The Mad Doctor of Key West\n\nCarl Tanzler, also known as Count von Cosel, was a radiology technician in Florida who developed an obsessive fixation on Maria Elena Milagro de Hoyos. After she succumbed to tuberculosis, Tanzler visited her tomb nightly before eventually stealing her body in 1933.\n\n- He used piano wire to hold her bones together and replaced her decomposing skin with silk soaked in wax and plaster.\n- He lived with the corpse for seven years, sleeping beside it every night and using perfumes to mask the odor.\n- He was only caught when Elena's sister looked through his window and saw what she thought was a giant, terrifying doll.\n\nRemarkably, Tanzler was never imprisoned due to the statute of limitations on grave robbing having expired. He spent the remainder of his life with a life-sized effigy of Elena, continuing his bizarre devotion until his death in 1952.