How money made a cannibal killer ‘walk’ free

Issei Sagawa also known as Pang or the Kobe Cannibal, was a Japanese lust murderer, cannibal, and necrophiliac. He was born prematurely into a very wealthy family in Japan. His body, especially his legs, was very thin. He went to Paris to complete his PhD. In 1981, one day while traveling in a taxi, Sagawa threw two suitcases full of human body parts outside. But some people saw this and reported it to the police. The police searched Sagawa’s house and found the remaining pieces of the human body in his fridge.

In a police interview, Sagawa explained that, due to his thin and weak body, he had always been attracted to tall girls since childhood. He used to think that if he would consume their legs, he would grow up to be a normal healthy adult.

This idea first occurred to him in his childhood after observing his mother’s legs. He explains that few days before the horrific murder, he invited a tall lady named Renée Hartevelt (who was studying at his university) to his apartment under the pretext of studying. However, he shot her once she arrived at his flat and proceeded to rape her. After this, he cut off Renée’s legs and consumed them in the hope of growing stronger legs.

After his arrest, the court declared Sagawa mentally ill, leading to his admission to a hospital but with the help of money, his parents secured his release. After leaving the hospital, Sagawa wrote a book about Renée, which became Japan’s best-selling book that year.

Subsequently, he received film offers and invitations to act as a judge in Japan’s biggest food competitions. He became celebrity even after committing a gruesome act. He died from complications of pneumonia at a hospital in Tokyo, on 24 November 2022, at the age of 73.