Love, an intense feeling of deep affection, fills the void in our lives. The strong emotion differs from person to person and people often take extreme measures to keep the bundle of happiness, all for themselves. Carl Tanzler is one such person who took his obsession with a woman to the extreme. While working at a hospital, he fell in love with a patient. Soon after her tragic death, his obsession with her made him dig up her body and live with it for seven years. Here’s the story of man named Carl Tanzler and his unusual relationship with a corpse.
In 1926, Carl Tanzler began working at Key West hospital in Florida.
Carl Tanzler was a man of many talents. The German born radiologist claimed to have nine university degrees and to be a former submarine captain, as well as an accomplished inventor. The truth was far from his claims though, as he was an unconventional and slightly strange man, who left his wife and children to pursue his dream and work in the United States Marine Hospital.
After taking the job at the United States Marine Hospital in Key West, Florida, Carl kept a low profile.
In 1927, Carl took the job at Key West hospital in Florida.There, he maintained a low profile and often kept to himself. Everything changed though, when Carl met 21-year-old Maria Elena Milagro de Hoyos. For years, Carl had visions of meeting a dark haired woman, whose beauty and elegance would finally make him happy. He was convinced that one day he would meet the woman in his dream and that woman turned out to be Maria Elena Milagro de Hoyos.
The beautiful 21-year-old Cuban woman with dark hair visited Keys Hospital for an examination. Upon the first sight itself, Carl fell in love with her. He performed the examination on Maria and discovered that she was suffering from tuberculosis. At that time, tuberculosis was a fatal disease and doctors were only beginning to study it.
Maria was diagnosed with tuberculosis and Carl was determined to save her life.
Carl couldn’t face the reality that he could lose his dream woman to a disease that had no cure. He decided to ignore the hospital’s protocol and set out in search of a miracle cure for Maria. He administered her homemade tonics and medicines that were untested and were believed to have had side effects. He also took X-ray machines and other equipment from the hospital to Maria’s house without authorization. Carl was obsessed with her beauty and never failed to show it. Whenever he visited Maria at her house to treat her, he showered her with gifts.
However, on October 25, 1931, Carl’s treatments failed to overcome the disease.
Even though Carl Tanzler did his best to save Maria’s life, his efforts did not prevail. Maria succumbed to the disease on October 25, 1931. Carl was upset that he couldn’t save her and decided to bury her in a stone mausoleum. Maria’s family approved him to have her buried according to his wishes. Carl spent a considerable amount of his life savings to build an expensive stone mausoleum. He even went on to hire a mortician to clean and fix her body before the burial ceremony. However, the only key to the mausoleum was with Carl. Even though Maria’s family knew that fact, they either chose to ignore it or did not seen any harm in it.
Two years after Maria’s death, Carl was fired from the hospital for exhibiting odd behavior.
Carl did not take the death of his dream woman lightly. He constantly talked about his obsession with her to his co-workers. The hospital soon learned that Carl was sneaking out at night and visiting the mausoleum. They soon fired him from his position.
After being fired, Carl stopped visiting Maria’s mausoleum. Maria’s family found it to be a bit odd, since he was so obsessed with her. Little did they know that Carl had other plans for her corpse.
Continue reading Carl Tanzler and Maria’s story on Page 2.
Two years after her death, Carl dug up Maria’s decomposing body, placed it in a toy wagon and transported it to a makeshift lab.
Carl Tanzler wanted more from his relationship. He wasn’t satisfied with the nightly visits to Maria’s mausoleum. In order to satisfy his desire, he decided to dig out Maria’s decomposing body.
He transformed an old airplane into a makeshift lab, where he used plaster of Paris, wires, mortician’s wax and glass eyes to bring Maria back to life.
After transforming Maria’s body into a mummified wax figure, Carl Tanzler took his prized possession back home; where he shared the same bed with her. Over the next several years, Carl lived a life of absence from society. He withdrew himself from communicating with others and spent a considerable amount of time at home, where he took care of Maria’s corpse.
He used wire hangers to maintain Maria’s body structure.
Maria’s decomposing body was losing its structure. In order to maintain her body structure, Carl Tanzler used wire hangers. He also replaced the wax constantly and used several types of disinfectants as well as oils to hide the foul stench. This went on for seven years before anyone noticed the unusual pattern in Carl. He often purchased women’s clothing, perfume and other necessities for Maria. Carl lived a satisfying life as he had his dream woman by his side day and night.
Everything was going perfect for Carl until Maria’s family found a connection with his strange behavior.
Maria’s family started looking into Carl’s odd behavior. A man who went every night to visit his beloved’s grave suddenly stopped visiting without any explanation. Apart from that, he was buying women’s clothing and perfume but had no relation with any other woman.
A local man who passed by Carl Tanzler’s house noticed Carl dancing with a giant doll; which added further suspicion. Maria’s sister began to hear rumors that Tanzler was keeping Maria’s corpse in his house. She became fed up with the gossip and decided to confront Carl at his house in October of 1940. Carl Tanzler calmly let her in, where Maria’s sister almost fainted. She walked in to witness the sight of a wax figure that appeared to be of Maria. Convinced that something was wrong, she ran out and informed authorities immediately. When authorities arrived at Tanzler’s house, they seized the life-sized doll and arrested Tanzler on suspicion.
To everyone’s shock, the life-sized doll was later revealed to be Maria’s rotted corpse. Authorities decided to perform an autopsy on the body, only to reveal that Tanzler had actually reconstructed her body with several parts. They even discovered that Tanzler also reconstructed a makeshift genitalia using paper tubes.
Maria’s body after authorities recovered it from Carl Tanzler’s house.
Carl Tanzler was taken into custody and faced trial. The morbid story caught attention all over the country. Maria’s body was kept on display for the public and then reburied in an unmarked grave. In 1944, Carl Tanzler moved to Pasco County, Florida where he still couldn’t cope with being away from his obsession. He initially requested Maria’s body to be returned but was denied by the court. To satisfy his obsession, Carl Tanzler used a death mask to create a life-sized effigy (a representation of a specific person in the form of sculpture or some other three-dimensional medium) of Hoyos. He lived with it until his death on July 3, 1952. His body was only recovered from the floor of his home three weeks after his death.