Death in the Rubble: The Elisabeth Kusian Murders in 1949 Berlin

In 1949, the year of the Berlin airlift and the founding of the two post-war German states, Elisabeth Kusian (nurse, black marketeer, morphine and methamphetamine addict, and pathological liar) garroted and dismembered two people in a mini crime spree. Her actions both fascinated and terrified the public – how could this woman, a nurse, commit such a violent act?

West Berlin detectives attempted to run an efficient investigation under new democratic rules. Their East Berlin counterparts, new...