The Hopeless Romantic Who Proved Love Never “Dies”
Dr. Carl Tanzler, also known as Dr. Carl Von Cosel, amongst many other names was a German radiology technologist at the Marine-Hospital Service in Key West, Florida.
In 1931, Tanzler fell in love with one of his patients — Maria Elena Milagro de Hoyos. She was a young Cuban-American woman who was suffering from tuberculosis and was brought into the hospital where Tanzler worked. Unfortunately, she later died.
People have a hard time letting go and Tanzler had the hardest time of all.
I’ve been a hopeless romantic for as long as I can remember — I love “love”. To me, experiencing love is life’s greatest pleasure. I know that love can make you do crazy things, both good and bad. That is why this story practically jumped off the pages at me.
Tanzler loved Hoyos so much that after visiting her grave every day for two years, he stole her corpse, “restored it”, and lived with it.
He used coat hangers, silk, and wax
In April 1933, Tanzler began a new life with Hoyos — one free of illness, medicine, and heartbreak. He put forth extensive effort to bring “life” back to her body and to preserve her natural state.
