The famous and macabre case of Carl Tanzler’s necrophilia.

A shocking case that shows us the worst side of the human being.

Few cases of necrophilia are as famous as that of Carl Tanzler. The true story of a man who, in a surprising way, took his obsession for a woman beyond death.

Carl Tanzler (later known as Carl von Cosel) was able to exhume the corpse of the woman he considered the woman of his life, in order to continue having sex with her.

What is necrophilia?

The necrophilia o necrosexuality is a type of paraphilia which is characterized by a high level of excitement through contemplation, contact, mutilation or mental evocation of a corpse..

Having sexual relations with corpses is not only considered socially unacceptable, but is punishable by imprisonment, since it is understood that the dead person would not have consented to this act while alive.

Carl Tanzler: A Famous Case of Necrophilia

The United States was considered the land of opportunity. For decades, many immigrants settled in the United States of America in search of a better future. This is what Carl Tanzler, a German-born radiologist, did.

Tanzler immigrated to Zephyrillis, a town in Pasco County, Florida. He arrived with his wife and two daughters, but soon after left his family to move to Key West Island, near Miami. There he rented an X-ray machine at the U.S. Navy Hospital, and changed his name to Carl von Cosel.

One day in 1930, Tanzler's life changed forever; he was in his early fifties at the time and had an affair with his patient Maria Elena Milagro de Hoyos. She was suffering from tuberculosis and her mother took her to the hospital to seek treatment for her pathology..

Tanzler had visions during his childhood of the woman of his life.

As a child in Germany, Tanzler reported that he had visions of an exotic girl, the supposed woman of his life.. When he met Maria Elena, he thought she was the woman of his visions. That is, this 21-year-old Cuban woman was his true love.

Thanks to his crush and despite the fact that Tanzler did not have sufficient training to treat this pathology, and in addition to the little chance of curing the patient, he himself performed Elena's treatment from his parents' home.

But Maria Elena Milagro de Hoyos worsened due to her illness, and on October 25, 1931 she died. Then, good old Tanzler paid for the funeral and built a mausoleum for Maria Elena Milagro de Hoyos in the Key West Island Cemetery, all this with the consent of her family. He visited her grave every night for a year and a half after her death.

His obsession with Maria Elena and the exhumation of her body

But soon the obsession with Maria Elena turned macabre. Tazler later recounted that Maria Elena's spirit sang to him in Spanish as he sat near the grave, and begged him to take her with him. In April 1933, Tanzler exhumed the corpse of the Cuban girl and took it home with a toy cart.

When the body was in his house, he devoted himself to preserving it in unimaginable ways.. Since it was in a considerable state of putrefaction, he glued its bones together with hangers and wires, put glass eyes in its eye sockets, and replaced the rotting flesh with silk cloth treated with wax and white plaster. Tanzler stuffed rags into the abdominal cavities and chest to maintain the illusion of human form and put on a wig that Maria Elena used to wear. To hide the putrid smell, the radiologist used liters and liters of perfume.

Tanzler had sexual relations with the corpse of Maria Elena Milagro de Hoyos.

He spent days and nights with the body, even dancing with it. In addition, Tanzler had sexual relations with the corpse.

After a while, the rumors reached Maria Elena's family. Her sister Florinda went to Tanzler's house, and to her great surprise, she discovered her sister's body. Without thinking, she called the police and Tanzler was arrested.

The case became very famous and had a lot of media repercussion.. After his arrest, Maria Elena's body was buried in the cemetery so that she could rest in peace. When Tanzler was released from prison, he wrote an autobiography that was published in Fantastic Adventures.