Hamilton County Coroner's office

On August 11, 1987, 35-year-old Harvey sat down with investigators and confessed to committing 33 murders over the past 17 years.  As the days went by, that number eventually grew to 70 in all.  Investigators were skeptical of the numbers Harvey was giving them, and wanted to have his mental state assessed prior to taking his claims as fact.  Following several psychiatric tests by numerous experts, a spokesman for the Cincinnati prosecutors office explained the dilemma to the Cincinnati Post:

This man is sane, competent, but is a compulsive killer, he said.  He builds up tension in his body, so he kills people.

Harvey was indicted in Kentucky on September 7, 1987, where he confessed to committing 12 murders while employed at Marymount Hospital.  In November, he pleaded guilty and was sentenced to eight life terms plus 20 years. In February 1988, he entered guilty pleas on three additional Cincinnati homicides and three attempted murders, drawing three life sentences plus three terms of seven to 25 years.  Two years later, the investigation into the remaining deaths was closed after investigators determined that there was not enough evidence to pursue them. 

In a 1991 interview with a reporter from the Columbus Dispatch, Harvey gave a rare glimpse into his mindset:

Why did you kill?

Well, people controlled me for 18 years, and then I controlled my own destiny.  I controlled other peoples lives, whether they lived or died.  I had that power to control.

What right did you have to decide that?

After I didnt get caught for the first 15, I thought it was my right.  I appointed myself judge, prosecutor and jury.  So I played God.

On July 23, 2001, the Associated Press printed an article listing the worst serial killers in the United States.  Donald Harvey was rated number one, followed by John Wayne Gacy, Patrick Kearney, Bruce Davis and Dean Corll. 

Donald Harveys first scheduled parole hearing is set for 2047.  He will be 95.  

The vanished parts, as it turned out, had gone to feed Constanzo's nganga, building up his strength for greater conquests yet to come. By July 1987 he already had his next targets in mind.

"Bernd came to me of his own free will to end his life," Meiwes told the court in his trial, which began December 3, 2003. "For him, it was a nice death."

Before his death Brandes consumed a large quantity of liquor and 20 or more sleeping pills.

Cannibalism may not be against the law in Germany, but it guarantees one a free mental examination. What the court found out after Meiwes' psychiatric exam was very interesting. He claimed that watching horror films is what initiated the fantasies that he had as a child about eating people. Initially, he wanted to eat his school mates, he told the court.

The defense has been arguing that there was no murder because Brandes volunteered to be killed. The prosecution, however, feels that Meiwes' hobbies are very dangerous and that he should be locked up permanently.

CNN reported today that the court in Kassel ruled had no "base motives" in the crime -- sparing him a murder conviction. He has been sentenced to eight and a half years in jail. Prosecutors will appeal the verdict. The case, which has no precedent in German law, may go to the supreme court.

Germany's Constitutional Court has thrown out an appeal on behalf of convicted cannibal Armin Meiwes, but there's another German cannibal making international news.   Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire.