Issei Sagawa, “Cannibal Japanese”, died

While he was a doctoral student in Paris, he had engaged in acts of cannibalism on the body of a student he had killed. Entrusted to a psychiatric establishment, he was expelled in Japan. He died on November 24 at 73.

by Philippe Pons (Tokyo, correspondent)

Issei Sagawa, who killed a Dutch student in Paris on June 11, 1981 and then, after raping her, gave herself to her body to acts of cannibalism, died on November 24 of pneumonia, announced her family . He was 73 years old.

Born April 24, 1949 in Kobé in a wealthy family, Issei Sagawa was a brilliant doctoral student in comparative literature at the University of the Sorbonne-Nouvelle. On the fateful day, he invited to dine in his small apartment of 16 e arrondissement a 24 -year -old Dutch student, Renée Hartevelt. He killed her with a rifle in the neck while she read poems aloud.

After taking pictures of his crime, violated his victim and eaten certain parts of his body, he cut her with the electric saw and kept it three days in his fridge. Then he decided to get rid of it. He placed the remains of the young woman in two big suitcases and was taken by taxi near Lac du Bois de Boulogne.

Seeing this frail silhouette man, pushing a shopping cart that he had found containing huge suitcases, a couple of walker had asked him: “Are these suitcases to you?” Surprised, he flouted and fled . Intervening at the request of the couple of walkers, the police discovered the macabre contents of the suitcases.

“State of dementia”

The testimony of a taxi driver made it possible to identify the culprit. When the police arrived, he did not oppose any resistance and admitted his crime. Incarcerated, it was examined by psychiatrists who concluded that “a homicide without any other motivation than to satisfy a cannibalical drive” committed in “a state of dementia so that criminal responsibility cannot be retained”. And Sagawa was entrusted to a psychiatric establishment. Twice, the family of the victim tried to have the dismissal canceled. The murderer will stay a year and two months at Villejuif hospital.

In Japan, the case aroused emotion and embarrassment as if this affair tarnished the image of the country itself. In France, the press had taken up a lot of clichés on the Japanese and the photo magazine even published photos taken by the murderer – the number was prohibited for sale.

Following negotiations between the French authorities and the father of Issei, powerful industrialist at the time of the facts, the son was finally sent back to Japan on May 21, 1984. French justice considering that “the chances of healing will be better in a family environment “. A decision that aroused anger and indignation of the victim’s family who, again, was not heard. The murderer was first placed in a psychiatric hospital in Tokyo then he recovered his freedom a few months later

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/Media reports cited above.