Issei Sagawa
| Issei Sagawa | |
|---|---|
| Born |
April 26, 1949 Kobe, Hyōgo Prefecture, Japan |
| Residence | Tokyo, Japan |
| Nationality | Japanese |
| Occupation | Public speaker, commentator, actor, writer |
| Height | 1.5 m (4 ft 9 in) |
| Criminal charge | Attempted rape (Japan) Murder, cannibalism (France) |
| Criminal status | Unfit to trial by reason of insanity |
| Victims | 1 |
| Date | June 11, 1981 |
| Location | Paris, France |
| Weapon | Hunting Rifle |
Issei Sagawa (佐川 一政 Sagawa Issei?, born April 26, 1949) also known as Pang, is a Japanese author and reviewer who in 1981, while in Paris, murdered and cannibalized a Dutch woman named Renée Hartevelt. After his release, he became a minor celebrity in Japan and made a living through the public's interest in his crime.
Sagawa was born in Kobe, Hyōgo Prefecture, Japan, to wealthy parents. He was born prematurely, reportedly small enough to fit in the palm of his father's hand, and was immediately afflicted with enteritis, a disease of the small intestine. He eventually recovered after several injections of potassium and calcium in saline.
Sagawa first experienced cannibalistic desires while in the first grade, after seeing a male's thigh. In a 2011 interview with Vice, Sagawa reported that as a youth he partook in bestiality with his dog and experienced cannibalistic desires for women.
At 23, in Tokyo, Sagawa followed a tall German woman home, then broke into her apartment while she was sleeping with intent to cannibalize her by tearing and walking away with a small part of her flesh. She awoke and, Sagawa claims, pushed him to the ground. He was captured by police and charged with attempted rape. He did not confess his true intentions to authorities.
In 1977, at the age of 28, Sagawa emigrated to France to pursue a Ph.D. in literature at the Sorbonne in Paris. He claims that while residing in Paris, "Almost every night I would bring a prostitute home and then try to shoot them, but for some reason my fingers froze up and I couldn't pull the trigger."
On June 11, 1981, Sagawa, then 32, invited his Sorbonne classmate Renée Hartevelt to dinner at his apartment under the pretext of translating poetry for a school assignment. He planned to kill and eat her, having selected her for her health and beauty; characteristics he believed he lacked. He describes himself as weak, ugly, and small (he is 1.52 m (5 ft) tall) and claims he wanted to absorb her energy. She was 25 years old and 1.78 m (5 ft 10 in). After she arrived, she began reading poetry at a desk with her back to him. He shot her in the neck with a rifle. Sagawa said he fainted after the shock of shooting her, but awoke with the realization that he had to carry out his plan. He raped her corpse but was unable to bite into her skin, so he left the apartment and purchased a butcher knife. For two days, Sagawa ate various parts of her body, saving other parts in his refrigerator. He then attempted to dump her body in a lake in the Bois de Boulogne, but was seen in the act and arrested by French police. When he was caught, he was carrying two suitcases. Those suitcases contained the dismembered body parts of Renée Hartevelt.
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