The following content contains disturbing accounts of extreme violence and sexual violence. Discretion is advised.
When we hear the word "cannibal," the first thing that comes to mind for many people is the Silence of the Lambs villain, Hannibal Lecter, a serial killer who would eat his victims' organs with a glass of wine. But while Lecter is a fictional character, he is based on several real-life murderers who dined on their victims after a kill.
Cannibals have always existed throughout human history, according to anthropologists: As a cure for overpopulation, a means of survival during a famine, or even a way to contend with grief, nearly every culture has consumed human beings for some reason at one point in time.
But what's not so common are murderers who kill for sport and then devour their victims. Of the estimated 2,000 active serial killers in the United States, between five and 10 are probably cannibals as well, says Dr. Eric Hickey, professor of forensic psychology at Walden University.
Cannibals, says Hickey, are almost never true psychopaths, who have trouble making meaningful connections with other human beings. In general, they tend to develop extreme attachments to people and suffer from neediness and low self-esteem.
"Cannibals tend to feel really insecure and can't have normal relationships," Hickey says. "Eating their victims gives them a sense of power, because their victims can never leave."
Because cannibals can have emotional attachments, their victims' deaths are usually quick, wanting to spare the other person pain. "They're not interested in their victim suffering, like Ted Bundy was. They're not looking for sadism. They simply want access to the body," says Hickey.
What's more, cannibalism is usually a sexual act: "Whenever killers eat other people, they're acting out a fantasy about relationships and intimacy," Hickey says. "They start experimenting with sexual fantasies about voyeurism and necrophilia, and as they're fantasizing they explore that behavior. You don't usually see people jump from killing to eating. It starts with watching people sleep, then drugging victims, then you want to be with someone who's buried or unconscious—and it progresses from there."
Here are six killers who stalked, murdered and eventually consumed their victims.
Jeffrey Dahmer
Jeffrey Dahmer's crimes were so heinous they made headlines around the world. For more than a decade, Dahmer lured men to his apartment with the promise of sex or money and drugged his victims before dismembering them. When police raided his apartment in July 1991, they found various body parts from his 17 victims, such as severed heads, arms and torsos, stored in his freezer. Dahmer later admitted to eating the thighs, hearts and organs of many of his victims.
