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| “ | I yield to no mortal! I will destroy and hang you! | „ |
| ~ Ulrik the Hangman. |
Ulrik von Nolte, also known as Ulrik the Hangman, is a villain who appeared in the 1950s horror comic Web of Mystery, serving as the antagonist of "The Curse of the Horrible Hangman" in issue #16. He is an undead Satanist who is unable to rest until he has secured two hundred souls for the Devil.
History[]
Baron Ulrik Von Nolte was a member of the wealthy Von Nolte family, who resided in Castle Von Nolte near the German town of Kragen. Ulrik was a prominent judge in the area, and would often carry out the death sentences passed in his court. He was infamous as a cold-hearted and inhuman monster, being nicknamed "the hangman" because of the hundreds of people (most of them innocent) he had executed. The reason for his bloodlust was that Ulrik, secretly a devil worshipper, had made a deal with Satan that he would be granted great riches in return for two hundred souls. Every time Ulrik executed somebody, Satan would gain their soul and Ulrik's wealth would increase. Ulrik hanged one hundred and ninety-six victims in his lifetime before his family learned of his pact with the evil one and sealed him in his secret treasure chamber for the rest of his life.
Three centuries later, two thieves murder the current Baron Von Nolte and open the chamber in search of his riches, discovering Ulrik's seemingly dead body and four nooses. As they try to loot the treasure, Ulrik awakens and explains that his family intended to starve him to death, but Satan will not let him die until his last four victims have been claimed. One of the thieves, Werner, attacks Ulrik with a club, but Ulrik breaks his arm with superhuman strength and hangs him. The other thief, Heinz Gangholtz, escapes in the confusion.
The next night, Ulrik goes into town in search of more victims. He breaks into the local prison, where Heinz has been arrested for murdering the baron, and beats up the jailer before hanging Heinz from the ceiling, leaving him with only two victims left to claim. The jailer survives and warns the rest of the town, resulting in the Kragen townsfolk raising a mob to hunt Ulrik down. Ulrik evades them until dawn, when he appears out of nowhere and strangles one of the town sentries before hanging him as well, triumphantly declaring that he only needs one more. The other sentry runs away after trying to shoot Ulrik and finding that he is invulnerable.
During the late baron's funeral, Ulrik lurks behind a gravestone as he stalks the baron's daughter Kati, who is now the last of the Von Nolte bloodline. He decides that she should be his final victim in order to exterminate the Von Noltes and take revenge on his family for what they did to him. He attacks Kati after the ceremony and drags her up the stairs of Castle Von Nolte, tying the noose onto the battlements as he prepares to hang her. Kati's husband Franz intervenes and Ulrik attacks him too (intending to break his neck), but loses his footing and falls into the courtyard. The noose gets caught around Ulrik's neck as he falls, thus making Ulrik himself the final victim and damning him to Hell for all eternity. Hanging from the castle walls, Ulrik curses Satan as he realises that this was the devil's plan all along.
After his death, Ulrik's body rapidly decays until he becomes a skeleton. The entire castle then collapses and buries Ulrik, although Kati and Franz manage to escape just in time.
Gallery[]
