Issei Sagawa Interviews

On June 11, 1981, Issei Sagawa shot Renee Hartevelt in the back of the head. Across the span of two days he butchered her body, at portions of her flesh, and had sex with her corpse. He was arrested after attempting to dump the body in a nearby lake. Due to a mistranslation on his medical records, Sagawa was deemed mentally unfit to stand trial and was extradited back to Japan. The mistake was caught but Japan’s legal system was unable to pursue charges, Sagawa has been a free man ever since and has even become a sort of morbid celebrity. He’s written books, has done interviews, has written restaurant reviews for magazine, has had acting roles, and even took part in sadomasochistic pornography, all due to his odd sort of celebrity status.

I didn’t want to be caught staring, so I made a sketch of her,” (2011). Even now that years have passed, Sagawa’s fixations and obsessions haven’t seen to subsided. Throughout the interview, he flips through albums dedicated to pictures of women he was infatuated with. His walls lined with photos of actresses and he says, “Of course, they’re beautiful and I think they looks delicious,” (2011). His entire fascination with cannibalism stems from early fixation with thighs, as he states that “When I was in first grade, I was fascinated with a handsome boy’s thigh,” (2011). This would later trigger what he calls his first cannibalistic thought, “But when I saw her pale thighs coming out of her skirt, it made me want to taste her flesh,” (2011). Sagawa was 61 during the time the VICE interview was taken, his obsessions and fixations has been with him since first grade and into his sixties. He also seems to cling to his infamous act, writing books about the Hartevelt murder and throughout the interview he proudly shows of the crime scene photos. It becomes clear that Sagawa would rate highly on the insecure-anxious score, he exhibits a complete inability to let go of a person or an idea once he’s become fixated on