Peter Haining - The Flesh Eaters

[dem bones]

Peter Haining - The Flesh Eaters: True Stories of Cannibals and Blood Drinkers (Boxtree, 1994)

Introduction: When Man Eats Man

The Legend of Ethne the Dread
The Rough Grey Dog-man
The Monster of East Lothian
The Madness of Christie O' the Cleek
The Man-Eater of Clovelly
The Man Who Was Bluebeard
The Werewolf of Dole
The Bloody Countess
The Cannibal Troops
The Witches' Pie
The Flesh Shops of Brazil
The Edinburgh Body-snatcher
The Demon Barber of Paris
The Loathesome Appetite of Antoine Langulet
The Gold-rush Cannibals
Eliza Fraser and the Fatal Shore
'The Custom of the Sea'
The Bread and Butter Brides
The White Cannibal of New York
The Dusseldorf Monster
The Vampire Murderer
The Psycho-killer
The Cannibal of the Bois de Bolougne
Tales of Two-legged Mutton

Blurb:
When Man Eats Man

Cannibalism holds a macabre fascination over most people and it is usually associated with the lonely islands of the Pacific and the impenetrable jungles of Africa. For centuries explorers have brought back tales of tribes who delighted in eating human flesh. They also told horrifying stories about men and women being roasted alive, and of witnessing human limbs cut off and cooked and eaten in front of suffering victims.

In fact such practices are also far from being unusual in the 'civilised' areas of the world: in Britain and Europe, North and South America, Australasia, China and Japan, In this gruesome and enthralling book the facts about cannibalism and blood drinking in these areas are explored, from historical times to the present day. Subjects range from the grisly Monster of East Lothian to the Vampire Killer of Dusseldorf, from the Cannibals of Peak County to the human flesh shops of Brazil, and from Aboriginal sacrifice customs to the extraordinary story of the Japanese student accused of eating his girlfriend.

This fascinating book also contains accounts of cannibalism at sea, the eating of human flesh by witches and warlocks, and the obsession for blood by real life vampires ....

Unlike The Black Magic Killers there is little doubt who wrote this one, which is, essentially, Peter's very own The Terrific Register. Despite inclusion of highly contentious material, The Flesh Eaters is offered as 'non-fiction,' so fellow fans of his The Mystery and Horrible Murders of Sweeney Todd and The Legend and Bizarre Crimes of Spring-heeled Jack will know what to expect. We sure don't wait long to get it.

"Just recently we have had that intrepid explorer Colonel John Blashford-Snell expounding his belief that Colonel H P Fawcett who disappeared in the Amazon jungle in 1925 was eaten by cannibals. And if support was needed for the view that the practice continues in that part of South America, this emerged only a couple of years ago in the form of a documentary movie shown in Italy and Spain, Cannibal Holocaust, which featured the gruesome tale of four journalists captured and eaten by the fearsome Shatamari cannibals living in a remote area of the Orinoco basin."

- From the Introduction, When Man Eats Man

It is perhaps as well that the essay continues; "This book, however, is not intended either as an argument for or against the reality of cannibalism, or even a history of the subject, but rather as a casebook of some of the more notorious flesh-eaters in what we like to think of as the 'civilised' parts of the world."

The Legend of Ethne the Dread: North Wales, Third Century. Britain's first recorded cannibal. On learning from a druid that his newborn daughter is destined to lead the tribe home to Ireland to reclaim their land, Crimthaud orders that every family with over two sons must surrender the youngest for Ethne to eat. The warrior princess duly develops a voracious appetite for human flesh (Haining suggests it unlikely Ethne ate a single vegetable in her short life). There are two versions as to how Ethne met her end, aged twenty. Either she died on the battlefield, or choked on a bone while gnawing a child's severed arm.

The Rough Grey Dog-man: While Arthur of the Britons was doing his thing, Gwrgi 'Dog-man' Garwlwyd led a degenerate tribe of traitors who, having feasted on human flesh at the court of Edelfled, the Saxon king, henceforth restricted their diet of roasted Welshman. Edelfled himself "required every night two noble maidens of the nation of the Cymri and violated them. The following morning he slew them and ate them."

The Monster of East Lothian: The grisly exploits of Scotland's first - and best - cannibal superstars; the immortal Sawney Beane clan, scourge of the Ayrshire coast. The gist is that during a reign of terror spanning twenty-five years, Sawney (nee Alexander, or 'Sandy') and clan reputedly robbed, murdered and ate a staggering one thousand men, women and children. Here Haining favours the Captain Alexander Smith account (aka the "privvy member" version) of 1719, spiced with extracts from S. R. Crockett's lesser-known late Victorian novel, The Grey Man.

The Madness of Christie O' the Cleek: A fifteenth century Beane Clan tribute act, operating from out of a secret cave at St. Vigeans, Christie made use of a hooked axe on a long pole to unseat unwary travelers from their horses. It is estimated he and family - including a one-year-old baby - murdered and devoured at least fifty people. He died a raving lunatic as a direct consequence of his diet.

The Man-Eater of Clovelly: Imitation may be the sincerest form of flattery, but John Gregg/ Grieg/ Grieff and family were not so much a Stars in their Eyes-style appreciation of the Beane's but a wholesale rip-off. That said, the author claims there is perhaps enough circumstantial evidence to suggest the legend of the Exeter meat-monster may have some basis in fact.

[Dr Strange]

This seems to have been reissued as Cannibal Killers by Magpie at around the same time as they put out Black Magic Killers, so some mix-up at the printers might explain how Haining's name appeared on the latter. Maybe there are also some copies of this out there that ended up with Nigel Cawthorne's name on them!

[dem bones]

Aug 29, 2020 10:45:54 GMT Dr Strange said:

This seems to have been reissued as Cannibal Killers by Magpie at around the same time as they put out Black Magic Killers, so some mix-up at the printers might explain how Haining's name appeared on the latter. Maybe there are also some copies of this out there that ended up with Nigel Cawthorne's name on them!

According to the blurb, Cannibal Killers (Magpie, 2005) is "Fully revised and updated .... a comprehensive study of the terrible phenomenon of the human flesh eater." Having checked a copy via Archive org, can confirm it adds five stories to the original The Flesh Eaters, dropping the illustrations.

The Man who made Zombies
The Ripper of Rostov
Satan's Disciples
The Internet Cannibal
The Real Hannibal Lecter?

[dem bones]

The Man Who Was Bluebeard: Nantes, October 25th 1440. The marathon trial of Gilles de Rais, Baron Marshall of France, national hero, once comrade-in-arms of St. Joan D'Arc, concludes with the judge passing the death sentence. Having originally submitted a plea of 'not guilty,' the baron changed his mind under torture, thereafter "voluntarily and freely" admitting to alchemy, heresy, sodomy, mass murder, paedophilia, human sacrifice, vampirism, cannibalism, trafficking with demons ...

He duly perished in flames the following day.

The Werewolf of Dole: France 1574. Vigilantes hunt down a werewolf which has been preying upon their children for the past twelve months. Admitting his guilt, Gilles Garnier, "disreputable outcast" and child-eating monster, is burnt at the stake.

The Bloody Countess: Carpathian Mountains, January 1611. The stuff that Hammer films are made of. King Matthias instructs that Elizabeth Báthory, being of noble blood, be spared execution but confined to a small room in Csjethe Castle for the rest of her days - an extraordinarily lenient sentence for a mass-murdering torture fiend, vampire and cannibal!

The Cannibal Troops: Alleged exploits of Sir Thomas 'Bloodybones' Lunsford, feaster on plump children, and his Royalist troop, 'the Babe Eaters,' during the English Civil War, 1642-7. As with every other entry in the book, entire 'legend' possibly fabricated for some political purpose or another.

The Witches' Pie: Briefly examines the alleged association of Black Magic, Witchcraft and cannibalism down the centuries. References the Epping Forest 'Satanic Child Abuse' case of 1991 - the trial collapsed when the prosecution council admitted to serious doubts concerning the 'confessions' of his two main witnesses. Quotes Maureen Davis of the Reachout Trust, indulging her inner Dennis Wheatley to harmful effect.

[dem bones]

The Flesh Shops of Brazil: Joao Floreal's kitchen nightmares. Ghoulish recipes on a budget for those whose whose tastes favour the "goat without horns."

The Edinburgh Body-snatcher: On seeing the title I honestly thought Mr. H. had embroidered the dark exploits of Burke & Hare to include a cannibalism angle, but even Peter's inspired audacity had it's limits - or maybe not! Chapter concerns the crimes of Nichol Brown, the wife-eater of Leigh. According to the author, the man was a vicious drunk of such revolting culinary habits, even "fellow" resurrection men wanted nothing to do with him. Brown, who claimed no court could convict him as he'd eaten the evidence, was hanged in chains on August 14, 1754. His Newgate Calendar entry makes no mention of body-snatching.

The Demon Barber of Paris: The fiend of St. Marcel, aka Becque, the perruquier of the Rue de la Harpe, whose shop sat next door to that of a pastry cook renowned for her 'savoury patties.' Former Minister of Police, Joseph Fouché's account in Archives de la Police (1816) quite probably inspired the legend of Sweeney Todd, though Haining argues it is the other way around!

The Loathesome Appetite of Antoine Langulet: "Animal substances in the highest state of putrefaction and even the human body itself were regarded by Langulet as very delicate morceaux."

The tomb is my larder. A slum-child abandoned in the streets where now stands the Paris Opera, turns to raiding the local cemetery for his meals. He is committed to an asylum in 1825 for partially eating a dead prostitute in the street (it seems she was already that way when he found her).

[dem bones]

The Gold-rush Cannibals: "if we have to die, let us die decently; or let us cast lots to see which of us shall die to feed the rest". Pikes Peak, Colorado, 1859. Starvation drives novice gold-seeker Daniel Blue to eat the bodies of three dead colleagues, two his own brothers, before rescue by an Arapaho.

Thanks to the efforts of Jayne Sweger, Blue's harrowing account of the disastrous expedition can be read here: A Thrilling Narrative of the Adventures, Suffering & Starvation of Pike's Peak Gold Seekers on the Plains of the West.

Eliza Fraser and the Fatal Shore: "For a time it was said Eliza even exhibited herself in Hyde Park in a booth which was decorated with a large picture of some savages busy cutting up and eating the corpses of a number of white men and women roasting over a huge fire. Underneath was the sign. 'The Stirling Castle, wrecked off the coast of Botany Bay all killed and eaten by savages. Only survivor a woman - to be seen for 6d admission."

Devoured Down Under. Eliza Fraser - the one who got away. Also, Man-eating among the Aborigines; and fugitive eat fugitive - the extreme bush-tucker trial of Alexander Pierce, much-escaped, unashamedly carnivorous convict.

'The Custom of the Sea': "Stephens, the mate, dragged himself forward with the two empty vegetable tins, and the life-blood of Parker was caught as it ran, the men drinking in turns as each vessel filled. Even Brooks could not resist the temptation of the dreadful draught, hot and red from the flowing veins, but drank with the rest till their faces were all bedabbled and smeared, and they looked like vampires at their unholy orgy."

The lonely reaches of the Atlantic Ocean, a thousand-plus miles from the Cape of Good Hope, September 1884. Adrift in a lifeboat, starving and dehydrated, Captain Dudley, late of The Mignonette, dispensed with the traditional drawing-of-lots formalities to announce that Richard Parker, the cabin boy must die that the others - first mate Ned Stephens, seaman Edward Spencer, and himself - may live. He slit the young 'uns throat with a pen-knife.

Over four days, the trio sliced strips from their murdered shipmate's carcass to eat raw. And then - deliverance! They were picked up by a German merchantman, The Montezuma, and carried home to Falmouth. Freely admitting what they'd done, Dudley, Stephens and Spencer stood trial for murder at the Cornwall Winter Assizes in November 1884. Dudley and Stephens were condemned to death, but, in view of the extenuating circumstances, sentence was commuted to six months imprisonment. Spencer, who had petitioned for the boy's life, was set free.

The Bread and Butter Brides: During the Great War, Georg Karl Grossman was Berlin's go-to man for the plump and juicy sausage. A portly man with a terrible twitch, Grossman daily set up his hot-dog stall outside the Silesian Railway Terminus, There he made it his business to befriend plump and juicy female arrivals to the city ....

[Dr Strange]

Aug 31, 2020 14:15:46 GMT dem bones said:

Devoured Down Under... the extreme bush-tucker trial of Alexander Pierce, much-escaped, unashamedly carnivorous convict.

The Drones - Words From The Executioner To Alexander Pearce

Tell me how do we taste?
It's a curious place, a mountain
To resort to customs of the sea

[Jojo Lapin X]

Custom of the sea? Really?

[dem bones]

I tend to give true crime fiction a miss as not my thing, and, for much of The Flesh Eaters, it's felt like business as usual; the entries read like self-contained chapters from rediscovered Penny Dreadfuls.

The White Cannibal of New York: Sometime during the 'thirties (?), with the help of unidentified friends, William "Dead Men working in the Cane Field" Seabrook finally achieved a morbid ambition to dine on man-steak. He records the experience in meticulous detail. 'Like veal, but better' is the verdict. "... the 'long pig' legend, repeated in a thousand stories and recopied in a hundred books, [is] totally, completely false."

The Dusseldorf Monster: Factory worker and TRADE UNIONIST, Peter Kurten, prolific murderer of women and children, sadist, all round pervert and vampire. Didn't eat anyone so it could be argued he's here under false pretences. Sentenced to the death penalty in 1931, much to his excitement. "Shall I hear, if only for a moment, my own blood gush and spout into the basket as I die. That would be the most exquisite, intense pleasure of all." It's the quiet ones you have to watch.

The Vampire Murderer: John George Haigh, the vampire choirboy, murdered at least nine people over Crawley way, dissolved their remains in drums of sulphuric acid. Didn't eat anyone and some reader may question if self-confessed blood-drinking was possibly an invention to strengthen his 'insanity' defence? It didn't work. Much to his displeasure, Gentleman George, went to the gallows in 1949. No luxury holiday in Broadmoor at the taxpayers expense for you, Sonny Jim!

[dem bones]

The Psycho-killer: Ed Gein, the Plainsfield farmer whose eccentricities famously inspired Psycho, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Deranged, etc. Murderer, grave-robber, cannibal, blood-drinker, wearer of human skins, performer of "insane transvestite rituals", reader of pulp magazines - a true all-rounder, worse even than J. Savile; almost. Contrary to popular belief, Ed drew the line at necrophilia because "the corpses smelled too bad."

The Cannibal of the Bois de Bolougne: On June 15th, 1981, Issei Sagawa, a chronically shy, 31 year-old student at the Surbonne, finally persuaded his almost-friend, Renee Hartevelt, to visit his flat. What happened next is not clear, but it seems Issei suggested they marry - whereupon Renee made the fatal mistake of laughing. He chopped her in pieces, stuffed most of the bloody pieces into two suitcases, and dined on the rest. Extradited home to Japan after serving only two years in a secure psychiatric hospital, "The Cannibal of the Bois de Bolougne" was released shortly afterward to achieve national celebrity as a film actor and food critic for Spa magazine.

Tales of Two-legged Mutton: The tradition in China from 206 B.C. to (then) present day. Book ends on ominous note - a visit to a wet market, or something very like one.

At the outset I had no intention of anything other than a cursory dip into The Flesh Eaters for form's sake. Would not have been disappointed had the book ended with 'The Custom of the Sea' rather than continue into the 20th Century, but even the modern entries somehow retain that Terrific Register feel.

[andydecker]

I have to say it sounds like a really good compilation. It is not a topic I am wildly interested in, but you make it sound really interesting.