Writer: Kelly Williams
Posted: Mick Carter
Subject: World’s Worst Female Necrophile
Link: Daily Star / 13.10.2024
Warning: When ‘morgue rat’ Karen Greenlee was caught stealing a hearse with a dead man in the back, it triggered a police search that exposed her horrific crimes
World’s Worst Female Necrophile
What charges did Karen Greenlee face in 1979? Was necrophilia illegal in California in 1979? What was the title of Karen Greenlee’s 1987 interview?
Self-confessed “morgue rat” Karen Greenlee exposed her deepest and darkest secrets in a confession letter she thought she’d penned on her deathbed. But when the twenty-three-year-old apprentice embalmer survived a suicide attempt, her sick fantasies were laid bare in black and white. Not only did she admit to climbing into coffins to have sex with forty corpses, but she also described how she found the smell of death “erotic.”
Her disturbing fetish came to light in December 1979 after she was wanted by police for stealing a hearse with a man’s body inside. It was claimed that she arrived at the crematorium as planned, but when she saw the grieving family of John L Mecure, thirty-three, she “did a big doughnut and took off” — with him still in the back.
When officers eventually caught up with her, she was miles away from the funeral home in Sacramento, California, and tried to take her own life with an overdose. Alongside her was a four-and-a-half page letter listing the forty dead men that she had sex with while in the grips of necrophilia “addiction”.
It exposed her darkest desires and changed how everyone she knew and loved saw her forever. She became known as the world’s most infamous female necrophile. Incredibly, necrophilia wasn’t illegal in California at the time, so Karen faced charges of theft of a hearse and interfering with a funeral.
She had to pay a $255 (£190) fine and spent eleven days in jail. But that wasn’t the end of her legal woes, as John L Mercure’s mum, Marian Gonzales, tried to sue her for one million dollars.
In court, Karen admitted to climbing into the coffins at her workplace to molest corpses after drinking heavily in her apartment, which was attached to the mortuary.
In 1987, she gave an explosive interview titled: The Unrepentant Necrophile in which she explained all the different ways that she used dead men to reach orgasm, describing herself as a “morgue rat.”
“People have this misconception that there has to be penetration for sexual gratification, which is bull!” she said, “The most sensitive part of a woman is the front area anyway, and that is what needs to be stimulated. Besides, there are different aspects of sexual expression: touchy-feely, sixty-nine, and even holding hands. That body is just lying there, but it has what it takes to make me happy. The cold, the aura of death, the smell of death, the funereal surroundings, it all contributes.”
“I find the odor of death very erotic,” she added, “There are death odors, and there are death odors. Now you get your body that’s been floating in the bay for two weeks, or a burn victim, that doesn’t attract me much, but a freshly embalmed corpse is something else.”
But what many people found most shocking was that she didn’t believe that what she had done was wrong — and she had no plans to stop.
“For a while, I found myself thinking,” she said, “Yeah, this isn’t normal. Why can’t I be like other people? Why doesn’t the same pair of shoes fit me just right?’ I went through all that personal hell, and finally I accepted myself and realized that’s just me. That’s my nature, and I might as well enjoy it. I’m miserable when I try to be something I’m not.”
No one knows where Karen is now, but it is believed that she changed her name and moved away to start a new life after the publication of the “regrettable” interview.
Interesting bit of history that I can relate to (in a way). After spending a few years in the “system”, i was adopted into the all American family life. Two successful adults, two blond haired and blue eyed kids (both adopted}. My adopted parents and new life was much better that before, but bits and pieces of my past haunted my thoughts and actions. I was a very curious boy and my adopted sister and I helped each other cope with our dark past. I did my best to help with the family businesses and as i got older focused in on the main revenue producer…our two funeral homes…yes, my parents were morticians and that lifestyle was my future (or not). Most of our house guest were old and routine, some were accidents and challenge; and, a few were unforgettable and made me realize just how “fucked up i was in the head”. If things had not changed, I’m sure the funeral business would have been the “death of me”!!