List of autocannibalism incidents

Cannibalism is the act of consuming another individual of the same species as food. Autocannibalism is the practice of (partially) eating oneself, also called self-cannibalism or autosarcophagy. Several incidents of autocannibalism have been documented in the medical and historical record.

Incidents

This is a dynamic list and may never be able to satisfy particular standards for completeness. You can help by adding missing items with reliable sources.

• Elizabeth Báthory allegedly forced some of her servants to eat their own flesh in the early 17th century. ^[1]
• In 1934, a lynch mob tortured and murdered Claude Neal, a 23-year-old African-American farmhand accused of murder in Jackson County, Florida. Before killing him, they cut off his penis and testicles, stuffing them into his mouth and forcing him to eat them. ^[2]
• There are eyewitness accounts of cannibalism during the Siege of Leningrad (1941–1944), including reports of people cutting off and eating their own flesh. ^[3]
• In the 1990s, a number of young people in Uganda were forced to eat their own ears upon return after having travelled to Sudan for consecration. ^[4]
• During the violence that followed the 1991 Haitian coup d'état, victims sometimes had to eat their own hacked-off body parts. ^[5]
• In 2009 in New Zealand, a 28-year-old man nicknamed "Mr X" amputated his little finger with a jigsaw, cooked it in a pan around vegetables and ate it. Apparently, the act was not brought on by drugs consumption or drinking problems. The man had a personal crisis in 2008 and, while suffering from insomnia and suicidal ideation, he fantasized about cutting his fingers. After the act, he felt relief and initially was excited, but not sexually. ^[6] Later, the patient regretted the act. The incident was described as the first incident of autocannibalism in New Zealand. ^[7]
• In 2014, a 34-year-old prisoner cut his thigh with a knife and had eaten the flesh about one hour after cutting the tissue. ^[8]
• A 66-year-old man mutilated his fingers by biting them for six years, resulting in loss of the terminal phalanges of all fingers on both hands. ^[9]
• Andre Thomas, a convicted murderer and death row inmate from Grayson County, Texas, removed his left eye on 9 December 2008. He had already removed his right eye in 2004 after murdering his estranged wife and two children. After he removed his second eye, he ate it. ^[10]
• David Playpenz, of Colchester, England, lost one of his fingers in a motorcycle accident. After asking for his amputated finger, he took it home and boiled it and ate the finger. Before that, he took a photo of the finger and posted on Facebook. ^[11]
• 21-year-old Brendan Higginbotham of County Kildare, Ireland, was tortured by criminals in 2011. He had a rope tied around his neck and arms and was beaten with a sledgehammer and iron bar. The criminals sliced a portion of Higginbotham's ears and forced him to eat it. He lost half of his right ear and had to undergo plastic surgery. ^[12]
• In 2012, 29-year-old Jargget Washington of Jersey City, United States, while high on PCP, stripped naked and tried to pull a driver out of a car. He was brought to Jersey City Medical Center, from which he was medically and psychologically cleared. While at a holding cell, he ate his medical bracelet and attempted to free himself from handcuffs by chewing on his wrists. While being transported to jail, he defecated in the police vehicle. After he was placed in jail, he gnawed off one of his fingers and swallowed it. ^[13]
• In May 2018, the Reddit user u/IncrediblyShinyShart ^[14] consumed his amputated foot with 10 of his friends. After an accident two years earlier, his foot would not heal, and the doctors suggested that he would be better if he amputated it. He subsequently asked his friends, "Remember how we always talked about how, if we ever had the chance to ethically eat human meat, would you do it?" ^[15]
• In spring 2023, a Spanish influencer, Paula Gonu, ate her knee cartilage in spaghetti Bolognese after the cartilage had been removed in knee surgery. ^[16]
• FSB agents cut off the ear of Saidakrami Rachabalizoda, one of the suspected perpetrators of the March 2024 Crocus City Hall attack, and forced him to eat it. ^[17]

See also

• Autocannibalism
• Cannibalism (in general)
• Human cannibalism
• List of incidents of cannibalism

References

1. Adams, Cecil (21 February 1986). "Did Dracula really exist?". The Straight Dope . Retrieved 18 July 2023.
2. Woodard, Vincent (2014). The Delectable Negro: Human Consumption and Homoeroticism within US Slave Culture. New York: New York University Press. p. 171.
3. Vulliamy, Ed (25 November 2001). "Orchestral manoeuvres (part one)". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 27 July 2007.
4. Cobbey, Nan; Currie, Nicola (6 August 1998). "Church challenged to new strides for human rights". The Lambeth Daily. Retrieved 4 May 2023.
5. Chin, Pat (6 April 1996). "Behind the Rockwood case". Workers World. Retrieved 18 July 2023.
6. Monasterio, Erik; Prince, Craig (2011). "Self-Cannibalism in the Absence of Psychosis and Substance Use". Australasian Psychiatry. 19 (2): 170–172. doi:10.3109/10398562.2010.526219. PMID   21443396. S2CID   34814664.
7. Johnston, Martin (15 April 2011). "Depressed man cooks and eats his finger". New Zealand Herald. ISSN   1170-0777 . Retrieved 3 October 2020.
8. Yilmaz, Atakan; Uyanik, Emrah; Balci Şengül, Melike C.; Yaylaci, Serpil; Karcioglu, Ozgur; Serinken, Mustafa (September 2014). "Self-Cannibalism: The Man Who Eats Himself". Western Journal of Emergency Medicine. 15 (6): 701–702. doi:10.5811/westjem.2014.6.22705. ISSN   1936-900X. PMC   4162732 . PMID   25247046.
9. Michopoulos, Ioannis; Gournellis, Rossetos; Papadopoulou, Marianna; Plachouras, Diamandis; Vlahakos, Dimitris V.; Tournikioti, Kalliopi; Tsigkaropoulou, Eudoksia; Lykouras, Lefteris (February 2012). "A case of autophagia: a man who was mutilating his fingers by biting them". The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease. 200 (2): 183–185. doi:10.1097/NMD.0b013e318243989b. ISSN   1539-736X. PMID   22297319.
10. McCormack, Simon (14 February 2013). "Andre Thomas, death row inmate, faces execution despite history of mental health issues". Huffington Post. Archived from the original on 17 February 2013. Retrieved 17 February 2013.
11. "Conheça 10 histórias perturbadoras de canibalismo humano". R7 (in Brazilian Portuguese). 31 January 2016. Retrieved 19 July 2023.
12. Ni Bhraonain, Eimear (19 February 2011). "Man forced to eat his own ear 'just glad to be alive'". Irish Independent . Retrieved 21 July 2023.
13. Zeitlinger, Ron (22 October 2012). "Man believed to be on PCP gnaws finger after naked carjack try, authorities say". nj.com. Retrieved 21 July 2023.
14. "r/IAmA - Hi all, I am a man who ate a portion of his own amputated leg. Ask me anything". Reddit. 7 June 2018. Retrieved 24 November 2018.
15. "This Guy Served His Friends Tacos Made from His Own Amputated Leg". Vice. 12 June 2018. Retrieved 24 November 2018.
16. Kinsey, Joe (9 May 2023). "Instagram Model Paula Gonu Makes Spaghetti Bolognese out of Her Knee Cartilage". OutKick. Retrieved 21 May 2023.
17. "Russia lauding torture was unthinkable – now it is proud to do so". The Guardian. 25 March 2024. Retrieved 6 August 2024.