Rudy Eugene and our unhealthy obsession with cannibals

It was a normal sort of day in the neighborhood. The sun was shining.

Rudy's girlfriend said he woke up early, made coffee etc.  She said he looked in a closet and left home to go catch up to a "homeboy."

He left home with a Bible in his hand. She didn't say if he waved goodbye as he headed down the street or patted the Labrador on the head.

But some time later that day, things took a slight turn for the worse when Rudy was shot dead by cops for eating the face off a homeless man, while naked, on a causeway in Miami.

The case of Rudy Eugene is truly horrific even for Florida but it has fascinated a prurient public as much as it has appalled.

Before the attack Eugene's criminal record had been limited to a few misdemeanors for smoking pot, although there were some pointers toward a violent nature.

Bruce Baker writing in examiner.com says Eugene's girlfriend believed he may have been under a Haitian Voodoo curse and subject to a ""zombie apocalypse" at the time.

That or he had taken too many bath salts. Do you believe an apocalypse involving zombies is nigh? asks Baker before suggesting we follow him on Pinterest. See it's not just for girls.

Whatever the cause it's clear we have an unhealthy obsession with cannibals be they the small guys deep in the forest who shrink heads or Dr. Hannibal Lecter, the sinister character played by Anthony Hopkins in Silence of the Lambs, that won the Welsh actor an Oscar.

Implausibly we are invited to start liking the cold blooded cannibal as he helps find another serial killer. We can't understand cannibals. It's the last taboo. We are horrified but we are also fascinated.

Because Rudy Eugene is dead we will probably never know what caused this appalling attack. But we'd be safe in assuming he wasn't reading the nice, touchy feely parts of his Bible.