June 23, 2010

"A French prisoner accused of killing and devouring part of his cellmate's lung ripped out the organ and started his grisly snack while the victim was still alive."

It's Nicholas Cocaign, the world's worst cellmate.
After the argument [over the toilet] escalated to blows, the real-life Hannibal Lecter allegedly butchered his cellmate, carved out his victim's lung - mistaking it for the heart - and fried up part of the organ with onions on a makeshift grill before eating it....

The case has drawn scrutiny to the entire French penal system. It comes on the heels of last week's ruling by a tribunal in favor of 38 inmates and former inmates who sued over inhumane conditions at the same Rouen jail where Baudry was killed. The court ordered the French government to pay $430 to $21,500 dollars to each plaintiff, Agence France-Presse reported.

Cocaign himself testified Monday that the murder was a cry for help - and not just from the victim.

Cocaign said he warned prison officials that he was capable of violence, begging to be transferred for psychiatric treatment as he served time for several rapes, among other crimes.

"No one was listening to me," Cocaign told the court, according to the AFP. "I made several appeals for help, saying I was a man capable of being dangerous. I took action, and then they took me seriously."

The French government actually is responsible for the murder because...
A loud argument was not stopped before it escalated to violence.
A man who needed psychiatric treatment was instead housed with other prisoners.
They allowed cooking equipment and ingredients in the cell.
"Butchered"? "Carved"? They let him have a weapon!
France doesn't have the death penalty.



  
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A few more details here. The weapon allowed in the cell was a pair of scissors. Cocaign was not in prison for murdering anyone. He was only facing a charge of armed robbery charges. There were onions, olive oil, salt and pepper on a portable camping stove in the cell. Cocaign "initially claimed that he was fascinated by the 'inner workings of Baudry's personality' and 'wanted to take his soul', he later admitted that he was 'curious to see what he tastes like.'"

50 comments:

Unknown said...

Well then, fry him.

Fen said...

How the hell do you confuse a lung for a heart?

The Dude said...

Cocaign - not just for breakfast anymore.

GMay said...

I'm calling thread winner at #3.

Big Mike said...

Which is why I'd never leave a person alive with nothing left to lose. Maybe if Cocaign had to consider the possibility of being taken to the guillotine then Baudry would still be alive.

Tank said...

"only" armed robbery?

Hey, practically a boy scout.

And what's with the kitchen privileges in his cell. I mean, was it BYOB or what?

Ann Althouse said...

"How the hell do you confuse a lung for a heart?"

Especially when the person is still alive.

""only" armed robbery?"

The point is you can't say he should have gotten the death penalty and then he wouldn't have been around to do this or that he was obviously so dangerous that he needed to be in solitary confinement.

"And what's with the kitchen privileges in his cell. I mean, was it BYOB or what?"

BYOB = butcher your own body.

TMink said...

"Cocaign himself testified Monday that the murder was a cry for help - and not just from the victim."

Of course he did! Sociopaths routinely present themselves as victims when it suits their purpose. Cry for help? Hardly!

Trey

Ann Althouse said...

I'm not a fan of declaring a thread winner, but #1 is certainly in the competition.

Mick said...

I'm surprised the cell had no nice Chianti and fava beans.

Opus One Media said...

ahhhh college :)

Ron said...

Maybe not fry...lightly saute.

Oh, yeah, yeah, onions and lung...a Detroit mirepoix!

Ron said...

Good thing he didn't have $11 ice cream...that would have been a true crime.

Anonymous said...

"Lay off that whiskey, and let that Cocaign be."

Haven't eaten lungs since my trip to the Philippines.

I killed the pig! Cut its throat. Poor baby screamed like a stuck pig.

All the innards, including lungs, were simmered in the blood pudding. Tasty!

Why didn't anybody hear Cocaign's victim screaming? Got to take a while to cut out and sauté lung in olive oil

A.W. said...

no one is responsible other than the perpetrator. now there might be things they could do to prevent it. And its a perfect example of why the death penalty is necessary. i doubt it would deterr this idiot, except in the sense that once he is dead he will committ no more crimes. but still, i support him dying.

bagoh20 said...

"France doesn't have the death Penalty."

They just don't admit it, but apparently you get it just for looking tasty in certain company.

MadisonMan said...

What a thing to post before lunch.

wv: cultir

Rob said...

I don't think you can scream when the lung is punctured. Certainly not when part of it is missing.

Roger J. said...

Quelle horreau--were there no fava beans and fine chianti?

The french are such pigs--in addition to having a really lousy soccer team

David said...

If you should be hung,
but you want some grilled lung,
Cocaign.

He's a fright,
He's a fright,
He's a Fright,
Cocaign.

Known Unknown said...

Let's be perfectly clear ... do we really care about the dead guy?

Or did the Lecter wannabe doing the French taxpayers a favor?

KCFleming said...

How the hell do you confuse a lung for a heart?

How can you stop the rain from falling down?
How can you stop the sun from shining?
What makes the world go round?

Please help me mend my eaten lung and let me live again

Unknown said...

Apparently, the French have the same philosophy toward penology that impels them to line the roads with trees.

Fen said...

How the hell do you confuse a lung for a heart?

Jack The Ripper must be spinning (on a rotisserie, of course).

Freeman Hunt said...

Any guards at this prison? No one checking on the inmates during the time it takes to kill, butcher, and cook someone?

traditionalguy said...

Unarmed imprisonment in a cell with a crazy man is analagous to a city that denies gun carry permits to its inmates. To endure, a freedom to live requires a self defense capacity.

Dust Bunny Queen said...

It comes on the heels of last week's ruling by a tribunal in favor of 38 inmates and former inmates who sued over inhumane conditions at the same Rouen jail where Baudry was killed.

What inhumane treatment?

Inferior olive oil? Sprouting garlic? Dull chef knives?

OH the inhumanity!!!

WTF: they get to cook in their jail cell and run with scissors?

Anonymous said...

If you say "I am a man capable of being dangerous" with a French accent, it just sounds ridiculous... Try it and hear for yourself! Nobody could take that seriously.

Tibore said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Tibore said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Tibore said...

"Freeman Hunt said...
Any guards at this prison? No one checking on the inmates during the time it takes to kill, butcher, and cook someone?"


Not to mention to react at the obvious signs of distress. Say for example an inmate screaming for his life while someone's killing him??

Synova said...

It's almost necessary to pick the last choice because the rest are "all of the above".

It's simply unbelievable that no guard saw this happening until well after the cook stove and onions.

But nevermind that... at least it didn't happen in US custody and thank the dear lord above it didn't happen in US *military* custody.

But the French, like all Europeans, treat their prisoners humanely, so...

Synova said...

Oh and the "It was my cry for help" thing just makes my stomach turn.

It wasn't a cry for help, it was a cry to be put down.

Palladian said...

I think his cellmate probably misinterpreted it when Cocaign said he wanted a light snack.

Fred4Pres said...

The Art of French Cooking.

Fred4Pres said...

Oligonicella said...
Well then, fry him.

6/23/10 10:36 AM



frire!

en français!

Phil 314 said...

I hate to be graphic but how did he manage to pull out part of the lungs through his ribs. i can't imagine the scissors were sharp enough to cut through bone.

Or maybe he approached it inferiorly through the diaphragm.

Boy that had to be a bloody mess.

Freeman Hunt said...

Recorded somewhere in the guards' break room of a French prison:

"C'est des conneries! Que le prisonnier crier qui me fait manquer cette comédie fantaisiste sur le grande mélancolie de la vie!"

Freeman Hunt said...

"Faire de la télévision plus fort!"

Later:

"Quelle est cette odeur ? Qu'est-ce que la cuisson?"

Leland said...

I had to vote for cooking equipment, because as I read the story and came upon the part of "fried up part of the organ"; my response was WTF?

Without condoning it...
I can understand cell violence
I can understand makeshift weapons
I can understand cannibalism

I can't understand an inmate walking over to his cell's private kitchen and cooking him up some human haggis.

Didn't vote death penalty, because if you are f'd up enough to give inmates private kitchens and cookware; then death penalty is an issue too far from reality at the moment.

As for thread winner, can't go with #3. Missed it by using the killers name instead of the victim.

dbp said...

I would render the "later" as:

Quelle est cette odeur si belle? Est-cuisson quelqu'un?

Leland said...

Any guards at this prison? No one checking on the inmates during the time it takes to kill, butcher, and cook someone?

I dunno Ms. Hunt. If he managed to start devouring the lung (I guess he went medium rare) while Baudry was still alive; he must have been moving pretty fast. Perhaps he prepared the saute ahead of time?

Leland said...

What inhumane treatment?

DBQ... lack of truffles. They always scimp on the truffles. Bastards. No truffles make frenchmen dangerous.

Freeman Hunt said...

Quelle est cette odeur si belle? Est-cuisson quelqu'un?

Ha ha. That is much better.

knox said...

... begging to be transferred for psychiatric treatment ...

I'm sure this argument was less than convincing. I mean, get in line behind every other prisoner who insists he needs to be in [cushier] psychiatric treatment rather than behind bars with the general population. For the safety of the other inmates, naturally!!

Unknown said...

I'm glad I behaved well in Paris last year!

Wince said...

Very Papillionesque.

Put all hope out of your mind. And masturbate as little as possible, it drains the strength.

And these guys bitch about Gitmo?

Freeman Hunt said...

Told one near and dear this story. He said,

"Don't they feed them? That's an outrage."

dave1310 said...

Onions? No scallions? What is Cordon Bleu comming to? And in France of all places!
(Maybe I do see the point that a ban on French Fried Frenchies was contributory.)

Brian said...

Okay, anybody want to defend no death penalty AT ALL?

Robert Cook said...

I'm struck by the question of "What inhumane treatment?"

That an inmate could successfully murder, partially butcher, and cook and eat a part of his cellmate before being discovered or stopped tells powerfully of an inhumane institution. If the guards couldn't or didn't want to stop this crime, or if they were entirely unaware of it during its commission, then you have a poorly managed prison where the guards either allow or are unable to prevent prisoner-on-prisoner violence, or where they actively permit or condone it.

By the way, I'd assert that any prison anywhere is rife with inhumane treatment, although, of course, there are better and worse places to be incarcerated.

Do I prescribe that we abolish prisons? No. But we--and other nations--sure can do much more to insure the safety of prisoners while they are incarcerated. All it takes is the desire to do so.