Welcome to Noeple Blood, a production of I Heart Radio and Grimm and Mild from Aaron Manky,

listener discretion advised.

As a hint of sun peeked through the two gothic spires of the Cologne Cathedral,

the sound of a man's footsteps broke the quiet of the sleeping early morning city streets.

Though the cathedral remained in the man's sights, his destination was not the salvation of the

church. Rather, he was headed toward a home for the damned, the nearby Cologne prison.

Being a prison guard wasn't the most glamorous job in the world. In fact, it probably would be

more accurate to call it bleak. But in the years following the Great War, a job was a job

and there was little room for this man to complain. By June of 1927, the fresh wounds left behind

by World War I had mostly healed. Though it wasn't difficult to remember just a few years earlier

in 1923, when the German financial market had all but imploded with runaway inflation so rampant

that some families resorted to burning their German marks as kindling to keep warm in the winter.

While those desperate enough to still use the currency for its intended purpose,

raced to the markets on payday in hopes of gathering enough scraps of food before the prices

would inevitably rise again. Luckily, in the near decade since the war ended,

Germany's financial straights had seemingly resolved. But scars like that don't heal overnight.

The sheer number of men behind the prison bars, each face haunted by crimes likely committed

out of poverty and desperation, were an all too real reminder of that.

After clocking in, the guard went about his typical rounds, observing the inmates with the

same detached air that he had become accustomed to as a guard. Every day he walked past

everyone from petty criminals to violent offenders, but the guard's job wasn't to judge them for

their crimes. The court saw to that. Of course, that didn't stop prison guards from talking

...