Japanese murderer Issei Sagawa, nicknamed “Kobe Cannibal”, died after killing a Dutch woman named Renée Hartevelt in Paris, France, in 1981, and eating her body. The long-term caregiver of 73-year-old Sagawa, who became a popular culture icon with his murder, announced that his brother died of pneumonia on November 24 at a hospital in Tokyo.
HE KILLED A FRIEND AND EATED HIS BODY
Born to a wealthy family in 1949 in Kobe, Japan, Sagawa went to France to pursue a doctorate in literature at the age of 28. On June 11, 1981, he met his classmate Renee Hartevelt from the Sorbonne in the evening with the excuse of translating poetry for a school assignment. He killed him by shooting him with a rifle after inviting him to his dinner. It was revealed that Sagawa, who raped the dead body of the victim, later ate some parts of the body.
“I WANTED TO ABSORPT LIFE ENERGY”
Describing herself as weak, ugly and small, Sagawa claimed that she wanted to absorb Hartevelt’s life energy by eating it. Sagawa, who could not be tried in France on the grounds that he did not have criminal capacity, was later brought to Japan and hospitalized.
DOCTORS: SEXUAL DEVICTION AS THE ONLY MOTIVATION
Doctors, who concluded that Sagawa, who could not be tried in his country because the case file was closed in France, was healthy, explained that his sexual perversion was Sagawa’s only motivation for the murder.
BECOME FAMOUS
While Sagawa’s return to his normal life after he was discharged from the hospital on August 12, 1986 caused great controversy, Sagawa, whose murder was the subject of books and movies, became a popular culture icon. Sagawa was a frequent guest speaker and commentator on programs between 1986 and 1997, and wrote books and commented on magazines.
Sagawa, who lost her popularity over the years due to the reactions and was hospitalized in 2013 for a brain disease that permanently damaged her nervous system, has been taken care of by her brother ever since.
(UAV)