German serial killer Egidius Schiffer electrocuted himself in jail cell Sunday in what authorities called a bizarre sex act gone wrong.
Police said the they did not believe foul play was involved after Schiffer, who was sentenced to life in prison for killing five female hitchhikers from 1983 to 1990, was found dead while engaging in what authorities called "autoerotic actions," The Times of London said.
Schiffer, 62, known as "Aachen Strangler," was serving out his sentence at the Bochum prison, in the German North Rhine-Westphalia state, when the incident happened, according to The Sun.
"He removed a cable from his bedside table lamp, then wound it around his nipples and his penis and stuck the end in a power socket," Candida Tunkel, a spokeswoman for Bochum prison, said about the incident, according to the Times.
The Times said that a post-mortem concluded that Schiffer died of a heart failure following an electrical current through his chest.
A local report said Schiffer had been serving time in Bochum for eight years and had been in solitary confinement, The Mirror reported. He was last seen about 1 p.m.. Saturday and an investigation was started into the circumstances surrounding his death, the publication said.
He was convicted of killing women from ages 15 to 31 after DNA evidence led authorities to him, The Mirror said. He raped three of his victims before burying them in the woods, according to The Sun.
Glamour reported in January that "electrostimulation" has been considered "risky BDSM behavior that runs a potential of actual bodily harm."
The magazine described electrostimulation as part of sessions in which a dominant shocks her sub's genitals by rigging them to electrical contraptions, typically either a wand or a system that stimulates nerve-endings.
The magazine said such contraptions can be purchased from specialty kink shops but cautioned that participants have "to take the correct safety precautions."
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