Her mother was worried about her declining health, but neither of them probably thought Tanzler would take an interest in her. Continuing with this request will add an alert to the cemetery page and any new volunteers will have the opportunity to fulfill your request. Design a site like this with WordPress.com, The Strange Afterlife of Maria Elena Milagro deHoyos, Odd Oldies: A Vampire, A Romance & A Friendship from Hell Criminally Clueless Podcast. Sympathists flocked to Von Cosel, excusing his bizarre behavior as an act of love. While Elena was undergoing agonizing death, Von Cosel supplied her with perfume, jewelry, fruits, and candies. Eventually, this was not enough. Von Cosel (Carl Tanzler) in 1940 / Florida KeysPublic Libraries / Flickr / CC BY 2.0, The haunting history of La Pascualita History 101, John Dillingers body to be exhumed after 85 years History 101. In their ignorance, they asked if it was illegal to love too much. He also said he had nine university diplomas. However, he never gave up on his one true love. Sloan, D,L. This flower has been reported and will not be visible while under review. 22nd April 1930 would turn out to be a very fateful day. There was an error deleting this problem. Even though people agreed Tanzler committed a crime, many members of the public felt sympathetic towards him. You can always change this later in your Account settings. Suffer no more sweet Elena. This account has been disabled. The Countess had an interesting story herself; being the mistress of 18th century King Augustus II of Poland. You are living in an insane world. As Meek (2017) puts it, [Elena is] paradoxically at the center of this story and utterly left out. Carl had basically abandoned his wife and children, and was more content living with a dead body than a live woman. "[8] By all accounts, Hoyos was viewed as a local beauty in Key West.[1][8][9]. Surprisingly, there are no contemporary sources that mention anything about necrophilia. He created a life-like effigy and mask of her face, to replace the confiscated cadaver. For his final diary entry, Carl had written: Human jealousy has robbed me of the body of my Elena, yet divine happiness is flowing through me for she has survived death. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. I had hopes that, when Elena was out of danger, we would get married. The invention charged her oxygen electrons with electrodes, which he decided would save her. April October 2019. https://masonholdings.org/radio-hour/Wood, C. Coulson J. Thompson S. + Bonner, S. An Intentional Aconite Overdose: A Case Study. Tanzler made nightly visits to Hoyos mausoleum. It motivated many of his actions from the day he met her to the day he died; giving her free and unproven medical treatments, naming his wingless plane after her, building the mausoleum, taking her body, trying to reconstruct and restore it to life, even using the tube for intercourse as Dr. DePoo revealed (a sexual payoff), publishing a memoir, being found dead with a wax replica. 6, no. In 1931, Dr. Carl Tanzler fell in love with a patient he was treating for tuberculosis. There are no photographs or other sources to prove this. Her name was Maria Elena Milagro de Hoyos. Oops, we were unable to send the email. Upon returning home, Tanzler married and had two children in 1920, and the family emigrated to Zephyrhills, Florida. He hoped she would return the same feelings. Carl died alone in 1952, at the age of 75. On April 22, 1930, while working at the Marine Hospital in Key West, Tanzler met Maria Elena Milagro "Helen" de Hoyos (1909-1931), a local Cuban-American woman who had been brought to the hospital for an examination by her mother. Whitfield Funeral Home, Zephyrhills. Elena was once again reduced to an object of spectacle, only this time she was a tourist attraction. He carried on his love affair with her corpse. Just 21 years old, and 32 years younger than Tanzler, Maria Elena "Helen" Milagro de Hoyos was brought to the hospital for an examination. He allegedly professed his love for her and showered her with gifts, but there's no record of her ever returning his sentiments. Go to ThriveMarket.com/MORBID. Accounts show she led the normal life of a teenager in the 1920s. When he was 12 years old, he dreamed of a woman who would leave an impression on his life forever. In October 1940, Hoyos sister, Florinda, heard conflicting rumors about Tanzlers budding romance with a mysterious woman. Those sensitive to spiritual energies claim that Elena Hoyos poltergeist haunts the funeral home of Bahama Lane. Carl von Cosel was acquitted. Unfortunately for Carl, Maria did not reciprocate his romantic feelings, and turned down his proposals of marriage. From Cuba he settled in Zephyrhills, Florida, where his sister had already emigrated, and was later joined by his wife and two daughters. Share this memorial using social media sites or email. He constantly applied disinfectants, deodorizer and formaldehyde to counteract the smells of putrefaction. On April 22, 1930, while working at the Marine Hospital, Tanzler met the one person in his life he had been searching for since he was 12 years old: his soulmate. Her location was to remain unknown to the creepy, controlling count. He showered her with luxurious treats, hoping that Elena would accept his hand in marriage. Marias sister heard weird rumours about Carl. It is a great shame that someone of such beauty and character be made endure the travesties she went through in her brief life and even after it ended. Additionally, Hoyos was known as the beauty of Key West. I also want to give great credit to Ben Harrison as one of the most prominent writers and researchers on this story, he was one of the first to bring it to the modern age with his book Undying Love. Maria Elena Milagro de Hoyos was a 21-year-old Cuban American beauty. He died under the name "Carl Tanzler". Although he was already married with 2 daughters, Carl was immediately struck by Marias appearance. You may not upload any more photos to this memorial, This photo was not uploaded because this memorial already has 20 photos, This photo was not uploaded because you have already uploaded 5 photos to this memorial, This photo was not uploaded because this memorial already has 30 photos, This photo was not uploaded because you have already uploaded 15 photos to this memorial. [9] Elena's body was eventually returned to the Key West Cemetery where the remains were buried in an unmarked grave, in a secret location, to prevent further tampering. Elenas family had instructed Tanzler to stay away following these marriage proposals and also because of their dislike of the unorthodox devil machines used by him in his treatments of Elena. Tanzler also used copious amounts of perfume, disinfectants, and preserving agents to mask the odor and forestall the effects of the corpse's decomposition. Just 21 years old, and 32 years younger than Tanzler, Maria Elena Helen Milagro de Hoyos was brought to the hospital for an examination. A system error has occurred. He reportedly said he felt her spirit come to him when he sat by her tomb and serenaded her with her favorite Spanish song. He was listed as Carl Tanzler von Cosel on his United States citizenship papers, and he was listed as Carl Tanzler on his Florida death certificate. They were comforted by his invention, hoping that perhaps Elena could survive. In April 1933, he removed her body from the mausoleum and transported it to his makeshift laboratory that also served as his home. Years later he was found living in a house near the sea and through an investigation by Elena's sister, it was found that he had been living with her corpse, preserving it with oiled silk and wax to slow the decomposition. German-born American radiology technologist and erotomaniac. Authorities found a homemade spaceship outside of Carls lab. . Heartbroken over his loss, Tanzler decided to pay for her funeral, and, with her familys permission, he commissioned the construction of an above-ground mausoleum in the Key West Cemetery. Doris continued to support her deranged and estranged husband financially. cemeteries found within kilometers of your location will be saved to your photo volunteer list. Are you sure that you want to delete this photo? For the past eighty years, the story of Elena Hoyos has been told primarily through the point-of-view of Carl Tanzler, a man who portrayed himself as so in love he could not bear to live without her. Carl spent hours at Marias gravesite everyday, talking to her corpse, singing songs to her, reading stories, and other crazy activities that are best left unspoken. He showered her with jewelry and clothing, and he frequently professed his love to her. While her family did consider this drastic change in behavior to be a bit strange, they could not have imagined the reasoning behind it. Tanzler ignored the Marine Hospitals protocol for relationships between doctors and patients, and he became obsessed with Hoyos. While there, he met a beautiful young woman 32 years his junior named Maria Elena Milagro de Hoyos, better known as Helen (top, in a photo courtesy of the Florida Keys Public Library). Her family initially assumed that this illness was sadness due to the loss of her child, but the cough was not moving. The former corpse bride is now at rest. For nearly 22 years, she had been the focus of his life, alive or dead. She told Von Cosel that he would marry a young woman who, Von Cosel decided, looked precisely like Elena Hoyos. Carl Tanzler had the corpse wrapped in a dress, gloves, and jewelry, and placed the body in his own bed, which he shared with the corpse for the next seven years. By all appearances, she was an attractive dark haired beauty queen who often wore red roses in her hair, drawing the attention of strangers who desired to photograph and court her. Before she died, Carl wrote in his journal how he had hopes that, despite the extensive damage, the lesions would heal again. He died of an apparent suicide in his home in July of 1952 lying next to the death mask of his beloved. He had her coffin lined with formaldehyde and other preserving agents, and had a special key made for himself so he could come and go as he pleased. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. He stuffed her body with rags, waxed the skin with plaster of Paris, and even fitted the face with glass eyes. Maria Elena Milagro de Hoyos [ edit] On April 22, 1930, while working at the Marine Hospital in Key West, Tanzler met Maria Elena "Helen" Milagro de Hoyos (1909-1931), a local Cuban-American woman who had been brought to the hospital by her mother for an examination. Are you sure that you want to remove this flower? Born in Key West in 1909, the daughter of a cigar maker and a homemaker, Hoyos was raised in a large family and was brought to the hospital by her mother after becoming ill. As a young boy in Germany, Tanzler would often have visions of a stunning, dark-haired woman who was predestined to be his one true love. He paused in Australia to collect equipment and suitable boats, and to become acquainted with prevailing weather and sea conditions. A psychiatric evaluation of Tanzler stated that he was in a borderline state but otherwise sane and mentally competent (Meek 2017). He also said that she would often tell him to take her from the grave. Like most patients, Hoyos was scared of the illness and the treatment. He also claimed nine university degrees and self-titled himself Count von Cosel, taking the name of an alleged ancestor. The email does not appear to be a valid email address. This browser does not support getting your location. 1910 - d. October 25, 1931; Key West, Florida, USA) Contents 1 Parents 2 Siblings 3 Marriage 4 Death Parents Francisco Hoyos (1883-1934), aka Pancho Hoyos Aurora Milagro (1881-1940) Siblings [1] In 1933, almost two years after her death, Tanzler removed Hoyos' body from its tomb, and lived with the corpse at his home for seven years until its discovery by Hoyos' relatives and authorities in 1940.[2]. He was born as Karl Tnzler or Georg Karl Tnzler on February 8, 1877 in Dresden, Germany. Hed left them to search for his soulmate, which he found in Elena Hoyos. Mencken Quotes On Politics, Religion, And The American Public, What Stephen Hawking Thinks Threatens Humankind The Most, 27 Raw Images Of When Punk Ruled New York, Join The All That's Interesting Weekly Dispatch. This article seeks to bring light to these, with the hope that people will learn what really happened as per these key findings. There is sufficient evidence to state that Tanzler, if not experiencing loathing towards Elena herself, experienced much loathing towards the people and situations around her. After he left Key West defeated, he returned to his wife and daughter in Zephyrhills, Florida. A cousin revealed to The Tennessean Sun in 1940: [Elenas] two rescues from death [via electric shock by Tanzler / von Cosel] had been so painful that Elena finally died hating her rescuer and [begged] to be allowed to stay dead. Fantastic Adventures, Sep. 1947, pp.10 69. Tanzler moved from Key West to Zephyrhills near where his wife and sister lived, but not before according to Perez (1952, n.d.), using a time-bomb to blow up the tomb the night he left. He also built and interred Elena in an elaborate mausoleum, which he visited every night for two years, constantly bought gifts and even installed a telephone. This all seems like silly speculation, to get people to read an old story. She died at her parents home in Key West on October 25, 1931, at just 22 years old. Weller, T. The Lost Diaries of Elena Hoyos Vols. Von Cosel had told me once: I have spent my whole life. Maria Elena Milagro De Hoyos, known as Elena, walked into a Key West hospital suffering from a fatal infection of tuberculosis. Found more than one record for entered Email, You need to confirm this account before you can sign in. Previously sponsored memorials or famous memorials will not have this option. Some of his hospital records were signed Count Carl Tanzler von Cosel. Carl Tanzler was born in 1877 and reportedly studied weather patterns in Austria in 1910, where he stayed until the end of World War I. Tanzler became enamored with her, and took an overly keen interest in her care, despite not having any idea on how to treat tuberculosis. He recognized her from a vision he had many years ago, when his dead ancestor Countess Anna Constantia von Brockdorff came to him in a dream and showed him the face of his true love and soulmate: a gorgeous dark-haired woman who looked exactly like Maria. He poisons her he poisons her to kill her quicker so he can have her as his own. Not until recently. or don't show this againI am good at figuring things out. Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. Her full name was Maria Elena Milagro de Hoyos, a heaven-sent love of his life for Carl, and the moment he first saw her, the beginning of a long-lasting "loving" relationship with literally the woman of his dreams-of which she would know nothing about . Concocting potions and tonics out of gold, Tanzler would shock Elena by connecting electrodes to her body via transformers and then give her medicinal wines. As they autopsy her body, for a second time, they discovered that she was removed from her tomb two years after her burial. Are you sure that you want to report this flower to administrators as offensive or abusive? Unfortunately for them both, Tanzlers prognosis for young Hoyos was not great, having diagnosed her with tuberculosis, which was still considered to be a fatal disease in the early 1900s. What is is known for is for having a love affair that lasted 7 years after her death. [1], On April 22, 1930, while working at the Marine Hospital in Key West, Tanzler met Maria Elena "Helen" Milagro de Hoyos (19091931), a local Cuban-American woman who had been brought to the hospital by her mother for an examination. With the consent of her family, Carl paid for Marias funeral and erected an elaborate mausoleum for her corpse. In April of 1930, the beautiful but doomed Elena Hoyos arrived at the Marine Hospital for blood tests. You accept the use of cookies or other identifiers by accepting, ignoring or dismissing this notice. Finally, she suggested that her son return to his sister in the United States Tanzler's account of Trial Bay Gaol, his secret building of a sailboat, etc., is confirmed by Nyanatiloka Mahathera, who mentions that he planned to escape from the Gaol with "Count Carl von Cosel" in a sailboat, and provides other information about the internment of Germans in Australia during World War I. He had her torso stuffed with rags in an attempt to preserve its original form, and he covered her scalp with bits of real hair. He wrote his autobiography in 1947, and received American citizenship in 1950, because whats more American than defiling a dead body? Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in: You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. As manager of this memorial you can add or update the memorial using the Edit button below. One night in 1933, he snuck her body out from the mausoleum in a toy wheelbarrow, and took her home with him. A Fresh Look at the Impacts and Relevance of Colonialism in Southeast Asia, Purposeless Polls: How Soviet Citizens RebelledAgainst a Regime that Rejected Open Communication. Becoming a Find a Grave member is fast, easy and FREE. At this point, Carl had lost his job at the hospital and was living in a remote shack which also housed his laboratory. I have paid for all her expenses, not you! Strong words from a man who was already technically rejected by Maria several times. He then placed Elena Hoyos on his canopied bed, serenading her with a small, church organ. Resend Activation Email, Please check the I'm not a robot checkbox, If you want to be a Photo Volunteer you must enter a ZIP Code or select your location on the map. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/23114033/elena-hoyos. I thought you might like to see a memorial for Elena Hoyos I found on Findagrave.com. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. Shes not dying fast enough. [1][8] Others contend that since no evidence of necrophilia was presented at the 1940 preliminary hearing, and because the physicians' "proof" surfaced in 1972, over 30 years after the case had been dismissed, the necrophilia allegation is questionable. File photo of Carl Tanzler when he worked as a . Tanzler was psychiatrically examined and found mentally competent to stand trial on the charge of "wantonly and maliciously destroying a grave and removing a body without authorization. Despite his best efforts, Hoyos succumbed to her illness in October 1931, leaving her family and newly-obsessed caretaker heartbroken. It turns out that Carl Von Cosel was married with children the entire time. His behaviour became too erratic to hold a job, and the hospital had found out he was stealing medical equipment from them. Tanzler insisted on purchasing a pricey stone mausoleum in Key West Cemetery for her remains to lay, and with her parents permission, hired a mortician to prepare her body before locking her inside. (Yes, to a real, live, breathing woman.). I mixed the root of wolfsbane (monkshood) with aconite diluted. He who has given you to me, will not reject our souls, united as they are in His undying love.. Fans of Tanzler travelled to give him treats, public sympathy portrayed him as an eccentric romantic, an attorney offered to represent him pro bono and Elenas body was put on public display to be viewed by over 6,850 people at the Dean-Lopez Funeral Home (Tanzler von Cosel 1947, Michelfelder 1982, Harrison 1996, Sloan 2012, Meek 2017). Tuberculosis was one of the most prominent causes of death at the time and cigar factories like where Elenas father worked was where the disease was spreading. It was palatable and my loved one departed this miserable world on October 25, 1931. Tanzler would extensively claim in this memoir, as well as during his 1940 court hearing and in numerous newspaper interviews that he had been seeing apparitions of Elena ever since he was a child, and it was the ghost of Elena that instructed him to enshrine her body in his home. It has been recounted that Tanzler was found in the arms of Elena's effigy upon discovery of his corpse, but his obituary reported that he died on the floor behind one of his organs. But opting out of some of these cookies may have an effect on your browsing experience. While there is not much written in the way of Tanzler feeling anything described as loathing towards Elena directly, (extreme disgust as per the Merriam-Webster dictionary), his relationship with her family was often very adversarial. Tanzler immediately recognized her as the woman of his dreams. Learn about the chilling embalmed corpse of the blushing bride La Pascualita. Hoyos was suffering from tuberculosis, and despite Tanzler's efforts, she passed at 22 years old. Why, you are old enough to be my grandfather. Harrison, B. Elena remained with Carl Von Cosel for seven years. Tanzler was subsequently arrested on the charge of wantonly and maliciously destroying a grave and removing a body without authorisation so a hearing was held. Please check your email and click on the link to activate your account. In 1926, Tanzler emigrated to the U.S. from Germany, where he settled in Zephyrhills, Florida. Her mother was worried about her declining health, but neither of them probably thought Tanzler would take an interest in her. Although he tried to stop her disintegration with embalming fluids, her body continued to decay. Tanzler quickly abandoned his brood after accepting a position as a radiologic technician in Key West, where he worked at the U.S. Marine Hospital under the name Count Carl von Cosel. Elena was legally married to Mesa at the time of her death. Please reset your password. Copyright 2023 Apple Inc. All rights reserved. In 1940, when her sister Nana confronted him about taking her body, Tanzler as equally as vehement, making statements such as, [Elena] is an angel, but not you (p. 68), You never looked after her for the past nine years, she has been under my care all these years. Elena Hoyos. Tanzler went by many names; he was listed as Georg Karl Tnzler on his German marriage certificate. This memorial has been copied to your clipboard. This would not be the end of Tanzlers obsession. She also received x-rays, which is when she met her radiologist, Carl Von Cosel. All right reserved. It is through several key pieces of research he came across and our correspondence on these that inspired and made this article a possibility. American Hauntings writes that it's unlikely she ever requited his affections. (LogOut/ Not only were reporters sympathetic to Count Von Cosels May-December romance, jurors acquitted Von Cosel of the theft, preservation, and mistreatment of Elenas cadaver. 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