Over the last month, allegations have come forth against actor Armie Hammer, some of which accuse him of cannibalistic fantasies. Now, we cannot confirm that this is true, but now that we have your attention, we might as well talk about some confirmed cannibals of true crime. Take a look at 10 of the most notorious cannibals in true crime history and let us know your thoughts on these killers in the comments section on social media.
Jeffrey Dahmer
Jeffrey Dahmer is undoubtedly one of the most well known serial killers of all time. Dahmer was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin in 1960 and murder 17 men from 1978 to 1991. Dahmer became infamous for his sheer number of kills, but also his treatment of the bodies. After body parts were found in his freezer, Dahmer admitted to eating the thighs, hearts and organs of many of his later victims.
Rudy Eugene
While the name Rudy Eugene may not ring a bell, we’re all familiar with the Miami cannibal attack on 2012. In this attack, Eugene accused a homeless man on the MacArthur Causeway of stealing his Bible and proceeded to begin eating his face. Eugene ate most of the man’s face, including his left eyeball. The cannibal was stopped when he was shot and killed by police, with the homeless man surviving the attack.
Luka Magnotta
Luka Magnotta’s case gained international attention when it was depicted in the Netflix limited series “Don’t F**k with Cats: Hunting an Internet Killer.” Magnotta was initially pursued after posting videos killing kittens online and was later connected with the murder of a college student in Montreal, Canada. Magnotta filmed the entire murder, entitling it 1 Lunatic 1 Ice Pick, and uploaded it to Bestgore.com. A subsequent video was obtained by the police, which showed Magnotta participating in cannibalism.
Andrei Chikatilo
Around the same time Jeffrey Dahmer was active, Andrei Chikatilo began his slew of killings across the globe. Chikatilo grew up in the Ukranian SSR amd began his crime spree in 1978. From this time until 1990, he killed 56 people (that he admitted to) and was tried for 53 of his victims. Chikatilo, who was known as the Butcher of Rostov, was told by his mother during his childhood that his brother was eaten by their neighbors, which inspired him to cannibalize many of his victims.
Issei Sagawa
Born in Kobe, Japan, Issei Sagawa began experiencing cannibalistic urges as a child. He first attempted cannibalism while studying at Wako University in Tokyo by breaking into a woman’s house while she was sleeping. He was caught by the woman and seized my the police, but didn’t express his true intentions with the authorities. At 27, he moved to Paris to pursue a P.h.D. and many years later, he brought home one of his classmates in 1981. He killed his classmate that night and consumed parts of her body before saving the rest in the fridge. He was caught by French police after attempting to dispose of the body and was brought to a mental institution. Because of complications with the case between France and Japan, Sagawa was ruled a free man when he checked himself out of the hospital in 1986 and went on to write several books about the experience.
Vince Li
In 2008, 40-year-old Vince Li stabbed, beheaded and cannibalized a man during a Greyhound bus ride on the Trans-Canada Highway. While the victim was sleeping, Li produced a knife and began stabbing him in the neck. Shortly after, the bus driver pulled over and evacuated the other passengers. The driver and some passengers attempted to rescue the victim, however Li threatened them with a knife and proceeded to behead the victim and cannibalize his body. The driver was able to immobilize the vehicle and trapped Li inside while police arrived. During the trial, Li was ruled not criminally accountable for the crime because of a mental disorder and remains in the Selkirk Mental Health Centre.
Nikolai Dzhumagaliev
Born in Kazakh SSR (now Kazakhstan), Nikolai Dzhumagaliev was convicted of murdering seven people from 1979 to 1980. He was given the nickname Metal Fang because he was fitted with false teeth made of white metal after a childhood fight. Dzhumagaliev killed his first victim in 1979, cooking the meat on her body and eating it over the course of a month. After several more murders, he was captured by the police in 1980 and served in a mental institution before escaping in 1989. He was later captured in 1991 for attempting to steal sheep and was returned to a psychiatric hospital in Kazakhstan.
Katherine Knight
Katherine Knight is Australia’s first woman to be sentenced to life in prison without parole and was convicted in 2000 of killing her partner. Knight stabbed him then proceeded to put his skin onto a meat hook. She then cooked the meat on his head and parts of his body, intending to feed his flesh to her partner’s children. She’s currently serving her sentence at the Silverwater Women’s Correctional Centre in New South Wales.
Armin Meiwes
Born in 1961 West Germany, Armin Meiwes developed an interest in cannibalism as a teenager and while working as computer repair technician, he began looking for a volunteer to cannibalize. He posted an advertisement to a website (which has since been taken down) called The Cannibal Cafe and an engineer from Berlin answered the request in 2001. The two filmed their evening together at Meiwes’s home and the victim’s genitals were amputated then consumed by both men. The victim was given sleeping pills and cough syrup before the ordeal, causing him to drift in and out of consciousness. Meiwes eventually stabbed his victim in the bathtub and consumed his flesh over the next ten months. He was arrested in 2002 after advertisements for new victims surfaced and was convicted of manslaughter in 2004, later murder in 2006 after a retrial. He’s currently serving a life sentence in prison.
Albert Fish
Known by many names including Gray Man, the Werewolf of Wysteria, the Brooklyn Vampire and the Moon Maniac, Albert Fish was apprehended for murdering a 10-year-old girl in 1934. Fish confessed to killing two others and once bragged about killing over 100 children. He was convicted and executed by the electric chair in 1936.
