Celebrity Cannibal: Issei Sagawa

Cannibals are something of a scary story. Hollywood horror stories and tales of tribal cannibalism, in savage distant lands. Something to tickle the terrors of your mind, but rest easy in the knowledge it doesn’t really happen.

But, what if I was to tell you that a cannibal walks among us. One who killed, cooked and ate someone, avoided all punishment and became a celebrity. Sadly and terrifyingly, this is all true. Enter Issei Sagawa.

He was born prematurely into a wealthy family in 1949. He thought of himself as inferior since birth, especially when his younger brother grew to be much larger than he. In his own words, speaking in a Vice article he was a small and insignificant person. He had skinny pencil like legs and a frail body.

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https://d.tube/v/screwballpsyche/vsg9dnf6cpv

According to the documentary Issei Sagawa Excuse Me For Living, he had disturbing dreams from as young as three, of him and his brother cooking in a pot. This was brought about by his uncle, who would perform a New Years pantomime playing the Cannibal Giant, in which him and his brother were the victims.

His inferiority may have been the driving force behind his sick perversions. He remembers lustfully looking at the large thighs of a classmate. He also became obsessed with the actress Grace Kelly and other Western woman with healthy bodies. In his own words his puny body gave way to a weird fascination, quote:

“I guess my infatuation with such women stemmed from the fact that I was short, ugly, and had an inferiority complex and therefore sought people who were the exact opposite of myself. Eventually, I began feeling a strong desire to bite into them—not to kill them or eat them per se, but merely to gnaw on their flesh”

Other than the playful pantomime that may have sparked his early interest, he had a very good upbringing. He had loving parents, a nice home and he was never abused. This makes his fantasies even more odd – there is little to explain why he became obsessed with the thought of eating someone.

When he reached sexual maturity his desires also became sexual. He explains that when he first met an American woman who was on holiday with him and his friends – he envisioned himself as a shark biting her as she swam in the sea. He also began more realistic visions of breaking into her bedroom as she lay sleeping and feasting on her.

He claimed he never desired to kill anyone and only had the desire to taste flesh, as he believed it would make his frail body more complete.

He was very well educated and after achieving a degree moved to Paris to persue a doctorate in literature. This only heightened his insecurities. As the average height and build of the French was much larger than that of the Japanese, he felt even smaller, and even more incomplete. His desires grew alongside his insecurity.
He freely admits that his crimes were 100% pre-meditated. He was infatuated with the beauty and death of American actress Jean Seberg.

In 1981 he finally gave in to his desires. He murdered Renee Hartevelt a 25 year old Dutch woman who had been studying with Issei Sagawa at the Sorbonne. The two were friends and often dined together at his home. Amazingly he tried and failed to do the deed before, but the gun misfired when her back was turned.
She must not have realised this had happened, as according to All That is Interesting he completed the job the very next night. She was killed by a single shot.

He fulfilled every sexual desire with her helpless body, and began to feast with his bare hands.
2 days later he froze some of the body parts for later, and packed the rest into a suitcase and rode a taxi to Bois De Boulogne Park. He threw the suitcase into a lake, but was caught when the case started leaking red liquid and the police were called.

His words upon capture were:
“I killed her to eat her flesh,”

Incredibly after 2 years behind bars, French judge Jean-Louis Bruguiere declared him legally insane and unfit to stand trial. He was to be deported to Japan to spend his life in a mental institution.

But, when he arrived in Japan the authorities had no choice but to let him go as his court documents had been sealed and could not be released to Japanese authorities. However it was insinuated in the documentary Excuse me for Living, that the Japanese let him go as they felt he was not a danger anymore, only 3 years after the crime.

He was released to the public as a free man in 1986. He now lives in Tokyo and maintains he still has urges but supresses them. He had written 20 books and after his release he became a celebrity. Japan no stranger to weird and sometimes dark obsessions embraced him as a sinister idol, instead of shunning him from the community.

He became a guest speaker, appeared on gameshows and starred in an incredibly disturbing Japanese horror film. According to Listverse he also became an artist and food critic. According to Wikipedia three songs were inspired by the crimes by some of the most famous musicians of all time. The rolling Stones song - Too Much Blood", and the Stranglers song La Folie.

Numerous documentaries have either covered his story directly or featured it as an example of a larger societal issue. The most recent VICE documentary has a whopping 15 million views.

However it seems he was not completely rewarded for his crimes. Publishers began to stop publishing his books and articles and his family seemingly shunned him, protesting the sales of his books and banning him from their funeral in 2005. He lived on welfare for a while in sheltered housing. In 2013 he also suffered a stroke which permanently damaged his nervous system. His brother took pity on him and has been looking after him ever since.