And this just in, from Germany ...

December 18, 2002 9:43 AM

And this just in, from Germany ...This story is all the rage over there. It's a little too sick to describe, so I'll let you do the reading. What I find odd is that this article (from the English version of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung) says he might have been "inspired by Jeffrey Dahmer," and the article in the NYTimes quotes a German saying he would expect this sort of thing in America, but not in his own country. So I ask you: When did America become the home of ritualistic cannibals?
posted by risenc (33 comments total)

When Clinton started letting those damned New Guinean economic migrants in. Damn you, Clinton!
posted by Pretty_Generic at 9:45 AM on December 18, 2002

so glad i decided to check out some posts right before my lunch break
posted by adamms222 at 9:52 AM on December 18, 2002

I don't get these people that consent to be victims... do they think they'll get to watch themselves on video later?
posted by zekinskia at 9:55 AM on December 18, 2002

The crazy part to me is that in the first article I read, the German police seemed pretty non-plussed about the whole thing; he was being kept in a regular prison, and was not being tried as insane.
posted by HellKatonWheelz at 10:00 AM on December 18, 2002

When did America become the home of ritualistic cannibals?

When it became a fashionable scapegoat for everything that's wrong in the world?

I'm kind of disappointed they mentioned the man's sexuality in the first sentence of the article, as if it makes him more dangerous. Maybe they felt it was contextual in understanding why he'd cook and eat a penis (and not a vagina)?
posted by dhoyt at 10:02 AM on December 18, 2002

dhoyt: That surprised me as well. I'd read the Times article first, so when I saw it in the FAZ I thought perhaps there was an element of the story the first piece had missed. But it's not relevant at all - except, I'm afraid, the writer must figure that this kind of act is, somehow, typical for homosexuals.
posted by risenc at 10:05 AM on December 18, 2002

When did America become the home of ritualistic cannibals?

We foreigners usually view the United States through the lens of its own overwhelming cultural industry. If I remember well, X Files alone had a dozen episodes with cannibals. The Silence of the Lambs and Hannibal were major blockbusters everywhere. There are lots of minor movies on the subject. So, there you have it. You told us about the your cannibals.
posted by nkyad at 10:08 AM on December 18, 2002

I don't get these people that consent to be victims

You mean you don't get why people ask to be killed and eaten? Open your mind, dude!
posted by Pretty_Generic at 10:10 AM on December 18, 2002

When did America become the home of ritualistic cannibals?

When it became a fashionable scapegoat for everything that's wrong in the world?

That's part of it... but it's more a matter of statistics. We have a large, diverse population, many of whom have lots of cash and/or spare time, and very little social monitoring (neighbors who know you and know what you're up to). Hence, lots of extreme acts, good or bad, will end up coming out of the States first.
posted by badstone at 10:20 AM on December 18, 2002

Maybe they need to have a notary in the video (before the appetizers begin) to confirm it's voluntary for it to be all legit. ;)
posted by stifford at 10:27 AM on December 18, 2002

No laws against Cannibalism in Germany? "Hey honey, book me a round trip ticket to Hamburg for the weekend. Why? No reason. I just need a little change of pace, that's all"

Cut off your penis, fry it up, share it with a fellow cannibal, then get stabbed to death and carved into cutlets? Eeeeeewww! Yick! That's really gross!

Yeah, but is it Art?

Quick....Call Andrew Llloyd Webber! Call Stephen Sondheim! It's the new 'Sweeney Todd' ! I see a musical!

Best. snuff. flick. ever.

(for the record, I've never actually watched one, but I still think it's a fair bet. After all, it's consensual)

"So I ask you: When did America become the home of ritualistic cannibals?" - Aren't they called venture capitalists here ?

Xzrrrdloook from planet TqxD78 said: "Hey - remember that really weird species I was telling you about? The bilaterally symmetrical hairless carbon based bipeds? Yeah, those. Well.....let me tell you....They're even weirder than I thought. Got a minute?..."
posted by troutfishing at 10:30 AM on December 18, 2002

Cut off your penis, fry it up, share it with a fellow cannibal, then get stabbed to death and carved into cutlets? Eeeeeewww! Yick! That's really gross!

Oh, like you never tried it.
posted by dhoyt at 10:38 AM on December 18, 2002

nykad - yes, i often hear people quoting '..with a nice bottle of chianti *inhale sharply through slightly opened mouth*'. is cannibalism the new herion chic?
posted by asok at 10:41 AM on December 18, 2002

So I ask you: When did America become the home of ritualistic cannibals?

It is? It seemed like the Germans have an equally strong hold on the serial killer market.
posted by Kellydamnit at 10:45 AM on December 18, 2002

dhoyt - oh no, no, this is no laughing matter - This is a serious affair! Serious I say! oops - have to go, left something on the stove
posted by troutfishing at 10:56 AM on December 18, 2002

Where are these ads seeking volunteers posted? That's what really interests me. Who's the guy who says, "I really want to support the growing online cannibal community." Nothing really popped out at me on Usenet and I don't think I want to keep looking ("Sorry, sir, what was your name again? Agent ...?")
posted by mmcg at 11:07 AM on December 18, 2002

the ads read something like: "looking for young men to butcher". seriously.
posted by dabitch at 11:20 AM on December 18, 2002

".....to arrange another date with a fellow cannibal."... wait, the man that is consumed - is he a cannibal, or is there another name for that?
posted by dabitch at 11:24 AM on December 18, 2002

So I ask you: When did America become the home of ritualistic cannibals?

About a thousand years ago?
posted by y2karl at 11:28 AM on December 18, 2002

When did America become the home of ritualistic cannibals?
it always has been. it's just mainstream now that the ritualistic cannibals are in power.
posted by quonsar at 11:55 AM on December 18, 2002

"the man that is consumed - is he a cannibal, or is there another name for that?"

Dinner?
posted by lupus_yonderboy at 11:56 AM on December 18, 2002

troutfishing: Quick....Call Andrew Llloyd Webber! Call Stephen Sondheim! It's the new 'Sweeney Todd' ! I see a musical!

I just have to add the obligatory reference to Trey Parker's brilliant Cannibal! The Musical. Those crazy trappers...
posted by raygirvan at 12:25 PM on December 18, 2002

How about Fritz Haarman? What do you say to that, lousy Deutschlanders?
posted by Veritron at 12:29 PM on December 18, 2002

Where are these ads seeking volunteers posted?
Usenet, of course.
posted by zztzed at 1:45 PM on December 18, 2002

America has always been the home to people like this. We have 6% of the worlds population, but 90% of the world's serial killers.

I suppose it's because we have attached a 'mythos' to it or something that might not exist in other countries.
posted by delmoi at 3:06 PM on December 18, 2002

Quote from the gentleman surviving the cannibal pact (seems hard to call him an out-and-out murderer, as the whole bizarre affair was apparently consensual):

"I can say that I would never eat a woman — they are too important for the survival of mankind.

"Sperm from men can be frozen and used to give birth to children after his death. But women are irreplaceable for the continuity of mankind."

Hear, hear.
posted by Bletch at 3:30 PM on December 18, 2002

Have you a normal build Body and will you di, than come to me, i butchering you and eat your horny flesh.

I have to say zztzed, you learn something new everyday.
posted by dgaicun at 5:10 PM on December 18, 2002

kellydamnit,

It's interesting that you bring up Peter Kurten. It seems that our penchant for creating truly nasty serial killers is the key ingredient for brilliant cinema, here in the Anglo-Germanosphere. First of all, American killer Ed Gein, influenced the creation of Limey Hitchcock's amazing Psycho, and later the equally impressive Yankee flick Silence of the Lambs (which had the most impressive Academy Awards sweep in twenty years). Similarly, Kurten was the model for, arguably, the two best films of the German Expressionist film period, F. W. Murnau's Nosferatu, and Fritz lang's M.
posted by dgaicun at 5:57 PM on December 18, 2002

Alright one more -

(I'm sorry, but I'm overwhelmed by the perfection of this post *sniff*)

and the article in the NYTimes quotes a German saying he would expect this sort of thing in America, but not in his own country. So I ask you: When did America become the home of ritualistic cannibals?

About a thousand years ago?

Yeah, but Germany still started that sicko crap waaaaayyy before we joined in. It wasn't just pigs and chickens getting eaten in the Neandertal Valley.
posted by dgaicun at 6:20 PM on December 18, 2002

At least he had the decency to cook the penis on site, rather than get one delivered.
posted by dr_dank at 7:35 PM on December 18, 2002

When did America become the home of ritualistic cannibals?

"Give us your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to be fried free."

They didn't call it "the melting pot" for nothing.

Then again, I suppose if we had sausages of the same caliber as Germany's, we wouldn't have this problem.
posted by groundhog at 8:01 PM on December 18, 2002

zzted - wow. A cannibal subculture on Usenet. The "Free Market" at work?
posted by troutfishing at 7:53 AM on December 19, 2002

When did America become the home of ritualistic cannibals?

With the arrival of the Catholics? (This is my body: eat this in remembrance of me.) Ritualized cannibalism at its finest.
posted by quarantine at 8:51 PM on December 19, 2002