Here are 12 cannibals and their gruesome stories:

1. Peter Bryan

Fried his best friend’s brains in butter

Described as a nice man with no friends Peter Bryan was first sent to prison in 1994 for killing an Indian origin shopkeeper – Nisha Sheth. He was later transferred by social workers to an open psychiatric ward in 2004 where he assaulted a 16 year old girl. He later walked out and killed his friend Brian Cherry with a hammer, and later fried his brains in butter, “It was nice,” he said.

2. Jeffrey Dahmer

Tried to create sex slave zombies out of his victims

Also known as the Milwaukee Cannibal, Dahmer has said that his inclination to murder and necrophilia began at the age of 14. His killing spree spanned over 13 years – where he would drug homosexual boys and young men, he would sometimes eat them and stored body parts in his fridge. Sentenced to life imprisonment he was killed by a fellow inmate.

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3. Jose Luis Calva

Chunks of flesh in a frying pan, a leg and arm in the refrigerator, and bones stuffed in a cereal box

The Mexican serial killer has earned himself the title of ‘The Cannibal’ when an investigation into his girlfriend’s disappearance lead to a body in his closet. He is believed to have killed and mutilated two other women. It was the first case of its kind in Mexico. The self-proclaimed writer was working on a book titled ‘The Cannibal Poet’ when he was found hanging in his prison cell.

4. James Douglas

Roasted a servant alive and ate him

This one’s from the history books, James was kept under lock and key from childhood at Queensberry House in Edinburgh, which is now part of the Scottish Parliament. During an instance of disruption at the house, 10 year old Douglas escaped and slaughtered a servant boy and roasted him alive on a revolving spit. He then ate sections of the slow cooked body.

5. Tarrare

Disowned by his parents because he ate everything in the house including the pets

He started in his 20s as an opening act for a charlatan eating corks and stones, his unuasual ability attracted the attention of the government who took him in to conduct experiments. He was known to eat a cats, snakes, lizards and puppies, and at the hospital during treatment to cure his appetite he would sneak out to drink the blood of other patients, and ransacked the corpses in the morgue.

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6. Leonarda Cianciulli

Turned the remains of victims into soap and food

When her oldest son Giuseppe was asked to enlist in the Italian Army, she decided that the only way to keep him safe was to conduct human sacrifices. She planned the murder of three women, used the bodies of her victims to make soap and their blood to make crunchy tea-cakes and is known as ‘The Soap-Maker Of Correggio’

7. Jarno Elg

Took various body parts and used them in Satanic rituals

As a child Elg killed a dog by duct taping it up and beating it with a metal pipe. So it’s not too alarming that in 1998 he strangled a man to death, dissected his body, wrapped his head in duct tape, and ate him with three accomplices. Body parts were then used in a satanic ritual that included torturing the victim while listening to The Cainian Chronicle album by Norwegian black metal band Ancient.

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8. Ed Gein

Gein made a human body suit out of skin so that he ‘could become his mother’

Ed Gein’s impact as a serial killer has inspired classic cultural icons of murder and cannibalism including Buffalo Bob in Silence Of The Lambs and Norman Bates in Psycho. By his rabid interest in cannibalism it is alleged that he is also guilty of eating human parts, although he is a convicted grave robber and would dig up bodies to make trinkets out of the skin and bones of the dead.

9. Alfred Packer

The Colorado Cannibal who killed and ate five of his friends

In the winter of 1873 – 1874 he was trapped in the Colorado Mountains along with five friends of his, Packer survived by eating the ther four. He also eluded the authorities for nine years until he was caught and convicted, 40 years for manslaughter. When he was paroled in 1901 he was allegedly vegetarian.

10. Armin Meiwes

Was caught when he placed an ad on the internet looking for a new victim

The Rotenburg Cannibal as he is known made news when it was reported that he had killed and eaten a man who volunteered. The two met on the internet and Meiwes first cut off the victim’s penis which they tried to eat together. The murder was conducted in a specially prepared slaughter room which he filmed, and ate from the body for 10 months after. He was caught before he could claim his next victim.

11. Ottis Toole

Cooked and ate humans with his home-made barbecue sauce

Toole was an American serial killer, cannibal and arsonist who worked alongside serial killer Henry Lee Lucas. The two met in a soup kitchen in Jacksonville and began a sexual relationship which also meant they accompanied each other on murders, but it was only Toole who confessed to cannibalism and went into great detail about the act.

12. Tsutomu Miyazaki

Burned the bones of his victims, ground them and sent them to the families

Tsutomu was born with deformed hands and was ostracised in school – and from1988 and 1989 he killed four girls between the ages of four and seven. He confessed to having sex with the corpses, eating their flesh and drinking their blood. A polite employee by day he was a psuchopathic killer by night and would send letters to the families of the victims recounting the murders in vivid detail.