The Free-Walking Cannibal With Plans to Eat People Once More

Issei Sagawa had been planning to kill, mutilate, and devour Renée Hartevelt for 32 years when he finally did it in 1981.

Sagawa was a student of comparative literature in Paris at the time of his crime. He was promptly taken into custody and given a psychiatric institution term. He was able to check himself out of a separate psychiatric institution after his extradition to Japan, however, because to a legal loophole, and he is still free today.

Since then, he has essentially made a livelihood off of his crime and has even gained a small amount of notoriety in Japan. He has made several appearances on talk shows and written graphic manga novels that portray Hartevelt being killed and eaten. He has also played the lead role in soft-core porn imitations where he bit actors.

He has also been terrifyingly unrepentant all of his life. He talks about his crime as though he thinks it was a natural thing to do. It's something he intends to repeat.

Cannibalistic Thoughts Throughout His Life

On April 26, 1949, Issei Sagawa was born. Additionally, he has cannibalistic tendencies and a fixation with eating human flesh ever since he can remember. With joyful memories, he recalled how his uncle had dressed as a monster and had placed him and his brother into a stew pot.

He was drawn to fairy tales about people being eaten, and Hansel and Gretel was one of his favorites. He even remembers thinking, "Mmm, that looks tasty," when he saw his first-grade classmates' thighs.

He compares his cannibalistic dreams to what most people would call sexual desire, and blames the media's portrayal of Western women like Grace Kelly for it. Sagawa had the opposite kind of dream from other people, who pictured himself devouring these lovely women.

Issei Sagawa claims that anyone who doesn't have the same cravings as him will not be able to understand or explain the motivations behind his cannibalistic tendencies.

It's just a fetish, he declared. "For instance, if a typical man liked a female, he would naturally want to see her frequently, be near her, smell her, and kiss her. Eating to me is merely a continuation of it. Everyone should experience the impulse to consume and eat other people."

But he insists that he only only considered "gnawing on their flesh," never killing them.

He described his legs as "looking like pencils" in his best-selling book "In the Fog". He was always short and slender. He also thought that, at just under five feet tall, he was too unattractive to elicit the kind of physical intimacy that might have restrained his cravings.

Although Sagawa did make an attempt to consult a doctor for his impulses when he was 15 years old, he found it ineffective and furthered his isolation in his mind. After suppressing his desires for 32 years, he eventually gave in to them in 1981.

Issei Sagawa relocated to Paris to attend the Sorbonne, a public research institution, to study literature. He claimed that once there, his drive to eat people seized control.

In "In the Fog", he stated, "I would almost always bring a prostitute home and then try to shoot them from behind. It shifted from wanting to eat them to being more of an obsession with the notion that I had to kill a girl as part of this "ritual" no matter what".

He finally discovered the ideal prey.

Renée Hartevelt is killed and eaten in Paris by Issei Sagawa

Renée Hartevelt was a Dutch student at the Sorbonne who was taking classes with Issei. Sagawa became friends with her over time and periodically invited her to supper at his house. He eventually earned her trust.

Before actually killing her, he made one failed effort to kill her. The first time, the rifle accidentally discharged with her back to it. Most people would see this as a cue to give up, but Sagawa was further driven deeper down his rabbit hole.

"It drove me even more insane and I knew that I just had to murder her."

He did it the very following night. This time, Hartevelt was instantaneously dead when the gun went off. Sagawa only briefly felt regret before he was thrilled.

He remembered, "I considered calling an ambulance. But then I said to myself, 'Hold on, don't be foolish. It's finally happening for you after 32 years of fantasizing about it".

He killed her, then raped her corpse and started to tear her open.

"I sliced into her buttock as my initial action. No matter how far I sliced, all I could see was the fat that was under the skin. The red flesh was far away and looked like maize for a time", Sagawa recalled.

"I tore a chunk off with my fingers as soon as I spotted the meat and shoved it into my mouth. For me, it was a very momentous occasion".

In the end, he admitted that his sole regret was not devouring her while she was still alive.

He said, "What I really wanted was to consume her living flesh." Nobody believes me, but my ultimate goal was to consume her rather than necessarily kill her.

Sagawa destroyed Hartevelt's body parts two days after killing her. He packed her legs, torso, and head and called a cab because the majority of her pelvic area had been eaten or frozen.

He was dropped off at the Bois de Boulogne park. There was a quiet lake. He had intended to place the luggage inside of it, but numerous witnesses observed the bloody suitcases and called the French police.

Issei Sagawa Makes A Clear Admission Of His Crime

Sagawa made the straightforward statement when confronted by police: "I killed her to eat her flesh."

Issei Sagawa spent two years in a French prison as he awaited his trial. When the time came for his trial, French judge Jean-Louis Bruguiere dismissed the accusations against him and ordered a mental facility indefinitely after ruling that he was legally ill and unable to stand trial.

He was then deported back to Japan, where he was supposed to live out the remainder of his days in a mental facility. He didn't, though.

The court records had been sealed, so they couldn't be given to Japanese authorities because the charges in France had been dismissed. As a result, the Japanese were powerless to bring charges against Issei Sagawa and were forced to let him go free.

Issei Sagawa also checked himself out of the Tokyo Matsuzawa Psychiatric Hospital on August 12, 1986. Since then, he has been unchained.

Where Is He Now?

Issei Sagawa is currently unrestricted and free to go about his daily life in Tokyo.

"Around June, when women start dressing more casually and baring more skin, the impulse to eat people reaches its peak", he claimed."Just today, on my way to the train station, I spotted a beautiful female with a lovely rear. When I witness things like that, I consider wanting to eat someone else one last time before I pass away".

He has even thought through his plan of action.

"I think the greatest approach to properly taste the natural flavor of the meat is either sukiyaki or shabu shabu (lightly boiled thin pieces)".

He has also written 20 books thus far. "Extremely Intimate Fantasies of Beautiful Girls", his most recent book.

"I hope that reading it will at least help readers to stop viewing me as a monster".

According to reports, Sagawa has diabetes and had two heart attacks in 2015. He is currently 72 years old, lives in Tokyo with his brother, and is still in the news.

A recording of the two conversing was made in 2018 by French filmmakers. Would you eat me as your brother? Sagawa is asked.

Sagawa just responds with a blank face and silence.