Zombie apocalypse: Miami cannibal attack differs from past flesh eating murders

It’s being called the "zombie apocalypse" online today, a gruesome act of a man in Miami eating another man’s face after attacking him on Saturday. While the crime is rare, it is not the first time modern-day cannibalism has occurred. There’s one difference in this flesh eating incident that sets it apart from others, as the newly released police reports and pictures suggest.

This case is dubbed the "zombie apocalypse," most likely because of the manner in which this attack took place, the details are described in police and witness reports.According to the Mirror, the other cases of cannibalism appeared to be crimes done in privacy so the killer lessoned the probabilities of getting caught. This suggests that some thought went into the other crimes, but it doesn't appear to be the case with 31 year-old Rudy Eugene in Miami over the weekend.

Probably the most famous of these modern-day cannibals is Jeffery Dahmer, who murdered 17 young men during three decades from 1978 until 1991. He had eaten their body parts, storing some of the flesh and a human head in his refrigerator and freezer. Dahmer befriended the young men before drugging them and killing them.Men in the past who killed their domestic partners and ate them had their wits about them enough to plan a cover-up of the crime. This seems to be the case even if the killing was done in a fit of anger. Many of the documented cases included cooking the human flesh before eating it, such as the case of a  man in Mexico City, Jose Luis Calva. He fried the flesh of his girlfriend in butter and lemon before eating it in 2007.

 Armin Meiwes advertised online in 2001in Germany for someone willing to be the victim of cannibalism. Believe it or not he got a serious response. Meiwes took his victim to a farm house where he first cut off the man’s penis, which the two attempted to eat. He then stabbed his willing victim before cutting him up and freezing the body parts then eating them over time.

Albert Fish, who was executed in New York in 1936, was finally caught years after kidnapping a 10 year-old girl in Manhattan and eating her. Six years after his crime he sent a letter of torment to the family graphically detailing what he had done to the girl and conveying the pleasure he got from this crime. Fish was arrested after the letter was tracked back to him.

While there are several more very odd and bizarre crimes similar to these, Rudy Eugene’s crime in Miami on Saturday was different in a few ways. Eugene did this while he was naked and in broad daylight on a busy street where the probability of getting caught was great. The attack didn’t appear to be planned as he just seemed to have randomly grabbed the victim as he walked by on the street. The attacker appeared to be in a drug crazed state according to police.

When police told Eugene to back away from his victim, he looked up, with flesh still hanging out of his mouth and growled like an animal, then went back to eating his victim,according to CNN. The first shot at Eugene by police wasn’t meant to kill him, it was meant to get him to stop.

This didn’t stop him so the officer had no other choice but to continue shooting the man to get him to let go of the victim. Eugene died from the gunshot wounds. The behavior that Eugene displayed is most likely why this crime has been dubbed the "zombie apocalypse."

The modern day zombies seen on the screen like "The Walking Dead," a TV show from AMC, depict the zombies in an eating frenzy and making animal like noises. The TV zombies can’t be stopped unless they are killed by a gunshot wound or a blow to the head that penetrates their brain.

The gruesome pictures of this crime are posted online here at SMSEO, which are graphic, but tend to evident the attack being like those seen on TV from "The Walking Dead."

Reference: The Mirror UK, CNN, SMSEORoz Zurko is an award-winning freelance writer whose articles have appeared on popular websites such as Fox 411, CNN.com, and TMZ. She has a BA in Psychology from the University of New Haven and Westfield State College. Roz is a mental health counselor who is originally from Milford CT. Her...