Life and Island Times July 7 2016 – Island Romance

Over a decade ago, Marlow delved into an especially creepy island romance from the past century. He read a thin paperback account entitled Undying Love that outlined it and led him to other source materials. Here now is a brief summary.

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Carl Tanzler, aka Count Carl von Cosel, was a man of many talents. The German-born radiologist (who was not a count) claimed to have nine university degrees, to be a former submarine captain and an accomplished inventor. In reality, he was an eccentric who had abandoned his wife and children to work in the United States Marine Hospital in Key West, Florida.

Carl Tanzler (l) and his dream woman (r) (Florida Keys Public Library)

After taking the job at the hospital in 1927, Carl mostly kept to himself. That is, until he met Maria Elena Milagro de Hoyos. When the 21 year old Cuban beauty came in for an examination, Carl knew immediately that Hoyos was the woman of his dreams. For years, Carl had been plagued by visions of a beautiful dark-haired woman who was destined to be the love of his life.

Carl’s examination revealed bad news – Hoyos had tuberculosis – a nearly always fatal disease at the time. Since Carl had found his soulmate, he was determined to save her life. Sparing no expense and displaying a total disrespect for hospital authority, Carl set out to find a miracle cure for his Elena. He administered homemade specialty tonics and medicines, illegally brought x-ray and electrical equipment to the Hoyos’ house for home treatments, all the while showering Elena with copious gifts and professing his love.

Despite Carl’s best efforts, Elena died of complications from her disease on October 25, 1931. Count Carl insisted on paying out of pocket for Elena to be buried in an expensive stone mausoleum, and with the approval of her family he hired a mortician to clean and fix up her body before placing it in the tomb. One fact her family remained ignorant of was that Tanzler was the only person with a key to the mausoleum.

Elena’s Tomb (Florida Keys Public Library)

After two years of visiting Elena’s mausoleum nightly and creeping everyone out with his dead patient obsession, Carl was fired from his job and ceased going to the Elena’s final resting place.

Little did anyone know, Carl was not satisfied with his nightly visits. He needed more quality time with his decaying dream girl, so he put Elena’s rapidly decomposing carcass in a toy wagon and transported it to a makeshift lab he had fashioned inside of an old airplane. Using plaster of paris, wires, mortician’s wax, and glass eyes, Cafl brought his icon “back to life,” and proceeded to take her to his home where the pair shared a marital bed.

Elena’s Airship (Florida Keys Public Libraries)

Over the years, Carl kept Elena “alive” using wire hangers to preserve her frame, stuffing her abdominal cavity with rags, routinely reapplying wax to her face, replacing her decaying scalp with real hair, and constantly dousing her in disinfectants and oils to mask the rotting smell of her body. While attending to the physical demands of his moldering bride, Carl attended to her material needs as well, purchasing her clothing and perfume, and even installing a curtained cloth veil for privacy on the bed they shared. Their domestic bliss went on for seven years.

Carl’s home and laboratory (Florida Keys Public Library)

Everything was going great, until people started asking questions. The combination of Carl’s habit of routinely buying women’s clothing, his absence from the mausoleum, and a local boy’s sighting of him through a window dancing with what appeared to be a giant doll, aroused suspicion.

In October of 1940, Elena’s sister confronted Carl at his home. He allowed her inside where, to her horror, she was met with what appeared to be a wax dummy of her sister (if only). Elena’s sister alerted the authorities, who seized the “doll,” only to discover it was actually Elena’s rotted corpse.

Not only that, while performing an autopsy on Elena’s remains, coroners discovered that among the multiple body parts Tanzler had reconstructed, he had inserted a paper tube inside her to serve as a makeshift vagina. Whether or not Tanzler fully consummated with his real life corpse bride is a subject of public debate.

Carl’s “Doll” (Wikimedia)

Tanzler was arrested and stood trial for “wantonly and maliciously destroying a grave and removing a body without authorization.” The trial became a media sensation, and surprisingly the majority of the public, especially women, supported Carl, finding him to be a romantic.

While on the stand, Carl claimed he planned to use an airship to take Hoyos, “high into the stratosphere, so that radiation from outer space could penetrate Elena’s tissues and restore life to her somnolent form,” which made about as much sense as anything else during the hearing. Count Carl was eventually cleared since the statute of limitations on his crimes had expired.

However, since the trial had garnered so much media attention, and because this took place in Florida, Elena’s body was put on public display at a local funeral home where thousands of people got to view her disturbing form. After the gawking was over, Elena was finally reburied in multiple unmarked graves so that she could rest in peace without any further romantic shenanigans.

As for Carl, after asking for Elena’s body back and being turned down, he lived the rest of his days out without further incident, although with a life-size effigy made from Elena’s death mask as a companion.

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Eight years ago, there were several attempts to fund a locally made film of these events. There was even a trailer that was circulated to get donors’ juices flowing. Marlow did not contribute.

Copyright © 2016 From My Isle Seat