December 1, 1961 - Armin Meiwes
The case attracted global attention less for its violence than for the unprecedented legal and ethical questions it raised — specifically, whether consent can be given for one's own killing and consumption. Meiwes located his victim not through predation in the conventional sense but through an internet forum, where Brandes had actively sought what occurred. The retrial and upgraded conviction reflected courts grappling with how existing law applied to circumstances it had never been designed to address.
From Wikipedia
Armin Meiwes (German: [ˈmaɪvəs]; born 1 December 1961) is a German former computer repair technician who received international attention for murdering and cannibalising Bernd Brandes, whom he had found via the Internet as a voluntary victim, in March 2001.
After Meiwes and the victim jointly attempted to eat the victim's severed penis, Meiwes murdered his victim and proceeded to eat a large amount of his flesh. He was arrested in December 2002. In January 2004, Meiwes was convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to eight years and six months in prison. In a retrial in May 2006, he was convicted of murder and sentenced to life imprisonment. Because of his acts, Meiwes is also known as the Rotenburg Cannibal or Der Metzgermeister (The Master Butcher), from the signature he used in his e-mails.
Further reading
- Cannibal
A detailed account of how Armin Meiwes used the internet to find a willing victim, leading to one of history's most shocking and bizarre crimes.
View on Amazon → - Interview with a Cannibal
Drawing on exclusive interviews, this book explores the psychology behind Meiwes's cannibal killing, asking how two seemingly ordinary men came to participate in such an unthinkable act.
View on Amazon →
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