A convicted French killer known as the Vampire of Paris has delivered a bone-chilling testimony about how his cannibalism obsession began while working in a morgue and ultimately drove him to murder.
From Childhood Fascination to Dark Obsession
Nico Claux, now 53, developed what he describes as a fascination with death during childhood that gradually transformed into violent cravings. The Paris native explained during an appearance on the Anything Goes with James English podcast that his disturbing interests intensified following his grandfather's death.
Claux revealed that reading about notorious Japanese cannibal Issei Sagawa further fuelled his dark fantasies. He described developing psychopathic fantasies about biting and tearing flesh with his teeth, which he characterised as a fetish rather than mere curiosity.
The Morgue: Where Fantasy Became Reality
Claux's first employment provided the perfect opportunity to act on his urges. He secured work as a morgue attendant in Paris during a period when France required no formal qualifications for the position.
"When I first started to work in the morgue, I saw how easy it was when I was left alone for the autopsies to get strips of flesh from the bodies and eat them," Claux confessed.
He began by consuming human flesh raw, then progressed to taking small strips home where he experimented with different cooking methods. The stolen portions from corpses soon failed to satisfy his escalating appetite, pushing him toward more extreme measures.
From Corpse Theft to Murder
Claux admitted to murdering Thierry Bissonier, a homosexual man he met online, shooting his victim multiple times in the head. The killing triggered an extensive month-long manhunt before Claux's capture.
"The goal was not just murder for the sake of murder," Claux stated. "It was to get the meat. Because I had already been eating small strips of meat in the morgue, and I had developed this craving. I wanted to kill to harvest the meat to get the meat home."
When questioned about the taste of human flesh, Claux compared it to horse meat, which he regularly consumed as tartare at the time. However, he insisted the flavour wasn't the primary motivation.
"For me, it was more about the rush, the sensation," he explained. "Something like I had never experienced before. It was keeping me constantly on a high, aroused."
Capture and Chilling Discoveries
Claux's reign of terror ended when he attempted to cash a forged cheque belonging to his victim, leading to his arrest. During a subsequent search of his apartment, police made horrifying discoveries including:
- Bags of human blood
- An altar constructed from human skulls
- Preserved human foetuses
Investigators also learned that Claux had broken into crypts and coffins to steal human remains as souvenirs.
In 1997, Claux received a 12-year prison sentence, though records indicate he served only seven years and four months before release.
Disturbingly, Claux revealed that police intervention likely prevented additional murders. "I'm glad the police caught me because I was already planning my next murder, just days after the killing, because the first didn't go the way I planned," he admitted.
He confessed to contemplating murdering his morgue coworkers, stating: "I wanted to kill them one by one because I couldn't stand them. I had a really short fuse back then. I was escalating so fast, had a total disregard for human life, and absolutely no limits."
Life After Prison
Following his release, Claux remarkably returned to morgue work for thirteen years by forging documents, only being discovered years into each employment.
He has since authored several controversial books including The Gospel of Blood and The Cannibal Cookbook: Human Meat Recipes from Around the World, which he claims help manage his urges.
The latter publication promises to "help you choose the right spices for your own cannibal feast" and offers advice on "how to get that very special meat, and how to cut it like a pro."
Claux now lists collecting occult items among his passions, maintaining a connection to the macabre interests that defined his violent past.
