Other aspects of the trial determined whether Meiwes killed to satisfy his own desires (in particular his sexual desires) or why he was asked to do so. Among the questions, the courts answered whether Brandes agreed to his death and whether he was legally able to do so at the time of the murder, taking into account his apparent mental problems., as well as their significant alcohol intake. They believe he should have been convicted of murder. In April 2005, a German court ordered a retrial after prosecutors appealed Meiwes’ sentence. He believes that there are about 800 cannibals in Germany.
“They should go for treatment, so they don’t get to the point where I got to,” said Meiwes. Sites dedicated to Meiwes appeared, with people claiming to be voluntary victims. He added that he wanted to write a book about his life story in order to dissuade anyone who wants to follow in his footsteps. Meiwes admitted to cannibalizing Brandes and expressed his regret for his actions. The case attracted considerable media attention. On January 30, 2004, Meiwes was convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to eight years in prison. The officers searched Meiwes ‘home and found Brandes’ body parts and the videotape of the murder. Meiwes was arrested in December 2002, when a university student in Innsbruck, Austria, called the police after seeing new victim announcements and details of the murder on the internet. According to prosecutors, Meiwes committed the act for sexual pleasure.Īrrest, trial and conviction for manslaughter Meiwes ate the corpse for the next 10 months, when storing body parts in his freezerunder pizza boxes. The incident was recorded on a four-hour videotape. After long hesitations and prayers, Meiwes killed Brandes by stabbing him in the throat and hung the body on a meat hook. Brandes continued to move in and out of consciousness before finally passing out. Later, Brandes got out of the bath and collapsed, falling unconscious due to the hemorrhage. Meiwes then took Brandes a bath, before reading a Star Trek book, while returning to check on Brandes every 15 minutes, who was bleeding in the bath. According to court officials who saw the video (which has not been made public), Brandes could already be too weak from the loss of blood to eat anything. He then cut the penis into pieces and gave it to the dog. Meiwes fried the penis in a pan with salt, pepper, wine and garlic he then fried it with some Brandes fat, but the organ was too burnt to be consumed.
Brandes apparently tried to eat some of his own raw penis, but failed because it was very difficult and, as he said, “hard to chew”. This did not work and, finally, Meiwes used a knife to remove it. Brandes initially insisted that Meiwes try to bite his penis. Before doing this, however, Brandes swallowed 20 sleeping pills and half a bottle of Schnapps. The two made a videotape when they met on Maat Meiwes’ home in the small town of Rotenburg, where Meiwes was shown amputating Brandes’ penis (with Brandes’ consent) and the two men trying to eat the sexual organ together before Brandes died.
Many other people responded to the ad, but backed down Meiwes did not try to force them to do anything against their will. Meiwes’s post stated that he was “looking for a strong 18 to 30-year-old to be slaughtered and then consumed.” Bernd Jürgen Armando Brandes, an engineer from Berlin, responded to the ad in March 2001. Looking for a willing volunteer, Meiwes posted an ad on The Cannibal Cafe (a blogging site for people with cannibal fetishes ). Because of his actions, Meiwes is also known as “Cannibal of Rotenburg” or Der Metzgermeister (“The Master Butcher”). After Meiwes and the victim together tried to eat the man’s own cut penis, Meiwes killed his victim and started eating a large amount of his flesh. Armin Meiwes ( Rotenburg, December 1, 1961) is a German computer repair technician who achieved international notoriety for killing and eating a volunteer man he had found on the Internet.