You whose slow breathing moves your breast to rise and fall You who sleeps sweetly deep within your peaceful room Why can't you sense, beneath the paper on the wall Forgotten faces of assassins darkly brood? On the old newspaper wedged in the window frame Lining the closet shelves and in the fireplace Lighting the fire that will swallow up their names Aren't you afraid to catch a glimpse of Weidmann's face? Can't you tell from the creases in their sharp pressed suits There's much more to these killers than the stories tell When the police were running hotly in pursuit Those kings of thieves knew how to hide their tracks too well. For their eyes were much too soft And their wavy hair was oiled slick Their fedoras were brushed off And their pinkie rings were too big They kept order on the streets Judgement was quick and efficient Illustrating the mob scene For the new special edition They could always quite outrage Journalists who loved sensation And who wrote on the front page Of psychotic deviation. I who never could stomach So-called honest people like them Find criminals poetic I prefer someone like Weidmann Like Jean Genet dreaming within his prison cell I also cut out Weidman's blue jawed baby face Stifling my sobs, I can imagine all too well To think the exploits of this warrior once took place. Beside the stage door, I am waiting in his car To greet the nude dancer he's chosen for the night. I'll follow on the trail of his pallid silk scarf From the bar to the villa, keeping them in sight. The dawn breaks on a bleak abandoned city lot The only traces of the dancer to be found Are shreds of flesh, which somehow seem to have been caught In shreds of ladder-proof black stockings on the ground. But the velvet eyed monster Isn't there to be discovered And the very best rumours Cannot help betray his cover There he is near the water By a fishermen's market Is he there throwing flowers To the late dearly departed Or has he returned back to His beloved old mother? Waiting patiently for him To come and tell her that he loves her He was always a good boy According to the neighbours Mother's little pride and joy Always willing to do favours. A note is missing to make my story complete It's just as well, this way I don't have to believe This wildcat ends up in the hands of the police Confessing in exchange for sandwiches and tea I will not tremble like those upper-class ladies Whose blond permanent waves stand suddenly on end When on the evening news they can't believe they see The enterprising dancer of their latest one-night stand If I could only have a seat by the window That overlooks the shady Execution Square To greet the evil hour when pink just barely shows The hour of final cigarettes and final prayers Then his eyes that were too soft Suddenly are filled with terror See the blade waiting aloft Pitiless, his neck is severed It's the hour when most men Taking their leave of the party Sure that justice has been done Are self-satisfied and hearty It's the hour when someone Bravely daring all the guards would In ecstatic necrophilia Dip his handkerchief in the blood It's the hour I let go Give in to my feverish daydreams And admit that my hero Is named Weidmann, Eugene