Japanese Celebrity Cannibal: Issei Sagawa
It’s hard to make a living if you’re a cannibal, and that’s the only skill you have. Hannibal Lecter at least had a day job to tide him over between meals, but Issei Sagawa is finding out that notoriety alone won’t put food on the table.
Issei Sagawa became famous for killing and feasting on a fellow student, Renee Hartevelt, in Paris in 1981.
Issei chopped off many different body parts and ate them while listening to a recording he had made of Renee reciting poetry.
He later stuffed the remains of her body into a suitcase and left it in a park.
“I touch the cold body again and I wonder where I should start. I start to cut off all the meat before amputating the limbs. While I cut her calf I suddenly want to taste it. I see the beautiful red meat beneath the fat. I grasp her knee and her ankle, and tear it with my teeth. It is tender. I slowly chew and savor it.”
Declared as mentally unfit to stand trial, he spent a year in a mental hospital before being deported back to Japan in 1985. He was quickly assessed as sane and placed in prison. His father, an influential industrialist, was able to get him released as a free man in 1986.
Apparently his family abandoned him, since he has tried to make a living on his own writing books, appearing in movies, and painting pictures. He was once hired to write restaurant reviews but that job was short lived. There’s information on what he compared sushi to in an interview and a book he wrote called “In The Fog”.
“It had no smell or taste, and melted in my mouth like raw tuna,”
To Issei, Gray’s Anatomy is just an introduction to a bizarre cookbook.
Now that his celebrity career is waning, Issei says he finds it difficult to scrape together the funds to buy a Big Mac, and he’s apparently too old to go back to school for a free lunch. Perhaps he should consider a new career…eliminating the homeless where he lives.
(link)
that guy is a frickin sicko.
their is a rock band with the name issei Sagawa on myspace
disgusting!!!
He’s not collecting body parts. He’s eating them.
He did so, after having sex with the corpse, beginning with her hips. In interviews, he noted his surprise at the “corn-colored” nature of human fat. For two days, Sagawa ate various parts of her body. He described the meat as “soft” and “odorless”, like tuna. After two days, he dumped the mutilated body in a park, but was seen in the act. Five days later, he was arrested by the French police. However, the French psychologists found him legally insane and unfit to stand trial. Instead, he was deported back to Japan, where he was put in a mental institution. However, the deportation order did not specify how long Sagawa must remain in the institution, and Japanese authorities were refused the necessary paperwork from French justice officials Fifteen months later, Sagawa checked himself out, and has been a free man ever since.
Hannibal Lecter: Remarkable boy. I do admire your courage. I think I’ll eat your heart. to Issei Sagawa
dude,WTF IS WRONG WITH YOU, POSTING
A PICTURE OF A DEAD WOMAN ONLINE!
KEEP IT PG-13~
This never has been and prolly never will be PG13. Sorry.. all the sex and dildo article probably ruined that already.
Sorry you got offended.. Great story though huh?
Good job on the article.
did you know their are more picture this crime.
dude…
i had nightmares last night…
FRIGGIN GAY~
I’m interested in seeing more of those pictures
Lawlz.
CLICK ON MY NAME
Showing the picture of her body is completely uncalled for. Most of the pictures on this site are funny or interesting–this is neither. Horribly graphic and disturbing.
In our corrupted world,not everything is “funny,and interesting”,to be in denial of this fact shows ignorance. Glad to know that Weird Asia doesn’t hide the “ugliness” of our society.
Ugh, a little warning before that picture would’ve been nice. Sick man though, and the fact that he’s free only scares me more.
Holy crap!? He ate her tits??
Is posting a photo of a mutilated corpse really necessary? Providing a little bit of titillation for some readers and raising your hit rates does not justify it. Not that I expect you to take any notice of what has been said, your ‘punch-line’ sums up your attitude
“Perhaps he should consider a new career…eliminating the homeless where he lives.”
- such wit
*wait*….what!!! Can this be happening? Why didnt they do anything while he was in Paris? Killing someone that way is….well…dont know a stronger word. Japan should consider having him in a secure place from now on.
When I first found this site it was fun, lively, amusing, sometimes quite startling but always entertaining. There wasn’t a negative word you could say about it. I don’t know what has gone wrong but it has definitely taken a nosedive.
If you look at the first articles up through the middle up til now. The tone, content, and style have not changed much.
Sorry you feel it has taken a nose dive. Not everyone can be happy with everything.
We went from Largest orgy and Chinese eating baby infants for health to cunt examination signs and Japanese people eating other people.
Not much of a change huh??
Cheers
You guys can quit whining about a little graphic picture. There are worse things shown in movies that your kids probably watch. Just shut up and enjoy adding a little bit of knowledge to your otherwise dull church-going lives.
My church-going life isn’t dull, though I did this article interesting.
But I’m guessing you’re comment is aimed at the whining type comments. I agree it’s true there are tons of graphic content in movies. Who cares if it’s “fake” it’s still made to try to imitate life - as does much art.
Cheers!
Take away the “hahah funny cannibal” part, and he’s still a MURDERER. Who should not be allowed in society. Remind me not to visit Japan.
Because deportation order did not specify how long Sagawa must remain in the institution, and Japanese authorities were refused the necessary paperwork from French justice officials.
DAM YOU FRENCH JUSTICE OFFICIALS
Sure, let the wrong doings of one man turn you off to a whole country.
its the minority that ruins it for the majority…
I think posting of the pic emphasizes how sick this guy really was…a pic is worth 1000 words.
I sat in on an autopsy some weeks ago, and it’s true, human fat is quite yellow… but the smell…. it was awful and I can’t understand how anyone could maintain an appetite.
the best thing for the world at large would be for this man to have a fatal accident of some sort.
the best thing would be if someone would kill him and let him be eaten afterwards…
it’s crazy how our modern “justice” works! the guy killed that (probably) poor girl and after a couple of years he was out and living and everything perfect, no probs!!! He could go on killing and eating people or whatever his sick appetite would require. He should have been executed or *at least* be put in prison or in a mental institution forever. But that’s practically impossible, obviously.
Then they say “justice”! If this is our justice, then I understand the people who take it back on their hands and ignore the state..