The Alexanders were a family of religious fanatics. They believed that every person outside of their extreme little sect was 'owned by the Devil'. Their warped brand of christianity dictated that only members of their group were free of Satan's control - all others were instruments of the Devil who ought to be purged by violence if the "Chosen One" of their creed gave the word. In 1970, this doctrine led to an appalling tragedy when 16-year-old Frank Alexander decided that his mother and sisters were possessed by the Devil and had to be killed.

The Alexanders had originated in Dresden and later moved to Hamburg where Harald Alexander became an ardent disciple of George Riehle, a religious zealot. Riehle was the self-designated leader of the Lorber Society. Jacob Lorber (1800 - 1864) had founded this religious group in the early part of the nineteenth century - a severe spiritual organization which taught unflinching self-denial and upheld the belief that all non-members were basically evil. Riehle became a member of this small sect (which never numbered more than a few hundred members through the decades) and some time in the 1930s, he came to believe that he was the Prophet of God.

Alexander met Riehle in Hamburg when the old man was dying and nursed him through his last days. When Riehle died, Harald announced to his wife that he had inherited the mantle of the Lorber Society leadership. He also inherited a portable organ which provided musical accompaniment at society meetings…later it was to perform a similar function during the killing spree that made the Alexander name infamous. Dagmar Alexander, who shared her husband's single-minded beliefs, accepted his self-appointed role without question.

When their son Frank was born, Harald Alexander told his wife that their son was now the Prophet of God and that his every whim had to be observed and obeyed. As the boy grew up he was served by his family members - his older sister Marina, his younger twin sisters Sabine and Petra and his parents - as if he was a potentate. They responded to all his wishes; in time, Frank Alexander dictated their every movement. The boy, when reaching his teens, decided that he could never "pollute" himself with the bodies of women outside of their small sect. He informed his father that he would have sex with his mother. Later, he announced that he would also bed his older sister.

Such incestuous relations became commonplace within the Alexander household; the father not only agreed to them - he enthusiastically encouraged his son to have sex with his wife and daughters at any time. In fact, Harald showed his religious devotion by having intercourse with his oldest daughter, Marina as well as with his wife - often joining with Frank and using both women simultaneously. His wife and daughter accepted their roles as sex objects in the belief that they were serving the Prophet of God, Frank Alexander.

Frank's younger sisters were also taught to view the activities going on within their family as completely normal; although they had few friends to share information with, they spoke openly at school about the ways that Dagmar and Marina were 'allowed to serve'. As gossip spread, the Police became very interested in the Prophet and his family.

The Alexanders, showing depressingly little faith in divine protection, moved hastily beyond the reach of the German Police. They relocated to the Canary Islands and set up home in a small apartment at 37 Calle Jesus Nazareno in Santa Cruz, the capital of Tenerife.

Their new neighbours found the family to be an aloof bunch who seldom ventured out of the apartment. Though Harald constantly played his organ and led the others in long and loud praying and singing sessions which became a talking point amongst nearby households, the Alexanders occupied the flat for ten months without any significant incident. The girls and Frank supported the family with low-paying jobs - the girls working as domestics and Frank as a shipping clerk, though he kept irregular hours.

Then, on December 22nd, 1970, Harald and Frank Alexander appeared at the villa occupied by Dr. Walter Trenkler, asking to see 15-year-old Sabine (who worked for Trenkler as a domestic helper). The Doctor found the girl in the kitchen preparing a meal and told her that her father and brother were on the patio waiting to see her. She went to them and Trenkler, to his amazement and shock, heard Harald Alexander say to his daughter: "Sabine, dear, we wanted you to know at once that Frank and I have just finished killing your mother and your sisters."

The girl took her father's hand and put it to her cheek, saying: "I'm sure you've done what you thought necessary." Dr. Trenkler stood in shock for a moment, staring at the Alexanders. Harald Alexander caught Trenkler's stare and said matter-of-factly: "Ah, you've overheard. We've killed my wife and other daughters. It was the hour of killing." The horrified physician then realised that what he'd originally thought was mud and dirt on the men's clothes (perhaps the result of labouring on some dirty job), was actually human blood. Gore, dried and caked in the hot sun, covered their clothes, faces and hands.

Even more frightening was the unconcerned conduct of the Alexanders. They were calm and reported their gruesome acts as if nothing was amiss. They appeared to think that the killings they had just announced were perfectly acceptable. Trenkler asked the Alexanders to wait. He raced into the villa and called the police.

The murders had not been performed quietly; by the time that Trenkler telephoned, the Police had already received calls from neighbours who'd heard hellish sounds emanating from the family's flat.

Officers quickly arrived and took the Alexanders into custody while Detective Inspector Juan Hernandez and Detective Sergeant Manuel Perera went to the Alexander flat, accompanied by a police physician. They forced open the door and stepped into a place of carnage. All of the dishes, clothing and papers (including passports and family documents) had been smashed, broken and torn to pieces. Everything was in shreds. The ceilings, walls and floors of the apartment were coated with blood. In the middle of the living room floor were the mutilated bodies of the two daughters, 18-year-old Marina and 15-year-old Petra. Their breasts and genitals had been hacked away and nailed to one of the walls. The older girl had been disembowelled.

In the bedroom they found the horribly violated remains of 39-year old Dagmar Alexander. Her breasts and sexual parts were also hacked away. Her heart had been cut out and bound on a cord before being nailed to a wall. The sights within that apartment slaughterhouse were so overwhelming that the Police officers came close to vomiting.

The Alexanders, at the local police station, freely admitted the gruesome murders. Frank Alexander related how he was in the bedroom when Dagmar entered it:

"I saw that Mother was looking at me and I had the feeling that it was not permitted for her to look at me in this manner. I therefore took the clothes hanger and struck her over the head. After I struck her several times she fell over and lost consciousness. Father had gone to the living room to play the organ and I also went there. First I struck Marina on the head with the hanger and after she lost consciousness, I struck Petra. Father continued to play the organ and praise Jesus, but when I began to remove the offending parts, he came to help me."

Harald Alexander supported every detail of his son's statements, saying that the sex organs of his wife and daughters were "offending parts" which had to be removed, adding that the women in the household had expected the "hour of killing" at any time, that the family had discussed this "holy time" and its eventuality and that the women accepted their roles as human sacrifices for The Prophet, Frank Alexander. Both Frank and Harald Alexander then stated that they felt no guilt; that this was all part of their religious beliefs; that women were unclean and had to be purified by killing. They claimed that their victims had been released into heaven through their murders and they even celebrated their grisly acts by playing the organ, both taking turns, and singing hymns after slaughtering the females of their household.

Psychiatrists examined the father and son and concluded that they were both unfit to stand trial. Both were committed to an asylum for the criminally insane. Neither responded to any kind of treatment and remained convinced that the slaughter of their family members was an act of 'purification'. Both men asserted that they were 'martyrs' who'd been persecuted for their religious beliefs and neither expressed a single thought of guilt. Harald Alexander continued to address his son Frank as "The Prophet."

Sabine Alexander, the surviving female member of the family, begged the authorities to send her to the asylum with her brother and father - but this request was rejected. She was sent to a secure convent - a place where her wish to be isolated from the 'impure' and 'Devil-owned' people who made up most of Society could be satisfied. As far as we know, the remaining Alexanders are still shut away and unlikely to ever be released.