In 2020, Wikipedia changed its categorization of Wolfgang Schmidt, also known as Beate, a trans-identified male killer to a "female serial killer."
Schmidt had previously been listed as a "male serial killer," but Wikipedia removed his birth name because it violates the site "deadnaming" policy, and changed pronouns to reference Schmidt as "female."
According to Reduxx, Schmidt admitted to raping and murdering five women and killing one of the woman's infants by smacking him against a tree. He was known as the "Pink Giant," due to his 6-foot-3-inch stature and his fetish for pink lingerie.
Other monikers used by tabloids were "beast of Beelitz," and "Beelitz-Murderer."
Forensic psychiatrist Wilfried Rasch said at the trial that Schmidt had "a sex-pathological development in which ‘fetishistic, coprophilic, transvestite and sadistic elements can be found,’ a ‘severe other mental abnormality in the legal sense.’”
The serial killer admitted at his trial to having sadistic sexual fetishes, that he felt he had no choice but to act upon, even raping one of the woman's corpses after killing her. Gisela Friedrichenson wrote about what came out in the court proceedings.
"In the garbage, he finds lingerie catalogs with pictures of women’s bodies, magazines, and porn magazines, which also increase the feeling. But it’s not enough. He wants more – a woman," she wrote.
"Having a woman who will join in, willingly, a woman who wants the same. The urge keeps getting stronger. Fantasies haunt and torment him. A woman. A female person. For years he was plagued by ever more horribly rampant dreams that the feelings could be even greater, even more attractive.”
Schmidt reportedly had a habit of searching through garbage bins looking for women's undergarments to wear, masturbate, and defecate in. This ritual started when he was about 10 years old after his mother found out he had been doing that with her clothes, and she started locking her stuff up.
Schmidt's spree lasted from October 1989 to his arrest in August 1991. He legally changed his name in 2001 to Beate. He is also believed to have raped another trans-identified inmate in 2010, who attempted suicide after the incident.
After he was sentanced to 15 years in a mental institution, Schmidt's brother said he will never change. "I know my brother. He doesn’t change. He’s always dangerous! Lock him up, build his wall twice as high, and throw away the key!” His brother said.
Before the murders, Schmidt was kicked off the police force for celebrating Hitler's birthday drunk after serving for four years.
