It was the biggest media frenzy of its day. Marias family soon became puzzled when Carl stopped visiting her grave, but they just assumed that he had finally moved on. Please contact Find a Grave at [emailprotected] if you need help resetting your password. Despite the lack of qualifications needed to treat a tuberculosis patient, Tanzler was determined to save Hoyos and used a variety of specially-made tonics, elixirs, and medicines in an effort to do so. cemeteries found within miles of your location will be saved to your photo volunteer list. This memorial has been copied to your clipboard. Change), You are commenting using your Facebook account. It is through several key pieces of research he came across and our correspondence on these that inspired and made this article a possibility. After reading about the perverse love of Carl Tanzler, brush up on macabre marriages with the Chinese ritual of ghost brides. Join today and youll get up to twenty dollars in shopping credit toward your first order. He showered her with jewelry and clothing, and he frequently professed his love to her. He reportedly said he felt her spirit come to him when he sat by her tomb and serenaded her with her favorite Spanish song. No matter how hard Tanzler tried, he couldnt save Hoyos. He also said that she would often tell him to take her from the grave. Von Cosel was sixty years of age,and decided that they were to have their May-December romance. Carl was doing more than playing dress up with Elena. As long as she lived I never abandoned hope.. In 1972, two doctors who were present at Marias 1940 autopsy recalled how Carl had inserted a paper tube into the corpses vaginal canal to facilitate intercourse. Her full name was Maria Elena Milagro de Hoyos, a heaven-sent love of his life for Carl, and the moment he first saw her, the beginning of a long-lasting "loving" relationship with literally the woman of his dreams-of which she would know nothing about . The former corpse bride is now at rest. Share this memorial using social media sites or email. He inserted glass eyes into her orbitals, and replaced her rotting skin with silk cloth coated by plaster of paris and wax. He did this, as needed, inside of an old airplane he had repurposed into a makeshift medical laboratory. This relationship is not possible based on lifespan dates. They found police logs from the period which described the aforementioned seizure, Tanzlers threat to Elenas father and testimonies from people in her neighbourhood that in the week before Elenas death, he had persuaded her to swallow double doses of his elixir, whichMichelfelder (1982) writes to have contained: 70 percent distilled water, 20 percent gold shavings, fruit favouring and just enough deadly poison to effect [sic] a slow death. Mencken Quotes On Politics, Religion, And The American Public, What Stephen Hawking Thinks Threatens Humankind The Most, 27 Raw Images Of When Punk Ruled New York, Join The All That's Interesting Weekly Dispatch. She had dark hair, was beautiful and was a foreigner. What he did next is unthinkable, and he never really paid a price for it.Join Ash, Alaina and special guest, comedian Rachel O'brien, as we dig deep into Karl's crazy world. 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. This account already exists, but the email address still needs to be confirmed. Finally, I want to acknowledge Elena herself. In fact, he had escaped from an Australian internment camp during WWI by building a makeshift sailboat after secretly studying engineering books. Separated from his dead love, Tanzler used a death mask to create a life-sized effigy of Maria de Hoyos and lived with it until his death. Maria Elena "Helen" Milagro de Hoyos (1909 - 1931) Photos: 4 Records: 23 Born in Key West, Monroe County, Florida on 31 July 1909 to Francisco "Pancho" Frank Hoyos and Aurora Sifontes. Hoyos family didnt realize that the only key to the tomb would remain in Tanzlers possession. Your new password must contain one or more uppercase and lowercase letters, and one or more numbers or special characters. She would remain legally married to Luis until her death. [1], The facts underlying the case and the preliminary hearing drew much interest from the media at the time (most notably, from the Key West Citizen and Miami Herald), and created a sensation among the public, both regionally and nationwide. Harrison, B. You may not upload any more photos to this memorial, This photo was not uploaded because this memorial already has 20 photos, This photo was not uploaded because you have already uploaded 5 photos to this memorial, This photo was not uploaded because this memorial already has 30 photos, This photo was not uploaded because you have already uploaded 15 photos to this memorial. Are you sure that you want to remove this flower? Maria Elena Milagro de Hoyos [ edit] On April 22, 1930, while working at the Marine Hospital in Key West, Tanzler met Maria Elena "Helen" Milagro de Hoyos (1909-1931), a local Cuban-American woman who had been brought to the hospital by her mother for an examination. Though the story is known and historical, not all of the events therein are common knowledge and thus, so too is the true extent of the indignity that Elena suffered. Von Cosel. His subsequent actions would be the ones that brought this story to public infamy. At the end of the war no prisoner was permitted to return to his former residence, but all were shipped to the prisoner's exchange in Holland. Oddly enough, the public found Carl to be a sympathetic figure; a tragic romantic who had lost his beloved to cruel fate. When the King grew tired of the feisty and headstrong Countess, he had her exiled, and she stayed that way for 49 years until her death. However, the case was eventually dropped and Tanzler was released from prison because the statute of limitations for the committed crime had expired. Although reporters wrote that Carl Von Cosel died alone in 1952, this is somewhat untrue. He wrote his autobiography in 1947, and received American citizenship in 1950, because whats more American than defiling a dead body? St. Martins True Crime Classics. cemeteries found within kilometers of your location will be saved to your photo volunteer list. Why, you are old enough to be my grandfather. After Von Cosel's arrest, Key West put Elena's body on exhibit. He moved to Miami, leaving Hoyos behind to her parents. There are no photographs or other sources to prove this. Whether this is true or not, well never know the answer, but its not something we want to ponder too closely. Elena was in unbearable pain, but her parents approved of Von Cosel's arrangement. Hoyos examination at the Marine Hospital confirmed her worst nightmare: she had tuberculosis, a fatal disease in 1930 that mainly affects the lungs. Elena was dying of tuberculosis, but Tanzler felt that she was his destinydespite having already having a wife and children. It was there that he fell in love with a young Cuban-American woman named Maria Elena Milagro de Hoyos. Please complete the captcha to let us know you are a real person. I have sent you to the angels with my golden elixir (p. 7 8). Her mother was worried about her declining health, but neither of them probably thought Tanzler would take an interest in her. 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. He searched for her, but he could never meet the woman he saw in his dream. Tanzler grew up in Imperial Germany, but, at some point, wound up in Australia just prior to the outbreak of World War I. Years later he was found living in a house near the sea and through an investigation by Elena's sister, it was found that he had been living with her corpse, preserving it with oiled silk and wax to slow the decomposition. Even though people agreed Tanzler committed a crime, many members of the public felt sympathetic towards him. p. 1 + 19. cemeteries found in Key West, Monroe County, Florida, USA will be saved to your photo volunteer list. His home was near his wife Doris, who apparently helped to support Tanzler in his later years. Aconite is a plant native to Northern Asia and Europe. At the bottom of the tube there was cotton and in an examination of the cotton, I found there was sperm (HBO Autopsy 1999). For his final diary entry, Carl had written: Human jealousy has robbed me of the body of my Elena, yet divine happiness is flowing through me for she has survived death. All of Elenas immediate family had also passed away from tuberculosis by this point (Harrison 1996). Carl spent hours at Marias gravesite everyday, talking to her corpse, singing songs to her, reading stories, and other crazy activities that are best left unspoken. Your account has been locked for 30 minutes due to too many failed sign in attempts. There, she found what she believed to be a life-sized effigy of her departed sister. Tanzler insisted on purchasing a pricey stone mausoleum in Key West Cemetery for her remains to lay, and with her parents permission, hired a mortician to prepare her body before locking her inside. Three years later a Cuban-American woman by the name of Maria Elena Milagro De Hoyos, was brought to the hospital by her mother for examination. Oops, we were unable to send the email. Creepy, crawly Count Carl Von Cosel wasnt a count at all. Carl Von Cosel decided that he was in love. While the story was first presented in the media as a tragic love story, something played up to a great extent by Tanzler, more information has slowly come to the surface in the eight decades since Elenas final burial that has given it a much darker turn. Before leaving, he dynamite bombed the mausoleum he had created for Maria, to spite authorities. It turns out that Carl Von Cosel was married with children the entire time. [1], Though not reported contemporaneously, research (most notably by authors Harrison and Swicegood) has revealed evidence of Tanzler's necrophilia with Elena's corpse. Some asked if Key West could seal Elena within a glass case as a permanent exhibit. Suffer no more sweet Elena. One night in 1933, he snuck her body out from the mausoleum in a toy wheelbarrow, and took her home with him. She was Methodist. He claimed he was the most knowledgeable about tuberculosis and he treated her with a variety of medicines, as well as x-ray and electrical equipment. Von Cosel asked the family if he could keep Elena's body in a casket filled with formaldehyde to preserve her. It was told back then and is still revered now as a love story, even with the more sinister evidence of necrophilia that came out after Tanzlers death. Tanzler was subsequently arrested on the charge of wantonly and maliciously destroying a grave and removing a body without authorisation so a hearing was held. By all appearances, she was an attractive dark haired beauty queen who often wore red roses in her hair, drawing the attention of strangers who desired to photograph and court her. Carl Von Cosel had preserved her corpse for seven years. Tanzler himself would publish an account of this period in a 1939 publication of the Rosicrucian Digest (Tanzler von Cosel 1947, Harrison 1996, Meek 2017). The 22-year-old beauty resembled his childhood premonitions so closely that he immediately became convinced that their love was meant to be. From Cuba he settled in Zephyrhills, Florida, where his sister had already emigrated, and was later joined by his wife and two daughters. Carl had the nerve to ask them to return it back to him, but his request was rejected. For some reason, Marias mother possessed a wig made out of her daughters hair, and she gifted this to Carl. Search above to list available cemeteries. Carl Von Cosel had consummated their marriage. 22nd April 1930 would turn out to be a very fateful day. In 1931, Dr. Carl Tanzler fell in love with a patient he was treating for tuberculosis. He asked if he could have Elenas body returned to him. In 1944, Tanzler moved to Pasco County, Florida, close to Zephyrhills, where he wrote an autobiography that appeared in the pulp publication, Fantastic Adventures, in 1947. Historically, the Cosel family seemed to be haunted by bad luck. Tanzler visited Hoyos grave every night for nearly two years, a habit that stopped abruptly after he lost his job for reasons unknown. Love: the mercy killing of a baby with a major deformity or partner with incurable cancer. . 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. How can these immense, unfounded claims be made? Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in: You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. She forbade the family to let von Cosel know until she was too far across the border to be recalled (p.1). 1 and 2. Carl Tanzler actually received quite a bit of compassion during his trial, with some even viewing him as a hopeless albeit eccentric romantic. In Episode 44 of the NightMerica podcast, released 3rd February 2021, David L. Sloan gave an interview to Aaron Sagers about the story, and discusses an article he found in the Detective Cases magazine, published in 1982. Carl Tanzler had the corpse wrapped in a dress, gloves, and jewelry, and placed the body in his own bed, which he shared with the corpse for the next seven years. Dr. Peter Morrall (2006) broadly summarises that motives for murder can be condensed into four sets of Ls: Lust; Love; Loathing; and Loot. Maria Elena lies in some unmarked Floridian grave, in an 18 inch casket. How could she possibly have a life-threatening disease? At this point, Carl had lost his job at the hospital and was living in a remote shack which also housed his laboratory. Tanzlers body was discovered on the floor of his home. 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. Florida, U.S., County Marriage Records, 1823-1982, Florida, U.S., Marriage Indexes, 1822-1875 and 1927-2001, Your Scrapbook is currently empty. More than two years had already passed since Elena's death and her body had shown all the normal signs of decomposition. Maria Elena Milagro De Hoyos, known as Elena, walked into a Key West hospital suffering from a fatal infection of tuberculosis. In Carls autobiography, he does confess to kissing and cuddling Marias cadaver. The Lost Diary of Count Von Cosel. Unfortunately for Carl, Maria did not reciprocate his romantic feelings, and turned down his proposals of marriage. On April 22, 1930, while working at the Marine Hospital in Key West, Tanzler met Maria Elena Milagro "Helen" de Hoyos (1909-1931), a local Cuban-American woman who had been brought to the hospital for an examination by her mother. Perez, B. The additional findings presented in this article elevate this sinisterness yet again, as now there is evidence which strongly suggests that Tanzler had actually killed Elena himself. Not surprisingly, he was still obsessed. (2012). Tanzler quickly abandoned his brood after accepting a position as a radiologic technician in Key West, where he worked at the U.S. Marine Hospital under the name Count Carl von Cosel. He even installed a telephone line to Elenas crypt so that he could continue speaking to her. Finding her safe, he remained with her for three years, witnessing the chaos that followed in the wake of the war. Her location was to remain unknown to the creepy, controlling count. While working at the U.S. Marine Hospital, on April 22, 1930, Carl Tanzler came face to face with the woman of his dreams. In 1930, tuberculosis was an often fatal disease. Click here for instructions on how to enable JavaScript in your browser. They even resisted Tanzlers ministrations to where they moved house, neglecting to tell him of their new residence. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. However, some people go above and beyond this promise. 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