Isabella Mueller (crime writer) 
A crime that shocked the world because it was so heinous and yet fascinating at the same time took place in 1981 in France’s capital, Paris. It was June 11 when Dutch student Renée Hartevelt was invited to dinner at the apartment of her Japanese classmate, Issei Sagawa. She had no idea that he would kill her in cold blood with a gunshot to the back of the neck, then dismember her body over the course of three days so that he could eat her body parts. For Issei Sagawa was a man-eater obsessed with cannibalism. Sagawa not only ate Renée’s body parts but also molested her mutilated corpse. The very thought of it is enough to make one feel sick. As the remaining body parts began to decompose, Sagawa wanted to dispose of them, so he packed them into two suitcases to sink them in the lake in the Bois de Boulogne park. But Sagawa was caught in the act and arrested by the French police. Issei Sagawa was a small, complex-ridden man, standing only 1.45 meters tall, who viewed himself as a freak of nature. He came from a wealthy family that enabled him to study abroad in Paris. His father provided him with a renowned lawyer. Issei Sagawa waited two years for his trial before French Judge Jean-Louis Brugiére found him not criminally responsible and committed him to a psychiatric institution. He was subsequently deported to Japan and admitted to the Matsuzawa Clinic in Tokyo. Although psychologists deemed him sane, since the charges in France had been dropped, Issei Sagawa was released on August 13, 1985, after 15 months. From then on, he capitalized on his crime and published the novel-like memoir “In the Fog,” in which he described his act in detail. Issei Sagawa exerted a great fascination on people and became a media star, whose crime provided ample material for books and films. On November 24, 2022, at the age of 73, the ruthless cannibal Issei Sagawa died of pneumonia and was subsequently buried in a small private ceremony. Throughout his life, he never had to answer for the murder of Renée Hartevelt, with whom he was secretly in love. He himself once said: “When you fall in love, you really want to kiss her. It’s just the same. I just wanted to taste her.”
