- Dining room where Miewes would slowly consume more than 40 pounds of his victim bewteen March 2001 and January 2002.

Brandes sat in the bathtub at the Miewes home, under the influence of tranquilizers and schnapps, simply bleeding to death, as was his expressed wish in the chats. Miewes even went as far as to record Brandes consent on the videotape that would later document all that “Silence of the Lambs” never really does.

Miewes sat in his own bedroom for three hours reading a Star Trek book while his partner sat bleeding in the tub.  After three hours Miewes took what might be considered pity of Brandes, took him to the basement room he prepared in advance for the slaughter of Brandes. There on a table that resembled a mortician’s embalming table, he stabbed Brandes repeatedly in the throat until the life bled out of him.

Over the next ten months Miewes kept the murder (or was it murder?) of Brandes a hidden secret.  Also over that period of time he consumed approximately 44 pounds of Brandes’ flesh.  Authorities were actually tipped off to Miewes because he was already posting online to meet his next victim.  When law enforcement came to Miewes and searched his home they found what was left of Brandes stored in a freezer under pizza boxes.  They also discovered the video tape.

The German courts did have to litigate the question of whether or not Miewes had actually committed murder or was it at best manslaughter (no pun intended), or the even lesser offense in Germany of assisted suicide. Miewes could prove that he had a willing victim, a victim who desired to be killed and eaten.  He had the consent in chat logs and on video.

Ultimately Miewes was convicted of murder and he will never leave the prison in Kassel, Germany, where Germany’s worst criminals are housed.  Had he been found guilty of manslaughter, the sentence would have probably been 8 years; had the court found he had only been instrumental in an assisted suicide, the time in prison would have been a quick 5 year.

Why does this very real and very contemporary case not have the notoriety of the fictional Buffalo Bill and Dr. Lecter? Perhaps the question is answered within itself.  Not many outside of Germany know of Armin Miewes because he is a very real and a very contemporary person.