Not every monster gets its just deserts. In this top 10 sick roundup we dive into the darkest corners of the legal system, where loopholes, technicalities, and bizarre standards have let some truly twisted people slip back into everyday life. Buckle up for a wild ride through necrophilia, cannibalism, school shootings, and more – all the while wondering how these monsters managed to walk free.
Why These top 10 sick Cases Matter
10 Carl Tanzler
Carl Tanzler became infatuated with his patient, Elena de Hoyos, just as she was dying. Rather than accept death, he bought her burial plot, pocketed the key, and later exhumed her body, smuggling it straight into his own home.
Using plaster, wire, and wax, Tanzler turned Elena into a macabre, lifelike tableau, propping her up in his bedroom. He spent nights beside the corpse, constantly replacing decaying parts, outfitting her with fresh clothing, and even fashioning a paper tube as a makeshift vagina.
It took seven long years before a neighbor finally caught sight of Tanzler dancing with the corpse at his window. By that time, the statute of limitations had run out, leaving the courts powerless. Tanzler walked away without a single charge for his necrophilic obsession.
He even begged Elena’s family to hand over her remains. When they refused, he crafted a life‑size effigy anyway and spent the rest of his days cohabiting with a mannequin of his dead lover.
9 Rick Gibson
Rick Gibson isn’t a painter; he’s a performance artist who prefers to feast on human tissue in broad daylight.
In 1988 he bought a friend’s tonsils, strutted into a bustling market, and chewed them while holding a sign that proclaimed his cannibalism. A year later he escalated, swallowing fresh human testicles in front of the Lewisham Clock Tower.
Because English law doesn’t specifically outlaw cannibalism, and because Gibson legally purchased the body parts, the only penalty he faced was a modest £500 fine for indecency when he fashioned earrings from fetal remains.
His antics didn’t stop there. In 1989 he attempted to squash a live rat for a painting, but a vigilante crowd intervened, rescuing the animal before he could carry out his grotesque act.
8 Father Mario Cimmarrusti
During the 1960s and 70s, Father Mario Cimmarrusti abused more than 250 teenage boys, most aged 13‑18, and never spent a single night behind bars.
He would summon boys for “medical examinations,” only to spank them, force their faces into his groin, and humiliate them with threats, all while the abuse continued unchecked.
The Catholic hierarchy was aware; witnesses reported priests walking in on Cimmarrusti’s assaults and simply walking away without comment.
When the accusations finally surfaced in 1992, he openly admitted to the abuse during a psychological evaluation. However, the statute of limitations had already expired, allowing him to walk away free. He lived out his remaining years peacefully, passing away at 82 in 2013.
7 James Sligo Jameson
In 1890 the heir to the Jameson Whiskey fortune, James Sligo Jameson, decided to sponsor a grotesque spectacle: he purchased a ten‑year‑old girl as a slave solely to watch her being devoured by cannibals.
Jameson joined an expedition to the Congo under the guise of humanitarian aid, but his true fascination lay with cannibalism. He paid a local tribe six handkerchiefs for the girl, then presented her to a cannibal tribe, declaring, “A gift from a white man who wishes to see her eaten.”
The girl was bound to a tree, her abdomen slit open, and left to bleed out before being dismembered and consumed. Jameson observed the whole ordeal, later sketching the horror in watercolor.
When the story broke, Jameson sent his account to the press, never disputing the facts. He only clarified that his sketches were drawn from memory after the event.
6 Vince Li
In 2008, aboard a Greyhound bus, Vince Li stabbed and beheaded Tim McLean, a complete stranger, then proceeded to cannibalize his flesh while terrified passengers fled.
Because Li was deemed criminally insane, he was sent to a mental institution rather than prison. Canadian law grants such patients a full release once they no longer pose a threat.
By 2016 Li was living independently, initially subject to daily medication checks. By February 2017 those checks ceased entirely, leaving him completely free without supervision.
When Tim McLean’s mother learned of Li’s unrestricted freedom, she could only say, “I have no comment today. I have no words.”
5 Mitchell Johnson And Andrew Golden
In 1998, teenage duo Mitchell Johnson (13) and Andrew Golden (11) stole nine firearms and a crate of ammunition, setting up an ambush outside a middle school in Jonesboro, Arkansas. Golden triggered the fire alarm, and as children streamed out, the pair opened fire, killing four kids and an adult.
Johnson’s criminal record already included molesting a two‑year‑old girl a year earlier, a crime he never denied yet faced no jail time. For the school shooting, the two received only seven years, as juvenile law capped their sentences until they turned 21.
The age‑based system, meant to protect youth, paradoxically let both boys walk free far earlier than most adult perpetrators, with Golden actually serving a longer term due to being younger.
Since release, Johnson has cycled in and out of prison, while Golden remains out, making them the only U.S. school shooters who have been allowed to roam free.
4 William Seabrook
Writer William Seabrook was obsessed with the occult, especially voodoo zombies, and his work helped cement the modern zombie mythos.
In the 1920s he traveled to West Africa, begging a tribal chief to let him join a cannibalistic rite. The chief duped him, offering only gorilla meat, but Seabrook refused to settle for anything less than human flesh.
Back home, he enlisted a hospital worker to smuggle out human remains, then hosted a dinner party where guests were invited to watch him consume the flesh. Since eating human tissue wasn’t illegal, he faced no charges and even chronicled the taste in his books.
His private life was equally unsettling: he kept wives and mistresses chained for days, whipping them and forcing them to eat off the floor like animals. Yet, none of these acts broke any law, allowing him to live his entire life unencumbered.
3 Pedro Lopez
Pedro Lopez spent 14 years behind bars for a staggering tally of over 300 murders and rapes, primarily targeting girls aged nine to twelve.
He abducted, raped, strangled, and buried his victims in mass graves. After his 1980 arrest in Ecuador, he confessed to the killings, and authorities uncovered a mass grave confirming his claims. He received a 16‑year sentence but was released early for good behavior.
Following his release, he was transferred to a Colombian mental health facility, only to be discharged after three years when deemed fit to rejoin society.
Almost immediately after gaining freedom, Lopez fled the country, and it is believed he continued killing. He remains a wanted man for a post‑release murder, but his whereabouts are unknown.
2 Karla Homolka
Karla Homolka, alongside Paul Bernardo, became one of Canada’s most infamous serial killers, confessing to the rape and murder of at least three women, though many suspect the body count is higher.
Her gruesome spree began with the drugging of her teenage sister, presenting her as a “wedding gift” to Bernardo. Together they raped and murdered her, filmed the atrocity, and repeated similar crimes with other young girls. Bernardo received a life sentence, while Homolka struck a plea deal, serving just 12 years before her 2005 release.
Since gaining freedom, Homolka married, bore three children, and now lives in a Quebec town. Her kids attend a public school, surrounded by teachers and parents fully aware of their mother’s horrific past, bearing the indirect burden of her crimes.
1 Issei Sagawa
In 1981, after years of suppressing cannibalistic urges, Issei Sagawa lured a classmate to his Paris apartment, shot her in the neck, and proceeded to dismember and eat portions of her flesh before raping the corpse.
Police caught him as he tried to transport the body in suitcases to a lake. He confessed fully, stating, “I killed her to eat her flesh.” French courts deemed him insane and unfit for trial, sending him back to Japan.
When Japanese authorities received him, the French refused to share case documents, leaving Japan without evidence. Consequently, Sagawa was released without charge.
He later turned his notoriety into a career, giving interviews, writing books glorifying the act, and openly declaring his desire to repeat the cannibalism, saying, “There’s no doubt in my mind that I want to eat human flesh again. It’s delicious stuff.”