Free Republic

ARMIN MEIWES, the so-called Cannibal of Rothenburg, described to a horrified courtroom yesterday how he lit candles and laid out a white tablecloth and his best cutlery to dine on the dismembered corpse of a German software specialist. “I wanted to eat him but not to kill him,” said Meiwes, 44. The computer technician was the first to speak in the retrial in Frankfurt of one of the most grisly criminal cases in modern Germany. The victim, Bernd-Jürgen Brandes, and his future killer met over the internet, which has triggered legal confusion. Until the creation of chat rooms, it was...

A self-confessed cannibal has described how he killed and partially ate a man he met via the internet in March 2001, at a retrial in Germany. Armin Meiwes was convicted of manslaughter two years ago and was jailed for eight-and-a-half years. Last year, an appeal court ordered a retrial after state prosecutors argued Meiwes was guilty of murder. The 44-year-old denies the charge and says he simply carried out a willing victim's instructions. If found guilty, Meiwes could face a life sentence. 'Killing on request' Meiwes repeated much of his confession from his first trial during his three-hour testimony. I...

A German cannibal is taking legal action to stop the release of the horror film "Butterfly: A Grimm Love Story," which he claims is based on his life. Keri Russell ("Felicity") stars as a graduate student researching imprisoned cannibal Simon Grobeck (Thomas Kretschmann). Russell is drawn into Grobeck's world and becomes obsessed with the Internet cannibal community. "Butterfly" is scheduled for a March 9 release in Germany. But not if Armin Meiwes, who was sentenced to eight-and-a-half years in prison for eating a man he met over the Internet, has his way. In a statement Monday, Meiwes's lawyer, Harald Ermel,...

German cannibal Armin Meiwes is back in court where an appeal is being heard almost 15 months after he was imprisoned for eight and a half years. Prosecutors are pressing for him to be jailed for life, while his defence wants the sentence cut to five years. Meiwes was jailed for manslaughter in January 2004 for killing and eating a willing victim he met via the internet. The judge denied the prosecutors' call for a murder conviction, which would have meant a 15-year jail sentence. Both the prosecution and the defence appealed against the manslaughter verdict. His defence team say...

GERMANY’S cannibal killer Armin Meiwes has given his approval to a film production company to bring his story to the big screen. His Heart in My Brain is the working title of the film, which is being partly sponsored with public money. The state of North Rhine-Westphalia has agreed a £14,000 grant to director Rosa von Praunheim because it likes his films. Meiwes, 42 - sentenced in January to eight and a half years for mutilating, killing and eating Jürgen Brandes, also 42, a computer programmer - still hopes that Hollywood is interested in his story. It is unclear if...

Three years ago in Germany, Armin Meiwes placed a personal ad on the Internet, seeking “a young, well-built man who wants to be eaten.” That’s twisted all by itself, but it’s not the worst part of the story. The worst part is that someone answered the ad. Bernd Brandes, a man who is said to have had an obsession with pain, allowed himself to be killed and eaten by Meiwes. As a psychiatrist later determined, Meiwes had severe “emotional problems,” and last month, he was sentenced to eight-and-a-half years in prison. But some argue that he didn’t commit a crime....

The recent judgment in the case of Germany's most notorious criminal case since the Meinhof gang has revealed deep cracks in the soul of modern Germany, and in the souls of people at large. I am referring to the case of Armin Meiwes, Germany's "cannibal killer," the soft-spoken and polite computer technician who supped on — and with — one who volunteered himself to be cannibalized, computer programmer Bernd-Jergen Brandes. Germany's prosecutors pursued Mr. Meiwes with blutlust. It did not matter that Germany's criminal code did not address the specific act of volunteerism (except in the case of Germany's mysterious...

“German Cannibal Convicted of Manslaughter" was a shocking headline. For starters it contained a redundancy. What is ultimately the most shocking aspect of a shocking case, however, is that Armin Meiwes was sentenced to a mere 81/2 years for the lesser crime of manslaughter when he had killed Bernd Brandes, a 48-year-old computer engineer, and eaten him sautéed with garlic, black pepper, potatoes, sprouts ,and a bottle of South African red wine. Even the most liberal people think or — as Edmund Burke would improve it, "inwardly feel" — that cannibalism ought to rate both a verdict of murder and...

The repulsive details that emerged from last week's trial and sentencing of German computer expert Armin Meiwes, otherwise known as the cannibal of Rotenburg (surely the most incidentally expressive assignation of event with locale since David Koresh's last fiery stand at Waco, Tex.), open a window onto a diseased subculture that almost defies belief. We've known for a while that the insidious illusion of privacy that the Internet provides can embolden many people to partake in depraved activities they would never otherwise contemplate. But never could I have imagined that such a thing as a "cannibal chatroom" would exist —...

"German Cannibal Convicted of Manslaughter" was a shocking headline. What is ultimately the most shocking aspect of a shocking case is that Armin Meiwes was sentenced to a mere 81/2 years for the lesser crime of manslaughter for killing Bernd Brandes, a 48-year-old computer engineer, and eating him sauteed with garlic, black pepper, potatoes, sprouts and a bottle of South African red wine. Even the most liberal people think cannibalism should rate a verdict of murder and a sentence of life imprisonment. Meiwes is likely to be released in less than five years. He already has been deluged with lucrative...

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...

He arrived laughing and joking. Just over two hours later Armin Meiwes, the self-confessed German cannibal who killed and ate another man, left a stunned courtroom scarcely able to believe his luck. After a unique two-month trial that has gripped both Germany and the wider world with its gory details, a judge on Friday sentenced Meiwes to a mere eight and a half years in jail after ruling that he was guilty of manslaughter and not murder. The prosecution had demanded a 15-year-term. But Judge Volker Mütze said he accepted the cannibal's argument that the man he met through the...

Germany (AP) - A German was convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to 8 1/2 years in prison Friday for killing, dismembering and eating another man who allegedly agreed to the arrangement over the Internet. Armin Meiwes, a 42-year-old computer expert, had no "base motives" in the crime, a state court ruled, sparing him a murder conviction. Explaining the verdict, the presiding judge said Meiwes' intention was not evil but "the fulfillment of his fantasy." His primary motive was "the wish to make another man part of himself," Judge Volker Muetze said. "Meiwes reached this bonding experience through the consumption of...

Armin Meiwes has confessed to killing his victim Self-confessed German cannibal Armin Meiwes regrets the killing and will never repeat it, he has told his trial in a closing statement. Earlier, prosecutors said he should spend his life behind bars for killing and eating his 43-year-old victim. Mr Meiwes admits killing and eating Bernd-Juergen Brandes, but says it was "killing on demand", not murder. "I regret it all very much, but I can't undo it," he told the court, insisting that Mr Brandes had chosen to die. He slaughtered his victim like a piece of livestock and treated him...

No matter how you cut it up, eating people is simply wrong - By Barbara Amiel (Filed: 08/12/2003) Not a few modern cannibals in the West have been German and it would be tempting to say, after reading the testimony of self-confessed cannibal Armin Meiwes, now on trial in Kassel, that eating people is a peculiarly German thing to do. But there have been some American and British cannibals, with the odd Russian as well. What may be an EU speciality is that apparently cannibalism is not a crime - though using wooden chopping boards may be. Somehow, one would...