Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in: You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. The truth, however, will forever remain lost to time. In April of 1933, Carl Tanzler removed Hoyos body from the mausoleum, no longer requiring him to make his nightly visits to the graveyard as she would now be housed in his own home. As manager of this memorial you can add or update the memorial using the Edit button below. She was his soulmate, so he created a life-size doll from a death mask that closely resembled his favorite woman. They vow to stay together, even after death. Thanks for using Find a Grave, if you have any feedback we would love to hear from you. Although he was already married with 2 daughters, Carl was immediately struck by Marias appearance. While he had a family of his own, he was still disappointed that he hadnt met the woman of his dreams. He hoped she would return the same feelings. She had come to the Marine Hospital for treatment of tuberculosis. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Surprisingly, a psychiatric evaluation by the court found Carl to be mentally competent. She was his soulmate and he would do whatever it took to always be by her side. She died on October 25, 1931 at the age of 22. . Meek (2017) quotes an interview Elenas sister Nana gave to the Miami Herald: [Elena] never loved [Tanzler]. When this was ineffective, he contemplated relocating her remains to the stratosphere. The extent of this has never been revealed fully, only that Tanzler had been interned in Australia as a prisoner-of-war for a time. Tanzler was not even with Elena at the time she died. Maria was married at the age of 16 to a man named Luis Mesa, who abandoned her after she miscarried their child. d. Cosel was (Harrison 1996, Meek 2017). Tanzler loved everything about Hoyos. Fantastic Adventures, Sep. 1947, pp.10 69. This account has been disabled. She had dark hair, was beautiful and was a foreigner. [1] Tanzler received United States citizenship in 1950 in Tampa. Carl had basically abandoned his wife and children, and was more content living with a dead body than a live woman. [1][8] Two physicians (Dr. DePoo and Dr. Foraker) who attended the 1940 autopsy of Elena's remains recalled in 1972 that a vaginal tube had been inserted in the vaginal area of the corpse that allowed for intercourse. The list is numerous and was all justified by Tanzler in the name of love. Tanzler would extensively claim in this memoir, as well as during his 1940 court hearing and in numerous newspaper interviews that he had been seeing apparitions of Elena ever since he was a child, and it was the ghost of Elena that instructed him to enshrine her body in his home. Born in Key West in 1909, the daughter of a cigar maker and a homemaker, Hoyos was raised in a large family and was brought to the hospital by her mother after becoming ill. As a young boy in Germany, Tanzler would often have visions of a stunning, dark-haired woman who was predestined to be his one true love. German-born American radiology technologist and erotomaniac. Her family initially assumed that this illness was sadness due to the loss of her child, but the cough was not moving. [9] Elena's body was eventually returned to the Key West Cemetery where the remains were buried in an unmarked grave, in a secret location, to prevent further tampering. The Living Doll of Key West: Elena Hoyos & Count Von Cosel. And when he proposed marriage, she always told him You are too old. Weve updated the security on the site. But thats easier said than done, right? (b. For the past eighty years, the story of Elena Hoyos has been told primarily through the point-of-view of Carl Tanzler, a man who portrayed himself as so in love he could not bear to live without her. Resend Activation Email. A cousin revealed to The Tennessean Sun in 1940: [Elenas] two rescues from death [via electric shock by Tanzler / von Cosel] had been so painful that Elena finally died hating her rescuer and [begged] to be allowed to stay dead. A system error has occurred. The Count [Tanzler] is in love, hes a much older man in love with a young girl who wants nothing to do with him. Interestingly, Morrall (2006) uses the word mercy in love as a motivator for murder, as does Tanzler in the confession note I gave this to her mercifully (Michelfelder 1982, p.8). Carl was doing more than playing dress up with Elena. The mausoleum Carl had Elena laid to rest in. He even installed a telephone line to Elenas crypt so that he could continue speaking to her. Sadly, the story does not end here, and it takes a Weekend at Bernies sort of twist, but with some added necrophilia. Learn about how to make the most of a memorial. On February 18, 1926, she married Luis Mesa, but he left her shortly after she suffered a miscarriage of the couples first child. However, he managed to keep Marias body in his home for seven years without being discovered. Most curiously, he had made a death mask of her face to preserve her beauty. Thats what happened between Carl Tanzler and Maria Elena Helen Milagro de Hoyos. Heartbroken over his loss, Tanzler decided to pay for her funeral, and, with her familys permission, he commissioned the construction of an above-ground mausoleum in the Key West Cemetery. Over time, his patient learned to trust him, but Tanzler had other motives that a medical professional shouldnt have with their patient. Instead, he found plenty of things to do, including fashioning a wig for her once her hair fell out of her decomposing scalp. While no existing contemporary photographs of the autopsy or photographs taken at the public display show a tube, the necrophilia claim was repeated by the HBO Autopsy program in 1999.[10]. He adopted his official nickname, Count Carl von Cosel. As the hair fell out of Elena's decomposing scalp, Tanzler fashioned a wig from her hair, which he had previously obtained from her mother. Like most patients, Hoyos was scared of the illness and the treatment. You are nearing the transfer limit for memorials managed by Find a Grave. She also received x-rays, which is when she met her radiologist, Carl Von Cosel. During his childhood in Germany, and later while traveling briefly in Genoa, Italy, Tanzler claimed to have been visited by visions of a dead, purported ancestor, Countess Anna Constantia von Cosel, who revealed the face of his true love, an exotic dark-haired woman, to him. Check out Rachel's pod/comedy! He kept her body in his bed, where he slept beside her every night. The findings of which were most prominently reproduced in an episode of HBOs Autopsy series: I found a tube [in Elenas vagina] wide enough to permit sexual intercourse. But its not exactly as romantic as you would think. Once home, Tanzler stitched Hoyos decomposing body back together, attaching the corpses bones with wire and coat hangers. Harrison (1996) adds that Countess damsel (what the Ct. d. stood for) is not an actual title, just something again self-created by Tanzler to further tie Elena and himself together. 0 cemeteries found in Key West, Monroe County, Florida, USA. Please contact Find a Grave at [emailprotected] if you need help resetting your password. The former corpse bride is now at rest. It should be stated, he too had a wife and two young kids albeit he neglected to mention this in any of his writings. Tanzler went by many names; he was listed as Georg Karl Tnzler on his German marriage certificate. It seemed to be someone admitting to killing someone. Fifty years ago she appeared to me in a vision, and she promised then to be my bride. He did this, as needed, inside of an old airplane he had repurposed into a makeshift medical laboratory. His subsequent actions would be the ones that brought this story to public infamy. They were unaware that the doctor had found sperm inside Elenas corpse, clear evidence of necrophilia. [1] Tanzler paid for her funeral, and with the permission of her family, he then commissioned the construction of an above ground mausoleum in the Key West Cemetery, which he visited almost every night. On April 22, 1930, while working at the Marine Hospital, Tanzler met the one person in his life he had been searching for since he was 12 years old: his soulmate. The case was now the center of a media circus, and 6,800 spectators came to gawk at the macabre spectacle, paying $1 each for the privilege. His obituary said that a metal cylinder on a shelf above a table in it wrapped in silken cloth and a robe was a waxen image.. Bienvenido Perez, in a later interview for Men True Adventure magazine (n.d.), would reveal much darker intentions on Tanzlers part. File photo of Carl Tanzler when he worked as a . In 1940, when her sister Nana confronted him about taking her body, Tanzler as equally as vehement, making statements such as, [Elena] is an angel, but not you (p. 68), You never looked after her for the past nine years, she has been under my care all these years. They called him an eccentric romantic and felt sorry for his psychological disorder. Please reorganize this content to explain the subject's impact on popular culture, "The Trial Bay Organ: A Product of Wit and Ingenuity,", St. Petersburg Times, December 31, 1998; page 8: "Ayesha T. Bucey (Ann), 76, of Zephyrhills, died Sunday (December 27, 1998) at East Pasco Medical Center. She went over to his home to confront him, and found out his terrible secret. It can be awakened. Remove advertising from a memorial by sponsoring it for just $5. However, he became interested in engineering and electrical work there, bought property, boats, an organ, an island in the Pacificso that he was still in Australia at the end of ten years. He wrote his autobiography in 1947, and received American citizenship in 1950, because whats more American than defiling a dead body? All photos appear on this tab and here you can update the sort order of photos on memorials you manage. Continuing with this request will add an alert to the cemetery page and any new volunteers will have the opportunity to fulfill your request. An autopsy of the body revealed the intricacies of Tanzlers work, which included a paper tube inserted between her legs, forming a makeshift vagina, although Tanzler never admitted to committing any necrophiliac acts. All right reserved. He once shouted at her parents, Will you take the responsibility to let your daughter die through your stupidity? (p. 32) and on finding their new residence recalled, if anyone had tried to stop me [from entering], I think, I would have used violence (p.28). She told Von Cosel that he would marry a young woman who, Von Cosel decided, looked precisely like Elena Hoyos. He allegedly professed his love for her and showered her with gifts, but there's no record of her ever returning his sentiments. Nosy neighbours who peered through Carls window saw him dancing with the figure of a woman, and some thought it was a large doll. Rigor mortis had set in, leaving her limbs stiffened in unnatural . The disease would later claim the lives of almost everyone in Hoyos immediate family, including her sister, Florinda Nana Milagro Hoyos. Autopsy 6: Secrets of the Dead. He stuffed her body with rags, waxed the skin with plaster of Paris, and even fitted the face with glass eyes. It was estimated that she wouldnt have long to live, but Von Cosel disagreed. While her family did consider this drastic change in behavior to be a bit strange, they could not have imagined the reasoning behind it. Von Cosel robbed her body from the grave. He created a life-like effigy and mask of her face, to replace the confiscated cadaver. I had hopes that, when Elena was out of danger, we would get married. Authorities took Elena from him. It is a great shame that someone of such beauty and character be made endure the travesties she went through in her brief life and even after it ended. Everyones heard the phrase until death parts us. Couples make this vow and they promise to love each other for the rest of their lives. Back to Carl: despite being in his 50s and resembling Sigmund Freud, he did not inhibit himself from making strong advances towards young Maria. Learn more about merges. He searched for her, but he could never meet the woman he saw in his dream. 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