Criminal status In prison Parents Waltraud Meiwes | Name Armin Meiwes Motive Sexual Gratification | |
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Role Computer repair technician Similar People Issei Sagawa, Christine Chubbuck, Andrei Chikatilo, Jeffrey Dahmer, Albert Fish | ||
Armin meiwes the man who ate his lover
Armin Meiwes ( ; born 1 December 1961) is a German computer repair technician who achieved international notoriety for killing and eating a voluntary victim whom he had found via the Internet. After Meiwes and the victim jointly attempted to eat the victim's severed penis, Meiwes killed his victim and proceeded to eat a large amount of his flesh. Because of his acts, Meiwes is also known as the Rotenburg Cannibal or Der Metzgermeister (The Master Butcher).
Contents
- Armin meiwes the man who ate his lover
- Killing and cannibalism
- Arrest trial and conviction of manslaughter
- Retrial and murder conviction
- Consultant in criminal cases
- Films
- Music
- Television
- Theatre
- References
Killing and cannibalism
Looking for a willing volunteer, Meiwes posted an advertisement on the website, The Cannibal Cafe (a blog site for people with cannibal fetishes). Meiwes' post stated that he was "looking for a well-built 18 to 30-year-old to be slaughtered and then consumed." Bernd Jürgen Armando Brandes, an engineer from Berlin, answered the advertisement in March 2001. Many other people responded to the advertisement but backed out; Meiwes did not attempt to force them to do anything against their will.
The two made a videotape when they met on 9 March 2001 in Meiwes' home, in the small town of Rotenburg, showcasing Meiwes amputating Brandes' penis (with Brandes' agreement) and the two men attempting to eat it together, before Brandes' ultimate demise. Before doing so Brandes swallowed twenty sleeping pills, and half a bottle of schnapps. Brandes initially insisted that Meiwes attempt to bite his penis off. This did not work, and ultimately, Meiwes used a knife to remove Brandes' appendage. Brandes apparently tried to eat some of his own penis raw but could not, because it was too tough and, as he put it, "chewy". Meiwes then fried the penis in a pan with salt, pepper, wine, and garlic; he then fried it with some of Brandes' fat, but by then it was too burned to be consumed. He then chopped the penis up into chunks and fed it to his dog. According to court officials who saw the video (which has not been made public), Brandes may already have been too weakened from blood loss to eat any of his penis.
Meiwes then ran Brandes a bath, before going to read a Star Trek book, while checking back on Brandes every fifteen minutes, during which time Brandes lay bleeding in the bath. Later Brandes got out of the bath and collapsed, falling into unconsciousness, due to blood loss. Meiwes then claims to have dragged him upstairs. Brandes continued to drift in and out of consciousness before finally collapsing again. After long hesitation and prayer Meiwes killed Brandes by stabbing him in the throat, after which he hung the body on a meat hook. The incident was recorded on a four-hour videotape. Meiwes ate the corpse over the next ten months, storing body parts in his freezer under pizza boxes and consuming up to 20 kilograms (44 lb) of the flesh. According to prosecutors, Meiwes committed the act for sexual pleasure.
Arrest, trial, and conviction of manslaughter
Meiwes was arrested in December 2002, when a college student in Innsbruck phoned the police after seeing new advertisements for victims and details about the killing on the Internet. Investigators searched his home, and found body parts and the videotape of the killing.
On 30 January 2004, Meiwes was convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to eight years in prison. The case attracted considerable media attention.
Meiwes has admitted cannibalizing Brandes and has expressed regret for his actions. He added he wanted to write a book of his life story with the aim of deterring anyone who wants to follow his footsteps. Websites dedicated to Meiwes have appeared, with people advertising for willing victims. "They should go for treatment, so it doesn't escalate like it did with me", said Meiwes. While in prison, Meiwes has since become a vegetarian. He believes there are about 800 cannibals in Germany.
Retrial and murder conviction
In April 2005, a German court ordered a retrial after prosecutors appealed Meiwes' sentence. They believed he should have been convicted of Murder. Among the questions courts answered is whether Brandes agreed to his killing, and whether he was legally capable of doing so at the moment, taking into account his apparent mental problems as well as his significant intake of alcohol.
Other aspects of the retrial determined whether Meiwes killed to satiate his own desires (in particular sexual desires) or because he was asked to, the former having been repeatedly rejected by Meiwes during testimony. At his retrial, a psychologist stated that Meiwes could reoffend and still "had fantasies about devouring the flesh of young people". On 10 May 2006, a court in Frankfurt convicted Meiwes of murder and sentenced him to life imprisonment.
Consultant in criminal cases
According to a Bild report from October 2007, Meiwes was helpful in the analysis of two suspected cannibal murders from 1998 and 2000, in which two young boys were found mutilated.
Films
Other films based on the case include: