If you've found yourself on this website, then odds are you've either read or, at the very least, heard of my novel Inside the Outside.
The plot of Inside the Outside revolves around a teenage girl named Timber Marlow who grows up as a cannibal within a cult called the Divinity of Feminine Reproach. The cannibals in the Divinity perform a ritual called the Sustenance Sacrifice, before killing and eating their members.
Part of the fun for me in developing the Divinity was creating a group that sounded plausible to readers, even though it would probably never, ever happen in real life.
Well, this morning my brother sent me a news story with the following headline:
"Brazilian Police Swoop on 'Cannibal' Cult"
"Brazilian police have arrested a man and two women on suspicion of having murdered and eaten at least two women in what was described as a purification ritual."
So, of course, I needed to know more about this Brazilian cult. After a bit of research, I found this headline:
"Cannibal Gang 'Made Meat Pastries Out of Victims' Flesh"
"[Jorge and Elizabeth Pires da Silveira, both 51, and Bruna da Silva, 25] arrested on suspicion of having murdered and cannibalised [sic] at least two women in what was described as a purification ritual. The trio also apparently took some of the meat and cooked it into meat pastries which they sold on the street."
Obviously, this got me curious about how many other cannibal stories have been in the news lately, so I did a quick five-minute sweep on Google and, below, are a couple of the stranger stories I came across.
"'Cannibal Serial Killer' Arrested in Russia"
"Police said [Alexander Bychkov's victims] were killed with a knife. They found a diary at Bychkov's house which described how he cut up the victims and ate their livers. Detectives believe the alleged killer may be responsible for more murders because a series of people have gone missing without trace from around the small town of Belinsk in the last two years."
"Cannibal Mafia Bosses Ate Traitor in Spain"
"A mafia traitor was beaten to death with a hammer and then eaten by Serbian gangsters, police believe. Officers said Milan Jurisic, 37, was killed in Madrid by criminals from the Zemun Clan, a mafia group from Belgrade. His remains were then ground up with a meat grinder, cooked, and eaten, according to a confession by another Zemun Clan member, Sretko Kalinic, nicknamed 'The Butcher.'"
Truth is stranger than fiction, indeed. Or, in my case, truth is pretty much right on par with fiction.