Someone had seen 1939's SON OF FRANKENSTEIN. It's quite a swipe. Ygor (Bela Lugosi) is a shepherd who is hanged for graverobbing, but survives. His head stays at a slight angle with a hard ridge of bone where his neck had been broken. The burgomeister and villagers agree he can't be tried again, and Ygor starts killing off the jury members one by one. The difference of course is that he's using the Frankenstein Monster (Karloff) to commit the murders.
"Peter Kardoff" comes from Karloff and the character Peter in the film... Wolf von Frankenstein's little son, whom the Monster abducts.