December 10, 2003
German Cannibal describes `mercy killing'
"Slice the thing off now."
After placing his penis on a kitchen table, computer expert Bernd-Jergen Brandes issued that unthinkable command to German cannibal Armin Meiwes.
A home video made by Meiwes, 42, detailed the sickening events that followed on March 10, 2001
The cannibal chopped at the organ, but failed to sever it.
Writhing in pain, Brandes, 43, demanded that Meiwes get a sharper knife.
He did - and completed the unspeakable act.
Meiwes bandaged the wound with towels and Brandes sat upright in a chair, his eyes glazed over.
Meiwes began cooking the severed penis - sautéing it with garlic, salt and pepper.
Brandes had his rare.
"We had agreed to eat it half and half, but he was getting faint and couldn't wait for his half to be cooked through," the cannibal said. "So he tried to eat it more or less raw and of course, it was too tough. He was furious."
Meiwes then led Brandes upstairs to a first-floor bathroom in his half-timbered home near Kassel in central Germany, leaving him to "bleed out" in a bath.
As Brandes' final hours ticked down, the cannibal watched one of the many Disney movies he owns.
Brandes managed to recover some strength.
"He got out and said, 'If I survive until the morning, let's have my testicles for breakfast,' " Meiwes said.
The computer expert did not survive until morning.
Ten hours after Brandes' manhood was cut off, Meiwes laid him out on a bench in "the butchery," a cold and sinister room - painted red and black.
Then he repeatedly plunged a knife into Brandes' throat.
The final scene shows Meiwes cradling his victim's head and saying, "Forgive me."
The video, 4 1/2 hours long, was edited down to 90 minutes before being shown at Meiwes murder trial in Kassel, which is expected to continue until at least mid-January.
Meiwes, a computer technician and former soldier, admits killing Brandes, a computer software expert from Berlin.
But he insists that Brandes, who answered his Internet ad for a victim, wanted to be eaten and die.
Prosecutors claim the killing was sexually motivated and Meiwes exploited a mental disorder that left Brandes with a death wish.
On the witness stand, Meiwes said he decapitated and dismembered Brandes' body and stored the parts in a freezer.
Then - during a long summer of barbecues - he aate 66 pounds of Brandes.
Saying he was "internalizing" a loving friend, he described it as almost a religious event.
"On the night of the killing, I had the hope that part of his body would become part of mine," he said. "It was like Holy Communion."
Finally, his supply of meat began to run out and he started searching the Internet for another victim.
"I hope I will soon find another victim. The flesh is almost all gone," he said in an e-mail to a friend.
Explaining the e-mail in court, he said, "It was still my wish to slaughter a human - in other words, to dissect a body."
Meiwes said he intended to share Brandes' remains with his next victim before killing him.
But he never got that far. He was arrested a year ago.
Meiwes said Brandes "disappointed me in many ways."
He said the computer expert lied about his age, claiming to be 36, and did not want to get to know the cannibal better before his death.
Meiwes insisted Brandes was a willing participant in his killing.
"I saw the killing as helping him, helping him to die, helping him to kill himself," he said. "He knew he could have stopped at any time, but he didn't. He wanted to die and to be eaten. He told me he had the desire to be slaughtered and eaten since he was a child. He was very intelligent and I didn't see any sign he was disturbed."
Still, Meiwes said, the slaying was "the most terrible moment in my life, far worse than I had imagined in my fantasies." He wished he had seen a psychologist about his cannibal fantasies, he said, because "things wouldn't have gone so far."
Meiwes said he met Brandes on the Internet after placing an ad that read, "If you are 18 to 25, you are my boy. Come to me, I'll eat your delicious flesh."
He said he received 400 replies and chose Brandes after a long e-mail relationship. Recipes found in his home included "penis in red wine" and "breaded young man's liver."
Meiwes faces life in jail if convicted.
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SUMMARY: The man who killed and ate a willing lover he met on the Internet has been found guilty of manslaughter by a German court.
The man who killed and ate a willing lover he met on the Internet has been found guilty of manslaughter by a German court.
Armin Meiwes, 42, was sentenced to eight years and six months in prison by the Kessel court, although he may be let free earlier for good behavior. Prosecutors, who sought a life sentence, said they would appeal.
He claimed earlier this week that he has no intention of repeating his actions, which saw him advertise for a man willing to take part in the bizarre events for a sexual kick. Bernd Juergen Brandes had responded to the advert, and after an initial interview, agreed to be take part.
Brandes then made out a will and returned to Meiwes' home, where he was mutilated and filmed. He was then killed by Meiwes, and his body parts were frozen for later consumption.
Because cannibalism does not exist on the German law books, Meiwes was charged with "disturbing the dead" and "murder for sexual satisfaction." His defense team was pushing for a verdict of illegal euthanasia, which carries a sentence of between six months and five years imprisonment.
The decision may come as a surprise to some, after a leading psychiatrist said last week that Meiwes could well commit the acts again.
Although he was fit to stand trial, the psychiatrist claimed Meiwes had a schizoid personality and had committed the crime to satisfy a deep yearning to eat men, something that first appeared as a boy.
The case has transfixed the German and international media, with film companies already keen to ink a deal for Meiwes' memoirs, currently in the process of being written.
