What could drive someone to kill and eat a fellow human being? This book examines the most notorious cases of serial killer cannibalism from Sawney Bean and Albert Fish to Jeffrey Dahmer and Andrei Chikatilo. It also details an array of more peculiar cases: Fritz Haarmann, who drank the blood of his victims before selling the meat on the black market; Issei Sagawa, the "refined cannibal," who became a celebrity in Japan; Armin Meiwes who advertised for his victim on the Internet;, and Robin Gecht, who led the Chicago Ripper Crew in a spate of murders in which they ritually ate the breasts of their victims. The graphic details of such cases are a throwback to mankind's savage prehistory and reveal much about the myths of vampires and other monsters who prey on flesh and blood. The most chilling examples of cannibalism are those in which individuals in a supposedly civilized society choose to transgress moral law and resort to murder and cannibalism.