BERLIN — The would-be “chef” freely admits that he killed his human “long pig.”
The killer, known only as Detlef G, a 55-year-old chief inspector with the Saxon Germany state police, reportedly has told investigators that he met his victim through a cannibalism website that hooks up those who want to dine on human flesh with those hoping to be eaten. He’s reportedly confessed to stabbing the 59-year-old German businessman in the neck. He admits he butchered the body and buried the pieces around his rustic bed and breakfast in the Ore Mountains, along the German border with the Czech Republic.
But, in his defense, he says he didn’t eat his victim — not any part of the man Dresden police have identified as Wojciech S.
Detlef G. goes on to note that he didn’t use his victim sexually, either.
He just killed him. And, he’s told police, he killed him only because Wojciech S. came to him asking to be killed, in just the manner he carried out the act.
Whether consent to be killed is a viable defense remains to be seen. But it’s not the first time such a defense has been tried here. And, in the end, the fact that such gruesome facts aren’t new or even particularly surprising to Germans, who witnessed a similar case a decade ago, may be the most shocking bit of this case.
Similar case
Back in 2004, another German cannibal faced trial for having killed a man, one who noted on a videotape that the victim and killer made together that being eaten by another human was the fulfillment of a dream.
In that case, Armin Meiwes, 42, was first sentenced to eight and a half years in prison for manslaughter in the 2001 death of Bernd-Jurgen Brandes, 43, a software engineer from Berlin. Later, under new charges of murder, he was sentenced to life in prison and must serve at least 15 years.
The German press has noted that before killing and eating pieces of Brandes, Meiwes had advertised for his victims — called “long pigs” after the term some cannibal tribes have used for their human food — on the same website on which Detlef G found Wojciech S.
Before selecting Brandes, Meiwes had had more than 200 volunteers respond to his ad. Brandes’ email response, which was reviewed during the trial, said simply, “I am your meat.”
During the trial, Meiwes described the consumption of Brandes as a merging of souls, even claiming that by eating Brandes, he’d picked up Brandes’ English language ability.
Detlef G has been charged with murder, and he might face life in prison if he’s convicted. News reports make a point of noting the German murder statute notes that “the satisfaction of a sexual urge” may be the difference between a murder conviction and a lesser charge.
News reports say police haven’t found the entire body and can’t yet rule out cannibalism.
The two cases began at what news reports note is the “No. 1 site for exotic meat,” a euphemism for those with the desire to eat or be eaten. The website claims it has 3,008 members, with screen names such as meatlover and daddylongpig. Back in 2004, Meiwes had estimated that there were 800 other chefs and long pigs in Germany.
