10 Most Horrific Cannibal Killers Of All Time

All of the killers on this list are rightly reviled and have served time in jail, with some paying for their crimes with their lives. However, the case of Issei Sagawa is not like that, as he has become something of a celebrity following his particular crime.

Sagawa committed only one murder - that of Dutch student Renée Hartevelt - while in Paris. He invited her over to his apartment on the pretence of studying poetry together, only to shoot her in the back of the head with a rifle. Over the course of the next few days he consumed parts of her body before attempting to dump the corpse in a river, where he was caught by French authorities.

After being found insane by a French court - leading to the charges being dropped - Sagawa was eventually deported to Japan and committed to the Matsuzawa hospital, where doctors found him to be sane.

Unfortunately, due to the previous insanity verdict Sagawa could not be charged with the crime again in his homeland and simply walked free of the hospital in 1986.

He supported himself upon release by writing about his crimes, though in recent years he has struggled to find publishers. However, he still walks the streets of Japan a free man and enjoys a small cult of celebrity that even saw him writing restaurant reviews for a time.