Odd this day

3 min readFeb 26, 2023

Well, if it’s 26 February, it must be… yes, of course: the 13th anniversary of this story about the German man found dead in his flat, being eaten by his vast collection of spiders and insects:

A MAN was found dead in his apartment draped in spider webs… spiders, snakes, termites, and a gecko feasting on his corpse. Mark Voegel, 30, was found dead in Dortmund. Authorities were alerted when concerned neighbours noticed a horrendous stench emanating from the apartment. His black widow is believed to have administered the deadly bite. A police spokesman said: “It was like a horror movie. His corpse was over the sofa… spiders were all over him… coming out of his nose and his mouth — Australian **Daily Telegraph** headline: 200 giant spiders, termites feast on man

Which is odd, because tomorrow is the 20th anniversary of the same story appearing in The Sun newspaper in the UK…

Sun Online headline: Pet spider kills its owner. There is a photo of a black widow spider captioned “Killer … a poisonous Black Widow spider”, and the story is attributed to ALLAN HALL in Berlin. Dated 27 Feb 2004, it opens: “A MAN who lived in his own “zoo” of lizards and insects was fatally bitten by a pet black widow spider, then eaten by the other creepy-crawlies.”

So… presumably this sort of thing happens a lot — and by some strange chance it occurred twice in the same country. Except, our victims seem to have the same name and live in the same city…

story A MAN who lived in his own ‘zoo’ of lizards and insects was fatally bitten by a pet black widow spider — then eaten by the other creepy-crawlies. Police broke in to Mark Voegel’s apartment to find spider Bettina along with 200 others, several snakes, a gecko lizard called Helmut and several thousand termites had gorged on his body. Neighbours alerted police after becoming alarmed by the stink. And horrified officers were met by a nightmare scene. — Excerpt from **Sun** story

HOW CAN THIS BE? Well… ABC Australia’s Media Watch looked into this and found it had also been published by news.com.au in August 2007…

news.com.au headline, 29 August 2007: Weird True Freaky — Pet creepy-crawlies eat human owner. By staff writers “A GERMAN man who lived with over 200 black widow spiders was fatally bitten by one and then eaten by his other pet creepy-crawlies. Police found Mark Voegel, 30, in his apartment partially eaten by his pet spiders, several snakes, lizards and thousands of termites, Sun.co.uk reported. Neighbours called police after becoming worried about the smell coming from Voegel’s apartment…

What an uncanny coincidence. As is the fact that all three outlets are owned by News Corp. My number one soaraway Sun, in particular, is known for highly accurate stories about animals, not least:

Sun front page, 1980s: Freddie Starr ate my hamster

…but also the less renowned, but no less deserving:

Sun headline, 1960s: Werewolf seized in Southend

…as well, of course, as being fabled for its extensive phone hacking being the work of ‘one rogue reporter’. But I digress.

ABC did something extraordinary, still known to a few stubborn adherents by its age-old name: journalism. They contacted the police in Dortmund. It transpires that in 2004 (which fits with the story’s first appearance in The Sun), a 30-year-old man was found dead in a flat which contained terrariums, which in turn contained spiders…

But the man’s name wasn’t Voegel, he didn’t die of a spider bite, and no spiders, snakes, termites, or geckos were feeding on his corpse. In fact… — Excerpt of ABC’s write-up

…according to Wolfgang Wieland of the Dortmund Police

Apart from the facts stated above, everything is fabricated… With friendly greetings, Wolfgang Wieland, Dortmund Police, 4th March, 2011 — Excerpt from German police officer’s email

This, it seems, was the work of Fleet Street legend Phil Space. Still, top marks to this particular incarnation of him, Allan Hall, for some of the details:

“Larger pieces of flesh torn off by the lizards were scooped up and taken back to the webs of tarantulas and other bird-eating spiders.” A photo of termites, and the caption: Hungry … termites ate body. The story continues: Loner Voegel, 30, never invited people back to his ‘jungle’ home, a small apartment in the German city of Dortmund. Police described it as a cross between a botanical garden and the butterfly breeding ground in the serial killer movie The Silence Of The Lambs…

…and perhaps also to a picture editor for sourcing a genuine picture of a terrarium being removed from a dead person’s flat — or for shoving in any old crap of a glass case/someone in hi-viz they could find. Who can say?

A photo of a woman in yellow hi-viz, who may be a police office, carrying a glass case, with the caption: Lair … a cage is taken away Picture: JOCHEN ALTHOFF. Text of story continues: Spider expert and animal cruelty officer Gabi Bayer said he kept creatures “that should never be allowed in a private home”. She said: “He had spiders so aggressive they are the equivalent of a pit-bull in the animal world.” The reptiles were allowed to roam free in the flat…

…and if there’s a real spider expert and animal cruelty officer called Gabi Bayer, I couldn’t find her. Anyway… here’s the last bit:

“The heating elements on two tanks containing spiders and their termite snacks had exploded and dislodged the metal tops allowing them to escape.” A photo of a cobra with the caption: Danger … he kept snakes. Text continues: Voegel is thought to have been dead for between seven and 14 days. A post-mortem will be carried out in the next few days. But authorities believe Bettina alone was responsible for Voegel’s death.

Clearly a man of imagination, our Allan.

Allan Hall is a journalist based in Berlin, Germany. Works for London Times, Daily Mail, the sun, Readers Digest and is the author of the best selling Penguin book Monster about the crimes of Joseph Fritzl as well as some 20 other works on crime, the paranormal and the papacy. — A bio I found for him online

Here’s one of his books. Apparently, Rock Hudson may not have been entirely straight.

Features smiling photos of Marilyn Monroe and Rock Hudson, plus the words “In public, he was the most dashing screen hero of his generation — rugged, macho, debonair, idolized by women and envied by men. Against the odds, Roch Hudson’s sometimes numerous homosexual partners loyally kept his secret for nearly 40 years — until he was dying of AIDS. Yet his death brought publicity for the disease, sympathy for sufferers, funds for research… — Front cover: The World’s Greatest Secrets, by Allan Hall

As the civil servant and prolific, if largely forgotten, man of letters Humbert Wolfe wrote in his collection The Uncelestial City in 1930:

You cannot hope
to bribe or twist,
thank God! the
British journalist.
But, seeing what
the man will do
unbribed, there’s
no occasion to.

Odd this day

Written by Coates