March 23, 2020 | Leave a comment Carl Tanzler was born in Dresden, Germany on 8 February 1877. During his childhood, Tanzler claimed to have had a visitation from a long dead ancestor, Countess Anna Constantia von Cosel, who purportedly revealed to him the face of his true love, an exotic looking dark-haired woman. Notwithstanding the image of the beautiful woman divulged to him in his youth, in about 1920 Carl married Doris Schafer, with whom he had two daughters, one of whom sadly died in childhood from diphtheria. In 1926 Tanzler emigrated to the United States and settled in Zephyrhills, Florida, where he was soon joined by his family. However, in 1927 he left his family behind and moved by himself to Key West, Florida, where he found employment at the U.S. Marine Hospital in the capacity of a radiology technician, working in the tuberculosis ward. It was whilst at work on 22 April 1930 that Carl experienced an epiphanic moment. Worried about the health of her daughter, the mother of Maria Elena Milagro de Hoyos, a local 21 year old Cuban-American, brought her to the hospital for an examination. Tanzler was stunned to recognise her as the beautiful dark-haired woman from his childhood vision. Despite an age gap of over 30 years, Carl, as his ancestor had predicted, immediately fell in love. Unfortunately the young woman was subsequently diagnosed with tuberculosis and despite Tanzler’s best efforts to rid her of the disease, the young lady died on 25 October 1931. Carl Tanzler in 1940 Not only did the still obsessed clinical technician pay for Maria’s funeral, but he also funded the construction of an above ground mausoleum in the cemetery at Key West, which he would visit on most nights. Now you would be forgiven for thinking this behaviour somewhat excessive and possibly even unhealthy, but what he did next took things to a whole other level. One night in April 1933, Tanzler slipped unnoticed through the gates of the cemetery and removed the body of the dead woman from her mausoleum, wheeling it through the darkness on a toy wagon all the way to his home. He later claimed that Maria’s spirit would often come to him during his nocturnal visits to her tomb and implore him to take her from her resting place. At his home he set about reconstructing the corpse from the decomposing remains. He used wire and coat hangers to reattach the bones, fitted the sockets with glass eyes and fashioned a wig from her hair. He replaced the decomposing skin with silk cloth soaked in plaster of paris and wax and filled the torso with rags to re-establish the woman’s original body shape. He dressed the cadaver in stockings, gloves and jewellery and placed the macabre restoration in his bed. As you might imagine, vast quantities of perfume, air-fresheners, disinfectants and preserving agents were also required to combat the smell and speed of decomposition. Maria Elena Milagro de Hoyos in Life and Death In 1940, following a report that Tanzler had been seen dancing in front of an open window with what appeared to be a corpse, Maria’s sister became suspicious and notified the authorities. When the mausoleum was duly opened and found to be bereft of a body, the distraught woman immediately knew where she would find her dead sister. On arriving at Tanzler’s house, she was invited inside and was horrified to discover what looked like a waxwork of her deceased sibling lying in bed. He calmly explained that he and Maria were in love and very happy together and even invited her to pay them a return visit. She instead visited the police who quickly arrived at the house and took the weird remains to the local morgue for an autopsy. As if things were not already disturbing enough, the autopsy was to reveal one more repulsive fact. Two physicians, Dr DePoo and Dr Foraker, who were present at the pathological examination, revealed that a tube had been inserted into the vaginal area of the corpse, permitting sexual intercourse with the deceased woman. It appeared that Carl Tanzler had been engaging in acts of necrophilia for as much as seven years. Following the autopsy, the body was for some reason put on display at a local funeral home, where it was viewed by almost 7,000 people. Eventually it was returned to Key West Cemetery, although this time it was buried secretly in an unmarked grave to prevent any further intervention by Tanzler. Carl Tanzler was arrested and remanded in custody. After being found mentally competent following a psychiatric examination, he was charged with “wantonly and maliciously destroying a grave and removing a body without permission”. However, owing to the length of time that had elapsed since the incident of grave robbing, the authorities were unable to proceed with the case against him as the statute of limitations for the crime had expired. Oddly, the public attitude towards Tanzler was surprisingly sympathetic, with many simply regarding him as an eccentric romantic. In 1944 Tanzler moved to Pasco County, Florida, close to Zephyrhills, where his wife still lived. Apparently she helped to support him in his later years. His obsession with the dead woman however, lingered on. He used a death mask of Maria to create a life sized effigy, which he lived with until his death. Carl Tanzler died at home on approximately 3 July 1952, although his body was not discovered until about three weeks after his death. Rumours quickly circulated that the effigy was in fact the real body of Maria and that he had somehow managed to switch them. A strange romance indeed! Sources: https://coolinterestingstuff.com https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Tanzler