Necrophilia

NECROPHILIA

 Comes from the Greek words “Nekros” means “corpse “ and “Philia” means “love”
 Sexual gratification by having sex with the dead
 It is a pathological fascination with dead bodies, which often takes the form of a desire to
engage with them in sexual activities, such as intercourse.
 It is also known as necrophilism, necrolagnia, necrocoitus, necrochlesis, and thanatophilia.
 It is classified as a paraphilia (Sexual Disorder) under OTHER SPECIFIED PARAPHILIC DISORDER.

THERE ARE DIFFERENTS REASONS WHY AN INDIVIDUAL ENGAGES IN NECROPHILIC ACTS:

 Desire to possess a non-resisting and non-rejecting partner (68%)

 Reunions with a romantic partner (21%)
 Sexual attraction to corpses (15%)
 Comfort or overcoming feelings of isolation (15%)
 Seeking self-esteem by expressing power over a homicide victim (12%)

11% of these people who engage in Necrophilic acts are PSYCHOTIC.

ORIGINS OF TERM

 The term necrophilia' is thought to have been coined by Belgian physician Joseph Guislain in his
Leçons Orales sur les Phrénopathies, in a lecture given around 1850 when he was discussing
about a contemporary necrophiliac Francois Bertrand.
 The term was popularized about a decade later by psychiatrist Bénédict Morel who also
discussed about Bertrand

CLASSIFICATIONS OF NECROPHILIA

 Role players: People who get aroused from pretending their live partner is dead during sexual
activity.
 Romantic necrophiliacs: Bereaved people who remain attached to their dead lover's body.
 Necrophilic fantasizers: People who fantasize about necrophilia, but never actually have sex
with a corpse.
 Tactile necrophiliacs: People who are aroused by touching or stroking a corpse, without
engaging in intercourse.
 Fetishistic necrophiliacs: People who remove objects (e.g., panties or a tampon) or body parts
(e.g., a finger or genitalia) from a corpse for sexual purposes, without engaging in intercourse.
 Necromutilomaniacs: People who derive pleasure from mutilating a corpse while masturbating,
without engaging in intercourse.
 Opportunistic necrophiliacs: People, who normally have no interest in necrophilia, but take the
opportunity when it arises.
 Regular necrophiliacs: People who preferentially have intercourse with the dead.
 Necrophilia
 Homicidal necrophiliacs: Necrosadists, people who commit murder in order to have sex with
the victim.
 Exclusive necrophiliacs: People who have an exclusive interest in sex with the dead, and cannot
perform at all for living partner.

Additionally, criminologist Lee Mellor's typology of homicidal necrophiles consists of eight categories
(A-H), and is based on the combination of two behavioral axes:

 Category A (cold/destructive) - cold (offender used the corpse sexually two hours after death),
destructive (offender mutilates the corpse for sexual reasons)
 Category B (cold/preservative) - cold (offender used the corpse sexually two hours after death)
preservative (offender does not mutilate the corpes)
 Category C (warm/destructive) - warm (offender used the corpse sexually earlier than two
hours after death), destructive (offender mutilates the corpse for sexual reasons).
 Category D (warm/preservative) - warm (offender used the corpse sexually earlier than two
hours after death), preservative (offender does not mutilate the corpes)
 Category E (dabblers) - Dabblers have transitory opportunistic sexual relations with corpses, but
this is not their preference.
 Category F (catathymic) - homicidal necrophiles commit postmortem sex acts only while in a
catathymic state.
 Category G (exclusive necromutilophiles) - derive pleasure purely from mutilating the corpse
 Category H (sexual cannibals & vampires) – sexually aroused by eating human body parts or
drinking the blood of their victims.

There are different cases of Necrophilia in history, some are seen in the works of Herodutos himself:

 Ancient Egypt - though written records suggest the practice was present within Ancient Egypt.
Herodotus writes in The Histories that, to discourage intercourse with a corpse, ancient
Egyptians left deceased beautiful women to decay for "three or four days" before giving them to
the embalmers.
 Periander (Periander baked his bread in a cold oven) - Herodotus also alluded to suggestions
that Greek tyrant Periander had defiled the corpse of his wife, employing a metaphor:
"Periander baked his bread in a cold oven."
 Moche culture - Acts of necrophilia are depicted on ceramics from the Moche culture, which
reigned in northern Peru from the first to eighth century CE.[10] A common theme in these
artifacts is the masturbation of a male skeleton by a living woman.
 Hittite law - from the 16th century BC through to the 13th century BC explicitly permitted sex
with the dead.
 King Herod - who allegedly preserved the second of his ten wives in honey and proceeded to
have intercourse with her for seven years after her death.
 Achilles with Penthesilea - who allegedly engaged in necrophilic acts with the Amazonian Queen
Penthesilea after killing her.
 Charlemagne - Some scholars believe Charlemagne frequently committed acts of necrophilia.
 Necrophilia
 Sleeping Beauty - has some pretty heavy necrophilic overtones.

HERE ARE SOME DOCUMENTED NECROPHILIA INCIDENTS:

 Sergeant Francois Bertrand - Sergeant Francois Bertrand was a prolific grave robber and
necrophile. On March 15, 1849, at precisely 11:30 PM, Bertrand was admitted to the Val-de-
Grace hospital in Paris with gunshot wounds to his right side. Earlier, gravediggers at the
Montparnasse Cemetery had concocted an elaborate trap to catch the infamous “Vampire of
Montparnasse,” a mysterious figure who was responsible for a rash of grave desecrations and
mutilations. When news circulated that a French Army sergeant was being treated for wounds
that were consistent with the Montparnasse trap, Bertrand’s surgeon, Dr. Marchal de Calvi,
received a full confession from his patient. Bertrand told his doctor that he had exhumed dozens
of male and female corpses before eviscerating them. Ultimately, Bertrand was convicted of 15
counts of grave desecration but sentenced to only one year in prison. After serving his sentence
as a model prisoner, Bertrand committed suicide.
 Lam Kor-wan: The Hong Kong Butcher - In 1982, 27-year-old taxi driver Lam Kor-wan was also a
terrifying sexual predator who murdered four women—21-year-old Chan Fung-lan, 31-year-old
Chan Wan-kit, 29-year-old Leung Sau-wan, and 17-year-old Leung Wai-sum—before mutilating
their bodies. This mutilation earned Lam the sobriquet “The Hong Kong Butcher.” He was also
known as “The Rainy Night Butcher” because he had a habit of murdering women on rainy days.
After Lam’s arrest, Hong Kong authorities learned that he had sexual intercourse with his
victims’ bodies and then removed their sexual organs and pickled them in Tupperware
containers. Thus, Lam became known as the “Jars Murderer.” He is currently serving a life
sentence.
 Marcelo de Andrade (aka the “Vampire of Niteroi”) - earned his chilling nickname because he
liked to drink the blood of his victims. Prior to becoming a serial killer, de Andrade had been a
teenage prostitute. After a suicide attempt, he was sent to a reform school. Throughout his time
there and afterward, de Andrade was regularly beaten. Many times, his worst beatings came at
the hands of relatives. At age 23, de Andrade tried to find some spiritual comfort by attending
the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God, a Pentecostal Christian denomination, four times a
week. Nevertheless, in a nine-month period in 1991, de Andrade raped, murdered, and defiled
the corpses of 14 young boys. Many were or had worked as prostitutes while others were
involved in Rio’s underworld drug market. Several of de Andrade’s victims were also
decapitated. De Andrade was apprehended in December 1991 and declared insane almost two
years later.
 Victor Ardisson (aka the “Vampire of Muy”) - was an undertaker and gravedigger in the small
town of Muy in the French region known as Provence. For years, Ardisson engaged in many acts
of necrophilia. When he was finally caught, he confessed to having sex with over 100 corpses
that had been entrusted to his care. Ardisson also admitted that he frequently dug up corpses
and took them back to his humble home. When police examined his residence, they found the
corpse of a three-year-old girl. Police also discovered that Ardisson slept next to the corpse and
frequently performed sex acts on the girl’s body. Elsewhere, Ardisson kept the skull of a 13-year-
 Necrophilia
old girl—a skull that he constantly kissed and called “my bride.” Throughout the investigation,
Ardisson confided to the police that he always talked to the corpses in his home and treated
them as if they were still alive. When they didn’t respond, Ardisson would genuinely feel
rejected and become despondent for a time.
 Genzo Kurita - Between 1948 and 1952, Genzo Kurita committed a shocking series of crimes
that tended to focus on attacking mothers and daughters. When Kurita was caught in January
1952, he was charged with murdering a 24-year-old woman and her 63-year-old aunt. Kurita
also stood accused of sexually violating the younger woman’s corpse. After his arrest, Japanese
investigators discovered that Kurita was a remorseless predator who had committed several
murders. His most heinous action was the so-called Osen Korogashi incident. In October 1951,
Kurita raped and murdered a 29-year-old mother of three. Afterward, he threw the woman’s
corpse—and her three living children—over the Osen Korogashi cliffs. Miraculously, one of the
children survived. Kurita’s other crimes included breaking into and entering the home of a
sleeping mother. After murdering the woman and raping her corpse, Kurita fled the scene.
Throughout the whole ordeal, the woman’s child slept beside her. For this crime and others,
Kurita was executed via hanging in 1959.
 Karen Greenlee - After several days of hearing nothing from Karen Greenlee back in 1979, her
family was already getting prepared to hear the worse. That is, until they actually discovered
where Karen was and especially who she had been with. Karen was an apprentice embalmer in a
mortuary in Sacramento California. She had been missing along with the hearse and the body of
a 33-year-old John Mercure, who had died a week before. When the authorities found her and
the body, they also found a “suicide” note on the scene. Karen had tried to commit suicide by
overdosing on Tylenol with codeine pills but didn’t succeed. Instead, the officers were in shock
when they read the note that stated: “I had sex with the dead bodies of 20-40 men. It’s an
addiction.” The police learned that she had been fine in the days during which she had been
missing; in actuality, she was having a romantic gateway with her deceased lover. Since
necrophilia was legal at that time in California (until 2004), she was only charged with stealing
the hearse and delaying the funeral, and only spent 11 days in jail, along with some heavy
therapy that didn’t help much. In a very open interview, Karen admitted to having started her
necrophiliac practices while young and that the smell of a freshly embalmed corpse turned her
on even more. After the controversial interview, she decided to change her identity and moved
to an undisclosed location.
 Nico Claux - Practicing satanist and necrophilic fantasizer Nico Claux, aka the “Vampire of Paris”,
started his fascination with death from an early age. Feeling like a loner most of the time while
growing up, Nico started lurking into graveyards at night and breaking into mausoleums. “I woke
up one day feeling this sinister urge to dig up a corpse and mutilate it,” and that’s where it all
began. He became a morgue attendant, and was often left alone with the corpses. There, he
started to indulge in the act of eating strips of muscles from the body, and drinking bags of
blood after adding powder proteins, or even human ashes in some cases. He was arrested in
1994 for the murder of Thierry Bissonnier; he was convicted, served his time and was released in
2002. He now lives with his girlfriend somewhere in Paris.
 Necrophilia
 Kenneth Douglas - Door to door salesman Kenneth Douglas was convicted of killing and raping
Karen Range back in 2008. David argued and claimed that he did in fact killed Range, but denied
the rape allegations. After a long and extensive investigation, the police tied Kenneth Douglas to
the crime. Semen left on the body of Karen proved to be that of Douglas, who was working as a
morgue attendant when the ordeal happen. Investigators also discovered he had also violated 3
other women. Douglas then confessed to having had sexual intercourse with as many as 100
bodies while waiting for autopsies. “I would just get on top of them and pull my pants down,”
Douglas said. He pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 3 years in a federal prison. The families of
the victims are still suing.
 Carl Tanzler - Probably the most famous and well-documented case of necrophilia ever heard.
Carl Tanzler is guilty of a crime committed in the name of love. He met the love of his life in a
hospital where he worked as a doctor in the 1930’s. A local Cuban-American woman named
Maria Elena “Helen” Milagro de Hoyos was brought in by her mother for examination. Carl
immediately recognized the woman, as he previously had been “visited” by visions of a late
ancestor who revealed to him the face of his true love, which was Helen. Helen was diagnosed
with tuberculosis (a fatal disease at that time); still Carl made the best of his efforts to do
anything and everything in his power to cure Helen of the horrible disease. During this time, Carl
professed his love for the young woman, showering her with gifts and affections, but it seems
his love was unrequited. Carl was devastated when Helen passed away. He told the family he
would gladly take care of the burial costs and even asked permission to build an above-ground
mausoleum in the Key West cemetery. On the night in April of 1933, Carl made his way through
the cemetery in a dark toy wagon and removed Helen’s body from the mausoleum and took it to
his home. There, he re-attached her body with wire hangers, replaced her eyes with fake ones
and even decided to skin her and replace her decaying epidermis with silk cloth soaked in wax
and plaster. He made a wig out of Helen’s own hair that her mother had previously gifted him.
He also filled her body with rags and constantly sprayed her with perfumes and other
disinfectants to neutralize odors. It is thought that during this time, Carl had intercourse with
the love of his life, which happened to be dead. On October 1940, Carl was discovered by
Helen’s sister and taken into custody for medical evaluation. He was arrested and later released.
The body of Helen is now resting in Key West Cemetery, under an unmarked grave.

Necrophilia does not only occur on human beings but also in animals.

It is a taboo and illegal in most of the countries in the world. It was only declared illegal in 2004 in
California.