Ostfriesenschwur (2024)

Former Aurich homicide chief Ubbo Heide has been confined to a wheelchair since a knife attack and is no longer on active police duty. As a way to make up for it, he has written a book about cases he was dissatisfied with how they were resolved: although the investigations led to arrests, the supposed perpetrators were acquitted by the court for lack of evidence. He is preparing for a reading when, unexpectedly, the postman rings at Ubbo Heide’s vacation apartment on Wangerooge that morning and delivers a large package. Inside is a carefully wrapped severed head. It belongs to a suspected child murderer whom Ubbo Heide was unable to put behind bars. Ubbo Heide wants to help with the investigation, despite having to do so from his wheelchair; after all, he knows the unsolved case. When another head is found, this time a woman’s, followed shortly by the head of another unconvicted murderer, it becomes clear that the police are dealing with a serial killer. All three victims also appear in Ubbo Heide’s book. Police officer Ann Kathrin Klaasen and her colleague Frank Weller attend Heide’s book reading and spot a suspect there. It is Willi Kaufmann, a former police colleague who had resigned from the force because he, too, had failed in the investigation into the child murderer. Meanwhile, the “Executioner,” as he calls himself, sends the police a confession video. In it, he announces that he will punish more unconvicted criminals. Ann Kathrin Klaasen has only her suspicions, however, and no evidence against Kaufmann. The suspicion is enough to put him under round-the-clock surveillance, but this fails to prevent another murder. After an assassination attempt on Kaufmann leaves him seriously injured, Klaasen is no longer convinced of his guilt. She discovers that the real killer had attended the book reading under a false name and had probably got the idea of acting as the “Executioner” only from Ubbo Heide’s book. When the investigation reveals that the first victim had been innocent, Heide feels partly responsible for his death. If he had not written the book, the man would still be alive. The police try to lure the “Executioner” into a trap, but while they wait for him in a room under secret, complete surveillance, he goes to Ubbo Heide’s vacation apartment. There, the man reveals that he is a former judicial assistant who had attended many trials back then and had come to realize that justice has its limits, allowing many perpetrators to go unpunished. When Heide announced his book and described precisely such cases, he decided to make a statement and take justice into his own hands. As he threatens to kill Heide, Heide’s wife manages to overpower him. When the police arrive, they arrest him.