The case of Victor Ardisson, who was called by the papers “le vampire du Muy,” and who was arrested in 1901 upon multiplied charges of the exhumation and violation of dead bodies, was studied in great detail by Dr. Épaulard, who summed up his verdict in these words: “Ardisson est un débile mental inconscient des actes qu’il accomplit. Il a violé des cadavres parce que, fossoyeur, il lui était facile de se procurer des apparences de femme sous forme de cadavres auxquels il prêtait une sorte d’existence.”[124]
The motive of the Leopold and Loeb case which occurred at Chicago, and which was so widely discussed throughout America in 1924 was necrosadism. Having killed the unfortunate boy the two wretched degenerates violated the body. It may not untruly be said that this morbid crime sprang in the first place from a false philosophy. With ample money at their command, their minds rotted with the backwash of Freud, these two young supermen conceived themselves above all laws. They had exhausted every erotic emotion, and sought something new to thrill their jaded nerves. These vilenesses and abominations would be ended by a return to the true philosophy, the lore of the Schoolmen and Doctors.
There are not unknown—in fact there are not uncommon—amazing cases of what may be called “mental necrophilia,” a morbid manifestation for which suitable provision is made in the more expensive and select houses of accomodation.
In his study La Corruption Fin-de-Siècle Léo Taxil remarks: “Une passion sadiste des plus effrayantes est ceUe des détraqués auxquels on a donné le nom de ‘vampire.’ Ces insensés veulent violer des cadavres. Cette dépravation du sens génésique, dit le docteur Paul Moreau de Tours constitue le degré le plus extrême des déviations de l’appetit vénérien.” He also speaks of “chambres funêbres” as being not uncommon in certain brothels. “D’ordinaire, on dispose, dans une pièce de l’établissement des tentures noires, un lit mortuaire, en un mot, tout un appareil lugubre. Mais l’un des principaux lupanars de Paris a, en permanence, une chambre spéciale, destinée aux clients qui désirent tâter du vampirisme.
“Les murs de la chambre sout tendus de satin noir, parsemi de larmes d’argent. Au milieu est un catafalque, très riche. Une femme, paraissant inerte, est là, couchée dans un cercueil découvert, la tête reposant sur un coussin de velours. Tout
