Issei Sagawa

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Issei Sagawa (佐川一政, Sagawa Issei^?, born on June 11, 1949 ~) is a Japanese cannibal who is known for the murder of Renée Hartevelt.

1 Before the murder
2 The murder
3 Free in Japan
4 References
5 External links

[edit] Before the murder

Issei Sagawa was born as a son of wealthy parents in Kobe, Hyōgo Prefecture, Japan. He was a brilliant student ^[1], obsessed with tall Western women and that while studying for an English literature degree at the University of Paris, he became attracted to a Dutch female teacher. He once said to British reporter Peter McGill that he wondered if he could eat her.

[edit] The murder

Issei Sagawa served time in a French jail for the murder of the Dutch student Renée Hartevelt, a classmate at the Sorbonne Academy in Paris. In June 11, 1981, Sagawa was studying avant garde literature. He invited her to dinner under the pretense of literary conversation. Upon her arrival, he shot her in the neck with a rifle while she sat with her back to him at a desk, then began to carry out his plan of eating her. She was selected because of her health and beauty, those characteristics Sagawa believed he lacked. In interviews, Sagawa describes himself as a "weak, ugly and small man" and claims that he wanted to "absorb her energy."

He said he fainted after the shock of shooting her, but awoke with the realization that he had to carry out his desire to eat her. He did so, after having sex with the corpse, beginning with her hips. In interviews, he noted his surprise at the "corn-colored" nature of human fat. For two days, Sagawa ate various parts of her body. He described the meat as "soft" and "odorless", like tuna. After two days, he dumped the mutilated body in a park, but was seen in the act. Five days later, he was arrested by the French police. However, the French psychologists found him legally insane and unfit to stand trial. Instead, he was deported back to Japan, where he was put in a mental institution. However, the deportation order did not specify how long Sagawa must remain in the institution, and Japanese authorities were refused the necessary paperwork from French justice officials.^[2] Fifteen months later, Sagawa checked himself out, and has been a free man ever since.

[edit] Free in Japan

Sagawa now lives in Tokyo and is a minor celebrity in Japan. He is often invited as a guest speaker and commentator. He also writes restaurant reviews and in 1992 he appeared in Hisayasu Sato's film Sisenjiyou no Aria (The Bedroom) as a sadosexual voyeur. He admits to still having fantasies about cannibalism, but says he never wants to realize them again.

Besides books about the murder he committed, Sagawa wrote a commentary book Shonen A in 1997 on the Kobe Children's Serial Murder of 1997, when a 14-year-old called "Boy A" ("Shonen A") killed and decapitated a child.

His story inspired the 1981 Stranglers song "La Folie" and the 1983 Rolling Stones song "Too Much Blood".