Cannibal's House of Horror (graphic)

News of the World ^ | February 1, 2004 | Neville Thurlbeck

[RWR8189]

CANNIBAL KILLER: Armin Meiwes

FROZEN: After dispatching Brandes with a knife Meiwes bagged his flesh and hid it under pizza in the freezer

MONSTER'S HANG-UP: Meat hook for securing victims in slaughter room

THE MEAT RACK: Pervert's home-made holding pen for his victims

SCENE OF THE GRIME: Seedy bath where dying victim bled for 10 hours

WHO'S FOR LUNCH? Dining room

SEX FOR STARTERS: The bed where Armin Meiwes romped with victim

NOTE OF DOOM: The gloomy furniture was legacy of bully mum

TWISTED MIND: Convicted Armin

SWINGER'S SCENE: Monster's house

ANTICIPATION: Bernd Brandes, 43

EXCLUSIVE: Chilling pictures of hidden world

Cannibal's House of Horror

From Neville Thurlbeck, in Kassel, Germany

HOME is where the heart is—and the lungs, liver and kidneys too.

For this is the chilling house of horror where jailed cannibal Armin Meiwes, pictured right, butchered, froze and cooked his willing victim.

As the killer yesterday began his controversial 8-year sentence for manslaughter, locals in the central German village of Rotenburg were calling for the rotting half-timbered mansion to be pulled down.

For Meiwes' spooky, 44-roomed half-timbered sprawl was nicknamed "the ghost house" long before he started luring potential dinners back.

Police took away truckloads of contents after discovering Berlin computer expert Bernd Brandes had been stabbed to death, filleted and eaten there.

But although Meiwes was sensationally found not guilty of murder on Friday—as the victim was a consenting participant—our exclusive pictures reveal the isolated house on the hill still reeks of evil.

It looks eerily like the Bates Motel in Alfred Hitchcock's classic big-screen heart-stopper Psycho.

And, just like mad killer Norman Bates, 42-year-old Meiwes was obsessed with his domineering mother.

When she died in 1999, aged 77, he stayed on in the house they shared— keeping all the gloomy heavy antique decor she chose.

He even wore her clothes, mimicked her voice and kept her room as a shrine—laying a manikin's head on the pillow.

Snack

But with Mum gone Meiwes could live out his lifelong fantasy of feasting on human flesh. After wooing Brandes on the internet Meiwes met him up at the station and took him to the house.

He led him along the lino-floored corridors to show off his "slaughter room"—a narrow windowless upstairs chamber with a meat hook fixed to the ceiling, a cage for holding victims and walls now flecked with mould. After romping on a damp, bare bed the men went down to the kitchen.

There—after downing 20 sleeping pills, a bottle of Vicks cold relief and schnapps—Brandes, 43, agreed to be killed. First Meiwes cut off his manhood with a butcher's knife, bandaged him and fried the organ with garlic for a snack.

It took Brandes 10 hours to die after Meiwes put him in a warm bath to "bleed out".

Meiwes whiled away the time reading a Star Trek adventure and finished off the job at 4.15am by hauling his guest to the slaughter room and stabbing him in the throat.

As an easy listening radio station played, Meiwes stripped 65lb of flesh from the body, which he portioned into plastic bags and hid in the cellar, under pizzas in the deep freeze.

He cooked some every day for 10 months, even trying to make flour by grinding baked arm bone. The leftovers and teeth were buried in the garden— near a barbecue used regularly for human grills.

It was only when supplies started running low that Meiwes began trawling for fresh victims. Police arrested him when a young Austrian man he contacted was horrified to discover it was no joke.

When cops raided Meiwes' ramshackle home they found just 15lb of Brandes left in the freeezer.

ADDITIONAL REPORTING: Martin Knobbe & Detlef Schmalenberg/Stern/Picture Press/SOA



Come on over for breakfast...

A STRING of blood-curdling e-mails today reveals the sheer horror firing the twisted mind of convicted cannibal Armin Meiwes.

The German sicko, jailed on Friday for slaughtering, cooking and eating another man, trawled the internet for willing victims then set about luring them to the dinner table and onto his plate with THOUSANDS of bizarre messages.

Eventually, after months of fishing with adverts on pervert websites, he hooked disturbed computer technician Bernd Brandes.

From Valentine's Day, 2001, until the final banquet of blood on March 9, the two men conducted a deadly courtship.

Leftovers

The drama that unfolds in the chilling e-mail traffic between cannibal Meiwes and victim Brandes rivals anything Hollywood could concoct—in fact the killer now hopes for a £1million payday as moviemakers vie for his story.

In an early message the cannibal teases by announcing he is making spaghetti carbonara for dinner. Relishing his gory end the victim replies: "You don't have to buy meat again, there will be plenty left."

Then came a terrifyingly matter-of-fact exchange about the fate of any human leftovers.

VICTIM: "What will you do with my brain?"

CANNIBAL: "I'll leave it, I don't want to split your skull."

VICTIM: "Better bury it, preferably in a cemetery; nobody notices skulls there. Or maybe pulverise it?"

CANNIBAL: "We have a nice small cemetery here."

VICTIM: "You could use it as an ashtray."

The anticipation got 43-year-old Brandes, pictured bottom right, sexually excited and he described in great detail the relief he expected from being bumped off and devoured at Meiwes' isolated house near Rotenburg.

He wrote: "I hope you are serious because I really want it. My nipples look forward to your stomach."

As the fatal rendezvous approached the weird cyber banter between the two men grew...

VICTIM: "Are you a smoker?"

CANNIBAL: "Yes, but my teeth are still pretty white."

VICTIM: "That's good, I smoke, too. I hope you like smoked meat."

CANNIBAL: "Just bring yourself for breakfast."

But, before discovering his human meal-ticket to notoriety, Meiwes had plenty of near-misses.

Incredibly, he was in touch with around 200 would-be dinners, attracted by his ads on websites with names like ‘Flesh and Bone' and ‘Cannibal Cafe'.

Calling himself Franky—after a fantasy friend he invented during a lonely childhood—Meiwes, 42, e-mailed one eager applicant and declared: "I hope you can come quick to me, I am a hungry cannibal. Please tell me your height and weight and I will butcher and eat your fine flesh."

Portion control was obviously important to obsessed Meiwes. An e-mail to a man called Hansel read: "Hi! Being roasted alive, that is absolutely a beautiful concept.

"But keep in mind that with your weight there is about 35kg of your flesh available for eating. If everyone eats 500gms you need 70 people. And there shouldn't be anything left of your delicious flesh.

"To get such a high number of diners could be difficult so if you do decide to have yourself slaughtered then please contact me."

One of the first oddballs to respond was an Italian called Matteo.

But his tastes were a bit strong even for Meiwes. Without a hint of irony, he told the judges in court: "Matteo wanted me to burn his testicles with a flame thrower.

Whipped

"And he wanted me to hammer his body down with nails and pins while he was whipped to death. I found that a bit weird."

At Christmas Meiwes made contact with a man who said he could provide a young boy for dinner.

But a couple of days later he was off the menu. Meiwes recalled: "He said he was being eaten at a Russian Orthodox feast. I tried his website after Christmas but there was no reply so perhaps it happened."

The killer also spoke of another e-mail pal, Andreas, from Regensburg in southern Germany. "He wanted me to pick him up in a cattle truck and slaughter him like a pig," said Meiwes.

"I told him to take the train. I picked him up at the station and we went back to the butchery at my house. He wanted me to wear rubber boots, which he licked. I wrapped him in clingfilm ready for slaughtering but he backed out. So we just fooled around, drank beer and ate pizza."

Wannabe lunch Dirk Moeller, a German conference organiser living in London, was next.

Meiwes said: "He wanted me to pronounce a death sentence upon him like in a court so I got one made up from a document on the internet. He came to the house but he backed out, too. We ended up going to the pictures to watch Ocean's Eleven."

Alex from Essen had a specific request, too—to be beheaded. Meiwes refused because he was "too fat".

And Stefan from Kassel almost made it into the pot—only to be pardoned because of the weather.

He got as far as being hung up on the slaughter chamber's meat hook, wrapped in clingfilm with labels pinned into his flesh denoting various cuts like steak, ham and bacon.

Meiwes said: "We called it off because it was so damn cold in there."

[Slings and Arrows]

Just *BURP!* damn!

[Agnes Heep]

i have no problem with the eight years. he only killed because his "victim" wanted him to do it.

I believe the conventional wisdom is that a person owns his body and has the right to decide whether he wishes to kill himself, or have someone else kill him, if that is his desire. Given that, why the eight years? Why was he even charged to begin with?

[Lazamataz]

I understand people taste like chicken.

[Lazamataz]

well, THAT's just put me off my dinner... Can't we have a VERY BIG BARF ALERT attatched to this one?

Gives a whole new meaning to the slang term for oral sex -- 'eating one another' -- doesn't it?

[Lazamataz]

So RWR, do you have a comment or, better yet, an excuse for posting this dreary story? This kind of crap is what is deteriorating this forum.

He doesn't need to justify the story. It's clearly news. It's important to see what evil exists in the world.

[EternalVigilance]

i have no problem with the eight years. he only killed because his "victim" wanted him to do it. eating the flesh is surely sick but...well - mankind has many facets.

You're sick too, newbie.

[foolscap]

Aw gee, folks, what would we or the History Channel do without Germans?

LOL so very true. Sometimes I think the History Channel believes WWII is the only war that ever happened. They must have gotten a lot of cheap Hitler documentaries or something. I sometimes want to scream at the TV "Hey you guys there are other scum bags in history besides the Germans". Do they listen, hell no! They just show another week of Hitler's Henchmen or something like it

[foolscap]

I don't know about you guys but don't you think the way this story is written is just a little over the top? I love the picture of the freezer with the frozen pizza. At least he had varied diet. As far as the antiques go I'd love to have them. I won't eat someone to get them....well at least not in the literal sense

[KangarooJacqui]

Gives a whole new meaning to the slang term for oral sex -- 'eating one another' -- doesn't it?

*covers eyes, then starts laughing despite herself*

Also brings new meaning to the phrase "Bite me".

[Lazamataz]

Also brings new meaning to the phrase "Bite me".

LOL!

(And a hug to a good pal)

[Lazamataz]

I sometimes want to scream at the TV "Hey you guys there are other scum bags in history besides the Germans". Do they listen, hell no! They just show another week of Hitler's Henchmen or something like it.

That's because televisions have no microphones.

[foolscap]

That must be it :)

[evad]

Sorry, I wasn't clear..

I thought you were talking about the poster.

[knarf]

"We must execute this guy."
"This is sick."

Contact Timothy McVeigh's lawyers.

[NY Cajun]

His house is almost as scary as Michael Jackson's berdroom.

[mhking]

"Well, hello, Clarice..."

Just damn.

If you want on the list, FReepmail me. This IS a high-volume PING list...

[technochick99]

"And he wanted me to hammer his body down with nails and pins while he was whipped to death. I found that a bit weird."

Even nutcases have their standards it would seem. This story is going to make one heck of a true crime story...

[sharktrager]

Without the Germans we wouldn't HAVE the History Channel. Eliminate WWII and Hitler and they lose at least 1/3 of their programming.

[xJones]

Aw gee, folks, what would we or the History Channel do without Germans?

That is the one funny comment in all this mess. "History Channel presents: Hitler's Women, Hitlet's Boys, Hitler's.........".

I wonder why they don't do more on Stalin, a contemporary monster. Or how about Mao or Pol Pot for a change?