*Spoilers* The Torture Victims

[Karkarov]

Well a few things you guys are missing here. Alexander is a member of the Order of the Black Eagle. AKA the ruling elite of Prussia. He is basically best friends with the King, the top generals, so on so forth. The "authorities" are not going to come after him. Second like another poster mentioned there were lots of local stories about Alexander, the castle, and the kidnappers working under him. So people did have "suspicions" about what was going on and who was to blame.

Again though think about the time when this game went down. Jack the Ripper happened the year before, Napoleon was also a member of the Order of the Black Eagle and had been up to shenanigans recently, etc etc etc there were simply bigger fish to fry.

Secondly look at the documents and memories associated with Wilhelm. He openly admits to realizing he is kidnapping people. From Daniels memories we can assume the prison and the torture rooms were much more... stocked... when Daniel first arrived. I also hate to say it but the odds that the people being locked up were all actually criminals is also pretty slim. More than likely they were all just indigents, vagrants, etc. People no one would miss. It is a 100% lock though that Daniel personally killed and or tortured at least 11 different people minimum by the end of the game.

1 the first warding ritual
2-5 the people in the transept
6 the ritual victim right before the choir
7-9 three victims in the choir
10 the little girl
11 the guy you yourself drown in the cistern (forgot him didn't you?)

At the least you are giving the ripper a run for his money. Also note the loading screen text. Remember the Ripper was active the year before, Daniel's father did some kind of "surgery work" which he thinks he may have taken pride in while he himself kills someone, odd time to think that isn't it? As a kid he bashed some dude with a rock possibly killing him, etc etc etc. Alexander himself straight up says in some notes he thinks Daniel is hiding something from him and is more than he appears. There is more than that alluded to but I don't want to go on all day.

Just consider that the game never tells you what Daniel was doing prior to the dig, why he was teamed up with Herbert to begin with, and don't forget (chuckle) he lived in london. Also if you get the revenge ending and really pay attention you will get the distinct impression that he didn't take the potion because he "needed" to he did it so that it would throw the shadow off and buy him some time/force him through a sort of personal trial which would make up for his sins. In other words self serving reasons. Also it is obvious the effects of the potion aren't permanent, one of the prisoners even realized he was being drugged at one point and your memories are seeping back little by little as the game goes on.

Truth be told there isn't much reason why he couldn't have just opened the door much like you did in game and like he said "he is old and weak and you are young and strong". Of course the shadow wouldn't have had any proper sacrifice that way though would it?