Daniel Rakowitz is an American murderer and cannibal

Cannibalism

Cannibalism is the act or practice of humans eating the flesh of other human beings. It is also called anthropophagy...

. He was born in 1960 in Rockport, Texas

Rockport, Texas

Rockport is a city in Aransas County, Texas, United States. The population was 7,385 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Aransas County. The coastal community has approximately 8000 citizens. Large windswept live oaks are a dominating feature of the area and the state's oldest live oak,...

, where his father was a policeman. He moved to New York

New York

New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...

 around 1985.

In 1989 he walked in Manhattan

Manhattan

Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...

's East Village

East Village, Manhattan

The East Village is a neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan in New York City, lying east of Greenwich Village, south of Gramercy and Stuyvesant Town, and north of the Lower East Side...

 around Tompkins Square Park

Tompkins Square Park

Tompkins Square Park is a 10.5 acre public park in the Alphabet City section of the East Village neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan in New York City. It is square in shape, and is bounded on the north by East 10th Street, on the east by Avenue B, on the south by East 7th Street, and on the...

 bragging that he had killed his roommate, Monica Beerle, a Swiss student at the Martha Graham Center of Contemporary Dance

Martha Graham Center of Contemporary Dance

Martha Graham Center of Contemporary Dance is located in New York City and is the headquarter to the Martha Graham School of Contemporary Dance and the Martha Graham Dance Company, which is the oldest continually performing dance company in the world....

, and a dancer at Billy's Topless

Billy's Topless

Billy's Topless was a topless bar on Sixth Avenue and 24th Street in the Chelsea area of New York City. Operating from 1970 to 2001, it was for many years considered a neighborhood landmark.-The bar:...

. He said that he had boiled her head and made soup

Soup

Soup is a generally warm food that is made by combining ingredients such as meat and vegetables with stock, juice, water, or another liquid. Hot soups are additionally characterized by boiling solid ingredients in liquids in a pot until the flavors are extracted, forming a broth.Traditionally,...

 from her brain. He had tasted it and liked it, and thereafter he referred to himself as a cannibal.

He was found not guilty by reason of insanity on February 22, 1991, and was moved to a state hospital for the criminally insane.

In 2004, a Manhattan jury determined that Rakowitz was no longer dangerous, but was still mentally ill

Mental illness

A mental disorder or mental illness is a psychological or behavioral pattern generally associated with subjective distress or disability that occurs in an individual, and which is not a part of normal development or culture. Such a disorder may consist of a combination of affective, behavioural,...

enough to require inpatient care.