When we talk about the top 10 bizarre biting attacks, most people picture the infamous Austin Harrouff face‑munching incident or Mike Tyson’s ear‑snacking episode with Evander Holyfield. Yet, the reality is that jaw‑dropping bite‑related assaults occur far more often than you’d imagine.
10 Mafioso Muncher
In the harsh world of incarceration, makeshift weapons can emerge from the most unexpected places – even a set of teeth. On September 9, 2020, Italian daily Il Messaggero reported a chilling episode in which a Sicilian Mafia boss literally bit off and swallowed a prison guard’s right‑hand pinkie during a routine cell inspection.
The perpetrator, Giuseppe Fanara, 60, lunged at the guard at Rome’s Rebibbia Prison, snapping the finger clean off. Prosecutors later noted that the missing digit appeared to have been devoured, leading to the conclusion that it was indeed eaten.
Fanara was already serving a life sentence and had spent nine years in solitary under Italy’s strict 41‑bis anti‑mafia regime, a law designed to isolate high‑ranking mobsters and prevent them from running criminal enterprises from behind bars. This draconian measure also meant he endured extreme isolation.
Following the gruesome act, authorities moved the don to the high‑security facility in Sassari, Sardinia, and slapped him with fresh charges of aggravated assault and resisting arrest. The bite wasn’t his only weapon; witnesses said he brandished a broomstick at six other guards while threatening, “I’ll slit your throats like pigs.”
9 I Don’t Eat Flesh, I Just Drink Blood
In April 2019, a bizarre assault unfolded at a Sunoco station in Taunton, Massachusetts. Nineteen‑year‑old Joel Davila attacked a gas‑station attendant, ripping a sizable chunk from the clerk’s face after the employee tried to stop Davila from stealing.
While licking blood from his fingertips, Davila allegedly declared, “I don’t eat flesh, I just drink blood.” Witness Michael Keegan restrained the attacker until police arrived, describing Davila’s behavior as “hissing like a feral cat” and noting that he smeared the clerk’s blood across his own hands.
When officers finally intervened, they searched for the missing piece of flesh. Davila later contradicted his own words, saying, “I think I ate it. You can cut my stomach open to check.” He was ordered to remain without bail at Bridgewater State Hospital for a mental‑health evaluation, with family members stating, “Joel is not stable right now.” Earlier, in November 2018, he had been arrested for vandalizing a church and urinating on its floor.
8 Missing Manhood
August 2019 bore witness to a harrowing kidnapping that ended in an unexpected act of self‑defence. A woman, whose name remains undisclosed, managed to escape her captor by biting off his penis. After fleeing the scene, she knocked on several doors before finally seeking refuge at a Waffle House in Greenville, South Carolina.
Police later discovered that the perpetrator, Dennis Slaton, 61, a registered sex offender, was covered in blood at his residence. Slaton, who already had convictions for sodomy and attempted rape, told 7News that the woman had bitten off his manhood, though the official police report did not detail how the severance occurred.
According to the timeline, Slaton had picked up the victim at a gas station on August 8, 2019, then threatened her with a knife, forcing her into his home where he sexually assaulted her. The victim ultimately turned the tables, stabbing Slaton in the buttocks and using his own knife to bite off his penis before escaping.
7 Rough Roleplay
September 2019 brought a grotesque scene to a Rochester Hills, Michigan home, where Oakland County deputies discovered two partially nude women drenched in blood. Among them was Allison Thompson Weaver, 44, who was found hovering over a 48‑year‑old woman with a partially detached ear.
According to the victim, she had invited Weaver over for drinks. After rejecting Weaver’s sexual advances, the victim went to bed, only to awaken to Weaver stripping her, strangling her, and biting her face. Deputy Shawn Hopkins reported that Weaver claimed the encounter was consensual, describing the victim as a “vampire” while she took on the role of the “wolf.”
Hopkins noted that the victim’s left ear appeared partially missing and that a chunk of cheek flesh seemed to have been bitten off. The victim insisted the role‑play was non‑consensual, although she recalled a brief kiss from years prior when their daughters were young.
6 Uber Attack
August 18, 2019, saw an Uber driver in midtown Atlanta become the victim of an unprovoked assault. After dropping off a passenger, Yasser Hadi was approached by Tasheena Denise Campbell, 26, who suddenly pounced on his Prius.
Campbell first smashed the driver’s windshield wipers, then forced her way into the vehicle and delivered a series of haymakers before sinking her teeth into Hadi’s midsection. Bystanders captured the incident on video but failed to intervene until the damage was already done.
Police later arrested Campbell on charges of battery and criminal trespass. The report detailed her erratic behavior, including urinating on the station floor, repeatedly ramming her head against a wall, and requiring restraints. Hadi described the bite as lasting “30 seconds,” noting that it targeted his ribs and, metaphorically, his job, health, and pocket money.
5 Psychotic Cellmate
On December 4, 2019, Miguel Lucas, 26, filed a lawsuit against San Diego County after a harrowing incident inside a county jail. Lucas claimed that fellow inmate Reginald Harmon, 35, launched an unprovoked attack, biting off a large portion of his cheek.
Harmon, who had a documented history of assaulting other inmates, was reportedly warned by his own mother that he required a segregated cell. Lucas’s attorney, Chris Morris, argued that the incident highlighted a systemic failure to prioritize mental health within the jail system.
According to Lucas, the assault lasted roughly fifteen minutes, during which Deputy Gustafson observed the attack via security monitors but did nothing. Lucas alleged that the deputy and other staff members even photographed the severed cheek, later suggesting that he “could have put up a better fight.” The trauma left Lucas with PTSD and a pronounced keloid scar.
4 Moment Of Madness
February 3, 2019, turned a night out at Dundee’s Aura Nightclub into a nightmare when 19‑year‑old college student Danielle Gaffar launched a savage attack on fellow patron Kyra Strachan, 18. The assault erupted over a former flame, with Gaffar seizing Strachan, pulling her hair, and forcing her head into the floor.
Gaffar then choked Strachan and delivered a brutal bite to her cheek, permanently disfiguring her. The injury required plastic surgery to repair the missing flesh. The Scottish court sentenced Gaffar to 16 months, describing the act as “entirely out of character.”
Despite Gaffar’s claim that the “loss of self‑control” would never recur, Sheriff Thomas Hughes emphasized the necessity of a custodial sentence, noting the severe emotional and professional repercussions the victim faced, including death threats and lost job opportunities.
3 A Bite Out Of Discrimination
On April 1, 2020, a COVID‑19 patient in Guangzhou, China, attacked a nurse named Wang Hong, sinking his teeth into her face. The assailant, Okonkwonwoye Chika Patrick, 47, a Nigerian passport holder, refused medical testing and violently resisted quarantine measures.
Patrick shoved Wang to the ground, pummelled her, and then bit her face before police could intervene. Authorities indicated that he would face charges once released from treatment.
The incident unfolded amid widespread discrimination against Africans in Guangzhou during the pandemic. Time reported that landlords installed surveillance cameras, magnetic strips, and alarms on African residents’ doors, enforcing a policy that “all Africans must be isolated at home.” Additionally, African families faced exorbitant quarantine fees and were barred from supermarkets and restaurants, including McDonald’s.
2 Never Mind The Dog, Beware Of Owner
January 3, 2019, saw a bizarre confrontation on Oakland’s Goldenrod Trail when 19‑year‑old Alma Cadwalader bit a jogger, Cyndi Stainner, after the latter pepper‑sprayed Cadwalader’s off‑leash shepherd‑husky mix to prevent an attack.
Stainner testified that the dog’s owner struck her in the head, forced her face into the dirt, and then Cadwalader latched her teeth onto Stainner’s arm for ten to fifteen seconds, describing the grip as “literally latched to my arm.”
Cadwalader’s attorney, Emily Dahm, admitted the bite but argued it was self‑defence, as Cadwalader was trying to stop Stainner from pepper‑spraying the dog. Cadwalader had no prior criminal record but faced charges of false imprisonment, battery with serious bodily injury, and robbery. Stainner’s friend, Sue Hernandez, emphasized that it was inconceivable for a nurse and animal lover to harm a dog unless absolutely necessary.
1 Hold My F—king Cigarette
During a Christmas celebration in 2018, a high‑profile businessman went on a biting rampage at a Welsh Wetherspoons pub in Aberdare, targeting cricket coach Jarrad Davies, 23. The assailant, Anthony Wade Mears, 51, the head of Saudi‑based Ma’aden Aluminium, allegedly shouted, “hold my f—king cigarette” before lunging at Davies.
Mears delivered four bites, one of which left a deep puncture resembling a “second belly‑button” on Davies’s midsection. Initially denying the assault, Mears was later confronted with CCTV footage, prompting a guilty plea.
The court sentenced him to 21 months, later reduced to six months on appeal. Curiously, Mears’s father had served as a detective inspector in Aberdare for over three decades, adding a strange familial twist to the saga.