When you hear the phrase 10 extreme reports, you probably picture wild rumors or horror movies. In reality, over the past two centuries real people have faced such desperate circumstances that they crossed the ultimate taboo: eating human flesh. Below, we walk through each chilling case, from doomed sea voyages to wartime sieges, and see exactly how and why these atrocities unfolded.
Unsettling Accounts of Survival
10 Essex Crew
The annals of maritime disaster are littered with grim tales, and the 1820 tragedy of the whaling vessel Essex stands out as a textbook example of why cannibalism can become a brutal last resort.
After a ferocious sperm whale rammed the ship, the crew of twenty scrambled into three lifeboats. Supplies ran thin, and three men chose to abandon the flotilla on a desolate island, leaving seventeen to drift on the open sea.
Weeks of exposure took a toll. One sailor suffered a convulsive fit and died; his comrades, driven by starvation, sliced open his body, harvested the organs, and consumed what they could.
As additional crew members succumbed to the elements, the survivors turned on each other. Eventually a grim decision was made to sacrifice one more man so the remaining five could stay alive. Those five were rescued, bearing the haunting memory of what they had done.
9 Until There Was Only One
In 1822, a band of eight convicts escaped the brutal confines of Sarah Island. Among them was the notorious Alexander Pearce, whose journey into the Tasmanian bush would become a macabre saga of survival.
After a few days, three men abandoned the group, leaving five desperate fugitives. Hunger soon forced the first gruesome act: the group butchered a man named Bodman, ensuring that each participant shared in the crime.
Later, another grim episode unfolded. Pearce and a companion restrained a third convict while Greenhill slit his throat and dismembered him. When Matthew Travers fell victim next, only Pearce and Greenhill remained.
Eventually a camp was discovered. Pearce emerged alone; Greenhill had already been consumed. Pearce’s subsequent capture and confession shocked authorities, who only believed him after a second escape revealed human remains hidden in his pockets. He was later executed for his cannibalism.
8 The Francis Mary
The timber‑laden schooner Francis Mary was caught in a ferocious gale on 5 February 1826. Both masts snapped, leaving the vessel adrift and its twenty‑one souls facing imminent starvation.
The first casualty died after several days, but the crew hesitated to turn to cannibalism. When a second crew member perished, the men finally cut up his body, dried the meat, and rationed it among themselves.
More deaths followed, and the grim routine continued. When the ship’s cook was on the brink of death, his wife Ann Saunders claimed “property rights” over his corpse, bled him, and claimed the larger share of flesh. She then assumed the role of cook, reportedly showing no remorse as she prepared the human fare.
Rescue finally arrived, finding only six survivors among the original twenty‑one, each bearing the haunting memory of what they had been forced to do.
7 A Native Feast
In 1866, a French war steamer dispatched a small boat up a river on the island of New Caledonia. The boat never returned, prompting a frantic search that uncovered a gruesome scene.
When the steamer finally reached the river’s mouth, it discovered the mutilated remains of its own men—clearly killed and devoured by local tribes.
Captured natives confessed that they had split the victims’ skulls with axes, boiled the flesh, and eaten it. One tribal member even complained that an elderly victim was so tough they had to cook him longer before the meat became palatable.
Outraged, the French forces retaliated mercilessly, killing every native they could locate in a brutal campaign of vengeance.
6 The Greely Expedition
The ill‑fated Greely Arctic expedition set sail in 1881 under the command of Lieutenant Adolphus Greely, aiming to establish a scientific outpost in the high north.
Twenty‑five men departed, but by 1884 only six remained alive when a rescue party finally reached them after a grueling three‑year ordeal.
Initially hailed as heroes, the survivors soon faced scandal when rumors swirled that one of the men had been shot and consumed. Government officials attempted to suppress the story, but autopsies on the deceased confirmed the horrific truth.
5 Eat The Youngest
In 1884, affluent Australian lawyer Jack Want commissioned the yacht Mignonette for a leisurely voyage to Australia. He hired an experienced seaman and three crewmen to crew the vessel.
A violent storm battered the yacht in the South Atlantic, sinking it. The four men escaped onto a tiny dinghy, but supplies were nonexistent.
For three harrowing weeks they survived on turtle blood, their own urine, and sheer willpower. When desperation peaked, they abandoned the idea of drawing lots and instead chose to kill the youngest and weakest member, 17‑year‑old Richard Parker.
After feasting on Parker’s flesh, the remaining three were rescued, forever marked by the grim choice they had made.
4 Frozen Strips Of Meat
Siberian penal colonies earned a fearsome reputation for their harsh conditions. In 1903, four inmates fled the island of Saghalien, hoping to reach freedom.
Two were quickly recaptured, but the other two vanished into the unforgiving tundra. With supplies exhausted, the pair turned on each other, murdering their companions.
They drained the victims’ blood, sliced the flesh into thin strips, and laid the pieces in the snow to freeze, creating makeshift jerky. When authorities finally caught them, the men still clutched frozen strips of human meat.
3 Siege Of Leningrad
When German forces encircled Leningrad in the summer of 1941, they severed every supply line, plunging the city into a months‑long famine.
Initially, citizens foraged the zoo for animal meat and turned to any fish they could catch. As the crisis deepened, they began eating their own pets, and eventually resorted to consuming wallpaper paste and boiling down leather into a gelatinous broth.
Desperation forced many to cross the ultimate taboo: cannibalism. Estimates suggest hundreds to thousands of residents partook in human flesh consumption. The city’s police even formed a special task force to curb the practice, highlighting the sheer scale of the horror.
2 Belsen Prison Camp
During World War II, the Bergen‑Belsen complex evolved from a prisoner‑of‑war camp to a notorious concentration camp, cramming civilians and soldiers alike into cramped, disease‑ridden barracks.
By early 1945, food rations had been reduced to starvation levels. Survivors went days without a bite, and the sight of emaciated bodies became a daily reality.
When Allied forces finally liberated the camp, Brigadier Glyn Hughes reported chilling testimonies: “The prison doctors tell me that cannibalism is going on.” He described bodies stripped of flesh, with organs like liver, kidneys, and heart neatly cut out for consumption.
1 Human Flesh In Pots
In February 1948, authorities in the Russian‑controlled sector of Chemnitz received a baffling missing‑person report concerning 26‑year‑old Maria Oehme. Her brother, Bernard, was suspected.
Police searching the Oehme residence uncovered a grotesque scene: pots, buckets, and dishes filled with human flesh, while Maria’s severed head, hands, and feet lay hidden in the cellar.
Confronted, Bernard confessed to killing, cooking, and eating his sister, offering no motive for his gruesome act. The case remains one of the most unsettling post‑war cannibalism reports on record.