Interview With A Cannibal

Interview with a Cannibal – Norman A. Rubin

It was a dark and dismal day when George Forbes a veteran reporter was seated in the small reception room at W... Prison. Who could of seen his deep furrowed brow, his quizzical frown on his ruddy face as he pondered the coming strange interview, namely with a convicted cannibal. The news of the cannibal and his hideous crime was a sensation throughout the city of N.... Thus the newsman was assigned by his ‘paper’ to write an article into the insights of the warped mind of the convicted killer.

While he waited for the prisoner he tapped the steel table with his stubby fingers and scratched his thinning hair once or twice when he looked about the institutional green walls. Through the door he heard the rhythm of the prison of clashing steel, the tramp of heavy leather shoes, and the harsh voices of guards and prisoners alike.

The transcript of the trial ran through his mind, “That the plaintiff’s family had a history of mental illness mixed with fantasies, which at times they acted out in reality, detrimental to themselves.” The pages in his mind turned.. “The plaintiff admitted he had fantasized about having sex with the victim while he was alive and again after he was dead.” And he remembered the phrase in the media that wrote that the accused had ‘literally developed an appetite for the killing!’

The thoughts of the reporter were disturbed when within a moment or two the barred door to the room opened and the shackled convict was ushered in by a hefty guard. There were no niceties when the prisoner was roughly placed into a chair opposite the reporter. The guard then left him alone with the prisoner, but looking with vigil through the aperture to the door.

The reporter faced the shackled convict opposite him with a bit of apprehension towards the meeting. The table and chairs being screwed tightly, and the convict’s ankle chain padlocked to a black hasp on the floor noted security. Yet a touch of fear still remained.

There was no formal greeting only the customary ‘hello’ between the two. George Forbes introduced himself, telling of the purpose of the interview, namely a story for his newspaper. With a polite ‘ahem’ he continued by saying the article will explain your actions to our readers your belief in voodoo rites in deposing of the victim. In plain English our readers would like to know the feeling you had of the killing and of eating your victim. The prisoner responded with slangy words, “ah understand you mon, don’t need to spell it out. So go ahead.”

The reporter noted the depiction of the prisoner, a native of the West Indies who was described by the psychiatrist of the prison as probably the most dangerous prisoner he ever examined. As newsman searched out the face of the graying convict, he only saw round bland features, with wide dark eyes that emphasized his lack of care to his present situation, only a devilish grin was spread on his lips. The reporter estimated that he was short and squat and balding at an early age.

The reporter also noted that the earthy creature, Frank Melula by name had immigrated to this country of opportunity to escape the grinding poverty of his land in search of work; but he didn’t leave behind the culture of his country, namely the voodoo rites.

George Forbes was shocked when he heard the horrible answers of the cannibal jailed for the gruesome murder of one Jack Finster, a companion in crime. He noted the casual indifference to the murder that was expressed by the prisoner. All the time he spoke there was a smug grim on his dark features.

George Forbes had been with the police when they broke into hovel flat in the basement of a block of flats near the F.... Heath. It was the same calm expression shown by him when the forces of the law were horrified when they discovered Frank Melula calmly frying human brains on a stove.

But the answers of prisoner haunted him when he listened to the same words he spoke in the interview with the authorities. “I like them brains fried with butter. It was a real nice taste to that man! The brains, you see it is the door to his soul. You understand, mon! And ah’ entered into his soul thet day.”

Frank also told the reporter that that the day before he also cooked one of the victim’s legs and arms. He admitted that he ate strips of meat from the limbs, “tasted like fried chicken..” As he spoke there was a satisfactory grin smeared across his face, as if he reveled in his words.

The reporter remembered the revelation of the warped mind of Frank Melula when he testified during his trial for the murder of a Mr.Finster, a man of forty-five years who was known as the friend of the murderer. They were partners in crime and Melula had killed him in anger after a botched burglary attempt. Frank described the feeling as the “quickening” *, which is a term of a voodoo ritual that he carried out to transfer the soul of the victim to himself.

“Ah had to use a kitchen knife to cut off his limbs. But I really had to stamp real hard to break the bones,” he related impassively to the reporter. “Yup, them bones were mighty hard to break, specially when ah needed to crush a small piece of bone to burn for the ceremony.”

It was noted by the reporter that at the prisoner’s hearing that he was sent to a mental institution after an allegation on weird assault on a sixteen-year-old girl, which he was judged a mental incompetent. His crime at that time was quite vicious. The young girl, a high school student, was simply on her way home when he grabbed and pulled her into an alley. There he ripped her clothes and tried to bite into the girl’s flesh. Luckily her screams were heard and rescue for the girl was at hand.

It was annoying for the reporter to note that killing of the man was committed while the murderer was granted leave from a secure mental institution after a three-year ncarceration. “Damn the psychiatrists that called that man competent when he was under medication,” he though inwardly, “all against the advice of the authorities.”

A day after being granted leave Frank joined with his victim in the burglary attempt and the subsequent murder. They had gone to Mellula’s flat where there was an argument between the two. A neighbor testified in court that she heard the bitter words, which Frank Mellula uttered. “Them words were might strange, some sort of garble. Going on for some time. Then there was a hush and I didn’t hear nary a word any more!”

“Ah struck him on the head many time with me hammer till I was sure he was dead, real gone to the other world,” the prisoner bragged.

The newsman checked his notes on the trial of the prisoner where he learned that Frank Mellula killed his victim with a vicious claw hammer on his head till the skull broke open spewing the brain matter. He continued in a mad frenzy when the man lay on the ground until he was sure he was dead. The prosecutor then told how Frank Mellula gathered up the brain matter for his Voodoo ritual, namely eating it with relish of a devoted believer.

“Naw ah didn’t do the man in for eating! Did it for Loa, the supernatural being. Had to crush one of his bones for the powder to burn to the spirit of Loa**. Then I made the signs to call to th’ god and he came down and put a spell on them ashes an’ I got the man’s power. You be good man, you understand.. Tell your folks I did it for Loa!”

Still, George muttered to himself as he listened, “this hocus-pocus is sure a mystery to me! Must look it up when I get back to the newspaper office.”

Suddenly, without warning Frank Mellula pulled on his chains and started to drum in a jungle beat on the table and started in a Voodoo chant. Who could of heard this haunting chant, deep and grave as he directed the words towards the reporter. The beat of the drum rhythm, the stomping of the feet, the clapping of hands coupled with the sound of his chant and the spoken word reverberated through the mind of the reporter

“Dumballah (Dumballah Wedo, Damballah,” the prisoner called out to Duballah whom the god to him is benevolent, innocent, a loving father. Dumballah, Damballah in called out to the serpent diety in a strange tongue, “You are benevolent, innocent, a loving father.”

But the reporter was unable to comprehend the strange tongue and terror crept all over him. He wiped away with a quick swipe of his hand sweat droplets on his forehead; and he felt perspiration rivulets running through his corpulent body down to his loins.

“Dumballah, Dumballah Wedo Dumballah!”

The demeanor of George Forbes changed to one possessed and his nerves tingled in fright. His face turned ashen white as he looked into those deep dark eyes of the prisoner. The fright gripped him as the ritual continued.

“Iba'ra'go ago mo juba...”

The rhythmic beat drummed in the newsman’s mind, as he believed he was the object of the Voodoo chant, which he thought it denoted a fierce evil message against him. George Forbes sat tight in chair shadowed by the haunting and strange words. Then he grasped the cloth of his shirt and fainted under its spell, but as his head dropped onto his chest the last of the chant was continued in its fierce jungle rhythm.

“I pay homage Omode koni'ko sh'iba'go I teach the teachings of ago mo juba Elegba, Eshu; l'ona make way, I pay homage to this good man... Long life to this good man...”

NOTE:
* Believers "mount" people, even through their thoughts or the remains of the dead now and again during religious ceremonies and they give messages, and even cause various good and bad things to happen to people or their spirits.

** “Loa’ is the supreme deity of the Voodoo belief. There are hundreds of spirits called Loa who control nature, health, wealth and happiness of mortals. A believer enters an ecstatic state during the Voodoo ceremony where his or her body is possessed by the deity, who then speaks and acts through that individual. The highest state of being for a Voodoo believer involves complete abandonment to the spirit of a particular deity. They are divided into the Rada (considered benevolent), Ghede (the dead), and Petro (considered violent) families.