The Insatiable French Spy

Who is Tarrare?

Tarrare (I cannot promise you that is his real name) was born in the 16th century, with best estimates placing his birth in 1722, in Lyon, France.

At an early age it was clear there was something peculiar about Tarrare. He ate himself out of house and home as a teenager, literally, as his parents decided they could not provide for his appetite. At the age of 17 he weighed 100lb, rather skinny for his average height, however he was able to eat his body weight in food- most notably in the form of a quarter of a bullock. His head was covered in incredibly soft and fine hair, his teeth stained within his unusually large, wide mouth which was adorned with lips barely visible. His cheeks were wrinkled and sagged, as was the skin on his abdomen.

Early Life

After his expulsion from the family home, Tarrare joined a troupe of street performers, prostitutes, and thieves as “The Man Who Could Eat Anything”. His act, along with other performers, served as a distraction whilst other members would pickpocket the crowd. This audience was vast, as many came to watch him devour food and objects alike, he often would eat corks, stones, live animals, along with large quantities of fruit and vegetables.

“He seized a live cat with his teeth, eventrated [or disemboweled] it, sucked its blood, and ate it, leaving the bare skeleton only. He also ate dogs in the same manner. On one occasion it was said that he swallowed a living eel without chewing it.”

A quote from members of his audience

On one such occasion, he was carried by his audience to the Hôtel-Dieu after having collapsed during his act. He had suffered from a bowel obstruction that was treated using laxatives. After his recovery he thanked the doctor and offered to demonstrate his act for free, by swallowing his pocket watch, complete with chain. The doctor refused this offer, telling Tarrare that he would have no qualms cutting him open to retrieve it if he did so.

Military Life

In 1792, when the War of the First Coalition broke out, Tarrere enlisted in the French Revolutionary Army. The meagre rations provided to soldiers proved inadequate to satisfy his appetite, he would trade with the other soldiers for extra food and scavenge in unsavoury places such as the dung heap, for scraps others had thrown out. This proves, at least to me, that Tarrare’s appetite was not just greed, he felt he would starve otherwise. This was later proven true as Tarrare was admitted to the military hospital with extreme exhaustion. Doctors decided his case was extraordinary, and granted him quadruple the rations afforded to the rest of the men. Still, this proved insufficient as he remained hungry. Again Tarrare scavenged for scraps – from other patients, the bins, and even consuming the medicinal cataplasms from the hospital apothecary.

Two surgeons, Dr Courville and Baron Percy, were fascinated by this ever-hungry man. Doctors had made great efforts to keep Tarrere away from food whilst admitted to the hospital, as it would not be seen again. On one occasion a meal had been prepared for 15 workers at the hospital, and, wanting to test the extent of his seemingly unending appetite, Courville decided to allow Tarrare access to this feast. After devouring two whole pies, four gallons of milk, and plates full of grease and salt in one sitting, he promptly fell asleep. The two doctors noticed that his belly had become distended, the usually sagging skin now taut.

Espionage

After an extended hospital stay, the subject of dozens more such experiments, the military decided he must return to active duty. Dr Courville, keen to continue his observations, suggested that Tarrare’s unusual talents may be of use. He suggested to General Alexandre de Beauharnais that his patient may be handy for courier services – using his own body as a messenger bag. The surgeon and General placed a document within a wooden box, which was then fed to Tarrare. After two days, the box was passed and the document retrieved, still legible.

So impressed with this feat, Beauharnais requested that Tarrare demonstrate his remarkable talents to the commanders of the Army of the Rhine. He was rewarded with a full-size wheelbarrow full of raw offal, which he ate immediately, still in the presence of the commanders. He was then employed as a spy, as he was able to carry written information and other documents across enemy territories with very little chance of them being found.

This was later tested, as Beauharnais gave him his first mission – to carry documents of incredible significance to a captured Colonel across Prussian lines. Tarrere both failed and succeded at this mission – he indeed crossed the lines, however he posed as a german peasant, and could not speak German. This raised red flags amongst the authorities, who captured and imprisoned him. During the strip search, as Courville had hypothesised, nothing was found. The Prussian commmander did not accept this as proof of innocence and remained suspicious. Tarrare was tortured for 24 hours until he relented, and explained the mission to his captors. 6 hours later, the box was excreted.

Within the box, Prussian commander found a note asking whether the note had been recieved, rather than the vital enemy documents he had been informed of by Tarrare. General Beauharnais had not trusted Tarrare and decided to perform a pilot spy trip. Enraged at this discovery, Tarrare was taken to the gallows to be hanged, the noose was even placed around his head, but at the last minute the commander seemed to have a change of heart. He was released at the French lines, but not before an intense beating.

Causes, Cures, and Other Hospital Antics

Tarrare was said to have body odour to such an extent that “he could not be endured within the distance of twenty paces”, a smell which got noticeably more ripe after he had eaten, described as “ fetid beyond all conception”. He would change in other ways after eating; his skin became hot to the touch, his eyes bloodshot, and rising from his skin would often be a visible vapour. Other than his curious eating habits, no other behaviours struck those around him as odd (except perhaps the child eating), and to this day no specific cause for his behaviour has been identified.

A book written by Bondeson suggests that damage to the amygdala could have been a cause, as damage to this part of the brain has induced an excessive appetite (known as polyphagia) in animals. Hyperthyroidism is another possible cause, as this is a condition which may lead to some of the symptoms described in this case: extreme appetite, weight loss, profuse sweating, and fine hair, however no cases similar to Tarrare’s have been reported in the modern day. There are multiple cases from history, including Nicholas Wood and Jacques de Falaise (links for futher reading (sorry one is in French)).

Once back in France, he was desperate to never again return to the military. He decided his only other option was a cure. Returning to the hospital he told Baron Percy that he would try anything, he just wanted to be rid of his unnatural appetite. As 16th century surgeons are wont to do, Percy agreed to experiment further.

Tarrare was treated with; wine vinegar, tobacco pills, opium, and massive amounts of soft-boiled eggs (of course!), however nothing worked. He was often caught sneaking from the hospital to steal offal from butchers shops, capturing and eating stray dogs, and fighting for carrion from alleys and gutters. Within the hospital he also drank the blood of patients admitted for bloodletting treatments, and attempted (some sources say he managed) to eat the flesh of dead bodies from the mortuary.

Other doctors at the hospital admonished Percy, telling him that Tarrare was clearly mentally ill and should be transferred to a lunatic asylum, however Percy persisted. Convinced that he could cure, or at least continue to experiment on, Tarrare, he kept him in the hospital.

This perhaps proved to be a bad idea. Tarrare continued to eat everything he could get his hands on, and when a 14 month old baby went missing from the hospital, all fingers pointed towards the man with a taste for everything (including human flesh). He was chased from the hospital and did not return.

Death and Autopsy

Percy was contacted, four years later, by a doctor Tessier in a Versailles hospital, letting him know a past patient was asking for him. Not one to pass up an opportunity, he travelled to Versailles where he was once again met by his medical marvel, Tarrare. Bedridden and weak, Tarrare informed his physician that he knew the cause of his illness, he had recently swallowed a golden fork and had not passed it. He was sure Percy would be able to remove it, as clearly he had done such an outstanding job of curing him. Unfortunately, the signs of advanced tuberculosis were clear, and a month later he was dead.

Once dead, putrefaction set in curiously quickly. The hospital surgeons refused to dissect the corpse, I can only imagine his scent in death was even worse than his aforementioned fetid living aroma. Tessier and Percy decided there could be much to learn from the body of this ever-hungry man, and more than likely it would be uncovered from his insides. When his deformed jaws were parted, the doctors had a clear view to his stomach, made possible by his atypically large oesophagus, described as a “broad canal” of at least a foot in diametre. The body was full of pus, and the organs enlarged – most notably his liver and gallbadder – and of course, his stomach. The stomach filled the entirety of his abdominal cavity and was covered in ulcers. There was no golden fork to be found.

So what was going on?

As suggested earlier, Tarrare may have suffered from a damaged amygdala. This part of the brain controls not only the sensation of hunger felt by an individual, but also the body's temperature. This would explain the overheating as well as the overeating. This doesn't explain how Tarrare was not massively overweight from his binges. But we know he used to eat massive quantities of raw meat, which more than likely led to a parasite (or four), feeding on whatever he ate before he got the chance to digest the nutrients. Other possible conditions or co-morbidities include; pica or Prader-Willi syndrome, sufferers of which will eat non edible objects, the latter of which also suffering from extreme hunger.

As with most historical mysteries, we can only guess what was truly going on, and the case of the French spy with a never ending hunger will remain a mystery.

Post two! Done! I hope you enjoyed reading this, I don't want to always write about murders or hauntings, so I thought I'd throw some miscellany in.

Please subscribe to my mailing list so you don't miss any posts, I sound like an annoying youtuber right now, but feel free to comment your thoughts, suggest other mysteries, and let me know whether you liked (or disliked) this post!

M x

Sources

Bondeson, J. (2006). Freaks: The Pig-Faced Lady of Manchester Square & Other Medical Marvels. Stroud: Tempus.

Bondeson, J. (2004). The two-headed boy, and other medical marvels. 1st ed. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University.

Bradley, T., Fothergill, S. and Hutchinson, W. (1819). Polyphagism. London Medical and Physical Journal, 42(205).

Gould, G. and Pyle, W. (1996). Anomalies and Curiosities of Medicine. Project Gutenburg.

Oliver, M. (2018). The Story Of Tarrare, The Insatiable Glutton Who Ate Everything From Human Flesh To Live Eels. [online] All That's Interesting. Available at: https://allthatsinteresting.com/tarrare [Accessed 2 Sep. 2019].

Ripley's Believe It or Not!. (2019). The Medical Mystery Of Tarrare, A Cannibalistic French Spy. [online] Available at: https://www.ripleys.com/weird-news/tarrare/ [Accessed 2 Sep. 2019].