Why Killers Cannibalize

May 22, 2002 -- For accused child murderer Nathaniel Bar-Jonah, killing 10-year-old Zachary Ramsay was not enough — he allegedly had to make "little boy stew."

Bar-Jonah, who faces sentencing Thursday for separate sexual assaults on two other Montana boys, is expected to face trial for the kidnapping, presumed death and alleged cannibalization of Zachary, who disappeared in February 1996 while on his way to school.

Prosecutors believe Bar-Jonah, who had a long history of child molestation before his alleged encounter with Zachary, abducted the boy and then killed and butchered him. Police suspect he may have fed him to unsuspecting neighbors, who later told investigators the meat they consumed in stew and spaghetti sauce prepared by Bar-Jonah tasted peculiar.

Bar-Jonah denied any involvement in Zachary's disappearance in letters written to the Great Falls Tribune. However, according to court documents, investigators searched Bar-Jonah's home and found writings they say allude to the boy's suspected gruesome fate. Bar-Jonah allegedly makes references to "Little Boy Stew," "Little Kid Dessert," "Little Boy Pot Pies," anal sex and masturbation in these writings. In addition, police say various witnesses claim they saw Bar-Jonah with the clothes Zachary wore the day he disappeared and that he admitted to the slaying.

Why would someone not only kill, but also cannibalize, their victims? Experts say a killer's need to dominate his victim may be a motivation. Devouring a victim is the step beyond taking their life and represents the ultimate conquest and sign of domination to a killer.

"It goes back to the old days of the warrior, where they would defeat their enemy and eat the part they most admired, like their brain or their heart," said George Palermo, forensic psychiatrist at the Medical College of Wisconsin in Milwaukee, who worked on the Jeffrey Dahmer case. "It's like they're saying, 'I really killed you. The only way you exist is in me.'"

Rooted in Ancient Rituals and Warrior Battles

The practice of cannibalism was recorded as far back as fourth century China and was not seen as a social taboo among various cultures. In fourth century China and other parts of the Far East and various tribal cultures in Africa, Australia, and Papua, New Guinea, soldiers and warriors saw it as the ultimate conquest and revenge against an enemy. It was a way of taking an enemy's greatest trait: eating the heart could symbolize taking a foe's bravery or strength. Eating an enemy's brain could have meant ingesting his intelligence.

In some ancient cultures, cannibalism was not seen as an act of conquest or revenge but as a religious experience and tribute to deceased relatives. Experts say some Australian aborigines believed that if a child ate his dead father he would inherit his hunting skills. Eating dead relatives was a way of inheriting their best qualities and ensuring they would live on eternally.

Noting cannibalism's historic significance, experts believe its practice in slayings could illustrate a killer's need to possess his victim. By eating their victims, they are showing an extreme desire to possess their qualities and not share them with anyone else. It can be extension of ancient cultures' traditions.

"Probably the most likely reason they would do that is to incorporate that person and their most desirable trait into themselves," said Palermo. "It's almost like they're saying, 'I have you. I don't want to be without you and anyone else to have you.'"

Dahmer indicated that he believed in incorporation. He went to bathhouses and gay bars to find his victims and lured them to his home by either offering them money for posing for photographs or simply to enjoy some beer and videos. Then he would drug them, strangle them, masturbate on the body or have sex with the corpse, dismember the body and dispose of it. Sometimes he would keep the skull or other body parts as souvenirs. Other times he claimed that he ate the flesh of his victims because he believed that they would come alive again in him.

More Practical Needs

Some killers may be driven to eat their victims by a more practical need: hunger or the desire to hide evidence. Montana prosecutors could argue that Bar-Jonah was trying to hide evidence when he allegedly fed Zachary's remains to unsuspecting neighbors. In 1873, Colorado gold prospector Alferd Packer went on a gold expedition with a group of men in brutally cold conditions in the San Juan Mountains. He found himself in a situation where he had to eat human flesh to survive.

"Cannibalism can be driven by hunger, a need for sustenance," said James Starrs, law professor at George Washington University Law School who has studied Packer's case. "With Alferd Packer, there was debate over whether he killed the five victims but there was evidence that he had eaten them. I considered the cut marks on some of the remains, the evidence of defleshing, and it was reasonable to conclude that Alferd Packer's need for food in the merciless winter of the San Juan Mountains, began to eat some of the those who died to survive."

Still, 10 years later, Packer was convicted in the deaths of the five men on his expedition and sentenced to 40 years in prison. Packer maintained he killed his companions out of self-defense.

Manifestation of Rage, ‘Serial’ Tendencies

Cannibalistic killers tend to have a history of violence and have a rage that drives them to lash out and eat their victims. The source of their rage can be an abusive relationship with a parent, a tumultuous relationship with a lover or spouse, or the loss of a relative or spouse, experts say. Every time they attack and eat a victim, they are releasing that rage, reliving their relationship and acting out vicariously at either an abusive parent or the other person in a troubled relationship.

Ed Gein, the killer who was the basis for movies such as Psycho and The Silence of the Lambs, did not dig up bodies or start killing and eating people's remains until after his mother died in 1945. In psychiatric exams, Gein revealed an obsession with his deceased mother and belief that he was really a woman, which may reveal why he kept some body parts as trophies, made jackets out of torsos for himself and made a female mask out of a female corpse's face.

In 1897, Chicago butcher Adolph Luetgert killed his wife and made sausages out of her, which he sold to unsuspecting customers. In another case, Daniel Rakowitz of New York killed his girlfriend in 1989 and made soup with her remains that he fed to homeless people.

Both serial killers and cannibalistic killers have a pent-up rage they need to release. Because of that need, cannibalistic killers, experts say, have a need to kill again and can tend to be serial killers. Gein was suspected in 15 disappearances while Dahmer killed 17 people. Besides Zachary Ramsay, Bar-Jonah has been suspected of being involved in the disappearance of at least two dozen others.

"These are people who have a tremendous desire to destroy, a tremendous amount of hostility that they need to release," Palermo said. "They have something stored up inside them in order to reach the point of where they want to destroy the human body and eat human flesh and they feel a need to release that violence again. … It's not something you do just once."

In that sense serial killers and cannibal killers share a bond — they have an insatiable urge to kill. With cannibalistic killers, that urge meshes with a desire to eat human flesh. That desire starts out as an urge and can grow into an addiction, and like serial killers, they will not likely stop until they are caught.

"Typically, serial killers keep on killing until they're caught," said Mike Rustigan, professor of criminology at San Francisco State University. "Serial murder is an addiction to these guys. It starts out as an urge, then it becomes a compulsion, and eventually it becomes an addiction."

Too Horrific to Be Obviously Insane

Cannibalistic slayings remain rare. The horror of the crimes would seem to illustrate obvious insanity but sometimes certain slayings can be too horrific to be excused by a jury. Sawney Bean and his family — who were suspected robbing, killing and butchering hundreds of people over a 25-year period — were burned to death without a trial around 1700 when Scottish authorities discovered human remains in their dwelling.

A New York jury showed more mercy to Albert Fentress, a teacher who — in 1979 — killed a neighbor, cut up, and ate parts of the victim's body. Jurors found him not guilty by reason of insanity, and Fentress was sent to a mental institution indefinitely.

Because of pretrial publicity and the horror of the charges against him in Zachary Ramsay's disappearance and presumed death, Bar-Jonah's defense attorneys are trying to get his trial moved from Butte to another county. Prosecutors hope to bring Bar-Jonah to trial in September.