Karl Tanzler's insanity must be the most disgusting love story humanity has ever known. In 1933, he made a mummy out of the body of his beloved one who had died from tuberculosis and lived with her, as if she were still in this world. Anticipating the obvious question - yes, he slept in the same bed with her and had sex. Surprisingly, when the truth came to light, many locals even came to his defense. “Not a necrophile, but just an eccentric German romantic!” They said.
As you can imagine, Karl Tanzler was a very original person.
Eccentric Mister Tanzler
Most articles about Karl Tanzler focus on the most anticipated fact of his biography - necrophilia. Say, there was such a radiologist, an unremarkable gentleman who worked for himself in the USA in the 1930s, and then his beloved died, something broke in him, and he turned her corpse into a mummy. A classic story about a guy who looked normal and then turned out to be a complete nutcase.
In fact, those who knew Karl weren't exactly surprised to hear about his addictions. From his very youth, he was an eccentric man, if not completely divorced from reality. Perhaps he did not even fully realize that his beloved, the beautiful Elena Milagro de Hoyos, had actually died.
Suffice it to say that we don't even know what his real name was. In different documents, he goes under different names: either Karl Tanzler, then Georg Karl Tenzler, then in general Count Karl Tanzler von Kosel. The latter is especially remarkable and points to the early madness of this gentleman. And that's why:
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Karl (for convenience we will call him that) was born in the German Dresden in 1877 in a wealthy, but not noble family. However, Tanzler himself believed that he was in fact a descendant of the noble family of von Kosel. He told friends and parents that he was a descendant of Countess Anna Constance von Kosel, the favorite of the King of Saxony Augustus the Strong.
It seems that a slight touch of schizophrenia, necrophilia and incest then did not alert anyone. On the contrary - sheer romance. So Tanzler studied medicine without any problems, where he clearly picked up knowledge about mummification.
A few years before the outbreak of the First World War, the ghost of the Countess prompted Karl to go to the "southern seas" to avoid "terrible disasters." The dancer traveled to India, Southeast Asia and Australia. He acquired an island in the Pacific Ocean, boats and electrical engineering equipment, dreaming of becoming an inventor. He also put together an organ to play gothic fugues on it (presumably to give the story some more creepiness).
The ghost of Anna Constance von Kosel - Karl Tanzler's first love.
As a result, he settled in Australia, but only to make sure that his pocket ghost does not always give the right advice. When the First World War began, Karl, as a German citizen, was placed in a prisoner of war camp, and all his property was confiscated. When it turned out that he was also a member of the Rosicrucian Order (a sort of alternative to the Freemasons), British officers generally perceived him as a potentially dangerous criminal.
The escape plan failed, so Karl had to wait until the end of the war, after which he was exchanged for an Australian prisoner of war and sent home. In 1926, Tanzler emigrated from his native Germany to Cuba, and then to the United States. Naturally, on the advice of the countess's ghost.
In general, even before cohabitation with the mummy, he was an unusual person, to put it mildly.
Elena Milagro de Hoyos, future mummy
Karl Tanzler came to the USA not alone, but with his family - his wife and daughters. It may seem strange that the family appears in a story like this, suddenly. But we must understand how Karl himself felt about marriage. He hardly mentions family in his diaries.
For him, marriage was just a burden, which, it seems, must be carried through life. The wife and kids are just the kind of thing that distracts from ghost talk, organ music, and work. We can say that it was not Karl Tanzler who started a family, it was the family who got Karl Tanzler.
For four years in a row, since his arrival in the United States, the ghost of Anna von Kosel insistently urged Karl to seek the muse of his life. Considering that he had been married for six years, it was clearly not about his wife. The Countess convinced Tanzler that an exotic black-haired beauty was about to appear in his life, who would steal his heart and mind. And the beauty, of course, appeared.
In 1930, Karl worked as a radiologist at the Naval Hospital in the port town of Key West, Florida. Once, a girl named Elena Milagro de Hoyos was brought to his reception with suspicion of consumption. She was the daughter of a Cuban cigarette tycoon and turned out to be the muse of a lifetime. Unfortunately, her diagnosis was confirmed - the girl had tuberculosis, and it was already neglected.
Karl Tanzler's laboratory.
Elena recently got married, but her betrothed immediately ran away after learning that she was terminally ill. Karl took it in his characteristic spirit - the Universe itself tells him: "This woman, save her and love her until her death."
The enamored Tanzler began to look for a medicine that would save Elena from tuberculosis, and at the same time (as a pleasant supplement) and all of humanity. But, as we have seen, he was an eccentric man and chose eccentric methods.
Karl decided that the key to getting rid of consumption was the same X-rays he had dealt with at work. Little was known about radiation then, and its harm in the 30s was not obvious, so Tanzler began to irradiate his beloved for days on end.
According to the idea, an orbiting airplane would take Elena into space, where she would be healed by the natural radiation of the stars. No one seems to have fantasized about radiation with such poetry as this man.
Spaceship built by Karl Tanzler.
Along the way, Tanzler showered gifts on his Cuban beauty, brought piles of equipment to her home and dedicated serenades to her. Apparently, the girl was not too happy about it, but she hoped that this nutty doctor at least knew what he was doing.
The radiation treatment did not bear fruit, and in 1931 Elena Milagro de Hoyos died.
Karl Tanzler's necrophilic insanity
Elena's parents allowed Karl to build her a luxurious tomb, a real mausoleum. The enamored Dancer used to come there every day to serenade his dead love. He sang them, of course, in Spanish.
This went on for two years. During this time, dramatic changes have taken place in Karl Tanzler's personal life. The ghost of Helena the Cuban was replaced by the ghost of Countess Anna von Kosel. The old otherworldly love is gone and replaced by a new one. Now Elena gave the Danceler advice and made him happy with her presence every day.
In 1933, Elena turned to Karl with the words that she was bored of lying in a cold crypt and that she wanted to move to the Tanzler's house to warm him on a love bed. If you suddenly did not have enough definitions for the highest degree of madness, I suggest from now on using the phrase "Mad as Karl Tanzler."
Karl took Elena's remains from the crypt and brought them home in an ordinary construction wheelbarrow. Naturally, there was no wife and children there for a long time - even the wife, who initially knew about the oddities of Tanzler, realized that it would be better for them to live separately - in different cities.
Elena's body was almost decayed, but Karl rebuilt it.
He fastened the bones with a wire hanger, and made a wig from Elena's own hair, which he preserved after her death. Karl dressed the remains in a dress and laid them on his bed, and to bring down the smell of decomposition, he used perfumery. One can only guess how he smelled after a night with Elena - this is Florida, it's hot and humid.
In addition to restoring eyes and skin, Karl made a paper tube, which he placed in the mummy's basin, so that the heat of passion between lovers never cooled down.
The truth was learned only seven years after Elena's death, in 1940. Her sister, also a tuberculosis patient, once came to Tanzler's house for a consultation and found a cadaver in her bedroom, dressed in a dress she was familiar with. On the same day, Karl was detained by the police, and the whole of America learned about his case.
Tanzler was prosecuted for "Mindless and malicious destruction of a grave and removal of a body without permission." However, strangely enough, he did not suffer any punishment, and the inhabitants of Key West remained on the side of Charles. They saw in him not a disgusting defiler of graves and a necrophile, but only an eccentric romantic who could not come to terms with the death of his beloved.
After Elena
Helen's body taken from Karl was put on public display as an exhibit. Before she was buried again, more than six thousand people saw the strange mummy covered with silk skin.
Contemporary actors play Karl and Elena in the production of Undying Love.
Karl Tanzler lived in Key West for another four years, and in 1944 he moved to Zephyrhills, reuniting with his family as much as possible after all that happened. Karl and his wife lived in neighboring houses, and she monitored the state of his mental health and even supported him as best she could.
Karl was not only not ashamed of his past, he even made good money on it, talking about his life in all sorts of tabloid publications, especially in the Fantastic Adventures magazine.
The rest of the time he was engaged in repairing organs and playing this instrument. The gothic fugues, which he loved from his youth until his death, were perfect as the background music of his life.
Karl was not killed for long about his love. He made a wax doll with Elena's death mask and believed that her spirit had moved to this new refuge, so that the lovers were reunited again. Tanzler died in 1952, one might say in the arms of Elena. His body was found three weeks after his death, so at first it was even difficult to identify him.
Half a century after his death, Karl Tanzler remains in the USA something like the Dyatlov Pass with us: his story has been widely circulated and even managed to set the public on edge, and the musicians are still inspired by an eccentric necrophile.
For example, the group And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead dedicated an entire album to Karl Tanzler - The Secret of Elena's Tomb.
Vladimir Brovin