Love That
written by Chuck Foster

The thought of Christmas brings visions of decorated trees, mistletoe, and the taste of egg nog to mind. It’s a time to spend with family and friends, a time to share your love with your sweetheart, and for most to feel goodwill towards all. For some, Christmas brings nothing more than sorrow and loneliness, even at its best. This couldn’t have been more true for Carl Von Cosel, a German immigrant who came to the United States after the first World War. Von Cosel found himself here in America all alone in the mid 20’s, with no known living family or friends. He claimed the war had destroyed his family’s fortune and all the official records documenting his aristocratic lineage. He also claimed to have nine college degrees in various sciences when he took employment as an x-ray technician in a Key West naval hospital shortly after his arrival. By 1929, the middle-aged Von Cosel had moved through the ranks and been promoted to a radiology technologist. During this same time he had been known to tell stories about the ghost of his dead ancestor, the Countess Anne Cosel, who revealed to him a young beauty he was destined to marry one day.

It was about this time in his life when he met a twenty-two year old Latino woman named Maria Elena Hoyos. Hoyos was a patient receiving treatment at the hospital for the deadly tuberculosis virus and was close to death. Young Maria had captured the love of Von Cosel instantly; he was sure that she was the goddess in all his visions. He became obsessed with curing her illness and was known to take an x-ray machine to her home where he performed various radiation treatments and therapies on her. Von Cosel had every intention to marry the beautiful Maria Hoyos and believed that if he cured her, she would be forever in his debt. Unfortunately, the very ill Maria died at the age of 22 on October 25, 1931. Von Cosel was devastated beyond hope and started to visit her grave site every day. His obsession with her in life began to carry over into her death.

Shortly after her burial, Von Cosel received Hoyos’ father’s permission to dig her coffin up and have it placed in a specially designed crypt. The mausoleum he had made for her contained an incubator type apparatus as well as a telephone that he used regularly to communicate with her. His conversations with her were said to consist of various plans to reunite her body and soul again so they could be united. For two long years Von Cosel visited the late Hoyos’ grave day and night, then after the two year anniversary of her death, neighbors noticed the doctor’s visits had come to an end. Most of the neighbors had always been suspicious of Von Cosel and his visits but thought nothing of it when the doctor was no longer seen. Little did they know, he had removed the decaying body from the tomb and took it to his secluded house on one of the islands surrounding the Keys.

At his home, Carl Von Cosel committed himself to the unimaginable task of trying to preserve the once beautiful Maria’s body. He covered her decaying corpse with silk, mortician wax, and exotic perfumes, then took the remainder of her hair and attached it to a mask for her to wear. Von Cosel was so desperate to save her fragile body that he even tied her bones together with piano wire, stuffed her insides with rags to keep her from collapsing, and replaced her decaying eyes with glass ones. He went on to place a vaginal tube for sex, but clothed her in a wedding gown to make their marriage sacred before consummating it. Von Cosel’s love for her never ended. He continued to import the perfumes and played the organ for her every night.

As years passed, Von Cosel kept the only key to the mausoleum to himself and was sure that his secret was safe. Nine years went by before Maria’s sister came to Von Cosel demanding the key so she could visit the mausoleum; it was then that she noticed the smell at his house and contacted the authorities. Carl Von Cosel was arrested and the body was taken to the local coroner for an autopsy. Despite the severity and grotesqueness of Von Cosel’s crime, he was found sane enough to stand trial. Even though he was found competent, he was not convicted of any wrongdoing because the statute of limitations on grave robbing had expired. Maria Elena Hoyos’ sister had her body re-buried at a secret location to protect it from Von Cosel and was kept secret until his death.

Carl Von Cosel may not have gone to prison for his fiendish acts, but his life was over. He was reported to have become secluded in his home and heard playing the organ every night. When he was found dead in 1952, he was lying on the floor beside a life size dummy, wearing a death mask identical to the one he’d made for Maria Elena Hoyos after he brought her home. Today, the story of Von Cosel is still a popular one down in the Keys. You can hear it at its best by Kat Maguire of “Ghost Tours of Key West” any time during the year.