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Cannibalism: Disturbing, Gory—Strangely Common

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cannibal thread

someone was asking about a cannibal story...i think it was this one from Cornwall......

Falmouth 1884 SS Montezuma arrives with Capt. Tom Dudley mate Edwin Stephens Hand Edmond Brooks picked up from a lifeboat 1,600 miles from land in the South pacific... Sailed in the Mignonette a yacht built on the Thames for an Australian to explore Great Barrier Reef. At Southampton they picked up the cabin boy RICHARD PARKER (17) July 5th swamped by giant wave in Pacific took 5 mins to sink and they got away in a small boat with few supplies. Richard started to drink seawater and was in a bad way and after considering drawing lots to see whom they would eat they decided on poor Richard. They cut his throat and drank the blood from a bailer and eat him raw...29th July picked up by Motezuma They were arrested for Murder and sentenced to death (there being no other sentence for murder). A plea of Necessity was applicable only of the victim consented (Reportedly Richard said...”What me sir...no don’t”.....On Appeal a plea of “duress of circumstance” was entered successfully and they wee sentenced to six months hard labour.... a memorial stone to Richard stands in Peartree Churchyard, Southampton.

The recovered lifeboat was sold to a noted ‘Curiosity Shop’ in Falmouth who traded in returning sailors knickknacks including parrots. Monkeys even supposedly a Jaguar once. They sold it in little pieces to goulish ‘tourists’....
 
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Is cannibalism legal in the UK?

Okay, apologies for the dodgy thread title.

Ages ago, I remember watching or reading that cannibalism isn't actually illegal in the UK. Presumably, that sort of thing is taken care of by making it illegal to kill someone in the first place, or to not report finding a dead body. Anyway, I told someone this (it won me an argument, after all!), and I'm now desparately trying to find some evidence to back it up... Can anybody out there help?

Ooh, and given that I bite my fingernails, I shouldn't report myself to the police on a technicality, should I?

Thanks,

Pete.
 
Nice thread Octopus - I was just eating my lunch! :)

As far as I understand it, caniballism refers to the eating of another person's flesh (presumably without their permission!), so biting your nails, sucking a cut finger etc doesn't count.

There are certainly cases of women eating the placenta of their newborn baby, but again this isn't caniballism and in any case isn't limited to the UK.

So, I'd have to say that no, caniballism isn't legal and (almost certainly) never have been.

Next....

Jane.
 
I'm glad I don't have to down the local nick and present my fingernails to the local constabulary...

I opened this one up on the newsgroups at work, and someone replied with this:

"As I was told a while ago, cannibalism used to be on the statute books as being illegal - but had to be taken off during one of those sea-battle things that happened in the past. Too many sailors got stranded with only their compatriots to eat to prosecute all of them. I think only those who had eaten superior officers were prosecuted.."

And when I was doing a bit of Googling, trying to find web resources, there was a reference to a book that, looking back with hindsight, probably referred to the events described above.

I'll do some more investigation and see what shakes...

Pete.
 
On a similar theme:
Maybe I'm just being naive and this website is a joke but has anybody been here?
http://www.manbeef.com

LOL I'm not sure if they're serious or not, but they sell human steaks from corpses that have been donated.

As to if it's legal or not in the UK I'm not sure, sorry I couldn't help with that part.

:monster:
 
Yay, good old manbeef. It is a joke site, you'll be pleased to know. :)

But, hands up now people....
if...
...your airplane had crashed in the mountains
...or your ship been sunk by a large whale
...and the provisions were gone
...and it was do or die time
Would you????
 
Cannibalism is very much illegal, however if in the situation where I am starving, and would die without feasting on my unfortunate companions' bodies, I would eat them without regret - if the tables were turned and I died, I wouldn't mind if I was eaten to help others live.

Let's hope I wouldn't get the taste for it, like a nice, cold pint of stella on a hot summers day. "Let's just have the one *glug*, perhaps two *glug*", etc, .etc ;)
 
As far as I'm aware, cannabilism isn't a crime unless you go around harvesting your own fresh meat. So if your plane crashes and you eat the dead, that's okay. If you draw lots and kill each other to eat, that's not, it's murder.

In a bizarre case of synchronicity, this has recently been discussed on a mailing list I'm on. The recommended reading is Cannibalism and the Common Law by A W Brian Simpson. Try looking up the case of the ship 'Mignonette'.
 
What are we saying?

Are we saying that if person X murders somebody, then person Y eats them, person Y isn't guilty of anything?

It would be a conveniant way of disposing of the bodies.
 
I wonder if any of this can be tied up with the fact that no-one can 'own' a dead body. In theory you could go obtain one and take it home. It still wouldn't belong to you, but as it belongs to no-one else, you should be able to keep it. The problem comes in obtaining the stiff; probably the only legal way is if it is willed to you by the previous occupant.
 
Re: What are we saying?

Red Dalek said:
Are we saying that if person X murders somebody, then person Y eats them, person Y isn't guilty of anything?

An accessory after the fact, perhaps? I'm not entirely sure about the law on cannibalism, but I'm pretty sure that necrophilia is actually not a crime, oddly enough, as you can't assault a dead person. I think the family can go through the civil courts for tampering with property or something, but the act itself is not a crime.
 
Sounds a bit like the old body snatching dilema Helen, where the act of taking the body wasn't a crime as no one could own another's body, the resurrectionists were therefore, careful to leave the shroud etc behind.

I think this rule may still apply. As there was a body stolen from a mortury about twenty years ago & there were claims that it would be hard to prosecute those involved if they were found.

I don't know what did happen in this last case, as like all good news items, there was never a follow up item!!!
 
Helen said:
In a bizarre case of synchronicity, this has recently been discussed on a mailing list I'm on. The recommended reading is Cannibalism and the Common Law by A W Brian Simpson. Try looking up the case of the ship 'Mignonette'.
The Mignonette survivors were initially tried downhere, in Falmouth.

But another syn. is that cannibalism also cropped up in the recent TV programme about the origins of the Moby Dick novel (C4, Monday)
 
I posted something about the 'one can't own the dead body of another human being' bit, but it seems to have got lost. (maybe this should be in the 'board behaviour' thread. Sorry.
 
I watched that Moby dick documentary. Quite fascinating, especially the bit where the nantucketers were more concerned about the Mate revealing the *secret* of cannibalism in his book.
 
Sorry Lard, I now find that I posted an almost identical message after your one.

I still don't know if I just missed you'r message, or if it was in hiding somewhere!!!!!!!
 
Jon was too modest to mention that he started a discussion on the Richard Parker story before, on this page!

The fascinating thing is the link to the E.A.Poe story, written years before the shipwreck.... :eek!!!!:

(Another problem for the Search facility, Poe being only 3 letters, like UFO, NDE, etc!)
 
Human lard

From Eric Schlosser, (2001), Fast Food Nation, Penguin, London, p152:

The working conditions in these meatpacking plants were brutal. In The Jungle (1906) Upton Sinclair described a litany of horrors: severe back and shoulder injuries, lacerations, amputations, exposure to dangerous chemicals, and memorably, a workplace accident in which a man fell into a vat and got turned into lard. The plant kept running, and the lard was sold to unsuspecting customers.

How common is unwitting cannibalism? I can remember there being quite a few in FT over the years, but the details escape me at the minute. Or is it all based well in UL-land?
 
There was one in Richmond (Surrey), in the 19th century IIRC, where a maid killed her employer and made dripping from her and gave it to the unsuspecting neighbours. :cross eye
 
Sprout has reminded me of a tale told as fact that I read as a nipper. It was in a small European town somewhere a couple of centuries ago perhaps.
Anyway, the local butcher was receiving commendations of the excellent ham that he served, gaining plaudits and converts throughout the town. However something ultimately drew the attention of the authorities, and within the abbatoir found the true source of the renowned meat.....

Can anyone fill in the details?
 
From mayhem.net:

Georg Karl Grossmann: Another post-WWI-German degenerate that made a living selling human flesh. Georg, a horrifying individual, was acquainted with every kind of perversion, even bestiality. A former butcher, after nights of heavy drinking, he would bring prostitutes home, have sex with them, and hack them into pieces. The next day he would peddle their flesh as beef or pork. He was arrested in August, 1921, when his landlord summoned the police to his door following a loud altercation. Inside his pad they found a freshly butchered lass ready to be chopped up. They also found evidence of at least three other divvied up girls. The mad butcher laughed when he was given the death sentence and proceeded to hang himself in jail.

Fritz Haarmann: Haarmann stalked the train stations of post-WWI Hannover searching for young boys. He enjoyed biting his prey to death and making sausages with their remains. Always the enterprising killer, he sold the meat and clothing of his victims in the local black markets.


Ed Gein would give his neighbor gifts of "venison," even though he had never shot a deer in his life.
 
Dark Detective said:
However something ultimately drew the attention of the authorities, and within the abbatoir found the true source of the renowned meat.....

The special stuff?
 
I was thinking that as I typed :D

Ogo - sounds like a similar story though one of the few details I'm sure about was that this was a couple of centuries ago. Maybe this is a recurring thing - "When good butchers go bad." :eek:
 
it's stories like these, that make me glad im a veggie!:D
 
Ogopogo said:
You're not thinking of Sweeney Todd, are you?
Nope. Definitely a butcher. And it was in a large phone-book sized tome called "The Book of Fantastic Facts!" or similar when I was a kid.
 
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