UPDATE: Cannibal Confesses in Shocking Trial

Culture & Society Forum

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A German confessed on Wednesday to killing and eating a willing victim in a case that could make legal history, telling a shocked courtroom the experience was "like taking communion" in a religious service.


At the start of his murder trial in Kassel, central Germany, Armin Meiwes, 42, offered a full account of the killing that has gained him worldwide notoriety as "The Cannibal of Rotenburg" after the town where he lived.


Meiwes said there were "hundreds, thousands" of people seeking to fulfil their desires to eat humans or be eaten via Internet advertisements in forums called "Cannibal Cafe," "Guy Cannibals" and "Torturenet."


In testimony so frank it drew gasps from the public gallery, Meiwes said he had kept his victim's skull and plastic bags of flesh in his freezer. He ate about 44 pounds of the flesh, defrosting it bit by bit.


"With every piece of flesh I ate I remembered him," Meiwes, a self-assured and well-spoken computer repair man, told the judge. "It was like taking communion."


The killing took place in March 2001. Meiwes was arrested in December 2002 after police received a tip-off from someone who had seen one of his Internet adverts seeking a slaughter victim.


The trial is expected to last until the end of January and some 40 witnesses will be called, including some of Meiwes's Internet contacts.


The gaunt, bespectacled defendant said that during his upbringing alone with a dominant mother he had longed for a little brother he could make "part of me."


He told how he made contact online with a 43-year-old Berlin computer specialist identified only as Bernd-Juergen B.


He invited him to his elegant half-timbered home near Kassel and killed him with a kitchen knife in a "slaughtering room" he had built containing meat hooks, a cage and a butcher's table.


"He told me he had had the desire since he was a child to be slaughtered and eaten," Meiwes said. "He was very intelligent and I didn't see any sign that he was disturbed." Meiwes filmed the killing and the video tape may be shown to the court.


Defense lawyers have said the film shows Meiwes cutting off the victim's penis at the latter's request.


"It was important to him that his member be cut off and that he witness it," Meiwes said.


"He screamed terribly and jumped around the table but after a while he said he was surprised it didn't hurt and was very pleased that the wound bled so strongly," he added.


"It gave him pleasure."


MURDER OR EUTHANASIA?


Eventually the victim lost consciousness and Meiwes killed him with a knife. He hung up the corpse and cut it up, filming the process.





Prosecutors, who charged Meiwes with murder after a psychiatrist declared him fit to stand trial, are seeking a life sentence.

They concede the victim wanted to be killed but argue he was incapable of rational thought.

Meiwes's lawyer has pleaded for him to be convicted of "killing on request," a form of illegal euthanasia which carries a maximum five years sentence.

Legal experts say the charge of full murder may not stick given that the video film shows the victim to be willing. The case could reach the Federal Constitutional Court, Arthur Kreuzer of Giessen University's Institute for Criminology said this week.

Meiwes said he became obsessed with wanting a younger brother -- "someone to be part of me."

Using the pseudonym "Franky," he posted Internet ads saying: "If you are 18-25 you are my boy" or "Come to me I'll eat your delicious flesh."

Some 430 people responded to his e-mails within a year.

Source: Reuters

.....oh wow....

Hmm... I have a feeling they knew exactly what they were in for and that just makes it even more sick

OH man, I just though they were perverts. That is very twisted.

Doesn't he look like Seann William Scott???

I don't know who that is, but the canibal picture is freaking me out. He is so creepy looking.

Stiffler from American Pie

Oh, now that just ruins the movie for me. He kinda does though.

This whole story creeps me out!!!!


This guy has a MAJOR mental issue! He needs to be put away.


Of course I have a feeling that the guy that allowed this guy to wack off his weenie wasnt all there either.....

This Hannibal Lecter needs to be in jail.....before someone else becomes his next meal...

THIS IS SICK!

Yes... it's gross. But I don't think he looks like Sean William Scott as much as Robin Williams.

What a creep. Interesting trial though... is it murder or EUTHANASIA? Even if the other guy was crazy... This fella wasn't killing anyone who wanted to be alive. Blah. I feel sick now.

Ok that's just sick!

I read this story in a newspaper before I logged in. It just made me sick.

I think his case is just one of many, given the number of people who responded to him.

Who in their right mind would WANT to be killed and eaten?!? Oh wait, I think I just answered my own question...RIGHT MIND....

Cannibal Is Hungry For More

A German cannibal was trying to find a second person to eat after devouring his first victim, a court has heard.

Armin Meiwes wrote to a friend to tell him he had nearly stripped Bernd-Juergen Brandes of all his edible parts shortly after murdering him.


"I hope I will soon find another victim, the flesh has almost all gone," he wrote in an email to a friend.

And he even intended to share the meat of his first victim with his new find - before slaughtering him as well.

Internet

Meiwes denies murder but admits killing and eating a man.

The 42-year-old computer technician met Brandes on the internet and claims the victim gave his consent to be killed and eaten.

Meiwes told police he was on the prowl for another victim when arrested.

"I'd just like to say that I didn't kill anyone else although I would have done if the chance had presented itself," he told police when questioned.

The court case, in Kassel, has riveted Europe.

The jury has heard how Meiwes advertised on the internet for someone to kill and eat.

Freezer

Brandeson came forward and the pair ate the engineer's penis before Meiwes filmed the murder.

He insists Brandes agreed to be killed and eaten.

Brandes's body was cut up and stored in a freezer.

Meiwes faces life in jail if convicted of the main charge of murder for sexual satisfaction.

Defence lawyers argue that he is guilty only of "killing on demand", which is punishable by up to five years in prison.

The trial continues.

Source: Sky News (UK)

I hope the guy goes to mental asylum for life and given solitary confinement, in case he tries to eat one of the inmates.

I thought he only wanted to make that guy 'a part of himself'. Now he wants to make more people 'a part of himself'?

I think that 'making a part of me' stuff is just ********. The guy is just plain crazy and not fit to be in normal society. I hope he offers to eat one of his defence lawyers. I would love to see how they would continue his defense after that.

I study psychology in two of my college courses and you'd be suprised at how common this actually is! History is littered with recognized cannibals... and yet... it is still suprising how often it still happens.
I'm out!

Be prepared to have your jaw dropped...




GERMAN CANNIBAL CLEARED OF MURDER
Jan 30 2004

German cannibal Armin Meiwes, who has confessed to killing and eating a man he met over the Internet, has been cleared of his victim's murder.

However, the 42 year old has been found guilty of manslaughter and sentenced to eight-and-a-half years in prison.

Meiwes confessed in detail to the March 2001 killing of Bernd Juergen Brandes when his trial opened last month.

He revealed Brandes wanted to be stabbed to death after drinking a bottle of cold medicine to lose consciousness.

A video of the killing was shown to the court in a closed session earlier in the trial.

A doctor testified that Brandes died from loss of blood after Meiwes cut off his penis and ate it. He also said the medication, a half-bottle of liquor the Berlin man also swallowed and 20 sleeping pills he took beforehand, could not have lessened his pain.

Several experts testified that Meiwes was not mentally ill and was fit to stand trial.

He was arrested in December 2002 after a student alerted police to an Internet message posted by Meiwes, seeking a man who wanted to be killed and eaten.

Meiwes told the court his victim "came to me of his own free will to end his life. For him, it was a nice death". He added that he regrets the killing.

I read about this in our State paper and it said that cannibalism is actually growing in popularity, that there are web sites dedictaed to it all over the world.

This guy also had two previous people come to his apartment to be killed and eaten, but these other people chickened out after he had wrapped them in cling film and marked out the "cuts" of meat on their bodies. I would be thanking my lucky stars if I was them now.

I guess in theory I agree with the verdict passed down on him, he was asked to kill someone and he did, is he any worse in that respect than the doctors who perform euthanasia?

But I was sure cannibalism was illegal everywhere, but my newspaper said it is only actually illegal in about three or four countries, the rest of the world has "overlooked" updating that law to make it illegal.

If I were the jailer, I would make sure none of my other prisoners 'disappeared'.

well if I was the jailer I would look the other way.................. since it would be simpler and cheaper than having to support someone on death row for like 20 years!!!! Think of it this way: you dont have to feed the guy eating them and you dont have to feed, dress or spend on the lethal injections to get rid of them later................. this would ONLY apply to those on death row............. the mass-murderers, the child abusers, the real sickos locked up!!!

Yeah I know I sound demented and sick but hell I believe in the death penalty and in the "eye for an eye" mentality...................... maybe I should shut my mouth now