Post by Graveyardbride on Feb 19, 2016 14:47:48 GMT -5
Modern-Day Cannibals
It was a crime that shocked Australia. In February 2000 in the sleepy town of Aberdeen, New South Wales, Katherine Knight (above) butchered John Price, her lover, skinned him, decapitated his corpse, cooked parts of his body and served them for dinner with gravy, potatoes, pumpkin, cabbage and squash. Knight, who worked at an abattoir – which she considered her “dream job” – had been given a set of butcher knives, which she hung over her bed, so, she said, they “would always be handy if I needed them.” Knight had assaulted Price a number of times and on February 29, 2000, he filed for a restraining order to keep her away from him and his children. He also told his co-workers if he failed to appear at work, it would be because Katherine Knight had killed him. Some of them begged him not to go home that evening, but he said he was afraid she would kill his children if he didn’t. When he got to the house, Knight wasn’t there and he discovered she had allowed the children to sleep over at a friend’s house. He visited with neighbors, returned home and was in bed by 11. Knight had purchased sexy black lingerie that day and when she arrived at Price’s home, watched TV for a while before showering and getting into bed with her boyfriend. The two engaged in sexual activity after which he fell asleep.
The following morning, a neighbor became concerned when he saw Price’s car in the driveway when he should have already left for work. When he didn’t appear at his job, his boss sent a co-worker to check on his absent employee. The neighbor and co-worker knocked, but after noticing blood on the door, called the police, who arrived at 8 a.m. The officers forced their way through the backdoor and found Price’s body. Knight was comatose from having taken a handful of sleeping pills. She had stabbed her lover while he was asleep and according to the evidence, the man had awakened and attempted to get away while Knight chased after him with the knife. At one point, he had apparently gotten out the door, but was dragged back inside where he bled out and died. The autopsy revealed Price had been stabbed at least 37 times, both back and front, lacerating several vital organs, including the stomach, aorta, liver, left kidney, descending colon, pancreas and both lungs. On the dining table, investigators found plates with notes bearing the names of Price’s children, evidence she was preparing to serve the children rump steaks, sliced from their father’s buttocks, for dinner. The head was discovered in a still-warm pot with vegetables, indicating the cooking had taken place in the early morning hours. After butchering the corpse, Knight hung the skin on the architrave above a door and posed the headless body in an armchair, crossing her dead lover’s legs and placing an empty 1.25-liter soft drink bottle in his hands.
During the ensuing investigation and trial, it was discovered that Katherine Knight had married David Stanford Kellett in 1974 and totally dominated him. On their wedding night, she tried to strangle him because he fell asleep after they had intercourse three times and Knight wanted more. According to Kellett, when he met Knight’s mother, “The old girl [the mother] said to me to watch out. ‘You better watch this one or she’ll fucking kill you. Stir her up the wrong way or do the wrong thing and you’re fucked. Don’t ever think of playing up on her [cheating on her], she’ll fuckin’ kill you.’ And that was her mother talking! She told me she’s got something loose. She’s got a screw loose somewhere.” Knight was charged with first-degree murder, arrested and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of patrol. She was the first woman in Australian history to receive a life sentence without parole.
Armin Meiwes, ‘The Master Butcher’: In a crime that horrified Germany, Armin Meiwes found his victim, Bernd-Juergen Brandes, on the internet. Brandes, an IT manager, had posted an advertisement for someone to “obliterate his life and leave no trace,” it was reported. Brandes traveled by train to meet Meiwes in the west German town of Rotenburg in March 2001, where Meiwes videotaped himself severing Brandes’ penis with a knife, after which both men attempted to eat it. Bleeding profusely, Brandes passed out with the video camera still recording. Meiwes laid him out on a bench and kissed him on the lips before plunging a knife into his throat. He then suspended the corpse on a meet hook, cut away approximately 66 pounds of flesh, which he wrapped in several parcels and froze. Later, he cooked a Brandes steak, which he served with croquettes, Brussels sprouts and green pepper sauce. “I decorated the table with nice candles ... I took out my best dinner service and fried a piece of rump steak – a piece from his back – made what I call princess potatoes and sprouts,” he explained. “The first bite was, of course, very strange. It was a feeling I can’t really describe. I’d spent over 40 years longing for it, dreaming about it. And now I was getting the feeling that I was actually achieving this perfect inner connection through his flesh. The flesh tastes like pork, a little bit more bitter, stronger. It tastes quite good,” he added. Over the following months, he ate several more human steaks.
Meiwes was tried in 2004 and again in 2006. A psychiatrist who examined the cannibal concluded that he was not insane, but had a “severely disturbed soul.” He is now serving a prison term, but could be released as early as 2021. Police estimate that around 10,000 people in Germany alone share Meiwes’ fascination for cannibalism, either having a desire to eat human flesh or wish to be eaten themselves, as did Bernd-Juergen Brandes.
Anthony Morley, ‘Gay Cannibal Killer’: Former “Mr. Gay UK,” Anthony Morley, is spending the rest of his life in prison after being found guilty of butchering his boyfriend and cooking his flesh. In 2008, after watching Brokeback Mountain in bed, Morley, 36, slashed 33-year-old Damian Oldfield’s throat before stabbing him numerous times. He then cut up and cooked his lover’s flesh. When sentencing Morley, Judge James Stewart observed, “This is one of the most gruesome murders I have encountered. I associated cannibalism with eras long gone, with the tale of Robinson Crusoe. No longer.”
Jeffrey Dahmer, ‘Milwaukee Cannibal’: Jeffrey Dahmer was a chocolate factory worker who slaughtered, raped and mutilated at least 17 young men. He also ate parts of some of his victims. Known as the “Milwaukee Cannibal,” Dahmer’s killing spree spanned approximately 13 years between 1978 and 1991. He drugged young men and boys before molesting and killing them. Dahmer claimed his penchant for murder and necrophilia began at the age of 14, but emphasized that he always wore a condom when having sex with his dead partners or their body parts. He also suffered from delusions, believing he could turn his victims into zombies by drilling into their skulls and injecting acid into their brains. Dahmer was stabbed to death by a fellow inmate in 1994 while serving a life sentence for his crimes.
Matthew Williams: On November 6, 2014, members of staff burst into a room at the Sirhowy Arms Hotel in Caerphilly, South Wales, where they found Matthew Williams (above right), 34, eating the eyeball of 22-year-old Cerys Yemm (left). The two had met in a pub a few hours earlier. When police arrived, they were forced to tase Williams, who became unresponsive and later died in custody. Autopsy revealed he was high on cocaine. In addition to Yemm’s eye, he had also eaten parts of her face. At the inquest, it was determined the young woman had died from “sharp force trauma” to the face and neck, and that she had been alive while Williams was eating her face and eye. She was a huge fan of The Vampire Diaries and that night, she was dressed as a zombie.
Jorge Beltrão Negromonte: Dubbed the real-life Sweeney Todd, Negromonte, 54, assisted by his wife and mistress, lured women to his home with the promise of work as a babysitter. The sick trio then killed their victims, butchered them and used their flesh to make empanadas, which they sold to shops, schools, hospitals and individuals in Pernambuco, Brazil. When people asked what the pies contained, they were told the delicacies were made with chicken and tuna. The tasty pies were also eaten by the trio, a small child who lived with them, and neighbors. After police found the remains of two victims in the backyard, the three were arrested in April 2012 in the city of Garanhaus. They confessed to their crimes and claimed they belonged to a sect that believed in “the purification of the world and the reduction of its population.” Later, Negromonte described how he sliced a teenage mother to death in front of her child and then fed bits of the woman’s flesh to her bambino. Negromonte was sentenced to 23 years in prison, while his wife and mistress received sentences of 20-years each.
Tamara Samsonova, the ‘Granny Ripper’: A Russian serial killer dubbed the “Granny Ripper” was suspected of eating the organs of her victims and was said to have “favored their lungs.” St. Petersburg police found the headless body of Valentina Ulanova near a pond after Samsonova, her 68-year-old care-giver, was caught on video removing the victim’s body in a black bag. Ulanova had been drugged and cut into pieces with a hacksaw. What followed was the unraveling of a murder spree involving at least 11 victims that took place over two decades and unmasked a serial killer who delighted in cutting up her victims and was suspected of eating their internal organs. A search of Samsonova’s flat not only revealed diaries wherein she proudly detailed her crimes, but a sharp knife and blood smears in the bathroom. Samsonova wrote about her exploits in her diary and even confessed her monstrous crimes to police. St. Petersburg detective Mikhail Timoshatov said, “Tamara Samsonova says that at first she made her friend sleep – and then cut her into pieces” while she was still alive.
Several unsolved murders were investigated for possible links to Samsonova. Another of her suspected victims was the body of a headless, legless and armless man found on the same street 12 years earlier – his business card was discovered in Samsonova’s home. Police also feared Samsonova’s husband, whom she reported missing in 2005, was one of the 11 victims she boasted about in her diary. He has never been found. In court, the judge asked the Granny Ripper what she thought about being in jail. Her reply was as matter-of-fact as her macabre diary. “You decide, your honor.” she replied. “After all, I am guilty and I deserve a punishment.”
Ottis Toole was an American killer, rapist and cannibal who befriended and traveled with serial killer Henry Lee Lucas. The two met in 1978 in a soup kitchen in Jacksonville, Florida, began a sexual relationship and went on a murder spree together. Toole admitted to having committed his first murder at age 14 and described how he cooked and ate humans with his homemade barbecue sauce. Toole was the only one of the pair who confessed to cannibalism. He was convicted of six counts of murder and died in 1996 at Florida State Prison. In December 2008, Jacksonville law enforcement announced definitively that Toole was responsible for the 1981 murder of Adam Walsh, the son of John Walsh of America’s Most Wanted fame. Though many doubt Toole was the perpetrator, the announcement brought to a close a case that had troubled the Walsh family for more than two decades.
Author: Graveyardbride.
Sources: NewsAustralia, February 13, 2016; Libby-Jane Charleston, The Daily Telegraph, May 4, 2014; Spiegel Online; "Tales of Cannibalism," The Daily Mail; and Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office.
See also “Tales of Two Cannibals”: whatliesbeyond.boards.net/thread/3870/tales-cannibals
