Cannibal child-killer Nathaniel Bar-Jonah is the stuff of nightmares

Monster stories throughout America aren’t anything new. We’re not talking about tales like the Mothman or anything, but real monsters. We talk about some of them who have risen to infamy. Some, however, are so unrepentantly evil that it’s better to keep quiet on them, pretend like they never existed at all. So you’ll be excused for not hearing of Nathaniel Bar-Jonah before now because he was a monster of the highest order.

During his life, Bar-Jonah assaulted, attacked, and murdered children without any conscience for his actions. If things are to be believed, then he also cooked them as well. Even worse, he may have served these children to his unsuspecting neighbors. If you can stomach the story, here’s what you need to know about Nathaniel Bar-Jonah.

A thirst for blood

Born David Paul Brown in MA in 1957, Bar-Jonah showed signs that he wasn’t a normal kid from an early age. It started when he lured a five-year-old neighbor to his home and tried to strangle her. He was seven at the time. Bar-Jonah continued these attacks on and off throughout his childhood.

He sexually assaulted a six-year-old neighbor when he was 12. A few years later, Bar-Jonah attempted to lure two boys to a nearby cemetery. One, however, had a bad feeling about it and convinced his friend to just leave. It was a smart move because Bar-Jonah planned to kill the pair. 

In 1975, Bar-Jonah abducted an eight-year-old boy. He sexually assaulted the child and proceeded to strangle him. Someone, however, witnessed the abduction and called the police. They found the boy near the point of death in Bar-Jonah’s car. Bar-Jonah was sentenced to a year’s probation.

During his time on probation, Bar-Jonah abducted and assaulted a nine-year-old girl, throwing her from his vehicle when she went into convulsions. Shockingly, the assault never got back to his probation officer. In 1976, Bar-Jonah was released from parole for the earlier crime. 

Bar-Jonah would abduct two boys from a movie theater in 1977 where he took them to a secluded area and molested them. He tried to strangle one of the boys and drove off with the other when he believed he succeeded. The boy survived, however, and went to get help, leading to Bar-Jonah’s arrest. This time, Bar-Jonah was sentenced for attempted murder for 18-20 years. 

Bar-Jonah would be sent to Bridgewater State Hospital for treatment. He changed his name in 1984. During his time in the hospital, he talked to doctors about his fantasies about abducting, murdering, and cannibalizing children. Yet he was released by a judge because, apparently, the state didn’t prove Bar-Jonah to be dangerous.

Move

After his release from the hospital in 1991, Nathaniel Bar-Jonah assaulted another child. He saw the seven-year-old boy sitting alone in the car and forced his way inside. There he sat on top of the boy, trying to smother him (Bar-Jonah weighed over 300 pounds). He was stopped and quickly arrested. Bar-Jonah moved to Montana for his probation.

In 1996, 10-year-old Zachary Ramsay disappeared while on his way to school. Despite reports of witnesses seeing an “obese adult male” following him along with reports of a distressed Ramsay heading into an alleyway and a four door car running him over, the case went cold. Ramsay was declared dead in 2011 by a judge. It’s largely believed Bar-Jonah killed Ramsay.

In years between moving to Montana and Ramsay’s disappearance, Bar-Jonah had been molesting young boys in his apartment. His crimes went undetected for years. During this time as well, Bar-Jonah would make food for neighbors, which had an unidentifiable meat in it. 

Bar-Jonah would be arrested in 1999 for impersonating a police officer. This led to a search of his home and that’s when police found a treasure trove of horrors.

Cannibal

In Bar-Jonah’s apartment, police found pictures of children, a journal written in code, and a human bone. The journal was sent to the FBI. Parents also came forward to accusations of Bar-Jonah assaulting their children. Bar-Jonah was charged with kidnapping and sexual assault. 

The FBI also found a list of names of his victims. One of those names was Ramsay. A former roommate of Bar-Jonah said that he found clothes matching what Ramsay was wearing when he disappeared in Bar-Jonah’s possession. Apparently, Bar-Jonah also brought up the boy frequently in conversation as well.

The FBI decoded Bar-Jonah’s journals where he described his obsession with torturing and murdering children. His diary also detailed how to cook and eat children, such recipes were “My Little Kid Dessert”, “Little Boy Stew,” “Little Boy Pot Pies,” and “Lunch is Served on the Patio with Roasted Child”. 

Along with a meat grinder in Bar-Jonah’s home? Oh things got even more disturbing. When neighbors heard this, they remembered the strange meat in the meals that Bar-Jonah cooked them. 

Now he claimed that it was venison, but the circumstantial evidence was enough to make people wonder. The allegations of cannibalism haven’t been proven or disproven, leaving the people Bar-Jonah fed in a strange state of limbo. 

Bar-Jonah was sentenced to 130 years in prison on the molestation charges. He died in prison in April 2008 at the age of 51. It’s unknown how many victims Nathaniel Bar-Jonah had. 

—

If you’re fascinated by real-life cannibals, sign up for our newsletter. We’ll send you the most relevant news, articles, polls, and quizzes.