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Carl Von Cosel

Although, not a serial killer - this story fascinates me.
In 1927, the 50 year old Karl Tanzler arrived in Key West, Florida. Originaly from Dresden, Germany, and having recently abandoned his wife and two daughters, he now called himself 'Count Carl Von Cosel' and claimed to have nine university degrees. He found employment as an x-ray technician and bacteriologist at Marine Hospital; in his spare time he built an airship, tinkered with curious electrical devices and played music on his home-made organ.
In 1934, Dr. Carl Von Cosel worked at a Key West hospital, treating patients suffering from then-incurable tuberculosis. He fell in love with a 22-year-old patient named Elena Hoyos. From this moment on Von Cosel was obsessed. Convinced he had dreamed about her for decades and that she was destined to be his bride, he lavished her with gifts (which she accepted), proposals of marriage (which she rejected) and set about trying to cure her with electric shock machines and potions of his own devising, which included specks of gold amongst their ingredients. When she died, Von Cosel got permission from her family to build her a mausoleum. There, Von Cosel used formaldehyde to preserve the body, visiting it nightly.
unable to stand the thought of his darling Elena rotting underground, Von Cosel designed and built for her an ornate mausoleum. Her body was disinterred, placed in a new metal coffin and housed in the crypt. Night after night, Von Cosel sat next to her coffin and began, he believed, to communicate with Elena. She begged him to release her from her 'prison' so they could be together. Later, Von Cosel secretly moved Elena's body to his home. For the next seven years, he held her body together with piano wire, put glass eyes where her real ones used to be, made a wig of her own hair and, piece by piece, strenthened her skin with wax and silk. He treated her with lotions and potions and electrotherapy. Amongst his ressurection tools was a million volt tesla coil. He serenaded her with his home-made organ and slept beside her until his deception was uncovered by Elena's sister. Horrified at the discovery, Elena's sister took what appeared be a wax dummy to the local morgue to be autopsied. The "dummy" was actually the decayed corpse of Elena Hoyos; her bones held together with piano wire, her skin had been treated with wax, her eye sockets filled with glass replacements, and she'd been perfumed to mask the odor of decomposition.
Declared sane, Von Cosel was not charged with a crime because the statute of limitations on grave robbing had expired. Elena Hoyos was eventually buried at a secret location. Von Cosel, separated from his love, used a death mask to create a life-sized dummy of her, and lived with it until his death in July 1952. Von Cosel was found dead, slumped over the effigy of his beloved Elena.




Von Cosel





Elena


Love is Love, or not?