The Despicable Crimes of Joe Metheny, the Cannibal Cook

Joseph Roy Metheny was born on March 2nd, 1955, in Baltimore, Maryland. The life he stepped into was a complicated one.

He was one of six children in the family, and claims were made by his attorney that the kids were often neglected growing up. His mother worked double shifts to support the family after his father, a depressed alcoholic, died in a car accident when Joe was six.

According to Metheny, his parents would frequently arrange unofficial foster situations and send him off to live with other families. His mother disputed this claim, and went on to say that, despite being poor, the kids had a relatively normal upbringing and never went hungry.

She described her son, in his youth, as a polite boy who was an above-average student. As a child, he was never mean.

In 1973, Metheny enlisted in the United States Army. Oddly enough, while his mother stated that her son served in Germany, Joe himself insisted he had served in Vietnam.

Joe claimed that while in an artillery unit in Vietnam, he got addicted to heroin. However, America's involvement with Vietnam had ended by the time he joined the army, and in press coverage, his service was described as unverified.

After joining the army, Metheny's contact with his mother became nearly nonexistent.

By the 1990s, Metheny, in addition to his 6'1"frame, had become extremely obese, weighing in at around 450 pounds. His large figure earned him the ironic nickname “Tiny.”

Most of his free time was spent in bars, and a good chunk of his money was funneled directly into his crack and heroin habits.

In 1994, Metheny was living with his girlfriend and their young son. Metheny's violence began when he came home one day to find both of them gone.

As his girlfriend had a similar addiction to hard drugs, Joe went out looking for her where he knew people got high. One such location was the tent city under Baltimore's Hanover Street Bridge.

Here, Metheny did not encounter his girlfriend or his son, but rather two homeless men, Randall Brewer and Randy Piker.

When these men couldn't give Metheny any information on his girlfriend's whereabouts, he slaughtered them with an axe in a fit of rage.

Metheny was tried for these murders, but a jury found that they could not tie him to the crime with sufficient evidence. He did, however, confess to their murder later—as well as others committed that same night.

After murdering the two homeless men, Metheny claims to have raped and killed two women in pursuit of information, and also alleged he killed a fisherman who may have witnessed his dark deeds.

Though he confessed and told the authorities where he dumped their bodies in the river, no remains were ever recovered, and they could not bring him to court on the matter.

His next murder took place that same month, but left behind far more evidence. After strangling the life out of Cathy Ann Magaziner, he buried her body in a shallow grave at the pallet company he worked at.

This murder would not be investigated until his confession two years later.

In November of 1996, Metheny stabbed Kimberly Lynn Spicer to death with a knife.

Less than a month later, he kidnapped another woman, Rita Kemper, and attempted to rape her.

Prosecutors claim that Metheny and Kemper shared drugs in the trailer he was living in at the pallet factory. When Kemper refused to have sex with him, she fled the trailer, only to have him chase her down, beat her, and drag her back to the trailer to undress and attempt to assault her.

Kemper herself alleges that, as Metheny attacked her, he said, “I'm going to kill you and bury you in the woods with the other girls.”

Escaping through a window, Kemper found help from police officers in the area.

Shortly after this incident, Metheny reached out to a friend to ask him to help bury Spicer's body, which he had been keeping at the factory for the past month. On December 15th, this friend reported the exchange to the police, leading to Metheny's arrest.

The owner of the factory was also arrested, charged with being an accessory to murder for allegedly disposing of evidence.

Once in custody, Metheny confessed not only to Spicer's murder, but to several others, as well. He also led the authorities to the shallow grave in which he reburied Magaziner's remains.

According to the police, Metheny victimized young white sex workers who had cocaine and heroin addictions. The murders of these women were accompanied by violent sexual assault.

Among Metheny's long list of confessions was the chilling addition that, after killing his victims, he would dismember them, mix their meat in with beef and pork, and not only consume them, but sell them to unsuspecting customers at a roadside barbecue stand he ran on the weekends.

At first, it seemed it was just a convenient way of disposing of his victims' remains. And then his sick culinary experiments shifted into a bit of sport.

He claimed that any time he ran out of special meat, he just went out looking for a sex worker or unhoused person.

Metheny was indicted for the murder of Tony Lynn Ingrassia, but, due to a lack of evidence, the charges were later dropped.

He admitted—or claimed—that he also murdered three additional prostitutes, but beyond his word, there was no evidence of other crimes.

Metheny alleges that he tossed the remains (at least those that weren't consumed) of his other victims in the Patapsco River, and they had never been recovered.

While Metheny confessed to killing up to 10 people, it's uncertain how truthful his claims are. Given his addictions and twisting of the truth, there is room to believe he killed either less or more.

Metheny was tried for the Kemper case in 1997. For kidnapping and attempted sexual assault, he received 50 years in prison.

He was acquitted of attempting to murder her.

In 1998 he was found guilty for the murder of Spicer and sentenced to death.

At his sentencing hearing, he declared, “The words ‘I’m sorry’ will never come out, for they would be a lie… I just enjoyed it."

Later that year, Metheny plead guilty to the murder and robbery of Magaziner, receiving a life sentence.

In 2001, his death sentence was overturned and reduced to life without parole.

Metheny died in his cell at Cumberland, Maryland's Western Correctional Institution at the age of 62.