There’s no denying that
Hannibal is one of the grisliest things on TV right now, appealing to our
innate fascination with real-life horror stories. People associate cannibalism with
films, TV and times gone by – like thousands of years of time gone by, surely?
– Rather than modern society. But
these horrifying cases prove it’s not some distant savage crime or a
far-fetched tale for harrowing entertainment – it’s something that still
goes on around the world, and fairly regularly too. Warning, this is pretty grim, and isn’t for
the faint-hearted…
Jeffrey Dahmer is probably one of the most notorious cannibals,
having killed more than 17 men and boys over a 14-year period, from 1987 to
1991. He lured many sex workers and teenagers to his home in Wisconsin and,
after killing them, took to preserving body parts, mostly skeletal, for sexual
pleasure. It is thought many of his later murders also included cannibalism and
necrophilia. Dahmer was sentenced to life in prison in 1992, but was
subsequently beaten to death by a fellow inmate two years later.
Armin Meiwes received worldwide notoriety in 2001 after killing, and
eating, a man who responded to an online advertisement in which Meiwes had
asked for a ‘well-built 18- to 30-year-old to be slaughtered and then
consumed’. Meiwes cut off his victim Bernd Jürgen Armando Brande’s penis,
which he then cooked, seasoned and attempted to share with the dying Brande,
before butchering him and cutting him up. Miewes filmed the entire event,
and, over the next ten months, consumed the rest of Brande’s body. He is
currently serving life in prison in Germany.
Canadian model and porn star Luka Magnotta caught headlines in 2007
after he was arrested over the murder of Jun Lin – his alleged gay lover. A
graphic video posted online showing a man of Asian descent being stabbed
repeatedly before he was dismembered caught the eye of authorities, but not
before various body parts (found to have belonged to Lin) were sent to
political parties and schools across Canada. Magnotta was
eventually arrested and convicted for his crimes, and allegedly showed
signs of cannibalism and necrophilia in his notorious video.
Luke Magnotta shot his murderous rampage on film.
David Viens claimed that he killed his wife, Dawn Viens, accidentally
in 2009 – after tying her up to protect her from drink driving. He found her
four hours later, dead from her injuries, after being bound and gagged. Dawn’s
body was never found, but David, who was a qualified chef, reportedly said soon
after his arrest: ‘I cooked her four days, I let her cool, I strained it out.’
He claimed he then dumped the remains in the bin, aside from her skull which
was too big to be disposed of, which he hid at his mother’s house.
Two Russian brothers, known only as Timur and Marat G, pleaded guilty
to murdering and eating their older brother in 2009. Police grew concerned over
the missing brother’s whereabouts and soon found his remains buried in one of
the gardens belonging to Timur and Marat – it had been completely stripped of
meat. The pair admitted to chopping up his body and freezing it, eating it over
a period of six months. They claimed to have eaten him to hide evidence.
Mao Sugiyama, 22, voluntarily had surgery to remove his genitals in
2012. The Japanese chef then took his frozen penis and scrotum home with
him from the hospital and took to Twitter to offer to cook them up and serve
them for £800. He ended up serving his genitals, along with mushrooms and
parsley, to six diners at a specially organized dinner party which had a
further 70 guests who dined on either crocodile or beef instead.
In 2012 it was all over the headlines, in Miami a man had apparently,
out of nowhere, lashed out at a homeless man and started trying to eat his
face. Rudy Eugene, a divorced former high school football player, had stripped
naked and assaulted a 65-year-old homeless man – devouring much of his face,
including his left eye. The whole 18-minute episode was filmed, and Eugene only
ended his rampage when he was fatally shot by police. No traces of drugs other
than marijuana were found in his system and police have struggled to identify
the reason behind the random attack.
In February 2014, 11 people were arrested after the discovery of two
human heads wrapped in cellophane at a restaurant in Nigeria. Eek. Human flesh
was apparently being offered on the menu for a high price and considered a
‘luxury’ treat to visitors at the establishment. The restaurant hotel, based in
Anambra in southern Nigeria, was swiftly shut down, and, as well as the
arrests, guns and mobile phones were confiscated for analysis by authorities.
Two brothers in Pakistan were arrested in April 2014 after a boy’s
human head was found in one of their homes. The pair, Mohammad Arif Ali,
and Mohammad Farman Ali, already convicted cannibals, were released from jail
last year following a string of offenses. Local police were alerted to the
brothers’ behavior following reports from neighbors of bad smells. The
police now claim the men removed, and consumed, more than 100 bodies from a
nearby graveyard - Bird
