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Writer's pictureJennifer Brecheisen

The Serial Killer Who Sold Hamburger Meat Made From Humans

The case of Joseph Metheny


"The words ‘I'm sorry' will never come out, for they would be a lie. I am more than willing to give up my life for what I have done, to have God judge me and send [me] to hell for eternity. I just enjoyed it." 


These are the famous words of Joseph Metheny, a serial killer who enjoyed not only killing his victims but storing them in his freezer to use later as meat for his hamburgers that he would sell to unsuspecting customers. But wait… how did we get here? Because surely there has to be more than meets the eye. Join me as we take a closer look into the mind, heart, and soul of Joseph Roy Metheny.



Joseph Metheny | Library of Crime


According to Metheny’s mother, Joseph lied a lot about his upbringing. For instance, he served in the Army and was stationed in Germany, but claimed in a later interview that he was stationed in Vietnam admitting that was when his heroin addiction began. She blamed the drugs, saying it was the worst thing that could have ever happened to him. But drugs weren’t the only thing Metheny continued chasing. As well-spoken and intelligent as others saw Joseph, he had a temper. You see, by 1994 he was a truck driver. And because truck drivers spend a lot of time on the road, Metheny’s girlfriend picked a period of his absence and decided to run off with their six-year-old son. Anybody would be devastated by this news, but for Joseph, pissed off would be an understatement. 


6’1, 400+ lbs, you could imagine Joseph was a force to be reckoned with. Add anger and drugs into the mix, I suppose it was only a matter of time. With his girlfriend and son missing in his South Baltimore homeless shelter, that was it. He hit the streets looking for her, scouring every spot where he and her did drugs together. Eventually, Metheny crossed a bridge where he met two homeless men: Randall Brewer and Randy Picker. Although his girlfriend wasn’t there like he had hoped, Metheny didn’t leave completely empty-handed. With him, he had his ax.


“I found out about six months later she had moved on the other side of town with some asshole that had her out selling her ass for drugs. They got busted for drugs and they took my son away from them for child neglect and child abuse.”

Both Randall and Randy explained that they hadn’t seen Joseph’s girlfriend. What happened next is difficult to gauge. Did he not believe them? We don’t know. But why Metheny did what he did was anyone’s guess. It all came to a head. Enraged, he decided to murder both Randall and Randy in cold blood right there on that bridge. But somebody caught his eye. There was a fisherman in the distance who witnessed everything that Metheny just did. He went on to kill him as well. He quickly disposed of the bodies in the nearby river in hopes that his crimes wouldn’t be uncovered. Despite going to jail for a short time for the murder of both Brewer and Picker, police never uncovered the bodies. It should be noted that they were certain Joseph did it, but they lacked evidence. This did something to Metheny. It wasn’t long after getting released from jail that he went on to murder two women between 1994 and 1996. Something was different. Although Joseph was still on the hunt to find his missing girlfriend and son, he was chasing something else: A new high. 


Metheny had a process. He would lure prostitutes to his isolated home by offering free drugs, he would kill them, and then he would dispose of the bodies. But instead of the river, he decided to take advantage of his isolated job site. 


Cathy Ann Magaziner, 45, bumped into Metheny one night at a bar in July of 1994. She went back to his trailer and they had sex. It was then that Metheny killed Cathy by strangling her to death. He collected her purse, and her clothes, and buried them separately from her body. When police later found Magaziner’s body it had been uncovered at Joseph’s job site - except that her head was missing. What he did with her head is anyone’s guess. I prefer not to think about it for too long.


"I got a very . . . got a rush out of it, got a high out of it. Call it what you want. I had no real excuse why - other than I like to do it."

At some point after murdering and burying Cathy, Metheny gave in to his urges once more - taking the life of 28-year-old Toni Lynn Ingrassia, stabbing her to death, and hiding her body underneath some pallets at his job site… allegedly. They weren’t able to tie him to Ingrassia’s death due to the lack of evidence.



Joseph Metheny | Murderpedia


A couple of years later he went on to murder Kimberly Lynn Spicer at the young age of 23. And these are just the victims we know about. It’s estimated Joseph killed at least ten different people between the years of 1994-1996. I say all of that to say this: The majority of the victims that this sadistic bastard butchered and stored away… well, we don’t know their names. And it wasn’t enough to keep the human remains for himself. He decided to test out the market. He ran what you and I today would call a side hustle. For nearly two years Joseph Roy Metheny ran a BBQ stand where he served roast beef, pork, and human flesh.


“I cut the meat up and put it in some Tupperware bowls then put it in a freezer. I opened up a little open-pit beef stand. I had real roast beef and pork sandwiches. They were very good. The human body taste was very similar to pork. If you mix it together no one can tell the difference… so the next time you’re riding down the road and you happen to see an open pit beef stand that you’ve never seen before, make sure you think about this story before you take a bite of that sandwich.” 

But in late 1996, shortly after the murder of Kimberly, Joseph decided to go back out once more and find another victim. He had his eyes set on Rita Kemper, 37, another sex worker. Metheny offered for her to hang out with him in exchange for drugs. When Rita went back to his place, however, the conversation went south. He wanted to have sex with her, but Rita refused. When she decided to leave, that’s when she realized this was a very dangerous man. Kemper attempted to run when she quickly noticed that Joseph wasn’t giving her a choice on the matter. Unfortunately, it was too late. He had caught up to Rita, beat her, and dragged her back to his place where he planned to rape her.


“I’m going to kill you and bury you in the woods with the other girls.”

At some point during Joseph’s monologuing he had his back turned to Rita. And that’s when she made her move. Kemper slipped out the window of Metheny’s trailer and proceeded to clear an eight-foot tall chain link fence. She ran and contacted the police immediately. Metheny didn’t try to run. He knew he was done for. This was probably quite the shock to him. He had yet to be caught red-handed up until this point. 


He confessed to all of the murders and the times in which they happened. Police quickly realized they had a serial killer on their hands. And even worse, the two homeless men at the beginning of Metheny’s journey? He killed those men in 1995, meaning they weren’t his first set of victims. Is this why Joseph’s girlfriend fled? Did she suspect his psychopathic tendencies? We may never know her true reasons for leaving, but we can certainly speculate.


In 1997 Joseph Metheny was charged for the kidnapping and attempted sexual assault of Rita Kemper. That alone gave him fifty years in prison. In 1998 he was charged with the robbery and murder of Cathy Ann Magaziner, where they debated the death penalty due to Maryland’s law in regards to robbing somebody prior to killing them. However, it was evident that she was dead by the time he took any of her belongings. This resulted in the death penalty decision to be overturned in 2000. But after it was all said and done, Joseph was sentenced to life in prison once they tied him to the murder of Kimberly Lynn Spicer. On August 5, 2017, Metheny was found dead in his cell at the Western Correctional Institution at Cumberland, Maryland. He was 63 years old. 


In conclusion, Joseph Roy Metheny would have become a killer regardless of whether his girlfriend chose to leave or not. He was a ticking time bomb. He was cold and calculated. Despite this, Joseph was also intelligent and well-spoken. This just shows that you can’t trust everyone you come across. And the next time you are offered a burger by a neighbor, a coworker, or anyone outside of your circle for that matter - think twice before taking a bite.


Written By:

Israel Petty




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