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Europeans indulged in cannibalism until the 1900s, two new books claim
Only this week, it was reported that thousands of pills filled with powdered human flesh had been discovered by customs officials in South Korea.
The capsules, used as a medicinal 'cure-all', were thought to be the remains of aborted or still-born babies, which were stored, dried and crushed into powder.
The world was, quite rightly, shocked by the reports - however two new books claim that Europeans saw no issue with cannibalism right into the 19th and 20th century.
From creating candles made of human fat in the 1880s, to drinking blood at the scaffold, or making remedies out of crushed skull powder, many Europeans had no moral or ethical concerns about eating, drinking or otherwise using the bodies of dead people.
Going back a little further in time, even King Charles II of England sipped 'The King’s Drops', a powder mix of human skull with alcohol.
According to a new book Medicinal Cannibalism in Early Modern English Literature and Culture, by Louise Noble, many Europeans - from royalty to scientists - routinely ate remedies containing human bones, fat and blood in order to solve everyday complains from headaches to epilepsy.
Even as the supernatural view of the world evolved into a scientific one, people still ascribed to the theory that eating a part of the body would help cure ailments in your own organ, for instance headaches could be cured by a potion of crushed skull, or drank blood to cure blood ailments.
Another book, Mummies, Cannibals and Vampires: The History of Corpse Medicine from the Renaissance to the Victorians, by English university lecturer Richard Sugg, also shows the history of cannibalism in Europe.
Sugg, from the University of Durham, told The Smithsonian: 'The question was not, "Should you eat human flesh?" but, "What sort of flesh should you eat?".
He explains how Thomas Willis, a 17th-century pioneer of brain science, brewed a drink for apoplexy, or bleeding, that mingled powdered human skull and chocolate. Meanwhile the moss that grew over a buried skull, called Usnea, was used to cure nosebleeds and possibly epilepsy.
Human fat was thought to cure gout, and German doctors soaked bandages in the fat for wounds.
A clue to our grisly past can be found in our literature, says Noble, from the University of New England in Australia. She found references in everything from John Donne’s 'Love’s Alchemy' to Shakespeare’s 'Othello'.
Sugg also tells how fresh blood was highly valued for it's 'effects on vitality'. The German-Swiss physician Paracelsus, in the 16th century, believed blood was good for drinking.
Some followers advocated drinking blood fresh from the body, which does not seem to have caught on, but poor people could pay a small price for a cup of warm blood, served seconds after executions.
Sugg said: 'The executioner was considered a big healer in Germanic countries. He was a social leper with almost magical powers.'
Sugg also quotes a French recipe from 1679, which describes how to turn blood into marmalade.
The other belief at the time was that human remains contained the soul of the body, with young men or virgin women seen as the 'freshest', and highly prized.
Even the great Renaissance man Leonardo da Vinci said: 'We preserve our life with the death of others. In a dead thing insensate life remains which, when it is reunited with the stomachs of the living, regains sensitive and intellectual life.'
Cannibalism is not a new phenomena - and can be found in many cultures across the world.
According to the The Smithsonian, the practice began to die out as science flourished - but it still existed in the 19th century.
Sugg found such examples as an Englishman, in 1847, being advised to mix the skull of a young woman with treacle and feed it to his daughter to cure her epilepsy (which he dutifully carried out, but allegedly it failed).
And in 1908, a last known attempt was made in Germany to swallow blood at the scaffold.
However, it still continues - and in places you might not expect.
On top of the recent customs scandal, Noble cites news reports on the theft of organs of prisoners executed in China, and a body-snatching ring in New York City that stole and sold body parts from the dead to medical companies.
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Cannibal cult mother who skinned son and made him eat his own flesh gets 9 years in jail
By Daily Mail Reporter UPDATED: 07:05 EST, 24 October 2008
A cannibal cult mother who tortured her son in a locked cellar while relatives skinned him and forced him to eat his own flesh has been jailed for nine years.
Klara Mauerova, 31 - a member of a sinister religious cult and her sister Katerina led the sickening torture of her eight-year-old son Ondrej and his ten year-old brother Jakub.
A court in Brno in Czech Republic heard how relatives partially skinned Ondrej and forced him to eat his own flesh.
The judge also jailed Katerina, 35, for ten years for her role in the sickening abuse.
The two boys had told judges how their mother and relatives had stubbed cigarettes out on their bare skin, whipped them with belts, and tried to drown them. They were also sexually abused and forced to cut themselves with knives.
The terrified youngsters said they were kept in cages or handcuffed to tables and made to stand in their own urine for day
The sick sisters - both members of weird religious cult the Grail Movement - refused to reveal why they tortured the brothers.
But state prosecutor Zuzana Zamoravcova said: 'Their aim was to make the boys blindly serve their religious goals.'
Judge Pavel Goth said as he sentenced the women: 'Their aim was to create a person with a completely broken will. Ondrej and Jakub were repeatedly psychologically and physically tyrannised and held in locked rooms.'
Another defendant, 34-year-old Barbora Skrlova, was also jailed for five years for her part in the torture. Three others who took part in the abuse were also given jail terms.
Hana Basova, 28, and Jan Skrla, 25, were sentenced to seven years each while another man, Jan Turek, was jailed for five years.
Skrlova had posed as an innocent 13-year-old girl when police arrived to free the boys. She later ran away to Norway but was traced earlier this year by Czech police who brought her back to face trial.
Mauerova at first admitted abusing her children but she said she had been manipulated by her sister Katerina and Skrlova.
All three of them had been part of the Grail Movement cult which claims to have hundreds of followers in Britain as well as tens of thousands of others world wide.
The sick abuse was discovered when a neighbour installed a TV baby monitor to keep watch on his new daughter.
But it picked up the signal from an identical monitor next door showing one of the victims beaten, naked and chained in a cellar.
Mauerova had installed it so she could gloat over her victims' suffering from the comfort of her kitchen.
A police officer at the scene of a grisly beheading on a Canadian bus reported seeing the attacker hacking off pieces of the victim's body and eating them, according to a police tape leaked on the Internet Saturday.
In the tape of radio transmissions, a Royal Canadian Mounted Police officer refers to the attacker as "Badger" and says he is armed with a knife and scissors and is "defiling the body at the front of the bus as we speak."
On the tape, which lasts about 80 seconds, officers continue to detail the attacker's movements until one reports, "Badger's at the back of the bus, hacking off pieces and eating it."
he RCMP described the tapes as "operational police communications and, as such, are not meant for public consumption." Police said permission had not been given to use the radio transmission, which was posted on LiveLeak.com and picked up by other Web sites.
Officers were responding to a desolate stretch of the TransCanada Highway about 12 miles from Portage La Prairie, Manitoba, after the bloody attack late Wednesday on the bus traveling from Edmonton, Alberta to Winnipeg, Manitoba.
Vince Weiguang Li, 40, faces second-degree murder charges for the murder of a 22-year-old man, who friends and family identified as Tim McLean. Police have not confirmed the victim's identity.
Passengers said they had just reboarded the bus following a break when the suspect — for no apparent reason — stabbed the man sitting next to him dozens of times as passengers fled in horror. He then severed the man's head, displayed it and began hacking at the body.
Li's employer said in an interview Saturday that he was shocked to learn that his "model employee" had been accused of the grisly attack. Vincent Augert, an independent contractor who distributes newspapers in Edmonton, said that Li was one of his most reliable carriers.
"He was very punctual and always cleanly dressed," he told The Associated Press. "He was a very nice, polite guy. We would've had no reason to let him go before all this happened."
Augert said Li had worked for him since last July and caused no problems.
"I had no odd suspicions about him at all," said Augert.
Augert said that Li called him two weeks ago to say he needed a day or two off to go to Winnipeg for a job interview at the end of July. He said Li called him back and left a message with the dates, but never followed up after that.
"That was unusual for him not to call back and then when he didn't show up for work on Tuesday we got worried," said Augert, who said it was sometimes difficult to understand Li because he spoke quickly and had a strong Chinese accent.
Augert said he called Li's cell phone on Thursday and his wife answered. She told him that she hadn't heard from Li, who had told her he had to leave for a few days because of a family emergency.
Li, who shuffled into a courtroom Friday in Portage la Prairie with his head bowed and feet shackled, appeared before the court without a lawyer. He did not reply when the judge asked him whether he was going to get a lawyer, and only nodded slightly when asked whether he was exercising his right not to speak. He was not required to enter a plea.
The prosecutor asked for a psychiatric assessment, but the judge said he wanted to give Li a chance to meet with his lawyer. Li's next court appearance is scheduled for Tuesday. The RCMP said Li has no known criminal record.
McLean's family spoke publicly Saturday for the first time since the brutal attack.
"He was a little guy with a heart bigger than you could know," McLean's uncle, Alex McLean, told reporters in a prepared statement from the family.
"Tim spent his life traveling and meeting new people and always saw the good in everyone. He had the most infectious giggle. You could hear him laughing a mile away," said Alex McLean.
"It didn't matter what kind of a day you were having, because when you heard him laugh, you couldn't help but join in."
William Caron, 23, said McLean was quiet, though he liked to socialize with friends. He was small — about 5-foot-4 and 130 pounds — and tended to stay away from a fight, Caron said.
"All the time I've known Tim, he's never been the type of guy to get into a fight with. He always kept to himself when there's strangers around," Caron said.
The killing has spawned a vast online community, with tens of thousands showing support for McLean's family and expressing disgust for the attack.
One of the many groups on the social networking site Facebook has accumulated over 40,000 members with more than 2,000 wall posts.
"It's something right out of a horror movie," said Sheena in Edmonton.
quote:Originally posted by TruthAndRights: Europeans indulged in cannibalism until the 1900s, two new books claim
Only this week, it was reported that thousands of pills filled with powdered human flesh had been discovered by customs officials in South Korea.
The capsules, used as a medicinal 'cure-all', were thought to be the remains of aborted or still-born babies, which were stored, dried and crushed into powder.
The world was, quite rightly, shocked by the reports - however two new books claim that Europeans saw no issue with cannibalism right into the 19th and 20th century.
From creating candles made of human fat in the 1880s, to drinking blood at the scaffold, or making remedies out of crushed skull powder, many Europeans had no moral or ethical concerns about eating, drinking or otherwise using the bodies of dead people.
Going back a little further in time, even King Charles II of England sipped 'The King’s Drops', a powder mix of human skull with alcohol.
According to a new book Medicinal Cannibalism in Early Modern English Literature and Culture, by Louise Noble, many Europeans - from royalty to scientists - routinely ate remedies containing human bones, fat and blood in order to solve everyday complains from headaches to epilepsy.
Even as the supernatural view of the world evolved into a scientific one, people still ascribed to the theory that eating a part of the body would help cure ailments in your own organ, for instance headaches could be cured by a potion of crushed skull, or drank blood to cure blood ailments.
Another book, Mummies, Cannibals and Vampires: The History of Corpse Medicine from the Renaissance to the Victorians, by English university lecturer Richard Sugg, also shows the history of cannibalism in Europe.
Sugg, from the University of Durham, told The Smithsonian: 'The question was not, "Should you eat human flesh?" but, "What sort of flesh should you eat?".
He explains how Thomas Willis, a 17th-century pioneer of brain science, brewed a drink for apoplexy, or bleeding, that mingled powdered human skull and chocolate. Meanwhile the moss that grew over a buried skull, called Usnea, was used to cure nosebleeds and possibly epilepsy.
Human fat was thought to cure gout, and German doctors soaked bandages in the fat for wounds.
A clue to our grisly past can be found in our literature, says Noble, from the University of New England in Australia. She found references in everything from John Donne’s 'Love’s Alchemy' to Shakespeare’s 'Othello'.
Sugg also tells how fresh blood was highly valued for it's 'effects on vitality'. The German-Swiss physician Paracelsus, in the 16th century, believed blood was good for drinking.
Some followers advocated drinking blood fresh from the body, which does not seem to have caught on, but poor people could pay a small price for a cup of warm blood, served seconds after executions.
Sugg said: 'The executioner was considered a big healer in Germanic countries. He was a social leper with almost magical powers.'
Sugg also quotes a French recipe from 1679, which describes how to turn blood into marmalade.
The other belief at the time was that human remains contained the soul of the body, with young men or virgin women seen as the 'freshest', and highly prized.
Even the great Renaissance man Leonardo da Vinci said: 'We preserve our life with the death of others. In a dead thing insensate life remains which, when it is reunited with the stomachs of the living, regains sensitive and intellectual life.'
Cannibalism is not a new phenomena - and can be found in many cultures across the world.
According to the The Smithsonian, the practice began to die out as science flourished - but it still existed in the 19th century.
Sugg found such examples as an Englishman, in 1847, being advised to mix the skull of a young woman with treacle and feed it to his daughter to cure her epilepsy (which he dutifully carried out, but allegedly it failed).
And in 1908, a last known attempt was made in Germany to swallow blood at the scaffold.
However, it still continues - and in places you might not expect.
On top of the recent customs scandal, Noble cites news reports on the theft of organs of prisoners executed in China, and a body-snatching ring in New York City that stole and sold body parts from the dead to medical companies.
quote:Originally posted by TruthAndRights: Cannibalism in Muscovy and Lithuania 1571
Europe and its cannibals Jen Paton, 5 February 2010
A spell-binding history of cannibalism in the middle ages: its use as a propaganda tool, and place in Christendom's self-image; the cannibal as a philosophical hypothetical, and a justification for colonialism; and Richard the Lionheart's fondness for "Saracen's head's all hot"
quote: Jen Paton is a graduate of Yale University, where she studied medieval history and wrote about cannibalism. She then moved to London to work at a small law firm, focusing on employment law. She is sure the next thing she does will be as seemingly unrelated.
In the fourteenth century Romance of Richard the Lionheart, the crusader king falls ill outside of Acre: the food he needs to recover, he claims, is pork. Since rumor has it Saracens taste of pork, his men cook and feed him human flesh without his knowledge. Demanding to see the head of the “pig” he has just eaten, the cooks bring in the human head. Richard reacts with amusement, laughing aloud. Gnawing the bones with relish, he announces now that he knows what good food Saracens are, his men won’t starve:
"We shall never die of hunger While that we may first Slay the Saracens downright Wash the flesh and roast the head..."
While the flashiest modern headlines about cannibalism are confined to the depraved (Dorangel Vargas and Jeffrey Dahmer) or the desperate (the Uruguyan rugby team who crashed in the Andres in 1972), stories of European cannibalism during the middle ages celebrated its supposed fierceness and utility. Cannibalism, Le Livre des merveilles de Marco Polo. Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale The climax of Richard's newfound diet comes when Saladin’s emissaries come to broker an agreement, and Richard serves them some of their unfortunate comrades he has killed earlier. Just like the people of Fuchau who Marco Polo described with horror in his Travels (depicted in the image), who invite their enemy to come and dine with them on human flesh, Richard makes sure to outline each man’s name and family lineage, announcing he will “Eat thereof right fast I shall, as if it were a tender chick, to see how [you] will like," Richard eats with gusto, and when the others refuse to partake he scolds them, explaining that the delectation of Saracen is the custom in his house:
"King Richard bade them all be blythe And said, 'Friends, be not squeamous, This is the manner of my house To be served first, if God [agrees] With Saracen's head's all hot."
Yet the cannibal in Western imagination has most often been located elsewhere. The very word derives from Columbus' travels, whose name for the allegedly man-eating Caribs gave us the modern English word, Cannibal. (Of course, it was a rival tribe that told Columbus that the Caribs ate men.) Even today, it is popularly accepted that cannibalism on islands in the South Pacific is anthropologically confirmed (rather than fairly hotly debated). But there is a counternarrative to this demonization of the non-Westerner: that Europeans have always been describing themselves as cannibals, and they have had a complicated intellectual and aesthetic relationship with that fact. The Romance is just romance, one might argue, but the chronicles of the first Crusade are full of Europeans using consuming the enemy as the ultimate propaganda weapon.
In November 1098, Count Raymond and his Provencal forces took the city of M'arra, in a bloody siege which left "no corner of the city clear of Saracen corpses." Raymond left a contingent of troops to hold the city. Not surprisingly in the mountanous region, the supply lines maintaining the Provencal contingent at M’arra broke down. With insufficient food, the men were, by all accounts, driven to extremes to survive: “Now the food shortage became so acute that the Christians ate with gusto many rotten Saracen bodies which they had pitched into the swamps two or three weeks before." Food was not the only thing on the desperate men’s minds – the possibility of hidden bezants also invited the plundering of Saracen bodies: “… they ripped up the bodies of the dead, because they used to find bezants hidden in their entrails, and others cut the dead flesh into slices and cooked it to eat.” Numerous chronicles tell this story of survival cannibalism, with varying attitudes of horror or grudging acceptance. Only one source suggests it might have happened. The rest are certain that it did.
Survival cannibalism with a sprinkling of simple greed is one thing, but the chroniclers cannot help but note the propagandistic utility of the idea of cannibalism because it strikes such fear in enemy hearts: “The Saracens and Turks reacted thus: ‘this stubborn and merciless race, unmoved by hunger, sword, or other perils for one year at Antioch, now feasts on human flesh; therefore, we ask, ‘Who can resist them?’” The infidels spread stories of these and other inhuman acts of the crusaders, but we were unaware that God had made us an object of terror.” Thus the first major encounter between Christians and Muslims was coloured - in fact and folklore - by European cannibalism.
In An Intellectual History of Cannibalism (now translated from Romanian by Alistair Ian Blyth), Catalin Avramescu examines the place of cannibalism in European intellectual discourse. The practice as understood today cannot be divorced from a deep substrata of history and myth extending back to the first Crusades. Avramescu's tracing of the cannibal in European philosophical treatises from antiquity to the Enlightenment (but focusing more heavily on the latter period) shows how the character of the cannibal was used to elucidate disputes about everything from vegetarianism (if we allow ourselves to eat animals, then why not men?) to private property and political organization. The cannibal is a character in philosophical hypotheticals: his actual existence is not a subject of investigation. Avramescu seeks to show how, for centuries, the cannibal patrolled the line between the civilized and the uncivilized, serving as "an image of the subversion of the moral order."
If the cannibal represents a subversion of the moral order, then it is a subversion that crusaders embraced as their own. As we see from Richard the Lionheart and others, 'the idea of cannibalism” emerged alongside Christian Europe's early martial encounters with Islam, where Europeans reveled in their reputation as brutish flesheaters. Avramescu's scope does not extend deeply into the Crusades: after noting briefly the legend of King Tafur, whose rowdy band of primitive savages were Christian allies and preferred the taste of human flesh, and Richard the Lionheart's taste for Saracen meat, Avramescu gives scant attention to the Middle Ages, focusing instead on the discovery of the New World as "the crucial event that generated the...mass of geographic literature treating cannibalism.'' The ''discovery'' sparked, in subsequent centuries, an ongoing evolution of the cannibal-as-philosophical character. In particular, Avramescu investigates the role of the cannibal in justifying the conquest and conversion of the New World. If they are cannibals they can't be religious. If they are heathen they may come under the Spanish (or English or French) crown. If they are bestial, they are "natural slaves," and so may be colonized and civilized by Europeans.
To be sure, cannibalism as an activity of the Other was nothing new. Travel narrators like Marco Polo and John Mandeville populated their tales of far away places with cannibals, bridging a tradition from Herodotus to 20th century anthropologists of the south Pacific. But if cannibalism is seen as just another way Europeans demonized non-Europeans, we ignore a powerful parallel narrative: Europeans rather enjoyed themselves as consumers of other people. These proto-imperialist roots in the Crusades should not be forgotten.
Indeed, ritualistic "cannibalism," Avramescu points out, is an inextricable part of Catholic Christendom. David Hume described a Muslim prisoner who converted to Christianity. When asked after communion, "How many gods are there?" the man replied, "None at all...you have told me all along that there is but one God: And yesterday I ate him." The idea that the mysteries of Christendom, or at least Catholic Christendom, include cannibalism was even more powerfully visceral in the Middle Ages, when women were often overcome by visions of the wafer and the wine made flesh and blood as they consumed them. Cannibalism is not simply something bad that others do: its practice and imagery wend through romance and history into the very fabric of Europe's own sense of itself. The story of the idea of cannibalism in Western thought is the story of European ambivalence about its own capacity for and history of consumption, destruction, and fear.
Cannibalism was widely thought to be practiced by naked savages running around the New World killing people.It wasn’t that long ago, 1961 to be exact, that Michael Clark Rockefeller born 1938 was presumed dead.He was the youngest son of New York Governor (later Vice President) Nelson Aldrich Rockefeller and Mary Todhunter Rockefeller. He disappeared during an expedition in the Asmat region of southwestern New Guinea. Headhunting and cannibalism were still present in some areas of Asmat in 1961, so there was theory that Rockefeller was killed and eaten by local people.If cannibalism did take place in New Guinea, it was associated with torture, murder and mutilation. That's the kind of thing that gives cannibalism a bad name.
Cannibals Modern Europe
Actually cannibalism exists in modern Europe.In the March 2010 article, The 21st Century Blood Cannibals of Europe – News Report, eight teenagers are being accused of cannibalism and brutal murder of their four friends.The members of the Satanists murdered their friends, ate their hearts, dismembered their bodies and buried them in several places according to court records.
A seven year old boy was partly skinned along with his nine year old brother were locked and chained in the cellar for months by their mother, a member of a group called the Grail Movement in the Czech Republic.In 2008 the abuse was discovered by chance when a neighbor’s television baby monitor picked up graphic pictures of what was happening next door. The boys’ bizarre mother had a monitor installed so that she could watch the abuse from her kitchen but the images were picked up by a neighbor who used an identical system to monitor a newborn baby according to court papers.
According to the article, Cannibalism: A modern taboo, Armin Meiwes the German ate an acquaintance. Meiwes advertised in early 2001, on websites for "young, well-built men aged 18 to 30 to slaughter". Meiwes' victim was willing or not, to be eaten.
Old World Cannibalism
It seems ironic that the enlightened European cultures would condemn the ignorant natives of the New World.The very word cannibal is derived from Columbus’ travels, whose name for the allegedly man-eating Caribs. Even today, it is popularly accepted that cannibalism on islands in the South Pacific, West Indies, South America and even the Native Americans is anthropologically confirmed as opposed to fairly fervently debated.The chronicles of the first Crusade are full of Europeans consuming the enemy as the ultimate propaganda weapon.
Apparently, there was a dig in Germany by archaeologists and uncovered 7,000-year-old bones. There was evidence of mass cannibalism in which even children and unborn babies were eaten.Investigation of the bones dug up at Herxheim in southwest Germany suggest the region was a epicenter for cannibalism at a time when the first European farming society may have been crumpling.
The menu included bodies that could have been spit-roasted. The bodies were skinned and had their flesh removed using techniques almost identical to those for butchering animals. The bones look to have been smashed on purpose to allow the eaters to suck out the marrow. Other bones bear the “chew marks” of teeth having been made by hungry humans.Archaeologists determined cannibalism was taking place after performing a comprehensive study of bones identified as belonging to six adults, at least one of them a man, two children aged about 6 and 15, and two unborn babies. There are thousands of other bodies dug up at Herxheim of people eaten by cannibals.
In 1492 when Pope Innocent VIII was on his deathbed, his doctors used vampire-like technique on the three boys and had the pope drink their blood. The boys were bled until they died, and the pope died as well. 1492 the same year Columbus “discovered” America and coined the word “cannibal.”
The medical journal, The Lancet, published an article regarding corpse medicine. The article recounts notable doctors of 1600s England digging up bodies to use the bones for medicine. Noted in the article was the fact the human body was widely acknowledged as the therapeutic agent. A major source for this material was the bodies of executed criminals. The practice was documented in Korn et al., 2001 Korn D, Radice M, Hawes C. Cannibal: a history of the people-eaters. London: Channel 4/Macmillan, 2001.
Grave robbers sold pieces of mummified human flesh imported from Egypt according to Dannenfeldt, 1985 Dannenfeldt KH. Egyptian mumia: the sixteenth century experience and debate. Sixteenth Century Journal 1985; 16: 163-180. PubMed . The paramount widespread treatments included flesh, bone, or blood, along with a variety of moss sometimes found on human skulls right up until the late 18th century. Use of medicines made from blood and other human body parts was widespread in Europe. Other articles state that the Europeans of the period consumed fresh blood as a cure for epilepsy and other body parts to treat a variety of diseases, including arthritis, warts, diseases of the reproductive system, sciatica, and skin acne.
The act of cannibalism is recorded several times in history and literature. Researchers have found physical evidence of cannibalism in ancient times in the Old World. In Gough's Cave, England, remains of human bones and skulls from approximately 15,000 years ago, suggest that cannibalism took place amid the people living in the cave. Two publications, Bello, Silvia M. et al. (February 2011). "Earliest Directly-Dated Human Skull-Cups". PLoS ONE and Amos, Jonathan (2011-02-16). "Ancient Britons 'drank from skulls'". BBC News, propose that the people may have used human skulls for drinking. Resources
Europe\'s \'Medicinal Cannibalism\': The Healing Power of Death - SPIEGEL ONLINE - News - Internatio
Were Europeans once cannibals? Research shows that up until the end of the 18th century, medicine routinely included stomach-churning ingredients like human flesh and blood.
Corpse medicine: mummies, cannibals, and vampires : The Lancet
Corpse medicine: mummies, cannibals, and vampires. By - Richard Sugg
Evidence of mass cannibalism uncovered in Germany - Europe, World - The Independent
Evidence of mass cannibalism in which even children and unborn babies were on the menu has been uncovered in Germany by archaeologists.
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Consuming Passions: The Uses of Cannibalism in Late Medieval and Early Modern Europe (Studies in Medieval History and Culture) [Hardcover] Merrall Llewelyn Price (Author)
Book Description Publication Date: July 29, 2003 | ISBN-10: 041596699X | ISBN-13: 978-0415966993 | Edition: 1
Cannibalism is the breaking of the ultimate taboo. Yet during the later Middle Ages and early years of the Renaissance, mythological, historical and contemporary accounts of cannibalism became particularly popular.
Consuming Passions synthesizes and analyses the most interesting of those late medieval and early modern responses to Eucharistic teaching and debate that manifest themselves in the trope of cannibalism. This trope appears in texts as various as visions of the underworld, accounts of the sacramental miracles, sermons, legal proceedings and popular geographies. This book foregrounds the vexed role of the body in both late medieval and early modern religiosity, and the ways in which the boundaries of the endangered body in these narratives also reflect the rigorously defended borders of the body politic.
Evidence of mass cannibalism in which even children and unborn babies were on the menu has been uncovered in Germany by archaeologists.
Analysis of 7,000-year-old bones dug up at Herxheim in south-west Germany suggest the region was a centre for cannibalism at a time when the first European farming society may have been collapsing.
Marks on bones show that bodies were skinned and had their flesh removed using techniques almost identical to those for butchering animals and one researcher suggested that some of the victims could have been spit-roasted.
Many of the bones appear to have been deliberately smashed to allow the living to suck out the marrow of the dead. Others bear the “chew marks” of teeth and while they are too indistinct to be certain scavenging animals were not to blame, the “distinctive distribution speaks strongly in favour” of having been made by hungry humans.
Cut marks on the bones are often so clear that archaeologists have been able to distinguish between which cuts were intended to skin and scalp the bodies and which were made to get at the meat.
Archaeologists concluded cannibalism was taking place after carrying out a detailed study of bones identified as coming from six adults, at least one of them a man, two children aged about 6 and 15, and two unborn babies.
But with almost 500 other bodies already dug up at Herxheim and at least as many again still to be recovered the final number of people eaten by cannibals could be much higher.
Researchers suspect the remains belong either to people eaten in victory celebrations after being killed in wars, or to those slaughtered and consumed as part of ritual sacrifices. They said the sheer number of victims made it unlikely that cannibalism was a last resort during famines.
The 10 people whose remains were analysed for the study are all thought to have died at the same time and the researchers said: “The human bones show abundant and unequivocal evidence of human-indeced modifications. Modifications induced by the cutting up of corpses are cut marks and scrape marks.”
Once the ribs had been cut away from the spine the heads were broken open - “perhaps to extract the brain” - and the tongue cut out before the fleshy parts of the limbs were removed. Bones could then be removed and smashed open for the marrow.
“All these observations allow us to conclude that the individuals were cannibalised,” the archaelogical team concluded in their report published in the journal Antiquity. “It is highly probable that a great number of the thousand or so individuals probably deposited in Herxheim were subjected to cannibalism.”
Dr Bruno Boulestin, of Bordeaux University, accepted it was impossible to be certain if the flesh was eaten raw or was cooked but added: "We see patterns on the bones of animals indicating that they have been spit-roasted. We have seen some of these same patterns on the human bones.”
Herxheim’s remains date from a period when Europe is thought to have been plunged into upheaval, violence and decline following 500 years in which Neolithic farmers first settled the region.
Professor Chris Scarre, a neolithic expert at the University of Durham, said after learning of the study that the Herxheim site could represent useful evidence of a society in turmoil but cautioned that cannibalism can be hard to prove because other factors, such as funerary rites, can leave similar marks on bones.
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The Gruesome History of Eating Corpses as Medicine The question was not “Should you eat human flesh?” says one historian, but, “What sort of flesh should you eat?”
By Maria Dolan Smithsonian.com, May 07, 2012
The last line of a 17th century poem by John Donne prompted Louise Noble’s quest. “Women,” the line read, are not only “Sweetness and wit,” but “mummy, possessed.”
Sweetness and wit, sure. But mummy? In her search for an explanation, Noble, a lecturer of English at the University of New England in Australia, made a surprising discovery: That word recurs throughout the literature of early modern Europe, from Donne’s “Love’s Alchemy” to Shakespeare’s “Othello” and Edmund Spenser’s “The Faerie Queene,” because mummies and other preserved and fresh human remains were a common ingredient in the medicine of that time. In short: Not long ago, Europeans were cannibals.
Noble’s new book, Medicinal Cannibalism in Early Modern English Literature and Culture, and another by Richard Sugg of England’s University of Durham, Mummies, Cannibals and Vampires: The History of Corpse Medicine from the Renaissance to the Victorians, reveal that for several hundred years, peaking in the 16th and 17th centuries, many Europeans, including royalty, priests and scientists, routinely ingested remedies containing human bones, blood and fat as medicine for everything from headaches to epilepsy. There were few vocal opponents of the practice, even though cannibalism in the newly explored Americas was reviled as a mark of savagery. Mummies were stolen from Egyptian tombs, and skulls were taken from Irish burial sites. Gravediggers robbed and sold body parts.
“The question was not, ‘Should you eat human flesh?’ but, ‘What sort of flesh should you eat?’ ” says Sugg. The answer, at first, was Egyptian mummy, which was crumbled into tinctures to stanch internal bleeding. But other parts of the body soon followed. Skull was one common ingredient, taken in powdered form to cure head ailments. Thomas Willis, a 17th-century pioneer of brain science, brewed a drink for apoplexy, or bleeding, that mingled powdered human skull and chocolate. And King Charles II of England sipped “The King’s Drops,” his personal tincture, containing human skull in alcohol. Even the toupee of moss that grew over a buried skull, called Usnea, became a prized additive, its powder believed to cure nosebleeds and possibly epilepsy. Human fat was used to treat the outside of the body. German doctors, for instance, prescribed bandages soaked in it for wounds, and rubbing fat into the skin was considered a remedy for gout.
Blood was procured as fresh as possible, while it was still thought to contain the vitality of the body. This requirement made it challenging to acquire. The 16th century German-Swiss physician Paracelsus believed blood was good for drinking, and one of his followers even suggested taking blood from a living body. While that doesn’t seem to have been common practice, the poor, who couldn’t always afford the processed compounds sold in apothecaries, could gain the benefits of cannibal medicine by standing by at executions, paying a small amount for a cup of the still-warm blood of the condemned. “The executioner was considered a big healer in Germanic countries,” says Sugg. “He was a social leper with almost magical powers.” For those who preferred their blood cooked, a 1679 recipe from a Franciscan apothecary describes how to make it into marmalade.
Rub fat on an ache, and it might ease your pain. Push powdered moss up your nose, and your nosebleed will stop. If you can afford the King’s Drops, the float of alcohol probably helps you forget you’re depressed—at least temporarily. In other words, these medicines may have been incidentally helpful—even though they worked by magical thinking, one more clumsy search for answers to the question of how to treat ailments at a time when even the circulation of blood was not yet understood.
However, consuming human remains fit with the leading medical theories of the day. “It emerged from homeopathic ideas,” says Noble. “It’s 'like cures like.' So you eat ground-up skull for pains in the head.” Or drink blood for diseases of the blood.
Another reason human remains were considered potent was because they were thought to contain the spirit of the body from which they were taken. “Spirit” was considered a very real part of physiology, linking the body and the soul. In this context, blood was especially powerful. “They thought the blood carried the soul, and did so in the form of vaporous spirits,” says Sugg. The freshest blood was considered the most robust. Sometimes the blood of young men was preferred, sometimes, that of virginal young women. By ingesting corpse materials, one gains the strength of the person consumed. Noble quotes Leonardo da Vinci on the matter: “We preserve our life with the death of others. In a dead thing insensate life remains which, when it is reunited with the stomachs of the living, regains sensitive and intellectual life.”
The idea also wasn’t new to the Renaissance, just newly popular. Romans drank the blood of slain gladiators to absorb the vitality of strong young men. Fifteenth-century philosopher Marsilio Ficino suggested drinking blood from the arm of a young person for similar reasons. Many healers in other cultures, including in ancient Mesopotamia and India, believed in the usefulness of human body parts, Noble writes.
Even at corpse medicine’s peak, two groups were demonized for related behaviors that were considered savage and cannibalistic. One was Catholics, whom Protestants condemned for their belief in transubstantiation, that is, that the bread and wine taken during Holy Communion were, through God’s power, changed into the body and blood of Christ. The other group was Native Americans; negative stereotypes about them were justified by the suggestion that these groups practiced cannibalism. “It looks like sheer hypocrisy,” says Beth A. Conklin, a cultural and medical anthropologist at Vanderbilt University who has studied and written about cannibalism in the Americas. People of the time knew that corpse medicine was made from human remains, but through some mental transubstantiation of their own, those consumers refused to see the cannibalistic implications of their own practices.
Conklin finds a distinct difference between European corpse medicine and the New World cannibalism she has studied. “The one thing that we know is that almost all non-Western cannibal practice is deeply social in the sense that the relationship between the eater and the one who is eaten matters,” says Conklin. “In the European process, this was largely erased and made irrelevant. Human beings were reduced to simple biological matter equivalent to any other kind of commodity medicine.”
The hypocrisy was not entirely missed. In Michel de Montaigne’s 16th century essay “On the Cannibals,” for instance, he writes of cannibalism in Brazil as no worse than Europe’s medicinal version, and compares both favorably to the savage massacres of religious wars.
As science strode forward, however, cannibal remedies died out. The practice dwindled in the 18th century, around the time Europeans began regularly using forks for eating and soap for bathing. But Sugg found some late examples of corpse medicine: In 1847, an Englishman was advised to mix the skull of a young woman with treacle (molasses) and feed it to his daughter to cure her epilepsy. (He obtained the compound and administered it, as Sugg writes, but “allegedly without effect.”) A belief that a magical candle made from human fat, called a “thieves candle,” could stupefy and paralyze a person lasted into the 1880s. Mummy was sold as medicine in a German medical catalog at the beginning of the 20th century. And in 1908, a last known attempt was made in Germany to swallow blood at the scaffold.
This is not to say that we have moved on from using one human body to heal another. Blood transfusions, organ transplants and skin grafts are all examples of a modern form of medicine from the body. At their best, these practices are just as rich in poetic possibility as the mummies found in Donne and Shakespeare, as blood and body parts are given freely from one human to another. But Noble points to their darker incarnation, the global black market trade in body parts for transplants. Her book cites news reports on the theft of organs of prisoners executed in China, and, closer to home, of a body-snatching ring in New York City that stole and sold body parts from the dead to medical companies. It’s a disturbing echo of the past. Says Noble, “It’s that idea that once a body is dead you can do what you want with it.”
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FYI: The terms 'long pig' and 'hairless goat' refer to human flesh....
Ottis Toole murdered and cannibalized his victims...
as did...
Richard Chase Jeffrey Dahmer Albert Fish Issei Sagawa Georg Karl Grossmann Karl Denke Fritz Haarmann Joaquim Kroll Stanley Dean Baker Daniel Rakowitz Gary Heidnik Dale Merle Nelson Marcelo Costa de Andrade Arthur Shawcross Nikolai Dzhurmongaliev Nicolas Claux Dorangel Vargas Edmond Kemper (he claimed to have eaten the flesh of a couple of his victims)
Butchering the Human Carcass for Human Consumption by Bob Arson This is a step-by-step guide on how to break down the human body from the full figure into serviceable choice cuts of meat. As in any field, there are a number of methods to the practice, and you may wish to view this as a set of suggestions rather than concrete rules. You will notice that the carving of the larger or "commercial" cuts down into smaller specific or "retail" cuts will be only mentioned in passing, and not concentrated upon. Also, the use of human fat and viscera is generally avoided, and left only to the most experimental chef. These choices, along with recipes and serving suggestions, are nearly infinite in variety, and we leave them to you. We've found these guidelines to be simple and functional, but recognize that there is always room for improvement and we welcome your suggestions.
Before getting to the main task, it must be mentioned that the complete rendering of the human carcass requires a fairly large amount of time, effort, and space. If the consumer does not wish to go through the ordeal of processing and storing the bulk of the entire animal, an easy alternative is as follows. Simply saw through one or both legs at the points directly below the groin and a few inches above the knee. Once skinned, these portions may then be cut into round steaks of the carver's preferred thickness, cut into fillets, deboned for a roast, etc. Meat for several meals is thus readily obtained without the need for gutting and the complexities of preparing the entire form.
The human being (also referred to throughout culinary history as "long pig" and "hairless goat" in the case of younger specimens) is not generally thought of as a staple food source. Observing the anatomy and skeleton, one can see that the animal is neither built nor bred for its meat, and as such will not provide nearly as much flesh as a pig or cow (for example, an average 1000 pound steer breaks down to provide 432 pounds of saleable beef). The large central pelvis and broad shoulder blades also interfere with achieving perfect cuts. There are advantages to this however, especially due to the fact that the typical specimen will weigh between 100-200 pounds, easily manipulated by one person with sufficient leverage.
Here the caution in choosing your meal must be mentioned. It is VERY IMPORTANT to remember that animals raised for slaughter are kept in tightly controlled environments with their health and diet carefully maintained. Humans are not. Thus not only is the meat of each person of varying quality, but people are also subject to an enormous range of diseases, infections, chemical imbalances, and poisonous bad habits, all typically increasing with age. Also as an animal ages, the meat loses its tenderness, becoming tough and stringy. No farm animal is ever allowed to age for thirty years. Six to thirteen months old is a more common slaughtering point. You will obviously want a youthful but mature physically fit human in apparently good health. A certain amount of fat is desirable as "marbling" to add a juicy, flavorful quality to the meat. We personally prefer firm caucasian females in their early twenties. These are "ripe". But tastes vary, and it is a very large herd.
The butcher will need a fairly roomy space in which to work (an interior location is suggested), and a large table for a butcher's block. A central overhead support will need to be chosen or installed ahead of time to hang the carcass from. Large tubs or barrels for blood and waste trimmings should be convenient, and a water source close by. Most of the work can be done with a few simple tools: sharp, clean short and long bladed knives, a cleaver or hatchet, and a hacksaw.
Body Preparation: Acquiring your subject is up to you. For best results and health, freshness is imperative. A living human in captivity is optimal, but not always available. When possible make sure the animal has no food for 48 hours, but plenty of water. This fasting helps flush the system, purging stored toxins and bodily wastes, as well as making bleeding and cleaning easier. Under ideal conditions, the specimen will then be stunned into insensitivity. Sharp unexpected blows to the head are best, tranquilizers not being recommended as they may taint the flavor of the meat. If this is not possible without exciting the animal and causing a struggle (which will pump a greater volume of blood and secretions such as adrenaline throughout the body), a single bullet through the middle of the forehead or back of the skull will suffice.
Hanging: Once the animal is unconscious or dead, it is ready to be hoisted. Get the feet up first, then the hands, with the head down. This is called the "Gein configuration". Simple loops of rope may be tied around the hands and feet and then attached to a crossbar or overhead beam. Or, by making a cut behind the Achilles tendon, a meathook may be inserted into each ankle for hanging support. The legs should be spread so that the feet are outside the shoulders, with the arms roughly parallel to the legs. This provides access to the pelvis, and keeps the arms out of the way in a ready position for removal. It's easiest to work if the feet are slightly above the level of the butcher's head.
Bleeding: Place a large open vessel beneath the animal's head. With a long-bladed knife, start at one corner of the jaw and make a deep "ear-to-ear" cut through the neck and larynx to the opposite side. This will sever the internal and external carotid arteries, the major blood vessels carrying blood from the heart to the head, face, and brain. If the animal is not yet dead, this will kill it quickly, and allow for the blood to drain in any case. After the initial rush of blood, the stream should be controllable and can be directed into a receptacle. Drainage can be assisted by massaging the extremities down in the direction of the trunk, and by compressing and releasing, "pumping", the stomach. A mature specimen will contain almost six liters of blood. There is no use for this fluid, unless some source is waiting to use it immediately for ritual purposes. It acts as an emetic in most people if drunk, and it must be mentioned here that because of the eternal possibility of AIDS it is recommended that for safety's sake all blood should be considered to be contaminated and disposed of in some fashion. It is not known whether an HlV-infected human's flesh is dangerous even if cooked, but this is another item to consider when choosing a specimen, someone in the low-risk strata.
Beheading: When the bleeding slows, preparation for decapitation can be started. Continue the cut to the throat around the entire neck, from the jawline to the back of the skull. Once muscle and ligament have been sliced away, the head can be cleanly removed by gripping it on either side and twisting it off, separation occurring where the spinal cord meets the skull. This is indicative of the method to be used for dividing other bones or joints, in that the meat should generally be cut through first with a knife, and the exposed bone then separated with a saw or cleaver. The merits of keeping the skull as a trophy are debatable for two principal reasons. First, a human skull may call suspicious attention to the new owner. Secondly, thorough cleaning is difficult due to the large brain mass, which is hard to remove without opening the skull. The brain is not good to eat. Removing the tongue and eyes, skinning the head, and placing it outside in a wire cage may be effective. The cage allows small scavengers such as ants and maggots to cleanse the flesh from the bones, while preventing it being carried off by larger scavengers, such as dogs and children. After a sufficient period of time, you may retrieve the skull and boil it in a dilute bleach solution to sterilize it and wash away any remaining tissue.
Skinning: After removing the head, wash the rest of the body down. Because there is no major market for human hides, particular care in removing the skin in a single piece is not necessary, and makes the task much easier. The skin is in fact a large organ, and by flaying the carcass you not only expose the muscular configuration, but also get rid of the hair and the tiny distasteful glands which produce sweat and oil. A short-bladed knife should be used to avoid slicing into muscle and viscera. The skin is composed of two layers, an outer thinner one with a thicker tissue layer below it. When skinning, first score the surface, cutting lightly to be sure of depth and direction. The diagram of the skinning pattern is an example of strip-style skinning, dividing the surface into portions easy to handle. Reflect the skin by lifting up and peeling back with one hand, while bringing the knife in as flat to the skin as possible to cut away connective tissue. The external genitals present only a small obstacle. In the male the penis and scrotum can be pulled away from the body and severed, in the female the outer lips skinned as the rest of the body. It is important to leave the anus untouched at this point, and a circle of skin should be left around it. You need not bother skinning the hands and feet, these portions not being worth the effort unless you plan to pickle them or use them in soup. The skin can be disposed of, or made into fried rinds. Boil the strips and peel away the outer layer, then cut into smaller pieces and deep-fat fry in boiling oil until puffy and crisp. Dust with garlic salt, paprika and cayenne pepper.
Gutting: The next major step is complete evisceration of the carcass. To begin, make a cut from the solar plexus, the point between the breastbone and stomach, almost to the anus. Be very careful not to cut into the intestines, as this will contaminate the surrounding area with bacteria and possibly feces (if this does happen, cleanse thoroughly). A good way to avoid this is to use the knife inside the abdominal wall, blade facing toward you, and making cautious progress.
Make a cut around the anus, or "bung", and tie it off with twine. This also prevents contamination, keeping the body from voiding any material left in the bowel. With a saw, cut through the pubic bone, or "aitch". The lower body is now completely open, and you can begin to pull the organ masses (large and small intestines, kidneys, liver, stomach) out and cut them away from the back wall of the body.
For the upper torso, first cut through the diaphragm around the inner surface of the carcass. This is the muscular membrane which divides the upper, or thoracic, and the lower abdominal cavities. Remove the breastbone, cutting down to the point on each side where it connects to the ribs, and then sawing through and detaching it from the collar bone. Some prefer to cut straight through the middle, depending on the ideas you have for cuts in the final stages. The heart and lungs may be detached and the throat cut into to remove the larynx and trachea. Once all of the inner organs have been removed, trim away any blood vessels or remaining pieces of connective tissue from the interior of the carcass, and wash out thoroughly.
Remove the Arms: Actual butchering of the carcass is now ready to begin. Cut into the armpit straight to the shoulder, and remove the arm bone, the humerus, from the collar bone and shoulder blade. Chop the hand off an inch or so above the wrist. Most of the meat here is between elbow and shoulder, as the muscle groups are larger here and due to the fact that there are two bones in the forearm. Another way of cutting this portion is to cut away the deltoid muscle from the upper arm near the shoulder (but leaving it attached to the trunk) before removing the limb. This decreases the percentage of useable meat on the arm, but allows a larger shoulder strip when excising the shoulder blade. Purely a matter of personal preference. Cut into and break apart the joint of the elbow, and the two halves of each arm are now ready for carving servings from. Human flesh should always be properly cooked before eating.
Halving the Carcass: The main body is now ready to be split. Some like to saw straight through the spine from buttocks to neck. This leaves the muscle fiber encasing the vertebrae on the end of the ribs. The meat here however is tightly wrapped about the bone, and we find it more suitable (if used at all) when boiled for soup. Thus, our preferred method is to completely remove the entire backbone by cutting and then sawing down either side from the tailbone on through.
Quartering the Carcass: The halves may now be taken down, unless your preparation table or butcher block is very short. This is inadequate, and you will have to quarter while hanging, slicing through the side at a point of your choosing between rib cage and pelvis. Now is also the time to begin thinking about how you would like to serve the flesh, as this will determine the style of cuts you are about to make. These will also be greatly affected by the muscular configuration (physical fitness) of your specimen. First, chop the feet off at a point about three inches up from the ankle. The bones are very thick where the leg connects to the foot. You will want to divide the side of meat into two further principal portions: the ribs and shoulder, and the half-pelvis and leg. In between is the "flank" or belly, which may be used for fillets or steaks, if thick enough, or even bacon strips if you wish to cut this thinly. Thin and wide strips of flesh may also be rolled, and cooked to serve as a roast. Trim away along the edge of the ribs, and then decide whether you will cut steaks from the flank into the thighs and rump, and carve accordingly.
Cutting the Top Quarter: Although not actually 25% of the meat you will get, this is designated as one-fourth of the carcass as divided into major portions. You may trim away the neck, or leave it to be connected with the shoulder, or "chuck". The first major step with this mass is to remove the shoulder blade and the collar bone. The best and easiest way we have found is to just cut along the outline of the shoulder blade, removing the meat on top and then dislocating the large bone. To excise the collar bone make an incision along its length and then cut and pry it away. Depending upon the development of the breast, you may decide it qualifies as a "brisket" and remove it before cutting the ribs. In the female the breast is composed largely of glands and fatty tissue, and despite its appetizing appearance is rather inedible. The ribs are the choice cut of the quarter. An perennial favorite for barbecuing, you may divide into sections of several ribs each and cook them as is, divide the strip in half for shorter ribs, or even carve rib steaks if the muscle mass is sufficient.
Cutting the Lower Quarter: This is where most of the meat is, humans being upright animals. The muscle mass is largest in the legs and rump. The bulk is so comparatively large here that you can do just about anything with it. The main pieces are the buttock or rump and the upper leg, the thigh. Our typical division is to cut the leg off at the bottom of the buttock, then chop away the bony mass of the knee, at places two to three inches away in either direction. Before doing this, however, you may want to remove the whole calf muscle from the back of the lower leg, as this is the best cut in its area. The upper leg is now ready for anything, most especially some beautiful, thick round steaks. The rump will have to be carved from the pelvis in a rather triangular piece. The legs attach at the hip at a forward point on the body, so there will be little interference as you carve along the curve of the pelvis. Remaining meat will be on the thighs in front of the pelvis.
And that's basically it. An average freezer provides plenty of storage space, or you may even wish to build a simple old-fashioned smokehouse (just like an outhouse, with a stone firepit instead of a shitter). Offal and other waste trimmings can be disposed of in a number of ways, burial, animal feed, and puree and flush being just a few. Bones will dry and become brittle after being baked an oven, and can be pulverized.
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New Jersey man throws intestines at cops after repeatedly stabbing himself
HACKENSACK, N.J. – A New Jersey man was in critical condition Wednesday after repeatedly stabbing himself with a 12-inch knife and throwing his intestines at cops.
Wayne Carter, who has a history of psychiatric problems, had barricaded himself inside his Hackensack, N.J., home when the gruesome event took place late Sunday, The Record reported Tuesday.
Police were called to the house after the 43-year-old was spotted cutting himself with the knife.
When they arrived at the scene, Carter refused to drop the weapon and began waving it -- along with a hammer -- at the officers. He then repeatedly stabbed himself in the legs, abdomen and neck.
Hackensack Police Lt. Timothy Lloyd told the Cliffview Pilot, "They tried to talk him down, but they were having no luck. He was slashing at them with the knife."
When he began throwing pieces of skin and intestines at the officers, they called in the Bergen County Police Department's SWAT team, Lloyd said.
By the time they arrived, Carter's intestines were "literally" hanging out of his body, an unnamed police official told the Pilot.
"The scene was a bloody mess," the official said. "The SWAT team members had to be decontaminated due to the amount of blood."
Carter was eventually disarmed after being sprayed with two cans of pepper spray and was rushed to the hospital, where he underwent emergency surgery early Monday.
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In case fit for horror show, hunt continues for suspect in killing, dismemberment
(CNN) -- It's a murder mystery with the makings of a horror film: Authorities hunt a self-proclaimed porn star who they say killed and dismembered a student, mailed the body parts to Canadian police and politicians, and then taunted authorities by posting a video of the grisly act on the Internet.
The manhunt for Luka Rocco Magnotta has captured worldwide attention, and it stretched into its fifth day Monday, with news that the search had moved to France after a number of reported sightings.
Magnotta, 29, dubbed "the Canadian psycho," is believed to have fled to Paris under an assumed name, Montreal Police Cmdr. Ian LaFreniere said. But he also says Magnotta could be anywhere, hiding in plain sight.
Magnotta is wanted on charges of first-degree murder in connection with the killing of 33-year-old Jun Lin, a Concordia University student from China, and threatening, among others, Canada's prime minister after mailing him a severed foot.
The case began last week when a package addressed to Prime Minister Stephen Harper arrived at his majority Conservative Party headquarters, and a hand was later found at a post office addressed to the minority Liberal Party, authorities said.
Authorities quickly traced the address on the packages to the Montreal apartment of Magnotta, where they discovered a torso in a suitcase in a trash bin.
And the crime, Montreal police say, was captured on a graphic video posted to the Web. It features a man -- who authorities believe is Magnotta -- killing another man, dismembering the corpse and performing sexual acts.
"We believe he filmed himself," LaFreniere said last week. "It's gross. ... This is a very deranged person. He is looking for attention, and he got it, but not in a positive way."
Not all the body parts have been recovered, and LaFreniere said forensic evidence and DNA were used to identify the victim as Jun.
Authorities believe Magnotta killed Jun on May 24 or May 25, posted the video, and on May 26 fled the country by plane to Europe, most likely Paris.
That prompted Interpol, the global police agency, to alert authorities in 190 countries.
Over the weekend, police said there were indications that the suspect may have been aboard a flight from Paris back to Montreal. There was no sign of him after a search of the plane, LaFreniere said.
Since the case went public, new details have emerged daily, new chapters in a grisly saga with an alleged culprit that police say is infatuated with self-promotion.
According to Canadian media reports, Magnotta promoted himself as a gay porn star through a graphic website that showcases a chameleon-like quality: the ability to change his appearance. In one picture, with dark hair, he resembles a teenager. In another, with blond hair, he looks rough.
Authorities allege he even changes his names, using the aliases Eric Newman or Vladimir Romanov.
"There are a lot of pictures of him out there, and it will help lead him to us," LaFreniere told reporters over the weekend.
His name may not have been known before this week, but Magnotta's digital footprints were large.
He was notorious among online animal rights activists, who pegged him as a serial kitten killer who used cat carcasses in sexual acts.
A Facebook group started in December 2010 dubbed him the "Vacuum Kitten Killer," after a video was posted on YouTube showing kittens being killed by suffocation and drowning.
Several Canadian newspapers also reported that Magnotta had dated notorious Canadian killer Karla Homolka, who years before was arrested for the rapes and murders of three Ontario girls, including her own sister. As part of a plea bargain, Homolka served 12 years in prison. LaFreniere said he could not confirm any links and Homolka is not part of the investigation.
Now, there are reports that Magnotta threatened to kill as early as six months ago during an encounter with a reporter at the Sun.
The British newspaper implicated Magnotta as a suspect in the videotaped killing of a kitten, which it reports he initially denied.
Then, according to the newspaper, it received an e-mail describing how the writer planned to move on from killing animals to people. The writer, the newspaper reported over the weekend, was Magnotta.
"We're talking about a very strange, unhinged individual," said the Sun's Neil Millard.
"Obviously, we did give those details to the police in this country."
But there was little British authorities could do, with Magnotta back in Canada.
LaFreniere has said police are aware of the animal abuse allegations.
On what appears to be his website, Magnotta defended himself as a victim of cyberstalking.
"Once and for all, I will set the record straight," he wrote. "Many hoax websites are created using my image and name, posing as me to seem more believable in respect to the type of audience these website (sic) have, I feel I don't need to list them specifically but people need not be told, not to believe what they read and to take it as fact."
The website has writing in Arabic and Russian, and shows images of Magnotta half-naked and with his lips in a distinct runway pout.
LaFreniere from the Montreal police expressed confidence that Magnotta will be caught sooner or later -- predicting his desire for attention may be his downfall.
"This man uses the Web to glorify himself, and (authorities) hope this habit will lead to his capture," the police commander said Saturday.
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Good roundup Truth of info on supposed white "role models"..
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