cannibals

[Homicidalheathen]

Cannibalism is mankind's most sacred taboo.

But, as the popularity of the Hannibal Lecter films shows, we are all fascinated by the cannibal.

On Friday night cinemas all over the UK are screening Hannibal, the sequel to Silence of the Lambs.

The film's central character is a cultured cannibal, played by Anthony Hopkins, who finds himself on the run but living in luxury in modern Florence.

What is most disturbing about these people is their banality, their normalness.

Daniel Korn, TV producer

Real life cannibal killers tend not to have the wit and black humour of Dr Lecter or the culinary imagination to mix human liver with Chianti and fava beans.

Next week Channel 4 begins a three-part documentary on cannibalism.

The first programme in the series, Cannibal, begins by tracing the extraordinary lives of real life Hannibal Lecters: men such as Arthur Shawcross and Issei Sagawa.

Ancient appetite

Later episodes focus on new archaeological evidence that our ancestors may have routinely resorted to cannibalism and cases in which modern-day humans have resorted to the last taboo simply to survive.

Daniel Korn, who produced the series and has written a book about the phenomenon of cannibalism, managed to track down a real life Hannibal Lecter to the streets of Tokyo.

Issei Sagawa, now 51, admits murdering a French friend, Renee Hartevelt, in a Paris apartment in 1981 and devouring parts of her body.

Two years later a French judge decided he was mentally unfit to stand trial and should be placed in a secure mental hospital indefinitely.

Childhood game

In 1985 he was sent back to Japan. The authorities there considering putting him on trial for the Hartevelt murder but the French refused to hand over the dossier and later that year he was freed after convincing a doctor he had regained his sanity.

Sagawa told the programme makers he had been obsessed with cannibalism from the age of three, when his uncle used to play a game pretending to be a flesh-eating giant.

He said killing and eating his friend was the fulfilment of a lifelong desire.

Sagawa says he will never kill again. But neurologist Professor Jonathan Pincus, who has read his psychiatric report, told the programme he doubted whether Sagawa could keep his word.

'Normal people'

The Channel 4 team also visited another real-life cannibal, US serial killer Arthur Shawcross.

Shawcross, 55, who murdered 11 women - mainly prostitutes - between February 1988 and January 1990, told how he first tried cannibalism in Vietnam,

Mr Korn says that while Sagawa, Shawcross and another famous cannibal - the late Milwaukee serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer - were all deranged, they did not fit our stereotype of a cannibal.

He said: "What is most disturbing about these people is their banality, their normalness.

'Unimaginable savagery'

"It is not as if they are a spectre of evil because that is probably what you are expecting.

"It's the fact that these people are chatting and they are horribly normal, everyday people, yet they are capable of these acts of unimaginable savagery."

But having studied the subject for his book, Mr Korn said he did not believe the practice was restricted to the criminally insane and may always have been a central part of human behaviour.

He says 800,000-year-old bones bearing signs of defleshing or "the cannibalism signature" have been found at Gran Dolina in Spain.

Cannibalism is a very natural, latent characteristic of our behaviour

Daniel Korn

Bones dating from 12,000 years ago, with similar marks, have been found at Cheddar Gorge in Somerset - and more, from about 3,000 years ago, were unearthed near Eton College.

Fijians were apparently eating their enemies 150 years ago and "head hunting" and cannibalism only died out in Borneo and Papua New Guinea earlier last century.

There is also plenty of anecdotal evidence of people - such as the survivors of the 1972 Andes aircrash - resorting to human flesh as a last resort.

Cannibalism is "a very natural, latent characteristic of our behaviour", says Mr Korn.

Food for thought indeed

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/3230774.stm

this is a sick idea...I was vegan for 12 yrs...and was into body building at the time, a bit successful at it too

http://www.latinamericanstudies.org/aztecs/montellano.htm

muscles are all protien

[StormKnight (1)]

Well, cannibalism, taboo as it is, is very much part of our language and beliefs:

Think of it:

• When was the last time you said "I want to eat you up," or something to that effect to someone you loved? Taking a piece of them into you as a way of remembering them.
• Even kissing, the sensation, the trying to consume their passion for you?
• Oral sex: Partaking of the most intimate part of your lover, and having them enjoy you doing it?
• Bibilical: Communion. Drinking of wine and eating of bread as a symbolism of blood of Christ, bringing you closer to him by him being in you?

Take a close look at modern language and customs, and you realize this taboo is on almost everyone's thoughts.

[Homicidalheathen]

that is what most serial killer cannibals say they want to do, quote: Taking a piece of them into you as a way of remembering them.

I couldn't do it unless I HAD to like this story

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,366317,00.html

However. I have lived 30 days with no food....its not easy but can be done.

[StormKnight (1)]

True enough. Just had to put it out there to show that normal people think in that manner without them even knowing it.

[Homicidalheathen]

Hunger is a good motivator...I tell my kids that all the time.

The Motives of a Cannibal

No one really knows why cannibals do what they do. Those who have never experienced a desire to be a cannibal probably never will understand. Although the average person may not understand the why of cannibalism, the fact that cannibals exist is evident.

Cannibalism was practiced in many ancient cultures as a ritual. The Aztecs and Mayans would sacrifice humans for the gods. They believed that these sacrifices made the gods happy and were for the greater good of the society.

In some countries where famine is widespread, people throughout history have turned to cannibalism as a way of survival. In the case of Andrei Chikatilo, a cannibal who was convicted of the murders of 52 people, such a famine may have caused his desire for human flesh. When Chikatilo was 5 years old, his mother told him she suspected that their neighbors had eaten his older brother. The image of his brother being eaten, implanted by his own mother, may have triggered cannibalistic tendencies inside of Chikatilo.

Most serial killers and cannibals claim that their actions were triggered by something that happened to them during their childhood. Albert Fish, a cannibal who killed 15 children and mutilated about 100 others, said that his actions were a result of being abused in an orphanage as a child. This abuse led him to develop masochistic tendencies. He also thought that God had instructed him to castrate and torment little boys.

Another common link that murderers have is sexual inadequacy. They find that the thrill of violence leads to sexual arousal. Issei Sagawa, a Japanese man who murdered and ate a fellow student, fantasized about eating Nordic women. He was small and unattractive and found these women large and beautiful. He felt that he could show his love for a woman by eating her. He was declared insane and later released back into society.

Perhaps more research into the lives of cannibals will produce solid evidence of something that triggers their desire for human flesh. Until such evidence is found, most people will just deem them insane and seek justice for their actions

[Homicidalheathen]

this is fascinating in a sick sort of way and WTF IS WITH THIS COTTON BALL THING,

AND THE NEEDLES

Albert Fish

History

Albert Fish was born on May 19, 1870 in Washington, D.C. In 1875, his father suddenly died. His mother put him in St. John's Orphanage.

Fish said that he was abused in the orphanage and watched other boys do bad things. He contributed his later behavior to what he experienced in the orphanage.

Fish got married at age 26 to a 19-year-old. They had six children together before she ran off with another man. She took all of the furniture and their belongings, but left the children behind with their father.

After his first wife ran off, he married three times. However, none of them were legitimate marriages because he had never actually divorced his first wife.

Fish had developed a desire for masochism. He took balls of cotton, soaked them in alcohol, and then set them on fire in his anus. He also hit himself with a nail-studded paddle.

Perhaps his most harmful masochistic activity was when he would put needles into his body. He placed these between his rectum and his scrotum. At first, he would remove them, but then he started pushing them in so deep that he could not get them out. An X-Ray showed that he had 29 needles in his pelvic region.

At 55, Fish began to experience delusions and hallucinations. He said that he believed God had ordered him to torment and castrate little boys. Doctors said he suffered from a religious psychosis.

His bizarre mental state led him to kill 15 children and mutilate about 100 others.

[TitsMcGee]

I'm rather suprised he didn't die of infection from the needles.

What an odd sick twisted man.

[StormKnight (1)]

The vascular supply in that area is actually pretty forgiving with infections. There is so much infection fighting blood supply and lymphatics down there that it could be kept in check.

Now, whether those pins had lead or something like that in them causing delusions.

[Homicidalheathen]

Hm, good point. er bad pun

I know when I was a kid...there was lead and mercury in everything

that thing on the antibodies was cool though thanks for that I did not know that, probably to fight off STD'S!!