A cannibal has never died in Japan

He never hid his crime: now Japanese cannibal Issei Sagawa is dead. The murderer was buried in a small circle.

Famed Japanese cannibal Issei Sagawa has died Nov. 24 of pneumonia, his brother and friend said in a statement released by his book publisher. The killer, known only from his memoirs, interviews and a documentary, was buried in a small circle. Sagawa is 73 years old.

Sagawa shot and raped a Dutch student in her home while studying abroad in Paris in 1981 and ate her parts over three days. When he tried to dispose of her remains in the Bois de Boulogne park, he was arrested.

Experts considered Sagawa mentally retarded, so he was placed in a psychiatric hospital in France before being deported to Japan. Japanese authorities believed he was sane, but charges were dropped in France, and Sagawa was released.

The Japanese never made a secret of his crime – he capitalized on it: in his novel-like memoir (English title: “In the Fog”) he describes the act in detail. He once told “Vice” media that he was “obsessed with cannibals.” “My desire to eat a woman has become a duty.”