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“In 18th-century France, there existed a man who stood out as both extraordinarily talented and utterly despicable in a time that was no stranger to such paradoxical figures.”
Patrick Suskind’s renowned novel Perfume: The Story Of A Murderer opens with this line, chronicling the life of Jean-Baptiste Grenouille, a mysterious peasant compelled to commit murder due to his extraordinary olfactory senses. While the book is a work of fantasy, a similarly gifted and monstrous individual did indeed exist in 18th-century France. His name was Tarrare, and his insatiable hunger was legendary.
10. The Troubled Prodigy
During the early 1770s, a monstrous figure came into existence in the verdant Rhone valley, near the thriving silk-weaving hub of Lyon. Little is known about his childhood, except that he departed from his family home at an early age. It’s possible his parents, overwhelmed or terrified by their peculiar son and his endless hunger, forced him out. Alternatively, his relentless appetite might have driven him to venture out on his own, searching for sustenance beyond what his rural upbringing could offer.
His true name remains a mystery, though he eventually became known as Tarrare, a name possibly derived from a word associated with flatulence or linked to the Rhonish area of Tarare. (Or perhaps both. Or neither.)
However, it’s clear that Tarrare was afflicted with a severe condition from a young age. Despite consuming quantities of food that would be fatal to an average person, an unrelenting hunger tormented him incessantly. By the age of 17, he weighed a mere 48 kilograms (100 lb) and could devour a quarter of his body weight in beef in one sitting. He consumed wax, corks, offal, and even more repulsive items without harm, savoring decaying flesh as much as gourmet dishes.
After leaving his family, he wandered from place to place, surviving through begging, scavenging, and theft. In his late teens, he reached Paris, then Europe’s most magnificent city, where he decided to settle.
9. The Serpent Devourer
In Paris, Tarrare discovered his niche as a street entertainer, becoming part of one of the many dubious troupes vying for attention on the city’s cramped boulevards. He would dare onlookers to outmatch his appetite, a challenge he seldom lost.
On one memorable occasion, he devoured an enormous basket of apples offered by a spectator. Less kind audiences insisted he gulp down stones, which he often did. This, however, overwhelmed even his formidable digestive system, frequently landing him in the renowned Hotel-Dieu hospital for treatment of intestinal obstructions.
Yet, as soon as he recovered, “he returned to his old habits and was once caught attempting to swallow the surgeon’s pocket watch, complete with its chain and seals.” He stopped only after the surgeon warned him that any swallowed items would be extracted with a blade.
But his self-control was short-lived, and he soon resumed his street performances in Paris, astonishing crowds by consuming snakes and eels whole. Observant spectators, however, noted that he likely crushed their skulls with his teeth before they slid down his throat.
8. A Peculiar Physique
As time went on, Tarrare grew into adulthood. While his appearance had been relatively normal as a child, he now looked so bizarre that it was deeply unsettling. His mouth and throat were so large that when he tilted his head back, a cylinder measuring 30 centimeters (1 ft) in diameter could be inserted into his esophagus.
His lips were nearly invisible, stretched tightly over teeth discolored to a ghastly brown. His cheeks sagged loosely, and it was rumored he could effortlessly hold a dozen eggs in them. His skin had an unhealthy pallor, and his hair was sparse and fine. Despite his voracious eating, he remained emaciated and weak.
His most striking feature was his stomach, which was so bloated that it drooped like an apron. When he hadn’t eaten for a while, it was said he could nearly wrap his stomach around his body. Physicians who examined him noted he was constantly sweating, his body feverishly hot, with some even claiming to see a mist rising from him. He emitted a natural odor so foul that no amount of washing could eliminate it, often making his presence unbearable to those around him.
As he grew older, his molars eroded due to constant and peculiar use, yet this did nothing to diminish his hunger. He suffered from severe diarrhea, the stench of which was described as “unimaginably foul” even by seasoned medical professionals.
7. A Rhonish Renfield
While Tarrare’s everyday appearance was strange, his behavior while eating was utterly disturbing. He would take on a frenzied look, sweating profusely, with “his cheeks and eyes turning a bright red.” He was energetic and quick when hungry, even right after consuming a regular meal. However, once he had overeaten, he would either fall into a deep sleep or enter a trance-like state, staring blankly while belching and swallowing.
He would snatch birds from trees to devour them and could regurgitate indigestible hair and fur, similar to an owl’s pellets. In one shocking instance witnessed by a doctor, he grabbed a cat that had wandered too close, ripped open its belly with his teeth, and drank its blood. He then ate the rest of the carcass, later vomiting up the fur.
As his hunger intensified, he began hunting small animals in this manner, to the point where his presence in an area would send stray dogs fleeing in fear, having learned to dread Tarrare.
Baron Percy, a renowned surgeon who became his primary physician and chronicler, viewed him with a blend of dread and compassion: “Imagine the most voracious and filthy creatures, both domestic and wild, and their capacity to devour—this might give a glimpse into Tarrare’s insatiable appetite and needs.”
6. Tarrare The Soldier
In 1788, amid the turmoil of the French Revolution, Tarrare chose to escape the perilous streets of Paris and enlist in the army. Some speculate he was inspired by the revolutionary fervor of the time.
On the flip side, the chaos in France led to extreme food scarcities in Paris, so it’s possible Tarrare simply sought a steady source of meals. While military rations were sufficient for an average person, they did little to satisfy his extraordinary hunger.
For a time, he managed to survive by serving his fellow soldiers in exchange for a portion of their rations. However, when the army was deployed to the front lines, his comrades had no extra food to share, and Tarrare began to suffer from starvation.
After collapsing from hunger, Tarrare was admitted to a military hospital, where the shocked doctors prescribed him four times the standard rations. Even this proved insufficient, and he soon roamed the hospital halls, devouring kitchen leftovers and spoiled food rejected by other patients.
This still didn’t satisfy him, and he eventually turned to eating poultices and other medical supplies. By this point, his doctors were more fascinated than frustrated.
Eventually, Dr. Courville witnessed hospital staff struggling to prevent Tarrare from eating a meal intended for nearby German laborers. He immediately instructed the staff to let him go and challenged him to consume as much as he desired.
The meal, meant to feed 15 men, was devoured by Tarrare in one sitting. He consumed two massive meat pies, plates of grease and salt, and 8 liters (2 gallons) each of milk and curdled milk. Only when the table was empty did he finally stop and fall into a deep, contented sleep.
After calming the angry laborers, Courville was fascinated to see that the loose skin of Tarrare’s stomach had expanded like a balloon. Intrigued, Courville began to consider whether this unique ability could be utilized for military purposes.
5. Tarrare The Spy
Once Tarrare’s hunger returned, Courville convinced him to swallow a small wooden box containing a sealed note. The box reappeared the next day, having successfully traveled through his expansive digestive system.
Immediately, Courville reached out to the high command, claiming he had found a flawless way to deliver messages across enemy lines. A general arrived and watched in astonishment as Tarrare consumed 15 kilograms (30 lbs) of raw liver.
With his abilities proven, Tarrare was ordered to swallow another wooden box, this time containing vital secret documents meant for a French colonel held captive by the Prussians.
At least, that’s what Tarrare was told. In reality, the general had been unimpressed with the plan and skeptical of the glutton’s intellectual capacity. The general opted for a test, placing only harmless papers in the box to avoid any risk if intercepted.
This turned out to be wise, as Tarrare was quickly captured by the Prussians upon arriving in Landau. Confused by this bizarre spy, they whipped him until he revealed his mission. They then tied him to a latrine until he expelled the wooden box.
Furious to discover the message was trivial, they dragged Tarrare to the gallows and staged a mock execution. Deeply shaken, Tarrare returned to France, vowing to abandon his espionage career.
4. Gilles De Rais
Tarrare’s near-death ordeal at the hands of the Prussians appeared to leave him deeply unsettled. He pleaded with his doctors to find a cure, certain that his uncontrollable hunger would eventually lead to his demise.
Baron Percy, a highly respected physician, took on his case. Percy experimented with acids, opium, tobacco pills, and even soft-boiled eggs (believed to suppress hunger in the Levant). Despite these efforts, nothing worked, and Tarrare’s hunger became increasingly insatiable.
He began sneaking out to slaughterhouses and garbage-filled alleys, battling “with dogs and wolves over their foul scraps.” For the first time, he started drinking human blood, taken from fellow patients for medical purposes.
He broke into the hospital morgue and devoured corpses with the same enthusiasm he once showed for stray cats. Those who had seen him as a curiosity now viewed him with fear and disgust.
Then the unimaginable occurred. A 14-month-old infant vanished while receiving treatment at the hospital. While the cause was unknown, suspicion quickly fell on Tarrare, with his gaunt lips and discolored teeth. Tarrare, the cannibal, whose insatiable hunger drove him to prowl the wards in search of food.
Only one conclusion could be drawn. Wisely, Tarrare chose to flee the hospital and disappear from Paris.
3. A Medical Mystery
How, then, can we explain the bizarre condition that afflicted the man known as Tarrare? He is frequently compared to Charles Domery, a Prussian soldier of the same era, who was said to consume cats, candles, and several pounds of grass daily.
It was rumored that Domery’s comrades once had to pry a severed leg from his grasp as he attempted to eat it on the battlefield. What could drive such extreme hunger, a relentless craving intense enough to transform men into beasts?
The unfortunate reality is that modern science remains clueless. While excessive eating is observed in some mental health cases, it never reaches such alarming levels. Studies have shown that damage to the amygdala can cause cats to overeat, while a damaged hypothalamus has similar effects on lab rats.
However, in both instances, the animals quickly became obese, whereas neither Tarrare nor Domery was ever notably overweight. In fact, Tarrare was described as almost skeletal for most of his life. Moreover, the rats eventually recovered.
While brain damage might have contributed, it can’t fully explain Tarrare’s unique physiology. Hyperthyroidism can cause an extremely rapid metabolism, leading to constant hunger without significant weight gain. Yet no hyperthyroidism case has ever resulted in anything resembling Tarrare.
Perhaps the tale is simply embellished, though most details are supported by Baron Percy, a highly respected surgeon with no motive to fabricate. The mystery will likely persist unless another Tarrare emerges from some remote part of the world.
2. Tarrare The Corpse
Death offered little clarity about what Tarrare truly was. In fact, the situation grew even more bizarre as his body immediately “succumbed to a horrific decay,” decomposing at an astonishing speed.
His unbearable stench had become so overwhelming that even doctors accustomed to the horrors of the revolution were hesitant to perform an autopsy. Their reluctance likely increased when they cut into his stomach and discovered his organs “drenched in pus.”
Nevertheless, they persisted. Percy noted that Tarrare’s liver was enormous, though it had already started to dissolve into “a state of putrefaction.” He also remarked that “the gallbladder was unusually large” and that “the stomach, in a relaxed state with scattered ulcerations, occupied nearly the entire abdominal cavity.”
Unfortunately, by that point, “the body’s odor was so intolerable that M. Tessier, the hospital’s chief surgeon, could not continue the examination.” The remains were hastily buried, hopefully never to disturb the world again.
1. A Golden Fork
For four years, the enigmatic figure wandered through France, leaving no trace in historical records. Where did he go? Who offered him refuge? How did a creature, known for consuming the dead and possibly the living, satisfy his relentless hunger during the harsh times of revolutionary France?
Did he feed on the priests drowned and left to drift downriver at Nantes? Was he among the spectators as Robespierre faced the guillotine, or shadowing Turreau’s troops as they carried out massacres in the Vendee?
No one knows for certain. The only person actively seeking him was Baron Percy, who finally located Tarrare in early 1798 when he was admitted to a hospital in Versailles.
Percy arrived to discover Tarrare on the brink of death, suffering from chronic diarrhea and an unidentified illness that had finally ended his insatiable hunger—a bittersweet relief that brought him no solace.
The enigmatic figure was in severe distress, confiding in Percy that he had swallowed a golden fork, which he believed was causing his internal demise. However, the fork was never recovered, and physicians speculated that Tarrare had actually contracted tuberculosis.
Percy did his best to help, but the situation was beyond hope. Tarrare passed away in agony a month later. Doctors estimated his age at just 26.
