FIENDISH KILLERS (True Crime) by Anne Williams, Vivian Head, Amy Williams Read Free Book Online Page B

he was sane and he was found guilty on eight counts of murder. He received a life sentence but apparently asked to be tortured to death. Since that time, he has continued to serve his sentence, appearing to enjoy his notoriety. On one occasion he was interviewed live and asked, ‘What do you think when you see a pretty girl walking down the street?’ His chilling reply was, ‘One side of me says I’d like to talk to her, date her. The other half of me says “I wonder how her head would look on a stick.” ’

Armin Meiwes

     
    The story of Armin Meiwes almost defies belief as a tale that involved a man volunteering to have himself mutilated and killed as part of a sordid sadomasochistic tryst arranged over the Internet. When the case came to court, Meiwes was charged with murder, but he argued that the man he had killed had volunteered to die, and also to be mutilated beforehand. His case was a legally complex one because his victim had chosen to die voluntarily, and initially he was charged with manslaughter. However, it became clear that he was a very dangerous man, and eventually he was convicted of murder and sentenced to life imprisonment.
     
    L URID CANNIBALISTIC FANTASIES
     
    Armin Meiwes was born on December 1, 1961. He grew up with his mother in a large house near the German town of Kassel. He had a very lonely childhood, with few friends, and created an imaginary brother whom he named Franky. Without any real friends to confide in, he told ‘Franky’ his problems, and fantasised that they were lifelong companions. Later, at his trial, Meiwes explained that as an adult he evolved a desire to eat a man, so that this ‘younger brother’ figure would become part of him for ever.
    According to one of his former schoolfriends, his mother was a domineering figure who often scolded Armin in public. She lived alone with her son until her death, and treated him in a humiliating way. She would accompany him on dates with women, and even went on outings with the troops when he was serving in the German army. It was this experience of being constantly humiliated by his mother that, he felt, had poisoned his relationships with other people in adult life, both men and women.
    At the age of forty-two, Meiwes was living quietly in Rotenburg and earning a good living as a computer technician. One woman he befriended at the time described him as ‘friendly’ and ‘sensitive’. Well spoken, smartly dressed and apparently confident, there was nothing to mark him out as a man who engaged in lurid cannibalistic fantasies, but that was exactly what he was. Sadly, it was not long before his desire to see these fantasies acted out in real life got the better of him.
     
    P ENIS CUT OFF AND EATEN
     
    He posted an advertisement on the Internet for a ‘well-built eighteen- to thirty-year-old to be slaughtered’. A willing victim presented himself in the shape of Brend Jürgen Armando Brandes, who was known to police as having an interest in sadomasochistic male prostitution. According to Meiwes, there were over 200 replies to his advertisement, but this was never verified.
    The men met at Meiwes’ large, half-timbered house, and decided that they would start the killing ritual by cutting off Brandes’ penis. Brandes insisted that Meiwes try to bite it off, but this proved to be too difficult, so instead Meiwes cut it off with a large knife. At this point, the story becomes even sicker. Brandes now decided he would like to eat his own penis, but again this proved difficult to do, as it was ‘too chewy’. So, to help him out, Meiwes offered to cook it. Accordingly, Meiwes cooked the penis in a frying pan, seasoning it with garlic, salt and pepper. All the while, the men were recording the scene on a video, which has not been made public.
     
    S TABBED TO DEATH
     
    Unsurprisingly, Brandes was not feeling well enough to finish his meal, since he was bleeding to death. Meiwes tried to fortify him with alcohol and