Ray William Johnson: True Story Podcast - The Famous Japanese Cannibal - The Issei Sagawa story

Episode Date: February 2, 2025

This is the story of Issei Sagawa, the famous Japanese cannibal

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This is your fix. I am your host, Stasi Schroeder. Welcome to Tell Me Lies, the official podcast. What's the most unhinged thing of season three? Stephen, because he's so evil. I do think he is misunderstood. You see everyone-based consequences. It's intoxicating.

The writers just know how to trick you. There's always a twist in this show. Tell Me Lies, the official podcast, January 6th, and stream the new season of Tell Me Lies, January 13, on Hulu, and Hulu on Disney. So this kid, he really wants to eat people, literally. Now his name is Isai, and he's from Japan, and he comes from a really wealthy family.

And one day, he's in class, in the first grade, and he starts noticing his classmates' legs. And Isai is like, damn, that leg looks kind of tasty. And in fact, it looks so tasty to him that he kind of has the urge to bite into it. And his classmate is a boy, and he doesn't even like boys. boys. And that's when Isai realizes that he kind of wants to eat people. And from that point on, he regularly fantasizes about gnawing on people constantly. And as the years pass, this fantasy

of his just gets stronger and stronger. And specifically, he has a thing for Western women who are tall, because, you know, he's a short king. So he wants to eat a tall white woman. And eventually he's Icy grows up and he's 24 years old and by this point he's going out of his mind with these cannibalism fantasies and that's when he finally gets an opportunity because one day around this time he notices a young German woman and she's tall and white so Isai he low-key starts to follow her around even following her to her home and in doing that he notices that when the weather is warm she leaves her bedroom window open at night so then one night he decided to He's going to go for it. He's going to sneak into her apartment, cut off a piece of her, and he's going to eat it.

So he goes to her apartment, and he climbs in and he creeps through her window while she's there in her bed sleeping. So now he's in her apartment. And unfortunately, for him, she hears him. And suddenly, bam, she wakes up and she starts screaming. And she freaks out and she pushes him down to the ground because, you know, he's not very big. So she overpowers him. And he sigh panics and he's like, oh shit. And he runs away. But unfortunately for him, she calls police, and police catch up to him and bam, they arrest him. And they have no idea that he was trying to eat this woman, so they just end up charging him with SA. But remember how I said that he comes from a wealthy family? Well, lucky for him, his dad steps in and pays a large settlement to that German woman in exchange for her dropping the SA charges against Isai.

So after all that, Isai walks away from this with a clean record. Four years later, he moves from Tokyo all the way over to Paris. I mean, he's 28 years old at this point, and he wants to study language and get his PhD from the university there. However, his desire to eat people still hasn't gone away. So while he's there in Paris trying to get his PhD, nearly every night he hires a prostitute and he brings them home. And there, he waits for a moment when they turn their back to him. And when they do, he low-key gets his rifle, because I guess he has a rifle. And he points it at them because he's going to unalive them.

But lucky for the prostitutes, Isai can't ever bring himself to pull the trigger. He just doesn't have the nerve. He's scared about what will happen to him if he finally does it. And so he goes through this routine night after night. He brings a hooker back to his place, points his rifle at them when they aren't looking, and every time he fails to follow through. And this goes on. on for a few years. But then one day, everything changes for Isai. Because he meets this woman,

Renee. And Renee is a sweet, friendly student, and she's in one of his literature classes, and she also happens to be a tall white woman. So Isai befriends her, and at some point he invites her over to his place so that they can work on an assignment together. Once she's there, and they're studying or whatever, she's sitting down at a table, writing. She's not paying attention. She's not paying attention. to him. And that is when Isai gets his rifle and he sneaks up behind her and he points it right at her head and he pulls the trigger. Click. The gun misfires. And Renee, she doesn't notice or even hear what's happening behind her because she's concentrating so hard on her studies. Then two days later Isai invites her back over and again she's sitting down at a table writing and

And Isai does the same thing. He sneaks out of the room to get his rifle again, and he creeps up behind her, and he points it at her head, and he pulls the trigger. Blam! But this time, no misfire. She's unalived. And then, oddly, Isai is shocked. Like he can't believe that he actually went through with it.

So he faints, and he falls on the floor. Moments later, he wakes up and regains consciousness. And he's like, okay, I guess I have to eat her now. And because he's a disgusting person, he essays her body, and then he proceeds to try and eat her. But he realizes his teeth aren't sharp enough, so then he has to leave the apartment and go out and buy a butcher knife. But yeah, then he eats as much of her as he can. Then a few days later, the body, it's decomposing at this point. And he's like, I got to get her out of the apartment.

So he stuffs what's left of her into two suitcases, then he brings those suitcases to a a nearby park to dispose of them. But while he's at the park, some bystanders noticed that there's a lot of blood dripping from this guy's suitcases. And it doesn't take long for people to call the police. And so, bam, they arrest Isai again. And here's a photo of him being escorted by French police. And here is another one.

And Isai admits to unaliving Renee and they throw him in jail, but it's not over. Because Isai is about to get kind of famous from all this. So he sits in jail for about two years waiting on his trial. Meanwhile, his rich dad pays for good legal defense, like the most expensive lawyer they could find. And ultimately, the judge finds his sigh legally insane and unfit to stand trial. So they end up dropping the charges and they send him to a psychiatric facility.

And eventually, he's deported and transferred to another psych facility in Tokyo, Japan. But since he had been declared legally insane and the charges had been technically dropped in France, his court documents had been officially sealed. Which means the Japanese government can't charge him with a crime because there are no legal documents to back it up. So, unfortunately, they have to let him go. Only five years after he murdered Renee, he checks out of the psych facility in Tokyo. And now he's free. But he has trouble getting work because, you know, businesses tend to not hire people who eat other people.

But then one day a magazine approaches him and they ask him to write an article for them and they pay him a shitload of yen for it. So he does. And that gives his sigh an idea. And he's like, oh snap, why don't I make some money writing books? I mean, he did study literature. He can write. So he starts writing books like novels about his crime. about his obsession with eating people and about what he did to Renee.

And he does interviews and stuff and he becomes kind of a minor celebrity in Japan. Bro even writes a manga and he illustrates it and has it published. And it's all about his experience unaliving and eating Renee. And it's like translated into English and everything. It's on Amazon like anyone can go and buy it right now. And it's real messed up. Let me show you. I put the two suitcases in front of the door. It took me two nights to cut Renee. In one suitcase, there was the head, arms, and legs. In the other, the torso.

Why does this exist? What the fuck, Japan? Anyway, after this, Esai doesn't eat anyone else, as far as we know. And he eventually dies from pneumonia at 73 years old. And here's a picture of him in real life.