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Strange Woods Podcast > Episode > Episode 36 – The Real Corpse Bride

Episode

Episode 36 – The Real Corpse Bride

Ready for a creepy tale of…romance…sorta…but not really? Join us for the real life tale of the Corpse Bride: a lovely young woman who died too soon and her aged suitor who didn’t want to let her go…Yikes, guys. Just, yikes.

 

                                             STOP! INSIDE JOKES AHEAD!  

If you haven’t gotten to listen to the episode yet, spoiler alert! This post contains lots of stuff that will make waaay more sense if you listen to the episode before or while reading. So if you haven’t already, pump the brakes and listen to the episode or just click above to play so that you can be in on all the shenanigans to follow! 

 

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Produced by Peter Woodward

Listener Story

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Our listener story comes from Kaitlyn from Tennessee. It is a super creepy story about something she saw peeking out at her from around a corner one night…ugh.

The Bride

Meet Helen...

Our story begins with a girl. A beautiful young lady named Maria Elana Milagro de Hoyos, whom everyone called “Helen”. She was born to a loving Cuban family in 1909 and was known as local beauty and lovely person. 

She married a man named Luis Mesa on Feb 18, 1926 at the tender age of 17. Soon after, she became pregnant, but miscarried their child. Luis then left her without divorcing her and never returned. Helen moved in with her parents. 
 

In 1927, Helen became very ill and her mother brought her to a local hospital for an examination. While there, she was diagnosed with tuberculosis. While in modern medicine, TB is very much a treatable disease, at this time, it was essentially a slow, painful death sentence. 

The Suitor

Meet Carl...

At this time in our tale, we meet this fellow: Carl Tanzler aka Count Carl von Cosel. He was born in Germany February 8, 1887. He first encountered Helen when she was a patient at United States Marine Hospital in Key West, FL in 1927 where he was working as a radiology technologist. For Carl, it was absolutely love at first sight. 
 
So what’s this guy’s deal?
 
Well, Carl was an interesting man with quite an interesting history, or so he claimed. He had a lot of things he claimed about himself. Like he claimed to have nine university degrees, and claimed he was a former submarine captain and inventor.
 
He also claimed when he was a child, he was visited by visions of a dead ancestor: a distant aunt. She was the Countess Anna Constantia von Cosel and she foretold of his true love, showing him the face of an exotic dark-haired woman. He carried the image of this woman in his brain for his entire life.
 
This ideal true love vision did not stop him from marrying. He wed a woman named Doris Schafer, and they had two children together. Their small family emigrated to the US in 1926, moving to Zephyrhills, FL where Carl’s sister already lived. 
 
At this point, Carl left his family in 1927 and got that job as a radiology tech in Key West…under a different name: Carl von Cosel, a nod to his fortune-telling ancestor. 
 

Love at First Sight

The day he met Helen–April 22, 1930–he instantly recognized her as the dark-haired beauty who was destined to be the love of his life. So imagine his devastation when he learned of her condition. 
 
Carl immediately made it his personal mission to save Helen’s life. He set about making homemade tonics and medicines to treat her. He took hospital equipment to the Hoyos’ home to administer treatments to Helen…not strictly what you would call “allowed”…or “ethical”…or “a good idea”…or “within his scope of practice or knowledge base”. Nevertheless, he did that. During this time, he confessed his love for Helen to her and asked her marry him several times. She did not return his affections and politely declined every time.

 

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Despite Carl’s best efforts, Helen died Oct 25, 1931. Of course, he was absolutely devastated.  He insisted on paying for her funeral and bought a huge stone mausoleum for her.

 Helen’s family was grateful, but little did they know, Carl neglected to mention that he was the only one with a key to the mausoleum. 

This is where things begin to turn a bit left…

Helen's Mausoleum

Suspicious Behavior

Carl spent a disturbing amount of time at Helen’s mausoleum. He stated that Helen’s spirit would visit him when he’d sit by her grave and sing her favorite Spanish song. He sometimes claimed that her ghost would join him there and they sang songs together. She would reportedly also tell him to take her from her grave.

He even had a telephone installed so he could call her when he wasn’t physically able to be there.  Carl consistently visited her mausoleum every single day for a period of approximately two years.

Meanwhile, this super weirded out his employers who eventually fired him from his job at at the hospital. His visits to Helen’s mausoleum stopped at the same time. 

Had he given up on the love of his life? Was he ready to move on?

Ummmmmm…no. Not even close. He didn’t need to visit the mausoleum to be with Helen. Why would he when she was…no longer there?

That’s right. It’s body-snatchin’ time.

In April of 1933, he loaded her body into a toy wagon and brought it to a lab he’d constructed from the inside of an old airplane…

Using various items, he set about trying to preserve her. Some of his tools were Plaster of Paris, piano wire, mortician’s wax, and glass eyes. He brought her “back to life” as best he could and then took her home with him where they began (ahem) sharing a bed.

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He would buy her dresses, stockings, jewelry, and gloves as well as perfumes and gifts. Carl even put up a privacy curtain above their bed so she could have privacy if she wanted it. 

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Maintaining Helen’s decaying body was a full-time gig. He used wire hangers to “preserve her frame” and stuffed her sinking body cavities with rags to maintain their shape. He applied and reapplied morticians wax to her face and body. He dosed her with disinfectants and oils to mask the smell of decomposition. Additionally, he collected her hair as it fell out to construct a wig, which he put on her head.

Morticians wax can be applied to the face or body, then sculpted and shaped in order to create specific features in need of dramatization or exaggeration. It was useful for creating a smooth or textured under layer for the repair of injuries to recreate a natural appearance.

The Jig Is Up

Helen’s family always thought it was strange that Carl stopped visiting Helen’s grave so abruptly. They were suspicious of him, knowing how deep his obsession went. And they weren’t the only ones.
Between this and Carl buying women’s clothing and gifts with no discernible girlfriend, people were talking. This came to a head when Carl was seen by a local boy dancing in his living room with what the boy described as a giant doll…

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In October of 1940, Helen’s sister Florinda decided to confront Carl and showed up at his house, asking him directly if he had Helen with him. 
 
 He invited her in and brought her straight to “Helen”. 
 
THIS is what she saw…

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Horrified, she at first thought it was a doll, but quickly alerted authorities. They determined the doll was in fact Helen’s remains. 

Carl was arrested for “wantonly and maliciously destroying a grave and removing a body without authorization”. He was psychoanalyzed and was found to be mentally competent to stand trial.

During his trial, he stated he planned to use an airship to bring Helen’s body “high into the stratosphere, so that radiation from outer space could penetrate Helen’s tissues and restore life to her somnolent form”.

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-At the conclusion of the trial, Carl received no penalty and would do absolutely no time. Believe it or not, he was acquitted of the crime due to the statute of limitations. 

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He then asked for Helen’s body back. 

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Yeah…his request was refused. Obviously.

In the meantime, to add further insult to injury, Helen’s body was put on display at the Dean-Lopez Funeral Home, “where it was viewed by as many as 6,800 people”. She was eventually buried in Key West Cemetery. In perhaps the one thing that was done right, she was buried in an unmarked grave to prevent tampering. 

Carl returned home, a free man. He used a death mask of Helen to recreate an effigy of her, which he kept until his death on July 3, 1975. His wife, Doris, whom he had abandoned in 1927 and never actually divorced, cared for him in his final years. He actually reportedly died in the arms of his Helen doll. 

Wanna Learn More?

These are some of the sources where we got our info…ENJOY!

My Favorite Murder podcast
Episode 187: "Sprankers!"
Hosted by Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark

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WHAT ELSE DID WE TALK ABOUT?

Animals Riding Roombas

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The Corpse Bride (2005)

Throwback! Strange Woods
Minisode 05 - Bodies in the Woods: The Russian Dollmaker

Minisode 05 – Bodies in the Woods: The Russian Dollmaker

KFC's Colonol Sanders...Carl's Relative (?)

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STRANGE WOODS PODCAST RECOMMENDS...

Podcast: My Favorite Murder

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Any music by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers...great stuff!

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Any song really, but specifically Mary Jane’s Last Dance…it’s amazing!

Wow. That guy was a piece of work. Romantic? We’re gonna go with a ‘no’ on that.

Keep in mind, guys…there are plenty of fish in the sea. Living…alive fishes…with a pulse…and not super deceased and decomposing. So…ya know…aim higher when you’re looking for a partner. Js. Anyway…

Thanks again for stopping by! We love our listeners and are so grateful for the support. 

Please remember to respect technology or SkyNet will come crashing down on you (AI can hear us, dawg) and as always, STAY STRANGE!

LATER, STRANGERS!

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Some articles and sources:

–Hardstark, Georgia and Karen Kilgariff. “Episode 186: Sprankers!” My Favorite Murder. Podcast audio, September 2019. https://open.spotify.com/episode/6EWZQWsOO3d27WiMeqElgQ
 

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