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  Contents

  Introduction

  SECTION ONE: CANNIBALISM AROUND THE WORLD

  Easter Island

  The Crew of the Essex

  The Aztecs

  Sorcery in Guyana

  Cannibalism in the Congo

  The Last Known Tribe

  Cannibalism in Russia

  The American West in 1846

  Werewolves of France

  Survival in Chile

  Captain Cook

  The First Crusade

  The Marquis de Sade

  Napoleon’s March on Moscow

  Dorangel Vargas

  The Tupinamba

  The Boyd Massacre

  SECTION TWO: CANNIBALISM MOST MACABRE

  Alexander ‘Sawney’ Bean

  Albert Fish

  Richard Chase

  Ed Kemper

  The Team From Hell

  Jeffrey Dahmer

  Andrei Chikatilo

  Ed Gein

  Gary Heidnik

  Issei Sagawa

  Karl Denke

  Robin Gecht

  Alferd Packer

  Fritz Haarmann

  Joachim Kroll

  Stanley Dean Baker

  Arthur Shawcross

  Armin Meiwes

  Sascha Spesiwtsew

  Introduction

  Cannibalism, or anthropophagy, is the eating of human flesh by another human, in other words the eating of its own kind. The word actually comes from the Arawakan language name for the Carib Indians of the West Indies because they were well known for their practice of cannibalism. The same word is used in the animal kingdom and means the eating of a species by a member of the same species. For example, wolves will often eat each other when they are desperate for food.

  Cannibalism among humans, as repulsive as the idea may seem, has been widespread in prehistoric and primitive peoples on all continents, and the practice is still believed to exist in remote areas of New Guinea.

  Androphagi – the Greek word for ‘man-eaters’ – were an ancient tribe of cannibals who lived north of Scythia, possibly in the forests between the upper waters of the Dnieper and the Don. Scythia was a region which stretched from from the Altai region where Mongolia, China, Russia and Kazakhstan come together to the lower Danube river area and Bulgaria. The Androphagi were most likely Finns, and their manners were more savage than those of any other race. They did not observe any form of justice, or indeed governed by any laws. They were nomads, and the language which they spoke was peculiar to their tribe, but most of all they were true cannibals.

  Archaeologists from Bristol University uncovered evidence of prehistoric cannibalism in the year 2001, when they were investigating a cave at Alveston, South Gloucestershire. The archaeologists had been working with a local caving group when they discovered numerous bones about ten metres below ground level. Carbon dating suggests that they were buried around 2,000 years ago at the very end of the Iron Age, or possibly the beginning of the Roman occupation. The remains of at least seven individuals were uncovered, and at least one had been murdered as the back of the skull showed that it had been smashed with a heavy instrument. The most interesting find was an adult human femur which had been split lengthwise and the bone marrow had been scraped out. This was considered to be very good evidence that there had been some form of cannibal activity. Archaeologists had suspected some form of Iron Age cannibalism for some time, but this was the first piece of strong evidence they had found.

  Of course there may be many reasons why people practice cannibalism. It could be because there simply wasn’t enough food for survival, or perhaps certain groups of people developed the taste for human flesh. However, it was normally to do with revenge or punishment for crimes, ritualistic ceremonies or sometimes magic. Particular tribes used to eat the bodies of their enemies as a form of triumphant victory. Other groups would eat the bodies of their dead relatives as a form of respect, believing that their spirits would continue to live inside their own bodies; this is known as endocannibalism. Human bodies used as sacrifices to the gods would have parts of their torso removed and eaten to identify their divine status.

  The Wari tribe in the Amazon rain forest practised cannibalism until the late 1950s. The Wari were known to eat both their enemies and their own dead relatives. The eating of enemies was probablly just an act of contempt, very similar to a murderer eating his own victim. However, the eating of their dead relatives was done for a very different reason – respect. Burial was abhorrent to the Wari, so in an effort to destroy the memory of the once-living, all the belongings of the dead person were destroyed, including their own flesh. The Wari believed that by eating their dead and destroying their property that their ‘spirit’ would no longer haunt them or familiar places. The spirit of the dead was then free to be reborn and roam the forest as a peccary (type of pig). If times became really tough for the Wari, the peccary would return to the village and allow itself to be killed for food, subsequently ensuring Wari survival. It was the research carried out on the Wari tribe that gave anthropologists a further insight into cannibalism.

  Of course, even civilized people have had to resort to cannibalism under desperate circumstances, just as a means of staying alive. The case that is probably the most well known is the Donner party that took place in America in the 19th century. A group of 90 immigrants being led by George Donner were caught in a blizzard high up in the Sierra Nevada mountains of California in October 1846. The survivors, who eventually made their way out in early 1847, had resorted to eating the flesh of their dead friends in order to remain alive. A more recent case happened when an airline crashed in a remote area of the Andes in the 1970s, once again the surviving passengers had to resort to cannibalism.

  Criminal Cannibalism

  In modern times, the murder of a person for the purpose of eating their flesh is of course considered to be criminal cannibalism. However, in many parts of the world, indeed in Britain and the United States, cannibalism is not considered to be a felony and the perpetrator would have to be charged with a crime related to this act, for example murder, grave robbery or necrophilia.

  Other cultures often consider the act of criminal cannibalism as an acceptable element of their customs. For example, tribes in Papua New Guinea allegedly consumed their Japanese enemies during World War II, which was an admissible part of their culture.

  Of course we don’t like to believe that cannibalism still takes place today, but there is much evidence to show that it does still happen and with more regularity than we dare believe. There have been many reported instances of cannibalism within the last hundred years and this book will outline some of the more well-known cases.

  There are four primary areas of criminal cannibalism: sexual,
aggressive, nutritional and spiritual/ritual. In sexual cannibalism the person may indulge in the eating of human flesh in order to reach a more intense and satisfying sexual climax. With aggressive cannibalism they may consume the flesh to achieve a sense of power and control, whereas in nutritional cannibalism the person eats it purely because they have come to love the taste. Finally in the spiritual or ritual form, the person will eat the flesh of another so that they can be as one with their deity. The technical term for the consumption of a god’s body and blood is ‘theophagy’ and it has been considered a religious experience worldwide for thousands of years.

  Psychology Behind Cannibalism

  There are many theories about what would lead a person to commit criminal cannibalism, but perhaps the basic framework suggested by psychologists will help to understand this strange phenomenon.

  One belief is that it could be the result of a trauma, especially one that is experienced in early childhood. In rare cases where a child has problems with weaning from its mother’s breast, they may experience anxiety and fantasize about devouring the mother, or, in other words, oral aggression. It is possible that a child who has become excessively dependent upon its mother, due to maternal over-nurturing, is more likely to express its frustration in cannibalism.

  Psychological interviews carried out with offenders have supported the theory that aggression towards the mother is one of the factors that induces cannibalism, as in the case of Ed Kemper.

  Another case, that of Jeffrey Dahmer, indicates that he resorted to cannibalism as a result of stress. He murdered his first victim directly after the break-up of his family. However, this theory does not explain why Dahmer showed signs of cannibalistic fantasies in his early youth.

  Most cannibals that have been studied by a psychiatrist appear to have some form of personality disorder or even schizophrenia, as in the cases of Andrei Chikatilo, Albert Fish, Edward Gein and Issei Sagawa. There were many similarities in their personalities, for example, they suffered from hallucinations, black-outs and some form of disorganized behaviour.

  We can always surmise as to the reasons a certain person commits a certain type of crime, but can we ever really be sure, especially in the case of such a disgusting crime as cannibalism.

  SECTION ONE: CANNIBALISM AROUND THE WORLD

  Easter Island

  Why were the mysterious people of Easter Island maneaters and where did they all go?

  Easter Island was one of the world’s most isolated inhabited islands and it is also one of the most mysterious. Easter Island is approximately midway between Chile and Tahiti and sits in the South Pacific Ocean 2,300 miles west of South America. The inhabitants of this charming island called their land: ‘Te Pito o TeHenua’ or ‘The Navel of the World’.

  The mystery of Easter Island and its indigenous inhabitants, the Rapanui, has intrigued both archaeologists and travellers for many years. No-one is really sure where these ancient people originally came from. It is believed that Easter Island was colonized around ad 300 by Polynesians from the Marquesas Islands or Mangareva. It appears that this was part of an eastward migratory trend that originated in Southeast Asia around 2000 bc. From this migration perhaps one of the most remarkable cultures in all of Polynesia developed.

  These people built long platforms or ‘ahu’ on which they placed slender statues known as ‘moai’. The platforms were built near the coasts, with long retaining walls which faced the sea. Each ahu usually carried around four to six enormous moai which towered four to eight metres high. These statues, or ‘aringa ora’ (living faces), faced inland towards the villages as a form of protection. Some 887 moai have been discovered on Easter Island, of which 288 were actually erected on the ahu.

  Most of the moai were cut from the same quarry at Rano Raraku, which contained the yellowish volcanic tuff which the inhabitants shaped with stone tools. Quite how these enormous statues were moved from the quarry to their place on their platforms still remains a mystery today. Some of the statues had a large cylindrical topknot (‘pukao’) carved from the reddish stone of Puna Pau. Eyes were cut out of coral and were fitted into the faces of the standing moai. By 1840 all of the moai had been thrown off their ahu, possibly by earthquakes or rival tribes.

  Before the introduction of Christianity, the natives of Easter Island are said to have eaten a number of men, including two Peruvian traders. Every descendant of Easter Island is well aware that his ancestors were man-eaters, or as they knew it, ‘kai-tangata’.

  The cannibal feasts were generally held in remote parts of the island and women and children were generally excluded from this ritual. The fingers and toes of their victims were considered to be the tastiest morsels. The captives were held in wooden huts until it was time for them to be sacrificed to their gods.

  The Easter Islanders’ cannibalism was not, however, purely a religious rite or indeed the expression of revenge, it was also induced by the fact that they simply liked the taste of human flesh. We have to remember that by 1600 there were more than 15,000 people living on the island, and the pressure over resources would have been tremendous. Unlike other cannibalistic societies, here, cannibalism wasn’t so much for ritual, as for food, and the only large mammal whose flesh was available, was Man.

  It was usually women and children who were the principal victims of these deep-rooted cannibals. However an act of cannibalism against a member of a family was deemed to be a terrible insult to the entire family, and the reprisals that followed this deed were acts of extreme violence. Similar to the traditions of the ancient Maoris, those men who had taken part in the ‘meal’ were entitled to show their teeth to the relatives of the victim and say, ‘Your flesh has stuck between my teeth’. Such remarks invoked uncontrollable rage which often resulted in the murder of the perpetrator.

  Over the years all the pure Rapa Nui blood died out. Connections with Chile brought new influences, and today there are only a few individuals left with any ties to the original population of Easter Island.

  The Crew of the Essex

  The crew survived for as long as possible without resorting to the inevitable, but malnutrition started to take control of their minds and they began consuming one another

  Perhaps one of the most compelling shipwreck stories is that of the whaleship Essex, of Nantucket. This tragedy happened in the year 1820. The first of four previous voyages took place in 1802, and they were heading for whaling areas just off southern Africa. The reason for their journey was to collect whale oil, and also to head for the Pacific to obtain sperm oil.

  On August 12, 1819, the Essex left Nantucket in southwest Florida, once again bound for the Pacific. On board that day were a crew of 20 and the Captain, George Pollard. Fifteen months later, on November 20, 1920, the Essex was approximately 2,700 miles west of Ecuador. Two of the ship’s small boats were already out, and the Captain had managed to harpoon a whale. One of the small ships was just returning to the Essex, when the first mate, Owen Chase, noticed that a large sperm whale was charging at the ship.

  The crew stood and watched helplessly while the whale’s massive head struck the bow of the ship. The whale then turned around and rammed the ship for a second time, this time staving in the bows and forcing the crew to abandon their ship.

  Before leaving in three clinker-built whaleboats, the crew managed to salvage some food and water, two quadrants and two sextants to help with their survival, as they did not know how long they would be at sea before being rescued. They pulled away from their ship just in time to see the Essex sink and began their search for land. They knew the closest land lay to the west and, in fact Tahiti was only about a two-week sail away. However, very few ships had ever ventured as far west, and so the crew had no idea what to expect on the islands around Tahiti. The only knowledge they had of the islands was that there was the possibility of cannibals living there. Due to this fear they decided to attempt a far longer journey to the remote Easter Island, around 20,000 miles away.

  The firs
t mate, Chase, mentioned in his account of the forthcoming disaster that their captain, Pollard, would have preferred to take the risk of landing in Tahiti, but did not have the confidence to force his wishes upon his fearful crew. And so it was for this reason that the hapless crew set sail south and east, in the hope of reaching the latitude of the trade winds.

  There was a total of three boats that left the wreck of the Essex, commanded by Captain Pollard, first-mate Chase, and second mate Joy. On the sixth day at sea the first mate reported that his boat had been attacked by a killer whale, although in all probability it was a shark. However, it was large enough to bite a large portion out of the stern of Chase’s boat, splintering and splitting it in the process. For 22 days the crew suffered, managing to survive on the few meagre supplies they had managed to salvage from the Essex.

  Exhausted and thoroughly despondent they managed to reach Dulcie’s Island.

  When they arrived at Dulcie’s Island, the crew started a frantic search for essential food and water. They were successful in the search for water, but the only food they could find were sea-birds and their eggs; hardly enough to feed 21 starving men. Not knowing the area at all, they were unaware they they were only one day away from Pitcairn Island. Realising that Dulcie’s Island could not support them, the men once again took to sea in search of Easter Island, leaving three of the crew behind at their own request.

  It appears, however, that luck was not on the side of the crew of the Essex because, before they could reach their destination, their small craft was hit by a series of powerful storms which blew their small vessels off course, several hundreds of miles south of Easter Island. Unsure of what to do, the Captain suggested that they continue another 2,500 miles and try to make the coast of South America. Once again they were hit by a storm, and this time the three boats became separated. Chase’s boat was the first one to get blown away from the others, and after a week of Chase’s disappearance, Pollard’s boat and the third boat also became separated.