Cannibal in Paris | Issei Sagawa
27:51 Share

On a warm June evening in 1981, a French couple walked hand in hand through the Bois de Boulogne, a 2,000-acre park west of the Eiffel Tower. What was once a popular destination for French royalty was now a hotbed for petty theft and prostitution. They were wise to dodge the night stalkers making their living in the park and kept to themselves for most of the evening. Then, something far more interesting caught their eye.

A taxi pulled up along the curb and a small framed Asian man stepped out, barely standing five feet tall. He moved around to the trunk and struggled to load two suitcases on a trolley as if they were full of bricks. Though strange, it wasn't out of character for the Bologna in 1981. The couple knew better than to say anything, but they couldn't take their eyes off him. It was like watching a bad car accident. He was headed for the water's edge.

one of many small lakes throughout the park. The couple watched him walk up to a railing, clearly unaware of their intrigued gaze. But just as he was about to push the suitcase over the edge, he locked eyes with them and froze.

Sure, a man carrying two heavy suitcases through the park was strange, but it didn't take a skilled detective to know what dumping those cases in the water really meant. Frightened, the Asian man ditched the suitcases in a bush and hightailed it out of the park. You'd go and open the suitcase too, wouldn't you?

The couple walked over, dragged the cases into the open, and undid the zipper. What they found next would likely haunt them for the rest of their lives. Part 1: The Magic Dragon When Issei Sagawa was born, he was so small that he fit in the palm of his father's hand, like a petite filet dinner on a warm plate.

He never surpassed 5 feet and thought very little of his physical appearance. The beginning was almost the end for baby Sagawa when his pregnant mother tumbled down the stairs in 1949. She narrowly avoided a miscarriage, giving birth to a premature baby boy stricken by a rare intestinal disease. As an infant, Sagawa suffered from enteritis, an inflammatory condition in the small intestine.

Doctors saved the baby's life with a combination of injections, and tiny Sagawa regained his health after several treatments. Cannibalism was a light-hearted joke in the Sagawa household. His uncle, Mitsuo, dressed up as a child-eating monster and chased Sagawa and his older brother around the yard, threatening to eat them. It was up to Sagawa's father, Akira, to step in and save the day.

attempting to slay the evil monster and save the children from its stomach. But Akira never won. The monster always bested their savior and carried the children away to cook them in a cast iron pot built for two. Sagawa was a loner in school while the other children played outside. He focused more on his studies, falling in love with Western literature, particularly stories about fearless heroines dripping with femininity.

He put these fictional women on a pedestal, idolizing them, viewing them as angels given their pale flesh and romanticized appearances. As a teenager, Sagawa developed his first celebrity crush. He drooled over Grace Kelly, an American sex symbol and actress from the 1950s.

Yet, were you to read his best-selling autobiography, In the Fog, you'd learn Sagawa believed he was far too grotesque to attract a woman in general, let alone a woman like Grace Kelly. Instead, Sagawa leaned heavily on masturbation. He'd fantasize about Western women like Grace Kelly, pleasuring himself whenever the urge arose. Those fantasies soon took a dark road, as he imagined himself spying on robust women while they showered.

He'd think about strangling them with his belt, robbing their final breaths until he climaxed. You see, Sagawa's primal desires weren't merely about sex. He believed anybody could lay with a woman, even a man as short-statured and unattractive as him. He wanted something more, something that, in his mind, was better than any sexual pleasure he could think of. He wanted to eat them.

To his credit, Sagawa knew these thoughts were unnatural. At 15 years old, Sagawa sought a therapist's help to tame these violent urges. But Sagawa was too embarrassed about his desires to speak with the doctor face to face. He preferred phone calls instead. But when the doctor insisted that Sagawa visit his office to discuss these problems,

The soon-to-be cannibal cut off communication. Instead, he confided in his brother. But the elder Sagawa brushed it off as a silly game. The temptations kept boiling, and nobody offered to help Sagawa tame his personal magic dragon. 32 years later, in 1981, he caught it. Part 2: Cannibals in Paris

As the 1970s spilled into the 1980s, 28-year-old Sagawa studied modern literature at the Sorbonne School in France. Meanwhile, he lived alone in a tiny flat in the Hautes-Tayes-Dauphine district, an upscale neighborhood west of the Arc de Triomphe, free from the rampant crime that plagued the neighboring towns.

A city full of college-age girls was the perfect hunting ground for the intellectual virgin with cannibalistic desires. Living on the outskirts of the Bois de Boulogne, Sagawa chose the easiest target for his first kill: a prostitute. The plan was simple: pay her to return to his tiny studio apartment, stab her to death, and devour her corpse with a side of fava beans and a nice Chianti.

Of course, Dr. Hannibal Lecter wouldn't deliver that famous line on the silver screen until 1991's Silence of the Lambs. Coincidentally, the Hannibal Lecter character first appeared in Tom Harris' 1981 novel Red Dragon, the same year Sagawa eventually killed and ate his first victim.

However, Dr. Lecter was based on a Mexican serial killer named Alfredo "Balli" Treviño, also known as the "Wolfman of Nuevo León," a story for another time, though no connection has ever been drawn between Issei Sagawa and Harris' books. One evening, Sagawa put his plan into action, successfully luring a pretty blonde prostitute back to his apartment. He crept up on her as she showered, but couldn't go through with it.

He'd eventually fail several more times, never honing the courage to plunge the knife in their back. At least, he wasn't a virgin anymore. He'd continue biding his time, waiting for the perfect moment, the perfect woman, to cross his path. Then, he met Renée Hartveldt. Part 3: The Last Supper

Renee was an intelligent, natural beauty from the Netherlands who'd come to study modern literature at the Sorbonne. Unfortunately, she wound up in Sagawa's class, thus on Sagawa's radar. But the short-statured Japanese man was just another classmate. She thought nothing of him. Still, Renee wasn't like the Grace Kelly Sagawa spent his teenage years daydreaming about. She was an astute intellectual.

someone who could talk for hours on end about classical writers and moving poetry. Though she wasn't physically attracted to Sagawa, there was no denying the intellectual bond they shared. They appreciated culture, fine art, and philosophical writings. Yet neither had to say many words to the other to convey those shared appreciations. After all, you can probably judge a book by its cover when they're studying modern literature at the Sorbonne School.

Of course, that wouldn't tell you anything about their preferred diet. But Sagawa lacked the social skills to court Rene on his own. He needed to infiltrate the friend group and got a lucky break when they suggested grabbing dinner after class. Intrigued by Sagawa's Eastern culture, they invited the tiny man along, hoping to learn more about Japanese cuisine.

He boldly suggested they join him in his apartment for an authentic Japanese meal called sukiyaki, a traditional meat and noodle dish. But like the awkward kid inviting you to hang out at his house, all of his classmates failed to show, everyone except Renée. He considered going through with the plan that night, but was grossly unprepared, not expecting Renée to show up alone.

Furthermore, their classmates knew Sagawa had invited them all over that night. If Renee suddenly goes missing, and the last person she was with was the weird Asian kid from class, it wouldn't be hard to put two and two together. Tonight wasn't the night. He had to get her alone again. One day, while waiting on the metro, Sagawa got his second chance. He spotted Renee sitting by herself and took the seat next to her.

They talked about their shared interests, and Renee revealed her multilingual skills. She spoke English, French, and German, and Sugawa latched onto the latter. He told her he was fond of German poetry and hoped to read his favorites in their native languages one day. He asked if she'd like to tutor him, and she happily agreed, perhaps the last act of charity she'd ever make.

A few nights later, Renée showed up at Sagawa's apartment, eager to start their German lessons. And though Sagawa teemed with excitement, nerves got the better of him. Perhaps his carnal desires were nothing more than a sick fantasy, one that would live inside his twisted little mind and never see the light of day. Renée left. Sagawa failed once again. Masturbation wasn't cutting it anymore.

He'd have to finally succumb to these temptations if he wanted to silence the demon inside him. He vowed not to chicken out next time. Renee arrived back at Sagawa's flat for the third time, ready to continue their tutoring sessions. She sat cross-legged on the floor while reading passages from a book, thinking Sagawa was listening and nodding along. Instead, he crept around to the other side of the room and removed a .22 caliber hunting rifle from a closet.

Renee read on, blissfully unaware of the rifle pointed at the back of her skull. Sagawa took a breath, readied the weapon, and pulled the trigger. But nothing happened. The gun jammed in a divine twist of fate, leaving nothing but the faint sound of a clicking hammer to echo through the room. But Renee was still lost in the book and never heard a thing. There was no time to diagnose the problem, and Sagawa was forced to put his plan on hold for now.

He returned the rifle to its spot in the closet and rejoined Renee on the floor. She'd walked out of his apartment in one piece that night, but wouldn't be so lucky the next time. Renee returned for one last German lesson on June 11th, 1981. She fell head over heels into the literature and was once again too distracted to notice Sagawa stalking about on the other side of the room.

With the rifle tucked firmly against his shoulder, Sagawa aimed at the back of Renee's head, pulled the trigger, and put a bullet through her neck. In his book, Sagawa claims he fainted after he shot her. Whether or not he fainted doesn't really matter. At the end of the day, he'd just murdered a girl in cold blood. A girl that trusted him as a friend and mentor until now. For now, let's take the bloodthirsty cannibal for his word.

Sagawa woke up ready to eat, like a growing teenager ransacking their parents' cabinets for snacks. The ravenous Sagawa licked his lips and stripped Rene naked. Then came the moment he'd waited over 30 years for. He sunk his teeth into her left butt cheek. But Sagawa overestimated his bite force and couldn't rip off a chunk like a hungry crocodile. Instead, he opted for a more sophisticated technique.

He retrieved a carving knife from the kitchen and cut into the meatiest part of Renee's body, her upper thigh. For a gruesome and highly detailed account, you can pick up a copy of "In the Fog," in which Sagawa describes it as slicing through the thick, yellow layer of fatty tissue before getting to the good stuff. But once he reached his treasure, he cut off a piece of red meat

grasped it between his thumb and middle finger, and dropped it into his mouth like Caesar eating a bowl of grapes. As if eating her dead body wasn't enough, Sagawa stripped himself naked and had sex with the corpse. Covered in blood and oozing with cannibalistic ecstasy, he enjoyed the single greatest night of his life. Things only took a series of insane twists and turns from there. Part 4 Taxi!

Sagawa ate his fill, stuffing his stomach until he couldn't fit another drop of Renee's blood. But now, he had a new problem on his hands. There was a dead, half-eaten woman in the middle of his living room. Someone his other classmates knew and might wonder what happened if she went missing. Remember, it's 1981.

How hard are French police really going to look for a Dutch student that went missing overnight? If Sagawa could cover his tracks, the crime might not be that hard to get away with. First, he moved Renee's corpse into the bathroom and ran the tub. With the same knife he'd used to fillet her body like a master chef, he carved through her arms and legs as the bathwater washed the blood down the drain. Finally, he took the knife to her neck and severed her head.

Oddly, he didn't like dismembering the body. In fact, Sagawa claims that carving up Renee's body almost ruined everything, like watching a movie you used to enjoy and realizing it wasn't that good to begin with. Before he called it quits, he carved off a few more pieces of muscle and fat and froze them for dinner. Sagawa went from having a dead body on the floor to a dismembered body in the bathtub.

He strolled into town as if nothing had happened and purchased two large suitcases from a local shop. He came home and stuffed the rest of the body into the luggage. Now, all he had to do was get rid of the bags. But for some reason, he wasn't too eager to hide them. Instead, Renee's body rotted inside the suitcases for several days until the smell became so unbearable that Sagawa had to get them out of the apartment.

The tiny Japanese man lugged two bags down to the lobby, bags that must have weighed 60 to 70 pounds each. There, he hailed a cab and loaded the heavy suitcases into the trunk. The cab driver noticed him struggling but didn't really care to help. Their destination, Roi de Boulogne Park. Part 5: Insanity

The couple wasn't about to go swimming in the lake, so perhaps Issei could have gotten away with it if he had just gone through with his original plan. A small minority of Asian men in the area hailed taxis that night, but only one loaded two heavy suitcases into the trunk, and only one got dropped off at the park.

Police eventually got in touch with the cab driver who dropped him off, and he directed them to Sagawa's building. As the only Asian man living in the complex, it wasn't hard to pick him out. Sagawa was a talker. Knowing that they caught him red-handed, literally, he spilled his guts, describing in great detail how he'd killed and ate Rene a few days before. He described how he lured Rene to the apartment,

shot her with his rifle, and then carved up her corpse like Thanksgiving dinner. He vowed he'd never do it again, saying he was a one and done cannibal.

He blamed a demon that lived inside him since childhood, a devil he exercised by killing and eating Renée. Magistrate Louis Brugière acted as the judge in Sagawa's case. He'd never met a man so certifiably insane in all his years. So, before he even considered bringing Sagawa to trial, he flew to Japan to meet the family that bore the most famous criminal in France at the time.

The first person he sought was Sagawa's psychiatrist, who told Louis that the cannibal's story ran much deeper than the incident in France. Sagawa failed on several occasions to kill and eat the so-called "woman of his dreams." At 23 years old, he broke into a German girl's apartment in Tokyo while sporting a Frankenstein's monster mask. He clearly picked a battle he couldn't win. She quickly overpowered and subdued the man who'd come to eat her until the cops arrived.

Sagawa confessed to the attempted sexual assault, figuring the cops wouldn't appreciate the real story. Then, Judge Louie learned why Sagawa got away with that crime so easily. Issei Sagawa came from money. His father, Akira Sagawa, was a well-off businessman and came to his son's rescue. He paid the German woman not to press charges, and the entire case got swept under the rug.

Of course, Sagawa inevitably spilled the beans to his psychiatrist. With Issei on the hook for an even worse crime in France, Akira again sprung into action, securing the best legal team money could buy. This time, Akira successfully killed the monster known as the French legal system. Two years after slaughtering and eating Renée, Judge Louis declared Sagawa unfit to stand trial.

He was insane and would spend the rest of his days in a French asylum. And nobody ever brought formal charges against Issei Sagawa. Part 6: The Betrayal With every newspaper in Europe calling him crazy, the only person who thought differently was Issei Sagawa. He isolated himself from what he called "deranged patients" in the asylum. In his isolation, he found time to write a memoir.

Meanwhile, Judge Louie got dragged through the mud for his decision, and the Paris cannibal was the hottest story in town. Journalists and writers from every end of the earth wanted a piece of Issei's story, but Issei never budged. Then he met Inuhiku Yumota, a famous Japanese writer, and decided to give him a shot. The two met in the asylum, and Yumota combed through the pages of Sagawa's sick and twisted autobiography.

Issei trusted him to keep it close to the chest, but Yumota did the exact opposite. He knew he was sitting on literal gold. So he took Sagawa's book to his publisher. They say professionals only read the first 10 pages before deciding if a book or screenplay is good. Yumota's publishers only had to read the first few lines. The book became a bestseller overnight, with every true crime junkie between Tokyo and New York wanting to sink their teeth into the story.

At first, Sagawa felt betrayed. Yomota broke his promise and published Sagawa's personal story for the world to read. As the book climbed the best sellers list, Sagawa's attitude changed. He embraced his newfound celebrity status, giving a new definition to the phrase "any press is good press." He wanted people to see him for who he truly was, and for the first time in his life, they did.

But life as a best-selling author means very little when you're rotting away in a French asylum. But then, Sagawa stumbled upon a stroke of dumb luck when a popular French magazine, The Paris Match, leaked pictures of René's dismembered and half-eaten body. The December 1983 issue sparked outrage in the country. They exploited René's naked body like some kind of Playboy snuff film.

By the time anybody knew what was happening, 243,000 copies of the magazine went out for sale. The backlash was so bad that French police arrested the editor-in-chief, claiming they stole the images from the Paris Forensic Medicine Institute. The Paris match had 10 days to collect and hand over every copy of the magazine, though there was little they could do about the copies that eager readers had already bought.

After the Paris match fiasco, France decided they'd had enough with Issei Sagawa. They deported him back to Japan, where he'd spend the next few years in the Matsuzawa Psychiatric Hospital in Tokyo. But remember, nobody ever filed any charges against Sagawa.

The court case was sealed, and Japanese authorities had nothing to formally charge him with in Japan. After butchering, eating, and attempting to dispose of René's body in 1981, Ise Sagawa checked himself out of Matsuzawa on August 12, 1986. He's been a free man ever since. Part 7: I'd prefer the guillotine Sagawa didn't live the life of your average best-selling author.

Though he was free to walk the streets of Japan, everyone knew who he was. They waited for him to strike again. They expected him to feed again. Some thrill-seekers even posed for nude paintings, while others co-starred in amateur pornography. Sagawa spent some time writing restaurant reviews for Spa Magazine, a popular Japanese tabloid. He also lectured people on how to fight their urges, giving examples from his own life.

Summertime was the worst when Japanese women started showing more skin. The cannibal didn't stop at "In the Fog." In fact, he'd published 20 books total, his last being a picture book titled "Extremely Intimate Fantasies of Beautiful Girls." During a 2009 interview with Vice magazine, a piece aptly titled "Who's Hungry?" Sagawa expressed hope that his latest book would show him in a new light.

He didn't want to be seen as a monster anymore and hoped that detailing his feelings toward women, aside from wanting to eat them, would connect with a broader audience. In that same interview, Sagawa touched on the difficulties of holding consistent work when you're famous for the wrong reasons.

Life's not easy for a world-renowned cannibal, and he would have welcomed death as a friend back in the late 80s if he knew what the future entitled. The guillotine or the hangman's noose would have been a much easier road. Issei Sagawa is 73 years old as of 2022, and still walking the streets of Japan as a free man. Although he hasn't acted on his urges since 1981, many people believe it's only a matter of time.