Ray William Johnson: True Story Podcast
The Famous Japanese Cannibal - The Issei Sagawa story
Sun, 02 Feb 2025
This is the story of Issei Sagawa, the famous Japanese cannibal
Chapter 1: Who is Issei Sagawa and what are his early fantasies?
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 kinda has the urge to bite into it.
Chapter 2: What triggers Issei's cannibalistic urges as he grows up?
And his classmate is a boy and he doesn't even like 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 Isai 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 decides he's gonna go for it. He's gonna sneak into her apartment, cut off a piece of her, and he's gonna 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.
Chapter 3: What incident leads to Issei's first arrest?
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 Isai 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.
Chapter 4: How does Issei escape serious consequences after his arrest?
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.
Chapter 5: What does Issei do after moving to Paris?
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.
Chapter 6: How does Issei's interaction with prostitutes play out?
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.
Chapter 7: Who is Renee and how does she fit into Issei's story?
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 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 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 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, Isaias 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 nearby park to dispose of them.
But while he's at the park, some bystanders notice 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 Rene, 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 Isai 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.
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