EPISODE 124 - Carl Tänzler - Corpse Bride

Ohhh Carl Tänzler — now that’s one of the creepiest love stories you’ll ever hear, and not in a romantic way. Buckle up.

Carl Tanzler (also spelled Tänzler), a German-born radiology technician in Florida in the 1930s, became obsessed with a young Cuban-American woman named Elena Hoyos, who was a patient at the hospital where he worked. She had tuberculosis, which was a death sentence back then, and despite his best (and very bizarre) efforts to "cure" her, she died in 1931.

Now, here’s where things go from sad to straight-up horror movie: after she was buried, Carl secretly dug up her corpse, took it home, and kept it... for seven years. Yep. He lived with her body, trying to preserve it with wax, plaster, wires, and all sorts of grotesque DIY embalming. He even dressed her up, gave her glass eyes, and slept beside her. I know — ick doesn't even begin to cover it.

Eventually, people got suspicious, and in 1940, the truth came out. He was arrested, but weirdly, the public was kind of fascinated and even sympathetic — some people saw it as tragic devotion rather than just total lunacy. Charges were dropped, and he went on to live quietly until his death in 1952.

So yeah — love, death, obsession, and one extremely disturbing DIY project.