Episode Twenty-Nine: Loving the Dead – Necrophiles Anatoly Moskvin and Carl Tanzler
Most of us understandably fear death, but there is a very tiny subset of fairly creepy folks out there who literally embrace it. On this episode, Tom and Jenny “dig” into the bizarre, unsettling cases of two confirmed necrophiles: Carl Tanzler (aka Count Carl von Cosel) and Anatoly Moskvin. Neither were killers, but both had a forbidden affinity with the no-longer-living, and their stories are equal parts disturbing and pitiful. In fact, the morbid “love story” between Carl Tanzler and the corpse of Maria Elena Milagro de Hoyos has become the stuff of legend.
The show also features digressions on the excellent Miriam Allen DeFord story “A Death in the Family,” and the wacky world of necrophilia in the animal kingdom. This episode is probably not for the faint of heart; Tom himself becomes so skeeved out by the details of the cases at one point that he entertainingly threatens to abandon the show in utter disgust! So pull up a coffin and settle in for this exploration into the macabre world of the lovers of the dead. You sickos, you. 🙂
Jenny Ashford is a horror and paranormal writer, graphic designer, and podcaster. Her books include three novels, Bellwether, The Five Poisons, and Red Menace; two short story collections, Hopeful Monsters and The Associated Villainies; a graphic novel, The Tenebrist; and four paranormal nonfiction works: The Unseen Hand: A New Exploration of Poltergeist Phenomena; The Mammoth Mountain Poltergeist, co-authored with Tom Ross; House of Fire and Whispers: Investigating the Seattle Demon House, and The Rochdale Poltergeist, both co-authored with parapsychologist Steve Mera. Her short stories have also appeared in several anthologies, including The Nightmare Collective, History Is Dead, 2012AD, ChimeraWorld #3, and ChimeraWorld #4.
Along with Tom Ross, she co-hosts a podcast called 13 O'Clock on the Project Entertainment Network, on which the duo discuss all measure of strange and creepy topics, ranging from the paranormal to true crime to historical mysteries to horror movies. She also makes videos for a sister list channel called 13 O'Clock In Minutes.
Jenny's graphic design work can be seen in marketing materials for Van Gogh Vodka, promo materials for bands including Astari Nite, Ending the Vicious Cycle, Withering Earth, Kids Without Heroes, and Sons of Ragnar, poster designs for Memento Mori at Independent Bar, Thee Grotto and Vengeance at the Haven in Orlando, and on the cover of The Young Atheist's Survival Guide by Hemant Mehta (aka The Friendly Atheist), among many other places. She also runs an online store called GraveCake selling products with her gothic and horror-themed designs.
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