The Cannibal Killer Who Evaded Justice
In one of the most disturbing criminal cases of the 20th century, Japanese student Issei Sagawa confessed to French police in 1981 that he had murdered his classmate Renee Hartevelt with the explicit intention of consuming her flesh. What followed was a shocking legal saga that saw the perpetrator never serve a day in prison for his horrific crimes.
A Childhood Obsession Turns Deadly
Born in 1949, Sagawa claimed his cannibalistic fantasies began at just six years old. He recounted being fascinated by the fairy tale Hansel and Gretel and admitted to gazing at other children's thighs in primary school while thinking they looked delicious. As he matured, these urges developed a sexual dimension, with Sagawa fantasizing about consuming the flesh of Western women, particularly actress Grace Kelly.
His first known criminal attempt occurred in 1972 when, at age 23, he broke into a Tokyo apartment occupied by a young German woman while wearing a Frankenstein's monster mask. The woman awoke before the four-foot-nine-inch Sagawa could attack and managed to overpower him. He later admitted to police that he had planned to sexually assault her. His wealthy father compensated the woman to withdraw charges, allowing Sagawa to avoid prosecution.
The Parisian Horror
In 1977, Sagawa traveled to Paris to study languages and literature at the prestigious Sorbonne University. There he befriended 25-year-old Dutch exchange student Renee Hartevelt, who frequently visited his apartment to tutor him in German.
On June 11, 1981, while Hartevelt was at his apartment for dinner and to assist with coursework, Sagawa shot her in the neck with a rifle. He later recalled thinking about calling an ambulance before deciding, "Hang on, don't be stupid. You've been dreaming about this for 32 years and now it's actually happening!"
What followed was even more horrific. Sagawa raped Hartevelt's lifeless body before consuming parts of her over a two-day period. He ate sections of her breasts, calves, lips, and thighs, consuming some flesh raw while cooking other portions.
The Failed Disposal and Capture
When Sagawa decided to dispose of the remains, he crammed what was left of Hartevelt's body into two large suitcases and hailed a taxi to Bois de Boulogne Park. However, two joggers noticed blood seeping from the luggage and alerted authorities. Police quickly traced the suitcases back to Sagawa with the taxi driver's assistance.
At his apartment, investigators discovered cooked human flesh and Hartevelt's photo identification card. Sagawa was apprehended and detained while French psychologists assessed his mental state.
Legal Loopholes and Celebrity Status
Sagawa's father once again intervened, hiring an expensive lawyer who successfully argued that his son was legally insane and unfit to stand trial. Sagawa spent the next four years in a French maximum-security psychiatric unit, where he wrote and illustrated a novel titled In The Fog, which many believed to be a thinly-veiled account of his crimes.
In 1985, horrific crime scene photographs from Hartevelt's murder were leaked to a popular French magazine, resulting in one journalist's arrest and 200,000 confiscated copies of the publication.
Sagawa was eventually deported to Japan, where Tokyo hospital psychiatrists diagnosed him with a personality disorder but determined he was not legally insane, meaning he could theoretically face criminal charges. However, French authorities refused to assist with prosecution, and shockingly, Sagawa was released as a free man in 1986.
What followed was perhaps even more disturbing than the crime itself. Sagawa became a minor celebrity in Japan, appearing in a 1992 pornographic film where he simulated cannibalizing a woman. He wrote nearly 20 books, maintained a weekly newspaper column, appeared on cooking programs, penned restaurant reviews, and sold paintings.
Sagawa consistently maintained that cannibalism was simply a fetish, once stating: "If a normal man fancied a girl, he'd naturally feel a desire to see her as often as possible, to be close to her, to smell her and kiss her, right? To me, eating is just an extension of that. Frankly, I can't fathom why everyone doesn't feel this urge to eat, to consume other people."
The depraved killer died in November 2022 at age 73 from complications following pneumonia, having never faced proper justice for his horrific crimes against Renee Hartevelt.
