New DelhiJapanese man who raped and killed Dutch student after eating her body, dies Japan At the age of 73. The man, identified as Issei Sagawa, also known as the “Kobe Cannibal,” never went to jail for allegedly committing the spine-chilling crime. Sagawa reportedly died of pneumonia on 24 November and a private funeral was attended by close relatives. However, his brother and a friend said that no public event is currently planned.
spine chilling crime
The heinous crime of escort took place in 1981, when Sagawa, who was studying in Paris, invited Dutch student Renee Hertveldt to his home. He then shot her in the neck, raped and murdered her. Later, over the course of a few days, he ate parts of her body and tried to dispose of the rest in the Bois de Boulogne park. He was later arrested and confessed to his crime before the police.
However, in 1983 he was deemed unfit to stand trial by French medical experts and was initially placed in a psychiatric institution before being sent to Japan in 1984.
“character discrepancy” of the criminal
The victim’s family promised to prosecute the perpetrator in Japan so that “the killer would never go free.” Upon his arrival in Japan, he was deemed sane by Japanese officials, who called him a “character anomaly” that did not require hospitalization. However, Japanese officials were unable to obtain the case files from their French counterparts, who closed the case, allowing the killers to go free.
Sagawa became a celebrity
Sagawa made no secret of his crime and capitalized on his notoriety, including a novel-like memoir titled “In the Fog” in which he reminisces about the murder in detail. The murder was also the subject of Japanese novelist Jūrō Kara’s “Letter from Sagawa-kun”, which won the country’s most prestigious literary award in 1982.
Despite the gruesome details of the murder and his lack of remorse, Sagawa achieved a celebrity status and regularly gave interviews to domestic and international media in the years following his return. He was featured in a magazine for his photographs of naked women, appeared in a pornographic film and produced a manga comic book depicting his crime in graphic and incredible detail.
A morbid fascination with murder has also been referenced in the songs of The Rolling Stones and The Stranglers.
No remorse for crime, adopted cannibalism
Sagawa lived his last years with his brother, reportedly in a wheelchair after a series of health problems including a stroke. But he showed no apparent signs of remorse or reform, telling Vice in a 2013 interview when looking at posters of Japanese women: “I think they’d be delicious”.
He also recounted details of the incident and the ongoing obsession with cannibalism in interviews and a 2017 documentary, “Caniba”. The film’s directors spent months with Sagawa and his brother, and described themselves as “conflicted” about the experience. “We were disappointed, we were thrilled, we wanted to understand,” said co-director Verena Parvel.
(with agency inputs)