Özgür Dengiz

Case overview

Özgür Dengiz (born 1980) was a Turkish serial killer and cannibal. He was nicknamed the "Cannibal of Ankara". He was captured on September 14, 2007 in Ankara. He admitted killing two men, attempting to murder another man and cannibalising one of his victims.

Timeline

• 1997 — Özgür Dengiz was sentenced to 10 years in prison after killing a friend during an argument.
• 2001 — Özgür Dengiz was released on parole after serving three years of the 10-year sentence.
• 14 September 2007 — Özgür Dengiz was captured in Ankara.
• 5 June 2007 — Özgür Dengiz killed Sedat Erzurumlu, stole two laptops and took a mobile phone.
• 9 August 2007 — Özgür Dengiz met Abbas İnan and shot him eight times in the head and stomach; İnan survived.
• 12 September 2007 — Özgür Dengiz shot a garbage collecter at the Mamak Dump.
• 12 September 2007 — A few hours after the shooting, Özgür Dengiz met Cafer Er and killed him.

Background

Özgür Dengiz was born to Satılmış and Sultan. Satılmış was a non-commissioned officer and a veteran of the Turkish invasion of Cyprus. Sultan was a seamstress. Dengiz fought with his parents constantly and often ran away from home. He did not continue his education after finishing middle school.

When Dengiz was 17, he killed one of his friends during an argument and was sentenced to 10 years in prison. He served three years of the sentence before being released on parole. After his release, he joined the army at his father's insistence.

During his military service, Dengiz was hospitalized several times for psychological problems. After completing his service, he returned to Ankara. His mother opened a tailor shop for him; however, he did not stop by even briefly.

The offence

Killing of Sedat Erzurumlu and related theft

On June 5, 2007, Dengiz killed Sedat Erzurumlu, a computer engineer, after Erzurumlu angered him by saying they could not afford to buy the laptop they had been looking at. Dengiz stole two laptops from the store and took his victim's mobile phone with him. Later, Dengiz tried to sell one of the laptops but was cheated out of the money. He kept the other one at home.

Shooting of Abbas İnan

On August 9, 2007, Dengiz met Abbas İnan at the public garbage dump in Mamak, Ankara. Dengiz shot İnan eight times in the head and stomach. İnan survived.

Dengiz also confessed to attacking Abbas, another council worker, a few months earlier. Despite being shot in the head and stomach, Abbas managed to escape. Dengiz said: "If he hadn't gotten away I would have cut him up too. I murder because I want to eat human flesh."

Shooting of a garbage collecter at the Mamak Dump

On September 12, 2007, Dengiz shot a garbage collecter at the Mamak Dump.

Killing, mutilation, and cannibalism of Cafer Er

A few hours after shooting the garbage collecter, Dengiz met Cafer Er, a 55-year-old municipal worker. Dengiz killed him after a brief conversation by shooting him in the head twice from behind. Dengiz dragged his victim's body off and put it in his car.

Dengiz skinned the corpse with a cleaver. He ate some of it raw and put the rest in his bag. He wrapped the body in a cloth and put it in the trunk. He abandoned the corpse at the Mamak Dump and returned to the apartment he shared with his parents. He gave a piece of flesh to stray dogs outside his apartment. He put the remaining flesh in the refrigerator.

Further investigation later indicated that Er had been murdered, that his body was mutilated, and that large chunks of flesh had been cut from the soft parts of his body.

Investigation

Cafer Er had been missing for days when his corpse was discovered in the Mamak Dump. On closer examination, it became apparent that Er had been murdered, his body mutilated, and large chunks of flesh cut from the soft parts of his body.

Further investigation revealed that Er had last been seen arguing with a young man in the park he was responsible for keeping clean.

The police traced Dengiz with the help of recording of calls Dengiz made with the mobile phone he had stolen from his second victim Erzurumlu, but lost at the last murder scene. They conducted a search of his apartment for evidence and discovered fresh meat in a plastic bag in the refrigerator. They took samples for analysis, which proved the positive identification of a human arm, buttock and thigh.

Arrest and questioning

Dengiz showed no remorse for his crimes, saying he was irresistibly drawn to eating human flesh. The only emotion he was said to have exhibited as he explained his behavior was to break into fits of laughter. He said he would have kept killing had he not been caught.

After making his statement, Dengiz was arrested by the court, pending trial.

Statements and quotations

"Cannibalism has occurred in serial-killing cases in Christian countries, but Islam's taboos against meat that has not been killed in a halal manner and the insistence that man is sacred (as he is God's image) seem to have stopped it occurring here. Dengiz appears to be Turkey's first man-eater and perhaps one of its few psychopaths."

Fazile Zahir, a Turkish Cypriot journalist, said:

"I love to eat human flesh. It makes me ecstatic. We are fools to have been eating beef for so long."

Dengiz made the following statement:

I was walking around the area under Mamak Bridge. I had gone there to kill someone and had my special knife with me and a gun. I had already fired at someone gathering litter because they were cluttering up my space. Then I saw a man on a bench in the park and sat down next to him and struck up a conversation. After I got up [I] walked behind him and shot him twice. I dragged his body off and put it in the back seat of the car. I cut off some meat with a cleaver. Then I felt [nauseated], so I ate some of it raw to get over that and put the rest in my bag. I found I liked the taste. Then I wrapped him in a black cloth and put him in the [luggage compartment] of my car and drove around the city for a while. Later I dumped his body at the [garbage dump] and went home. I gave some of his meat to the dogs outside my apartment and put the rest in the fridge.

Dengiz said:

"I don't regret it, my conscience is clear. God told me I was to punish people. I think I will keep on killing and eating."

When asked about Abbas, Dengiz said:

"If he hadn't gotten away I would have cut him up too. I murder because I want to eat human flesh."

Trial and sentencing

Dengiz was sentenced to 10 years in prison in 1997. He was released in 2001. His sentence after that was listed as unknown.

Other details

Dengiz was found to be in possession of the gun used to murder computer engineer Sedat Erzurumlu.

He said he killed Erzurumlu because the engineer had said Dengiz could not afford to buy the laptop they had been looking at.

Dengiz has been officially charged with "murder most monstrous".

Dengiz's crimes caused public outcry in Turkey, where cannibalism is rarely acknowledged (or, indeed, mentioned) because of strong cultural taboos.

Martha Stout in her book The Sociopath Next Door argued that the development of dangerous sociopathic behavior was due half to genetics and half to non-genetic influences. The text then described several environmental factors said to create a psychopath, including studies showing 60% of psychopathic individuals had lost a parent; a child deprived of love or nurturing with detached or absent parents; inconsistent discipline; and hypocritical parents who privately belittle a child while publicly presenting a happy family image.

The text described Dengiz’s father as a retired military man, strict and meticulous in his own habits, and stated that it was he who turned his son in for killing his friend as a teenager. It described Dengiz’s mother as making her living as a seamstress and as indulging him, recently renting a small shop for him and outfitting it as a tailor's in the hope that he would work there, but said he never set foot inside in six months.

The text stated that the Turkish for "cannibal" was yam yam, pronounced, rather ironically, "yum yum". It said that the police statement and neighbor's comments indicated some key psychopathic traits, including purposelessness, consistently irresponsible behavior, inability to hold down a job, antisocial behavior and emotional callousness, and that other people were treated as objects with lack of empathy or conscience.

Fazile Zahir was described as being of Turkish descent, born and brought up in London. She moved to Turkey in 2005 and had been writing full-time since then.