indeed, the premise I suggested was just like the

ending to the fifth volume of Dorn in the Darkness...
A broken and defeated Dorn is rescued with the
appearance of a mysterious magician...

Now I would like to touch upon two events that

happened in the same area about a week before
the killings at St. Ursula Hospital.

One happened late on the night of November 7th.

This also happened at St. Ursula Emergency Clinic —
seven days before the murders. Around 2:00 AM, a
man came into the emergency care ward. When he
removed his overcoat, he was wearing not a jacket
but only a white shirt, stained with blood on the arm.
He was a salesman on his way to Innsbruck, and the
gun he carried for self-protection accidentally went
off in his car and hit him on the arm. The bullet had
passed clean through the flesh, and he wanted them
to stop the bleeding.

The receptionist that day was Hanna Ruplechter;

the on- duty doctor, Ernst Lerner.

The nurse, filling in for the usual worker (at that

time, on vacation), was Rosemarie Berg — with the
exception of intern Paul Hosch, all the same people
present for the tragedy that would occur in seven
days. Lerner and Berg ran X-rays on the man's arm,
found no traces of a bullet, and after confirming
there was no damage to any arteries, treated the
wound. This took about thirty minutes. Dr. Lerner
whispered to Ruplechter that it might be a good
idea to inform the police, just in case.
But by the time an officer arrived, the man had
disappeared from the waiting room. The officer put
out a notice in all directions, but there were no
reports of any incidents involving guns, and the
man's vehicle was never found at any train stations
leading to Innsbruck.

The second incident I would like to bring up

happened two days later on the 9th, in the quietest
of all Nonnberg's neighborhoods, Gilmgasse. 3rd
Street resident Eugen Molke, a solitary man in his
70s, was found dead, shot through the temple. The
body was discovered by his local welfare attorney,
paying Molke a routine visit. After an autopsy,
medical examiners concluded that Molke shot
himself at roughly 10:00 PM, November 6th, with
the pistol he owned. This opinion, plus the will that
was discovered in the corner of his bookshelf and
the fact that he was dealing with serious heart
disease, led the police to declare his death a
suicide.

At the time that these two events occurred, nobody

could have guessed that they were related in any
way...

Later, when the Salzburg police looked into Molke's

family, they uncovered a surprising past — rather,
that he had no past at all. Eugen Molke moved to
Gilmgasse, Nonnburg ten years ago. According to a
neighbor, "When his wife died, he left the apartment
near the Lokalbahn he had lived in for years and
moved here. He used to be a math teacher." But in
the area where he supposedly used to live, no one
had any recollection of a man named Molke, and his
name appeared in no records. Also, the remaining
balance of his bank account was far too high for
that of a mere retired math teacher. Furthermore,
after investigating his social insurance and passport,
police found that Eugen Molke died seventy years
ago at the age of six months, and had lain at rest
in a graveyard in Landeck ever since.
When the autopsy revealed scars that suggested
plastic surgery to Molke's nose and cheeks, the
police began to look into his background in earnest.
After they took fingerprint samples and could not
find a match in their records for the entire country,
they employed the help of Interpol in asking
assistance from other nations.

At length they found a match, in Jaroslav Carek —

formerly one of the highest advisors in the
Czechoslovakian government's foreign trade
corporation, Omnipol.

I hardly think it necessary to introduce you to

Omnipol. Just let it be said that Omnipol was on the
top of the list of organizations pressured for
information by America and England after the fall of
communism in Eastern Europe.

The bombing of a Pan American airplane over

Lockerbie, Scotland on December 21st, 1986
[Translator Note: The actual year was 1988; it's
unclear whether this was a mistake by the author or
intentional] that killed over 250 people was carried
out by Palestinian guerillas using Semtex plastic
explosives obtained from Libya. But these explosives
were originally manufactured by the ton and then
exported to Libya by none other than Omnipol in
Czechoslovakia.
America and England suspected Omnipol of being a
hotbed of Eastern terrorism — providing terrorist
groups with weapons as well as setting up terrorist
training camps and dispatching personnel for use in
the field.

Twelve years ago in 1989, Czechoslovakia was

turned into a democratic nation after the Velvet
Revolution. It was a victory for the underground
activism that had continued for thirty years since
the Prague Spring, but it would be hard to fully
describe the overwhelming oppression from the
communist regime during those decades. As with
the Soviet and East German governments, the
Czechoslovakian state
was constantly plotting how to rid both the nation
and the outside world of liberalism. One of the key
figures taking part in these plans was Carek, who
fled the country after the fall of the regime.

According to Czech police files, before Carek was

hired to be a top advisor at Omnipol, he was a
captain in the secret police, and was responsible for
many of the secret terrorist training camps set up in
Czechoslovakia. In 1990, after the first free general
elections, the dominant Civic Forum party issued a
warrant for his arrest, but Carek had simply
vanished. America and England continued to push
for Carek's capture after the separation of the Czech
and Slovak Republics, but his whereabouts were
never found.

The Salzburg police, shocked at the infamous figure

this mysterious old man turned out to be, renewed
their investigations with vigor. After a thorough re-
examination of the body, traces of tape adhesive
were detected around his mouth and the backs of
his hands. The living room in which Carek died had
been diligently cleaned, and the wall showed signs
of a carefully concealed bullet mark, although the
bullet had been taken away.

The police acknowledged their mistake, and re-

classified the case a murder. Then they brought up
this possible scenario.

At 8:00 PM on November 6th 2000, someone entered

the Molke (Carek) household. He threatened Carek
with a gun, and forced him to write down a memo
that would serve as a will. Sensing he was in danger
of being killed, Carek fired his concealed Beretta
M21A at the attacker. The trespasser was most likely
injured, but only slightly. However, now he had
Carek trapped. The attacker used duct tape to affix
Carek's hand, holding the gun, to his head. Now all
he had to do was pull the trigger, and after
confirming Carek's death, remove
the tape and any signs of a third party from the
room. We don't know who the attacker was, but he
was certainly a professional.

The Salzburg police finally set their sights on the

man who appeared at St. Ursula Clinic at 2:00 AM
the day after the murder. It had now been two
weeks since Carek's murder — but the only three
people who could possibly identify this man had
been killed with an axe...

The police believe there is a connection between the

Carek murder and the man with the bullet wound
who appeared at the hospital, but they do not
recognize a link between this man and Kottmann.
The fact that all three witnesses were murdered was
an unfortunate coincidence. Their line of reasoning is
this: the man who killed Carek was a trained
terrorist, and those types of people never have ties
to serial killers. Kottmann was the type who acted on
his desires and impulses, and not the kind of person
who would commit murder at the request of another
and commit suicide afterward, to seal the case —
which makes sense.

But they have no answer for Kottmann's last words:

"One, two, three... My mission is complete."
An illustration from Dorn in the Darkness. With its
wavering message that shifts between good and evil,
the Dorn series has a fanatical teen readership, but
due to its extreme violence and sexual material, is
derisively called "the most enticing kind of pulp
literature" by critics.

My own personal theory goes like this.

The man who checked in to the hospital with the

injured arm was the man who killed Carek. He
hoped that the hospital staff would not report his
presence to the police, but he had a plan in case
they did. If his cover-up of Carek's death went well
and the police labeled it a suicide, he would not
need to use it. But because the measures Carek
took to protect his
identity were not solid enough, the police saw
through the man's handiwork. Now he would have to
turn to his other plan. That plan involved Kottmann,
the axe murderer.
Somehow, he knew Kottmann, and played the part
of the mysterious magician. He saved Kottmann on
the run, bitten by the Doberman, and kept him
hidden for an entire year.
Kottmann imagined himself in Dorn's role, and
stayed out of sight. When the man finally gave him
his orders, his "mission," he delightedly took on the
job...the murder of the three witnesses. That
explains why the intern, Hosch, was not killed.

The portrait I am drawing is of a murderer who finds

another killer, wins his trust, and then controls him.
He then uses this other killer to commit more
murders, before finally forcing the man to remove
himself from the earth.

The combination of a professional assassin and a

serial killer... as the police say, it is a most unlikely
match. I myself might have ignored the possibility, in
the beginning.

So, is there a historical precedent for this

situation? There is.

The case that shocked all of Germany in 1998...

As my bright and intelligent readers are no doubt

aware, this book is my attempt to re-examine those
events in Germany, and to shine light on some
facets that are still unclear. And at the same time,
expose the existence of another Monster hiding
somewhere in Austria, Germany, or perhaps
anywhere in Europe — someone who most likely
received the same education the German Monster
did.

I will admit it right now. The case in Germany is

still not entirely out in the open, in the same way
that the case in
Austria remains unknown.... maybe they are still
ongoing to this day.
 Chapter 1 - The Beginning
To begin, let us touch upon the actions of the
German Monster. At the present time, the BKA has
not revealed whether the perpetrator "J" is alive or
not, or who he really is. Based on the information
we have, we can deduce that J is the victim of the
darker side of the era of East-West German division
that was never meant to be public.

German TV, newspapers, magazines, and all other

forms of media report that J might have killed over
two hundred people. But the BKA has commented
that the only crime they can prove J's involvement
in was the 1995 murder of the lockpick Adolf
Junkers. Why? Because for any of the other
murders, J's testimony is required, but he was shot
in the head and remains in a coma that will likely
last for the rest of his life.

The BKA has only labeled this suspect with the initial
"J." It could be an issue of privacy, but according to
them, nobody knows what his real name is. Several
newspapers and internet sites have said that J
stands for "Johan." One of my good friends, a
German journalist, also calls him "Johan." Therefore I
replaced "J" with "Johan" and continued my research.

The Johan case begins in 1986, before the

reunification of Germany, and claimed the lives of
many before finally coming to an end over ten
years later. First, I will run through the chief events
in chronological order.

The first tragedy happened in Düsseldorf. In March of

1986, German Democratic Republic (East Germany)
Trade Advisor Michael Liebert sought political asylum
in West Germany. He brought along his wife and
children — twins. After a series of
interrogations and hearings, he was approved for
asylum, and expressed a wish to live in Düsseldorf.
The family thought they had finally obtained a
peaceful life, but on one rainy night that same
month, the couple were attacked and killed in their
temporary mansion. Their children survived, but the
boy was on the verge of death with a bullet in his
head, and the girl was in a state of severe shock.
They were taken to Eisler Memorial Hospital, where
the boy's life was saved by the expert hand of
Japanese brain surgeon Kenzo Tenma.

The police investigated the attack on the

Liebert family under the assumption that it
was the act of an Eastern terrorist, but they
never found the killer.

On the last day of the same month, Eisler Hospital

director Heinemann and two of his employees were
killed with candies laced with a poison made with
nitric acid, at the same time that the Liebert twins in
the care of the hospital escaped and went missing.
Despite a desperate search by the police, no likely
suspects ever arose. There was no connection to be
found between the poisoning and the disappearance
of the children. The truth of the incidents was lost in
the haze.
The former Eisler Memorial Hospital lot, located in
central Dusseldorf. The hospital's business decreased
dramatically
after the director's murder, and in 1998 moved
from Flingern-Nord to the other side of the Rhine
in Niedersachsen. The buildings are now state-run
housing.

Only Agent Heinrich Lunge, a detective dispatched

from the BKA, felt suspicion about one man: Dr.
Kenzo Tenma. He had saved the life of the twin boy,
but because of that surgery, he had to cancel
another. The patient he failed to operate on was the
mayor of Dusseldorf — who died in the hospital.
Tenma was rebuked, lost his position for the next
term, and let his engagement to the director's
daughter slip from his grasp. The people who stole
Tenma's future away from him were his boss and
fiance's father, Eisler Memorial Hospital director
Heinemann and two of his chief doctors — the three
men who were poisoned.

The next time such macabre events would occur at

the Dusseldorf hospital was nine years later, in
1995 — after Germany had been reunited, people
flowed from east to west, and the economy was
thrown into chaos.

At this time, Inspector Lunge was in charge of a

string of cases involving wealthy couples with no
children being killed, called the Middle-aged Couple
Serial Murders. At first glance, each of the crimes
seemed to be robberies, but the inspector caught
the scent of different motives. Lunge knew
professional lockpicker Adolf Junkers had been
witnessed near the scene of each crime. When he
received word that Junkers had been in a traffic
accident and taken to Neue Rhine General Hospital,
the inspector rushed over. Junker's doctor was none
other than Kenzo Tenma. When he heard that
Tenma had been promoted to Chief Surgeon at
Eisler Memorial Hospital after the poisonings, seeds
of doubt were once again planted in Lunge's mind. It
seemed that Tenma had gained the most out of the
three murders.
Inspector Lunge visited the hospital for a few days
and questioned Junkers. Junkers persisted in staying
silent, until one night he was discovered shot to
death in an abandoned building near the hospital.
The police officer who had been guarding his room
was poisoned dead with a piece of candy, the same
way the doctors were, nine years before.

It was Dr. Tenma, already under suspicion, who

came forth and claimed to have seen Junker's killer.
Of course, Tenma was already Lunge's #1suspect.

Dr. Tenma wearily turned to Inspector Lunge and

gave a startling announcement.

The person who poisoned the three doctors nine

years ago was one of the missing twins — the boy
who had been shot in the head and saved by
Tenma's surgery. Now an adult, he was responsible
for the new string of murders across Germany, and
he had killed Junkers to silence him. His name was
Johan... the elder brother had turned into a monster.

After hearing this, Lunge felt utter confidence in the

following theory.

The murders of the hospital director and his

employees, Junkers and the security guard, and even
possibly the childless couples across Germany were
all the work of Kenzo Tenma. But he created a
fictional person named Johan, and blamed all of the
killings on that young man... could he have dual
personalities inside his head?

Dr. Tenma was the number one suspect on the

police's list, but he continued to do his job at the
hospital as always, and used his off-duty time to look
for clues about Johan. The place he ended up with
was Heidelberg.
In 1999, the time that these events became public
knowledge, the newspapers and magazines used
this explanation for what Tenma had learned during
this period, and why he was going to Heidelberg.

Tenma, trying to find a link between the childless

couple murders and Johan, visited the sites of the
murders and found a common link between each of
them, when talking to the residents of the
neighborhood.

Koln, Hamburg, Hanover... the couples in all of

these areas had, at one time in the past, taken in a
boy. Nobody knew if they were sons-in-law or foster
children, but in each case, the boy suddenly
disappeared one day.

At Munich, the last place Tenma visited, he found the

same thing. However, now his investigation had
come to a dead end. He would not have known what
to do next, had he not heard the surprising words of
an old blind man who lived across the street from
the house of the murdered couple.

The old man was the boy's only friend. The boy's
name was Franz, and he lived across the street with
the Haynaus for about one year. The boy was a
rabid studier and fiercely intelligent. Occasionally he
would tell the old man about Tenma, and describe
his gratitude to the doctor. He said that Tenma was
"even more than a father." But the one who the
little boy loved more than all was his sister, who had
been left somewhere else. He said that when she
turned twenty, he would go to see her.

The old man told Tenma that the boy's sister was
supposedly living in Heidelberg.

In May of 1995, a shocking incident occurred in

Heidelberg. Christianne and Erich Fortner, along
with a visiting newswriter from the Heidelberg Post,
Jacob Mauler, were
shot to death in their home. The Fortners had a
daughter attending Heidelberg University named
Nina, who went missing after the murders. On the
same day, the strangled corpse of gardener Ivan
Kurten was discovered at Heidelberg Castle.

Hessen state investigators, without referencing any

link between the two cases, requested that
Dusseldorf police detain Eisler Memorial Hospital's
chief brain surgeon Kenzo Tenma on suspicion of
the murder of Ivan Kurten and as a critical reference
in the murders of the Fortners and Jacob Mauler.
The BKA was also pressuring the same local police
for Tenma to be brought in as a reference to the
middle-aged couple serial murders.

Now let's take another look at this string of events,

referencing the coverage of several newspapers,
especially the Heidelberg Post, that worked to
expose the truth in 1999 after the entire affair had
ended.

Arriving in Heidelberg, Tenma visited the little

Heidelberg Post offices and began to look through
their old articles. He was hoping to find some clues;
articles about adopted twins, or a missing boy.
Mauler, struck by Tenma's zeal, asked him his
reasons, and decided to help. After a long night of
searching, an October 1986 newspaper turned up a
small article about an 11-year old boy gone missing.
They rushed to the house the boy disappeared from
— according to the company's materials, the twins'
birthday was that very day.

Later, the BKA would admit that the Mannheim

Station officers Messner and Mueller were
responsible for the murder of the Fortners, but they
still avoid drawing a connection to
Johan. However, with the death of Mauler in the
Fortner house, there is little room to insert any doubt
of that.
Now, Nina Fortner is the other half of the twins;
Johan's younger sister. After three years, she and
Tenma both returned to society. Reporters and
writers from all over Germany rushed to Heidelberg
in hopes of scoring an exclusive interview, but she
firmly refused to make any comments. The
university she returned to formed a vigilante squad
that kept the media off the school campus. It was
not until the state governor delivered a scathing
indictment of the media's relentless practices and
violations of civil liberties that the information war
was silenced.

At that point in time, I was particularly interested in

what kind of conversations must have passed
between Tenma and Nina about the twin brother...
and how to deal with the monster that Johan had
become.

As to why Nina wasn't present during Messner and

Mueller's deeds, and why Tenma left Mauler behind
at the Fortner house and went somewhere — the
supposition these mysteries leads me to is that
Tenma succeeded in finding Nina before she could
be reunited with Johan.
Heidelberg is recognized for the oldest college in
Germany and its castle, built in the Middle Ages.
Heidelberg Castle, the site of a recent murder, served
as the home for the count palatine (German: pfalz)
throughout history and is famous for its long stone-
paved hill road.

It is at this point in the Johan case (which would

eventually turn out to include the highest number
of murders in modern German history) that a large
change occurs, with the disappearance of Nina, and
Kenzo Tenma's choice to go on the run.
If I wanted to solve all the mysteries, I would clearly
need to speak with Kenzo Tenma. But no other
media companies had been given permission for
interviews, and my own request was politely turned
down with a letter sent through the MSF, whom he
now works for. His beautiful handwriting and perfect
German (hard to imagine from a non-native
speaker) seemed to tell me much about his
personality.

I decided to put together a history of Kenzo Tenma's

medical career and a portrait of his personality, by
interviewing as many of his friends in Japan and
acquaintances in Germany as I could.
 Chapter 5 - Kinderheim 511
I spent the rest of May attempting to investigate
everything that I knew about the route Tenma took
in his escapes from the law. This was of course
capable with the help of some very valuable
information from Inspector Lunge.

The goal of Tenma's flight was to kill the monster

whom he had revived with his own scalpel: Johan. In
order to do this, he spent some time in the town of
Kiesen, undergoing combat training from one Hugo
Bernhardt, a former French Army foreign division
soldier. There is reasonable room to doubt that he
grew experienced to any kind of professional level;
however, it is true that he managed to fully evade
the German police with the application of his
newfound skills.
Next, I became interested in the money Tenma used
to fund his escape. He withdrew a significant sum
from his bank accounts shortly before he
disappeared, but it is hard to imagine that he could
have survived in the underworld for three years
without some sort of gainful employment.
Apparently, Tenma fell in with a house burgler
named Otto Heckel, and worked as an underground
doctor as they traveled from place to place.

Immediately following his disappearance, Tenma

was only witnessed in the towns featured in the
Middle Aged Couple Murders. From Verden, the home
of the Springers, to Siecke, where the Hess family
was murdered. But after this, he changed plans. He
must have noticed that visiting the homes of these
victims was not going to turn up Johan. He headed
to (former) East Berlin to look into Johan's first(?)
parents, the Lieberts.
Tenma visited the Lieberts' home, and learned from
a neighbor that Johan and Anna (Nina) were taken
from an
orphanage.

The name of Johan's orphanage was Kinderheim

511 — an experiment created by the East German
government and run by the Ministry of Internal
Affairs. Could this be the root of evil from which
Johan stemmed...?

I found the one person who would spill the beans on

this sinister story. Her name was Erna Tietze — an
employee at another orphanage separate from
Kinderheim 511, who was responsible for Anna,
Johan's twin sister.

When Erna showed up at our meeting place in

Einstein East Cafe, she looked exactly as one might
imagine a cold and harsh East German jailer to look;
tall, thin and forbidding.

But the sharp gaze from behind her spectacles

turned to a twinkle when she spoke of Anna, and
her thin lips curved into a smile. "Anna was such a
dear girl. I can only hope that she's still able to live
happily after all that's happened to her."

I realized that my initial impression of this woman

was quite incorrect. Her stern glare and furrowed
brow formed the expression of a harrowed
professional used to working with children. But Erna
Tietze was a woman undoubtedly filled with
compassion. I understood this when the conversation
turned to the treatment of orphans under East
German communism.

"It might not be proper to speak this way, since I

was involved with all that back then, but it really
was dreadful. There were some orphanages that
were decent places, but it was the children of anti-
government and underground activists, illegal
emigrants and criminal
offenders... in other words, the children of
"dangerous elements," that were sent to special
facilities for re- education, even if they were
innocent of any wrongdoing. These places were like
prisons. The children had no privileges or rights, and
they underwent abuse from the administrators day
in and day out..."

I started right away by asking the question I most

wanted to ask.

— And Kinderheim 511 must have been the worst

out of all those places you just described.

"Oh, no. Not at all. Kinderheim 511 was... it was a

government experiment. Normal orphanages were
all under the jurisdiction of the Welfare Ministry. But
this one was run by the Internal Department. You
know what that means, don't you?"

— The one that was called responsible for the worst

atrocities in the communist bloc, either the Internal
Department or the National Security Department,
correct? The secret police were run by National
Security... they set up wiretaps around the country,
spied on the citizens, silenced those who
threatened them or spoke out for democracy, and
used brainwashing to create proper, obedient
communists.

"Not only that, they wanted to create soldiers who

would act unflinchingly in the name of national
interests and ideals, just like cyborgs. That was
where Kinderheim 511 came in.
Everyone thought they must have been doing
something dreadful there, because the fatality rate
was so terribly high."

— What could they have been doing?

"I don't know. They created an investigation team...
and technically, I'm a member, but there are no
official records of it, most of the people who went
through it are missing, and even those who have
spoken up have no memory of what happened to
them there. We've tried subjecting them to
hypnotism, but all we get are abstract, mental
images of frightening experiences... like, 'a dark
basement door,' or, 'monsters.' Of course, physical
exercises and combat training were part of the
program, and monitored very scientifically. There
weren't any new or remarkably extreme methods of
torture or abuse. But we do know that they had
some odd kind of classwork. One of the people we
put under hypnosis remembered it... Some kind of
debate..."

— Debate?

"It was... it was like the kind of curriculum that you

might expect someone who wanted to be a
politician or religious leader would undergo, and it
was apparently very important. Those that had been
subjected to hypnotism all felt a deep fear of it."

— Fear?

"Yes, that they would cease to be... that they

would be broken. They said that even their
code numbers would disappear."

— Code?

"We're guessing that the children incarcerated in this

place were forbidden to use their real names, and
were called by some kind of code numbers."

— How long had Kinderheim 511 been in existence?

"I don't know. It was around for at least 20 years
before I started my job. I didn't know the name of
the place, but there were plenty of terrible rumors
floating about. I think it was early 1 980 when I
learned what the name was. That was when it
became a joint project between the Welfare and
Internal Departments. The system was actually that
it

would receive its full funding from the Welfare Dept.,

and that Internal Affairs would continue to run it, as
it had been doing. But there were a few instructors
who were placed there by the Welfare Ministry...
That's when we found out that it was called
Kinderheim 511. And from then on, we occasionally
received children who had been kicked out of that
place."

— Kicked out?

"Yes, they were apparently not 'suited' for whatever

the purpose was... But they were all emotionless
and shut off from anyone else. Their faces were
continually frightened... the only human reactions
we could see was when someone would begin
reading a book aloud. Then they would scream and
cover their ears."
Ms. Tietze appeared to be fierce at first, but a closer
look would reveal a personality brimming with
compassion an unwavering ideals.

— And what happened to

them? "Most of them died

within a year."

— Back to the subject: Who would have created

Kinderheim 511?

"I don't know, someone inflicted with the Internal

Department's delusions. However, I have heard that
the overall principle and curriculum of the place
were created by one of Czechoslovakia's most
brilliant psychiatrists."

— About these "debates." Could you give me more

details?

"They were like debates, but... To put it simply, you

know how people are psychologically affected when
you bring them up and then drop them down, or put
them down before raising them again; you start off
by saying "You're no good, you're a terrible person,"
and they'll panic and lose their identity, making
them easily manipulated. You just don't want to face
yourself head-on. Depending on circumstances, one
might lose all selfconfidence, and end up
committing suicide. Modern cults use these
techniques to ensnare new members. But the
activities at Kinderheim 511 were even more
dangerous. They were taught that the greatest
weapon one can wield against another person is not
guns or strength, but words. They were trained to
be specialists in
manipulation... no, trained to be leaders. I think that
what happened there was a game of survival, where
words could kill... and those who lost were internally
destroyed..."

— I'd like to talk a bit about Johan. Why was it that

he was sent to Kinderheim 511, and yet his twin
sister Anna was given over to your orphanage?

"I don't know, it was someone else's decision... I

suppose a large part of it might have been that it
just wasn't the kind of place for girls. Also, I think
some East German secret police or army officer
was observing the twins. I suppose he saw Johan's
potential.

He just didn't think Johan was so terrifying that he

would destroy the place."

— What was Anna like?

"She was very smart, and she never once gave us

any kind of trouble. But she was quite introverted,
and never really opened herself to us. Her German
was perfect, but occasionally she would speak to
herself in Czech. They said the twins had been found
wandering the border between Czechoslovakia and
East Germany, so I assumed that she was
Czechoslovakian. She was always worried about her
brother... she seemed to think that he was put in
that awful place in her stead."

— Did she ever do anything out of the ordinary?

"Well, like I just said, she would speak to herself. It

was like she was relating the day's events to the
wall. Probably to Johan. Or..."

— Were you just about to say something?

 "Yes, but... well, it's just too outlandish to be... Anna
would often tell me, 'Johan learned about this today,'
or 'Johan met this person,' but I thought she was just
imagining that. But there was one night, she said,
'Tomorrow, Johan's going to leave his orphanage'...
And the next day, Kinderheim 511 burned down, and
only Johan and another boy made it out alive... I
think it was just a coincidence, though."

— What did the government tell you about

Kinderheim 511 burning up?

"Nothing. Total gag order. I only found out what really

happened recently. It started off with the director's
death... and after that, the various instructors
started infighting over who would take the
director's position. The internal management broke
down, and they lost their control over the children.
And then the instructors and children wiped each
other out."

— And how did Johan factor into this?

"Well, this is all according to the testimony of that

child psychiatrist who worked for the Internal
Department, Hartmann, who was just arrested for
child abuse... he was involved with Kinderheim 511.
According to Hartmann, it was Johan who planned it
out to have all the people massacre each other. It
would be totally unbelievable, if the Johan Case
hadn't gone public, wouldn't it?"

— So it was at Kinderheim 511 that Johan

became a murderer. Or was it earlier?

"Hartmann said that Johan had already understood the

point of the teachings and curriculum far better than
the teachers and ministry members who set them
up. It was a mistake just attempting to educate him.
He was a ruler right from the very start." (She took
out a notebook, flipped a few pages
and began to read aloud) "Hartmann's exact words
were... 'The instructors and children died that day,
all fifty of them. And Johan simply gazed upon it. I
asked him. What did you do? He took an oily rag
and tossed it into the fire. He said, hate is born
when people come together. I just added a little fuel
to the flames. A ten-year-old boy. Kinderheim 511
was an experiment to raise children into perfect
soldiers. Looking at it now, it was a meager
experiment. Johan was born a leader. He was made
to stand at the top. We couldn't have made a work
of art like him. He was more than human, a true
monster from the beginning. In the end, all humans
hate and kill each other. All he wanted to do... was
be the last person alive at the end of the world...'"

The remains of Kinderheim 511 as viewed from behind.

The ruins of Kinderheim 511 on the east side of Berlin.
The lot was bought to be turned into a supermarket,
but was abandoned when the company went
bankrupt.

— So Johan was perfected before he ever

came to Kinderheim 511.

"But I think, if at that time, someone had truly

extended him a loving hand and put him in a caring
home, that he would have changed, and wouldn't
have gone on to commit all those crimes."

— Anyways, how do you suppose he destroyed the

place? How exactly did he toss that rag into the
flames?

"I wasn't sure if I was going to say this, but I'll tell
you one thing. Right before Johan destroyed
Kinderheim 511, we
were sent one of their pupils. As usual, he showed
no signs of emotion... He managed to survive, and
after a lot of time and rehabilitation, regained his
emotions and began to reform some memories."

— Did he remember what happened there?

"Yes, just vaguely. First of all, during their debate

classes, the boys secretly managed to brainwash
the instructors into hating the director..."

— Does that mean that the leadership of the

debates was transferred to the boys?

"Yes, without the instructors realizing. It was only a

matter of time until the director died. The boys
manipulated the teachers into hating each other...
using the mind control tricks they had been
taught..."

— If the boys had banded together like this, why

did they kill each other?

"They didn't actually band together. They just

wanted to get out of that place and escape the
unbearable fear... even if it meant destroying it."

— Unbearable fear?

"Kinderheim 511 was a world completely shut off

from the outside. So the kids inside had no idea
what was happening outside, what was going on in
politics. Who knows, there could have been a
nuclear war. If you'd told them they were the last
people alive on Earth, they'd probably believe you.
And so they created this odd fairy tale that spread
among the children."

— Fairy tale?
"In Kinderheim 511, there was a boy who was always
kept under sleeping pills. Because he held the words
that could destroy any person, the teachers thought
he was a monster and kept him locked
underground. Such was the terror that they felt
towards him that they swore they could see ten
horns and seven heads. But one day, the boy
developed resistance to the drugs and awakened.
He manipulated his jailors and slipped back among
the pupils. But the boys didn't know who he was...
because none of them knew each other's names or
pasts. The boy hated everything about the facility,
so he began secretly plotting to have everyone kill
each other. First, he would steal all of their
memories, so that they couldn't even remember
their own names, and then offer them the path to
death, through their torment... But the boys never
even realized that they were being controlled. Could
it be that someone is trying to manipulate us? And
so this incredible ferver raced through the
orphanage."

— That was all it took to destroy the experiment?

"I don't know. There must have been something

extremely terrifying about that fairy tale, to the
boys in Kinderheim 511."

— In the end, they couldn't trust each other,

and the children and adults both turned upon
one another.

"The boy who remembered this fairy tale said,

everyone grew paranoid, frantic to find out who the
monster was. But when he thought back on it..."

— What?

"Originally, it was just one boy who told the fairy

tale... a handsome boy with blond hair. He was the
one who started the whole thing. Why hadn't anyone
noticed?"
We stood, and shook hands. She said she wasn't
sure if she'd been much help, but she wanted the
people on the West Side to know as much of the
truth as possible. She didn't want anyone to be
subjected to the things the East German children
had to endure. She herself had been raised in an
orphanage, because both of her parents left her
behind 45 years ago, when they snuck across the
border to West Germany. I asked her if she had
found her parents since the reunification, and she
said she got in touch but didn't meet with them.
After a while, her father died of illness and her
mother began living alone... She said that she would
personally go to the Administration Bureau, and look
for any records she could find about the secret
experiments carried out on children under the
former communist regime. She promised to call me
if anything happened.

"What the secret police did was like Kinderheim 511

for the entire country. It pit family, couples and
friends against one another and plunged the nation
into a nightmare of paranoia," were her final words
to me.
 Chapter 7 - Rudi Gillen
Dr. Gillen is the only person involved in the case
who has written a book about Johan, so far. His
story, "Road to a Monster," was a best-seller
throughout most of Europe, and his name was
recently ranked in the list of Germany's 50 Highest
Taxpayers. Professor Gillen, currently busy on a
worldwide speaking tour, has told a British television
station that after the excitement dies down, he
plans to return to his life's work in the study of
criminal psychology.

I met Dr. Gillen in a cafe on Rue Bonaparte, near

the banks of the Seine. Dr. Gillen, returning from a
lecture at the Sorbonne, appeared precisely at our
scheduled meeting time of 4 o'clock in the
afternoon. He gave me a quick greeting, and as he
sat down, he removed a handheld tape recorder
from his large attache case, and smiled, "No doubt
you'll find it odd to be recorded as you conduct the
interview, but I will have trouble speaking without
it." He had a pleasant face, but a sharp gaze. He
was dressed in an Armani suit, and I could detect a
whiff of cologne.

He glanced at me with upturned eyes and said,

"Please, begin."

— I'll get right to it. What were your thoughts

when Kenzo Tenma suddenly appeared at your
office in Hattingen?

"It was quite a surprise. We were classmates in

college, but not particular friends of any type. And I
knew that he was the primary suspect in that case,
and was on the run... I had no idea what he wanted
with me."
— What about when Tenma described this man
named Johan, and asked you to do a psychological
analysis on him?
"Tenma brought two messages from Johan. 'Look at me,
look at me, the monster inside me has already
grown this large, Dr. Tenma,' and 'Help, the
monster inside me is about to explode!" He
believed that Johan had dissociative identity
disorder."

— And what did you think?

"That Johan did not exist, and that Tenma was either
lying outright, or suffering from multiple
personalities himself."

— The same conclusion that Inspector Lunge of

the BKA came to.

"Actually, I ultimately decided to trust Tenma in the

end and asked for assistance from Herr Lunge, but
he wouldn't take me seriously. Not too surprising,
looking back on the situation."

— I suppose that being a psychiatrist, you had a

different perspective on the issue than a
detective.

"To put it simply, he tries to predict the actions of a

criminal in order to arrest him, and I look into the
hearts of those criminals he captures in order to
unravel the mysteries of the human mind. Where
Mr. Lunge is special is that he enjoys finding
intelligent criminals and engaging in a battle of the
minds, like a game of chess. What he does is
competition... a contest."

— That's a rather severe assessment. So once you

believed that Johan did in fact exist, did you think
that he suffered from multiple personalities, as
Tenma suggested?

"I did, once I studied the messages he brought me."

— So, dissociative identity disorder is when
there exist multiple personalities within one
human mind.

"That's right. Childhood abuse is often the chief

cause as far as we know, but I like to use what I call
the 'flashlight in a darkened room' metaphor. The
dark room represents the human heart. There are
built-up emotions there, common to all of humanity.
But the personality changes depending on where
you shine the flashlight. If I move the point of light
just a bit, I could become you. In the case of
multiple personalities, the person doesn't like where
their light is shining, and wants to change himself,
but doesn't have the courage to move his beam of
light. So he just goes out and buys more flashlights,
and turns each of them on... this is where the
multiple personalities come from."

— But in "Road to a Monster," you rejected the

idea that Johan had multiple personalities.

"That's right. The more I became involved in the

case, the better I understood the storybooks,
Johan's past, and thus his personality. His messages
were meant to confuse us... I believe that he was
enjoying himself by confusing us. But without
meeting Johan directly, I cannot say for sure."

— What do you believe Johan was?

"A man who could delve into the hearts of lust

murderers. Or perhaps he could simply delve into
the hearts of any human being. A brainwasher who
could control the minds of other people. But what he
sought was not pleasure from the murders of others.

He wanted to wipe out the entire world... that was

where he derived his pleasure."
— How would he actually go about infiltrating the
heart of another person?

"By acknowledging their worth. By never frowning

upon their actions, and by teaching them that they
are not alone in the world. They are elated,
believing they have found their one true friend, the
only person in the entire universe who understands
them.

Or, on the contrary, he might belittle them,

lambasting their every move and driving them to
the darkest pit of mental solitude and ruin. After
doing that, he would simply make a little request.
Just kill one measly person, that's all..."

— Johan killed all the people who remembered

him, one by one. Why do you suppose he left
Tenma and Wolf alive?

"I think Johan needed someone, too. I can't speak

for this Wolf fellow, because I never met him, but I
think I understand the reasoning in Tenma's case.
First of all, Tenma saved Johan's life... he does not
disapprove of people. He finds their laudable
aspects, and praises them. He accepts them for
what they are worth, yet he never, ever digs too
deeply. However, once he makes up his mind to do
so, he will stick with someone. He will not let them
go. To Johan, whether Tenma hated or loved him
didn't make a difference. It was the fact that Tenma
would always remember... remember and follow
him, that was so important to him."

— It is said that Johan received special education in

East Germany and Czechoslovakia. What about the
other children who received the same treatment? Do
you think there could be other monsters out there, a
2nd or 3rd Johan?
[above] Dr. Gillen, now the most famous of all
European psychiatrists. He is scheduled to give an
address in Japan next month, on behalf of his
publishers.

[below] He is never seen without this cassette

recorder at his side.

"I don't believe so. There may be people like Mr.

Grimmer, who have gone on personal journeys to
recover their memories... And perhaps it is true that
some of them became professionals in the darker
side of politics and intrigue. But the nations in
question are now gone, and there is no one to give
them orders. I think that even if you had the same
education as Johan, it doesn't mean you would think
and do these terrible things on your own. If there
were any danger, it would be if they ran into Johan
somehow. But that would now be impossible."

— Is Johan truly still in a comatose

state...? "That's what I've been told."

— If he were to awake, would you want to perform

a mental analysis on him?

"As a scholar, of course, I have an interest. But, I

don't think it would be a good idea. From his
perspective, I would probably be the easiest type of
person to brainwash."
— Easiest to brainwash?

"Do you know why it is that I have such a reputation

for my psychological analyses of serial killers? It is
because I am very similar to them, and thus I
understand them well. The reason I have such an
interest in them is because I want to know more
about myself. I believe that Inspector Lunge could
say the same. Everyone involved in that case, with
the exception of Tenma, was fascinated by Johan.
They were all similar to him in some way, all very
easy for him to control."

When Tenma came to him asking for help, Dr. Gillen

was busy analyzing the mind of Peter Jurgens, a
serial killer who murdered eleven young girls. What
he found interesting was the twelfth murder, of one
Theresia Kemp [Translator Note: In the manga it
was Hanna Kemp], a 52-year old woman who clearly
did not fit into Jurgens' pattern of killings. Jurgens
claimed he killed this woman at the request of a
friend, but Gillen did not believe him. After he
informed the police of Tenma's visit, Gillen visited
Kemp's home, which had been left undisturbed.
What he found there was proof of the man Tenma
had told him about — the existence of Johan. The
murder of Theresia Kemp was part of the Middle-
Aged Couple Murders.

Dr. Gillen, ashamed that he had sprung such a trap

on Tenma, rushed back and helped him escape the
grasp of the police.

Afterwards, when he learned that his respected

professor and mentor Dr. Reichwein had also
stumbled across the Johan case, Gillen began to
work in earnest towards the restoration of
Tenma's good name.
Next I ought to go to Munich, Dr. Gillen told me, and
he wrote down contact information for Dr.
Reichwein. When he
said that he had to go to London tomorrow for a
meeting with the BBC, I asked him how long he
would continue his relationship with the media.

Dr. Gillen spoke slowly, choosing his words very

carefully. "I do have quite enough money to live off
of for now, so I hope to return to my research
soon." A pained grin stretch across his face.

"But I didn't realize the public enjoyed hearing about

serial killers so much."
 Chapter 11 - Julius Reichwein
Herr Doktor Reichwein is the owner of a very unusual
personal history. Born in 1 937, near the Alpen Road
in Kaufbeuren, Bayern. After graduating Munich
Medical School
— where he majored in plastic surgery — he served
his conscription and joined the police force. Upon
earning his credentials in the police medical courses,
he became a police surgeon for the German Border
Guard, spending twelve years in service on the
Czechoslovakian border. He left the Guard at age 40,
took psychology at Dusseldorf University Medical
School, and would become a lecturer there. This is
where he taught Kenzo Tenma and Rudi Gillen.

His father's death at age 50 prompted Reichwein to

return to Munich to retrieve his inheritance, which
he would use to start the private practice that he
continues to this day. I visited Dr. Reichwein at his
Counseling Center in a neighborhood of apartments
on the north side of Marien Square. The doctor is a
jolly fellow with a quick smile, and he gave me a
jovial, surprisingly powerful handshake. He briskly
offered me a seat, and thumped down into the chair
behind his desk.

— First, let's start with yourself. You have an

interesting history. Why did you decide to be a
policeman?

"Ah, well... my father was an officer. A real high-

ranking bigshot type. I felt both defiance and
admiration for my father. It was the desire to
compete with him, the pure wish to be of service to
others, and a need to discipline myself that led me
to join the police."
— And how was your time as a doctor on the force?
"It was hard, but a good time. Good memories. It
wasn't a war, but I saw plenty of battle in my time."

— You left the force after 40, and went back to

school.

"I'd found an interest in psychology. All those times I

saw people breaking the law... I felt like I would
need to understand how the human mind works in
order to know why they did what they did."

— Then you decided to stay at the university and

earn your teaching credentials.

This is where you met Drs. Tenma and Gillen.

"Correct. Gillen in particular was in my same

field, so I
maintained a relationship with him after he
graduated. I
remembered Tenma mostly for his excellent marks,
but I probably would have forgotten him, if he
hadn't ended up running from the law."

— And speaking of which, how was it that you

came to be involved in this series of events?

"It was a battle of revenge for my late client, a former

detective named Richard Braun... He had been
severely damaged by a case under his wing, and he
descended into alcoholism, eventually quitting the
police force. He came to me to get back on his feet,
to get his life in order once more. He had recovered
his confidence and was on the verge of conquering
his weaknesses for good. His new work was going
well. He had been hired as a private dick by Hans
Schuwald. But it was a job that would lead to his
death."
Dr. Reichwein is not only a former policeman, but
has degrees in karate and judo as well. A gallant,
hearty and sociable man. It is easy to see why
Tenma confided in him.

Richard Braun was a crack detective in the Munich

Police Homicide Division. Richard was on the hunt for
a serial killer on a streak of terror through Munich,
and finally found his man: Stefan Jost. He identified
his killer from a single wool ski cap that had been
dropped at the scene of one of the murders. Richard
chased Jost down at Theresienstrasse Station and
eventually killed him after a fearsome shootout.

Agent Braun was hailed as a hero at considerable

length by the media following his feat, but it was
just a single letter published in one newspaper that
turned his life upside down. The anonymous letter
sent by a witness of the shootout claimed that Jost
had been gunned down in cold blood after he
dropped his weapon and raised his hands in
surrender (The identity of the writer, though still
unknown, is popularly rumored to be either Johan,
or Braun's jealous partner). The police department
held a public hearing and reopened the case in
exchange for Richard Braun's resignation from the
force, and the truth became hazy once again.
But Richard himself accepted interviews for
countless papers, revealing that he himself had no
recollection of how he shot Jost, and that he could
not verify or refute the letter's claims. Later, one
publication carried a statement from a station
insider that said that in addition to being an
extremely talented detective, Braun also had a
severe problem with alcoholism, and that it was
likely he was inebriated even as he chased Jost and
shot him behind the train station. Agent Braun's
response to this, aside from confirming his
alcoholism, was no comment — once again,
because he had no memory of the incident.

Eventually, several police-covering reporters wrote

articles in defense of Richard Braun — extolling his
strong sense of justice and morals, emphatically
stating that he was no "Dirty Harry" figure who
would kill a defenseless man, criminal or not...
Finally, saturated with the topic of Richard Braun,
the people of Bayern began to lose interest in the
case, and the truth, still unknown, was never
reported. But Richard himself had still lost his
career and family, and was suffering with the
effects of his al coholism, a battle that threatened
to consume him for the rest of his life.

It was Dr. Reichwein who stepped in to save him.

The doctor advised Richard not to avert his eyes
from the truth, but to face it head on.

— How do you suppose Richard Braun became

involved with Johan?

"Because Mr. Schuwald hired him. He must have

been familiar with Richard's investigative skills. He
wanted Richard to look for his illegitimate child.
The first target of his investigation was Edmund
Fahren... Richard felt suspicious about Fahren's
suicide. And despite Schuwald's disinterest in
continuing the search after that, Richard was
still eager to find the truth. His long years of
detective work gave him the hunch that there was
something large and very dark behind all of it."

— And so Johan went after him.

"It's not quite as simple as that. Richard could feel

that there was someone behind Fahren. He just
couldn't tell who it was right away. But he did notice
several things... That three unsolved murders from
when he was on the force were related to
Schuwald... In other words, that all three victims
were people that Schuwald had grown close to...
Furthermore,

two of those cases involved the name Johan... and

that Johan was given by Dr. Tenma as the name of
the man behind the unsolved middle-aged couple
murders... and finally, that a brilliant young man
named Johan was currently involved with
Schuwald's mansion... when all of these things
came together, they put Richard in incredible
danger."

— What were your thoughts, when you heard of his

death?

"The police said that he had jumped to his death

after getting drunk... but I didn't believe it. I knew
there was something. I swore that I would find out
the truth. And at the same time I chastised myself,
because I hadn't really saved Richard at all. I had
simply sat in my chair and listened to his problems,
without a care in the world."

— What is the truth, do you suppose? Did Johan

murder Agent Braun?

"The truth is, I just don't know. But I do believe that

Johan backed Richard into a corner with words. Johan
is a man who can kill you with words. Richard always
felt guilt about what
happened with Stefan Jost... and I think Johan may
have prodded him there. No, he must have."

— Were you aware that Jost was at Kinderheim 511?

"Yes, I learned that afterwards. Ten months before

that despicable place was destroyed, he was let out
to be someone's foster child. Following that, he
jumped around different places until he finally
settled in Munich. I suppose he might have known
Johan."

— And this is where you consulted with Dr. Gillen?

"Yes, and then Tenma saved my life. One of Johan's

men... no, more like, one of his disciples. Anyway,
this fellow attempted to kill me. However, I was also
careless here, as well. At the time, I hadn't noticed
that Tenma was trying to kill Johan himself."

Dr. Reichwein would continue to be Tenma's

protector and confidant until the entire ordeal had
finished. Not only this, but he would also provide
psychological care for Nina Fortner, Eva Heinemann,
Karl, Schuwald and other victims of Johan's. Dr. Gillen
had told me that everyone aside from Tenma had a
commonality in that they were drawn to Johan, but I
believe that Dr. Reichwein, like Tenma, was
completely the opposite of Johan. He was a man in
total harmony with himself.

— What did you think of the storybook in question?

"Ah yes, it was rather odd. The story had a sort of

repelling philosophy. It felt like the sort of thing that
could really affect a young boy if it was read to him
in certain circumstances. The question is, how
exactly was this reading seminar carried out... Even
with a psychiatrist and his patient, there are certain
areas into which he must never
tread. The only way we are allowed to step into a
patient's mind is to help them come to an
understanding of themselves, by appearing exactly
life-sized, not larger or smaller than we really are.
But this man, this Bonaparta, broke that rule. He
cast an enormous shadow onto those boys' minds,
and made those shadows capable of controlling
them."

— And what are your thoughts on Johan the

Monster, now that all is said and done?

"Monster...? There is no such thing as monsters.

Johan was a human being... After the fire in the
Munich University Library, he spent his life trying to
be human... that's what I think. And while we call
those people who commit murder without blinking
an eye 'monsters,' we cannot lose the act of
murder. We must look at them head-on, and see
them

as humans. We must remember that they are not

monsters, but human beings with names like all the
rest of us... That is the key to understanding what
Johan was, exactly."

Despite being the attendent counselor for Nina and

Eva, Dr. Reichwein was not exactly forthcoming on
the subject of the two women. Feeling that he would
not speak further of them even if pressed, I decided
to call it a day. I thanked Dr.
Reichwein for his time, and I left his office.
 Chapter 17 - Sobotka
When the police questioned him, he said that he
couldn't remember anything about the reading
seminar. But afterward, his memory returned bit by
bit, until he was sure that his life at age 10 was
indeed the nightmare he had always suspected.
Now, he is 30. As the youngest of the subjects
Agent Suk interviewed, his experience at the Red
Rose Mansion's reading seminar was cut short when
Bonaparta disappeared. He wished to remain
anonymous, so I have used the alias Sobotka here.
He had a handsome face that was thin on emotion,
and he said he was an automotive engineer for the
largest industrial company in the Czech Republic.

— During police questioning, you said that you

hardly remembered anything about the reading
seminar. Can you even remember a reading
seminar at all?

"No, you're a bit off. Actually, I went to the Red Rose

Mansion once a week to 'learn things.' I do
remember plainly that this took place as a book
reading. But I never really thought about why I was
doing that, and what I was supposed to be learning."

— But now, you think of it as a nightmare.

"Yes. We were brought into a compact, comfortable

sitting room, six of us to start with. Two years I did
this, and it was always the same people."

— Six to start with?

"Yes, one of them stopped coming at some point. I

feel like there was a rumor among us that he had
died, though
nobody made sure."

— Do you remember all their faces?

"No, no faces or names, those are gone. Oh, and we

never introduced our names to each other to start
with."

— Now, turning back to the "nightmare," what kind

of things happened at the seminar?

"He just read. He had a very...deep and pleasant

voice. He would select readings from storybooks or
novels, or sometimes just told us a tale off the top of
his head.
Sometimes he would order one of us to do the
reading, but for the most part we just listened to
him read."

— Do you remember his face?

"No, just the eyes. They were terrible eyes."

— Do you remember these books? "The Nameless

Monster," "The Man With the Big Eyes, The Man
With the Big Mouth," "The God of Peace."

"Yes. But don't you dare bring them out around me.
I've realized that I can quote them all from memory.
But it brings a sense of nausea to my throat. After
he finished reading, he would always ask us, do you
understand the meaning of this story?"

— And was that the nightmare?

"Well, do you know how, when you come down with

particularly bad fevers, sometimes someone else's
voice or words burrow into your mind and you
can't avoid thinking about it? Well, that 'do you
understand' is this exact type of terror I feel."
— And did you understand the meaning?

"Yes, I did. But don't ask me what I understood."

— By what basis were you selected for the

seminar, do you suppose?

"My parents died 12 years ago, so I'm not entirely

sure, but..."

— But you have remembered something about that?

"Y-yes, just faint memories... I was in some sort of

laboratory place, and a man in a white coat showed
me a sort of design. He asked me what it looked
like."

— Somewhat like a Rorschach

test? "Y-yeah, I think."

— What did it look like?

"Well, I think...I saw a monster."

— A monster?

"Yes, with ten horns and seven faces... A-a m-

monster, before my eyes."

— And after that, you were taken to the Red Rose

Mansion. Did you ever think of not going back?

"I don't think so."

— Were you afraid that if you quit, something would

happen to you or your parents? "No. Forced to
participate or not, I don't think there was any
concrete threat keeping us from
quitting if we wanted to. However, I interpreted it as a
duty to which I was bound by honor to fulfill."

Mr. Sobotka, graduate of the Red Rose Mansion reading

seminar. His wife and son are the greatest joy of his life,
but
if he wishes to display love, he must intentionally force
himself to show those signs.

— And in 1981or 1982, the seminar came to an end.

"Yes, it was '81. I went there as usual, and the

mansion was closed. It was like no one had been
living there for years."

— The seminar fell apart once Bonaparta..."the

man" you speak of, disappeared. Looking back,
was there anything you could point to as an
impending sign of that?

"Not at the time... But now, I do recognize one

thing. One day, after he had told the story, he
asked us, 'do you understand?' like he always did.
The others all nodded, but for some reason I wasn't
really paying attention, and I did not nod. So he
turned to me and asked me again, and that time,
he spoke my name."

— He called your name?

"Yes, though I wasn't surprised at the time. That was

because I had never even noticed that he never
spoke our names."

— I noticed that you just said that he "told" the

story, Mr. Sobotka. Why did you choose that word,
rather than "read"?

"Oh. Did I say that? I wonder why. Now, what kind of

a story was he... Well, I guess he wasn't actually
reading from a book. It was like he would just create
a story on the spot and tell it to us..."

— Can you remember what kind of a story he told

you?
"Yeah... Yeah... Like, a door... A door that opened...
A story about opening a door that should never
be opened."
— Can you remember anything more than that?

"...Yes, yes I can. It was a story of the King of

Darkness and the Queen of Light... Darkness and
light were always fighting, but in fact, the King of
Darkness loved the Queen of Light. When she lies
down to sleep one night, he kidnaps her and brings
her to his castle of darkness. But the Queen of Light
begins to lose her shine, and is on the verge of
death.

The King of Darkness realizes that this is because of

the darkness, so he calls together all his servants to
the 'Room of True Darkness,' and puts them in an
eternal sleep. Next, he releases the Queen of Light
from his castle, and the queen's light returns bit by
bit. So the King of Darkness comes out into her
light, growing smaller by the moment, lamenting his
crimes and professing his love for her. The instant
he speaks his last word, he is nothing but a tiny
black spot. The Queen of Light forgives and accepts
the King of Darkness, and ever since, the Queen of
Light's body has a little piece of darkness in it... The
darkness has disappeared from the world, but if
anyone should open the 'door that must not be
opened,' which leads to the 'Room of True
Darkness,' it would bring back the dark, and spark
another terrible war between light and darkness...
That was the story he told."

— The story you just told me, Mr. Sobotka, is a very

valuable piece of information in solving what
happened at the mansion in 1981.

"Great. Too bad I'd have been happier not

remembering it."

— Any other memories? Anything at all you can tell

me.
"I... I don't think so. I just listened to what he read.
Oh... But sometimes he would make us think up
stories, on the spot."
— He made you...create stories?

"Yes, but none of the children could do it as well as

he did, so I could tell that he was always
disappointed with the results. I think he ultimately
wanted a pupil that could make up those stories."

— Was there ever a student who satisfied him in the

past?

"I don't know... Though I remember that once he did

tell us a story that had been created by one of his
pupils."

— That is fascinating. What book

was it? "It wasn't a book. Just a

story."

— Do you remember the story?

"It was... it was about... a monster that sleeps... I just

can't remember."

At this point, Mr. Sobotka took some time to

remember what the story was about, but it simply
didn't work. What could this story about a sleeping
monster be? And who created the story?

Sobotka was only this proactive in recalling this

nightmare of his because he felt that a personal
family tragedy that he had experienced was rooted
in the Red Rose Mansion. He married a co-worker
when he was 25. She said that she was attracted to
his hard work ethic. They had their first child when
he was 27, but it died at just a year old. The cause
of death was unknown. At 28, they had their second
child. He prayed that this one would be raised
healthy. When the boy was age one, the same thing
happened. The boy stopped eating and fell into
critical condition. Sobotka rushed to the doctor, and
the son was barely saved, but still the cause was
a mystery. The doctor said it was as if the boy
wanted to commit suicide.

At this point, his wife revealed that she wanted to

leave him. She said that their first child died
because of him, and her answer to Sobotka's
shocked query was that he didn't know how to love.
He didn't know how to smile. Have you ever seen
your children smile, she asked. They're trying to kill
themselves because they think you don't love them,
and I don't want it to happen again...

So Mr. Sobotka moved away from his wife and son,

and began a painfully lonely existence. His parents
had died when he was a teenager, but he had never
felt the loss at the time. He knew that he was
different from other people.

He struggled to learn how to smile, how to love, all

to get his wife and son back... After waves of
loneliness threatened to crush him, he finally went
to beg his family to take him back. Upon seeing his
son again, the tears flowed out of his eyes, but his
son was smiling, smiling like an angel at his father.
And so he and his wife decided to live together once
again.

At this time, a thought had run through his head,

the memory of the police questioning he underwent
a year before, about the Red Rose Mansion. He had to
remember... He had to recall what had happened to
him there.

Facing my nightmares — this is what I had to do to

get my life back, he said. I registered the resolute
expression on his face. This is a man who is
capable of reclaiming his own life, I thought, and
hoped.
 Chapter 20 - Martin
Having obtained Grimmer’s report of his
investigations, I felt that my attention was being
drawn toward Prague. However, the email I received
immediately afterwards from Eva Heinemann made
me turn instead to Frankfurt. Thoroughly and
accurately, but with an air of loneliness, she
recorded her feelings. Why she had disappeared
from the hotel while staying in Dusseldorf to save
Tenma, and who kidnapped her
— when she revealed the reason, I came to
understand why Johan’s life swung toward such a
precipitous downfall.

So I have decided to include an excerpt from the e-

mail of Eva Heinemann, along with a few of my
comments.

I was in the lobby of the hotel in Dusseldorf when I

learned that Kenzo had escaped. I had decided to
give testimony that would prove Kenzo’s innocence,
and meet with the lawyer Baul, the partner of Mr.
Verdemann who was unable to take my deposition
because of his wife giving birth. At first, when the
news about Kenzo came over the TV in the lobby, I
thought, “What on earth has made him want to
escape? As long as I cooperate, we can easily clear
him of suspicion.” As I stared at the news in blank
surprise, I suddenly noticed the voice of a man
talking on the phone in the background. The owner
of the voice was a frightening hit man named
Roberto, whom I had become acquainted with when
I was truly seeking revenge against Kenzo. Without
even thinking of what I was doing, I quickly returned
to my room, trembling with fear.
Then there was a knock on the door. Knowing that
Roberto was coming after me, I don’t understand
why I opened the door. The man standing there
introduced himself as Martin, and said there was
someone waiting for me in Frankfurt.
I answered him with no hesitation, out of a rising
panic. Was it better to be found by Roberto and
killed? I thought the answer was simple, and left
the hotel with him.

Martin was blunt and taciturn. By his unfashionable

business suit and beard stubble I knew right away
that my being a woman annoyed him. On the train
to Frankfurt, I provoked a drunkard to see if he was
protecting me out of commitment to duty, or if he
was the type who couldn't control his anger. But
because of my experiment the drunk ended up half
dead. It was clear that he had involved himself in a
world where violence was not unusual.

Even so, I was interested in this man. After we

arrived in Frankfurt, I wanted to see his true colors
and so invited him for a drink. However, it was I who
got drunk. I confessed to the fact that I had tried to
shoot Kenzo dead. Then he said, “I really did shoot.”
I didn’t know if that was the truth or a lie, but he
said he shot his girlfriend and her lover to death.
Afterwards I got dead drunk, and he took me back to
my room like a gentleman. I still remember. I'll
probably never receive such kindness again.

The next day, Martin took me to a certain hotel.

There I met a man wearing glasses and a cruel
expression, and a small, funny man like a cherub,
who had sold his soul to the devil. They demanded
only one thing — for me to attend parties in
Frankfurt, and to point at Johan if he appeared —
and that was all. I agreed to their request. It was
clear I would be killed if I refused. I didn’t have a
choice.

So every night I donned flashy dresses and went to

all kinds of parties. It was the type of work I could do
forever and feel no pain. But once I tried it, I found it
unpleasant and impossible to bear. Perhaps by then I
had become more human. I was only able to get
through it because Martin was
there. He might be a lowlife, and probably was a hit
man, but for now he was the one who was
protecting me, and he would stay with me to the
end, and forgive my abusive words. ...I know, it
seems quite foolish that I thought this was love.

I thi nk it was about a month after I started living

with Martin when he told me he had met with
Kenzo. He said he was worried. I laughed
dismissively, but inside I thought Kenzo was such a
hopeless pushover, but still very tender. The truth
is, I felt quite happy to see that both Kenzo and
Martin were spending their time on me.

My mission of going from party to party at last came

to an end. Johan finally appeared. I signaled to the
man in glasses and the young man accompanying
him, and pointed to a beautiful, well-dressed young
man — Johan and the other young man shook hands
with each other. At the moment I witnessed that
scene, I knew I would be killed by the man in
glasses. I was damned for introducing these terrible
men to the devil.

All I wanted to do was go back to my room and drink.

Before long, Martin returned. Ah, in that moment he
was a hit man, and I prepared myself to be killed by
him. After all, I had heard the devil speak, and
allowed Faust and Mephistopheles to meet. I
convinced myself that it was natural for a woman
who had committed such a crime to die.

However, what he said was, “Run away with me.” I

was stunned. Surely the man in glasses had ordered
him to kill me. But he went out to slay a demon
instead of murdering a human. And when that job
was done, we could escape and leave it all behind....
It was late at night when Martin returned. He woke
me up, and with a gun in his hand, told me the
story of the devil’s apprentice. The name of the
man in glasses was Peter Capek. The young man
who had been with him was waiting for Johan at the
Hotel Jahreszeit. While they waited, he told Martin
about Martin's own past. So Martin also told his
story to me. His mother was a severe alcoholic.
Although his drug addict girlfriend had come back
to him for awhile, he found her in bed with another
man. His girlfriend begged him to kill her but he left
the room. Soon after that, she shot herself in
despair, and when he returned to the room, she
was already dead, so he shot another bullet into
her, taking the crime of murder upon himself...it
was a very, very sad story. But the saddest thing
had to do with his mother during his childhood. The
truth is that the one he actually killed was not his
lover, but his drunken mother, whom he let freeze
to death when he left her behind on the street.

He told me that the Devil’s apprentice, this well-

dressed young man, was gleeful as he reasoned
that both these things were the same. The young
man concluded, “Your lover and your mother
wanted to die, and therefore you were not wrong.
You were not wrong because you freed them from
the suffering of life.” But Martin looked at it like this:
no one wants to die. His mother and his lover
certainly wanted to live. Therefore, it’s a serious
crime to kill another person....
He made me wait for him at Frankfurt Central
Station, and went to battle for my sake.
Frankfurt Central Station. This is where Eva waited for
Martin, and encountered Tenma again. From this city,
the events surrounding Johan began to speed toward
their climax.

I waited for him. I waited for a long time. I was

happy to have someone to wait for. But he did not
appear, and instead, it was Kenzo standing in front
of me. ...I knew at once what had happened to
Martin. Kenzo and I went to the restaurant at the
station and talked about the loss of Martin.
Curiously, I didn’t feel any desire to have a drink.
He was a good person. I was not such a good
person. That he would give his life to defend a
disgusting woman like me...I wasn’t worth it.
And I did worse things to Kenzo. If I spent my whole
life at it, I could never make up for how I treated
him. But at that moment, I understood that life has
value, even the life of a woman as worthless as me.
I wonder why I'm still alive, why I'm still living a life
of ease. But Kenzo said he thought that it was
fortunate that I was waiting at the station for
Martin.
He said I should visit Dr. Reichwein, so I went back to
Munich where I started.

Watching Kenzo seeing off the train, I thought, he’s

going alone to kill Johan. I got off at the next
stopover, because I thought / could kill Johan. I had a
clue that Kenzo did not know. I had eavesdropped
when Capek, the man in glasses, spoke on the
phone. Johan was in an apartment on Haldecker
Street.

There is a great deal more in Eva Heinemann’s email.

Her testimony continues further, but I will stop here

for the time being to comment on what's been
presented so far.

I'd like to start with some supplemental information

about the movements of Dr. Tenma. Following the
instructions in the letter found in the home of the
lawyer Verdemann, he went to the Red Rose
Mansion, where he was taken by General Wolfs
subordinates to Wolfs deathbed. There he was told by
Wolf about an organization which a group of four
men — the General, Geidlitz, Capek and one other
— had created in Frankfurt, and how they were
using Eva as a tool to locate Johan. After that,
Tenma appeared in Frankfurt.

As noted above, while there is nothing in the records

regarding a man named Wolf, his objectives, or his
relationship to Tenma, it can be conjectured from
police reports that he was part of an organization of
three men in Frankfurt who welcomed Johan as their
true leader. But it is
my belief that the General’s role in the group was a
cover for his own plans to obliterate Johan. Wolf
rescued the twins from a state of near death on the
Czechoslovakian border, and acting as a surrogate
parent, so to speak, he named the boy Johan.
...Nevertheless, he supported Tenma’s quest to
destroy Johan, the “monster,” because he
understood that young man’s personality better than
anyone.

Finally, I want to offer the following information on

Martin.

In March of 1 998 in Sossenheim, a suburb of

Frankfurt, there was a gun battle among gangsters
at a cheap motel. Four men were killed. But
strangely enough, it was confirmed that they were
all from the attacking side, not the side that was
originally attacked. The next day, after an
anonymous tip, the body of a gunshot victim was
discovered in the Flelbrau Hotel, in the heart of
Frankfurt. The bullet in his body came from the gun
of one of the dead men in Sossenheim, connecting
the two incidents. What is unclear is how the dead
man got to the Flelbrau Hotel, to be found in a room
rented by an Asian man with long hair, and where
that Asian man went....furthermore, the autopsy
revealed that the efforts to control the
hemorrhaging had been administered by the hands
of a specialist.

The name of the dead man was Martin Reest, a so-

called gangster from Mannheim. After serving eight
years for killing his lover, he worked for three years
under the right-wing leader known by the alias, “The
Baby.”
 Chapter 18 - Jaromir Lipsky
After my conversation with Ms. Hauserova, I visited
Karel Bridge every Wednesday, in the hope of
getting Bonaparta's son, Mr. Lipsky, to agree to an
interview. His close-cropped hair was white, but his
oval face was surprisingly young. He had a large,
high-set nose, a firm jaw, thin lips, and a kind, lonely
gaze. He operated his puppets with skill, and
entertained many visitors.

This was to be expected, as Agent Suk's information

said he was a graduate of Czech National Art
Academy's puppeteering program. He was born in
Prague, age 39, and his last name was his mother's.

Lipsky's appearance in this string of events was,

naturally, the Red Rose Mansion. He, too, was
among the seminar's members. For some reason, he
believed that if he visited the place of his old
nightmares, he would receive bursts of inspiration
for his art. One day, he stopped by the ever-silent
building as usual, only to run across an unconscious
Nina.
He took her to his residence and nursed her. Upon
regaining consciousness, Nina discovered the books
of Bonaparta (Jakub Faroubek, Klaus Poppe, Emil
Sebe) in Lipsky's apartment. He explained to her that
he was considered a "poor pupil" at the seminar,
and was removed from the group in short time.
Bravely, Nina read all of these books, and began to
regain her lost memory.

Around the same time, Johan snuck into the Red

Rose Mansion for himself, began to regain his
memories in a similar fashion, and burned down the
building.
The next day, Tenma visited the remains of the
mansion — as I will explain later, he had escaped
jail by this point —
was summoned to General Wolf's deathbed, and
was left with his dying words: "Johan's rampage
must be stopped." Wolf could see the sight of
Johan's doomsday.

It was Inspector Lunge who first learned that Lipsky

was the son of Bonaparta, and questioned him. The
inspector had used Captain Ranke's information
network to dig up Bonaparta's marriage history and
learn that he had a son.
Apparently it was by observing the Red Rose
Mansion and seeing Lipsky's frequent visits that his
interest was piqued. He secretly took shots of
Lipsky's face, and was able to look up his personal
history and mother's name using Czechoslovakian
secret police files. However, I believe it was Inspector
Lunge's detective intuition that led him to believe
that Lipsky was indeed Bonaparta's son.

The first Wednesday that I spotted Mr. Lipsky on the

bridge, I waited until his show was over to speak
with him. I gave him my name and profession, and
asked for his help in creating my book. He looked at
me, clearly troubled, and said that he did not wish to
speak about it. I said that I hoped he would change
his mind, handed him the card of the hotel I was
staying at, and left him there.

Every Wednesday after that, I went and watched

him puppeteer. I could recognize that his
performance and stories were solid, wholesome and
entertaining, and I saw that his proficiency with the
puppets themselves was great.
Street performance is a common sight on Karel Bridge,
with painters, musicians and puppeteers entertaining the
public. Bonaparta's son Lipsky puts on a puppet
show here every Wednesday.

In August, with Karel Bridge buzzing with excited

tourists, he saw me standing there, sighed, and
told me that I had won. We went to a beer hall, to
quench our thirsts as we talked. It was a very
enlightening discussion.

— I would like to start by asking you about your

mother.

"As early as I can remember, I was living alone with

my mother. She was a very lovely and kindhearted
mother. She died when I was 1 9... She was an
actress. She loved the stage most of all, but she
would do movies to make sure ends met. In the
'60s, she even acted in Jiri Menzel and Vera
Chytilova films. Just bit parts, of course. Her normal
job was a waitress at a big tourist restaurant. In the
end, she did well enough to get a job as a chef...

It meant giving up on acting, but she did it to

support the path I chose in life."

He drained his mug, remarked that the Czechs truly

made the best beer in the world, and laughed. But
I felt that his smile, a contraction of the cheeks that
raised the corners of his mouth robotically, was
artificial.
— Did your father ever visit you?
 "No, never. Not once. So until I started going to
school, I thought everyone lived with just their
mother."

— Did you ever ask who your father was?

"Yes, when I was in grade school. She told me he was

a storybook author and a scientist, but that he was
working for the government now... Even as a child, I
could sense that I was not meant to ask further, so I
never brought it up again."

— Did you ever want to meet him?

"No, not once. Life with my mother was everything I

ever wanted."

— When did you first meet your father?

"Oh, when I first participated in the Red Rose

Mansion's reading seminar...when I was eight or nine,
maybe? He was a storybook author, and was
studying something, clearly...
Plus, I thought he looked a bit like me."

— So... You weren't called there because you were his

son?

"That's right. One day, a man with a big nose and very
thick glasses came to my house, asked me some
very strange questions and showed me a lot of
diagrams. The questions were rather benign, but for
some reason, I was quite terrified. After he left, my
mother cried. She told me that I had been chosen
to participate in a special class. She said that if I
didn't want to do it, she would work things out,
but I didn't want to make things hard for her, so I
chose to go."

— And you never introduced yourselves to each

other?
"No. I didn't want to. The first time we met, he just
said, 'Oh, you're her...' and stopped. I felt a chill run
down my back. I was terrified of him... I could tell
that he looked at people on a different scale from
how we normally relate to each other."

— Did you hate him?

"No, I don't hate him. I don't know... Mother never

asked about the seminar. And of course, I didn't tell
her that I knew the man who ran it was my father. I
simply pretended to my mother that I had absolutely
no interest in him. But I didn't hate the seminar. The
more I understood what he was doing, the more
frightened I was, of course... But the more I was
drawn to it, as well. But I didn't love him. Oh, I don't
know, maybe I do hate him. I can't really explain..."
Mr. Lip sky tells me that he has recently opened a
relationship with a woman who was fascinated by his
puppeteering performances. "It is nice to have my
biggest fan right at my side... And it's all thanks to
Nina," he says.

— So, you understood what Franz Bonaparta wanted

to do.

"Oh yes, I did. I understood very well. I felt like I

could have stayed there as long as possible. But
they kicked me out, for not being a 'superior child.'
But I soon got over that... As soon as I told my
mother that I didn't have to go anymore, oh, the
smile she made... Our relationship went back to
normal at that point."

— What did he consider to be a "superior child"?

"Well, he built up children... I suppose for party

officials, military and secret police officers, the types
of people they were looking for, but the ones that
he wanted to make, the 'superior children,' he had
a harder time with. But see, even to make the
children that those people wanted required
passing some extremely difficult selections. The
unpromising kids like me were simply told, after a
certain period of participation, that we didn't need
to come back.
Looking back on it, I think we were the lucky ones."
— On what basis did they select the "good" children?
 "The ones that these people chose... Well, they
would have been the ones who took in and
understood his storybooks, and believed them
entirely. You can guess what kind of jobs they'd be
given. The children that he wanted, however, were
the ones that understood his stories and could also
come up with their own... To create children who
would create the children his partners wanted."

— And what would those children then do? I

mean, assuming that the socialist system
was still in place.

"You can imagine. I'd rather not speak of it."

— What do you think happened to the other

children from the seminar, after that?

"I don't know. It's not like we would hold reunions. I

don't think anyone can even remember each
other's faces. Either they're being haunted by
nightmares... Or creating nightmares for someone
else... Who knows what those men ordered them to
do..."

— So you wouldn't recognize one if you'd passed

him in the street?

"No. There was a time, just once, at the Red Rose

Mansion... A man in uniform came to observe... He
was a foreigner, and he took a picture of everyone
together. The man in charge didn't like it, but his
hands were clearly tied behind his back in this
situation. I'd bet you that if I saw the photo now, I
wouldn't recognize the face of the boy standing next
to me."

— What happened to the photo?

"The old secret police must have kept it, because that
photo was how both the German detective Lunge
and Tenma found
and came to me. They said that I looked identical to
Bonaparta."

— I'd like to pull back for a second. Do you know

how your mother came to know Bonaparta, and
what kind of a relationship they had?

"I've never asked her. She died of sickness, and she

kept her silence... I have a feeling that she probably
met him while she was still acting."

— Acting...?

"My mother was actually quite an actress. They said

she was one of the stars of the stage in Prague.
This was in the '50s. She would do female
renditions of 'Jack the Ripper' and 'Dr. Jekyll and Mr.
Hyde.' I guess nowadays they would call those 'split-
personality'

roles. When my mother would change personalities

on stage, she didn't change her makeup, she
changed her expressions and her voice, like a
completely different woman, they said. It's almost
too crazy to believe, but everyone who saw her all
say that the instant she changed, it was like a
completely different actor had switched into her
place. They had sold out shows for weeks at a
time... And soon her performances were banned.
The usual thing they did back then.
Apparently my mother and the rest of the staff
would find ways to secretly continue their
productions, in beer hall basements and restaurants
and such. Ultimately, they cracked down on her,
arrested her and took her somewhere."

— And that's where she met Bonaparta?

"I don't know the truth of it, because I didn't hear

this from my mother. Some of her old acting
partners told me that at the time, some
psychiatrists or psychologists or
neurosurgeons or something took a look at her
brainwaves and such. Apparently some branch of
the government took an interest in the way she
acted... They wanted to know if she was indeed
acting, or if she actually possessed multiple
personalities that she would switch between on
stage.
Possibly the theater ban might have been put in
place solely so they had a reason to arrest her and
study her."

— What do you think about that?

"I never saw my mother act, so... This is just what

her partners and friends said... That it's the same
thing. When a truly great actor plays a fictional role,
they must transform into that character from within.
They said, your mother was an incredible actress
who could switch between characters immediately,
and if you call that multiple personalities, then it
must be so. However, she could do it consciously,
rather than unconsciously... I was born after her
release. She never even told her friends who the
father was. All she said was that when she acted as
if she was falling in love, it really happened.
According to Tenma, Bonaparta and my mother
were indeed married. I think that's good enough for
me. It would mean that she was more than just a
subject to be studied, to him."

— Mr. Lipsky, you lived for a time with Nina

Fortner... who is Johan's sister, Anna. What was she
like?

"It was Nina whom I met. I don't know any Annas.

She was hurt much worse and much deeper than I
was. And she knew so much more about Bonaparta
than I did. She even knew what it was he was trying
to accomplish. I learned many things from her. If it
wasn't for her, I wouldn't be the person that I am
today."

— What do you mean?

"At the time, I was agonizing over my puppet plays. I
had a far smaller crowd than I do now. I was having
a harder time attracting an audience than
puppeteers who were worse than I was. The reason
was, whether it's a one-man-show or a huge
production, you need a good story... And I just
couldn't get one going. I was confident in my
ability, but ever since I was a student, I just wasn't
good at writing stories. I began to think about
quitting my hobby. When I really got down to it, I
realized that my greatest flaw was that I couldn't
write a story where the main character was happy
in the end. That's when I realized that I myself was
not happy. I began to visit the Red Rose Mansion
out of nostalgia, nearly every day. I did this
because it was at the mansion that I first acquired
my reputation for being unable to write a story.
Because of that seminar. They took my happiness
away, there...

So I felt that by going back to the mansion, I might

catch a glimpse of what I had lost...

"One day, I found Nina there, unconscious. Well, to be

accurate, I ran into her little friend Dieter, when he
ran out of the room looking for help. I took her back
to my home and nursed her. For an instant, it felt as
if I had a family; as if I had someone to protect and
care for. The moment Nina awoke, she understood
that Bonaparta and the Red Rose Mansion were
deeply connected. There was such a huge, horrible
sadness in her eyes... I thought she was just like
me. But she wasn't. She was hurt so much worse,
but she still believed in the possibility of happiness
in her life. She never gave up; she kept seeking it.
She really knew, instinctually, that her life had to
have a happy ending... And when I understood that,
I finally thought of a story where the protagonist is
happy at the end."
Lipsky toasted Nina's name. When he smiled, I
thought his grin to be quite natural. Son of
Bonaparta, and victim of the reading seminar — his
mental scars must be terrible indeed. But I would
like to think that he'll be fine.

No doubt he will be performing his play once again

next Wednesday on Karel Bridge. Making people
happy.
 Chapter 25 - Ruhenheim
This report following Johan's crimes appears to be
nearing its conclusion. But first I would like to
examine the story of the massacre in which the quiet
town of Ruhenheim in the state of Bavaria met its
end. It was during a few days in November of 1998.
At about the time that Wolfgang Grimmer was
hurrying toward Ruhenheim, Inspector Heinrich
Lunge was already there one step ahead of him.

Having come to the conclusion that Lipsky was the

son of Franz Bonaparta, the Inspector visited his
apartment in Prague. Lipsky acknowledged that fact
and handed the Inspector a single postcard. The
postcard, a sketch of scenery overlooking a village
from a mountain ridge, had arrived three or four
years earlier. The signature was K.P.... The Inspector
had noticed that all of Klaus Poppe's characters had
German names, and reasoned that Poppe was also
German. Following this reasoning, Inspector Lunge
became Poppe. .../ am lonely. I want to regain my
peace of mind. I want to return to my homeland. This
is the landscape of my home. With frightening
tenacity, Inspector Lunge toured southern Germany
until he arrived at the town of Ruhenheim, depicted
in the sketch on the postcard.

There he immediately took lodging at the Hotel

Versteck and proceeded to the police station — to
warn them of the massacre that was about to take
place in this peaceful town.

That evening, another guest arrived late and

checked in alone. His name was Neumeier...or
rather, Grimmer.

It began with minor acts of violence around the

town, a noisy dog being killed, an elderly couple
who won the lottery buying guns for self-defense.
An old man picking
lingonberries went missing, an alcoholic shouting
out his misery in the street. Little by little, the
invisible evil of hatred began to descend upon the
peaceful town.

Every day, Grimmer and Inspector Lunge would

monitor the train station and roads into the town,
preparing for the time when Johan, the unseen
enemy, would release his attackers. However, the
enemy did not appear, and bit by bit the tension
grew.

This brings to mind another strange case from the

50s, in which it's said that all the people of a town
slaughtered each other — the great massacre in
Zweifelstadt, in the state of Niedersachsen. In 1960,
the famous sociologist Thomas Dietrich analyzed
the Zweifelstadt incident in his book "The Eyes of
Others, The Hatred of Others" in this way: loving
someone a little is the same as hating them a little.
The rampant spread of hatred created an explosive
situation in that peaceful village. They were all close
friends, of equivalent health and intelligence, living
in similar homes with their similar husbands and
wives under similar circumstances, driving the same
cars, pursuing the same hobbies.

And yet there are always those who want to

compare themselves. I'm better than that guy. Yet
he's above me. But I'm the better one. Hatred lies
dormant within words like equality. Because people
can't live believing they are identical to everyone
else. It will always be true that one might surpass
another but be unable to prove it...and when such a
dilemma infests a peaceful village — there is the
breeding ground that gives birth to violence.
A local newspaper from that time reporting on the
great massacre that occurred in Zweifelstadt
Niedersachsen. At first thought to be an attack by a
fringe cult group, it was later speculated to be the
work of terrorists from the East side.

In the 1958 Zweifelstadt case in Niedersachsen, the

seed of the massacre was essentially a hunting rifle.
Although it was a simple murder case involving a
gang dispute over a card game, a newspaper
published graphic photos (of the
victim's corpse mutilated by the shotgun), and while
the police delayed in revealing the motive, rumors
spread that it was the work of a psycho criminal.

Peter Bock, who lived in Zweifelstadt, became

convinced that his neighbor Michael Oswalt was the
serial killer because he noticed that Oswalt kept a
hunting gun by the window. When this was casually
mentioned in a bar room, and to associates at his
workplace, the rumor spread through the whole
town in a flash. Only Mr. Oswalt, at the center of
the storm, knew nothing of it....

Surprisingly, the first murder occurred directly

opposite Oswalt's house on the north side of town.
An auto mechanic named Volk Rogner mistook a
visiting neighbor as Oswalt and shot him with a
handgun he owned for self-defense.
That gunshot reverberated through the entire town,
and in the confusion caused by Rogner's dreadful
mistake, Bock shot the real Oswalt, Oswalt's wife
then shot Bock, a house was set on fire, and one by
one people began to shoot at anyone who
happened to come their way...the village was
annihilated in a single night.

But there is an epilogue to this event. It was

reported that during the week prior to the incident
there was a graduate student who stayed in the
village while studying folklore.

In a bar, he heard the conjecture about Oswalt

being the criminal, and spread that rumor to every
household he visited during his ethnological
surveys. At dusk on the day of the incident, he
visited Rogner's home, and warned him that Oswalt
was going to come by later that evening to
complain about Rogner spreading the rumor that
Oswalt was a psychopathic murderer.
Moreover, he was staying at a bed and breakfast in
a private home, and told them something terrible
was about to happen that night and they were
absolutely not to go outside to seek help until two
days had passed (also, it is interesting to note that
this family, the only survivors in the village, had
been repatriated from the Czech Sudetenland).

At first the police were not interested in the

student's existence since he was not listed among
the dead, but they became concerned when he
suddenly disappeared from the scene and an
investigation revealed that there was no such
graduate student registered under his name.
Various theories have circulated regarding the true
character of that man, but the prevailing opinion
is that this was all an experiment conducted by an
operative from the East side.

Now let's go back to the tragedy at Ruhenheim.

At the time the body of the old man who was picking
lingonberries was discovered, Tenma was in Prague,
visiting Lipsky based on information he received from
Captain Ranke and Nina. He learned from Lipsky that
his father Bonaparta (Poppe) had returned to his
hometown in the mountains of southern Germany,
and a collector of juvenile literature had informed
Tenma that the 1989 edition of Helmut Voss's "A
Peaceful Home" was actually Poppe's new book.

Tenma found a town called "Ruhenheim," i.e.,

"Peaceful Home," on a map, and headed there at
once.

It was raining heavily in the south of Germany. In

Ruhenheim, a police officer was killed, the regulars
at a tavern all murdered each other, and soon the
village overflowed with corpses. Although a number
of townspeople and guests at the Hotel Versteck
escaped the danger, it was
only a matter of time before the mysterious assailant
took advantage of the panic and attacked them as
well.

In the midst of all this, Inspector Lunge and Grimmer

finally obtained a confession from a particular man: I
am Franz Bonaparta, and I am Klaus Poppe.

That man was the proprietor of the Hotel Versteck.

"I am not afraid to die. I regret my past sins but I

can do nothing but await judgment upon my
death," Bonaparta said.

Grimmer shouted back at him, "To destroy a

person's sense of good and evil, to awake the
monster within, that's not a sin you can so easily
atone for! So you are going to stay alive, and I will
protect you until you can tell the world all that
happened and what you have done."

The people remaining at the hotel had one rifle and

two handguns among them. After dividing the
weapons, Inspector Lunge and Grimmer both
resolved to meet again. Grimmer remained to guard
Bonaparta and the other people at the hotel, while
Inspector Lunge took on the task of bringing down
Johan, or whoever was attacking the town on
Johan's behalf.

The rains came down harder, the roads were

closed, the train stopped running, and Ruhenheim
became an isolated island. As Inspector Lunge
moved through the town seeking the enemy, he
was told by one young woman who had survived
that the ringleader of the attack was a man named
Roberto. Lunge headed toward the Hotel Bergbach
to confront him, but on the way he happened to
encounter Dr. Tenma who had just arrived on the
scene.
The two stood face to face. Lunge said, "My journey
of delusion became my truth.

But with you here, reality has finally stepped

forward and my vacation of following imaginary
threads has come to an end." After he told Tenma
where to find Bonaparta, he added, "I have a job to
do.... I'm sorry." Then he walked away.

At that time, the Hotel Versteck was under siege

and taking gunfire. Without concern for his own
safety, Grimmer went out into the street alone. He
faced the building where the attacker was hidden
and began to speak. "Think about what you're
doing in your heart!" he shouted, just as the girl
who had told the Inspector about Roberto
appeared. There was a moment of silence.
Relieved, the girl walked toward Grimmer and was
pierced by a bullet.

She was killed instantly. With an anguished roar,

Grimmer charged into the building where the
shooter was hiding.

Also, Nina and Dr. Gillen had arrived at the town.

These two were looking for Johan, because Nina, for
reasons which will be discussed later, had foreseen
how the events that had developed over at least
ten years would ultimately conclude.

When Tenma hurried to the hotel and perceived the

strange events occurring in the building across the
street, he dashed inside. There on the top floor, he
was reunited with Grimmer. On the verge of death,
Grimmer sat on a couch and told Tenma that he had
taken care of all the attackers alone, transformed
by his own anger, and that the Magnificent Steiner
did not appear. He then introduced Dr. Tenma to
the late-arriving Franz Bonaparta.
"I'm sad... I'm not sad because I'm going to die... My
child is dead...and now I'm sad... It's impossible for
people to
completely lose their emotions... My feelings just got
lost somewhere... It's as if a letter that was sent to
me has finally reached me, decades later...

So this is true sadness...so this is

happiness..." Those were Grimmer's last

words.

To help Inspector Lunge, Dr. Tenma headed for the

Hotel Bergbach, and Bonaparta offered to go with
him. As the two made their way through the town,
Tenma asked him about the strange love letter
discovered at the Red Rose Mansion, which Inspector
Lunge had earlier entrusted to Grimmer.
Bonaparta admitted it was something he had
written to the mother of the twins. He confessed
that he had fallen in love with her and had erased
everyone who knew of her and the twins. The two
hurried on to the hotel.

While a fierce life-and-death battle was unfolding

between Inspector Lunge and Roberto, Tenma and
Bonaparta came upon a shadowy figure in front of
the hotel. It was Johan.

Tenma stood before him, his gun ready, yet Johan's

expression was empty. Tenma fixed his aim on Johan's
forehead.

Just then, Bonaparta struck Tenma with his gun and

stepped in front of him, advancing toward Johan.
"Let's die. We'll die together."

There was a gunshot...but Bonaparta was the one who

fell.

The bloody figure of Roberto staggered from the

hotel. It was his bullet that ended Bonaparta's life.
He collapsed before Johan and said, "Please show me,
Johan. The Landscape of the End.'" Johan replied
coldly, "It can't be seen by you." Then Roberto too
met his death.
Johan spoke to Tenma, who aimed his gun at him
again. "Dr. Tenma. To you all lives are equal.
Because of that, I was revived. But haven't you
realized by now? It's only in death that all are
equal." Johan touched his finger to his forehead.
"You can see it. 'The Landscape of the End'..."

Tenma tightened his finger on the trigger. Nina

came running, shouting to Tenma not to shoot.
Tenma hesitated.

In the next moment, Johan fell to the ground, struck

by a bullet to the head —

It was one of the surviving villagers who shot Johan.

In his testimony the man said that when Tenma was
confronting Johan with a gun, he saw his own son
between them, and shot to save his child. It was
proven to be true that Johan had pointed his own
gun at the boy, and so he escaped arrest.

But in the testimony this man gave to the police,

there is an extremely interesting passage. However,
I would like you to judge the following words while
taking into consideration his severe alcoholism.

"It was the Devil... The Devil came to this town and
killed everyone! He had a gun pointed at my
precious son! Both the long-haired man and the
Devil were standing with guns aimed at each other,
and then the Devil pointed his gun at my son's
head, I swear! That's why I shot. I aimed at the
guy's head, but he looked like...a demon? He was a
monster...an apparition...it had many heads, and
many horns...it was a monster!"

...This was all I could learn from my investigation into

the Johan case.
 Chapter 29 - Klaus Poppe
(December 2001; Jablonec nad Nisou)

The next day I left Brno and returned to Prague to

catch the intercity bus to Jablonec. Before that,
however, I decided to return to the Brevnov district
to visit the ruins of the Red Rose Mansion to gather
more information. To some journalists in the Czech
Republic, the country has become completely
liberalized. Nevertheless, the power of the state still
widely imposes excessive regulation on information,
and it can be argued that this is at its most extreme
when it comes to the Red Rose Mansion.

I can't help but agree with some of those journalists.

Because this time, just as on my first visit, I was
immediately accosted by a burly police officer who
arbitrarily prohibited me from taking pictures or
collecting data. Furthermore, I was not allowed to
get anywhere near the residence. I was forced to
photograph the site from my car. I wonder what the
authorities are trying to conceal. Or are they still
excavating something from within the grounds?

During the one night I stayed in Prague, I received

a phone call from Karl Schuwald who had some
unexpected information. It was so startling that I
couldn't decide whether or not this was mere
coincidence.

Did he really remember his agreement to look for a

chance to ask his father the question I had asked?
— among all the students working part time for
him back then, Schuwald asked only the honor
student Johan, "What is your favorite book?" and
Johan told him the title.
Karl said, "I found the book. To think that Johan
would pick such a thing...but I remember it. The
book was written by an Austrian author. It was an
extremely popular pulp fiction sort of novel, or
maybe more like horror.... Anyway, the title of
Johan's favorite book was 'Dorn in the Darkness,' by
a man named Fritz Weindler."

The purpose of all my research has been to discover

if another monster exists apart from Johan.
However, I never imagined that the "Demon Axe-
Murderer" Gustav Kottmann was connected to Johan
in such a way. Kottmann's and Johan's favorite book
was the same....

The next morning I called the Austrian publisher of

"Dorn in the Darkness," Krone Books. I got hold of
the person who had responded to my queries a year
ago and asked about Fritz Weindler. It was critically
important to know how he had died.

"Actually, I don't really understand it myself," the

representative answered, sounding somewhat
puzzled. "It was quite unexpected — I went over to
his apartment to pick up a manuscript, and there
were several people in his room who were
apparently his friends, and they told me he had died
the previous day. I was stunned when they said he'd
been hit by a passing car in front of his house and
had died instantly.... And the funeral was over and
he was taken to the cemetery before anyone knew
what happened. I remember wondering if it was
suicide or something."

I asked what sort of person Weindler had been.

"He was kind of an oddball. He hated having his

picture taken and never allowed even one. He
never talked about his private life at all. He was
uncooperative and wouldn't meet with any other
editor besides me. Still, he was quite
attractive...early forties, tall and muscular, with a
handsome face, though his expressions were hard
to read and he rarely smiled."

Then I asked, "Did you see his body at the

funeral?" "No."

I'd caught hold of something. But that would not

become apparent until a little while later.

I boarded the bus at the Florenz terminal at 1 2:20

and after an hour and a half I finally arrived at
Jablonec nad Nisou in Bohemia. As we reached the
other side of a forest of huge firs and Himalayan
cedars that rose up from the snowy plain, Jablonec
came into view, a beautiful city like a fairy country
in the hills, with rows of art nouveau houses.

Here my staff had located one of the leaders of the

Jablonec section of the Communist Party from the
40's to the 70's, someone who had personally known
Terner Poppe. His name is Milos Prochazka, 81 years
old. Just beyond a small shopping district, his home
is a beautiful old building in pale green, next to a
public park.

Mr. Prochazka is a stubborn looking old man with

tremendously thick glasses. He invited me into his
living room, and with a thundering voice scolded his
great- grandchildren who were making a racket in
the hallway, proving that he was still living his life on
active duty.

"When my grandchildren got bigger I thought I could

finally have a decent conversation, but now it's the
great- grandchildren. I'm really not good with very
small children. I just can't communicate with kids
that age. You can't hit them, so naturally I resort to
yelling at them. And then I hate myself."
— But you're happy, aren't you?

"Ah, that's because I've always lived simply. And I

try to know my limits. I still support the Communist
Party, even though it has too many contradictions
for me. Its principles became blurred sometimes,
depending on who the leaders were. But whether it
was a time of extreme repression by the Party, or a
time of extreme liberalization, I'm proud to say I
never ran away, and protected everyone in town."

— To start with, could tell me the details of how you

became one of the top leaders in the Communist
Party? If I'm not mistaken, at the time you were the
youngest to attain such a position in that section.

"There aren't any details.... The country was

liberated from the Nazi forces in May of '45. I was 25
years old. During the war I was involved in
Resistance activities. When I came home, everyone
welcomed me as a hero, but I never though of
myself that way. I imagine that the district Party
promoted me because of all that. Myself, I'd always
planned to be a glass blower like my father."

— After the war, was the power of the

Communist Party already strong in the Czech
Republic?
Mr. Procházka, one of the few people who knew Terner
Poppe. He also showed me the home of Terner's
parents.

"In general, it had become a one party system since

1 948, but it really wasn't because the factions were
so divided.
After the war a provisional National Assembly was
installed in October. At that time the Communist
Party was registered in both the Czech Republic and
Slovakia but their districts differed, and the Czech
Communists easily won twice the parliamentary
seats as the Slovaks. So the Slovakian Communist
Party was brought under the Czech party, and
Moscow was the great fount of wisdom guiding it
all. Right from the start, the Communist Party used
force to gain as much political power as possible."

— Where are you from originally?

"Oh, I'm from this town. We didn't have as nice a

house as this though. My father was a craftsman at a
German-owned glass factory."

— Then when Hitler annexed the Sudetenland,

were you banished from town?

"That's right. Although it was the Czech Republic,

only Germans were permitted to live here. Two
hundred thousand people were exiled."

— Were the positions reversed after Liberation?

"Well, there was the compulsory removal of Germans
under the Potsdam Agreement, and the Czechs who
originally lived in the town returned, but unrelated
to that, the Slovaks who lost their homes during the
war and then the Romani, they all poured into the
area. Factories and businesses were nationalized,
and agricultural land was seized without payment
and divided among many small farmers."

— Did all of the Sudeten Germans leave?

"Basically. But we're probably talking about two and

a half million people. There were still about 200,000
Germans who voluntarily stayed."

— And among them was a man named Terner

Poppe, correct?

"He was at the center of the Czech Republic

Communist Party from the beginning. Because he
was a native of this town, he hated Hitler and
supported Czech independence, even though he
was a Sudeten German. He was a hero who fought
with us in the resistance. He was about 45 then...l
was just a green kid who couldn't hold a candle to
him. They couldn't just tell a man like that to get
out."

— What was his position after the war?

"If he hadn't been German, I think he would've

become President or Prime Minister. He was a
formidable theorist and tactician, and was a gifted
agitator. Besides being a pillar of the Czech
Communist Party, I think he probably had a direct
connection to Moscow. Armed uprisings of the labor
unions, rumors of terrorist threats, the
neutralization of the military...I've always thought it
was likely that Terner Poppe was working in the
shadows of the Communist coup that made Gottwald
Prime Minister in 1 948. Afterward, he never went
out in public, never traveled to Prague, and just
spent
the rest of his life here. And from the start, he was
the one we reported to whenever we made a
decision. After the war he was the most influential
person in town, and that was how he remained here
as a German."

— What did Terner Poppe look like?

"He was tall and thin...with penetrating eyes. He

had elegant comportment, didn't care for alcohol,
and yet still had an easy manner. And yet everyone
who knew him said that he was so disturbing that
they broke out in a cold sweat the moment they met
him.

Everyone agreed that if he asked you something,

you absolutely could not lie."

— Was he in a position of power until the very

end? "No, six or seven years after the war

ended, he readily
stepped aside. Just as you'd expect from a genius, no
one
knew what he was thinking "

— Did he really completely retire?

"Yes, he really did. There were rumors that he had

fallen ill, or that he had abandoned his wife and
child for a younger woman, and they had run off to
a life of pleasure. But I think he just got tired of
power."

— You mentioned an illness?

"Ah, well, once he passed 50 he shut himself away

in his house, and wouldn't go out in public anymore.
The sickness theory held that he had been
hospitalized somewhere, and then the story turned
into him being looked after in a sanatorium. But the
truth is, he died at about 65, in a hospital here in
this town. His last years were said to be
rather pitiful. He was such a sharp and talented
person, but at the time of his death he apparently
was so confused and that he couldn't remember
his own name."

— What about the rumor of falling in love with

a young woman?

"It was a rumor that ran through the whole town,

and I heard it myself. Although she was young
enough to be his daughter, the story goes that he
asked to impregnate her.
She supposedly lived in this town, but was of both
Czech and German parentage. At the time she was
probably 1 8 or 1 9 and very beautiful...all the
young men in town were in love with her, thus
giving rise to endless gossip and rumors. In the end,
she hastily married a man in a neighboring village,
but it was quite a rumor while it lasted."

— And the story that Terner Poppe cast aside his

wife and child?

"I think there might be some truth to that one. When

he shut himself up in his house like a recluse, his
wife and child had disappeared. I guess they
divorced."
A street sign in Jablonec pointing to the neighboring
town of Liberec...Was this elegant house on a hill in the
residential area the home of Terner Poppe? Czechs of
German descent live here now, but the landlord said,
"It was transferred from someone in my grandfather's
time, but I don't know any more than that." Is this
where Bonaparta was born?

— Was Terner's child a son?

"I'm sure it was a boy, although I never met him. Oh

yes! I remember, there was something about his
father and the girl from the rumors and another boy
his age. The son fell in love with the girl, but lost out
to a young man in a neighboring village who stole
her away...a typical story of passion among
young guys like that, but somehow the rumor turned
into a story about his father and the girl. ...Well, you
can't help but get this sort of thing in a small town."

— It there anyone else that remembers Terner's son?

"No one but me, I think. I don't think he even came

to his father's funeral. He probably left town in 1 950
or so."

— The girl in the rumors about his father...the one

the son fell in love with, do you happen to know
the family she married into?

"I don't remember more than the town he was from."

— And where was

that? "Liberec."

The story that the lawyer Verdemann had told me

floated up in my mind. If it's true that Verdemann's
father's town is the next town over from Jablonec,
then the beautiful woman who married his father's
neighbor matches the half German and half Czech
woman Mr. Prochazka was talking about.

However, that would mean I misunderstood that his

father's hometown was Reichenberg.

Still, I couldn't give up until I asked Mr. Prochazka

about it. "Do you know a town called Reichenberg?"

"Reichenberg is Liberec." He laughed and continued,

"It's true, I just neglected to explain that. All towns
in Bohemia had German names before World War II.
For example, Jablonec was called Gablonz. After the
war, the Czech people renamed things in the Czech
style. Hence, Reichenberg and Liberec are one and
the same town."
Everything matched... Though I still have no
evidence, I believe there is a connection between
Bonaparta and Verdemann.
 Chapter Franz - Bonaparta
This is all just my terrible imaginings. It's a story with
no evidence or foundation.

There was a Sudeten German who was nevertheless

a friend to the Czech people. This man was the
genius who helped the Communist coup succeed,
and he had a son. The son fell in love with a
beautiful girl of German and Czech descent, but the
girl and his father fell in love. The love soon ended,
and the girl married a Czech man from the next
town, based on his German lineage. The son's hated
for his father, who had abandoned him and his
mother, grew stronger. He had hit upon a method of
destroying people by depriving them of their
names, and he tested this on his father, who
afterward spent the rest of his life in fear and
confusion.

The son was a greater genius than his father. He

worked out a revolutionary theory of brainwashing
and personality restructuring, charmed the
politicians, the military and the secret police, and
acquired the backing to live freely as a powerful
figure of the state.

At that time, the woman he had loved got in touch

with him. She told him that her son wanted to
become a career soldier. But because her husband
was of German lineage, she doubted that she could
get a recommendation to the military academy for
a minority child. But he gladly granted her this
favor. He planned to keep an eye on her son. When
the boy became an adult, he would conduct an
experiment with him. Because the boy had splendid
genes dwelling within him....
He waited patiently for the boy to grow up and
graduate from the academy. During this time, he
was also receiving
information from all over Czechoslovakia about girls
who had superior genes. Among them all, his
favorite was a young girl who was said to have
been a twin while in her mother's womb. He
decided to have this girl and the boy from the
neighboring town meet in Prague. At last he could
test his method of making two people fall in love.
The two were united as he had planned. However,
there was a miscalculation in that plan. Though it
was a small miscalculation, and still within the
predicted range, the two confessed the truth to
each other, and tried to escape from the
experiment. He didn't hesitate to dispose of the
young man, but he was extremely interested in the
twins growing within the young woman's womb.

However, he failed to notice a greater

miscalculation. He was falling in love with a woman
young enough to be his daughter. Just as his father
had done....

This is the dreadful tale I've been thinking about. In

addition, as for the girl of mixed Czech and German
parentage with whom the father kept company, if I
suppose the rumors of her pregnancy were true,
then my imaginings become even more shocking.
Whose son was the boy who grew up to become a
soldier...?

The case has come full circle....

 Chapter 10 - Lotte Frank
Upon graduating from Munich University, Lotte Frank
surprisingly joined the large Southern German
detective agency Wanz & Wanz, but was fired after a
year for numerous clashes with management over
employee salary and welfare. She now keeps a low
profile working for a Munich research company, and
plans to become a writer. Her first novel is said to be
an escape suspense set in the Middle Ages, about a
slave who flees his owners and attempts to become
a free man.

She met me at a cafe in Schwabing near her alma

mater, dressed in what would be considered, for her
work, a rather rough outfit: navy jacket, cut and
sewn shirt, knee-length skirt. Most striking of her
features were her large, round glasses, and her
bobbed hair with a pigtail on the side. She had a
charming, jaunty air. The files she carried under her
arm were apparently the results of a survey on
which type of white sausage teens prefer: boiled or
fried.

— Let's get to the questions. Tell me how it was you

came to be involved with these events.

"When I heard from the student office that Mr.

Schuwald was hiring female college students for part
time jobs, I figured it was my big chance. It ended up
being cleaning and laundry and stuff like that."

— Your big chance?

"Yes, I was interested in the Vampire of Bayern.

When I told Herr Schuwald that I wanted to write a
thesis on 'Mental Profiles of Bayern's Rich and
Powerful in the Middle Ages and Today,' he thought
it was very funny. He wanted to know
if he was my subject. And when I worked there, I
noticed the students he hired to read to him... whom
I found an interest in. Especially Karl... and Johan.
Johan Liebert."

— Why were you interested in these two?

"As far as the reading was concerned, Karl was a

horrid student. The things Schuwald used to say to
him! I figured he would quit in no time. Schuwald
would treat his readers harshly, but he never fired
them. Instead, most of them would simply stop
coming after a few times. I honestly thought Karl
was just another one of them. But even after all the
things Schuwald said to him, even through all the
pain he was clearly suffering, Karl came back every
week like it was the only thing that mattered. I
figured there must have been something to it. As far
as Johan goes... he was just so handsome and
perfect that it surprised me anyone like that truly
existed."

— And Edmund Fahren?

"Eh, either way. He was blond and pretty, but sort

of take-it- or-leave-it, as far as I was concerned."

— So, you kept an eye on what Mr. Schuwald did

everyday.

"Yes. Karl told me he would go out on the town every

Friday night. So we followed him."

— And this is how you met the prostitute known as

the "Red Hindenburg," and learned that there was
another young man claiming to be Schuwald's son.

"Right, we learned that she was using Karl's

mother's name to leech money from Schuwald, and
that Edmund Fahren had stepped forward, calling
himself the rightful son.
Karl and I went to his dorm, and he had committed
suicide... And from then on, it was just one thing
after another."

— You have also met Anna... that is, Nina Fortner.

"Yes, I met her at the school library. She came every

day, and researched things until the library's closing
time. I was curious, so I talked with her. Nina was
looking into a series of unsolved serial murders that
had happened in Bayern over the past few years,
including, to my surprise, the murder of Karl
Schuwald's mother..."

— As a matter of fact, you are the first person

I've spoken with who has talked about Nina
Fortner. Can you tell me your impressions of her?

"She was very pretty, with long blonde hair... sort of

naive, or should I say, withdrawn... But I think she
felt a calling, a strong will inside of her. It was
almost like desperation, in a way. From the
moment I met her, she reminded me of Johan...
with one big difference. Something that Johan did
not have... that was her expressions. She had the
most wonderful, human expressions on her face."

— This is the question I have been most curious

about... Karl told me that you were quite familiar
with Johan's fainting episode with the storybook
"The Nameless Monster"...

Can you tell me about it?

"Ah yes. When I heard that he had fainted, I rushed

to the hospital. Bodenheim State Hospital... Johan
had already been checked in, and I met the librarian
who had been there when he fainted. I asked her
about the book he had seen, because of course I
was curious, so I looked it up for myself."

— And what did you think, after you read it?

"I didn't just read 'The Nameless Monster,' I got my
hands on everything that Emil Sebe... well,
everything that author did."

As she said this, she pulled out several storybooks

from among the thick stack of files she carried.
Klaus Poppe's "The God of Peace," Jakub Faroubek's
"The Man With Big Eyes and the Man With the Big
Mouth," Emil Sebe's "My Garden," Helmuth Voss's "A
Peaceful Home"... some of which I had never seen
before. My only thought was, is this the source of
Johan's story? These fairy tales shaped him into
what he is?

"I read all of them... the art is unique. You don't see
many people draw like this, do you? The problem is
what's inside. I think for average kids who live a
normal life, these would be unremarkable for the
most part. But what if you really preached the
stories to them, as if they were the Bible? As
something that had to be read and understood.
There's a message in them. But I can't tell exactly
what kind. I feel a kind of evil from it. But I can't tell
what sort. Aside from "A Peaceful Home," it's a
commonality in all of them... I can't explain it. There
are so many ways you can take them. How would a
human being interpret these books?"
[left] Lotte's detective thoroughness has led her to
read most of Franz Bonaparta's storybooks. She has
an excellent analysis of Bonaparta's style, as
befitting a person of considerable insight. I believe
she has ample talent to be a novelist.

[right] Ms. Frank tells me it's nice to be a writer, but that

detective work provides its own good ideas. A very
unique individual..

I found her words to be quite fascinating. How did

the storybooks create Johan? By leaving the
interpretation of the books up to the children, after
they had been read. And not just left up to the
children, but forcefully read to them in an extremely
restricted and terrifying environment, pounding it
into their minds in a place that fills them with malice
and nihility. The best and brightest of
Czechoslovakia's psychologists must have had an
idea of what this would produce.

— Did you see Johan after his fainting episode?

"From time to time at school... This was around the

time that Johan and Karl grew somewhat estranged
from me. I had quit my job for Mr. Schuwald, and I
didn't go to the ceremony when the fire broke out.
But the one thing that I can say is that the book
changed Johan's plans, if not his entire life."

— Changed his life?

"When I asked the librarian about the circumstances
of his collapse, she said he just happened upon the
book. It was an unexpected incident. Or more like,
he had forgotten about the book's existence."

— He had no memory of it?

"Yes, I believe he had lost his memory. Until he saw

it again... And when he saw "The Nameless Monster,"
he remembered that he himself was not a monster.
It might have been the instant that he returned to
being human."

Johan cast aside his ambitions of Schuwald's fortune

in the flames, and disappeared. He would leave to
the Czech Republic on a journey of self-discovery,
possibly to fill in the pieces of his missing memories.

— Did you meet with Nina again, after the

burning of the library?

"I went to see her in the hospital. She said that Dr.
Tenma had saved her life. After being discharged,
she went to Dr. Reichwein's house, where Dr. Gillen
put her under hypnosis. She talked about a fairy-tale
land... and three frogs. I figured that she must have
been missing part of her memory as well. The same
thing with Johan. The next day, she disappeared. I'm
sure she must have remembered where this fairy-
tale land was, or where Johan would be going. I saw
her once again, near the end of the whole string of
events.

She had gotten all of her memory back... and she was
in a bad state. It was hard to get close to her..."

— How do you feel about Johan now, after all is

said and done?
 "I understand that he was a terrifying person, but I
was a bit like Karl, and I didn't delve too deeply into
him... Looking back, there were definitely some
things about him that send shivers down my spine,
but I wouldn't say that I hate Johan, or feel angry at
him."

— Karl seems to have complex feelings about Johan

as well. Do you think that it's possible he planned
to kill Karl in the library?

"Hmmm... I wouldn't say so. Schuwald learned of

Johan's plot before it happened, and still went to the
ceremony... He made up an errand for Karl to run so
that he wouldn't be present... and I think Johan
accounted for all these things. If he really wanted to
kill Karl, he could have done so long before that."

— Why do you suppose Karl escaped Johan's sights?

"I don't know if Johan was really such a methodical,

plan- oriented person... He was able to get
whatever he wanted so easily that it was equally
simple for him to bring an early end to it. He grew
tired of fame and wealth just before he would have
had them for himself. But what Karl wanted was
something that Johan could never have... Karl
wanted the evening lights of homes in the city... the
sight of people returning home... the harmony of
family... the warmth and the bonds... All things that
Johan could not have... and could not understand...
And he probably couldn't kill anyone who sought
such things."
 Chapter 22 - Grimmer's
Notebook
As Mr. Mustafa had guessed, when he said Hermann
Führ's name and the mysterious numbers 42 and 46,
I had already known them. That's because they had
been written in a somewhat hasty scrawl in
Grimmer's notebook (or to be precise, a photocopy
of his notes) which I obtained from the lawyer
Verdemann.

According to some reports, Wolfgang Grimmer was

involved in the Johan case, conducting an
investigation into the abuse of orphans in the
former East Germany. Because he wanted to make
public a list of graduates of the orphanage
Kinderheim 511 who had personally experienced
the inhumane experiments there, he had
reportedly been following Reinhardt Biermann ever
since he fled to the Czech Republic. By chance,
Grimmer met Tenma on a train, and sensing the
aura of a man attempting to smuggle himself
across the border, helped him in his escape.
Though he could not have known it then, Grimmer
would later be reunited with Tenma when the
former secret police attacked him, and this time it
would be he who was rescued by Tenma.
Grimmer's search for the list of Kinderheim 511
graduates, which eventually fell into Johan's hands,
was not limited to the former East Germany, but
eventually expanded to the former
Czechoslovakia...to Franz Bonaparta...and to Johan
as well.

Grimmer's notes of his investigation start from

when he disappeared after claiming responsibility
to the Prague police for a series of murders in order
to save Suk from his misfortune.

Mr. Grimmer, as noted earlier, was an intelligence

agent for the former East Germany, but even viewed
in light of that,
his behavior was amazingly bold. According to his
notes, when he sent the letter to the Prague police
detailing Suk's innocence, he was still living in the
same city. At one of the finest hotels in Prague, the
Hotel Palace Praha on Jindřišská Street, he rented a
room using a Frenchman's name. Then, pretending
to be a publishing agent, he visited the Czech
Association for Juvenile Literature and made the
rounds of all the second hand book stores in central
Prague, acquiring all the picture books he thought
had been written by Bonaparta. After that, he took
an inter-city bus to Teplice, snuck across the
German border on foot in the Ore Mountain region,
and hitchhiked to Leipzig. Although the name of the
person that Grimmer met in Leipzig is still a secret,
he appears to be some sort of important official in a
central department of the former East German
secret police, or "Stasi." That person possessed an
incredible document which he allowed Mr. Grimmer
to read. Although the original document is not
available, I am publishing the notes Mr.
Grimmer wrote about it just as they are.

Published in 1962. B's report (author's note: I believe

"B" is Bonaparta) presented to the Czechoslovakian
state psychiatry department (future predictions:
theories on culture, military affairs, personality
restructuring, and education) i.e., a review of the
devil's plan. At the time I was shocked to realize that
this plan was about to be adopted. B, obviously a
genius. Groundbreaking theory.

Sartre's "Nausea" — when the stores are empty so

are their heads... B, insight into Western culture.

The defeat of the East side's culture by the West was

inevitable → materialism → western prosperity → a
seemingly utopian world → rapid drop in manual
labor → 5- day work week → growth of the
entertainment industry → diversity of interests →
free love → pursuit of pleasure.
As time spent on survival decreases, time spent on
leisure rapidly increases.

But people are overwhelmed by the increase in

leisure time. Pleasure becomes an obligation.
Compulsive sex without love. A people who can not
do anything alone (author's note: is this also from
Sartre's "Nausea"?). A people with too much time
on their hands. Self loathing. Boredom. Fatigue.
Self- denial. Self-discovery.

Toyed with by the God of Destiny.

Crime from boredom → murder = murder for

pleasure = serial murders. ....B had already forecast
the upward trend in crime on the West side in the
60's (appearance of a new kind of murderer =
pleasure killer). Terrifying insight!

In the West, increase in pleasure killers → discovery of

a pleasure murderer → brainwashing → murder with a
purpose blended into murder for pleasure → perfect
camouflage → becomes the perfect crime.

Cultivate talented people able to select and brainwash

pleasure murderers!

Missiles, tanks, weapons of mass destruction → in a

material war, the defeat of the East was inevitable →
efficient terrorism → efficient collapse of the West →
control of pleasure murderers.

Method: select gifted boys = homicidal instinct →

complete isolation → name deprivation → repeated
readings → repeated questions → folklore → self-
destruction due to fear
→ absolute isolation → acts of destruction due to a
belief in "nothingness" → repetition, repetition,
repetition, repetition
→ god phase = Übermensch. Establish proving ground
→ Berlin.
The 19th division of the Stasi ordered an
investigation of B. Czechoslovakian of German
extraction? Neurosurgeon, psychiatrist, psychologist,
picture book author. Has multiple pen names.
Investigated connection to Terner Poppe. June 1950,
Terner Poppe traveled to East Germany with Aleksi
Chepichka, who at the time was an executive of the
Czechoslovakian Communist Party. On that occasion,
he met with section chiefs from the headquarters of
the Ministry of State Security (Stasi), which had gone
from being the K5 division of the police to an
independent organization. When asked about his
birthplace, Poppe answered, "At the end of the 17th
century, my ancestors emigrated from the south of
Germany...perhaps from around Bavaria. I've heard
from the farmers there it was a quiet, peaceful
village surrounded by mountains."
("The defeat of East side's culture by the West...")
Grimmer's notebook, preserved by the lawyer
Verdemann
(original). It provides a very precise understanding of
the process of Mr. Grimmer's investigation into the
Johan case. Just the same, his determination and
analytical abilities are worthy of admiration.

There is more in Grimmer's notebook. Next, he

traveled to Berlin, staying one week. There he
apparently went to a library in Bismarckstrasse
which owns a number of world- renowned book
collections and visited their juvenile literature
collection — not only to look for Bonaparta's
writings, but also to find a 1989 first edition of
Helmut Voss's work, "A Peaceful Home."

Helmut Voss is Bonaparta. The actual book was not

published in the Czech Republic. Was this new book
really Bonaparta's?

He disappeared from the Red Rose Mansion in

'81...unbelievable conclusion...Bonaparta is alive?
Living in Germany?

Did he resurface 8 years after his disappearance?

However, his style has changed. The characters

seem to have changed. There are no unpleasant
impressions from this book. On the other hand, the
drawings are not as vivid as they were previously.

"A thief takes refuge in a mountain village. The thief

schemes to steal the earnings of the town, but as he
becomes friendly with the townspeople, he forgets
how to steal. So he works for the townspeople's sake
and begins to live a quiet life..."

Is it possible that Bonaparta wrote a book like this?

But there is no doubt about the style of the
artwork.
Again, this was from Grimmer's notebook. His
surprise is not hard to fathom. Furthermore, he adds
this analysis.

Did he finally realize that his actions were dreadful?

Why? At any rate, he ran away. Had he now become a
gentle soul, desiring nothing more than a peaceful end?

Perhaps that's the case.

A few days later, Grimmer showed up in the border

town of Passau. His purpose, it appears, was to
contact a former "escape broker." From the notes —
only to check the register of names.

Before the Wall fell, there were a considerable

number of these "escape brokers" in Germany and
Austria. For those with a large amount of money,
there were professionals who would make use of
any possible idea to help them escape illegally
across the border into a free country. After receiving
their commission, some unscrupulous brokers
reported them

to the authorities, though there were a few who

risked their lives to fulfill their contract, provided
that the client had the reliable documents they
demanded. This was because there was a high
possibility that the client was a spy for the
authorities. Grimmer probably felt that the only
documents that were definitely reliable were from
the fugitives on the list who had successfully
crossed the border. This is what he wrote: "It was
there. Klaus Poppe's name was there. He's alive,
and living in exile. In this country!"

Grimmer then traveled to Hamburg to visit the

publisher of the first edition, Vierzig. It was a small
company founded by children's author Georg
Brosche, using proceeds from his best selling novel,
"Chronicles of a Sinking Island." The company is
managed by only 4 people — Brosche, his wife and
son, and his nephew. They seem to have excellent
judgment when it comes to picture books, have
cultivated budding writers and acquired
prestigious awards, and are now well established.

Grimmer learned about Helmut Voss by questioning

Brosche's wife Szilvia, the company president.
Incidentally, at that time, he was masquerading as
a children's literature critic from New York.
According to Grimmer's notes:

When Helmut Voss was young, he aspired to be a

picture book author, but discouraged, he is now an
aging man managing a hotel in the country. Unable
to abandon his past dreams and try something else,
it's said that he suddenly barged in on the publisher
and asked them to read a book he had written. With
a long narrow face, round glasses, and whiskers, his
appearance imparted a sense of quiet charm.

It was President Brosche who met with him. The

moment she picked up his work, she asked if it was
really true that his work had never been published.
Voss's illustrations were a bit dated, but she could see
in them a maturity as well as considerable technical
precision. She signed the contract with him
immediately, and the book was published in August
1989. Though only a small number of copies were
printed, it gained a good reputation, and they received
a letter of nomination for children's picture books from
the Rheinland-Pfalz State Education Foundation.
However, Voss firmly refused it, and they forfeited the
chance to win the award. It was very disappointing, the
president said with a smile, but sometimes writers are
like that. And in the end, Voss never wrote another
new work. She said that sometimes there are writers
who produce but a single work in their entire lifetime.
From Helmut Voss's work, "A Peaceful Home."
Because Mr. Grimmer discovered this work, he was
finally able to find Franz Bonaparta hiding out in
Ruhenheim.

Voss's contact address was in Augsberg, but it had

been more than five years since the Vierzig
publishers had
communicated with him.

Grimmer headed for Augsberg. As expected, the

room at the address in question was vacant. So
Grimmer used his head. Under the guise of a state
tax official named Neumeier, he went to see the
landlord of the building. He said, "Several years ago
you rented a room to an untrustworthy man
suspected of tax evasion whose real name is Voss,
and I would like to request your cooperation in
searching out this man." In reply, the landlord
demonstrated his loyalty to the state. The room was
rented by a man named Joseph Bäumüller who had
never failed to pay his rent. His account was at the
Tinneberg and Führbach bank... Tax official
Neumeier marched into said bank to investigate the
facts, and learned that 5 years earlier Bäumüller had
closed the account, whereabouts of the money
unknown — but there were bank transfers to four
other banks.

Neumeier, i.e., Grimmer, noticed that he opened an

account in the name of Kroner Haas at one of those
banks, in a small village in the state of Bavaria...it
couldn't be. The name of the village was
"Ruhenheim," or "A Peaceful Home."

At this point he did not head directly to

Ruhenheim, but instead re-entered the Czech
Republic under the Neumeier name. There he
sought information from Karel Ranke, a captain in
the Czechoslovakian secret police who had once
tried to have him killed.

Previously, because Grimmer's data overlapped a

great deal, I reluctantly chose to omit much of the
information I got from Ranke myself, so the
unheard parts of the story in his notes will probably
be shocking.
Captain Ranke puzzled over the burning of the Red
Rose Mansion. The number of remains the police
made public was
40 adult males, 4 adult females, and 2 children,
amounting to 46 in total — the 46 reported obviously
did not include the older corpses from the Nazi era.
However, his understanding was that the number of
researchers at the mansion was only 42, not
including Bonaparta. When a prisoner died, the old
rule was that the body be taken to the hidden morgue
of the secret police. Therefore, it's unlikely that
anyone would be buried there without authorization,
except for someone who had disappeared suddenly.
Also he had not heard about and was not involved
with the Red Rose Mansion, but he was sure that at
least the powerful people involved with that project
would know about the bodies buried by any division
of the authorities. That being the case, Bonaparta
increased the number of bodies from 42 to 46,
making the four people his alibi — to survive, four
people had to die — to replace Bonaparta, Johan,
Anna, and who else?

But is it likely that Bonaparta personally murdered four

people just for the sake of constructing an alibi? It just
doesn't fit his style.

Accordingly, please recall Milan's testimony as

reported by Mr. Mustafa. The words that Čapek
said to Milan about his defection, on the night he
had the nightmare — "At the time I puzzled over
changing the number from 42 to 46. I've never
suffered through a more dreadful experience than
that. That man was completely to blame." —
doesn't that solve the mystery? Isn't it likely that
Čapek was the murderer doing Bonaparta's dirty
work?

After the interview with Captain Ranke, Grimmer

went straight to Bohemia. His purpose was to
investigate the true identity of Franz Bonaparta.
Bearing in mind his connection to Terner Poppe, his
hypothesis was that Bonaparta's real
name was Klaus Poppe, since all of the names in
Bonaparta's picture books were German.

To learn more about Terner's character, Grimmer

visited Jablonec nad Nisou to try to interview
Communist Party members from the 50's. There he
acquired a clue to understanding the truth about
Terner Poppe's death. Before judging the right or
wrong of that clue, I would like to wait until after my
scheduled interviews in Bohemia. However, taking
into consideration the complicated parent-child
relationship between Terner Poppe and his son, and
the connection that links Johan's father and
grandparents to Terner's son, Grimmer came up
with a theory that perhaps Bonaparta and Johan's
father were comrades* living in neighboring
villages. [*comrades is used here in the Communist
sense rather than indicating friendship]

Grimmer then departed Bohemia for Ruhenheim, in

the state of Bavaria. During that period, the words,
"That was careless," appeared many times in
Grimmer's notes.

I believe that there is a very strong likelihood that

Franz Bonaparta is alive. If Bonaparta can be captured,
all of the mysteries will be solved. Day by day, moment
by moment, I draw closer to learning Johan's secrets.
But at the same time, I am appalled that I didn't
predict that if a man like me could arrive at this
conclusion, then a man like Johan could as well. That
was careless. That was really careless.

If he finds Bonaparta, what will he do? A man reborn

with a gentle heart, regretting the sins of his past, —
would he simply murder him? I imagine something
more terrifying.
Johan will surely deprive Bonaparta of his name. He
will probably take away his memory. Perhaps he will
consider slaughtering everyone who knows him. If
Ruhenheim is
Bonaparta's "peaceful home," then Johan will probably
erase everyone in the whole town.

His notes end there. Grimmer hurried on to

Ruhenheim.

At the present time I am in Berlin, at the juvenile

literature library Mr. Grimmer visited. My purpose is
to read one book. When Grimmer found "A Peaceful
Home" he believed it was the work of Franz
Bonaparta, but there was another book that puzzled
him. His notes say, "Is this Bonaparta's work? The
artwork is similar. It leaves an impression like a bad
dream.... The title is "The Sleeping Monster. But if
this is Bonaparta's latest work, it makes no sense.
Has he returned as a devil again?"

It was published in Vienna, Austria, by the Quintus

Company, and the author is Hermann Führ...yes, the
person Mr. Mustafa spoke of...a person with exactly
the same name as the picture book author in his
forties whom the devil's disciple Čapek had once
sought.
 Chapter 26 - Nina Forter
My repeated requests for an interview with Fraulein
Nina Fortner have all been declined with polite
rejection letters. However, even without Mr.
Weissbach's pointing it out, it's obvious that it's not
possible to achieve a clear understanding of this
case without her testimony.

Nevertheless, in this chapter I will try to recreate the

story of Anna Liebert, a.k.a.,

Nina Fortner, based on the interviews I have had

with many people regarding the case, and
especially the clues within Dr. Gillen's testimony.

Nina was a student at Heidelberg University's

School of Law. She studied to become a public
prosecutor, while also training in akido and holding
down a part-time job delivering pizza. She was a
cheerful girl who got along well with her parents,
and had the normal fantasies of a prince on his
white horse appearing to take her away. The only
unusual thing about her was that she had no
memories of anything before the age of ten.

On the day before Nina's 20th birthday, a curious

email was sent to her computer: "Let's meet for your
birthday at Heidelberg Castle at seven o'clock
tomorrow...." A beautiful young man with blond hair
whom she had glimpsed on campus crossed her
mind.

As she went to the appointed place at the Castle,

she remember the sense of dread she felt at the
sight of him, and wondered why it should revive a
similar feeling from before she was ten.
However, well past the appointed time, the person
she was to meet had not appeared. She was about
to leave when an Asian man called out to her,
"Anna!" It was Dr. Tenma. In that moment, Nina
began to recover her memory...Dr.
Tenma...Johan...brother...Johan....

Nina returned home with Tenma only to find both

her parents murdered in a bloody massacre. She
was suddenly overwhelmed by memories. "I killed
him...back then. I killed my brother."

Tenma put his arm around Nina to help her outside,

where they ran into two detectives. The detectives
put Tenma and Nina in their car, but when Tenma
realized that it was the detectives who were actually
responsible for murdering the Fortners, he and Nina
jumped into a river to escape the danger. While they
were drying off in a cabin downstream, Nina began
to talk about the things she was remembering.

"A lot of people were dead. My brother and I were

walking there together. It seemed like we were the
only ones in the world. ...we crossed the border. A
middle aged couple who were like an aunt and
uncle gave us encouragement. My brother said, "I
have a good plan." And then the aunt and uncle
died. Why did everyone who showed us kindness
die? But on that rainy night, I found out why. My
brother killed them. He had been killing everyone
all this time. So I picked up the gun. I aimed it at
my brother. Then he smiled and said, 'Aim carefully
at my head. After you shoot, throw the gun out the
window.' I aimed carefully. Why did you save him?"

I imagine that next she cried, "Mother and Father

wouldn't have died if you hadn't saved him! Why did
you save him?”
At that time, Nina probably resolved to kill Johan
again. Tenma went into town to assess the
situation, and by the time he returned, Nina had
vanished.

The next time she would meet with Tenma would be

in Frankfurt. She had heard a rumor that an
important person of the extreme right wing called
The Baby knew where Johan was, so she tried to
approach him. By this time she had shown
surprising growth. It's not known where she learned
to handle firearms, but some say that she
possessed a near professional level of skill.

While being confined in a suburban mansion, Nina

met Professor Goedelitz, who told her of the
existence of an organization of four men who were
trying to train Johan to become a new Hitler. There
she also learned of a plan to set fire to the Turkish
quarter of Frankfurt. Nina escaped to try to prevent
this, later discovering that Johan had already wiped
out Goedelitz and everyone at the mansion. After
threatening The Baby into giving her the details of
the plan, she raced to the Turkish quarter. There
she was reunited with Tenma.

However, apparently Nina was not able to find any

clues regarding Johan in Frankfurt. So she moved on
to Nice in the south of France, pursuing Mueller, her
foster parents' murderer. By this time Mueller had
retired from the police and was living a comfortable
life with his beautiful wife, but his conscience
weighed heavily on him. Because Meuller was
unable to live with seeing the ghosts of the dead
every day, there's no doubt that as far as Johan was
concerned, he was someone who required special
attention. So it was no surprise to learn that Roberto
was Mueller's bodyguard.
Boldly approaching Mueller, Nina was captured by
Roberto, and Mueller was threatened with his
family's lives if he ever broke his silence.
Though there is very little providing relief from the
heartless cruelties of the Johan case, there is this
incident in which Mueller's conscience finally
awakened, returning to his roots as a police
detective. Mueller, who believed that Roberto would
murder Nina, voluntarily stormed the enemy's
hideout all alone and rescued Nina, but gave his life
to do so.

It is not easy to understand why Roberto, Johan's

faithful servant, wanted to kill Nina. But it's possible
to guess if we assume that it was his own initiative
and not Johan's order. As might be expected from
such a capable subordinate, he may have wanted
to get rid of what he knew to be Johan's only
weakness as soon as possible.

It would seem that Roberto somehow let it slip as to

where Johan was, because Nina showed up in Munich
shortly thereafter.

I have omitted Nina's actions in Munich here as they

have been mentioned earlier, but I think that the
fate of the twins changed greatly after they saw "The
Monster Without a Name."

"...like a land from a fairytale... Three Frogs..." Nina

visited Prague looking for these two words, ignoring
the strangers on the street who mysteriously called
out to her as "Anna," until she came to the building
where they had once hidden, with the signboard out
front, "The Three Frogs." The building was in the
Michalska section near the Cedok Bridge.
Something told her to go inside. It told her to go up
the stairs and open the door of the room at the
top... According to Dr. Gillen, she then saw herself
as a child, holding a picture book and saying
"Welcome home" with a smile. A memory suddenly
returned to her. An image of Johan being dragged
down the stairs...
She took a taxi and toured the city over and over,
asking about Johan and looking for the Red Rose
Mansion, to which Johan and her mother had been
taken away. Still the memories haunted her...a man
in glasses turning around from the passenger seat
to face her...a voice saying, "You mustn't hide
anything from him." ...the voice of a different man
saying, "Human beings can become anything."
...herself as a child smiling, "Welcome home." ...but
the answer hadn't appeared yet.

At the top of a small hill, Nina at last came upon the

place that she had been looking for, where she
could see "a weather vane on the right, a church
spire on the left." Having found the Red Rose
Mansion, Nina entered the estate. Inside, she faced
a door behind a broken wall, and at the moment
she heard its hinges groan she had a vision of a
great many people vomiting blood, and she fainted,
collapsing to the floor. At that time, it was Mr.
Lipsky who came to her aid.

Thanks to Lipsky, Nina slowly regained her

strength. Lipsky was a former pupil of the Mansion's
reading circle. When Nina learned he possessed a
great number of picture books, she reached her
hand out towards them. Especially when she read,
"The God of Peace," more of her memories
returned.

The God of Peace is always busy.

He is too busy to look into a mirror, and blows his

horn every day.

The God of Peace's horn makes everyone

happy. The God of Peace is always busy.

He is too busy to look into a mirror, and scatters
magical water. The magical water creates green
mountains, ripens crops, and makes flower gardens
grow.

The God of Peace is always busy.

He is too busy to look into a mirror, and gives

everyone a name. "Your name is Otto. Your name is
Hans. Your name is Thomas. Your name is Johan."

Johan gave his hat to the god as a gift in

return. The god was very happy.

Because he wanted to see himself wearing the hat,

he stood in front of a mirror for the first time.

However, what he saw in the mirror was a

demon. From inside the mirror, the demon

spoke to him. "I am you and you are me."

"Oh no! No one can live in peace with a demon like

this! What should I do?"

So the troubled god...

("However, what he saw in the mirror was a demon.")
From "The God of Peace" by Klaus Poppe (Japanese
edition). When Nina looked at the demon in the
mirror, did she see Johan?

Nina recalled that day back in 1 986. The day she

shot Johan, the day Johan said, "Shoot me," and
pointed between his brows, and she took aim...

On that evening, something awoke Nina (Anna),

and then she heard a gunshot and went to the
living room. There she found Mr. and Mrs. Liebert
shot to death. Johan stood there with a gun in his
hand. Suddenly, she understood everything. All
along, it was her own brother who had killed all the
people who had been kind to them. When Nina read
"The God of Peace" it brought back a new memory.
As he handed her the gun, he said something like
this: "Because today...the monster came. The
monster came to take us
away. Shoot me. Shoot me and run away...run
away so the monster won't get you. But even if I
die, it's ok. Because I am you and you are me..."

After this Nina wondered about the new memory

that had arisen. Who was "the monster" who had
visited the Liebert's home before the incident that
night?

When Nina left Lipsky's home, she did not return to

Munich. Instead, day after day she shuttled between
"The Three Frogs" building and the Red Rose
Mansion. We lived here...Mother, Johan and l...we
lived quietly. Someone was chasing us...or mother?
...or all of us? That day Johan was dragged down the
stairs and taken away. Johan was put in a car and
driven to the mansion. A man in glasses turned to
look at him. It's useless to try to hide anything from
him." At the mansion they started a reading circle
with the children they gathered there. They were
creating "superiorstudents." She murmured such
things to herself as she walked alone through the
buildings.

In the banquet hall, Nina again sees the spectacle of

a great many people falling dead. He ran...back
then, Johan ran away and escaped. He escaped
through the thicket of roses.... When Nina pricked
her finger on the thorns of the withered roses she
came to her senses. The pain brought back her
memories.

Could it be...?

Again Nina returned to The Three Frogs. She read

"The Monster Without a Name" and waited. A man
whispered, "Human beings can become anything."
...memories of Franz Bonaparta...she waited for
Johan to return. Johan returned home and she
smiled.
"Welcome home." "Welcome home." "Welcome
home." ...she remembers this. But the door did not
open.

Nina returned to Munich to get help from Dr. Gillen,

resolved to remember everything. Once under
hypnosis, she began to speak. My mother had a
sweet voice... My father was a soldier... My father
died and my mother became an anti- government
activist... A man in glasses came to where we were
hiding... My mother and brother were taken away...
At the Red Rose Mansion a lot of people died...he ran
away...
Remembering the pain of being pricked by the rose
thorns, Nina recalled that frightening moment.

Then while repeating, "I'm home," she tried to

strangle Dr. Gillen.

When Nina was awakened, she remembered

everything. She then found her way back to
Frankfurt where Dr. Tenma was in hiding. She
wanted to tell him all that she remembered.

In Frankfurt, Nina gained a clue by chance when she

saw the report of the Convention Center
assassination incident on the television news. The
man on the screen...it was Peter Capek's face. He
was the man with the glasses!

Nina waited. She thought The Baby would try to

capture her again. And as she expected, his minions
showed up.
However, The Baby was dead, and Nina was taken
to Capek's mountain villa. However, Capek had
already become unhinged. His plan had completely
collapsed. And Nina found out that Johan had talked
with Capek at the villa just before she arrived.
Again, Nina followed after Johan, this time together
with Capek. Along the way,
Capek made a surprising revelation to Nina. The
scene was Bonaparta's participation in a project to
create superior genes. After her father was killed,
her mother said bitterly to Bonaparta, "I will never
forgive you. Even if I die, these children steadily
growing inside me will take revenge on you."
Bonaparta refused to give the twins names.

Nina sensed that Bonaparta was still alive.

At a dilapidated house many kilometers beyond

Frankfurt, Nina and Johan finally met. Johan had
wanted to see Nina ever since their 20th birthday.
I'm told that he said to her, "When I returned from
the Red Rose Mansion, you were there to greet me.
So this time, I'll be the one to say to you, 'Welcome
home.'"

However, Nina held her gun at the ready and

replied, "I'll tell you a truly terrifying story." Seeing
in her mind a succession of memories — the scene
of the massacre, the people whom she had met,
Tenma... the smiling face of a young girl behind an
opening door, and a spoken "Welcome home" —
Nina was prepared to shoot Johan, and then herself,
and she opened her mouth to tell the story.

However, it was Johan who spoke. He told of a

terrifying incident. He was left in a totally dark room
with no walls, no up or down, left or right, no sound.
But sometimes, he could hear screams. Johan
counted the meals that were inserted into the room.
Sometime after he lost count, the door suddenly
opened. Bonaparta stood there. The man said,
"Human beings can become anything." Johan was
taken down a corridor and came to a party in a
room like a banquet hall. The adults looked him
over and all praised the results of the experiment.
Red wine was poured and all the adults toasted
Johan...they vomited blood, and moaned as
one by one they all fell to the floor. Forty two
people died, and Johan and Bonaparta were the
only survivors.

Johan fled. Although cut by the rose thorns, he ran

without looking back. He returned to the sign of "The
Three Frogs," and told his sister about his
experiences. Day after day after day he told her of
his terrifying ordeal.

Johan finished speaking.

Nina waited for him to finish, and then spoke. At

first she shouted, but as she calmed down, her
voice steadied. She said, "I didn't say 'Welcome
home.' I said I'm back.' When you welcomed me
you were dressed as a girl. Mother had to deceive
the public, so she dressed you as a girl. So you're
wrong. You only heard my story. The one taken to
the Red Rose Mansion was me\

"It was me who was dragged down the stairs at The

Three Frogs, and put in total darkness without walls,
who counted the meals, who saw everyone die in the
banquet hall — all of that happened to me. I
survived the Red Rose Mansion and told you about it,
for days upon days."

Johan listened to Nina's story, and then he looked

like he was smiling...although it also looked as if he
were crying. Nina was unable to shoot him, and
Johan left the dilapidated house in silence. She tried
to shoot herself, but Tenma saved her, imploring
her, "Please stay alive!"

While Nina was hospitalized, she told Tenma, "I know

what Johan is going to do next. I understand what
he's trying to do...a perfect suicide. And because of
that a great many people are going to die."
Dr. Reichwein took over Nina's care in Munich.
Several days later, she received an email saying, "I
will be waiting for you
in Ruhenheim." Nina told Dr. Gillen that she was
determined to go there, and also gave a warning to
Dr. Reichwein. Karl, Lotte, Eva,

Schuwald, Reichwein, Dieter...everyone who knew

Johan must go into hiding. Because Johan was trying
to erase every memory of him.

On the day she left for Ruhenheim, Nina

emphatically said, "Unlike Johan, I won't erase my
memories! Memories of Dieter, Dr. Reichwein, Karl
and Lotte, the Fortners...and Dr. Tenma. Whatever
kind of memories they are, I must never erase them.
Not even of Johan."

During the heavy rains, Nina and Dr. Gillen

reached the village at last. After running into a few
survivors from the Hotel Versteck, I'm told that at
the top of a hill they came upon an eerie, vacant
house that everyone called the "Vampire's House,"
where they found many unfinished sketches of
twins who looked just like Johan and Nina. Nina
saw sketches of herself as a baby, as a toddler,
and as a young girl. They were obviously
Bonaparta's work. He had lived here for awhile,
ceaselessly drawing during that time.

The mystery was how Bonaparta had been able to

draw sketches which showed them at the age they
were in Dusseldorf. It was then that Nina seemed to
put together all her memories.

That night, the night Johan murdered the Lieberts, a

monster came to visit — that monster was
Bonaparta.

Nina imagined that Johan had cried in this house,

just before. And that he had then gone down into
the village to bring everything to an end. Nina and
Dr. Gillen hurried down to the town.
She remembered that back then, Bonaparta had let
her escape from the Red Rose Mansion. "Run far
away. Run as far away from here as you can..." he
told her. "Human beings can become anything." He
touched her cheek with his hand and continued,
"You are both beautiful jewels. That's why you must
not become monsters."

That's what she told Dr. Gillen as she desperately

ran to Johan.

Tenma and Johan stood in armed confrontation. Nina

sprang forward and shouted, "I forgive you, Johan!
Even if we were the only two people left in the world,
I would forgive you!"

But the tragedy could not be avoided. No, it was

inevitable from the start.

Johan was brought down by a bullet, and because

Tenma was the only one who could save him, Nina
said to him, "You weren't wrong. What you did back
then...and what you're going to do now."

The foregoing is what I imagine to have been the

journey of Nina Fortner's soul.

There is still so much to ask her now. Foremost, I

would like to ask about her mother. You probably
have already noticed it, but in Nina's memories 42
people died at the Red Rose Mansion... but in fact
there were 46 bodies found. I believe the
discrepancy of four bodies is the result of a cover-up
by Capek to deceive the authorities on behalf of
Bonaparta. If we assume that three of the bodies
were corpses that would resemble Bonaparta, Nina,
and Johan, the remaining one can only be the
replacement for the twins' mother.
Where has she gone? Bonaparta is dead now, so I
think Tenma and Nina are the only ones who know.
 Final Chapter
After finishing the interview with Milos Prochazka, I
took a room at the town's hotel and began to
transcribe the tape. I heard a small noise from the
room next to mine, although I had thought the hotel
was vacant. The telephone rang and I stopped what
I was doing to answer it. It was Lunge.

He hurriedly greeted me and then asked, "Do you

have 'Dorn in the Darkness' and 'The Sleeping
Monster' at hand?" I told him that I did.

Lunge said, "Didn't you say once before that it's

strange that everybody thinks Franz Bonaparta's
works are so original, when it feels like you've seen
something like it before?"

"Yes," I answered.

"Then please open "Dorn in the Darkness" and

look at the cut-in illustrations inside."

I did as he asked and immediately understood what

he was trying to say.

"Frankly, there's no question that the drawings look

exactly like Franz Bonaparta's style of painting.
That's why Bonaparta's work never seemed fresh to
you."

I said, "But these illustrations can't have been done

by Bonaparta. He stopped writing in 1 989 and
didn't write even one book after that. On the other
hand, that was the year Volume 1 of "Dorn in the
Darkness" came out."

"So in other words, it's the work of Hermann Fuhr, a

picture book author with an illustration technique
just like
Bonaparta's."

A shiver ran through my body.

"By the way, when I inquired with the publisher of

'Dorn in the Darkness' I was told that the
illustrations were done by the writer Fritz
Weindler personally."

As I held the receiver, I started to sweat.

Lunge became quiet. "Fritz Weindler and Hermann

Fuhr are the same person." His voice fell to a
whisper. "That man is a monster. Be very careful."

The line was cut off. I was horrified.

My mind whirred like a computer, and it provided

an answer that I had not yet realized. Hermann
Fuhr's apartment was on the east side of Vienna,
near Prater Park. The most prominent landmark in
Prater Park is the giant Ferris wheel
— one of the settings in the movie "The Third Man."
Something about the death of Fritz Weindler was
very suspicious, and it had made me think it was just
a ruse.

Now I knew it was. When the editor told me the

story of Weindler's death, it was just the same as
the opening scene of "The Third Man." It was Orson
Welles playing the faked death of Harry Lime,
unchanged.

The phone rang again

— It's already too

late.

When I picked up the phone, I expected it to be

Lunge. Instead, I heard a man's voice, low and deep,
that left an impression on me that I can't describe.
"Are you looking for me?"
"Are you Hermann

Fuhr?" "I am," he

replied.

"Are you Fritz

Weindler?" "I am," he

answered.

"Were you one of Franz Bonaparta's students at the

Red Rose Mansion?"

"I regret to say I was his 'most outstanding student.'"

"Did you graduate from the reading circle to work for

the old regime of your country...the Czech
Republic?"

"That's right."

"And the reason you changed your work and your

name was to hide your past?"

"I was running away."

"From what?"

"From the monster...." Fie took a moment to choose

his words. "I was running from that man."

"Did you know that Bonaparta came to the west side

in 1981
?"

"I was aware of it. I was getting disgusted with the

work, so I hid myself from the organization. I thought
that man was chasing after me."
"Then why did you write 'Dorn in the Darkness' in 1
989? Wasn't that like announcing to Bonaparta
where you were?"
The man sighed. "I had read that man's 'Peaceful
Flome.' I realized that that man had also stopped. So
I believed I was free."

"Then why did you fake your death in '92?"

"In 1 989 another monster came to the west side.

And he was looking for me. Fie would not stop. After
three years, I understood that. So I knew I had to
hide in the darkness again."

I asked, "Another monster? Was it Peter

Capek?" "It was."

"But he was looking for Hermann Fuhr...the pen

name you would use in 1 998. How did he already
know about it back then?"

"It was the name I used during missions on this side."

I hadn't expected this. Fritz Weindler was

undoubtedly Hermann Fuhr. I had thought he was
the other monster, and Lunge had concluded that
as well, but to my surprise, the man I was talking to
on the phone sounded afraid. Afraid of a man he
thought was no less a monster than Johan....

"So in the wake of Capek's death, you used this

name again to author a book in 1 998, is that right?
You thought by then it was safe."

He said, "It was best to pick a name I'd seldom used.

But I thought it was all over."

I was starting to half trust him. But I remembered

that I hadn't yet asked him the crucial question. "Is
there a
connection between you and the "Demon Axe-
Murderer" Gustav Kottmann?"

"Kottmann?"

"Yes,

Kottmann."

"Ahh, that creature I kept for a year. 'Dorn in the

Darkness' received many fan letters from a huge
admirer. While reading his letters, I realized he was
one of ours. I carefully observed him and helped
him at a time when he fell into a crisis."

"He murdered three people at St. Ursula hospital and

then committed suicide. ...Did you not order him to
do that?"

"You murdered the last person who was still chasing

you, Eugen Molke, or rather Jaroslav Carek. But your
arm was injured and you went to the hospital to
receive treatment. Later, Kottmann was made to kill
the three hospital workers who had seen your face."

"Molke was just like me...no, he was like me before,

wanting to live out his life in quiet retirement. He
wasn't pursuing me or anything, not in the least."

My mind was in chaos.Then why did he kill Molke?

"He was the last person who knew me. If he

disappeared, everything else would disappear.
Bonaparta and Capek and everyone else would all be
gone."

I knew what he was going to say next. I now

understood what was driving him.

"Four years ago, I went to Prague. Who knows why,

but I wanted to set foot again in the scariest place,
the Red Rose
Mansion. But it was engulfed in flames. And then he
emerged from within. I was set free. I stopped
running. I could paint my picture books, and live like
him." I could hear the laughter in the man's voice.
"The end...in the Landscape of the End, there will be
only he and I."

My hand holding the receiver trembled. If only I

could ask Lunge to back me up. If only Dr. Gillen
could lend me his strength.

The man whispered, "There's something I want

you to see." I gathered my wits. "What is it?"

"The manuscript of my new work. I'll come over

now." "When? How soon will you get here?"

"Now."

"Now? Where are you?"

"In the room next to yours."

 Afterword from the Translator
The foregoing is the complete translation of Werner
Weber's "Another Monster." Mr. Weber disappeared
without completing the book. The second half of the
final chapter was not written in his manuscript, but
was developed from Mr. Weber's tape.

On December 24th, two days after Mr. Weber's

disappearance, his tape was found in the gardens of
the Pelican Hotel in Jablonec nad Nisou in the Czech
Republic. After hearing the tape, the police looked
for the man staying in the room next to Mr. Weber,
but the room turned out to have been vacant on
that night.

Something obviously happened, although no

bloodstains or signs of a struggle were found in Mr.
Weber's room. As a translator, I can only sincerely
hope to see Mr. Weber again, alive and well.

Also, in sympathy and anticipation of Mr. Weber's

safe return, the co-author of this book, Mr. Naoki
Urasawa, has provided his materials regarding the
Johan case. Mr. Urasawa also says that in order to
investigate the facts of this case, he is considering
going to Bohemia.

Incidentally, two curious items were found in Mr.

Weber's hotel room.

First, on a hotel memo pad in the room was a

hastily drawn sketch. I'll leave it to the reader to
determine who this sketch looks like.
Second, there was an original manuscript for a
picture book. Yes, it was the manuscript for the
strange fairy-tale called "The Awakening Monster."
Who left it there and why is something frightening to
ponder. After consultation with Mr. Weber's Austrian
publisher, Idee Publications, and with the permission
of Mr. Weber's family, I have decided to include the
unedited picture book manuscript as an appendix to
this book.
The Pelican Hotel, Mr. Weber's last known location.

Over a period of more than 10 years, beginning in

1986, the Johan Liebert case plunged Germany into
a state of terror.
But up until now, the complete shape of this puzzle
has not been elucidated. Though the accepted
theory is that Johan continues to sleep unaware of
the world, even so, ridiculous rumors flutter about
in spite of this truth, e.g., he awakened and
committed suicide, he was erased at the hands of
the authorities, he escaped, just as he had done a
decade earlier, etc. That's how deeply Johan's
darkness has permeated.

But of all the "Johan books" published, I think there

has never been one that comes as close to the
heart of the matter as this one. For that reason
alone, my hope is that the German, Austrian, and
Czech police will cooperate in investigating the
connections between the Johan, Kottmann and
Eugen Molke cases, so that Mr. Weber's clues will
not be wasted.
While working on the manuscript, I was interrupted
by a call from a friend in Austria who told me that
the Salzburg police had announced they were
reopening their investigations from the standpoint
that the Kottmann case and the Molke case were
one.

My hope is that these incidents will be resolved as

soon as possible.

In closing, I wish to express my deepest gratitude to

Mr. Hans Klar of the Cultural Exchange Foundation
for his kindness and advice during the German
translation and for the detective literature he sent
from Germany; also to translator Petr Holy for his
assistance with rough translations from the Czech;
to the assistant editor in chief of Shogakukan Big
Comic Original, Hideyuki Akana; to editor in chief
Soichiro Suzuki; and to proofreading editor Noriyuki
Niimura.

Of course this book was co-authored by Mr. Naoki

Urasawa, to whom I am indebted for all the advice
I received while working on the translation. I
gratefully offer my thanks to him for this
experience.

March 2002

Takashi

Nagasaki
 Omake

This is the actual Hotel Palace Praha where Grimmer

stayed during his investigations. :)
Werner Weber
 Chapter 12 - Czech and
Germany
Johan, Tenma, Nina... these three central characters
to our story went from Munich to Prague in the
Czech Republic, in search of lost memories. Those
readers of this book who have been to Prague
perhaps understand why Johan and Nina both called
this city a "fairy tale land." Faced with the sight of
Old Town Square lit up at night, I had the illusion
that I was somehow transported to Disneyland. It is
easy to see why Europeans refer to it as the most
beautiful place in Europe.

I secured accomodations at the Bettelheim Hotel

near Charles Bridge, and set forth to search the
city's used bookstores for the cursed storybooks —
the works of Emil Sebe,

Klaus Poppe, Jakub Faroubek, and Franz Bonaparta.

After no luck at the stores around my hotel and on
the other side of Charles Bridge, I made a call to a
publisher specializing in storybooks, and was able to
finally procure copies of The Nameless Monster, The
God of Peace, and others for myself.

To be completely honest, I did not find the art to be

so unique. In fact, it almost looked familiar. But any
Germans or Czechs who read his books will
immediately notice something else. Putting the
mysterious author's cryptic messages aside,
another commonality shared by the books is the
names of their characters. Beginning with Johan,
then Otto, Hans... extremely common, traditional
German names are used, but similar Czech names
like Jan, Milos and Pavel are nowhere to be found. It
is quite plain to see how Tenma and Agent Lunge
made their supposition that the single German
name among the author's pen-names, Klaus Poppe,
might in fact be his actual name. The author is of a
German minority in the Czech Republic; a German-
Czech.

At this point, it will doubtless be helpful to most

readers to take a close look at the complex
historical background of the Czech Republic —
particularly Bohemia — and Germany.

To begin our story, the Bohemian region was

originally settled by the Boii people around 150 BC.
By about 60 BC they had been replaced by
Germanic tribes, who ruled the area until the 5th
century AD, when they migrated to Bavaria. After
that, three different Slavic tribes settled the area:
Czechs, Moravians and Slovakians. By the 9th century,
the Czechs had seized control of the region,
founding the kingdom of Bohemia, ruled by the
Premyslid dynasty. But to the east lay the mighty
Hungarian (Magyar) Empire, and the royal family
was forced to join a military alliance with the
Germanic Holy Roman Empire to avoid the threat of
invasion. The Premyslid line now served under the
king of Germany and the Pope in the Holy Roman
Empire, but in the 12th century Vladislav II was
granted the lands of Austria, opening a new period
of prosperity. Of course, they were still ruled in
actuality by Germany, so it is not hard to imagine
the Czechs' eventual struggle for independence in
the 15th century.
The area of Bohemia, where Czechs and Germans
found themselves at odds. There exists a long-standing
hatred between the two ethnicities in this place. It is a
part of history that must be explained in attempting to
describe the birth of the monster.

In the 16th century, the Czech lands fell under

Habsburg Monarchy control — a reign that would
last four centuries — and in the 17th century the
Czech nobility started the Thirty Years' War, which
led to blunt oppression from the Habsburg throne
and the demotion of Czech into Austrian holdings.

It would not be until the 19th century that the

Czech push for independence gained momentum
once again. With historical leaders like Palacky and
Masaryk, and the rise of ethnic self-determination in
the wake of the First World War,
the Czechs finally succeeded in forming their own
sovereign nation, Czechoslovakia.

This history as seen from the German perspective is

as follows. The original German expansion to the
east begins in the 10th century, for a short period
during the rule of Charlemagne. The German
colonists settled the land, and in the 12th century,
the Premyslid rulers of the Duchy of Bohemia
actively sought to invite more Germans to help
cultivate and advance the prosperity of their land.

The first Germans to cross over were miners and

farmers drawn by the silver-rich Czech mountains
and nutrient- heavy soil. Next came clergymen, city
planners, merchants and carpenters, and German
towns were born — the Bohemian region near the
borders of present-day Germany, Poland and
Austria.

As these German migrants came from various areas

such as Frisia, Bavaria, Saxony, Swabia, Styria and
Austria, the Czechs referred to them with the blanket
term Teutons, but they called themselves Sudeten
Germans (Sudetendeutsche), after the Sudeten
Mountains on the border to Poland.

In the 14th century, when Luxembourg's Charles IV,

ruler of Czech was crowned King of the German Holy
Roman Empire, it affected the relationship between
the Czechs and German immigrants. The Sudeten
Germans suddenly gained much influence and
political power, and began to financially and
politically overwhelm the Czechs. The 15th century
Hussite Wars were the first rebellion against
Germany by the Czechs, and the 17th century Thirty
Years' War was a battle for power between the
Austrian Habsburg dynasty and the Czech nobility.
With their loss here, the Czechs became
totally subordinate to the Germans and Austrians,
even having their language slowly replaced by
German.

But in the 19th century, Czech independence would

grow closer with the waning of the Habsburg
dynasty. Meanwhile, the Sudeten Germans were
pushing to have their land holdings become a part
of the Austrian Empire. The Industrial Revolution of
that century would work to the advantage of the
Czechs with the enrichment of their capital assets.

When Germany and Austria-Hungary fell in WWI, it

was the Czechs' capital backing that helped them
claim their independence.

With the consolidation of Czechs and Slovaks and

the birth of a Slavic nation, the Sudeten Germans
became a minority once again. The
Czechoslovakian government was very gracious,
even going so far as to grant significant autonomy
to the Sudetenland area, but their German citizens
were still unhappy. There were still 3.3 million
Germans in Bohemia, a globally-renowned land of
production, exporting silver, coal, uranium, metals,
machinery, paper, textiles, linens and glass.

Their plan to regain power lay in the newly-formed

German Nazi Party. In January of 1933, with the
formation of the Third Reich, Sudeten German
politician Konrad Henlein was quick to support Hitler
and request his help. Under the banner of German
unification and aided by the annexation of Austria,
the Sudeten-German Party absorbed all of the other
German political parties in Czechoslovakia.

Hitler and Henlein's claim was as follows. The

German people had lived in the Sudeten area for
over 700 years. It was a part of the Holy Roman
Empire until the early-1800s, a
part of the German Confederation until the mid-
1800s, and Austrian-Hungarian territory through
1918. Therefore, it had long belonged to Germany.

In 1938, Czechoslovakia was forced to sign the

humiliating Munich Agreement by fearful countries
seeking to appease Hitler, ceding to Germany 40%
of its land, 30% of its population and nearly half of
its industrial production. Upon seeing the famous
pictures of the wildly celebrating people at the sight
of Hitler's army advancing into Sudetenland, one
might wonder why people being conquered would
be so happy. But consider that those people
identified themselves not as Czechs but Germans,
and it makes sense. By next March, when Hitler had
taken all of Czechoslovakia for himself, there was
not a single Czech language sign or landmarker to
be found in Sudetenland.

The cessation contract between Czech and Germany,

signed by Hitler.
The Sudeten Germans fanatically greeting a Nazi march
into Bohemia before WWII. It would later lead to
tragedy...

But the Sudeten German prosperity would end with

the Third Reich's defeat in World War Two. At the
Potsdam Conference, it was decided that all Germans
on Czech lands
— between 2.4 and 3.5 million — would be
deported back to Germany. All privately-held lands
were seized, and they were left with whatever they
could carry with them. Many of them
— between 20,000 and 200,000, though the real
number will never be known — were beaten or
murdered out of hatred for the German
aggression in the war. The deep- rooted hatred
of Nazi Germany in the two countries was
directed at the Sudeten Germans.

The Czech-German relationship has become so

complex that it was not until very recently in 1997
that the two countries
officially met at a table and first recognized their
injustices in events related to World War II.

What happened to the once-prosperous

Sudetendeutsch after the war? According to the
Sudeten German Association formed in 1949 and
still active today, 2 million of them live in western
Germany, with half of that number in Bayern
(Bavaria). 800,000 ended up in eastern Germany,
140,000 in Austria, 24,000 further overseas, and
240,000 died in the process of exile.

What I could not ignore in my investigation of the

Johan case is the history of the 200,000 Germans
who did not leave the Czech lands after the war.
Like their exiled countrymen mentioned above, their
property was seized and they were subjected to
withering discrimination after the war, yet they still
chose to live in Czechoslovakia. My primary goal in
the Czech Republic was to trace the roots of this
most mysterious of men Franz Bonaparta, and to
find the truth of the rumor that Johan's father was in
fact, German.

I will start with the ghastly incident that Johan is

thought to have committed first after heading to the
Czech Republic.
 Chapter 16 - Anna
At this point, I wanted the answers to two
mysteries. I wanted to know who the people who
had died at the Red Rose Mansion were, why they
had been killed, and who had done it. And I wanted
to know who Johan's mother was.

What do I know now? That Franz Bonaparta, owner

of the Red Rose Mansion, had once held prisoner a
woman who lived on the second floor of a building
with a sign of three frogs. She was the mother of
twins, and her name was Anna. Bonaparta tried to
brainwash her, and also wrote her what appeared to
be a love letter. He disappeared in '81or '82.
Later, forty-six skeletons were unearthed from the
mansion.

As for the bodies, it's hard to imagine that they

were prisoners at the mansion. For one thing, I can't
think of a good reason why so many of such people
should be gathered into that ballroom together and
killed at one time, but most importantly of all, why
would they need to bury political prisoners in the
garden of the mansion? The circumstances of the
disposal of the bodies would suggest that it was an
illegal murder, in which case it would seem more
likely that the entire staff of the mansion was
poisoned on some occasion, probably a party of
some sort.

I put aside these suspicions and began looking for

anyone who might have known Johan's mother.
After contacting several human rights
organizations and meeting with various people, I
finally found some information pointing to a mother
of twins, during an interview with a lawyer that
Agent Suk had introduced to me.

Her name was Jitka Hauserova. One of the 1,800

names signed to Charter 77 in 1977 — age 53. As a
writer
(primarily of science fiction and fantasy, the body of
which was consistently placed on the banned books
list under the old regime) and a lawyer, she is well
known today for her consistent efforts to reveal the
inhumane actions of the former secret police.

Hauserova greeted me in a simple, bare-bones

office with nothing but a metal desk, chair, file
cabinet, computer and telephone. She was an
attractive woman, despite the lack of make-up and
the deep lines in her face. She had large blue eyes,
a high, unmistakably Slavic nose, thin lips, and a
powerful jaw that spoke of strong opinions. I found
myself swayed to believe the legend that she once
held total silence during a several-week stay in
prison.

— I'm sorry; I realize you are busy. I'm here because

I am trying to compile a book about the Johan case,
so I am looking for information about that subject.

"The case of Johan Liebert is business of ours as

well. We continue to investigate the particulars. The
problem is, how do you determine whether Franz
Bonaparta's project was on a national scale or not,
if not a single document exists to prove it? Many
people will tell you Bonaparta was a captain in the
secret police, but that name does not exist... He
erased all traces of his life when he disappeared. In
my opinion, what Bonaparta was running at the Red
Rose Mansion was not a national-level crime, but a
personal experiment that received financial backing
from certain figures in the old regime — powerful
ones. No doubt

the people who were involved in conducting the

experiments themselves thought they were part of
a secret national project, and that no paper trail
exists because Bonaparta or those shadowy
sponsors saw to it that all traces were
eliminated...but my thinking is different. I think
there might never have been any documents in the
first place. Which makes it difficult to classify as a
public, government crime. We are currently
cooperating with a citizens network in Germany to
find more about Bonaparta himself, but the trail
turns up nothing."

— What was the effect of the Red Rose Mansion on

the anti- government efforts?

"I can tell you for certain that some of the people
who had signed Charter 77 and then withdrawn their
signature at the government's request or later
became spies had been taken there. But none of
them can remember what happened, and without
any idea as to the methods of their brainwashing,
there's little we can do."

— Do you know anything about Johan's mother?

"When you mentioned this over the phone, it

reminded me of someone. In fact, I just got back
from the Libri Prohibiti."

— Libri Prohibiti?

"It is a library that stocks books that were banned or

published underground during the old regime...
Some of my compatriots' writings and journals are
kept there as well. I was searching for the journal of
an activist named Jirik Letzel, who died in prison in
1982. I searched for this because he once told me
that he was harboring a witness to what he called
'the most vile and inhumane crime our government
has ever perpetrated.' Soon after, he was
apprehended by government agents, and died of a
sickness in a penitentiary near Prague several
months later."
— And did you find something in Letzel's journal?
"Yes, and it matched up with your story. He wrote that
he had hidden a woman in one of his hideouts, on
the Mill Colonnade in Prague. More precisely... (puts
on glasses and looks at her notepad) 'Today, I hide
an activist from my hometown, a beautiful woman
with blonde hair and blue eyes, at the hideaway on
Mill Colonnade. She has with her a twin son and
daughter, also very handsome, and fortunately they
are quiet and obedient. I will keep her here for a
time, until we can reveal the truth, the entire
shocking truth, to all.'"

— What was his hometown?

"I seem to remember that it was Brno. She might have

been a graduate of Brno University. Brno is in the
center of the Moravia region. Mendel, the father of
genetics, lived in a monastery there. If my memory
is correct, Jirik Letzel said that she studied genetic
engineering at school, met a man on vacation in
Prague, and found herself involved in a secret
national project."

— Could she have been a member of Charter 77 as

well?

"No, I didn't see anyone that fit her specifications in

the organization. There were many underground
groups and activists in those days... She could have
been one of them, instead."

— Could this experiment have been the one started

to create a pure and elite Czechoslovakian race,
separate from what was conducted at the Red Rose
Mansion?

"I would imagine so. The thought makes me sick."

Ms. Hauserova is well known in Eastern Europe as a
science fiction writer. Her signature work, "Tears of a
Golem," tells the story of a boy who befriends the
eponymous creature of legend, in a terrifying future of
genetic manipulation.

— Do you know anything else about this experiment?

"Yes, I knew a few victims... Each one says, she fell

in love with a man and got pregnant, but then he
disappears and the next thing she knows, she's
held in some strange facility, gives birth, and her
baby is taken away... It sounds
crazy, but several women had the same story.
They're all in their 40s now. They all gave birth about
23-24 years ago. At first, we were just baffled at the
story."

— And where are their children now?

"We've looked, but never found any traces of them.

At the end of their breastfeeding, the children were
taken away... They told the mothers, you have done
a great service to your country. Your children will
be raised by the state now... and they were
released. The women were then kept under
surveillance for several years after that.

It's frightening. They were forbidden to use their

names in that place, nor were they allowed to
name their children.
And even after the babes were taken away, the
poor women were forbidden from even bringing up
the topic or thinking of their children, under threat
of death. Most of them can barely remember what
happened. One of them only remembered because
she was in a car accident, and the life- and-death
experience rattled loose the

memory that she once had a baby. After we revealed

this story in our publication, several more women
wrote to echo that story with their own experiences."

— Could it be like the Czechoslovakian version of

Hitler's old superhuman genetic experiments?

"Not quite. Worse, in fact, because the women

were indeed in love with their partners. These
weren't some wild, impressionable cultists. How
did they get those women to fall in love?"

— Did you ever learn anything about the men?

 "Just one. He was an army officer... All we know is
that he was chosen out of a list of thousands of
photos. The rest is a mystery."

— Did you hear his side of the story?

"No. After his release in 1989, he died in a car crash.

He was single and grew up in an orphanage, so he
had no extended family. I have the feeling that all
the men involved in that experiment met their end
in this way."

— What criteria do you supposed they used to choose

those men and women?

"All the women who fell victim to this experiment

were beautiful. They were tall and healthy, all well-
educated... and from excellent stock. Intelligent
fathers, mothers and grandparents. I suspect that
many of the men were from the military. They
would have been strong, smart, attractive.
Probably officers. And also lonely, I believe..."

— What were their political thoughts?

"That's the strange part. Most of the women chosen

were involved in liberal activism in some way or
another, and had a history of arrest. You'd think it
would be easier if they chose the patriots."

— Do you believe Franz Bonaparta was involved in

this plan?

"I do. The victims all said that they did not recognize
his face, but I believe he was."

— All these groups: the army, Omnipol, party

officials... And some people say that this project
was planned by just a tiny group of insiders.
"I suppose so. They would have to have been
eccentrics with a strong interest in genetics."

— Would that include Bonaparta?

"I don't believe that he was actually fascinated by

genetics. He was more intrigued by how to recreate
people who were already born. This is why I believe
they only chose women who showed anti-
governmental proclivities. I suppose he must have
felt just like some Greek god when those stubborn
women fell under the spell of love, just as his
formulas had shown."

— What do you suppose the people who used

Bonaparta to conduct this experiment are doing
now?

"I hope they're dead. But they're probably alive. I

hope they're living in fear of their misdeeds being
brought to light, but I figure they've probably got all
their bases covered and are living quiet, enjoyable
lives. Our job now is to make sure that such people
are never able to wield power in Czechoslovakia
again."

— And what of the other children who were taken

away?

"Are you asking of the possibility that there could be

another Johan? Let us pray there is not."
Johan and Nina's parents fell in love in this town...
Could the project to create a perfect Czech race have
even created an artificial, controlled love?

— Returning to Johan's mother, could there be any

women among the victims of the experiment who
remember her?

"Probably not, because each subject was in

complete isolation... We don't even know where the
facility was. I've looked into Johan's mother out of
personal interest myself, but Letzel's journal is still
the only clue I have."

— What about if there was an Anna in the list

of Brno University graduates who fit the
conditions?

"I checked with Brno after you mentioned the name

Anna in your call. There are not any graduates of
Brno University between the ages of 38 and 55 that
are both named Anna and currently missing. I also
put out an advertisement in the paper asking if
anyone was familiar with a woman named Anna, but
nothing came of it."

— What do you suppose that means?

"Either Johan's mother is not named Anna, she is not

from Brno, everyone involved is keeping their
silence... Or perhaps there is a more sinister kind of
suppression at work."

— More sinister?
"Think about it. Bonaparta is a devil who steals the
names of others, a genius at stripping memories
away. How hard is it
to imagine he could have found some new method
that we could never think of?"

— At some point, Bonaparta fell in love with her. I

believe this is why he pursued her so persistently
when she escaped from the facility. His way of
loving her was to take her name away, erase her
memory and become the only person in the world
who recognized her for who she was. This sounds
just like Johan.

"Stealing one's name... Or to be the only person

who knows one's name... Just as knowing one's true
name gives the knower power over one's life...
Rendering you impervious to one's magic... This
concept of the name being the true source of one's
nature is commonly found in myths and legends the
world over. This is why ancient peoples were said to
only use their true name among the family, and go
by an alias elsewhere. The first time I read a scene
in a fantasy novel with a magician scheming to find
another's true name, I thought it was silly. But
seeing the way Bonaparta brainwashed his victims,
it makes you think it's not quite so silly after all.
Jung said that myths are the expression of the
human unconscious — and I think that if he lived
today, he would point to this as proof."

— I suppose Johan's father is equally hard to look up.

"Yes, there are no records of a young military officer

matching his specifications dying in 1974 or 1975.
But if Johan's father was a German-born Czech, then
he would be in a significant minority for a career
soldier. It's possible that some civilians might
remember a man like that. I've requested help from
a citizens' group in Bohemia."

We promised further cooperation as we parted. She

gave me a valuable piece of information at the last.
"If you want to
know more about Bonaparta, go to Karel Bridge on
Wednesdays. There's a man who does a puppet show
there... and he claims to be Bonaparta's son. He
answered questions from the police, but he didn't
help with our own investigation. I think he wants to
put it all behind him.
However, he might be helpful if you can convince
him to speak to you."
Greetings!

I hope this is the final draft of the English translation

of Another Monster. Please be advised that I am not
a translator and that I don't actually know Japanese.
But I do read Spanish, and my translation from the
Japanese correlates well enough with the Spanish
edition that I think it's a passable job. (if you want to
know more about how this came about, just drop by
the adult swim forum (url below) and read the
thread. ;))

I have decided to take the liberty of including

Stephen's translations of the first 19 chapters so
that you can see the photos and illustrations in
context. Should he object to this, I'll readily comply
with his cease and desist, but I was unable to
contact him to receive permission to do this ahead
of time, so I hope he won't mind (and you can still
get his untouched version at mangascreener.com). I
tried to get all the formatting right (and fix a couple
of typos. ;)) but I suspect I might've made some
errors there (if it's anything as bad as dropping a
sentence during the copy/paste/insert or something,
please tell me!).

Translator's notes are in [ ]. Sometimes Weber

makes his own comments, but those are in (). At
the end, just for fun, I've tossed in a picture of
Werner Weber from the dust jacket, a photo I found
of one particular place mentioned in the story, and
the God of Peace as online translators would tell it.

I've done the best I can with names and tried to

make them consistent. Note that I've changed my
mind and the spelling of the name "Chapek" to
"Capek," and "Carek" and "Charek" to "Carek." I
think Stephen was for some reason unable to render
the diacritical marks in Courier (compare Dusseldorf
in the chapter list with Dusseldorf in the chapters),
so it ended up as Carek instead of Carek. Also, I
recently noticed that in the published book The
Nameless Monster ( Obluda ), Hermann Fuer's name
is written in a German credit as "Fuhr," so I've used
that spelling herein as well.

I've also changed the spelling of Sebe to Sebe. I

thought long and hard about how to handle this, but
the supplementary commentary at the end made
me have to make a choice, and the phonetics with
the diacriticals match the way it's been pronounced
in the anime in both languages, despite the fact that
the cover of The Nameless Monster clearly shows it
as Sebe, which is pronounced differently than Sebe.
You'll see why this has vexed me so when you get
to the final commentary. :)

And in that commentary interview, I'm told the man

being questioned is speaking in "the 'tough guys'
informal (and a little vulgar) Kanto colloquial." I
don't know how to spot the nuances of that, but I
took some liberties in his speech patterns to try to
show it. Still, his word choices are sometimes very
sophisticated for a gangster type -1 think it's
supposed to reflect his knowledge of the art and
literary world (i.e., he must have some education),
while his informal constructions imply his
underworld connections. Anyway, I'm sure there's
much to criticize in my translation of that!
:D

If you notice any typos or have any other complaints

or corrections, please do bring them to my attention.

When you have finished this, you can also read "The
Awakening Monster," complete with pictures, at
http://beeluke.liveiournal.com/327457.html
And speaking of beeluke, I'd like to thank her for her
patient help with some of the most troublesome
passages. Couldn't have finished this without her!
Also, this would have continued to be riddled with

errors large and small without Marc van der Steen's

wonderful gift of the text of the Spanish edition.
This truly was a godsend. And since it was so
helpful, I'd like to thank Pau Pitarch, the translator
for the Spanish edition, as well as the brilliant folks
over at JapanForum for putting up with me.
Speaking of godsends, my thanks to Erin, first of all
for pointing out that the text at the end of Obluda
was actually important, and for transcribing it for
me (more important than I can express!) along with
a rough translation that saved me heaps of time.
Finally, I think Stephen Paul deserves everyone's
thanks for getting this all started in the first place. I
would never have dared to attempt this without
those first 19 chapters spurring me on. :D

Please do not distribute this without my

authorization. There will come a time when I won't
care, but for the moment I'd prefer to distribute it
personally (and it's not a violation of anybody's
copyright until I post ("publish") it somewhere, at
least not until SO PA/P I PA/ACTA changes all the
rules).

And when you've finished reading it, please come

join our discussion on the adult swim message
boards ( http://boards.adultswim.com/t5/Other-
Anime/Another- Monster/td-p/56598798 ). Looking
for other people's insights and views was 3/4 of the
reason I did this. :)

Enjoy!

-- Gina
[email protected] Jan 2012
 Chapter 4 - Heinrich Lunge
In all honesty, former inspector Heinrich Lunge was
a difficult man to interview. He still outright refuses
to talk with most people and organizations about
Johan. It clearly does not stem from any kind of
honor or duty to his former employers at the
German federal police. No man has had his services
and hard work for the BKA betrayed to the extent
that Lunge has. In 1 995, Inspector Lunge was
investigating German Parliament member Joseph
Boltzmann in connection to the murder of a call girl
named Erika Lemser. He was a trueborn
investigator, the best in the agency. But after a
valuable reference committed suicide, Boltzmann
himself, as well as Lunge's superiors, demanded
that he be dismissed from the investigation, and so
Lunge found himself without a case to follow. It is at
this point that Lunge announced a
long-term vacation from work, and put his full
attention into the Johan case.

When he solved the Johan case after three whole

years, Inspector Lunge's honor was returned, and he
once again stood at the top of the BKA. His first
action after returning was to reopen the case of
Lemser's murder. His perseverence paid off and he
backed Boltzmann into a corner, but the politician
lucked out and avoided an indictment. However,
Boltzmann had lost the trust of his constituents, and
lost his seat in the following election. At the
present he is being investigated not for murder, but
tax evasion. Lunge had clearly succeeded in
getting the better of Boltzmann.

Soon afterward, he left the BKA and took up work as

a professor at the NordrheinWestfalen state police
academy. About this time, publishers and magazines
began knocking down Lunge's door in the hope of
receiving his life story —
specifically his involvement in the Johan case — but
he refused all offers on the grounds that not all the
information had been made public.

But I believe that the real reason he refuses to speak

about Johan is because there is either some kind of
secret that prevents him from ever discussing it, or
because there is a type of loyalty keeping him silent.

I used an underhanded move designed to learn how

to best approach him, and made an appointment to
meet him.
Lunge now holds the titles of Nordrhein-Westfalen
State Police Academy Professor, and European Police
Office (Europol) Behavioral Science Special Advisor
— the supervisor of a department that has not
been established yet. I sent him a letter saying that
I was compiling an article on the state of European
profiling, and he granted me an interview. Whether
or not he would tell me about the mind of Europe's
greatest serial killer depended on how well I could
convince him to speak.

I met Mr. Lunge in Brussels, Belgium, the base of

Europol, in early summer of 2001. When he
appeared at the Radisson SAS Hotel room I chose to
use for our interview, he had the veteran officer look
in his eyes that told me he did not trust my journalist
kind, and that I would never truly understand him or
his colleagues. He looked noticeably older than the
pictures I had seen in the paper after the incidents,
white creeping into his hair.

— I'd like to start by asking about your current

work. They say you are to create a profiling team
for Europol.

"The FBI's Behaviorology Division wants Europol to

follow their lead; they've given us a good deal of
cooperation, but we European officers believe that
we need a profiling
manual based on our own way of things. That is
why they came to me. The offer was very
generous, and I believe it is a worthwhile job."

After being pressured by a reinvigorated Inspector

Lunge and losing in the elections, Boltzmann was
questioned by the police under suspicion of
embezzling his autobiography royalties and speaking
fees for political funds. The newspapers all but state
that he will be prosecuted in court.

— Why does Europe need "European profiling"?

"Americans believe their culture and European

culture are the same, but we disagree... that is all."

— Can you give me a concrete description of

profiling?
"Put simply, profiling is a method of investigation in
which one enters the mind of the criminal, to
predict what he or she will do next, and when. In
other words, you draw up a profile of the criminal...
Using the characteristics of what is left at the scene
of the crime, you identify habits, personal lifestyle,
hidden perspectives, and ultimately the criminal's
very personality... You find that there are surprising
consistencies in all of the same criminal's crimes."

— It's a method that appears in movies and

books quite often.

"But those movies and books don't actually show the

protocol necessary to create a true profile. Actual
police have to put these methods into practice,
meet with penal offenders of the same type,
sometimes ask their thoughts on things, examine
the data, and even turn to science for help, at
times."

— And if you do so, you find the criminal motives

and methods of people in America and Europe
differ in subtle ways?

"Yes, and thus we need our own method of profiling.

We have no deserts such as those in Arizona, and
we have no Grand Canyons. Most of our homes are
built of bricks or stone, not wood. We have
numerous cities with histories of over a thousand
years old, and few skyscrapers. We don't assume
that everyone speaks English, and we don't eat that
many hamburgers. We prefer soccer over baseball,
and most importantly, we don't believe we are the
center of the world... And the serial killers of Europe
have been raised in this culture, rather than
America."

— But technically, the FBI is far more advanced in

the field.
"Unfortunately. They are the forerunners. Even before
the FBI created their behaviorology department, it
was the American army that first successfully
utilized the profiling method. They saw how well
psychiatrists were able to predict the personalities
of criminals, so they turned their attention toward
predicting future crimes. But the American army...
specifically, the Office of Strategic Services, hired
psychiatrist William Langer to create the world's
first profile, on a European... Adolf Hitler."

— Let's get a bit more specific, now. Why do some

murderers kill for pleasure? I can understand that
people would kill out of hate or vengeance, kill in
order to steal valuables, and even in some cases kill
in order to obtain food to eat. But to kill a complete
stranger for the pleasure of it... this I cannot
comprehend.

"It is understandable. You are just not trying hard

enough... Indiscriminate killers and lust killers,
typically have unfortunate experiences in their
childhood years. Usually abuse at the hands of
parents or parental figures. Often, they will grow up
to commit the same deeds their parents did... these
are things that most people can understand. You
said that you can understand those who kill out of
hate.
Those who murder for pleasure commit those murders
out of hate for their parents, or those who abused
them. Except in these cases, the target for their
anger becomes more than any specific person; it
will expand to all women, or all children, or all
homosexuals."

— That's what I don't understand. They weren't

abused by women, or children, or homosexuals.
Why do they turn their anger on these people,
rather than those who really abused them?
"Anger is an altered form of the desire to control
others. They surrender themselves to their anger,
to control someone. They don't want revenge
against those who abused them. They want to force
others to know the same pain that they did, they
want to hold the fate of others in their hand, they
want to know joy and pleasure. Sexual excitement
entwines itself within all of these... and most of
these crimes become sexual murders."

— But, wait. Are you saying that it is a combination

of hate, desire for control, and sexual agitation
that create indiscriminate sexual killers?

"Yes. It is also true that many times the abuse these

pleasure killers receive is sexual in nature... At a
young age, these people have been controlled and
used by their abusers like objects or tools. Even after
they grow into adults, they are unable to see others
as people capable of similar emotions... pain, agony,
humiliation, sadness, fear. They only see animals,
like guinea pigs in a science experiment. And the
quickest and most effective method to subjugate
these animals is sex."

— Why is that?

"The orgasm in sex creates an instantaneous illusion

that you are looking down upon yourself from a
much higher vantage point, that you are in
complete control of your life... It makes you feel
almost as if you are a god. Those who have risen to
this point can believe that they have total control
over their victims."

— How does this advance into murder? Once the

goal of sex has been achieved, surely there is no
need to kill.
"To control another person is to force your own
delusions upon them. Everyone has fantasies about
sex that cannot be
spoken out loud. The delusions and fantasies of
pleasure killers are incredibly cruel and twisted."

— And so an act of reproduction becomes the

opposite, an act of murder...

"Humans assign actions that produce pleasure a

type of taboo. And I believe that actions people label
taboo are in a way, a form of ritual... that give
people the illusion of superhuman powers... of
complete control over oneself and others... to come
closer to God. One is sex. The next is drugs... What
do you think the last is?"

— (silence)

"The greatest taboo a human can commit... is

murder."

— I understand that those who undergo physical and

sexual abuse have the potential to become pleasure
killers. But there are plenty of people who have
such experiences and grow up to become
respectable adults, and there are some pleasure
killers who have had very little of such abuse. What
are your thoughts on this?

"For that, you must understand the two lateral sides

of human beings. First, the method of abuse. It
does not have to be violent or sexual in nature. A
father and mother ignoring their child, denying their
child's dreams, scolding their child for being stupid,
or using adult logic to talk down to their child can
constitute abuse. Refusing one's child without
offering any kind of support or praise is an easy
way to convince that child that his life is of no
value. Even a child that receives one bit of praise
has the ability to excel in a single talent, and those
who receive regular encouragement can feel
confidence, achieve success, and become leading
members of society. Because they don't believe
they are worthless, they don't need to raise a fist
and have vengeance against fate or the world at
large... I believe you understand now that pleasure
killers and indiscriminate murderers turn to anger
and kill others because they believe they are
unloved by God, fate, or society. In order to strike
back against an unseen enemy, they must involve
others. It's the same thing as warning fate 'not to
mess with me.'"

— And what is the other side?

"What I just described are the influences that outside

factors have upon a person.

The other side of the equation are the aspirations

and dreams that exist naturally within

every human being. At the risk of sounding

controversial, I think that the most hideous, blood-
curdling murderers are those who failed to become
great human beings. Those who have left their
names in history by their great deeds or terrible
crimes are like twins living at opposite sides of the
world. They have commonalities... Those who
commit unthinkable murders and those who achieve
great things both hold enormous fantasies, dreams
and ambitions in their hearts. Because both of them
hold such gigantic things inside themselves, they
are never satisfied, and they will never give up until
they see their dreams realized.

The greater the hopes and wishes inside of a

person, the more they are capable of achieving
greatness or of becoming terrible criminals. Holding
dreams is an ability granted at birth, but whether or
not one is capable of bringing those aspirations to
bloom depends on one's environment. It depends
on whether someone tells you that you have the
right to live or not."
— Do you believe that Adolf Hitler falls within this
type of murderer?

"Adolf Hitler was not a pleasure killer, but I believe

that he shared many of the same qualities. He
probably spent his childhood without any kind of
beneficial reinforcement. Had he been able to
achieve his hopes in adulthood, get into art school
and succeed as an artist, he probably would not
have desired to be Fuhrer. But at this point in his
life, he was still not accepted by anyone. He grew
enraged at the Fate that refused to make him
special. He swore revenge against God."

— But even if that is true, he doesn't seem to

resemble a sexual murderer...

"The women Hitler had relationships with mostly

either committed suicide or met untimely deaths...
But it is true that he did not seem to have a strong
sex drive."

— So what type of murderer is he, then?

"He is not a murderer so much as a brainwasher.

He would use others to do the murdering for him...
Hitler had a natural talent for infiltrating the minds
of others and controlling them as he saw fit. With
this ability, the three taboos that I mentioned
earlier — sex, drugs and homicide — become
unnecessary. One already has something much
greater at that point."

— What do you mean?

"Isn't total manipulation of another person the

ultimate form of control? That in itself is the power
of God."

— You seem to have a keen knowledge of such

murderers — I mean, brainwashers.
At this point, I remembering noticing that the fingers
of Lunge's hand began tapping the table as if he
was hitting the keys of a piano or typewriter. He
grinned at me as if looking at a particularly clumsy
student, and spoke.

"I suppose we've finally hit the main issue, Herr

Weber."

Right until this moment, I thought that I had been

craftily and naturally guiding the conversation
toward the subject of Johan. I believed that I was
just about to reach the real objective of this
interview.

As I searched for a response, he said, "On November

14th of last year, in Salzburg, Austria. The attending
doctor, nurse and receptionist of the emergency
ward of St. Ursula's Hospital were murdered, late at
night. The man who killed them committed suicide
at the scene of the crime... Gustav Kottmann. He
was wanted for charges of murdering seven couples
in the Vienna area with an axe. Eight days before
this incident, an elderly man in the residential sector
of town was killed in a way that suggested suicide.
The man's name was Molke... but later it was found
that this was an alias and his true name was
Jaroslav Carek -a big-time bureaucrat of the former
Czechoslovakian government, now wanted by
American, British and Czech police, among others.
On the night that he was assumed to be killed, a
man visited the St. Ursula hospital late at night, to
be treated for a bullet wound on his arm that he
received when the gun he carried for self- protection
misfired. The doctor who administered to his injury
informed the police, but the man had disappeared.
When the police later searched for a connection
between this man and the Carek murder by asking
if there were any other witnesses in the hospital at
that time, they were astonished to find that all of
the witnesses were the same people killed by the
axe murderer."
He paused in his speech and gave me a calm,
triumphant look.

"The Austrian police thought that all of their

witnesses being killed was an unfortunate
coincidence, but you disagree. But what kind of
connection could there be between a man who
seemingly makes a living from his killing, and a man
who kills for pleasure? Why did Kottmann the axe
murderer kill just those three witnesses, and then
kill himself...?"

"You're absolutely right," I admitted.

Mr. Lunge began tapping his fingers faster and

continued talking.

"You began to wonder if anything similar had

happened in the past. You found your answer
right away. Yes, the 1 998 Johan case, in
Germany."

"Despite being at the center of the Johan

investigation, you have so far avoided making any
kind of comment. Perhaps you have maintained this
silence out of consideration for those whose lives
were affected by the case, or perhaps there is a
truth underneath that is too shocking to reveal...
Therefore, this was the only method I had available
to approach you," I explained with a sigh, to which
he made a face as if he had just been insulted, but
the words that followed surprised me.

"The reason I have not said anything about the

Johan case is not out of consideration or secrecy. It
is because I was entirely and utterly defeated by the
case. Contrary to what the rest of the world says, if I
had not been at the center of the investigation, I
would not have solved the case. I was just as
perplexed and deceived as everyone else at the
portrait the man named Johan was painting."
The words he said next surprised me even further.

"Very well. I will answer your questions about the

Johan case. In exchange for information about the
case in Austria."

I told him in detail everything I knew about

Kottmann's murder of the three hospital
employees, Kottmann's life, the body of the
mysterious old man from the Czech Republic and
the artifice used to disguise it, and the injured man
who visited the hospital shortly after the old
man's death — including details not reported in
the media. Mr. Lunge sat silently and listened to
my story. All the while, his fingers were endlessly
tapping on their imaginary keyboard.

When I had finished talking, he resumed the

interview as he had promised, to speak about the
Johan case...
— First, tell me of how you became involved in
the Johan case.

"As you know, the BKA is the German equivalent of

the FBI... an organization that handles criminal cases
that happen across all the states of the nation, but
with only a fraction of the power of the American
agency. I was merely invited to be an advisor to the
local police during the investigation into the 1 986
poisoning of three staff members of Eisler Memorial
Hospital in Dusseldorf."

— And what did you think of this initial case?

"The method of homicide was skillful, but I couldn't

see any motive other than enmity."

— What was your first impression of Dr. Tenma?

"A brilliant brain surgeon whose position at the

hospital and engagement to the director's daughter
had both been taken away a few days before the
murders. I had never attempted to profile a Japanese
before, but I found it quite easy to enter one part of
his personality. He held a grudge against the
hospital director."

— Why didn't you detain Dr. Tenma? The police

should have had enough room to interrogate him.

"There was a remarkable lack of physical evidence.

And it reeked of an intellectual crime... a crime that
arises from interests between the perpetrator and
the victim. I thought that given time, the person
who had gained the most from the murders would
be apparent."

— And you had heard about the hospital's twin

children patients going missing.
"Yes. At the time, we treated the disappearance of the
children, like the shooting of the Lieberts, as East
Germany's problem. This was, of course, before the
collapse of the Berlin Wall."

— What did you think and do about this case

during the nine years between the murders and
the new case that occurred at Neue Rhine
General Hospital?

"It is true that I participated in other cases in that

time, but I never forgot about Tenma. I felt that
there was more to come out of that case. And I told
myself that when the time came, I would not let
him escape me."

— And as you suspected, more developments

occurred. I'm told that you were coincidentally
working on the case of the middle-aged couple
murders, one of the suspects in which was Dr.
Tenma.

"That is right. The murders of middle-aged couples

across Germany were disguised to look like
robberies, but I did not believe that. It was apparent
that they were the work of multiple people, and one
of them was already wanted. A man named Adolf
Junkers, who acted as the group's lockpicker. We
received a report that he was run over by a car in
Dusseldorf, and taken to Neue Rhine General
Hospital, so I went there. And that was where I met
with Dr. Tenma again."

— And you began visiting the hospital to

interrogate Junkers, before he escaped from the
hospital one night, and was shot. The police officer
who was standing watch was poisoned, and Tenma
came forth to say that he witnessed the shooting.
"When I heard that the poison used to kill the guard
was a muscle relaxant, I noticed the resemblance to
the poison
that was used to kill the three doctors, nine years

earlier. And the only person to suspect was Tenma."

— What did you think of Tenma's story... That the

murders were all the work of Johan, the elder
brother of the missing twin children?

"From the particular nature of this case, I reassessed

my opinion of Tenma's character. His original
murders were done out of hate and vengeance, but
now he had turned into a pleasure killer. He
possessed an inner personality named Johan, and it
was Johan who committed the murders through him.
On closer examination, it was Johan who had been
the cause for his downfall nine years ago, so in his
fervor to blame everything on Johan, Tenma created
a dual personality... He developed a dissociative
identity disorder."

— Did you think the middle-aged couple murders

were his doing, as well?

"At the time, I thought it was preposterous. But

when the Fortners and the Heidelberg Castle
gardener were killed, I began to consider the
possibility. The tool used to strangle the gardener's
neck was Tenma's necktie."

— But is it possible for a man who has been living a

normal, law-abiding life to suddenly transform into
a serial killer?

"Serial killers usually exhibit symptoms from a

young age, but it is not uncommon for cases to
appear as late as in one's 30s."

— That's when you called for Dr. Tenma's arrest,

and he ran. What did you think of Nina, the
daughter of the Fortners?
She also went missing.
"I believed it was most likely that Tenma had killed
her."

— Following that, Tenma was sighted in Verden

and Berlin, but police were unable to apprehend
him.

"To be honest, I thought that I could have caught

him easily. But when I questioned a former
mercenary who taught Tenma how to use a gun, I
changed my opinion. I realized that Tenma had the
ability to earn the respect and assistance of those
he associated with."

— There are reports that you began to pursue

Tenma more closely after your actions in the
Boltzmann case left you temporarily out of any
other work to follow...

"That is true, in a way. Because of that case, I was

removed from supervision of several other cases I
had been in charge of at the time. Because I had
worked without rest until that point in my career, my
family situation was in shambles. My boss at the
time told me quite firmly, 'You have nothing left.' No
doubt my colleagues thought of me as an elite
investigator who had fallen into disgrace. However, I
was quite happy with this, and I don't mean that as a
show of courage. This meant that I could put all of
my concentration into the fascinating character of
Dr. Tenma."

— After that, you determined that another middle-

aged couple killing in Hamburg was the work of a
copycat. At this time, you ran into Dr. Tenma, but
he escaped you.

"He was not the weak man he had been before.

Oddly enough, his growth was astounding."
— You then visited Tenma's college classmate, Dr.
Rudi Gillen. You took advantage of his belief in
Tenma's innocence to learn that Tenma was in
Munich. Did you still suspect Tenma?
 "Yes."

— Even after reading Gillen's report on Tenma?

"Yes. When I saw the message that Johan supposedly

left behind... the message saying, 'Look at me, look
at me, the monster inside me has grown this large,'
I believed it only proved Tenma's multiple
personalities. Until I went to Munich to meet with
some

Japanese businessmen, and I happened to run across

a peculiar Czech storybook called "The Nameless
Monster." There was a passage in the book that
contained the same text, and something within me
began to change."

— However, when Tenma attempted to kill

Johan in the Munich University library, you
thought that he was attempting to kill
Schuwald, the greatest financier in southern
Germany.

"I did. But when the library burned down and we

received reports from those who were present, I was
forced to admit that my internal logic held too many
flaws."

— When was it that you began to physically sense

Johan's existence?

"Johan's existence... I wouldn't have believed in such

an imaginary thing. There is no human being who
doesn't leave traces behind, and if there was, he
would be the Devil. But there is no such thing.
Therefore, there is no human we cannot catch. But
it was then, when I visited the apartment Johan
supposedly once stayed in, that I felt it. I felt that
there was a man in this world who did not exist."
The Japanese edition of Emil Šébe's "The Nameless
Monster" (Shogakukan). This book, which could be
called the origin of
the Johan case, is also famous for being Naoki
Urasawa's first translation from Czech.

— So you took a long-term vacation, and headed to

Prague.

"Yes. One reason was to find out more about Emil

Šébe, the author of "The Nameless Monster." The other
reason was the nitric acid poisoning of three Czech
police officers.

— There hasn't been much media coverage of the

storybook. "Because they don't know anything

about it. Emil Šébe...

Jakub Faroubek... Klaus Poppe... all different pennames
for
the same author. There was something peculiar in
each of his works that left a bad feeling in one's
mouth. But what kind of effect would it have on
the reader, what was the message, if any, and
what was the author's intention... it was clearly a
piece of work with an unforgettable aftertaste, but
there was nothing more one could say for certain.
It wasn't even clear exactly who Sebe was."

But Mr. Lunge was finally able to grasp the contour,

the background of Johan, in Prague. Johan's existence
had been proven, but where was the monster born,
and where was he going...? I began to form some
loose conjectures. It was at this point that I became
determined to make these things clear when I
visited the Czech Republic. And, as I will explain
later, this storybook and its author, Emil Šébe, were
at the very center of this case...

As former-inspector Lunge promised, he recalled the

things he knew and thought with his startingly
precise memory.
Lunge said that Johan had made a mockery of his
abilities, but I was overwhelmed by the insight he
displayed, and I believed that without him, this case
would never have been solved.
At the end of the interview, I asked him about
brainwashing
— how does one manipulate and control another
person this way?

"It's simple," Mr. Lunge stated. He asked me where I

was currently living. When I answered Vienna, he
said, "Then, can you draw me an accurate map of
the city, depicting every single road?" I wracked my
brain to conjure up a mental map of Vienna, and
began drawing a simple map on my notepad, as he
intently watched my facial expressions. When I
admitted defeat, saying that I could not possibly
draw an accurate map, he took what I had written.

"What area of Vienna is this?" He asked.

I sheepishly said that it was the neighborhood I lived

in, and he responded, "Then to you, this is the
center of the city; no, the center of the world," as he
looked at me. "When you imagine the place called
Vienna, you use your living space as a starting
point, and think of roads and places as they relate
to your location... And even when given an actual
map of Vienna, you most likely see your
neighborhood as the center."

When I nodded to show that I understood, he

went on. "In the very center of your mind, just
like this map, there lies the foundation of your
ego — your identity."

I nodded again.

"But suddenly, your coordinate axis is removed.

There is no meaning to this center... there is a much
more appropriate center for your heart. This is the
reality of what we call brainwashing." He smiled.
"And when a human being's mental axis is removed
and they are lost, you gently and carefully entrap
them with words, not giving them the opportunity to
think, offering them a new place to live... You
will find that human beings follow the instructions
of whoever furnishes them with this new home...
They become surprisingly docile."

— I realize this is a difficult question to ask, but

what are your current feelings about Dr. Kenzo
Tenma?

(His finger movements stop)

"I told him I was sorry. What else could I say? I

suppose a writer like yourself could find better
words? If you can, please tell me what they are."

I expressed my thanks to Mr. Lunge. He had cordially

responded to all of my questions. As we left, he
spoke to me.

"You think that there might be another monster who

received the same education as Johan did, in
Czechoslovakia or East Germany."

I said that I did.

"And this monster manipulated Kottmann into killing

the witnesses..."

I nodded again.

"If such a monster truly exists, your life is in

danger," Lunge told me.

I understand that. But I want to know the truth, I

answered.

"But if that monster is real, he is not like Johan... he

was special," Inspector Lunge said.

I asked him how they were different.

The former detective answered, "Johan possessed
superhuman brainwashing abilities, but he also cast
aside his desires one after the other... A rare type of
criminal.
Like... like a Buddha drawn to destruction."

I did not miss the first and only sign of fear that
flashed across his face.
 Chapter 9 - Karl Schuwald
Karl Schuwald is a business management student at
the Friedrich Emmanuel School of Munich University.
When he first joined the school, he went by the
name of Neuman, but three years ago changed it to
Schuwald. His scheduled inheritance from the
mastermind of Bayern's largest Konzern, Hans
Schuwald, has been a hot topic among the financial
world of the E.U., and the media has spent much
effort looking into just who he is, and whether he is
a foster child or illegitimate son of Schuwald's. But
ultimately, only those who are very close to him
know the truth, and none of them are talking, so the
real story has yet to be reported.
Knowing this fact, I was very skeptical of my chances
at getting an interview with Karl, so unlike what I did
with Inspector Lunge, I came right out and told him
that I wanted to know more about Johan. Surprisingly,
his answer was "Ja."

He invited me to the Schuwald Estate, close in

proximity to Nymphenburg Palace, in the
northwest region of Munich.
The ancient building, seemingly straight out of
Victorianera England, had undergone diligent
maintenance, and cast off a chic, rather than
elegant air.

Karl Schuwald was a young man with stiffly wavy

black hair, not handsome, but with an honest and
intelligent face. For being the son of a fabulously
wealthy man, he looked not unlike your average
starving student, with a plain blue denim shirt and
jeans. As we shook hands, he stared into my eyes,
as if attempting to ascertain that I was as honest
and upfront about my statements as he was.
Unsurprisingly, his father was nowhere to be seen,
and I felt a bit of disappointment, along with no
small amount of relief.

— Just for the record, you have met with Johan,

correct?
"Yes. He was a friend of mine. I trusted him like no
other person. If only I could ask him... why he did
those things to me and my father."

— You have been... no, still are, a much-discussed

person among society. Why did you decide to
accept my interview?

"Most of the interview requests have been about the

connection between me and my father. You are only
the second or third to ask about Johan. A recent as a
year ago, I would have turned you down, but now I
feel that I can talk about it."

— After the discovery of the Johan case, the media

rushed out to cover the story and find the truth. But
most people who were involved with it have not
spoken. The world at large spread rumors that
there must be something very big and secret
behind the case. Why have you decided to speak
up about it, now?

"The reason they haven't said anything is because

they are afraid."

— Afraid? But Johan is said to be in a deep coma,

still only a few steps away from death...

"Yes, the fear is not of him now, but of the things we

experienced in the past. Even a year ago, just
thinking back on it would have paralyzed me. But
after three years, I've finally been able to face it. Or
perhaps I should say that I feel I must face it."

— After-effects of your experiences, then. Well,

tell me of how it was you came to know Johan.

"Johan and I were hired by my father... Hans Schuwald,

to read Latin aloud to him, as he could not see. I
came in on
Tuesdays, and Johan worked on Fridays. We both went
to the same university, but he attended the law
school there, and I was in the business school, so we
had never met. It wasn't until a mutual friend
introduced us to each other that we became
acquainted."

— What kind of person was he?

"First of all, his reading was perfect. He was a very

well- educated student. And so he was my father's
favorite... He was always kind and polite to me, and
he even cried when I told him my background
story."

— Was it through this reading job that Herr

Schuwald became taken with you, and decided to
accept you as his heir? Feel free not to answer, if
you'd rather not.

"Ah yes, that's what the media is all excited about

now. Well, the truth is... I really am Hans Georg
Schuwald's biological son. My mother and father
were very much in love, but she did not want to
marry, and so she left. She gave me to someone
she knew, and disappeared from my life. And so I
spent the rest of my childhood moving from
orphanage to foster parents, and back. When I got
into college, news of my mother's death was in the
paper. She had been murdered. After her death, I
wanted to meet with my father, somehow. I had told
myself that he was a terrible man who abandoned
my mother to her fate, but there was a part of me
that secretly hoped he would love me."

— And so you introduced yourself to him.

"No, I didn't have the courage. My confidence was

tattered enough by my horrific reading, which
threatened to get me fired nearly every week... No,
it was Johan who truly united me and my father. He
showed him the lucky rabbit's foot my
father had once given to my mother, and which
passed on to me. That was how my identity was
proven."

— So what was Johan's goal?

"My father's search for his biological son was

actually widely known in Munich.

Several times before, men had come to him,

claiming to be his heir, and each time he hired a
private detective to examine their backgrounds.
This was another reason why I had trouble speaking
up for my identity. When I was spending my days
reading to Father and fidgeting over whether or not
to tell him who I was (for whatever reasons),
another young man came to him and claimed to be
his true son. He was another student, named
Edmund Fahren, who read to Father on Thursdays.
His story was good enough that only I could have
known he was false. So when I went to visit his
dorm, intending to blow the cover off of his
disguise... he was hanging by his neck, dead. I
believe it was the day after that, that I first met
Johan Liebert... It wasn't until after he led an
attempt on my father's life and burned down the
college library that I understood what his true
intentions were. It was Johan who manipulated
Edmund Fahren, to gain my father's trust. But just
before he could put his true plan into motion, I
appeared, the real son. So he changed his mind and
decided to control me instead, to get the power of
Schuwald's empire in his own hands. This was a
much better plan for him... so he killed Edmund
Fahren, and came to me the very next day."

— And after this, Johan was able to gain the trust of

both you and Mr. Schuwald.
"My father said that he was 'perfect.' He even
considered naming him his heir, and teaching him all
that he knew
about economic leadership."
The heir of Hans Schuwald's estate, destined to
lead the future European economy, Karl. His
hobbies are reading, fishing and cycling. A plain,
relaxed young man.

— Wait just a moment. To him, and not you?

"That's right. No one could compete with Johan, in

anything. I fully understood and accepted the
decision. My father was blind, and yet Johan
achieved perfect harmony with him... At times, he
received so much praise that you would wonder if
he could really be of this world. If he ever intended
to rule the Bayern, no, the entire German economic
world, he must have nearly seen his efforts to
success."

— However, Johan plotted your father's

assassination at the Friedrich Emmanuel Library,
during the ceremony for his book collection
donation...

"Actually, that's not quite right. It would make

sense if Johan planned to kill him and then inherit
all of his power, but in actuality, Johan stared right
into my father's eyes, among the flames, and
declared his involvement in the event."

— So Johan must have changed his plans.

"My father afterwards said that he had become

bored. As the 'Vampire of Bayern' himself, he should
be able to recognize it... He said that Johan was
playing with our world as a child wreaks havoc on a
line of ants... But that he grew tired of his little
game."
— To change the subject a bit, how is your father
now? Before the incident he had become unusually
social and visited with various figures, but now he
has gone back to his
reclusive ways. He is, of course, quite elderly now.
Some say he could be seriously ill.

"True, I was also worried for him during his recovery

period. But no, Father is just fine. He doesn't meet as
many people as he had previously, but I think that
he's become a kinder, gentler person. Lately he likes
to say that all opposing concepts, life and death,
good and evil, beauty and ugliness, Heaven and Hell;
all are opposed to the other in such a way that they
are like twins. But I think he has chosen the side of
light."

— Have you ever met Dr. Tenma?

"Yes, but only for a very short time. At the Dresden

Station Square. I gave him a message from my
father, who was on his sickbed. At the time... I did
not know that he was Dr.
Tenma."

— What was your impression of him?

"He struck me as the martyr type. So stoic as to be

ascetic..."

— And Mr. Schuwald's message?

"I didn't understand what it meant. Cedok Bridge...

Three frogs... If the monster you seek is of a pair of
twins, their mother is in Prague..."

— Why would your father have this sort of

information about Johan?

"Because it was not all a coincidence. After my mother

disappeared, Father went frantic searching for her.
She was actually an exile from Czechoslovakia;
she'd been living here illegally. She had once told
him the features of the house her friend in Prague
lived at... a place near the Cedok
Bridge, with a signboard of three frogs. Apparently
her friend was also being pursued by the
government. Father supposed that when she left, she
might have gone to visit her friend, and so he found
the place in 1980. The woman who answered the
door had twin children. My father and this woman
spoke about their memories of Mother, and then he
left. The twins just sat and listened to their
conversation."

— But how did he come to the conclusion that

Johan was one of those twins?

"Well... he learned of my mother's death in the

newspaper. He hired a detective to take a look into
her life after she disappeared in 1977. When she...
well, retired from her work in 1992, she lived in
Offenbach, Hessen. For a time, she had a flatmate. A
young man, about 18 years old... Three months
before she died, she sent a letter to a friend. In it
were passages about me after we had separated,
and her old friend that she attempted to escape
Czechoslovakia with.
Her friend did not make it over the border, and
eventually was married and had twins. She wrote
about the boy she was staying with. How he
reminded her so much of her old friend."

— I see. That explains a lot. And that's where things

move to Prague. By the way, this job you
mentioned, where you would read books to your
father... what kind of books did you read?

"Ah, yes... my father had a passion for Latin and

Greek literature. For me, it was simply a matter of
finding the Nth book from the left on the Nth shelf
as he requested, and I imagine it was the same for
any of the other students who did the job. But I
believe that Johan was the only one whom he
asked, which books do you read."
— Now that is interesting. And did Mr. Schuwald
tell you what Johan answered?

"This was before we knew who Johan was, so my

memory is unclear... I do remember that Father
chuckled when he said it. I believe he was surprised
that Johan would read such a 'common' book, but
he did read it, and I've forgotten the title, but he
said that it was a good book."

— Do you suppose you could ask your father what

the title was? Between all the storybooks and
reading seminars involved in the Johan case, it
could be important. Is it possible that this book
could have been a picture storybook?

"As far as I can recall, it was not."

— It is said that part of the reason Johan chose not

to appear on the "scene" as it were, was a chance
look at a storybook called "The Nameless Monster."
Were you present at the time that this happened?

"No, I wasn't. Well, actually I was there, but I was not

at his side when he fainted.

One of the school librarians was present, and she

witnessed his reaction. My friend Lotte Frank could
tell you more about it than I can."

In the summer of 1997, as Schuwald's acting

secretary, Johan visited Munich University's Friedrich
Emmanuel Library. There were several meetings
scheduled to plan out the ceremony for the grand
book donation. While walking through a restricted
section for students only, Johan happened across a
storybook that had fallen off its shelf.
Upon opening the book, he suddenly began
wailing, and fainted. The book was called "The
Nameless Monster." A
Czech storybook by Emil Sebe, published by Moravia
of Prague. It is from this point that his plan changed
drastically.

— Lastly, I have a question about the fire in the

library. You were supposed to attend the ceremony
alongside your father, but shortly before the event,
you returned home. Did something happen?

"Father asked me to go back and get some papers

for him. I thought it was a strange request, but I
obeyed. It was only afterward that I learned that he
had already understood, already knew that Johan
would make an attempt on his life. And that he did
this to save me."

— And yet he decided to face his own death?

"Yes. The evening before the ceremony, a

psychiatrist named Dr. Reichwein visited us. He told
us of his suspicions regarding Johan, and talked
about the deaths of former drivers, maids and
birdwatching friends my father had been fond of,
and how their deaths came at Johan's hand. My
father believed him. He had felt misgivings about
Johan's utter perfection for some time. And yet he
still wanted to go forward with the ceremony...
which led me to believe that he felt he had to test
his fate. My father could feel his age seeping in. He
had just found his son, found happiness, his
business was booming, and he felt it was right that
he could step down at any time. That's why he did
not want to run from a monster such as Johan. He
wanted to put his fate on the line and risk it all. If he
survived, he could always do something else. That's
what sort of man he is..."
Munich, near the university, where Johan's plans took a
sudden shift. Could he have gazed upon these same
sights... ?

— Surely you must despise Johan for all of this, now.

"To be honest... now, I don't like to say this because it
makes me sound like a fool, but I don't think I still
have a good grasp on exactly what happened. From
time to time, I find myself curled up in bed,
shivering in fear. But I don't know if I can say that I
hate him... It was on the roof of the school that I
first opened my heart to Johan... At sunset. For
some reason, I found myself telling him about some
of my fonder yearnings. I spent much of my life
hopping from one orphanage to another, so the
concept of the early evening, when the lights come
on and families gather at home with the smells of
dinner mingling in the air... it was a special image
that I kept very close to my heart. As I spoke, he
walked, balancing along the wall at the edge of the
roof.
When he turned towards me... he was crying. I still
don't believe those tears were false. They were
utterly true and heartfelt. I suppose that experience
has prevented me from ever truly hating him."

I knew some of the gossip that had gone around about

Karl's mother. But I had decided that if he did not
bring her up, I wouldn't bother to ask. So long as he
respected his father and loved his mother, the data
would be pointless. I asked him if he felt pressure at
inheriting the Schuwald empire. His answer was
surprisingly indifferent. "I did before, but not at all,
now. If I was not capable of it, my father would not
entrust it to me, and I am not so foolish as to desire
inheriting something that I could not handle."

I gave him my thanks, and decided to retire for the

day. As he showed me to the door, he said, "I will
ask Father about the title of the book Johan liked.
But it will have to be when he is in a good mood."

I thanked him for his trouble, and left the Schuwald

estate.
 Chapter 21- Peter Čapek
In 1989, Peter Capek, the man with glasses, left
Czechoslovakia to live in exile in West Germany.
There he carefully conformed to the law and there
were no deficiencies in his official documents. In
Frankfurt, he opened a small classroom where he
taught German and English to the children of
Turkish and Vietnamese immigrants for a very
affordable fee.

However, one after another, several of his students

committed suicide as if possessed, and those who
did not, became extremely violent. Something
strange was going on, something very wrong....
When a doubtful eye was cast upon Capek, he made
contact with the extreme right organization in town,
and transformed into a leader of the antiforeigner
movement. The police investigated him as a suspect
in the 1996 case of attempted arson in the Turkish
quarter, which had also involved Dr. Tenma.

In 1998, at the completion ceremony for the

Rodelheim Convention Center, Capek's life was
targeted by Milan Kolasch, a Czech refugee.
Kolasch was shot dead before he could accomplish
his purpose, and Capek narrowly escaped death.

I believe that what Capek did in his classroom was a

reproduction of the reading circles at the Red Rose
Mansion, and that his contact with the extreme right,
along with his request to Eva afterward, suggests
that he was at the top of The Baby's organization
which dreamt of Johan's advent.

What sort of person was Peter Capek to begin with?

At first glance, my impression was that he was
affected by the Johan case, but more and more I
think there may have been an
influence closer to him. To learn the answers, I
interviewed Mr. Ahmet Mustafa, a Turkish man who
knew the assassin Milan well.

Ahmet Mustafa is a devout Muslim. When the

extreme right organization set fire to the Turkish
quarter in '96, he did not move from the mosque by
as much as one step, and defended it from the
flames. Though he is 70 years old, his intellect and
rebellious spirit still shine from the depths of
deceptively sleepy eyes beneath thick brows. He
fought back against the Frankfurt redevelopment
plan and, refusing to relocate, instead filed a
lawsuit, while barricading himself inside a building
with Milan. After Milan's death, Mustafa was forcibly
evicted by the police, and was ordered to be
deported to his home country. However, when it
came to light that the extreme right organization
was illegally involved in the redevelopment land
purchases, the media began to pay attention to him.
With public opinion backing him, Mustafa's lawsuit
was successful and the government reversed its
deportation order. Mustafa is currently staying with
a friend in Frankfurt.

— How many years has it been since you came to

Germany?

"Ahh, it's already been 36 years. In 1960, I applied

to the 'Turkish Employment Association' for work in
Germany, and received permission to emigrate five
years later. We were all sent to work at a printing
plant in Frankfurt. It was a hard job, and I worked
nearly 20 hours a day. After two years, I was able to
call my wife and children over, and I was blessed at
last with a happy home."

— How did you find living in Germany?

"It was good at first, until about 1970. I truly
believed it was a rich, good country, where racial
discrimination did not
exist. I was the youngest of 8 siblings, and there
was not enough money for food in our village. So I
left and went to Istanbul, but it was very hard to
make a living there. Here, I could keep busy and
earn money, so I didn't have any complaints. Then
the oil crisis and recession came and my attitude
quickly changed when they began to tell us to
leave. 'Ah, was this what I had wished for?' I
thought. My wife was homesick, and hated the
racism, and in 1980 took the children and returned
to our country. They built a house there with the
living expenses I sent, so I guess they're better off,
aren't they? I thought that sooner or later I would
probably go home, and year after year I saved my
earnings to prepare for retirement, hoping to have
some luxury in my old age. But after the collapse of
the Wall, many poor East Germans came flooding
into the city in great numbers, and we Turks began
to be blamed because there was no work for them. I
thought more and more about going home to my
wife, but she had become like a total stranger to
me, and the first Turks to return home faced
discrimination as great as in Germany. On top of
that, my eldest son who had remained here could
barely speak Turkish anymore. Anyway, I feel like I
have a good life and a home, so I'm still here today."

— You are a pious Muslim, is that correct?

"Well, back in my home that wasn't so. Though

Turkey is in the Islamic sphere, it is extremely loose
in enforcing the commandments. But here I very
much depended on the mosque that I attended, and
before I knew it, I was saved.

— Is your son still living here?

"He died. Beaten to death by someone in the

redevelopment area. After the attempted arson
incident, my son organized a neighborhood watch
group. Besides my son, the group's other four
leaders also died, in unusual traffic accidents or
from acute alcohol poisoning. The group lasted three
months... I sent my son's wife and my grandchildren
back to Turkey. And I thought, I can't die yet,
wondering if my grandchildren, who speak only
German, are living well."

— Had the land purchases by the extreme right

organization started before '96?

"Ah, The Baby didn't have that kind of intelligence,

but after Capek became the boss, they became very
good at money- making overnight. After the arson
incident was defeated, he began to preach about the
public disorder in the Turkish quarter, campaigning
for a clean sweep of the ghetto."

— Did everybody in the neighborhood know Capek?

"Sure. When an intellectual like that moves into a

town like this, how everybody gossips! Though he
was more fluent in German than the Germans, he
was quiet and reserved...and then he opened his
classroom. For children to survive in a German
society, the must lose their foreign accents. Also, he
taught English and French if the children desired.
Parents with small children flocked to the
neighborhood."

— Then the tragedies began to occur.

"There was a series of suicides among the children

who had attended his classes. At first, no one
recognized that it was only his students. They were
all living in the same conditions, in the same
neighborhood.

— Capek's reputation didn't suffer?

"On the contrary, the mothers of the children who

had died were encouraged when he said "I must
try harder to create children strong enough to
survive.'"
— You didn't have any suspicions yourself?

"In hindsight, there were several strange things, but

at the time I didn't think anything about it. He
often said with great enthusiasm, 'This is a
groundbreaking educational system, created by a
highly respected friend of mine, and as his
successor, I am bringing it here according to his
wishes.' When I asked him if his friend had died, he
merely replied, 'That's my understanding.' Another
thing that was odd, was the time that a kid who
lived next door was caught shoplifting. Only his
mother was there since his father was away on
business in Kiel. Because I was his father's friend,
and Capek was his teacher, we went with him and
his mother to the police station. On the way home,
he asked the kid why he had shoplifted.

The brat retorted something like he didn't have any

money, so naturally he had to steal. Capek told him
if there was something he wanted he would have to
work hard and earn money. The kid boasted that
he'd get rich someday and show him, but Capek cut
him off, asking, "And what are you going to do with
the money? Money can only buy things.
What you really want to own is a person's heart,
right? But that can't be bought with money.'"
Mustafa is the person who best knows the problems
of the Turks in Germany. He spoke of his hopes that,
"Once we've saved enough money, we'd like to go
together to visit Tenma, who helped us all."

— And the neighbor boy now...?

"He killed himself. After that, I began to have doubts

about Capek's classes. After the children nearly
killed each other in a classroom fight, I woke up and
was sure of it. One of the ones that started it was
Milan's son. He was admitted to an institution, where
he committed suicide by hanging himself."

— Was that Milan's motive for assassinating Capek?

"It's not easy for me to say that, but I agreed to this

interview today to tell the whole truth. You have to
understand that Milan was not the sort of man who
would do such a thing. But he did have a serious
grudge against Capek because of his son. When he
visited his son in the institution, the boy felt no guilt
at all. He just wanted to go home as soon as
possible to Capek's reading circle. Milan regretted
ever sending his son to Capek's classroom. But
immediately after that Capek disappeared. Even if
Milan had wanted to question him about what was
going on, he couldn't. And then several years later,
Capek suddenly returned. It seemed like his
personality had completely changed, because I
didn't remember him being like that before."

— Because Capek presented himself to everyone as

a man of the underworld?
 "And as a leader at the very top."

— What did he demand that you do?

"To leave Germany. He offered to buy our homes. He

would even give the homeless money to make
arrangements to go. In any case, we were to leave.
And some people left. The streets became very
dangerous and some neo-Nazis or skinhead boys
descended on us in great numbers. And yet, almost
everyone outside ignored this. Then they set the
fires. I went to the police who were investigating,
but they said I had no evidence, so I turned to the
vigilance committee."

— But his land purchase did succeed.

"First the landlords were threatened and bribed. Still,

trouble only occurred to those who refused to clear
out. Accidents, stalkers, arson, they did whatever
they wanted to do. After the suspicious deaths of
the leaders of the committee, they were able to
obtain the rest of the houses legally."

— So what did you do, Mr. Mustafa?

"I was not about to sell the house to the enemies of

my son. At the same time, the city embarked on a
large scale redevelopment plan, as a joint venture
with the businessman Peter Capek. Good grief, can't
the government be trusted to do anything that's
right? During the forced eviction it was a big
surprise when — along with Milan — Suleiman,
Tung, Minh, and Shemel also decided to stay until
the end. Except for Milan, they were all relatives of
the leaders of the vigilance committee who had
died. But getting back to the story... I'm convinced
that Milan decided to kill Capek out of a sense of
responsibility."
— Responsibility?
"Yes. Milan was a Czechoslovakian refugee, and Capek
was his childhood friend. I'm certain that he was
responsible for getting Capek his ID and a place to
live in this town. Of course, he didn't know Capek
was a demon............................................................"

— Please...please continue.

"Capek and Milan were born in a small town near the

Austrian border. Milan, the son of a master
craftsman, and Capek, the son of a government
official, would watch the lights shining from the free
countries all night long, and I was told that they
made a vow to one day travel there together. The
two studied hard, and Milan became a dentist, while
Capek became a bureaucrat. After a long
separation, the two met face to face in Prague in
[August] 1969
...........................................................................................................
exactly
one year after the Soviet intervention. Milan felt relief
at seeing that Capek had somehow escaped the
political purge and seemed to be very well off.
Capek said he had recently met a wonderful
mentor, and he anticipated that his work would
become very enriching. However, Milan recalled
feeling a little uneasy about Capek's adoration of
his god- like superior. Capek said, 'He has offered to
give to mankind something completely unknown, a
new thing he's invented....' Milan asked him what
this new thing was, and he replied, 'It might be
something terrifying.' In 1979, Milan defected. Ten
years later, when Milan received a letter from
Capek asking for his help, why did he help
him? ...Do you understand now why Milan felt such
a sense of responsibility?"

— Was Milan investigating Capek? To find out what

he was doing during that time in Czechoslovakia?
"He did everything a man could do. Especially since
his best friend's personality had completely
changed.... He wanted to know how it happened,
and if it was possible to sue the
government, if it were true that Capek had been
driven out by a group that actually existed in the
Czech Republic. Milan apparently gathered
information from the association of Czech refugees."

In 1968, under the reformist Communist Party, a

democratization policy was recommended in
Czechoslovakia, called "the Prague Spring." But with
the Soviet Union in opposition, along with the
Warsaw Pact allies, the reform was crushed by
military intervention, and Czechoslovakia returned
to the days of "winter.

— Did he learn anything?

"One unexpected thing was that Capek had

already left his position in the Ministry of
Education by 1970. For 19 years before he
defected, he was not in government service.

His occupation was listed as a teacher. And so

Germany accepted his defection, or so Milan was
told. There was surprisingly little information from
the Czech Republic. Also, Capek apparently had
something in common with Milan. It turned out that
Capek was also using the association of Czech
refugees to look for someone."

— Who was he looking for? Was it Bonaparta?

"Ahh, the man who turned up in the Johan incident?

Capek's superiors believed in that man. But it was
someone else.
Capek was looking for a picture book author in his
forties."

— A picture book author?

"Ohh, what was his name? Damn it, my memory

just keeps getting worse." (As he said that, I was
flipping through my notebook) "Oh yes, I
remember! Milan said the name of the writer
was...Hermann Fuhr."
— Hermann Fuhr...

"Capek still lived in our neighborhood at that time.

Before he disappeared."

— Afterwards, Capek returned in the role of a big-

shot in the right wing. What do you think happened
during that interval for that to occur?

"Milan looked into that also, and he thought that the

turning point was when Capek hooked up with a
gangster called The Baby.' Somehow he caught the
fancy of The Baby, and gained his respect. The Baby
formed a new group from the former extreme right
organization. There were four people: The Baby,
Capek, a man named Goedelitz, who was killed by
someone at the time of the arson incident, and the
remaining one.J have no idea. As has been told to
the public, I believe this was the organization that
carried Johan on its shoulders."

— How do you think The Baby became so rich?

"No, that guy wasn't rich. More like extreme right

wing of beggary. He was always running around
trying to raise money. But Capek could accumulate
money. Didn't the city officials call him 'Capek of the
industrialists'?"

— So he was successful in business?

"No, no, it wasn't that. Capek had the backing of

the financial world, which made Milan wonder. How
was he able to draw them in?"

— Who was backing him?

"It was very much related to the construction of the

Rodelheim Convention Center...although I have no
evidence,
I believe it was the Sievernich financial group."

— The foremost financial group in Germany.

Ernesto Sievernich committed suicide in 1996, and
the present owner is his son Christof. It's said that
the son and Ernesto's siblings and ex-wife are still
squabbling over the inheritance. Recently the ex-
wife's side started raising questions about how he
died.

"It was the son that Capek was hanging out with."

— And then Milan appeared at the convention

center inauguration ceremony trying to
murder Capek.

"Legally, that was the end of the investigation into

Capek. But Milan didn't so much put his life on the
line for nothing, I think, as he was driven by his
sense of responsibility. He stood up to take revenge
for everybody."

— How did you learn about Milan's attack and death?

"After eating oyakodon with everyone, I dozed off on

a full stomach. So I heard about it on the 11o'clock
news. They didn't release the name of the man who
had been shot dead, but I prepared myself for who it
was."

— Oyakodon?

"Aah, it's a Japanese dish that our Japanese guest

made. Chicken and egg...oya is the parent, ko is the
child...put it over rice and it's a gourmet food...."
[Mustafa uses the German words for parents (Eltern)
and son (Sohn)]

— The Japanese man was Kenzo Tenma, wasn't it.

"It was. He too had finally caught up with Capek. We
didn't know about Johan at that
time."

— What did you do when Milan died?

"Besides Milan, there were two women and two

children living with me. We didn't know what to do. I
don't mean that among the five of us there were
never any thoughts of revenge. But Tenma brought
us to our senses. He said, 'Revenge calls out for
revenge. I don't want you to be thinking such
thoughts. This must end with Milan.' ...But the
children weren't convinced by what Tenma was
saying. He asked them, 'What did Milan hope for?'
They replied, 'We all wanted to see each other's
home towns and tour them together...'

And Tenma said, 'Then study hard and someday you

can make your dream a reality.'"

It was solely by chance that Dr. Tenma was given

shelter in the house of Milan and Mr. Mustafa.
During Martin's dying moments, Tenma had gotten
Capek's name and the story of the Devil's Disciple,
and was shadowing him. While investigating Capek
and his connection to Johan, he was discovered by
the police and pursued through the town, until he
ran out into the street and was hit by a van. It was
Milan who looked after him while he was
unconscious. Tenma became indebted to this
strange family while his injuries healed.

But the only thing they had in common was their

willingness to resist Capek and his redevelopment
plan in Frankfurt.
Moreover, Milan was after Capek's life. Evidently
Capek had sensed this from Milan's behavior after
Tenma had been discovered by the police, and had
requested police bodyguards. I believe that when
Tenma learned from Milan about Capek's
background, he realized his status as an
official of the Red Rose Mansion, and was convinced
that Capek was determined to carry on the will of
Franz Bonaparta. Tenma tried desperately to stop
Milan from killing Capek, but he refused to listen,
and regrettably went out to meet his death.

— I understand you're in a difficult position now.

What will you do in the future?

"It depends on the courts.... I don't think I want to

leave Germany. I still have the family that Milan left
behind.
There's Minh and Suleiman. Shemel and Tung are
still children. It was Milan's dream to live with them
and visit their hometowns. I want to realize that
dream. And so, I will not die yet, and there are no
signs that I'll be leaving this country."

— As far as living in Germany, do you think it's

become easier for immigrants?

"Well now, right after the Wall collapsed, there was

a recession, and still we decided to come here. With
membership in the EU, there have been more calls
going out for acceptance of Turks. But I can't really
trust the government. Just protect your family and
loved ones...during 70 years of living, I've stuck to
that principle."

Mr. Mustafa gave his time and full cooperation for

this interview. But he sincerely wanted to protect
Milan's reputation, and he asked me to reveal the
whole truth when I wrote of him. When I promised
that I would, he unexpectedly told me that he had
withheld valuable information that Milan had
discovered when investigating Capek. Surprised, I
asked if he intended to tell me. Mr.
Mustafa's sleepy eyes opened wide under bushy
brows. "You too have withheld information," he said
with a smile. My first
impression of him seemed to have been correct. He
is undoubtedly a man of keen intelligence.

"What you have guessed is the same as what Milan

thought. And like him, you understand various
things. So when you asked about Hermann Fuhr, I
nervously changed the subject. Hermann Fuhr...the
name of the picture book author that Capek was
searching for."

Mr. Mustafa continued his story. "It's rumored that

Capek and The Baby wanted to conquer Germany
— no, the world, or something like that, and to set
up Johan as Fuhrer, but... I realized that Capek had
embraced such a plan since he first came to this
town in 1989. But at that time, Johan was only 13
or so, and was it likely they would hang their hopes
on a mere child? In other words, although they had
planned from the beginning to install a supreme
ruler, wasn't it someone else? Milan probably
thought so too. And if we assume that that
someone was the author Hermann Fuhr "

He quietly looked into my eyes. "And there's one

more thing...on the day Milan and Capek were
reunited, they stayed in my home and got drunk
together. That night, Milan told me he woke up
when Capek cried out during a nightmare. Milan
shook Capek awake, and Capek told him he'd had
a terrible dream. When Milan asked him if he had
experienced something frightening at the time of
his defection, he laughed and said, 'I've been
terrified for the last seven years, ever since that
incident... At the time I puzzled over changing the
number from 42 to 46, but I carried out the plan in
his place, because there was no one else qualified.
I've never suffered through a more dreadful
experience than that, and that man was entirely to
blame.' Milan lamented that he didn't recognize at
the time that Capek had already sold his soul to
the devil."
Mr. Mustafa asked me if this information was useful.
When I expressed my gratitude, he said, "Herr
Weber, you heard Hermann Fuhr's name, then
Capek's numbers...! think you've heard those things
somewhere before?" I gave him a vague answer
and bid him farewell.

But I was convinced. As I had thought, there was

another monster besides Johan sleeping nearby.
 Chapter 24 - Collapse
I suspended this part of my search for Fuhr and
headed for Dusseldorf. My purpose was to set in
place the last piece of the puzzle called Johan. After
that, the case would approach its conclusion in a
rural village named Ruhenheim. But of all the people
involved with Johan, none have explained how they
foresaw the great disaster that would strike that
small village and then hastened to go there.

I thought about who could answer my questions,

and I believe I found the ideal person.

After Milan was shot and killed at the Convention

Center, the next day one policeman from Dusseldorf
visited the Frankfurt station. His name was
Benjamin Weissbach. [note: in the anime,
Weissbach's first name was Egon] In 1 986, he tried
to question the twins while they were at the Eisler
Memorial Hospital, and was the only one who had
doubts when the police investigation shifted toward
Dr. Tenma.

Weissbach had volunteered to escort a serial killer

named Dinger from Frankfurt, where he had been
arrested, to Dusseldorf. Three days until his
retirement — it was his last job as a detective, and
he wanted to see for himself this criminal he had
pursued for many years. However, these would be
the first words Weissbach and Dinger had ever
exchanged.

Among the murders that Dinger had committed, one

was different from the rest, and this one weighed on
Weissbach's mind. That small doubt would greatly
change his life after retirement — though he had
planned to spend his old age doing things like
traveling with his wife, working around the
house and doing volunteer work, the majority of his
spare time became devoted to solving the Johan
case.

Weissbach lives in a working class residential area

across the Rhine from the old town district, in a
cream-colored house that is old but scrupulously
maintained. When I commented that he had a
beautiful garden, he replied with a smile, "Well, the
truth is, after retirement, taking care of the flowers
and trees was supposed to be my job, but then
another hobby...or rather, another job came up, so
all the credit for the garden goes to my wife. She's
still angry that I didn't keep my promise. According
to her, I'm still a cop, but without the salary coming
in." Stout and ruddy-faced, he seems to be a
cheerful person who is very much enjoying his life.

— Actually, it's exactly that work I wanted to ask

about. There are still many unknown gaps in the
Johan case. I'm hoping you can fill in some of the
missing pieces.

"As you know, I was involved in that case...I mean, I

was working on it when it first began in 1 986. As for
Dr. Tenma, I thought he was the real killer, but it was
such a gruesome affair that sometimes I did have my
doubts that a man like him could have done it. But
day after day I was swamped with so many other
cases, that before I knew it the case was just filed
away inside my head and I didn't think about it."

— So what made you go back to it?

"It was the time I escorted a serial killer named

Dinger from Frankfurt. He was a former taxi driver
who killed at least five people over three years,
starting in '94. He had an obsession with strict
compliance with public morality, and passed
judgment on his passengers for things like smoking
in a No Smoking area, spitting in the taxi, being
drunk or having sex
in the cab, or not paying the fare. But his most
recent murder of a banker was a different case. It
kept bugging me so I asked him about it. Why did
he travel to Frankfurt for the express purpose of
killing a man of irreproachable character?"

— And what did he say?

"That it left a bad aftertaste. He spoke as if

someone had requested it... When I asked him why
he even thought about committing murder in the
first place, he told me a story about a boy he met in
a public park in Dusseldorf back in '86. Dinger half-
killed a man who was abusing his dog, and when a
policeman got involved, the boy stepped forward as
an eyewitness. He protected Dinger and told the
police that he was not the one at fault. He said the
man who was walking the dog started the fight. And
so Dinger escaped arrest. In order to properly thank
the boy, he offered him a ride home, along with his
younger sister, who had suddenly appeared from a
clump of bushes, and looked like the boy's twin. But
when he asked him where they lived, the boy said
they had no home to return to, so Dinger reluctantly
took them to his own apartment and treated them
to a meal.
Then the news came on TV and Dinger started
ranting about the spectacle of all those people with
no morals. The boy said, 'You're right. Such people
are not needed.' It seems that in that moment, he
was set free. ...the boy had a bandage wrapped
around his head, and in his pajamas he looked like
he had just escaped from a hospital. ...well, I guess
even the most thickheaded detective would
remember the Liebert incident and the
disappearance of the twins."

— With only ten hours until your retirement, what

did you do?
"I cancelled my farewell party and participated in
the interrogation of Dinger. But when we came to
his murder of a bank clerk, he suddenly wasn't so
forthcoming. Right after that, I ran into Dr. Gillen,
who also wanted to interview Dinger. When I told
him about the twins, he was even more interested.
So this time we questioned Dinger together and
finally got the guy to talk about the bank clerk
murder. He said that one day, the twin boy, by
now an adult, returned and asked for a favor.... He
said he didn't know the man he killed, and they
didn't talk about him, but if the boy had
determined that the man wasn't needed, then he
wasn't needed...and so he killed him. The
instructions were given by writing letters in a sand
pit in Griesheim Park in Frankfurt. When Dinger
said that, I noticed that Gillen was startled by it."

— Why was he surprised?

"He had conducted follow-up interviews with two

prisoners at different prisons in Frankfurt. One
believed he was a vampire and sought out virgins
to drink their blood.
However, in just one case, he killed a woman who had
given birth to a child.... That exception troubled Dr.
Gillen. And then there was the other one...a man
who had a fixation on space aliens. All of his crimes
had been committed in Niedersachsen, and yet he
made a special trip to Frankfurt to commit a murder.
The doctor questioned them on these discrepancies.
It turned out that both of them had been instructed
to commit these crimes by someone — 'The Great
Vampire King' and 'a true space alien', respectively.
And the place where these instructions were given
was the same sand pit in the public park in
Griesheim."

— I see. It sounds like Johan's style.

 "Yeah, that's what Dr. Gillen thought too. Johan was
trying to start something in Frankfurt."

— What did you do then?

"Well, first there was the farewell party. I had to re-

invite all the friends and acquaintances who had
been coming before it was cancelled. But afterward
some said they'd never been to a grander party.
The next day, I was retired and so I headed to
Frankfurt. I believed that Johan existed. So this time
for sure, I was determined to learn the truth about
the case."
Herr Weissbach was the detective in charge of the
Johan case from its start in 1986 in West Germany. He
says that back then, no one thought this would be the
beginning of a series of mass murders that would go
down in the history of crime.

And how much of the truth did you discover?

"...I found a connection between Johan and the son

of a certain wealthy man. But I don't dare say the
name."

— I understand. I won't ask for his name, but I can

guess.... So, can you talk about what you learned
about him?

"Three men received orders at a pubic park to

commit murder, because each of the victims had
a connection to this man. Dinger murdered a
banker who was about to expose a scandal
involving a certain financial group
..............................................................................................................
The
self-styled 'vampire' murdered a woman who had
given birth when she was 1 7. Rumors were that the
father was a student at a nearby prep school, and
that student was the son of a distinguished family
that was part of a certain financial group.... The
space alien fanatic from Niedersachsen murdered a
businessman, a commodities broker named
Klemperer who was a refugee from the East. It was
also rumored that he frequently brokered children
from the East to wealthy clients in the West.... So
here we have a bank employee about to bring a
complaint against a certain financial group, a
woman killed after becoming pregnant by the son of
a prominent house within that group, and if that son
was brought from the East to be adopted ?"

— All the events are connected to that son.

"At the time I went to Frankfurt, there was an
assassination attempt at the completion ceremony
for the Rodelheim Convention Center — I'm sure
you know about all the uproar it caused. At first
they thought he was aiming at the governor, but
after searching the home of the suspect Milan
Kolasch, it was confirmed that his target was
actually Peter Capek, a businessman with close ties
to the extreme right.
And in fact, the financial group in question was said
to have been Capek's shadow sponsor for the
construction of the Center. The group's previous
head was also a proponent of right wing ideology."

Herr Weissbach, you have pursued the murder cases

of three serial killers — do you know the specific
reason why these murders were carried out?

"There was talk of an organization of four men in

Frankfurt. They seriously considered conquering
Germany and Europe by setting up a young man
named Johan as Fuhrer, or a second Hilter. One of
the members, a Professor Godelitz, died a few years
ago. Likewise, a former East German general. Plus
the Czech refugee Peter Capek...and I think the former
head of the financial group was the fourth."

— I thought The Baby was one of the four.

"No, that would have been too much responsibility

for that man. He was just an errand boy. The fourth
man was the head of the financial group. The
problem was that when the leader died suddenly, his
son was added to the group in his place."

— He was the adopted son.

"Yes. And in this case there were questions as to

whether he had come from Kinderheim 511, and I
think evidence of that did come out. (Weissbach
was being evasive because the
son is currently enmeshed with his adoptive father's
ex-wife and relatives in a court battle over the
father's inheritance and the leadership of the
financial group. One of the relatives leaked the
announcement that the group's head was an
adopted child from Kinderheim 511, and apparently
testified that this had extremely warped his
character).

And so this son, for the sake of the financial group's

continuation and to keep his own scandals secret,
requested these murders of Johan — or else Capek
or The Baby did — maybe I'm letting my
imagination run wild, but that's what I believe
happened. Ah well, since Capek and The Baby were
both killed, there's no way to get the truth now."

— Do you have a theory about why those two

were killed? "It's simplest to just say it was all

part of Johan's plan....

That's what everybody's saying. But I've heard that
The
Baby was fearful just before he was assassinated. He
said there was no hope of controlling Johan
themselves, and suddenly ordered a subordinate to
investigate the trader Klemperer's murder."

— Then, you're saying The Baby didn't know why

Klemperer was murdered ?

"Klemperer brought the adopted son of the leader

of a powerful financial cabal from Kinderheim
511 ....and I think Johan carried out the murders to
conceal that fact. But if we assume that neither
Capek nor The Baby knew this fact...then the
conclusion is terrifying. Johan and the adopted son
knew each other from the time they were young
boys in Kinderheim 511, and if we assume that they
concealed that from Capek and others...then Johan
had a very different reason to approach them."

— Who do you think murdered Capek and The Baby?

"The Baby was murdered at his favorite hotel by a
professional assassin. Apparently it was a woman
going by the alias "Carmen" who the police all over
Germany are still looking for. But she can gain or
lose more than 30 kilos in a very short time, and
she can disguise herself as anybody. So since her
looks and build are unknown...well, let's say she's a
very popular person in the underworld right now.
When Capek learned of The Baby's death, he
sensed he was in danger himself, and hid out at his
mountain villa. It may be that he was already losing
his mind at that point. His paranoia may have
caused him to murder his own bodyguard, and he
died kilometers away from his mountain retreat
near an old deserted house. He was apparently
killed by one of his other bodyguards. Was it
because Capek had killed his associate?"

— Was that what Johan had planned? Or did Capek

just self- destruct on his own?

"Well, maybe it was both. But the story is that just

before The Baby died, he had an argument with the
rich kid. And hiring a hit-woman doesn't really match
Johan's style...just another angle to consider."

— So in the end, why do you think Johan went

along with Capek and The Baby's

plans?

"I thought some time ago that Johan wanted to be

taken in so that he could gather political power.
Maybe he made it a condition that they find his
sister Anna. Johan only seemed to agree to join
forces with the organization, intending to betray
them from the start.... I think that's the most likely
possibility."
— Then what was Johan's goal?
"Hmm, I think it was Bonaparta. Johan was hunting
Bonaparta's whereabouts. If you look at the tragic
events of Ruhenheim, I think Johan lived to find his
hated enemy Bonaparta. And the Czech refugee
Capek had known Bonaparta...so Johan got close to
Capek. Capek probably knew that Bonaparta was in
the small rural village named Ruhenheim."

— What made Capek go to that deserted house?

"I think he encountered Johan. Not only Johan, he may

also have met Anna — I mean, Nina Fortner, and
possibly Dr.
Tenma. But Capek was already losing it by the time he
got to that house. I think if you want to know the
whole story of what really happened there, there's
no choice but to hear it from Nina Fortner herself.
...and undoubtedly she will have a completely
different story to tell from the one we expect..."

I thought so too. If I want to know the real truth of

these events, I must win Nina Fortner's cooperation.
Detective Weissbach said, "I'm especially interested
in Johan's and Nina's conversation when they met in
the deserted house where Capek died. What in the
world did Johan say to Nina? Or did Nina say
something to Johan? Doesn't it seem like after that
meeting Johan suddenly began to collapse?"

That is certainly true. Until then, Johan had been

progressing according to plan: that nothing in the
world would survive except for himself, alone or
together with Anna. While it's probably true that
he already had a death wish, there's no doubt that
after the incidents in Frankfurt he hastened
toward his own demise.

The information that Detective Weissbach revealed at

the end of the interview confirmed this:
"Although it's not officially acknowledged by the
police, on his way to Ruhenheim Johan committed
another murder in Pforzheim. The victim was a man
named Horst Grossmann. He was a doctor with no
criminal record, regarded as a model citizen, but
three days after his death the police discovered a
collection of repulsive photographs in his basement.
The serial killer whom the Baden-Wurttemberg state
police had dubbed "The Dissector" had been hiding
there. His crimes were perfect rather than gaudy. In
other words he left no evidence at all. But was it
likely Johan would murder such a valuable follower
who was completely unknown to the police? So they
said that Johan could not be the murderer, but....

"I thoroughly studied Grossmann's 28 murders and

found two cases that were out of character with
Grossmann's preferences and tastes, but which
matched the details of the middle-aged couples
murders. I was hardly surprised. But you wouldn't
expect Johan to kill

a follower who was still useful.I'm sure the reason

was that, for Johan, the landscape of

the end was in sight."

To further clarify the truth of Johan's purpose in

Frankfurt, I'd like to return to the email of an
essential witness, Eva Heinneman. After leaving
Tenma at Frankfurt Central Station, Eva had
intended to place herself under Dr.
Reichwein's supervision, but instead got off the train,
taken with the idea that she herself could kill the
Devil and his apprentice in Dr. Tenma's place.

The following is what she wrote in her email:

First of all, I bought a gun. In the alley behind a filthy

porn shop, I met with a vulgar gun dealer and
obtained a gun
with enough power to kill, along with a silencer. I
practiced with it in the forest bordering the suburbs
until my body stank of gunpowder. It was extremely
unpleasant. But because of this - because a little
thing like simply pulling a trigger can cause a man
to die - somehow the will to kill another person can
be bom even in someone like me.

Every evening I walked along Haldecker Street,

wandering around in search of Johan. It occurred to
me that I might already have seen Johan. But there
were many apartments, and I didn't know which was
Johan's, and in the end, he never showed up.

After about two weeks keeping watch on Haldecker

Street, I spotted that young man, and began to
shadow him. His name is Christof Sievernich. I went
to the library to try to match his face and found a
newspaper article that reported he was heir to the
Sievernich family after the sudden death of his
father, head of a leading German financial group.

I chased after him, and entered his apartment,

but unfortunately Johan wasn't there. I tortured
him with the gun (please don't ask what I did) to
try to get information about where Johan could be
found. If I hadn't surrendered to Capek's threats,
and Christof and Johan had not met, then Martin
wouldn't have died. My sense of right and wrong
were paralyzed. If Christof hadn't talked, I might
really have killed him. But then Christof, half
crying, half grinning ridicule, said something
unexpected to me.

"It wasn't Capek that first introduced me to Johan.

So my dear, you really had nothing to do with it," he
said. "Because Johan and I have known each other
the whole time, from the old days." Apparently they
had met about ten years earlier in a certain
orphanage. Then he suddenly started telling me
an incredible story about how the teachers, children
— everybody — had all killed each other.

During the slaughter, Christof hid in the cabinet

under a sink the whole time. Two other boys were
there with him, but he thought that in the end, only
one would survive. So he sent the other two out,
with the lie that it was ok because the fighting
surely must be over with. But he believed that
outside awaited a monster with seven heads and
ten horns, welcoming the end of the world. So he
just waited, terribly afraid, trembling and shaking.
His throat was parched, and just when he thought
he would surely die there, the cabinet door suddenly
opened and Johan was there, his hand reaching out
to him. He said, "It's only you and I now, but it's ok,
because I have a plan....."

I wanted Christof s story to be true. To know that I

didn't introduce the Devil to his disciple. And the
moment I let down my guard, he snatched away my
gun. Then he told me about the plan that he and
Johan created when they formed their alliance, to
change the world and make it theirs.

It was Kenzo who rescued me from death, when it

was his finger on the trigger. Kenzo put me and
Christof in his car and asked him where Johan was. I
called the hospital to come for Christof, but while I
was away from the car, Christof told Kenzo where to
find Johan. And when I returned, Kenzo was gone.
Unbelievably, that demon disguised as the elite son
Christof seemed to sneer while he delivered to me
what sounded like Kenzo's final message: "I can't
get you involved in this any further. I ruined your
life. I'm truly sorry. Please be happy." I thought,
what a fool that man is. What a fool....
 Chapter 2 - Kenzo Tenma
Kenzo Tenma was born on January 2nd 1 958, in
Yokohama, Kanagawa Prefecture.

His father was the director and manager of a

prominent city- owned general hospital (although
Tenma himself apparently told his colleagues that he
was a small-time medical practitioner), and his
mother was formerly an editor for a medical
publisher. They both had previous divorces, his
father already with seven- and two-year old sons.

One year after their marriage, Kenzo was born, a

very bright boy who needed little outside
assistance. He attended nearby municipal
elementary and middle schools, scored some of the
highest marks in the city, enjoyed music and art,
and was a member of the track and field team.

In the search to find any more information than

that, I visited Japan in early May of 2001, with the
help of a Japanese journalist I had met just once
before. I hired an interpreter, attempted to use my
journalism connections to secure an interview with
Tenma's family's hospital, and failed. I tried looking
for Tenma's school friends, but soon learned that he
maintained connections with few, if any of them.
Those who I was able to find that were willing to
assist me all cancelled when they found out that I
was a foreigner.

Inspector Lunge took a look at the Japanese psyche

in order to delve deeper into Tenma's mind, and
found that Tenma was far less mysterious than the
Japanese themselves. He did not fit in with Japanese
society, and could never be a German, either — a
stranger to either culture. I can agree with this
opinion myself, based on the two weeks I spent
there.
Still, at length I was able to secure an interview with
someone who had been friends with Tenma in
elementary and middle school.

He was a straightforward, friendly fellow who still

lives close to the Tenma household to this day.

"I was honestly quite shocked when Ken made it

into the news that way. There were times before
when you'd see his name in a little article about
'Prominent Doctors Practicing Abroad' in some
magazine or another, and think, yeah, I should go to
him if I ever get really sick. But Ken couldn't have
been a murderer."

He had a tanned, intrepid look from his profession as

a carpenter.

I asked him to tell me about any memories he could

recall of Tenma.

"Ken was always a diligent studier. And unlike my

home life, his family was quite rich. You'd think,
normally the rich boys don't go out and play, right?
But for some reason, he always liked to play with
the rough kids out in the dirt. I guess his family
never expressly forbid him to hang out with us. As
for what we did...Well, we pretty much ran through
all the usuals: tag, swordfights, baseball, soccer. But
it seemed like what Ken enjoyed the most was
coming over to my house and plopping down in
front of the TV with me and my brother. He couldn't
fight. And he was decent enough at baseball and
soccer, but he didn't seem to be too interested in
team sports. Oh, and he had excellent reflexes. I bet
nobody else remembers that he set a short-distance
running record in middle school while on the track
team. He was very good at solo sports."
Yokohama, where Tenma spent his childhood. His first
date was here in Yamashita Park. His family's home is a
mansion not far from the park, on a hill with a nice view
of the harbor.

He seemed like a very honest man, but I couldn't

think that he and Tenma were best of friends. When
I brought this up, he stared hard at the ceiling in
thought, and then spoke as if remembering
something. "You know, I'd forgotten. I completely
forgot. But now I just remembered. I used to bully
him. He had wanted to play with us, but I remember
talking with my older brother about how to bully
him and chase him away. So we'd pretend to be his
friend, but we had a plan. At first, there was this
empty house that had a
really big yard. One of those big empty houses
right around here, years ago. We'd play hide-and-
seek in the yard, and my brother was it. After Ken
hid, we all signaled each other and left. That yard
was so big, it was kind of creepy to be in by
yourself, and I think he was scared. So we waited
for maybe thirty minutes before sneaking around
to his hiding spot and scaring him. And he peed
himself. I think he needed to go to the bathroom,
but he wanted to play hide- and-seek so bad that
he held it in. I immediately thought that it had
been a mean thing to do, but my brother and
friends started calling him 'Tenma the weenie,'
and, 'You peed your pants.' But still, he didn't
cry."

I asked him, what did Tenma do after that? Wouldn't

most people not play with you again?

"After that?" He thought, and smacked his fist into

his palm.

"After that, after that. Ken came back and wanted to

play again. I wanted him to stop, but my brother
talked about using the same trick. You'd think Ken
would see it coming a second time, right? But he still
went with us to that yard and hid."

He chuckled, and went on.

A friend who was recently contracted to do some
remodeling work on the Tenma house. He says that
Tenma's parents and brothers are all fine and well.

"So again, we left him alone for thirty minutes and

came back. When we went over to Ken's hiding
place to scare him, he wasn't there. So we thought,
'Darn, he outsmarted us!' And started sayin' stuff
like, you know, 'You can't hide forever! You're
gonna pee your pants again, Tenma the weenie!'
But we couldn't find him. Eventually we figured he'd
just gone home. Then one of our friends' moms
came and yelled at us to go home, so we all left.
Then about seven o'clock, Ken's mom called us
asking, 'Is Kenzo over at your house?' Boy, were we
worried. Me and my brother just ran back to the
empty house. It was all creepy at night. And there
he was. It looked like he'd been crying, but he acted
fine in front of us.

He said, 'No fair, I was hiding the whole time.' I

guess it was then that we stopped picking on him
and started being friends."

He said that Tenma had probably seen through

their plan and acted on it. He did it because, of
course, he wanted to be their friend, but also
because he had felt shame at his incontinence, and
decided to subject himself to the same experience
again, to conquer his own weakness. He wrapped up
the story by saying, "I think he was always hardest
on himself."

He finished up by telling me another interesting

anecdote.
"Now, this was in seventh grade. Ken and I were in
the same class in school. Our homeroom teacher
was a real jerk, and this was back in the days before
PTAs and media reports prevented teachers from
issuing corporal punishment. I remember once, Ken
played with the coal heater... when we were kids, we
had those big coal heaters, right in the classroom.
Well, he was heating up the metal pokers until they
started to bend and twist.

In our morning homeroom, the teacher found out

and started yelling about whoever did it. Ken spoke
up right away. The teacher scolded him for doing
such a dangerous thing, and hit him. And that was
that, so Ken didn't say anything more. But then,
some other idiot did the same thing, bending the
metal pokers, and the teacher got angry again. The
guy who did it wasn't a good student, he'd already
had that teacher before and he was used to being
treated harshly. So after he hit the kid, the teacher
took out the red hot poker and made as if to put it
against the kid's neck, and then he made up some
stupid punishment like, say 'sorry' to the heater, for
everyone to see. Then Ken jumped up and said, you
can't do this, it's too cruel, and if you think this is
education, I'll tell the principal and the Board of
Education. The teacher got scared at that. It's
usually the good students who get on the soapbox."

Maybe Kenzo Tenma is some kind of stoic. The kind

that bears everything over and over until the very
end, when they snap and their personal sense of
justice bursts forth. I believe that this could be a
clue to understanding the mystery of why he
decided to go off on his own to seek out and kill
Johan.

The other person who agreed to talk with me

became friends with Tenma in middle school. He is
currently a commercial
film director. We set aside an hour to talk and when
he approved of my intentions, he allowed me to
interview him.

"Tenma was in my class for eighth and ninth grade.

He was very smart. I was a Bstudent, typically 'good
enough' to avoid being called a bookworm or nerd,
but Tenma was a straight-A student, top of the
class. But oddly enough, he wasn't singled out; he
got along with everyone. He was such a good
studier, but he didn't attract too much attention
because of it... I think he was just a very smart
person in all respects."

When I asked him what he thought when Tenma

was being called a mass serial killer in the news,
and what he thinks now, he gave me this answer.

"See, I wasn't sure whether or not to agree to this

interview, because I thought you might ask me that
very question. To be honest, I often thought that it
just couldn't be true. But you never know, people
change, and if the German media was making such
a big fuss about it, it could have been true, for all I
knew. The reason why I can't just call him up now
and say, 'Gosh, I'm glad you're all right' is because I
had thoughts like that from time to time. I couldn't
have faith in his innocence... If I tried to comfort him
now, he'd notice in no time that I hadn't been a true
friend. Therefore my current state of mind
regarding these matters is a disappointment in my
own personality and my insensitivity to others."

I asked him if there was anything Tenma was

particularly enthusiastic about in middle school.

"Tenma loved music. He was a good guitar player.

Actually, he was pretty versatile with just about any
kind of fine art subject. If he practiced hard enough,
he could have been
better than me at guitar, but Tenma wasn't that type
of person."

I asked him what he meant by that.

"Oddly enough, he really appreciated people who

were good at things. Even though he was talented
himself, when he met someone who was better than
he was, he would be very impressed. He never
denied people's abilities. And it wasn't flattery, he
just always approved of things you were good at, or
that you liked... maybe a bit too much."

He then drew this conclusion.

"I suppose he's simply the type of person who

constantly belittles his own value, or he just doesn't
realize that he has more innate talent for anything
than other people. And when you are
complimented by someone with such extraordinary
abilities as Tenma, it makes you feel like you're just
as good as he is. That's why I liked to hang around
with him, because his compliments made me feel
so good about myself."

Next I asked him about music. What kind of music

did Tenma like, and was he involved in any activies?

"He didn't play in a band or anything. It seemed

like he really hated doing group activities... or
maybe he just hated being in a group altogether.
On the track team after school he would always
strain so hard to pull ahead so that he was running
alone. As for what music he liked..." He closed his
eyes, put a hand on his forehead and thought for a
while. "That was the '70s, so it was the Post-Beatles
era. Stuff like Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple and David
Bowie was really big then, but Tenma was into...
gosh, I just can't remember. He was into this one
really laid-back song."
He said that Tenma had seen something called the
Tokyo Music Festival on TV and was drawn to a song
by a foreign artist that was performing. He
repeatedly stopped to think about it, but ultimately
could not recall the title of the song.

We had long passed the scheduled interview time, so

I wrapped things up by asking him if there was
anything else he could recall in particular about
Tenma, anything at all.

"I got the feeling, and I hope Tenma doesn't find out
that I said this, that he was trying to distance himself
from his family. Specifically his father and his
brothers..."

That these suspicions he voiced were a primary

reason for Tenma's choice to become a doctor in
Germany was something I would discover during my
next interview.
A commercial director and old friend who was offered a
job to create a commercial featuring Dr. Tenma, after
the conclusion of the incidents. He wryly noted that
this was a facet of the Japanese media he did not
care for.
After graduating middle school, Tenma entered one
of the most prestigious high schools in Kanagawa
Prefecture. It was affiliated with an extremely
famous university, and he was the only student
from his middle school to gain entrance.
The last person I interviewed was one of Tenma's high
school friends. He is now a section chief for a large
Japanese trading company, and has spent the past
year working in their London office. He was an
amiable fellow with a constant smile on his face, but
his nice suit, glasses and general businessman air
made him seem much older than Dr. Tenma.

I started off by asking him what he thought when

there was so much controversy flying about Tenma.

He grinned as he answered.

"Yes, I think you could say that through high school

I was 'friends' with Tenma, but when we went off to
college, I rather lost touch with him. His first year
he was busy studying for his medical classes, and
then he moved to Germany. Also, I was in law
school and I spent most of my first year enjoying
college life. Still, I was probably his most

constant contact before he left for Europe. I guess I

was a good person for him to go to when he wanted
to vent some complaints."

He scratched his head and laughed.

"During the height of Tenma's period on the run, I

wondered if it was really happening. Still, I'll admit,
I have bad taste, and I used to make a lot of
inappropriate jokes to my friends and colleagues,
even though I was worried about Tenma on the
inside. I regret it now, but if you go back and read
the newspapers, they stopped just short of saying
he was flat- out guilty of those murders, so I guess
it's no surprise... I
think people put more faith into headlines and the
media than their own experiences and judgment."

I thought he was a man who spoke his mind much

more openly than the average person. This was
probably what helped Tenma place faith in him.
Next, I asked him about Tenma's high school
activities. I was particularly interested in hearing
about his love life.

"Tenma was pretty introverted. Even when we were

in high school, I'd set up parties with girls from
Tokyo women's colleges, but he would usually turn
down invitations. When he did come, the girls would
like him... but he always seemed pretty dense...
actually, I have a good story about that. There was a
high school girl at one of the parties whose
boyfriend was a friend of mine and Tenma's. But
this guy was somewhat of a playboy, so when he
got tired of her, he started cheating on her. So this
girl went to Tenma for advice. In the beginning,
Tenma was obviously helping her because he was
just a nice guy in general, but over time it was
obvious that she had the hots for him. But he never
noticed whatsoever. He would just listen to what she
said and think over how to help her deal with her
problems..."

When I said that she must not have been his type,
the man exaggeratedly waved his hand.

"Oh no, she was right up his alley. But she was
having love problems about a different guy. And the
guy was his own friend. He's the kind of person who
takes that very seriously. I mean we told him,
Tenma, this girl really likes you a lot, you should just
ask her out. Finally, it seemed like he was coming
around to the idea. But it wasn't meant to be. The
girl her ex-boyfriend dumped her for went cold on
him, and so he came back to her and apologized,
asked if they could get back together. Oh Tenma,
you should have just taken her
away. But he still had a chance... Or maybe I
should say, a chance was all he had. We found
out that she had already told her friends that she
wanted to go out with Tenma."

When I guessed that they still never got together,

he stifled a chuckle as if he had just remembered
something.

"That's right, that's right. It was at the Cozy Corner,

in Shibuya. She was just about ready to tell him
what was on her mind. But he acted steadfast like a
man... before she could say anything, he told her he
was glad that her boyfriend changed his mind and
that he really was a good guy after all. That was the
end of it."

He described Tenma as a man of good judgment

whose efforts always backfired.

I was still quite curious about the last words that

Tenma's middle school friend, the commercial
director, had said, so I asked this man as well —
was there any source of friction between Tenma
and his family, specifically his father and brothers? If
he really was a confidant for Tenma's inner
frustrations, surely he would be the best person to
ask about such personal matters...
A businessman and old friend who told me, "Japanese
aren 't suited to be independent, so we don't like to
acknowledge lone wolves in our midst. That's why
Tenma never really fit in."

He nodded, saying that he had heard about the

family issues. After he explained it all, the story
made sense. How a decisive man whose decisions
always backfire would come
to study and be a doctor in Germany, even though
he could have been a leading doctor in Japan and
lived his life in peace and comfort...

As in elementary and middle school, Tenma was an

excellent student in high school. His grades were
top of the class, and he passed the extremely
difficult medical school exams with flying colors. His
father, an alumni of the same college, was openly
delighted. Tenma's eight-year-elder brother also
had good marks, but his mind was more suited
towards the liberal arts, and he graduated from the
economic department, to eventually find a good job
with a prestigious bank. Therefore, his father felt
uneasy about handing the family business to him.
Another problem was the second son, three years
older than Tenma, who wanted to get into the
medical department but failed for three straight
years.
As his father's clear favorite, Tenma was
worried about whether or not he would be
forced to inherit the family business.

That year, his elder brother finally made it into the

medical department of a different college, and
Tenma thought that the pressure on himself would
finally be eased off. But his father was clear in
telling others that Tenma would be the successor.
His elder brother's college was a far cry from the
one Tenma entered, in terms of prestige and
history. During all this, their mother urged the father
to give the hospital to the second son. Being Mr.
Tenma's second wife, she was oddly enough
extremely considerate and doting upon the two
older, unrelated sons, and in constrast, incredibly
harsh with her own flesh and blood, Kenzo.

It was a German thesis printed in a medical journal

that freed Tenma from all of this family drama. The
article was an excellent paper on the care of
Alzheimer's disease victims,
written by a Dusseldorf University medical professor,
Udo Heinemann.

Tenma made his decision — he would leave the

hospital up to his brother, and go to study under Dr.
Heinemann, the medical scientist he revered so
much. This sudden change in future plans was
naturally met with supreme wrath by his father. But
Tenma was convinced. He used his scholarship
money to go to Germany without the support of
anyone else. After a year of fierce studying at a
language school in Dusseldorf, Tenma managed to
clear the requirements to get into the medical
school the following September. It was about this
time that he managed to come to terms with his
father in Japan, although later he would learn that
his father only submitted after his second son
convinced him to relent.

Tenma continued to post class-leading marks at

Dusseldorf University. He was well received by
Professor Heinemann, and after gaining his medical
credentials, found employment at Heinemann's
Eisler Memorial Hospital. But during his fourth year,
he would learn that Heinemann's extraordinary
paper was not actually written by Heinemann at all,
but by one of his best teaching assistants. Tenma
began to worry that in the future, he might become
another ghostwriter for Heinemann's medical
theses.

Back in Japan, the second son who was supposed to

take over the hospital instead of Tenma quickly
refused his father's request and started a fresh and
rewarding life in a town that had no advanced
medical care. Even now he continues to send
Tenma heartfelt letters saying that their father was
no longer angry, and would he please come back to
Japan to take over the family business. By now, he
is a well-known doctor, continuing to provide
several small towns with health care. Many people
are aware that even when Tenma was making
many enemies around Germany,
his brother continued to trust in his innocence, and
set up funds in Japan to hire detectives and lawyers
to come to Tenma's aid.

Even here, we can see that Tenma's decision had

clearly backfired on him.

A surgeon must possess the abilities of careful

judgment and instant decision-making, but the
number of people who possess both are very few.
This is because those two qualities are antagonistic
— the words of a famous doctor.
But the man named Kenzo Tenma was one of those
precious few who held both of these opposing skills
at the same time.

But is it possible that even at the same time as

this rare combination, he held a nearly-
insurpassable clumsiness when making life
choices?

The next chapter contains an interview with the one

person in Germany who knows Tenma better than
anyone else.

Her words shed light on why he became so

intensely involved in this case, and why he felt it
was his mission to kill Johan — they are probably
the single greatest clues to these mysteries of
everything in this report.

Her name is Eva Heinemann. Once engaged to Kenzo

Tenma, and the daughter of one of the very first
victims, the director of Eisler Memorial Hospital, Dr.
Udo Heinemann.
 Chapter 8 - Underground
Banks
The story takes a new turn in Munich. Johan
appeared before a wide audience. He became a
student at Munich University, and approached the
greatest financial giant in the state of Bayern, Hans
Georg Schuwald. It was a clear sign that something
in Johan had begun to change...

Before this point, he had literally been hiding in the

darkness.

Johan and his sister Anna had wandered along the

national border between Czechoslovakia and East
Germany. At the time that he was found by General
Wolf and placed in the care of Kinderheim 511, we
can assume he was about 6 or 7 years old. At about
age 1 0, he destroyed the orphanage and was taken
into the custody of the highranking East German
official, Liebert, and moved to West Germany. After
the murder of the Lieberts, Johan was taken to a
hospital with critical injuries, where he first met
Tenma. With his life being saved, he then
disappeared from the hospital, and spent the rest of
his youth living in the homes of childless couples. Just
before turning 20, he would meet Tenma again, kill
one of his own employees, and disappear once more.
During this time, he would kill the couples who had
taken care of him, thus erasing his own past.

Before Johan executed him, Junkers the lockpicker

screamed, "We've been hired by a monster."

In the underground, he was already known as a

monster...
What could Johan have been doing in the
underground world before he appeared at Munich
University? I succeeded
in getting an interview with the one person who
could tell me that.

He agreed to meet with me under the condition that

I not release his name or any sketches. The place
would be Fussen. He had a large nose, thin lips and a
sharp chin — features that at one time must have
seemed forbidding, but now formed into an
expression of gentleness. However, the sharp looks I
noticed him throw me from time to time were
enough to convince me that this was a man used to
living in the world of crime.

— First of all, may I ask for a bit of background?

"As you can guess, I wasn't involved in any business

to be proud of. Though I am retired from it now. I
was born in Hanover. Just a common street thug.
So, I did anything that would get me some money.
It started with robbery... I even robbed banks. I was
the driver. From then on I learned how to use a
weapon, so I became one of the actual assaulters,
and eventually I became the leader and planner.
The police caught me once, so I spent four years in
prison. When I got out, I joined a large syndicate.
The boss there liked me, until I two-timed him, and
started working for a different boss, and then I was
the Number Two man in the organization...
My dreams were realized almost instantly. I became
rich. But the more money I got, the more I lost sight
of what it was I wanted to do. When I turned back
and looked, I had abandoned my parents, made
enemies out of my brothers, and lost my wife and
children. When the head of the organization started
making attempts on my life, I realized... it was time
to call it quits."

He says his life is still in danger. He has three hired

bodyguards, and rarely leaves his house, outfitted
with the latest appliances and surveillance systems.
Every time he
goes out, he changes his routes constantly, and
takes a different way home. When he returns home,
he has one of his bodyguards check the house. He
buys his cooking ingredients only from sources he
trusts, and prepares his food himself... I was told
these rumors by the man who acted as the go-
between to help us meet.

— How was it that you came to know Dr. Tenma?

"I was shot in the leg by a 9mm Parabellum, and also

scraped up my head... I was betrayed by the Number
One man. I would have died, had Dr. Tenma not
saved my life."

— So it was true that Tenma acted as a black

market doctor while he was on the run from the
law. And this is supposedly the point at which you
gave him information about Johan...

"At the time, I didn't even know that the person in

the rumors was Johan. But my home was attacked,
and when I realized that it was he whom Tenma
was fighting, it all clicked into place."

— Can you tell me in more concrete terms?

"I didn't understand why the head of my

organization was trying to kill me. Some people said
it was because he feared me, so I figured that was
the only reason. True, we had some differences of
opinion in regards to money laundering, but they
weren't enough to require killing another guy. In
fact, I was in a position to be thanked, for protecting
the syndicate's money. Our money was held in a
very old private bank in Switzerland, and then
cleaned... we sent it to banks in English colonies in
South America, trading companies in Hong Kong,
Arabian banks and conglomerates, and after circling
around the world, it would come back to a perfectly
respectable company we used as our front, as
perfectly clean, legal money. But about 5 years
before this attempt on
my life, a huge underground bank appeared in
Germany. They kept their clients' secrets entirely
safe, and they not only handled money laundering,
but investments and loans, meaning that as they
cleaned the money, they pulled in remarkable
amounts of money in interest. As the moneyman at
the time, I sat down with the Number One man, and
we decided to switch banks to this new place. And
for about 5 years, business went exceptionally well."

— Where in Germany was this underground bank?

"It was said the man in charge lived in Dusseldorf.

But then rumor started spreading that the owner
was actually just a 20-year-old kid. Which would
mean that he started this underground bank at only
1 5 years old. I felt something was fishy about all
this, and I was considering drawing out of the bank.
But with the money we were making... of course the
boss was against the idea. But I stuck to my guns.
We withdrew all of our funds... and just like that, the
bank vanished."

— Vanished?

"Yes, vanished. The president of the underground

bank... the 20-year-old boy had disappeared. The
rest of the people there fought over the money, and
most ended up dying. I guess he wanted to see all
those grown men flocking to the money, and laugh.
I think he might have started the bank just to see
this happen. I was relieved that I had saved

all of the syndicate's money... but the boss had

different ideas. Now I think he might have
embezzled the money. If we had left the money in
that bank, we would have never gotten it back. And
then the rest of the high-ranking officers would
have been out for his blood. So he blamed me for
embezzling the money."
— Is that all that you told Tenma?

"No... I also told him that a few men took off after
the boy who disappeared. To get back their money,
that is. I believe the plan was that they would most
likely take his life as well, depending on the
circumstances. From a few scant clues, they
managed to figure out that he was in Munich. He
had become a student there."

— What happened to his pursuers?

"I don't know. I assume they never came back."

I listened to his story in a Fussen hotel, in a room

with all the window blinds pulled down. He never
touched the coffee or cookies that were offered. He
also said he did not want any drinks or tea. When I
asked him, "Because of the chance they might be
poisoned," he did not respond. "I mean, you did say
that you only eat food that you have prepared by
yourself." He threw me a sharp glare, but then
laughed.

He told me, "There was one more thing I told Tenma

about. When people get more money than they can
ever spend in their lifetime, they lose interest in
everything but two things. However, those two
things are not compatible. One is to be seen... the
desire to gain fame and glory. The man Tenma was
following had seen enough of people who flock to
money. The next thing you will want to see is the
people who flock to fame." He put his lips to his
coffee for the first time. "My interests went into a
different direction. Or should I say, they returned
there... I simply wanted to sit at a table, and enjoy
good food. That's why I cook my own meals."

He smiled at me.
 Chapter 14 - Karel Ranke
Karel Ranke was formerly a captain in the secret
police. He was jailed for a time after the Velvet
Revolution, but set free after just six months.
Unquestionably, some complex political deals were
behind this turn of events. It is said that Ranke was
remarkably shrewd, even among the other officers
of the secret police, and that he still holds many
incriminating secrets about the leaders of the new
administration that they would like to keep hidden.
Unable to adapt to the new liberal system, Ranke
went underground with remains of the secret police
and now conducts activities that most would classify
as the work of a mafia. The above is Karel Ranke's
profile as given to me by Agent Suk. But according
to a private investigation by myself, no high-
ranking secret police officer known as Karel Ranke
has ever existed. When I brought this up with Agent
Suk, he told me that of course it was not his real
name, and that due to the danger he was constantly
exposed to, it would have to be an alias.

On the other hand, there are firmly-rooted rumors

that state ex-Captain Ranke has a stranglehold on
the Eastern Europe black market and uses that
money in the legitimate economy to virtually buy
and own several companies, giving him nearly the
power of a government minister or official.
Some say he could make an appearance in the
public world at any moment, under his true name
by birth.

But the methods that were prepared for me to meet

Mr. Ranke told me that this was still a man living on
the underside of society. After getting into the black
private automobile that came to my hotel, I was
blindfolded against my will and sent on a nerve-
wracking ride for many minutes
that ended with me being seated in a private room
at an unknown restaurant.

A return to a free society was declared in Prague,

1989, as hundreds of thousands of people swarmed
Wencesias Square. This was the Velvet Revolution.

Ranke was an imposing man with a cold light in his

sunken eyes, and he stared firmly at me from across
the table, hands crisply folded, as I struggled with
the disorientation of my suddenly-regained freedom
of sight. He wore a dark suit with a narrow tie, and
his compact body bespoke of his military
background.

"I apologize if I have alarmed or disconcerted you.

I'm afraid my personal situation is more troublesome
than ever. The blindfold was also for your own
safety, you understand."
Ranke smiled at me, with the harsh glint still in his
eyes. "Very few journalists are reckless enough to
ask me for an interview. And every one of them who
has was German. I can see that you are indeed the
descendant of this neighboring, barbaric land that
has conquered and ruled us for centuries... The first
who came to speak to me was a writer for the Czech
branch of a German newspaper. His article became
the means by which I met Dr. Tenma, and later
spoke with the freelance journalist Mr. Grimmer. But
what he heard from me has never been published
anywhere."

This was the first I had heard about Grimmer

interviewing Ranke. What I had heard was that
Grimmer and Tenma met with Ranke, and convinced
him not to sell Johan's cassette tape to some
unknown German buyer... I also had heard the
rumors that Grimmer had left behind a notebook
containing many undisclosed truths about the Johan
case that he had discovered on his own. There must
have been some connection between his report and
this interview that had never seen the light of day.
But what could Grimmer have asked him, and what
did Ranke tell him in return...?

— I will start by asking about the police murders

that happened in Prague. It is said that the series
of events began when a German source requested
Reinhart Biermann's research materials from you,
particularly the audio tape of Johan under hypnosis
at Kinderheim 511, and Johan blocked your
attempts.

"It was simple business. My German friend was

prepared to pay a very handsome sum of money.
Danger is always a part of business."

— Who was this German friend? Was it the Baby? Or

General Wolf?
 "I'd rather not say."

— Very well. What were your thoughts upon

hearing the tape?

"Johan's voice? Or what he said? ...I have no thoughts.

Just that I wanted out of the job."

— Can you tell me about what you did in the

days of the secret police?

"Technically, we were state security police... I hope

you will at least call us internal police. The "secret
police" term is so baldly villainous. But I digress...
My jobs were cracking down on and exposing
dissidents, information collection and intelligence
manipulation. I knew that the system would
eventually collapse, but it was my job, and so I did
it."

— Why did you do these "inhumane" things, if you

knew the system was bound to collapse anyway?

"Now listen to me. I was a diehard communist at

heart. I did these things because I loved my country.
I took pride in it.
But the economy was falling apart, and the men at
the top were becoming corrupt. It was clear that
capitalism and liberalism would win in the end. But I
still had to protect the system. I just closed my eyes
to the horrible things. That was my answer."

— Could Franz Bonaparta have felt the same way

that you did? Do you think he was a patriot, as
you were?

"I never spoke with him. So I don't know. As for

whether or not he was a patriot, it didn't seem that
way to me. He wanted to control people from on
high, as if he were God."
— How did you understand his rank, or rather, his
position within the system?

"He was protected on all sides by members of the

Party, military, Internal Ministry and secret police.
He was given very preferential special treatment, for
only being a lieutenant in the secret police. He was
always well- lubricated with funds, and held many
connections in East Germany... His personality
reprogramming experiments were carried out in East
Germany at nearly the same time they had in
Czechoslovakia... the early 1 960s. The reason why
the experiments at Kinderheim 511 were so large in
comparison to the very small Red Rose Mansion
program was because this had been a national goal to
the East German administration since its inception.
But for a long time, I did not know that Kinderheim
511 and the Red Rose Mansion were both grounded in
the same theory. When he began gathering power in
the mid-70s, that was when I started to wonder
about his real identity. I began looking into his
background and gathering information to find a
weakness, until I decided partway in that I should
leave him alone. It became clear that if I persisted in
my course, I would be erased. After that, I simply
looked the other way. I pushed it out of my mind and
made an effort never to bring it back up. I'll be
honest. I was afraid of him, too."

— How do you suppose Bonaparta became so

powerful?

"As I said before, our choice was to prolong the

system. Particularly in 1 977, when Vaclav Havel and
his secret resistance group Charter 77 began
activity, the government was on the verge of
collapse. Even after we imprisoned Havel, all sorts of
other firebrands like Marta Kubisova kept popping
up. It was like playing a game of whack-a-mole.
Then imagine that suddenly a man appears with
this magical ability to change people's personalities
and what
they think, and you can then imagine how the elite
jumped at what he was offering.

This minor pet project of certain party members that

had been carefully raised since 1 965 had now
become a top- level project that was necessary for
the continued survival of the old order of power."

— So he was able to control others as he saw fit,

to further his research.

"Exactly. The actual goal of his research was

different from the simple furthering of his country's
aims... I believe he wanted to create a type of
human that could control others with words, like
God or the Devil. But at the same time, he granted
the requests of the party, the secret police and the
army. All they had to do was leave their elements of
unrest with him, and he would extract all the
information they needed and brainwash the
subjects. It was the perfect tool to strike down the
liberal activists."

— I see. And the period by which no one could

interfere with Bonaparta anymore was the mid-
70s... around the rise of Charter 77. By the way,
earlier you said that you had looked into
Bonaparta's personal life. Surely you must have
learned something before you called it off.

"He loved sweet bean cakes and black tea. He had a

refined air, and tasteful choice in clothes... He had
multiple pen names, as a storybook author. A
psychiatrist and brain surgeon, as well as a
psychologist... a man of many talents. I looked into
each and every one of his pen names. Out of those,
Klaus Poppe struck me the most. The German name
Poppe is well-known in the history of
Czechoslovakia's Communist Party. In particular, the
name. ...are you aware of the history between the
Czechs and Germans?"
— Yes.
Mr. Ranke says that after his release, he had no
choice but to join the dark underbelly of society. The
development of former Soviet Bloc nations' secret
police into organized criminals is a serious, ongoing
problem in Europe and Asia.

"Nearly all... after WWII, nearly all of the Sudeten

Germans were banished. The Germans that still
wanted to stay in Czech had to take Czech names
to hide among the populace. Many of the German
immigrants who still remain have taken Czech-
sounding names and stopped speaking German for
a time. But there were some, very few, who proudly
kept their German heritage on display. During the
war, they preached anti-Nazism and Slavic
independence; a very peculiar band of activists who
supported the Czech people. And then some were
fervent communists who wished to join the Soviet
Union. The GermanCzech man named Terner Poppe
was both of these. He was both an anti- Nazi, anti-
fascist hero, and a communist. He was also said to
be a genius of an agitator. Many Slavs, particularly
Czechs who had been driven from their towns took
root in the Sudeten German homes that went
empty after their banishment, but the Poppes were
allowed to keep their home and their place in the
community. When the war was over, the country
had the choice between capitalism or communism.
But during the Munich Agreement, only Stalin had
sided with Czechoslovakia against Hitler. The rulers
at the time, particularly President Benes, looked
very kindly on that sign of support. Therefore we
chose to join the Soviet Bloc and learned the
unfamiliar socialist system. Terner Poppe aided in
the creation of the Party, as a teacher and as a
leader."
— And he is certifiably known to be Klaus Poppe's
father?

"I told this to that Grimmer fellow as well. That is

where I stopped my investigation. So I do not
know the truth of it. Another clue to start from
would be that Terner Poppe's hometown was a place
called Jablonec nad Nisou, near the border to Poland."

— What happened to Terner Poppe?

"Are you aware of the Communist takeover in 1

948? All the cabinet ministers except for the foreign
minister Masaryk resigned, and Gottwald's
Communist officers took over instead. President
Benes resigned, and within a month the only
remaining nonCommunist cabinet member,
Masaryk, died under suspicious circumstances. From
then on, it became a one-party system. The country
was run by the Communists. It is said that Poppe
planned and executed this entire string of events.
Later, he would leave the public stage. Some said
he lost a political battle and was washed up in East
Germany; some said he left his wife and retired due
to woman problems. He in fact died of illness in his
homeland of Bohemia, but there are a few more
interesting stories about him."

— Interesting stories?

"Rumors that he was killed by his son... or possibly

driven to suicide. The hospital nurse said that right
before his death, he was so exhausted that he no
longer knew who he was or what his name was. At
any rate, Poppe may have been a national hero
within the Communist Party, but his name has been
entirely erased from Czech history at large."

— Do you know anything about Johan?

"He was a Czech, wasn't he? But I know nothing aside
from what the papers say. However, I have heard of
one other project that Bonaparta was involved in. It
was an experiment to cross the smartest and most
athletic Czech men and women, to produce a superior
Czechoslovakian race. I suppose Johan and his twin
could have come from that."

— So it is said. But there is no proof of such an

experiment. Who do you suppose could have
conducted it?

"I don't think the secret police were behind it. I have a
feeling that the army and part of the national
trading company Omnipol were involved."

— That would be the company suspected of

supplying weapons and possibly manpower to
terrorist organizations.

"Bonaparta had sponsors in all kinds of companies. If

you want to know more about that, I'm sure there
are several citizens' groups who have indicted the
former administration. I'm sure the people from
Charter 77 in particular have learned some things.
Perhaps some of the victims of the experiment are
even present among them."

Ranke looked at his watch, announced that it was

time, and cancelled the rest of the interview. I
thought it must have been the attitude of one long-
accustomed to being in power. Before I left, I asked
him if the story about his imminent reappearance in
society was true. He stared at me. "So long as I
have power, I will not be a public figure. If I lost my
power, I could appear... but I would die," he said.
"However, I only did what I thought was to the
benefit of my country. I only did my job. When it
came to controlling the fates of other men, I was
not like Bonaparta. I never once enjoyed the act. I
don't know how long I will continue to live like this...
to be honest, I am weary of it. When will society
forgive me...? There was a time when I truly thought
that if the Czech Republic joined the EU, the hatred
toward the old system would wane."

Ranke crisply unfolded his hands, and placed them

on the table. He gave a faint sigh. "The Eastern
system set up a fence around the entire East. As a
result, our way of life and value systems differed
quite a lot from Western capitalism. And what
would happen if a genius with peculiar and obscure
ambitions existed in that narrow space surrounded
by fences? We officers with no power of imagination
would rely on his talent, without considering right or
wrong or common sense. No matter what unsightly
result waited for us at the end of that choice..."

I did not have the words to ease Ranke's dark

despair. When will the day come that he can use his
own birth name again? Ten years after the fall of
communism, the wounds are still deep.

I was blindfolded again and taken from the

restaurant.
 Chapter 23 - Herman Führ
First, I'd like to introduce the contents of "The
Sleeping Monster."

In ancient times in an unknown place, it's told that

all the people had their names taken away. They
say that a rumor spread, a rumor of a monster who
remembered everyone's names. And so many
people left on a journey to look for the monster.
They discovered a cave where the monster lived,
but the all-important monster slept under a spell
that had been cast upon it.

Disappointed and exhausted from the long journey,

the people fell deeply asleep in front of the cave.
However, there they had a dream. In the dream, the
monster came out and taught everyone their names.
They awoke with great joy, grateful to the monster,
and all returned to their own towns.

However, now when they called out to each other

by name, they found that all the names were lies,
and they didn't even know who they themselves
were. They began to hate each other, and they
killed one another until there was no one left....

— That's the story.

 A cut-in illustration from "The Sleeping Monster" that is
reminiscent of Franz Bonaparta's work. Was it drawn by
Bonaparta himself or someone else, and what was the
intention? I sped up my investigation....

This edition was published in early '98, so it's fully

possible that this was Bonaparta's, no, Voss's next
work. But just as Grimmer had concluded, in my
judgment this is the work of a different person.
There is a subtle difference in the style of
painting. Mr. Sobotka's telling of the Sleeping
Monster story from the reading circle, the name of
the picture book author Capek sought — it's
impossible to believe that these correlations are
mere coincidence. So I decided to return to Vienna to
hear the story from the publisher of the book.

If Fuhr is the man I believe he is — the one who

manipulated Kottmann — then he is the real
criminal who committed the murders in the Salzburg
hospital...and that means my life is in danger. With
firm resolve, I visited the Quintus Company.
However, it wasn't what I expected...this same
respectable company is one of the better publishers
specializing in children's literature among the major
publishing houses. It is located in the northwestern
part of Vienna, midway between the famous
Grinzing Heurigen district (a group of restaurants
serving the most recent vintage of wine from their
own vineyards), and my office nearby. The entire
classical style building there is owned by the
company, which has forty employees. Its president
is Simon Schutz, grandson of the famous politician.
In addition to children's books, the company also
sells stationery and educational materials.

The editor in charge of Fuhr was Anselm Kiener, a

nervous young redhead in his early thirties. I had
requested this interview with the goal of hearing
an opinion straight from an expert editor in the
field, concerning any connection between the
picture book and the Johan affair.
Hermann Fuhr's chief editor Kiener. He believes that
while Bonaparta's and Fuhr's designs are similar, they
are not connected....

"Is this Emil Sebe's work? I've noticed a touch of his

style in Hermann Fuhr's drawings. I was wondering
when the media
would show up. I always thought it was a damn
shame that no one else seemed to notice."

— It was...a shame?

"Well, even picture books are a business so you

want them to sell a lot, right? If people saw the
resemblance to Sebe's work, I thought it might get
a little publicity."

— Did "The Sleeping Monster" sell well?

"Yes, at first. Large quantities were bought by

libraries, kindergartens and schools, and it also
seemed to be popular in a certain district. I wanted
another printing, but the president said there was no
point..."

— Why was that?

"He said it was a harmful book that left a bad

aftertaste...something like that. Oh, please don't
write the rest of this. I just don't think it's taboo to
teach children about evil things. Because isn't the
world full of evil? For example, even English
children's book illustrator [Charles] Keeping drew
evil looking faces with terrifying expressions.

— Please tell me about Hermann Fuhr.

"He just showed up one day with an unsolicited

manuscript. I thought he was a genius the moment
I saw his work. He looked to be in his mid-40s, so I
asked if he had published his picture books before.
He said he had written other things before then, but
it seemed like he didn't want to talk about it, so I
didn't press the issue."

— What did you think of him?

"Well, he seemed like a quiet and charming man. To
tell the truth though, I've only met him twice. Most
of the work was done by telephone and fax."

— Was he Austrian?

"Well, his name is, right? As for the man, there's no

telling without asking him."

— Can you tell me his contact address?

"Sure. But honestly, I don't think there is any sort of

connection to Emil Sebe. It's only a coincidence that
their painting styles are similar. We were in frequent
contact immediately after his book came out, but it's
been a long time, and we haven't been in touch
more than once or twice since then. It's possible that
he may have already moved somewhere else. But I
can tell you the address and phone number from
back then."

— He discussed his next work with you, didn't he?

"I wanted to publish it. Naturally we talked about what

he planned for his next book. But as I said before,
there were differences in opinion, you know? I had
trouble obtaining permission...eventually some
inconvenience on Fuhr's side made things difficult,
and negotiations fell through. But really, he had
some fans. I still think it was a waste that we didn't
publish more of his work."

— An inconvenience?

"Yes, he said another quick job came up and it would

be a little while before he could draw the new
piece... So I waited half a year before I called him,
but no one answered the phone. Eventually I got
busy with other things...and that was the end of it."
— What did you mean he had some fans?

"Well...a large order came into the sales department

for a thousand copies of a gloomy book, all for one
place. In this business, that's huge for a newcomer."

— But what were they going to do with a thousand

copies?

"I heard that marketing was told that they were

needed for a reading seminar or something like
that...l didn't understand what they meant — but I
guess groups like that exist."

A chill ran down my spine when I heard the words,

"reading seminar." I nervously asked about the
concept envisioned for the next book.

Kiener replied, "Well, the title was 'The Awakening

Monster.'" I remember my body trembling.

My intuition was not wrong. The other monster was

lurking in Vienna.

The next day I dialed the phone number that Mr.

Kiener had given me. Though I let it ring for a long
time, no one answered. Then I noticed that the
address was in District 2, Leopoldstadt, while the
phone number was in District 1 5. I called again to
confirm the address, and headed for the residence
(or workplace) of Hermann Fuhr.

I had often visited the park downtown near the

famous Ferris wheel from the movie "The Third
Man," and knew that, because the old apartments on
the corner were scheduled to be torn down soon for
redevelopment, most of the residents had left. The
room at the address had been vacant for two years.
Knowing that it might be dangerous, I searched for
Hermann Fuhr's name in the phone book (though I
was told his number was unlisted). Within the city
and suburbs I found three people with the same
name, and called each of them. However, none of
them was the man I sought.

Hermann Fuhr had disappeared.

 Chapter 27 - The Magnificent
Steiner
[Note: the kanji used here means "superman" or
"Ubermensch" (Ger.). Although the title card shown
on the tv screen in the anime clearly says
"Magnificent," in this chapter it's necessary to
differentiate to show the evolution of the cartoon's
title, so when MA is used, it will be translated
herein as "superman" (not to be confused with the
Superman)] (November 2001; Valletta)

I set aside my coverage of the Johan case, as I was

becoming somewhat obsessed with it. I temporarily
returned to my office in Vienna to organize the
writing of the manuscript, pass along some
information to former police inspector Lunge,
confirm some points with Dr. Gillen, work at the
ongoing problem of Hermann Fuhr's phone number
(of course he was never there), and thus kept
myself occupied with this and that for several days.
I had promised the lawyer Verdemann that I would
enquire about the American animated cartoon
"Superman Steiner," and around this time I received
the OK to contact the original author, one Robin
Andrews.

Furthermore, I was told that for health reasons he

was living in Valletta in the Republic of Malta, in the
Mediterranean.
Although there was no immediate connection to the
Johan case, I still thought it was worthwhile to
unravel the enigma of Grimmer. I decided to
postpone some of my plans and meet with him.

Mr. Andrews is 71 years old now. He is the president

of the long-established comics publisher BG Comics
in New York. I visited him at his villa in the city of
Valletta which was actually a citadel facing the
surrounding sea. Relieved to see he was still quite
vigorous, I began the interview.
— Although it was a rather complicated and
mysterious process to request this interview, I
sincerely want to thank you for accepting.

"I had read about the German serial murders in

newspapers and magazines. Although it was
interesting, I just saw it as a big story without any
connection to me. So when I found out that my
'Superman Steiner' (of course, as an American, he
pronounced it 'Steiner' [note: the German
pronunciation of "st" is "sht"]) was involved, I was
really astonished."

— To begin with, although we know that Mr.

Grimmer was watching the television cartoon,
could you please tell me about the original comic
first?

"Sure. The character of 'Superman Steiner' was

something I created with my childhood friend Steve
Kellerman back in 1 946. Franklin Publications in
New York marketed it. The original title was 'The
Amazing Steiner.' It was an instant hit and sold half a
million copies."

— Half a million? That's really great.

"Not at all...since then comics have become a genre

of the real publishing business, but in those days
they were their own minor culture. That 'Amazing
Steiner' didn't sell half of what 'Superman' did."

— Why do you think "Superman" was so popular?

"Well, everything started with 'Superman'...the

whole comics culture in America. I was 8 years old in
June of 1 938 when it was first published, and every
day Steve and I would greedily devour each page
until my mother came to pick me up. Ten years
later, Steve and I set out to create a comic that
would surpass 'Superman.' And in the blink of an
eye it was
famous, and a radio program soon followed, and
merchandising deals."

— And the television cartoon.

"No, the first 'Amazing Steiner' ended after about 3

years. The setup of the storyline for that character
was very different. In the original, the hero was a
scientist who could transform the energy of anger
into a drug, and when he intentionally injected it
into his muscles, he became a soldier. So whenever
the good guy had to face the enemy, he couldn't
easily transform into the superman. It was a really
stupid premise. When I look back on it now, its
popularity often baffles me."

— Yet it only lasted three years?

"Well...we were sued by the Alhambra company

who owned 'Sorcerer Kronos' in 'Flash Adventure'
magazine. Two writers in Cleveland had published it
in '42, and they claimed that our comic had
substantially copied their hero. But our setting was
completely different and our artwork was vastly
superior. I vehemently objected, but Steve
eventually acknowledged that he had taken the
beginning of its story. The publisher was in a huge
panic. Steve signed over to me all the rights to
'Amazing Steiner' and retired from writing."

— I'm sorry to hear that. How had the two of you

divided up the work?

"I did the artwork. Steve wrote the story. We didn't

have a writer, a penciler, an inker, a colorist, a
letterer, the way comics do today. It was simple. He
was the writer and I took care of the other four jobs."

— So how was "Superman Steiner" revived?

"I left Franklin Publishing. Around that time I got
together with an editor named Danny Lewin. We
created a new company and launched a magazine
called 'Black Comics.' Then we assembled some
decent writers and sold some western hero things
like 'Black Gunn' and 'Pecos Bill.' One day a fan of
'Pecos Bill' showed up and said he wanted to write a
story for us. That was the beginning...from the
imagination of William Bargeld came the new
Steiner, which eventually surpassed the original's
success."

— How was it different from your previous work?

"It might surprise you, but for an American comic hero

to be a hit, it's absolutely necessary for him to have
some sort of trauma. So in 1 952 I created an
exceptionally dark protagonist that I thought would
take off right away."
Mr. Andrews, president of BG Comics, now leads a
comfortable and leisurely life. He is seen as an
authority in American comic book circles.

— Was the lawsuit ever settled?

"Well...fortunately the Alhambra company went

under and 'Flash Adventures' and 'Sorcerer Kronos'
vanished without a trace. Even my former home
Franklin went bankrupt. So shortly after that I
contracted with William, who was launching a new
publication called 'Magnificent Sense,' and so 'The
Magnificent Steiner' was serialized...and this time
the premise was terrific.
"The hero was the son of the founder of a new
religious cult that lived in peace and quiet, isolated
from the rest of the world. One of the features of this
cult was that showing emotions was forbidden, and
their greatest taboo was the emotion of anger. The
hero's father, the cult's founder, preached that
accumulation of emotions produced psychic abilities
and brought one closer to God. The hero had gone
through severe training since childhood and had
never once gotten angry.

"But one day, someone attacked the cult and killed

everyone except for the children. The protagonist
happened to be buying supplies in a town far away
and thus escaped the slaughter, but not the scene
of his father's execution. At that moment, the
energy of twenty years worth of accumulated anger
surged up in him. His body changed, got bigger,
and he transformed into Superman Steiner."

— So his trauma is his father's death.

"No, there's more to the set-up than that. The hero

turns into Superman Steiner and annihilates the
group who executed his father. But afterwards, it
comes to light that he and the surviving children
had been lured into the cult as young children, and
that the group had actually been sent to attack the
cult by their real parents. Furthermore, it was
believed that his father had founded the cult with
surviving Nazi terrorists planning the destruction of
America....his real name was Steiner. So the hero
sets out on a journey to learn the truth about the
cult and his father. Well, on his journey of
discovery, he gets dragged into trouble everywhere
he goes...and he can't remember anything about
turning into Superman Steiner, but when he wakes
up, all his enemies are dead."
— And that comic was a hit?
"Oh yeah, it was an absolute smash. In 1 958, Lewin,
who was a partner in the publication's management,
teamed up with an animation production company
and the Jacobs brothers, the famous animators.
Then it was just a matter of trying to adapt
'Magnificent Steiner' for television. Because I was
one of the investors in the animation company, we
didn't run into the usual interference that other
companies' animated comics got. So we were able
to produce an original work that was different from
the rest."

— Was Steiner also a hit on television?

"Yeah, it turned out pretty well. It was a half hour

show that used a new technique called Syncro-
Vox™, in which the cels of the character's mouth
were composited with cels of the actual moving
mouth of an actor. Watching it now you might think
it's creepy, but at the time it was revolutionary."

— That series was also broadcast in foreign countries,

right?

"Yes, in France and West Germany, I think. I remember

it ran from 1 959 in America for 2 years...then in 1
961 in France and West Germany under the title
'Superman Steiner.' Bargeld, who was the writer for
the series, was a German immigrant, and he was
really delighted to hear that it was broadcast there."

— He had emigrated from Germany?

"Yes, he said he came from the East side in 1951

— Please, tell me what happened in the final

episode of the television series. "Well it's an
embarrassing story, but there were actually two
final episodes."
"The Magnificent Steiner" that became a big hit. The
young hero had no memories of the periods when he
was transformed into Superman Steiner. It's said there
were two final episodes of "Superman Steiner."

— There were two?

"I wrote one of them. Two episodes before the finale,

the hero became aware that he was the monster,
and this knowledge distressed him greatly. Even
though his opponents were all bad guys, it'd be
natural for anyone to feel that way after killing so
many people and not remembering it.
Furthermore, in the episode before the finale, his
real mother — she was a scientist — was
introduced, and she had asked him never to
transform again no matter what, even if it was to
protect her. Also, there was his father, the leader
of the cult who was apparently
executed back in the first episode... Actually, he had
stopped his own heart with his psychokinesis and
had only pretended to die. So then, he used a
transformation technique similar to the main
character's on himself and tried to kill the hero's
real mother. But even though his foster father had
deceived him, the hero still loved him, and he had
finally found his biological mother.... Well, at the
end, the hero transforms

into the superman and battles the cult leader, but

after he defeats him he refrains from killing him,
because his two personalities have now
merged...that's how the story went."

— Why were there two final episodes? I mean,

you were always the artist, not the writer. Why
did you write this story?

"Thanks to the tv series, 'Magnificent Steiner' comics

posted ever increasing sales.

But to the mothers of the world, it had a bad

reputation. And at the time, Lewin and Bargeld and
myself were at our worst point and had differences
of opinion on a variety of things.
Then Steve Kellerman, the writer of the original
Steiner, dropped by. He told me that something had
been bothering him for a long time...that there was
something evil in the content of the new
'Magnificent Steiner' that he couldn't put into words.
He had come to tell me that we'd better put a stop
to it. I was gradually becoming half-hearted about
the work myself. So I too thought it would be good
to end it. I was already at that point, when they
decided to end the series. The tv stations were
worried about the harsh criticism of the program
they were getting from mothers everywhere. But it
was a decision that Lewin and the network made
on their own, and I hadn't known anything about it
before."
— So you're saying they ended the tv series while
the comic was still going on...?

"That's right. Bargeld wrote the scenario for the

final episode of the cartoon. Lewin had
commissioned it without me knowing about it. Sure,
the two of us were on bad terms, but still, I mean...
Well, the details don't matter, but after all that,
Lewin came crying to me. And by the way, that was
the first time I heard that the show would be
ending."

— He came to you because there was a

problem with Bargeld's script?

"Oh, that script left such a bad aftertaste you

wouldn't believe. The stories were the same, in that
the hero's last enemy was the father who raised
him...that is, the cult leader who faked his death in
the first episode, but here it was because of their
mastery of a powerful hypnotism that allowed them
to control anyone at will. They used it to brainwash
all Americans and establish the nation of
Naziamerika. The hero takes all the people who
aren't brainwashed out into the desert where they
barricade themselves, and his father, leading the
U.S. Army, comes to attack them. As a last resort,
the hero transforms into Superman Steiner, and
starts by wiping out his father and the army, and
finishes by annihilating all the brainwashed
Americans.... When he returns to himself, the few
Americans left alive follow him now, and so the hero
becomes the founder of a religious cult, just like the
man who raised him. Lovely story, don't you think?"

— So you decided you had to write a different

story. And ultimately, your version was chosen
for the final episode.
"Well, I suppose it's more accurate to say that
neither was televised. Bargeld's script was
commissioned first and it was
on time. So it was filmed as usual and completed on
schedule. Lewin and I had a frank discussion with
the network and showed them the completed film.
The network reps agreed that the content of the last
episode was a betrayal of the children, and asked us
to remake it. So I frantically came up with a
scenario, just about worked myself to death on the
script... and missed the deadline. The network
replaced it with a different show. In other words, the
American 'Magnificent Steiner' was pre-empted
before it was scheduled to air."

— So there was never a final episode?

"There was for the 'Superman Steiner' of France and

West Germany. After Lewin consulted with the
Jacobs brothers, and their whole staff, the reworked
cartoon was sent overseas."

— And in the end, the hero was reconciled with the

alternate personality within him.

It was your story that was the final episode of the

series. "That's right."

— What did Bargeld do?

"He was forced to retire. But he had worked for

many years, enough to earn a merit bonus.... The
comic 'Magnificent Steiner' was still going and they
got my old friend Kellerman, the original writer, to
come back. That lasted two more years, until 1
965. After Bargeld's time, its popularity fell. That's
how it went."

These seem like unhappy memories.

"I wouldn't say 'unhappy.' Well, maybe a little bitter.
Bargeld said goodbye with a smile and a
handshake... In the end, I don't have to worry
anymore about whether Kellerman can work again,
and the differences I had with Lewin have been
pretty much resolved and we're still close friends."

— And what became of Mr. Bargeld?

"I heard he went back to East Germany in 1 964.

The FBI came to my company and that's what they
said. But anyone who would risk so much to come to
the West from the East — it's impossible that he
would go back. It was the height of the Cold War. So
he was a criminal in the East. They might've put him
in prison. But apparently they thought Bargeld was
a spy. I told them he's just a creative writer.
There's no way he's a spy. But the FBI was seriously
investigating him."

Mr. Andrews was troubled when he learned of the

influence his work "Superman Steiner" had had on
Mr. Grimmer. He let out a sigh when I gave him
restricted information from my investigations,
retelling the stories of the series of picture books
relating to the Johan case. "Kellerman tried to tell
me once. He said, 'There's only a limited amount of
material in my head for me to make things from.
One day, although the gears were grinding away,
nothing came out, and it was painful to work like
that. But after awhile, none of it mattered anymore.
When that happens, you have three choices: take a
break and hope for a comeback, flat-out retire, or
plagiarize yourself like a petty thief to try to stay
alive a little longer. But when the devil actually
appears before you, you'd probably sell your soul
dirt cheap to buy back the creative spark you've
lost. But then, the work that came afterwards
wouldn't be an expression of your own creative will,
since you exchanged it for the devil's will, don't you
think?'"
He looked at me steadily. "Kellerman died in 1 995,
still truly believing in the existence of the gods and
devils in those stories."
 Commentary from The
Nameless Monster (Obluda:
Kterâ Nemá své Jméno,
2008)
It was about 30 years ago that I became acquainted
with the names of Czechoslovakian picture-book
authors Emil Sebe, Klaus Poppe, and Jakub Paroubek.
— I remember that it was at the "Eastern Europe
Picture-book Author Original Works Exhibition" which
the major bookstores held in Nihonbashi Tokyo (at
that time they were known as Emil Sebe and Jakub
Faroubek).

At the beginning of the 80s, during the height of the

U.S.- Soviet Cold War between the East and West,
Czechoslovakia was one of those socialist states from
which Japan received little information.

But in the field of juvenile literature — especially

in the genre of picture-books, this same country
opened their doors to the Western bloc and
competed internationally at the highest levels.

Josef Lada, Mirko Hanak, Miroslav Sasek, Josef Palecek,

Kveta Pacovska, Stepan ZavreL.with these famed
masters at center stage, a fresh crop of authors
joined in to exhibit their works.

A friend who was knowledgeable about picture-books

commented that "Poppe, Sebe, and Faroubek were
either the same writer or else writers from the same
school in Czechoslovakia." But despite this
explanation, I was overwhelmed by the strange
mood those pictures evoked.

To be honest, the pictures seemed so morbidly

nihilistic I could hardly believe they were drawn for
children.
Although they were all popular in Japan, I can't say
that the work of English juvenile literature authors
Alan Garner and Rosemary Sutcliff were entirely
wholesome, nor even the painting style of illustrator
Charles Keeping; nevertheless, not one of these
authors had such an effect on me.

The next time I would hear the names of Sebe, Poppe,

and Paroubek was from the author Werner Weber,
when he came to Japan in 2000 .

He sat next to me at the reception party held to

celebrate the Japanese publication of "The Back
Streets of Neo- Nazism," for which he had won
Austria's prestigious Gottschlink Award for
nonfiction (translation by Makoto Oumura, Shunrai
Publications). On that occasion Weber confided to
me, "Next I'm planning to write about that incident
last year in Germany."

That incident. It hadn’t been reported in very much

detail in Japan, but — not only Germany, but all of
Europe had been shocked by the case of the
monster, Johan Liebert.

The moment Weber mentioned the names of those

three picture book authors, I vividly recalled that
familiar, disturbing art style.

Weber had heard the theory that they might be the

same person, and commented that the picture books
had been used as teaching materials by the Czech
Ministry of Internal Affairs (secret police) to create
ruthless soldiers devoted to serving the state.

He added, "To be honest, there may be people

lurking in Austria who were influenced by those
cursed picture books. If other people were
manipulated like Johan, it's possible that another
morbid murder case may arise."
What happened after that can be learned by
reading “Another Monster” (Werner Weber, with co-
author Naoki Urasawa, published by Shogakukan),
the book in which Weber collected his research and
developed the theory that Austrian mystery author
Fritz Weindler, or rather, Hermann Fuhr as he called
himself, might have been educated as a boy in
Prague's Red Rose Mansion.

However, just before completing his manuscript in

December 2001, Weber suddenly disappeared while
gathering information in the Czech Republic.... In a
beautiful town in the region of Bohemia, in a room
in a Jablonec hotel, an unfinished manuscript was
left behind....

Last year in May I received information from a friend

living in Germany, about a second-hand book fair in
Munich where some sketches were being exhibited
under Helmuth Voss's name.

Helmuth Voss — the hotel manager who died in

Ruhenheim, Germany, was known as Franz Bonaparta
in Czechoslovakia, and also called himself Emil Sebe,
Klaus Poppe, Jakub Paurobek.

Furthermore, among Voss's original pictures

published in the fair's catalog were what seemed to
be Johan’s mother when she was pregnant, twin
babies who appear to be Johan and Nina, and Nina
as a small child holding flowers — if those sketches
were authentic, then they would truly be
posthumous works of great interest.

Without hesitation, I asked my friend to place a bid

for me. I thought this might hold a clue to Weber's
disappearance.

I hurried to Munich, but just as I arrived at the airport

my friend informed me, “I'm so sorry, but the
sketches have
already been sold to someone else.” And they had
fetched an unbelievably high price....

I stayed in Germany for a month, and with the help

of a detective agency I had hired we searched out
the exhibitor and the winning bidder. We found the
exhibitor immediately. He was the proprietor of an
antique shop near the outskirts of Munich in a town
called Kaufbeuren (not very far from Ruhenheim).
He said the sketches were brought to him by a
housewife in the neighborhood, who told him her
children had found them in a vacant house. The
shopkeeper bought them on a hunch and decided to
try exhibiting them.

After the detective told him, "You're not in any

trouble, but this is a very serious matter," it was
surprisingly easy to find out who the winning bidder
was.

His name was Werner Weber.

I couldn’t believe my ears. Was he still alive? Or

was someone deceitfully using his name?

I decided that I had to find this person at any cost.

The detective frequented such markets as
secondhand book fairs, used-book stores, and
antique shops, and got the information from their
regular patrons. Apparently the bidder was involved
with shady book dealers, obtaining for them certain
types of writers' manuscripts and rare books with
unrealized value, handling these items much like
stolen goods.

In March of this year I finally got a chance to

interview that person. The following is the interview
question by question (and for the record, the man
did not bear the slightest resemblance to the Werner
Weber I knew. He had a slight build, and explained
that he was half German, half Vietnamese).
me: "What is your business?"

him: "Mainly I find rare books and manuscripts and

such and then sell 'em to people with exceptional
taste."

"For example?"

"Most recently, I sold a copy of an early draft of

Scaramouche, by Rafael Sabatini (Italian-born
novelist and swordsman). It turned out to be
incredibly profitable."

"Where did you get

it?" "I didn't hear

that."

"Was it your bid that won Helmuth Voss's sketches?"

"That was a business transaction at a respectable

secondhand book fair. Somebody just asked me to
put in a proxy bid for them."

"Is Werner Weber your real

name?" "No."

"Why did you use that

name?" "Just followin' orders."

"It wasn't someone's name you'd heard before?"

"Nope, never. But the client did say it was kind of a

joke. And that if I used that name, somebody
would definitely come lookin' for me."

"Someone would come looking for you?"

"Well, here ya are. Looks like I hit the

jackpot."
"What's your client's name?"

"That I can't say."

"That's a problem..."

"A person can't say what they can't say. I can tell by
instinct which clients are dangerous. That's how I'm
still around makin' a living in this business."

"What was this client like?"

"The kind that's killed people before,

maybe...probably. It's just a collection, but even so,
it's also not unusual for that sort of client to be
connected to a lot of money."

"Weren't you curious as to why your client would

spend so much money on Voss's original sketches?"

"I wonder that about all my clients. However, this

one told me something very interesting. I was
instructed to incinerate the original sketches as
soon as I got 'em."

"Incinerate?"

"It seemed wrong to me. Voss was once a great

picture book author, so because of his reputation,
and so people could have the privilege of
experiencing it with their own eyes,

I couldn't help but make a copy of it."

"Please tell me as much as you can. Was your client

Czech or German?"

"Maybe neither."

"You can't give me more of a hint?"

"I was shocked to see them on a tv news program.
Feh, sittin' bold as brass right next to a very
famous world leader."

"Who was it — this very famous world leader? You

mean a politician, right?"

"Well, that politician's a man whose true motives

can't be easily read, but they say that sooner or
later he'll build an empire and make himself a
dictator. If a large nation falls to earth, with powerful
leadership it can rise once again in the world. If the
will of the people is strong. There are a lot of dark
rumors, but even America can't touch 'em. Do you
know who I mean now?"

"They say Voss wasn't just a picture book author but

also a great scientist. They say he did harmful
experiments on rebuilding personalities.... My
client's interest was piqued, and they requested
that I investigate his achievements."

"Achievements?"

"Don't you get it? They're redoing the experiment

again. Under the supervision of that leader they're
so tight with."

It should be noted that I have no way of knowing

whether or not the man told me the truth. But I can
say this much: the experiment that created Johan
still has its adherents.
Anyone chasing after Sebe/Poppe/Paroubek will suffer
the same fate as Weber.

Perhaps the invisible client used the name of

Werner Weber to lure me in and give me a
warning: Back off now.

The man concluded with this:

"Do you know a novelist named Fritz Wiendler or
Hermann Fuhr? He's not famous like King, but in
Austria he seems to have a good reputation
among horror buffs as a writer.

"The client now says he wants to commission me to

locate that author's original manuscripts. He said
he'd like to get to know him and intended to invite
him back to his own country. He says he's the next-
generation Voss. Once he invites him, he'll gather
the children to resume the experiment.

"I don't know exactly what he plans to do. And I

don't want to know."

August 2008, Stockholm Takashi Nagasaki

 For the sake of
comprehension, it is
recommended that you do not
read the short story "The
Awakening Monster" until after
you have finished the book.
This text is a report detailing the connection
between the crimes of the "Monster" Johan Liebert,
from 1 986 over a period of ten years, and the case
of the "Axe-Murderer" Gustav Kottmann in
Salzburg, Austria, November of 2000. This
connection, while absurd at first glance, slowly
hardened into conviction as I pressed on with my
research.

With regards to the Johan case, I did my utmost to

present the real names of all the people I
interviewed, but for a variety of reasons (sometimes
to protect the subject's life) some of them are
introduced using aliases. There are no photographs,
as nearly all of the interviewees objected to having
their pictures taken. Instead, I have sketches of their
faces put together from memory after each interview
was concluded. When asked if they minded that
would I draw portraits of them afterward, most of
them reluctantly agreed, although I declined to
mention that I once worked as a caricature artist on
the streets of Vienna.

Though there are numerous false names, rough

portraits and other unfortunate but unavoidable
comprises in order to protect the identities of those
introduced in the text, I can assure you that
everything presented in this book is true.
As I will state at the end of the book, whether or not
the Johan incident is over, and what the meaning of
this new storybook is, are both left up to the reader
to decide.
 Chapter 13 - Jan Suk
The first incident in the Czech Republic was the
September 1 997 shooting murder of Mikhail
Ivanovich Petrov... real name, Reinhart Biermann.
Biermann was wanted by the German government
for human rights violations in the former East
Germany, as director of Kinderheim 511. He was a
child psychologist and psychiatrist working for the
Internal Affairs Ministry, with his particular calling
being scientific personality correction... in other
words, a brainwashing specialist. He was deeply
involved with the establishment of the facility, but
at the time that Johan destroyed it, he had left his
director's position. Biermann escaped to
Czechoslovakia after the fall of the Berlin Wall.

Biermann opened an unlicensed orphanage in

Prague to continue his experiments, but
investigations would later find no particular signs of
mental abuse. In fact, he was beloved by all his
charges. After the murder, the orphans claimed to
have witnessed a beautiful blonde-haired woman
leaving the orphanage where the crime was
committed, but the Prague police identified a
freelance journalist Wolfgang Grimmer, who had
visited Biermann that day, as their prime suspect in
the killing. The 2nd incident would occur the
following day.

The bodies of Inspector Zeman, who had been

investigating Grimmer as part of the previous case,
and two other, unidentified men were found in an
abandoned factory in the district of Prague 5. Later,
it would be discovered that these other men were
former sergeants in the infamous communist
Czechoslovakian secret police, who had turned to
undertaking unsavory jobs since the fall of such. A
suspicious person was spotted leaving the scene of
the
crime, the description of whom clearly fits Grimmer.
The police labeled him wanted as a suspect in the
murders.

But Zeman's direct subordinate, Agent Jan Suk,

came to a different conclusion.

Could the killer's motive be related to a clandestine

duty Zeman himself had been orchestrating —
fishing out former secret police members within the
station? He found a large sum of cash in Zeman's
personal locker, and reported Zeman's connection to
former Czechoslovakian secret police agents on the
force, his corruption, and the illicit money he had
accepted to keep silent about it.

But the day after Suk's report was given, the station
chief and two police agents accused of being ex-
Czechoslovakian secret police were found dead of
ingesting candies laced with muscle relaxant. The
center of this string of murders was something
deeper and more complex than just the survivors of
the old order making connections within the new
order.

Acting independently, Agent Suk made contact with

Grimmer, the closest man to the center of the
events. Unable to believe that Grimmer was
responsible, Suk befriended Grimmer and received
the key to a bank safe left behind by Biermann, the
initial homicide victim. The police began to secretly
trail Suk, suspicious of his actions, but Suk followed
his conscience and retrieved an audio cassette tape
from a safe at Prochazka Bank. The voice on the
tape belonged to Johan under hypnosis as a child —
a top-secret piece of physical information that
Biermann had taken from Kinderheim 511.

After this, assassins would kill both agents sent to

spy on Suk, and had nearly mortally wounded Suk as
well, when he
finally discovered the truth. It had begun when a
powerful figure in the secret police had been hired
by a German to collect Johan's research data, but
when people involved in the matter started being
assassinated left and right, the case began to take
on a life of its own. It is needless to say that Johan
himself was behind all of it, but the Prague police
have avoided any official comments to this nature.

As it stands, there are several unexplained mysteries

to the case. I requested an interview with Agent Suk.
While he made it clear that due to multiple
sensitive areas he could not fully divulge all
information, he did agree to speak about the case.

When Agent Suk appeared at the Oriental cafe on

the hill leading up to Prague Castle, I thought he
made an awfully young and dashing police
detective. His dress was wellcoordinated, with a
navy suit, blue button-down shirt and bluish
necktie. His straight-parted blond hair sat above
kindly eyes. We shook hands, and he ordered a
jasmine tea.
The city of Prague, which Johan and Nina
remembered as a "fairy-tale land." It is hard to imagine
the terrible political scars that lurk beneath the
surface of this beautiful city.
— You solved the serial murders that occurred in the
Prague police force. Are the rumors about Johan's
involvement true?

"First, let me say that I did not solve that case.

Now, to return to your question... From the clues, I
believe it is appropriate to think of these crimes as
being Johan's. But being comatose as he is, there is
no way we can get testimony or admission of guilt,
so the unfortunate truth is that we cannot prove it
was him, much as we would like to."

— There are plenty of open-and-shut cases that

are ruled without requiring confession. Why is
that not the case this time?

"Well... If we tried him as the defendent using my

logic in this particular case... I doubt the courts
would find it adequate."

— That was a rather vague answer.

"Umm... Well... you are familiar with the person who

was witnessed at multiple crime scenes?"

— Yes, the tall man with the large knapsack... This

is Mr. Grimmer, correct? There is also testimony
of a beautiful blonde woman.

"Now, what I'm going to tell you is exactly what I

experienced, free of any subjective opinions. I'll
leave the interpretation up to you... The blonde
woman was always at the scene of the crime. She
was clearly responsible for the murder of those
victims. Biermann, Inspector Zeman, the secret
police he was with, the two agents who were
keeping tabs on me... she shot them all. Separately
from this, I met a woman at a bar I was frequenting
after work. I felt attracted to her, and I thought that
she liked me too. This was about
the time that I got dragged into the whole mess. She
had blonde hair, and her name was Anna. Anna
Liebert."

— And was it the real Anna... Nina Fortner?

"Anyone who looked at her picture would tell you it

was Nina. She was in Prague, herself... But at the
times that Anna and I met, she was in a different
part of the city, and was recorded in different
locations. The Anna that I knew was identical to
Nina, except perhaps a slight bit taller."

— Then...

"Do you see how hard it would be to get this past in

court? Still, it is the truth."

— Yes, I see. It is a story that would require courage

to tell.

"Yes. When someone told me to doubt the person

you least want to doubt and the truth will make
itself known, it opened my eyes. Thinking back,
that might have been the moment when I first
gained the confidence to be able to do my job."

— Now, assuming it was Johan who is responsible,

what could his motive to kill all of these people
be?

"I found a cassette in a safe at Prochazka Bank. It

was a part of East Germany's Kinderheim 511
Director Reinhart Biermann's research materials.
The tape was a recording of Johan speaking as a
young boy, and I believe that this tape became the
center of a struggle between the former secret
police and the adult Johan."

— So Johan attacked the secret police to destroy

the tape that proved his existence.
 "I believe that was part of it, but it could also have
been because he wanted Biermann's other
materials... for example, say, a register of all the
other boys at the Kinderheim. When I heard the
tape, Johan himself had already tampered with it,
and removed the registry."

— What do you think he'd do with the

Kinderheim 511 registry? Not hold a class
reunion, I assume.

"He probably wanted to make contact with them,

and control them. That's what kind of person Johan
was."

— Next, tell me about Mr. Grimmer. It is vital

that we understand him, if we hope to unravel
the mysteries of Johan.

"When I was questioning the orphans from

Biermann's orphanage, I realized that all of them
nearly idolized Mr. Grimmer. I wondered if such a
man could truly be responsible for murder, as my
bosses told me. So I met and talked with him, and
decided to help him. He was rather bashful and
kind, and very prudent. He was a gallant man, and
I owe him my life."

— What does "The Magnificent Steiner"

mean? "I don't want to talk about that."

— It is said that after the events in the Czech

Republic, Grimmer investigated Johan and Franz
Bonaparta on his own. There are rumors of a
report he wrote up about this. Have you seen it
for yourself?

"I haven't. After I was shot and admitted to the

hospital, I never saw him again. But the German
lawyer Verdemann might know. I've heard he was
the one who arranged Mr. Grimmer's articles after
his death."
— You just mentioned Verdemann. You two
questioned members of the reading seminar at
the Red Rose Mansion together.

"Yes. This was something that came up while

looking into crimes committed by our country's
former secret police and military... But we could not
possibly prosecute the crimes.
We still don't know what happened at that
mansion. Out of all the members that attended, we
barely managed to get five to agree to speak with
us, and even they didn't remember anything that
happened there. The one unsettling commonality,
however, was that while each of them had normal
jobs and were married, all except for one had their
marriages end in disaster, and all except for one
had suffered the death of their children..."

— How did the police track down these members of

the Red Rose Mansion seminar?

"There wasn't a single piece of bureaucratic

paperwork left about the Mansion. No records about
the facility's connection with the government, no
reports of what experiments were being run there,
no files detailing where their budget came from. The
remains of the Red Rose Mansion were a complete
void. Well, we know the secret police burned many,
many records... The only trick we had in our arsenal
was good old-fashioned beatwork: visiting and
asking around. We visited all of the homes around
the remains of the mansion, and asked them what
kind of people went there, did they recognize any
faces, could they recall anything at all... Then we
went over all the former secret police, communist
party dignitaries, former government officials, news
agency writers, orphanage workers, internal affairs
workers... went over all of them with a fine-tooth
comb. Then we sought help from a group
seeking damages for the actions of those secret
police, and finally found some of the people we were
looking for."
Jan Suk solved the puzzle of the Prague Police Station
murders. He says that he only just recently gained
the confidence to be a detective. It was a surprise
even to me that he listed his personal mentors as not
only Grimmer, but Inspector Lunge as well.

— So what was it?

"I'll tell you what I know. It was built over a century

ago, and it was the home of a Czech nobleman. The
roses had been planted there way back then. The
owner in the 1 930s was a member of the
Czechoslovakian National Assembly, had been a
strong proponent of Czech independence, and
opened up the mansion for studying and the
betterment of the Czech people. After the Munich
Agreement, he traveled Europe, preaching of Hitler's
sinister plans and the danger to the Czech people,
trying to gain support to scrap the agreement. But
in the following year, he was assassinated... The
next person to own the mansion was a
Sudetendeutsch who had moved there from
Bohemia. He was a former Sudeten German
politician who took no time at all in joining the
newly-powerful Nazi party, where he had Hitler's
stamp of approval to round up and imprison anti-
German activists. He found it amusing that his home
had previously been used to rally for Czech
independence, and decided to convene gatherings
to "reform" anti-Nazis... As you can imagine, this
was not a peaceful study group but simple torture.
According to an elderly man we talked to who had
lived in the area for decades, it used to be called
the "Mansion of
Terror," that people would be taken inside and
never come out, and that bloodcurdling screams
could be heard issuing forth from the building late
at night. Another old man said that at that time, the
children of the neighborhood believed a monster
slept in the basement of the Red Rose Mansion.
The monster had once been a Czech, but now hated
both the Czechs and Germans. Possessing ten horns
and seven heads, it was a terrifying thing to behold,
and if it were to reawaken, it would cast an evil
spell on Prague that would set the Czechs and
Germans to killing one another. A sort of an urban
legend, if you will..."

— Who owned the mansion following World War Two?

"The day the Germans surrended, the Sudeten

German who owned the mansion was killed. After
that, some government officials lived in the mansion
during the communist regime, but they would all
move out soon afterward. In the late '50s, no one
lived there at all, as the Internal Affairs Ministry and
secret police used it for secret meetings and such.
I'd bet Bonaparta first came to the mansion in the
early '60s."

— And what did he end up doing there?

"As I said before, we don't really know. What we do

know is that this one young, brilliant psychiatrist
managed to forge an ironclad trust with the
communist party leaders, Internal Affairs ministers,
head of the secret police and military generals,
created a laboratory to work on recreating the
human mind from scratch, matched to his own
whims...
According to one person, he could brainwash the
government's most feared liberal activists in mere
hours, to use as double agents. According to another
source, he was capable of helping the party elite
cast off unpleasant lower officials by forcing them to
commit suicide. The late '70s through the '80s was
an age characterized by secret battles
with freedom movements like Charter 77 that nearly
did have the power to overthrow the government...
The state was more than willing to throw money at
people or experiments that promised it the ability to
control peoples' minds."
I searched for clues of Johan in the back alleys of
Prague.
— It's been reported that a large number of human
skeletons were discovered from the remains of the
mansion.

"That is the truth. We initially found the bones of

45... no, 46 people."

— Initially?

"Yes. After that, we kept digging up more skeletons.

Older ones than the first batch... We guess they're
probably from the days of Nazi control."

— What could possibly have happened there? I am

referring to the original 46 skeletons.

"Actually, some of the bones are incomplete or

damaged. A scientific analysis showed probable
damage from nitric acid. Which would mean they
were poisoned..."

— Could they be the bones of anti-government

agitators?

"Well, it's true that people were imprisoned inside

the Red Rose Mansion, but these remains appear to
belong to something else. Of the 46 skeletons
uncovered, 40 were men, 4 women, and 2 children,
and thanks to some scraps of barely-preserved
fabric on the bodies, we know that they died
wearing suits."

— So, they could have been staff that

worked at the mansion.

"I believe that the staff are included in that total.

According to our questioning, we've been told that
several psychologists and psychiatrists that
frequented the mansion did go missing at some
point in time..."
— Who would have poisoned them?
 "I don't know. At this point, I don't think anybody
knows." — Can you tell me what you've learned
about the reading seminar system, through your
questioning?

"The number of seminar members that I was able to

find was seven. But as I said earlier, we could only
get five of them to agree to speak with us... The
eldest was in his 40s, the youngest in his 30s. It
seems the seminar was held from the mid-1 960s to
about 1981. At the time, the boys would have been
5-1 0... They were forced to participate once a
week, at 3 o'clock on Friday. There would be five to
six people present. And they would read a
storybook."

— How were the boys chosen for this?

"We also interviewed their parents, but oddly

enough, none of them had very clear memories of
it. All they understood was that they allowed their
sons to take part in a government-sponsored
education program, and aside from that, it was as
if they had never even considered how the boys
might have been chosen in the first place. And just
so you know, their parents were neither anti-
government radicals, nor steadfast party members,
but perfectly normal citizens."

— How many boys do you suppose

participated in the seminar altogether?

"Well, taking all the details mentioned by our five

interviewees together, we can estimate probably
around two hundred."

— Who burned down the mansion? It's said it

was arson. "...I'd say Johan. Wouldn't you

assume?"
 — Is it possible that he could have taken something
from the mansion? When he burned it down.

"What do you mean?"

— For instance, say there was a registry of the

seminar members, that was still hidden in the
mansion...

"Oh, I never even thought of that. If he was looking for

the list from Kinderheim 511, it's certainly possible
he could have done the same here. But I have the
feeling that even if such a registry existed, Johan
might not be interested in it.
He altered that tape that was in the security box, to
leave a message to Dr. Tenma at the end. He said
that he finally knew where he was going. He was
following his memories. So in the instant that he
arrived at the Red Rose Mansion and understood his
own identity, he lost all interest in controlling
others... or so I think."

— Lastly, how do you feel personally about the

string of incidents?

"...I feel that evil does exist. Just as a tiny snowball

picks up momentum and grows

larger, evil sets off chain reactions. Johan just set

loose a little bit of evil in the town, and it turned
into an uncontrollable monster. The larger case
seems to have been solved, but perhaps it was only
that the evil has left the town. Perhaps the giant
snowball of evil is still rolling ever larger,
elsewhere... I still have this nightmare even now."

I still wanted to know more about the Red Rose

Mansion. At the very least, this was the genesis of
Johan's personality.
When I told Agent Suk this, he gave me three
names. One was a member of the seminar, another
was a lawyer representing a group attempting to
have the crimes of the
secret police brought to light and prosecuted in
court, and the last was a high-ranking member of
those secret police. Agent Suk laughed and said that
this last man would require some courage to meet in
person. Perhaps he meant that I was not guaranteed
to survive such a meeting. But I accepted Agent
Suk's intermediation.

I was prepared.
 Chapter 3 - Eva Heinemann
Eva Heinemann showed up to the stylish cafe she
suggested along the banks of the Rhine in
Dusseldorf's old town neighborhood at 6:40 PM.
Despite her beauty and extremely refined manner,
she had a constant glare she affixed to the target of
her attention, as if she was constantly being put
into a bad mood by your presence. She was
apparently on her way home after her job as a
kitchen design consultant, decked out in signs of
affluence — a black Valentino jacket, a Bulgari
watch, Chaumet rings.

Actually, she had only agreed to my interview by

adhering it to such strict terms as, "5:30 on the dot.
And I'll be busy, so I can only be there for fifteen
minutes. If you show up late, I'm just going to
cancel." I had taken a seat at 5:20, and ended up
waiting over an hour past the time she stated. But
Eva Heinemann's excuse for being late (although it
seemed more like a complaint to me) was that
someone at her office had quit without warning, and
she had to make an unscheduled meeting with a
designer. She sat down, ordered a cappucino,
crossed her legs and then lit a Marlboro Light
without missing a beat.

— You and Dr. Tenma were engaged. But right

before your father passed away, the engagement
was cancelled. Was there some kind of political
design for your marriage?

"Hospitals and medicine, they're still a world of

politics and power. At that time, my father was
preparing to run for the German Medical Association
chairman, and he would not tolerate any mistakes,
whether in operations or anything else, from his own
hospital. He needed a right-hand man who he could
put his full trust in."
— And that was Tenma?

"He was a perfect doctor. And the type of career

worker who held no ambitions... A safe partner for
my father to choose. He wouldn't need to worry
about being bitten."

— And yet, he was?

"I don't know why he did it... The day before, he was
supposed to do an operation on some Turkish man,
but my father cancelled it and ordered him to work
on a famous opera singer. But the Turkish man died,
so he became very upset about the whole thing. And
when he worries, he worries enough for two people...
And I told him that people's lives aren't equal, but he
didn't get it."

— Forgive me for being so direct, but did you

love Dr. Tenma?

"My father was a very politically-minded man, but

he wasn't so despotic that he would force me to
marry someone if I said 'nicht.' I chose a man who
would make me happy. And that was Kenzo... Did I
love him? Yes, I did."

— Then why such a one-sided nullification

of your engagement?

"I told you. My father needed a right-hand man he

could trust, and I wanted to be happy. Kenzo's
actions failed both of these conditions. There was
nothing else to be done."

— Do you think Tenma loved you?

"He would do anything I told him to do. Even after

he refused to work on the mayor and I called it off,
he still wanted to get married. He was so indecisive
about anything other
than his work as a doctor. He needed a woman like
me who could make all the decisions."

— Do you think he was disgusted with you

when you cancelled the marriage?

"Sure, he was. After my father died and I was feeling

very timid, I pleaded for him to come back to me,
but he wasn't that considerate. He was cold to me.
Although I realize now that I was at fault."

— And then you were disgusted with him,

after that? "Yes, I was furious."

— And you married three times since then.

"Yes, and the divorce settlements have left me with

enough money to live in comfort for the rest of my
life."

— What were you thinking when your father passed

away so suddenly?

"I was completely panicked. My father had been fine

just the day before... and when I looked into the
study, he was sitting there, dead."

— Did you suspect Tenma? He had been furious

with you two.

"Not for a second. It would be literally impossible for

him to kill someone. He may have been furious, and
he may have wished we were dead, but that man
wouldn't kill a fly.

At the time, of course."

— After that, Dr. Tenma became the head surgeon.

What did you think of that?
 "Nothing at all. When those in power die, the winds
shift direction immediately.

Next, the leader of those in opposition to my father

became the top brass, and criticized my father's
business decisions... Kenzo was lucky that Father
had abandoned him. He was an excellent doctor
already, so it made sense that they would appoint
him."

— Nine years after your father passed away, a

lockpicker named Junkers was shot to death by Johan
in an abandoned building near the hospital. The BKA
says that you and Dr.
Tenma were witnesses.

"I've already told the police all about that. Why don't
you ask them for the full details?"

— Was it by coincidence that you happened to be

near that abandoned building?

"...yes, that was coincidental."

— And that's where you saw Johan. What was

your impression of him?

"I don't want to say. I don't even want to think about

that monster or the people who flocked to his side."

— You did not testify for Tenma's innocence until

the very end. Do you feel that you are responsible
for making things more complicated than they
could have been?

"Of course; why else would I agree to such a pathetic

interview? This is how I atone. Not just to him, but to
all the people who were drawn into this. All the
people who died..."
I realized for the first time that she was a very
vulnerable woman. Her haughty attitude was used to
hide this fact. When I offered to buy her a drink, she
refused, ordering another coffee instead, and lit a
cigarette.

Eva Heinemann was as beautiful as I had heard.

Behind her haughty exterior, I could see she hid a
very shrewd and calculating mind. During the
interview, she admitted that she had dealt with a
terrible streak of alcoholism. She overcame her
drinking problems with the help of one of the men
involved in the Johan case, Dr. Reichwein.

— Let's go back to Tenma. One of his middle

school friends in Japan had trouble remembering
Tenma's favorite song.
Would you happen to know what it was?
(instantly) "'Let's Stay Together.' Al Green's 'Let's
Stay Together.' It was a good song. I don't listen to it
now, because of the memories it recalls... but it's a
good song. Kenzo liked the theme of the song. Kenzo
got lonesome easily, and he was always alone.

He had a longing for a regular life, a regular father

and mother, regular girlfriend, regular family."

— What about friends? Did he seek friends,

here in Germany?

"Surprisingly, no. When you're a surgeon working in

stressful and uneven conditions, it's hard to make
friends with anyone other than your colleagues. The
only person like that for Tenma was Dr. Becker... in
my opinion, a worthless, tardy slob of a doctor, but
for some reason, Kenzo opened up to him. I suppose
they complained about my father and the hospital
to each other. Kenzo doesn't really pay much
attention to the status or work habits of others. He
likes people who can be frank about things, no
matter how sly they act. He seems oddly drawn to
those who are outspoken and invasive."

— What did Dr. Becker think of Tenma?

"I don't know, why don't you ask him? Becker was
probably jealous of Kenzo's life. Before all the stuff
happened to him, of course. When Kenzo got into all
that trouble, you'd think Becker would revel in his
downfall, but he wasn't as nasty as that, after all.
Everyone knew Becker was a worthless doctor. Only
Kenzo treated him as an equal, and for that reason,
he trusted him... I'm sure that whenever he was
around Kenzo, Becker thought that maybe he
wasn't so bad after all."

— So, what was it you liked about Tenma?

"Like I said earlier, Kenzo would let me do whatever I
wanted. If I acted ill-tempered, he'd just smile... And
he would apologize. Even if it was my fault. So I
thought that he was a truly dependant person; that
he couldn't live without me. But it was really the
opposite. When I was with him, I could do anything.
When Kenzo was by my side, I felt like I had the
right to live. Kenzo relied on me... He accepted
people and never turned them away, and for that
reason, he was praised and respected. So when he
was there, I felt like my life was worth something."

Eva Heinemann looked at her watch, and said she

needed to go. She apparently lives alone in an
apartment in the high- class part of town across the
Rhine. I've got to go back to work, she said. I've
hardly cooked a meal in my life, but I'm a kitchen
coordinator for the rich and famous... And I don't
have any talent for utilizing others, so I'll probably
quit soon, she laughed. She said that if I had any
more questions, I should send her an e-mail
(Surprisingly enough, several days after sending my
additional questions, I received an honest, thorough
reply).

Before she left, I asked her, back then you told Tenma
that human life was not equal. Do you still believe
that, even now?

"Yes, I still do," she answered, as she stood up.

 Chapter 6 - Multiple
Personalities
The next place Kenzo Tenma appeared is said to
be Frankfurt. He was following Officer Messner, one
of the policemen who shot and killed Nina's foster
parents, the Fortners, and Mauler the newswriter.
Four months after the murders, Messner was
dismissed from the Mannheim Police force for
possession of drugs (making the news in the
process), and for some reason had been hired by
an ultra- right-wing organization. The leader of this
organization was nicknamed the "Baby," a high-
ranking member of the infamous Neo-Nazi "Pure
German People's Party" and "Reform and Progress
Party."

Following the reunification of Germany, he was

involved in "building communities of pure German
peoples" in Dresden, but had returned to Frankfurt
when the authorities chased him off.

Communism and Nazism — judging from World

War Two, a pair of ideologies that were not meant
to mix. Hitler preached anti-communism and
tortured those communists he could catch. After the
war, the communist countries actively purged Nazi
sympathizers, and nowhere was this more fervently
pursued than in East Germany. It is ironic that after
the collapse of the Soviet Union, it was East
Germany where Neo-Nazism most prominently
surfaced. It seems to be true that chasing Nazi war
criminals from office did little to alter the ideals or
attitudes of the populace, especially when the
Soviet puppet government maintained the same
kind of militaristic system the Nazis already had in
place.
According to Inspector Lunge, Tenma successfully
made contact with Messner and gained new
information about
Johan, or rather, learned that there was a Neo-Nazi
group attempting to manipulate Johan. We must
assume here that Tenma also succeeded in meeting
Johan's younger sister Anna (Nina) as she tracked
down her brother. Most likely, the ultra-rightists
hired Messner to help them catch Nina, in order to
use her as bait to lure Johan in (also, one month
later after meeting Tenma, Messner was stabbed to
death in an incident involving drugs, and his partner
in the Heidelberg Murders, Officer Mueller, was shot
and killed in Southern France two months
afterward.)

There were two curious events that occurred in

Frankfurt during Tenma's stay — In the first, a
number of dead bodies were uncovered, one of
which belonged to Gunther Geidlitz, a professor at
Dresden University. He was a guest of the Baby's,
and a verified Neo-Nazi supporter. The other was a
failed attempt to burn down the Turkish quarter of
town.

In order to explain why the Neo-Nazis were so intent

on chasing out the Turks, one must start with the
actions of the West German government from 1 961
onward in attracting Turkish immigrants for manual
labor. When the economy soured and
unemployment rose, the far right were quick to
single out the Turks, who made up the largest
percentage of Gastarbeiter (foreign workers). With
the adverse economic effects of the German
reunification, this anger only intensified.

The attempt to burn down Frankfurt's Turkish

neighborhood centered around Calvin Street ended
in failure, but it was clearly the work of the Baby's
organization. He managed to evade prosecution on a
technicality, but the local police officers firmly
believe he was the eone responsible. It is not clear
how these two events are tied together with the
Neo- Nazis attempt to lure Johan to them, but the
planning of the
Baby and Professor Geidlitz was clearly a failure, and
Tenma once again found Johan slipping out of his
grasp.

However, Tenma did manage to find clues to the

mystery of Johan. One of them was an encounter with
General Wolf, the man who found Johan at the border
between East Germany and Czechoslovakia and gave
him his name (though at this time, Tenma was not
aware that Johan had any connection to
Czechoslovakia).

I inquired about General Wolf at the government

registry office in Berlin, but the clerks could not find
any files on him. The general himself probably had
his records from the East German "Stasi" secret
police erased, but it is simply unthinkable that there
could be absolutely no trace of him whatsoever. I
must assume that this is another case of Johan's
powers at work.

On the other hand, the BKA suspects that General

Wolf was not a member of the secret police, but a
former border patrol or special unit soldier — likely
one that took part in or advised the army in
clandestine operations.

The other clue Tenma found was a hand-written

message from Johan at an abandoned warehouse in
Romberg. "Help! The monster inside me is about to
explode!"

From this eerie message, Tenma began to suspect that

Johan had dissociative identity disorder: multiple
personalities.

In order to unravel this mystery, he decided to visit

his college classmate, Dr. Rudi Gillen, a
psychiatrist and expert in the realm of criminal
psychology.
 Chapter 15 - The Red Rose
Mansion
Around the time that Agent Suk was being further
sucked into the darkness surrounding Johan and the
Czechoslovakian secret police and suspected of
being responsible for multiple murders, Kenzo
Tenma had found the signboard of the "Three
Frogs" on the Mill Colonnade in Prague and was
asking the town's residents for any kind of info
relating to Johan. The Mill Colonnade is on the west
side of Charles Bridge — a street facing Cedok
Bridge aside one of the tributaries of the Vltava
River, and a slightly gloomy, run-down stretch of
land. According to local residents, over a dozen
years ago, a beautiful woman and her child lived in
the second floor of the building with the "Three
Frogs" signboard. They stayed quietly, rarely
leaving the house, until one day, a large black
government car arrived and took them away. The
neighbors whispered among each other, speculating
that she was an anti-government activist, and that
she would never come back. When Tenma asked if
her children were twins, he was told no, there was
only one, and though it was very pretty, the man
couldn't remember if it was a boy or a girl. The man
then went on. Just a few weeks after the family had
been abducted, the "Three Frogs" building was hit
by a fire. When he looked at the window of the room
the woman had been staying in, he saw the figure
of her child. The neighbors managed to rescue the
child, but it had disappeared soon afterwards...

Next, Tenma would visit the Czech branch office of the

German Lower Saxony area newspaper, Tukunft. He
found an interview the paper had published with an
anonymous former Czechoslovakian secret police
member (actually Ranke), and hoped to contact the
man and find out anything he could about Johan's
mother. However, he would also
coincidentally learn of Suk's case due to its similar
connections to the secret police. A promising elite...
One significant accomplishment... Three superiors
poisoned... whiskey bonbons... muscle relaxants... It
was clearly the work of none other than Johan
himself.

Tenma visited Jan Suk's Alzheimer's-afflicted mother

in the hospital, and sleuthed out his hiding spot from
her. Upon visiting the location, he found Suk and
Grimmer injured and under fire from ex-secret police
agents. Tenma and Grimmer approached the boss of
the remaining secret police, Captain Ranke, and
convinced him to stay out of Johan's business.
Ranke listened to Johan's tape, took Tenma's
warnings to heart, and told him of the man from the
"Red Rose Mansion." It was the not the
Czechoslovakian secret police that birthed Johan the
"Monster," but a single children's storybook artist,
Franz Bonaparta...

Simultaneously in Prague, Inspector Lunge had just

arrived at Franz Bonaparta as well. He visited used
book stores, and eventually ended up at Moravia
Books, the publisher of Emil Sebe's "The Nameless
Monster." Sebe's editor told Lunge that he had had
several pen names. Lunge then discovered several
sketchbooks in a box of Klaus Poppe's manuscripts.

In the books were many sketches of a pregnant

mother, then twin children, a boy and a girl with
identical features. This convinced Lunge that
Tenma's testimony was, in fact, true.

Lunge met with Suk, who was under the protection

of the secret police, and spoke with Captain Karel
Ranke. The captain gave Lunge information on the Red
Rose Mansion.
To reach the Red Rose Mansion, you go south along
the river through the Jewish neighborhood, cross
Manesuv Bridge, then climb as if circling Prague
Castle, to the west.
Proceeding further out from the city from Hradcany,
through Dejvice, the mansion sat on a small hill
overlooking Brevnov, on the way to Ruzyne Airport.
The landmarks are a weathervane to the right, and
the steeple of St. Alzbeta's Church to the left...
Inspector Lunge had finally arrived at an eerie
mansion surrounded by dried-up rose shrubs, like
the castle in "Sleeping Beauty." He entered the
building without hesitation and relentlessly
searched the interior. Upon seeing a particular wall
on the second floor, Lunge had an instant hunch
that it was hastily constructed, almost as if to hide
something. Lunge turned back to ask Ranke what
was behind the door, but Ranke warned him to stay
away from the mansion — "If you get any closer to
that mansion, you could die... You will come face to
face with true terror."

But upon returning to the mansion, Lunge broke

down the wall without a moment's thought. What he
found was a door leading into another room. Lunge
put his hand on the knob. What lay behind it...?

At this time, Tenma was visiting the home of Klaus

Poppe's former editor, one Tomas Zobak. At this
point I would like to interrupt the description of the
case and present an interview I conducted with Mr.
Zobak. I do this because he said some things that
were extremely important, in order to know who the
man Franz Bonaparta was.

The Red Rose Mansion area in Prague is still under

investigation by the police, and unapproachable. I
tried to get a photo from my car. Next door to the
house seen behind the trees in the lower right are
the ruins in question.

Tomas Zobak is a retired editor, now nearing 70. He

has a wide, hearty girth. Mostly bald, with a
rounded face and glasses, he appears very kindly.
But he has a sharp mind. He reads papers from all
over the world every day, committing
the articles to memory. It was this memory that
helped him recognize Tenma from the wanted lists.
After Tenma left his house, he immediately
informed the police, and helped them make the
arrest.

— How did you feel when Dr. Tenma was arrested?

"I felt good. I enjoy reading the paper every

morning, so it was nice to have that actually come
in useful for once. When I saw the news that Tenma
had admitted his guilt in the events, I almost got
excited wondering if I was going to receive some
sort of prize or reward."

— What about when he escaped from prison?

"I was terrified. I couldn't sleep at night because I

was afraid he would come after me for revenge."

— Why did you suppose Tenma came to speak with

you?

"Well, he actually came to ask me about Klaus

Poppe... Franz Bonaparta, that is. I recall that some
German police investigator had commented in a
news article once that Tenma had created this
falsified killer in his mind, and was committing
these murders while having this hallucination, so I
supposed that perhaps Tenma had convinced
himself that Klaus Poppe was in fact this killer he
had invented...
Having worked with Poppe for many years, I can
understand how his works might have, er... sent
that sort of signal into the mind of this sort of
deranged man."

— I'd like to ask about Klaus Poppe, then. What was

he like?
"I was his editor starting around 1970. He was
involved with some sort of secret government work,
and though he was very friendly and pleasant with
me, I quickly understood that he was firmly in the
center of state power. He seemed to
have given the previous editor an impression of
being very proud. The man told me when I took his
position that I would find it very hard... He had been
involved with Klaus for over ten years. Klaus was a
good study and had plenty of talent when he was
still a medical student, so they assumed he would
make an excellent author. But when he published
some monumentally important psychiatric paper
and it was sent to the Internal Ministry and East
German government, he announced that he would
change his storybook method to an innovative new
educational style. After that point, his personality
changed, and he became cold, haughty, and
self-assured. His art and voice kept improving, but
there was always this hidden hint of unpleasantness
about it. I didn't know why he had to keep changing
his pen name, either...
But he did have constant, solid sales. I guess that's
why Moravia stuck with him all that time."

— It wasn't because Bonaparta was an

important government figure?

"Well, there is that, too. But there was never a single

hint of pressure, from him or any government
source, to publish his books. And in fact, I rejected
several of his ideas. Here's an anecdote for you.
Either from 1976 or '77. I was worried about Klaus,
as I hadn't heard from him in over a year, and then
he shows up out of the blue, with a new work.

When I asked what he had been doing, Klaus told

me he had been experimenting with something
new. He said that he had thought of a surefire way
to make two people fall in

love. I laughed and told him he should put the

storybooks behind him and sell his new manual to
young people; he'd end up being the richest man in
the world. And he told me, with a totally straight
face, that it was only a method to make two other
people fall in love, not make someone fall in
love with you. So then he showed me his new
work, but it was nearly identical to a horror novel
that I had read when I traveled in West Germany.
What was it... Rosemary's Baby? His story was told
in the first person through the eyes of a young boy.
His mother was pregnant with twins, and for some
reason he was worried that a monster would be
born instead. I rejected that manuscript. It clearly
wasn't a story for kids."

— And in the story, were the twins monsters?

"No, as I recall, the boy himself was the monster.

But Klaus Poppe's weirdness came in when the boy
feels relief at finding out that he is the monster, and
ends up loving his little brother and sister like a
normal sibling."
Tomas Zobak was an editor for Franz Bonaparta. He
was aware of Bonaparta's connection to the
Czechoslovakian secret police.

— Did he ever speak to you about the Red Rose

Mansion?

"No, not as far as I can recollect. No, wait... He did

tell me once about his reading seminar, but I don't
remember when that was. He said that he read his
books to a group of boys. I didn't really think much
of it at the time. I just said, oh really? And how were
the boys? He said one of them wished to be a
storybook author as well, a very bright and
promising boy, and would I take a look at his work
sometime? As I recall, I said that I would, but he
never did bring the young man in."

— When was the last time you saw Bonaparta?

"'81or '82. His newest work was dreadful. It was like

a mix of Beauty and the Beast and Sleeping Beauty,
very silly... The monster fell in love. In the end, his
love bears no fruit, and he enters a deep sleep..."

— And you scrapped it?

"That's right. He looked so disappointed, that we

actually sat down and had a very long conversation.
Over tea and pastries, as was his style. Suddenly,
he told me that he never realized how painful it was
to be hated. When I asked him what he did that
someone would hate him, he told me
that he stole their name. When you take their name,
the person dies... He first tried this on his father... I
thought, what a perfectly strange thing to say! He
went on, almost as if he were talking to himself
rather than me, saying... People who have their
names taken away die in despair, and will accept
any name you give them, just so that does not
happen... Anyone who could lose their name but still
survive would be a true hero."

— Did he tell you anything else?

"As he was leaving, he told me about another story

he had thought of. He said, how about a story about
the 'Door That Must Not Be Opened'? So I asked him,
what's behind it, paradise or another monster? And
then he said, well, you're not allowed to open the
door, so I guess it wouldn't be much of a story. That
was the last time I saw him."
(Storybook page: "No, absolutely not, said the man
with big eyes." "Sure, let's make a deal, said the man
with the big
mouth.") A scene from "The Man With Big Eyes and the
Man With the Big Mouth" (Japanese edition), one of the
books used at the infamous reading seminar. The
inexplicable bad aftertaste common to his works is
present here as well.

In the Red Rose Mansion, Inspector Lunge opened

the door that must not be opened. Step by step, he
walked further into the dim interior. It was an
enormous hall. He has revealed his thoughts on
entering that room. Inspector Lunge stated that his
first instinct was that many people had died there.
Further into the room was an enormous portrait
— yes, a portrait of the twins' mother — hanging
on the wall.

While Lunge was making this momentous discovery,

Tenma had finally been caught by the police. At the
same time, Suk's innocence had been proven by a
letter from one Grimmer, claiming to be the true
culprit in these crimes.

Inspector Lunge was notified of Tenma's arrest,

what would be the end of a case that could almost
be described as his masterwork, but his interest was
already drawn to the Red Rose Mansion. He found a
mysterious note pinned to the back of the mother's
portrait — A manuscript titled "The Monster's Love
Letter to the Woman," scrawled in German. It said
"I've always been watching you. I've been watching
you, to take in everything about you. But instead,
everything about you has devoured me. How did I
seem to you on the verge of my downfall? What you
gave to me as I crashed... You left me with beautiful
jewels. Those two eternal twins. The greatest crime
one can commit is to take away another's name.
You may have your name back. I return your name
to you. Your name is Anna... Now, I am only sad.
Sad. Sad. Sad."
Thus the inspector's convictions became rock-solid.
Many people died in the giant sealed hall of the Red
Rose Mansion,
and a monster was born.
 Chapter 19 - Fritz Verdeman
Near the end of August, I began to feel that
additional research would be necessary in the Czech
Republic to solve the Johan mystery. One, should I
head to Brno, to investigate Johan's mother's identity?
Two, should I head to Bohemia, the place of Johan's
father's birth, and look for German career soldiers?
But Bohemia is a very large area, and I would need
additional clues... Three, should I visit the Bohemian
town of Jablonec, the town of Bonaparta's birth, for
more info on his background? Four, should I look into
the identities of the 46 bodies found at the Red Rose
Mansion, and interview the families of the researchers
who disappeared? I marked these priorities down in
my memo book, and decided to extend my stay in
the area.

It was at this time that fortunately (or

unfortunately), I received a sudden call from Hr.
Fritz Verdemann, the Dusseldorf-based lawyer who
had been unable to grant my interview requests on
several occasions due to the busyness of his
schedule. He informed me that he had one free hour
tomorrow for an interview. He had represented Dr.
Tenma in court, knew Inspector Lunge and Agent
Suk, and had looked into the past of the mysterious
freelance journalist, Grimmer.

It was Verdemann's reputation for overturning false

charges that got him involved with this case to begin
with. It was my interest in how he decided that a
person's charges were just or false, why he chose to
approach Tenma after the doctor was to be tried
and yet did not hire an attorney — and how he
convinced Tenma to open his heart to him — that
made me decide to leave Prague at this time to
meet him.

Perhaps the one thing most necessary to

understand Dr. Verdemann is the scandal of his
father, Stefan Verdemann.
In 1 968, in the midst of the Cold War, Verdemann,
an electronics wholesaler who bought ownership of
the radio station KWFM, was charged with spying
and the murder of a federal Parliament member's
secretary, and sentenced to twenty years in prison.
Fritz's father maintained his innocence vehemently,
but died in prison, in 1972.

In 1 973, as relations between East and West began

to thaw, the highest court in the nation overturned
the sentence, restoring the honor of the Verdemann
name. At this time, Fritz was in a gymnasium school.

He studied hard, graduation from law school, joined

the prestigious Hoffman Law Firm, and successfully
proved his client innocent in the famous Heinz
Holliger case. A successful string of consecutive
innocent verdicts led to the "son of the spy" being a
star of the legal world.

Dr. Verdemann greeted me in a compact office.

Dressed in a white shirt with necktie, he was
surrounded by papers, and appeared to be very
busy. He stood up, shook my hand, and apologized
for refusing my earlier requests, and the sudden
nature of his offer. His manner struck me as quite
different from the image I had been led to expect,
that of the nononsense professional, the sharp
gambler. I found him to be passionate and dedicated
to justice.

— I'd like to start with Dr. Tenma... Can you tell

me what it was that led you to take on his case?

"The original request came from a very wealthy

man. I am naturally suspicious and sensed some
political sneakiness behind it, so I declined."

— That would be the request from Herr

Schuwald...or perhaps his son, Karl. I have
permission from both of them. You may tell me if
this is so.
"Yes, that would be correct, but after that... I received
an offer from a man named Alfred Baul, who
wanted to partner with me in representing Tenma.
He was hired by a group of Tenma's former
patients, and it was from this that I soon discovered
Tenma was actually a strong humanitarian and
excellent doctor. I met with Dr. Tenma, my mental
innocence sensor began to go off, and I considered
representing him in court."

— You have a reputation for striking down false

charges. Does the choice to represent a client
stem from a hunch?

"Yes... From the person's reputation and deeds, what

they have done in life. I scrutinize them once
someone has requested my help. After all, the
enthusiasm that the client has for saving the
defendant is often a valuable study asset."

— What do you think of the public perception that

you are coolly assessing your chance of winning or
losing when you make that decision?

"Well, that actually does happen, even after I accept

their case, so it doesn't bother me. The thing is, as
you know, I have my father's yoke around my neck.
It's only natural that I am interested in winning,
because I want to help those who have a chance of
having their charges dismissed."

— And what was your impression of Tenma, when

you met him?

"I had never seen such a strange man. He was more

interested in proving the existence and danger of
this young man named Johan than in proving his own
innocence."
— Did you think he was innocent?
"Yes. I knew from the instant I saw him. However, I
also felt that he was in danger of martyring himself.
I received that impression when he told me of how
the entire string of events started."

— Started?

"Yes. Dr. Tenma had followed his boss's orders and

changed the order of his operating patients. After
the person he bumped downward died, he blamed
himself terribly. When the same case occurred
again, he ignored his orders and did the original
surgery. It was Johan whom he saved that time...
Johan, the murderer. He tried to escape his position
bearing this enormous cross, wondering if all lives
were truly equal or not."

— And how did it happen that you were asked

to take Tenma's case?

"It took a tearful plea...to me. My clients were actually

a list of Dr. Tenma's former patients. I wanted to
save this man, save Tenma. I believed in his
innocence."

— And so you began your investigation. Later

you would find help in Dr. Reichwein and Eva
Heinemann.

"It was hard to say whether or not Eva Heinemann

was there to help or not... But as I said earlier, once
I believe in a person's innocence, I become very
concerned with the outcome of the case. I wanted
to keep what Tenma did in Munich quiet... I wanted
to hide that he had infiltrated the library to kill
Johan. In fact, I found that Eva's testimony would be
the quickest key to win his freedom."

— But Tenma suddenly and unexpectedly

admitted his guilt...
"Tenma was a hard man to work with. A man with
such a cross on his back does not play by society's
rules. That action of his was infuriating, but I soon
recovered. I suspected that something must have
happened to him that he could not ignore."

— And then he escaped from prison.

"Technically, he escaped while being escorted. It was

planned. There was a professional bank robber
named Gunter Milch involved with this. He was a
habitual escapee, and a romantic... Tenma found
that he had won this man's trust in a short period of
time."

— What happened to Milch?

"I represented him in court recently. He is still in

prison, but I've demanded that he not escape. I
told him that if stays put and gets out on good
behavior, I'd send him to Tunisia. I've been
accepting every case I can that is related to
Tenma."

— What happened with Tenma's escape?

"It was my partner's fault, Baul. No, it was my fault,

for letting him deceive me. He was not even a
lawyer. He was a loyal servant of Johan's...an
assassin named Roberto. He lit a fire under Tenma by
meeting with him in prison, and saying that he
would kill Eva. It was only natural that Tenma would
lose faith in me as well... Tenma took matters into
his own hands to save Eva. He took responsibility
for the crimes, and waited for his chance to
escape."

— What I'm interested in is this Roberto fellow. Who

was he?
"I've looked all over the place, but I just don't know.
He first appeared in this entire string of events as
the man who
killed Mueller, one of the policemen responsible for
the murder of the Fortners. He's clearly a
soldier...possibly from a special unit. I think he
came from East Germany. He was known for saying
that he came from a country that does not exist."

— What do you suppose it was that drew him to

Johan?

"I do not know. But I heard something very

interesting from Inspector Lunge. As you know, Herr
Lunge was nearly killed by Roberto, in Ruhenheim...
As his consciousness slipped away, he heard Roberto
speaking. He says, who am I? I have no name...no
country...no memories. The first thing I remember is
leaving the orphanage and doing my jobs...
One day, Johan came to me, and he draws out my
one true memory... He comes to me, and pulls out a
mug... And I remember. I remember the one thing I
looked forward to at the orphanage... The weekly
mug of hot cocoa..."

— Do you think he was at Kinderheim 511?

"Well, we can't be certain, based on that

confession... But his story forms a strange
consistency with something in Mr. Grimmer's
journal."

— Grimmer's journal?

"I don't know if you'd call it a journal, or a memo

book, or a report... As you may or may not know, I
looked into Mr.
Grimmer's past, at the request of Agent Suk,
Inspector Lunge, and Dr. Tenma. I still have very
little idea who he actually was, but I found this
notebook among the belongings he kept in his
enormous bag. The journal had notes from the
meeting in which he and Tenma met with Captain
Ranke, formerly of the Czechoslovakian secret
police. Captain Ranke was looking for his nephew, who
was roughly the same age as Grimmer. Captain
Ranke's sister
had married an East German man, attempted to
defect, and was killed. He took her now-orphaned
son and placed him in the care of a facility that
came with the highest recommendation of the East
German authorities. That turned out to be
Kinderheim 511 ...but he did not understand what
that implied. The captain showed Mr.
Grimmer a photograph of his nephew, and asked if
he recognized him. At first, Mr. Grimmer told him
that the one constant between all the graduates of
Kinderheim 511 was that they couldn't remember
anything about it... But eventually, he did remember
the boy. He remembered a kindly boy who always
loved his weekly cup of cocoa...
Once, when Grimmer was feeling ill in the infirmary,
he came to give Grimmer his own cocoa, the cocoa
he loved so much... Grimmer felt thankful for the
cocoa, and wanted to show his thanks in some way.
So the boy said, remember me. Their strange
lessons and classes caused all the children to forget
even their own names. So he asked Grimmer to
remember him. And Grimmer told the captain... He
loved cocoa, he loved to draw, and he hated insect
collectors because they would kill the insects. He
wanted to be an entomologist. His name was Adolf
Reinhart, and that was indeed the name of Captain
Ranke's nephew."

— But, you don't mean...

"No, I cannot say for sure that it means Roberto is

Adolf. I'm sure many boys there loved their cocoa...
But you also cannot deny that it is a very interesting
consistency."

— I'll return the topic to Tenma. After he escaped,

where did he go?

"Dr. Tenma headed to Eva's hotel, to save her life.

Only Eva was already gone... He pointed a gun at
me, and asked where she was. He thought that I,
like Baul, was behind this
plot to murder her. When he realized that I really
didn't know anything, he put the gun down. I took
him to my house, thinking I would show him my
father's notebook. But the house had already been
ransacked, and a letter to Tenma had been left
there... 'Help me Kenzo, help me Kenzo... I've been
taken to the Red Rose Mansion...' It clearly wasn't
written by Eva, but Tenma went back to Prague
anyway."

— What was in your father's notebook?

Dr. Verdemann loosened his necktie, as if short of

breath. His brow glistened with a light sweat. He
sighed heavily, and looked at me with the same
expression he had when I first saw him. I
instinctively understood that he was going to reveal
something very important.

"The truth is, this is the first time I've ever revealed
what I'm about to say to the media. I have
thought very long and hard about whether to say
this or not, and that is why I declined your
interview requests several times. But Drs.
Reichweinn and Gillen have informed me that you
are a fair and honest journalist. You are the only
person I am willing to tell this information. May I
trust you?"

— What you are saying is that you do not believe

I am intending to write anything unrelated to
Johan which my subjects would prefer I did not
write.
Dr. Verdemann is renowned in the German legal world
for winning innocent verdicts. He is currently on a legal
team representing a hundred-year-old man tried for
being an ex- Nazi war criminal.

"No, I need to say this for the story to make sense. If

you don't write what I say now, the readers will not
believe my story. Because it was not coincidence
that drew me into the story of Johan."

— Not coincidence...?

"Yes... It involves my father. I was picked on terribly,

as a child. After he died in prison, my father's name
was cleared, but...the truth is...he really was a spy."

— And how do you know this?

"I found out when I was a student. I found a memo

book my father kept in the '60s. He had written all
sorts of code into it, as well as notes about the
Czechoslovakian secret police. It had notes about the
mysterious figure he had associated with, Franz
Bonaparta, and his Red Rose Mansion."

— Your father and Bonaparta are connected...?

"It was Inspector Lunge who first pointed this out.

My father's radio station had a program every
Tuesday called 'Fairytales of the World.' One of the
stories they broadcast was Klaus Poppe's 'Where Am
I?' Inspector Lunge also found, from my father's public
court records, that he had met with Poppe in
Czechoslovakia on several occasions. Lunge
suspected that my father knew Poppe's true identity.
Particularly due to their meeting in 1 966, which took
place
at the Red Rose Mansion itself. I turned the
inspector away, however. I did not show him my
father's memo book."

— And did Roberto take that memo book away?

"No, I hid it well enough to keep it safe. I'm sure that

Roberto approached me because he wanted that
book...but in the end, I gave it to Dr. Tenma. He took
it, and went back to the Czech Republic."

— Why do you think your father became a spy?

"My father was a Czech-German. He was a radio

operator in the war, and after Germany lost, he was
sent back to his homeland of Bohemia, where he
was imprisoned.

When they rounded up all the Sudeten Germans, he

lost all of his wealth, and he took his now-destitute
family to Munich. He founded a small electronics
company there, but he never stopped loving his
homeland, and he always hated the West German
government's indifference to the plight of Sudeten
refugees."

— The East German agents wouldn't overlook an

agent of discontent like him.

"Right. I think someone from the Eastern

government must have contacted him soon after he
established his radio station. I don't think my father
had even the slightest bit of affection for
communism...but I do think that being able to visit
Czechoslovakia freely was very important to him."

— When did your father return to Bohemia?

"According to the court records, it was '65. I

remember that he came back from Czechoslovakia
around this time, and hugged me excitedly, and told
me about our homeland of
Bohemia. At the time, the former Sudeten Germans
could not go back, no matter how much they
wanted to... But he did it. It seems only natural that
he would be excited, now."

— And what did he say about his homeland?

"It was like it was before. Exactly the same way he

remembered it, homes and all... The only difference
was that it was strangers who lived there."

— Excuse me; where exactly in Bohemia did he live?

"Reichenberg... It's a world-famous location for

linen. I visited the place, recently. I didn't know
which house was my father's, but they were all very
beautiful, art nouveau buildings. Yes, my father
visited his former home, and told me that he was
shocked. All the citizens of the town were supposed
to have been evacuated, but he ran into a familiar
face."

— A Czech citizen that he knew?

"No, it was in fact a German. The son of the family

that lived next door... He had become a
Czechoslovakian, and still lived there. As you can
probably guess, the neighbors were secretly some of
the few German people who gave assistance to the
Czech resistence."

— What was his name? Did he say what he was like?

"I don't remember the name. I think the neighbor

was about five years younger than my father, and he
was very smart and athletic when they were
children. Apparently he helped out at his own
father's business all through the war... He was an
undertaker. The story says that he and his father
would hide Czechs in coffins and ship them to
Lithuania. It was in recognition of this service that
they were spared exile. My
father laughed, and said that this fellow had
married at about twenty-five, and it was to a girl
who was said to be the most beautiful woman in the
next town over, half-German, half-Czech. In fact,
Father said that he had a thing for her when he was
younger, too. They had a son about my age, smart
like his father and handsome like his mother. When
my father asked the boy what he wanted to be as
an adult, the boy answered, 'a soldier.' Then the
neighbor turned and quite seriously expressed his
concern that the children of Germans such as
himself would not be able to find a job as career
soldiers. My father was disappointed to think that
discrimination was still a very real issue. But the
neighbor said that he knew two generations of
GermanCzechs in a nearby town that had achieved
very rare prominence in the government, so if it
came down to it, he would ask them for help... But
the catch was that this big-shot had known the
neighbor since they were children, and they had in
fact both vied for the love of the woman who had
eventually married the neighbor. He felt that the
man surely loathed and envied him by that point..."

— How do you feel about your father now?

"Hmmm...conflicted. I feel that because he died in

prison, he paid for much of his crime to the country.
If he was a true believer and dedicated communist, I
wouldn't think him a coward. But if this was done
out of anger at being driven from his homeland, and
his wish to return — and I feel that this might be
the case — then, how should I say this... He might
be traitor to his country... At the very least, well...
My mother died in '71 of anxiety, and she always
believed him. I wish he would have apologized to
her. The truth, you see, is that I have not been able
to trust in others for years. I still cannot reach an
answer on what kind of man my father was."
— Let us change the subject, then. You spoke about
Mr. Grimmer earlier. His role in this string of events
is very large, but we still don't really know much
about him.

"True. He says that he came from Kinderheim 511.

He was put in there around seven or eight, and left
at fourteen... at which point he was given the name
Wolfgang Grimmer. He was put in a home with a
surrogate father and mother, where he learned
several languages and went on to be a
journalist...but was clearly involved in
information...a spy.
After the fall of the Soviet Union, he became a true
journalist, studying and exposing the crimes of his
former nation, particularly crimes against children."

— How do you suppose he reached Bonaparta before

Tenma did?

"It seems that he had considerable pull with the

former East German secret police, more than we can
imagine. After all, he organized a meeting with
Captain Ranke in Prague, with little thought for his
own personal safety... Do you not think that this
tenacity and talent could only have come from a
graduate of Kinderheim 511?"

— Would it be possible for me to see his

journal, or his investigative report, whatever
you wish to call it?

"If you read it, you will be taking responsibility from

his shoulders. Mr. Grimmer wished to know exactly
what he was. He tried to save others like him from
the terror of the past... He wanted to know what the
members of the Red Rose Mansion's reading
seminar and Kinderheim 511 are doing now. That's
why he saved Bonaparta's life in Ruhenheim, when
he must have loathed the man enough to kill him.
He wanted to bring the truth to light... Are you going
to do that for him?"
I explained why I was following this case. The
problem is not something of the past, it is still
present. That's why I needed to know about the
members of the seminar and Kinderheim
511. Wouldn't that coincide with Mr. Grimmer's
wishes, to keep the same nightmare from
happening again in the future? Dr. Verdemann
expressed interest in my intentions, asked me a few
questions, then left the room and brought back a
notebook after several minutes. He handed me a
copy of the notebook, and said, "There are several
mysteries in his notations here, including some
illegible sections, and some parts which, when read
plainly, sound rather terrifying. But if what you seek
truly does exist, then it might make more sense.
Perhaps Mr. Grimmer was following the same logic
you are... If this copy helps you, then there is
something I very much hope you will do, in his
memory."

When I asked him what this was, Dr. Verdemann

laughed. "I want you to find out what the final
episode of the cartoon called 'The Magnificent
Steiner' was about."

I found the title, "The Magnificent Steiner" to be

very fascinating. Do you remember my question to
Agent Suk? (Suk chose not to comment on The
Magnificent Steiner, saying that he did not wish to
speak of it.) There are several facets of what
Grimmer had been involved in, the crimes of which
he was accused of committing, that simply cannot
be blamed on the actions of a mysterious,
unidentified blonde woman. Consider the fact that
there are two methods of murder found at the
scene, by gunshot and by physical violence — it is
as if there were two killers present at the time. As
a matter of fact, when I was combing leads on the
former secret police in Prague, I was fortunately
able to make contact with one of Ranke's men, who
was one of the men to fire at Mr. Grimmer and
Agent Suk.
The shooting was meant to be a surprise — six
men were supposed to shoot and kill the pair of
them without fear of any losses. As it happened,
they were all sent to the hospital. He described it
thusly: "The tall, thin one, he just turned into
some kind of monster. We had weapons, but it was
like he couldn't have possibly cared. He screamed
at us.J think he said 'Magnificent Steiner!' And he
moved so swiftly... He fought back with impossible
strength. He broke our bones with his bare hands,
and tore our skin. It was no karate, or martial
arts...

It was the way an animal would do it." This man

himself had suffered grievous injuries, and was
hospitalized.

If this story is true, it would mean that Mr. Grimmer

harbored multiple personalities. The moment I
realized that the Magnificent Steiner referred to a
cartoon program, I immediately wanted to study its
content.

As I left the Verdemann Legal Office, I asked him

once more about his father. I wanted to know what
kind of a father he felt he had, when he was a boy.
Dr. Verdemann answered without deliberating. "He
got full marks as a father. He loved his family, and
he treated me well. He rarely ever got angry, and I
never saw him fight with my mother. My father
often told me that it was necessary to always have
someone to love, in life. Love your family, love your
sweetheart, love your children... That is what keeps
you on the right path.
This he always told me. But after I learned the truth
about my father, I felt like I didn't understand him
anymore.
However, when I visited Prague in relation to the
Johan case three years ago, I discovered a bit of
truth that cheered me up."

He said that while interviewing people in Prague

whom had participated in the Red Rose Mansion's
reading seminar, he
found the one clue he needed to understand his
father. "My greatest fear was to find out that my
father idolized Franz Bonaparta and his demonic
experiments. Why did he meet with Bonaparta? Why
did he go to that mansion? I had always suspected
that there was a truth there that I did not wish to
learn. If he was actually a cold-hearted, wicked man
who used his love of my mother and me as a cloak
to hide his true nature... If my normally perfect
father actually had this other personality... I felt that
I needed to stare the truth down. I steeled my
resolve to look upon the truth, no matter how hard it
might be. And when I met with the third interviewee
of those seminar participants, I finally got a glimpse
into my father's person. The man told me this... All
he remembered from the seminar was one day,
when a man from a radio station came to the
reading. He said that the radio man told him, run
away, get out of here, because it's much better over
the rainbow, and you can find your family there. And
that was the moment that this man cut off all ties
with the mansion... My father loved 'Over the
Rainbow.' He started and ended his station's
broadcast with it, every day. He knew that the Red
Rose Mansion's experiment was wrong. When I
realized this, a great weight was lifted from my
heart."

He looked at me with relief in his face. I think that

the reason Dr. Verdemann chose to tell me, a man
of the media, such a long-kept and heavy secret
was to relate this last story. It was not his father's
allegience to country that he wished to call into
question. He simply wanted to reveal the truth that
he was not a demon.
 Chapter 28 - Anna Part II
After I returned to Vienna, I shut myself away in the
office, and devoted myself entirely to writing.
Outside, the snow had begun a flickering dance. I
had put off certain research that could only be done
in the Czech Republic, knowing perfectly well that if
it didn't go well, the success of the book was
unlikely. I had hired excellent staff in Prague to
conduct personal interviews, but it was not easy for
them to find information about the twins' father and
mother, or Klaus Poppe.

It was around mid-December when I received the

good news that all the materials had been
gathered.

There is one more thing I should report to my

readers. While preparing for my trip, out of habit I
tried calling Hermann Fuhr's phone number. All this
time, I had never been able to connect, but on this
day I heard the sound of someone picking up the
phone. My first impulse was to hang up the phone
and I very nearly did, but then I got hold of myself,
took a deep breath, and asked deliberately in a
calm, steady voice, "Is this Hermann Fuhr's
residence?"

I could sense that the person on the other end was

momentarily puzzled. After a pause lasting several
seconds, they hung up the phone.

I called many times after that, but was never able to

get through again.

During the latter half of December during the

Christmas season, I arrived in Brno, former capital
of the Kingdom of Moravia and second largest city in
the Czech Republic, seeking the true identity of
Johan's mother. The Christmas
Market stalls had risen up on the street corners
and along the plaza, every house was decorated
with festive lights, and the city was bustling.

I interviewed four people in this region — after

hearing about Ms. Hauserova's methods, I decided
to place a missing persons ad in the newspaper, this
time including the sketch of the pregnant woman
which Bonaparta had left behind.
This resulted in more than twenty people contacting
us. However, only four of them had information that
held any potential.

I took a room at the Brno International and

interviewed them one at a time. The first was Marie
Kavanova, 68 years old.
She manages a boarding house for female
students at Brno University.

— How long ago did you start this boarding house?

"It's been more than 30 years. My husband fell ill,

so we started it for our livelihood. Having other
people in the house wasn't so bad, because the
house is quite spacious."

— So you helped a woman who looked like the

person in the sketch?

"Yes, I have no doubt it's her. She was here from

when we started the boarding house...probably
around 1974, so now, I'd guess she'd be almost 50?"

— Do you remember her name?

"For some reason, I can't remember it... Anna...it was

something like Anna. Well, there were so many
people coming and going in the house, and it's not
like any of them stayed in touch afterwards."
 Picture #172

— What was she like?

"She was a beautiful woman. Her grades were

excellent, but she couldn't decide whether to stay in
school or become a teacher. She was a very serious
girl, the kind who studied twice as hard as everyone
else."

— Where was she from?

"I don't remember. Most of the girls were from the

rural areas of Moravia. When by chance I came
across this photograph (she showed me the photo),
the only reason I remembered her was because of
an unforgettable event that happened back then.
My husband took this picture. Because of his illness,
he took up photography as a hobby, so when she
first came to our boarding house he was ecstatic
because she was such a beautiful young woman. He
died while she was attending school. That man was
such a fool. In spite of his illness, he still had a
weakness for a beautiful girl. But the picture
certainly turned out to be useful."

— How so?

"When she was nearing her graduation, she was

still worrying about which career path to choose, so
she went on a trip. She traveled all around, from
Prague to Bohemia.
When she hadn't returned after two months, I
inquired at the University. But they said they had no
such student. It was ridiculous. So I tried to get in
touch with her parents, but I wasn't able to contact
them either. So I finally called the police."

— What did the police do?

 "They came at once. A detective. He started
searching right away. He said the University had
been mistaken and she had definitely been enrolled.
He asked if I had any photos of her, so I gave them
everything my husband had taken, including the
negatives.

It's just sheer luck that I even still have the one
picture.
...come to think of it, none of the other pictures were
ever returned. But really, the detective was nice,
and he visited every day with the details of what
he'd learned about her case. We got along very
well. When I couldn't sleep he told me about a good
remedy made from natural ingredients that you
drink dissolved in black tea.... Anyway one day the
detective said she'd been found living happily with
a man she'd met in Prague, and after awhile I didn't
think about her much anymore. I didn't even
remember her name until just now."

— Do you remember the detective's name?

"No...just that he wore glasses and had a

big nose."

Ms. Kavanova showed me the old photograph. The

picture showed a woman with radiant blonde hair
and blue eyes, her expression full of hope. She was
beautiful. And she was the spitting image of the
woman in the sketch.
Ms. Kavanová still manages her boarding house in
Brno. After the liberation, products flooded the
markets and the students became more and more
free-spirited. "But other
boarding houses don't include meals," she said with a
forced smile.

The second person was Jana Kubelkova, age 50. She

works as a club singer.

— Please, tell me the sequence of events by which

you got to know her.

"Sequence of events...such fancy words! It was at

least 25 years ago. I was working as a singer at a
nightclub...the kind that Party officials frequent. She
couldn't have been more than 20 then, and as a
professional I was surprised at how skillfully she
sang, even though she was a student and it was just
a part time job for her. She usually went on just
before me."

— What was her name?

"I just called her Anna. I never knew her last name.
That's just how it was there."

— Was she really that good a singer?

"She had a very special voice and was a talented

singer. Besides that, she could mimic any woman's
voice. Of course she could do all the famous singers
from the Czech Republic and Eastern Europe, but
her Dianna Ross, Dolly Parton, Joni Mitchell and
Karen Carpenter were exactly like the real
thing. ...Actually, I owe her one. I'm still alive thanks
to that special talent."

— It saved your life?

"Well, to tell you the truth, I was an anti-

government activist. It pissed me off when the
government prohibited the sale of records from
the west side or that were deemed
too American. Once I secretly slipped out of the club
after I was ordered to help one activist escape from
town. But I was being watched. The police came to
my dressing room. But Anna, imitating my voice,
said she was in the middle of changing her clothes
and answered their questions through the door.
Because of that I had a successful alibi and was
saved."

— Was Anna also an activist?

"It wasn't like that. Once when she was younger,

she ran away from home with a friend and tried to
cross the border illegally to see a free country, but
it wasn't like an ideological thing. I laughed at the
idea that she was an ex- convict, but when she
visited me sometime later, it was different. She
was being pursued by someone."

— She was being pursued?

"Yeah, I think it was two or three years after she

had stopped working as a singer to focus on her
college studies. She came to my dressing room,
hoping I could introduce her to someone from the
organization**, maybe even one of the big shots.
She said she had gotten into some kind of trouble
and was being chased. I wanted to take her to my
house so she could tell me the whole situation, but
she said that she had to go soon to get a baby she
had left with someone. So because I wanted to
repay my debt to her, I said I would introduce her to
somebody." **[l'm sure this refers to Jana's anti-
government group, rather than the mob]

— What happened, did she tell you?

"Well, I thought it was very strange. When I called

her Anna, she told me it was just an alias for her
part time job. Then she told me her real name was
Maruska.... Ah that poor child, even though she was
depending on me, I think she
must have been afraid to trust me. But I still wonder
why she wanted to hide her name."

At the end of the interview I showed her the

photograph I'd borrowed from Ms. Kavanova. She
studied it intently and then flatly declared, "That's
her, no doubt about it."

The third person was a man who fervently wished to

remain anonymous, so herein he will be known as
Antonin Kohout. In his middle years, with a
somewhat pudgy physique tending toward obesity,
he has worked at Brno University for more than 30
years.

— The woman I'm looking for was definitely enrolled

at Brno University, but even so, the executive office
persistently denies that such a person was ever in
their records. What would be your conclusion?

"That's not my fault. That's why I came here to talk

to you. It was over 20 years ago, but I'm sure she
was enrolled as a student. Biology...yes, I believe
she was studying genetics.
Mendel's monastery is in this city, so the University
is the most advanced in that discipline on the East
side. Among other things, she had exceptionally
good grades, and her advising professor persuaded
her to remain at the University. According to her
advisor, she had twice the talent and still worked
twice as hard as anybody else. However, she never
graduated."
— She never graduated?

"That's right, but although she didn't actually

graduate, she completed everything but the
graduation ceremony. There was an instruction to
destroy all her documents immediately before
graduation, and to erase her name from the
registry."

— Are you saying she was expelled? Was there some

sort of scandal?

"As I understood it, it was more that she was doing

research that touched on state secrets, so they
ordered her personal history to be deleted. Because
she was a brilliant student...the university surely
had to have reported to the government via the
Party. And then the government probably recruited
her to a research institution somewhere. Then
decades later when she retires, her name will
suddenly appear on the registry of graduates.
Maybe even as the valedictorian of her class. That
sort of thing happens all the time."

— Even so, you'd think that by now someone would

surely have come forward with memories of, or
even claiming to be this exceptional student.

"Well, such people were handled that way during

the Communist Party era, and often had their
records erased. It was like a world in which it was
forbidden to remember. If memories aren't
revisited, they're lost. And naturally, sooner or later
they're completely forgotten. But right now in Brno
there are people who were close to her that
remember her, and if they've been keeping silent,
we have to assume it's for a different reason."
— A different reason?
"Yes, something like humanitarian considerations,
or from friendship, things like that. Or maybe
they don't want her talking to the media."

— Indeed. By the way, do you remember her name?

"No...l can't remember it. The face I remember —

she was an exceptionally beautiful girl. Exactly as
in the sketch."

A back street in Prague, near Cedok Bridge. It was in

this area that the twins and their mother were in
hiding at "The Three Frogs."

A backstreet in Prague, near Čedok Bridge. It was in this

area that the twins and their mother were in hiding at
"The Three Frogs."
The fourth person might be the closest one to Anna.
Hana Arnetova, age 49, says she lived with Anna,
although it was only for a short time in 1974.

— Please, tell me the story of how you met.

"Both of us had come to Prague to visit. I was an

aspiring actress and she was a college student. My
hometown is here in Brno, and she was studying at
Brno University. We met by chance at a cheap hotel
where a lot of students were staying, and we just
really hit it off. Then we realized that we both
planned to stay in Prague for awhile, so we decided
to rent a room together to share expenses. "

— So you were roommates.

"That's right. She wasn't any bother at all. Her

father was a school teacher and was very strict. At
the university she spent all her time in a laboratory
full of guys, and yet she said she didn't have a
boyfriend. Even though she was such a pretty girl."

— So she never had a lover?

"Well, after we'd lived together for a month she

found one. She said he was also on vacation. But
more and more she refused to leave Prague."

— Did she say anything else about her boyfriend?

"I heard he was a Czech of German descent, from

Bohemia. I think that she herself was half Czech
and half German. They were planning to get
married and were very much in love."

— Do you know if they ever married?

"Well... about a month and a half later she left Prague
with her boyfriend. I never saw her again."

— Why did they leave Prague?

"I don't know. I hope that they eloped."

— Did you not talk about personal things?

"No, she told me quite a lot. Viera had had a really

traumatic experience."

— Viera?

"Yes, her name was Viera Cerna. Isn't that who

you were looking for? She looked exactly like
the sketch in the newspaper."
Hana Arnetova was Anna's roommate in Prague. She
was a witness to Anna's love. What she had to tell
was shocking.
— I'm sorry, please, continue with what you were
saying. What was the trauma?

"Viera had had a twin sister. But during her

mother's pregnancy, the doctor's verdict was that
she could carry only one of the twins to term. So
Viera was born and her sister died. So Viera never
knew her younger sister. No, as she told the story,
she got to know her sister in her mother's womb....
But when she was born her mother was deeply
wounded by the death of her twin, and was always
comparing Viera to her younger sister. Viera is
Viera, but as a young girl, she lived with the fear
that she herself might have killed her sister in the
womb and thought that her mother hated her for
that. She would always say things like, 'I have to do
my sister's share of studying,' or 'I have to be
happy in my sister's place.'

I think she felt she had to do twice as much to live

her life for two people."

— Did you ever meet her boyfriend?

"He came to the room once. He was a handsome

man. He had a very serious face, and impressed me
as the sort of man who would give his life to make
Viera happy. I think the bond between them was
truly genuine."

— Wasn't he a soldier?

"A soldier? Hmm, he was wearing civilian clothes...l

really couldn't tell his occupation by looking at him."

— Do you have any other information about the

twin sister who died?

"Well...once you hear this you're going to think she

was a crazy woman, but she definitely wasn't. ...but
sometimes
Viera had the delusion that her twin sister was in
fact still alive somewhere. She said that her mother
had given the child that died a name. The name of
the twin who wasn't born was Anna..."

It would be presumptuous to comment on the

people who appeared in this chapter, nor do I
intend to insert my opinions and deductions,
because I believe each of them spoke the truth.

Nevertheless, I have a feeling there is a clue to be

found in Mr. Kohout's story. If few people have come
forward who remember the twins' mother, maybe
it's not because they want to conceal something
from the past, but rather, their silence is to maintain
a secret of the present.