The worst was yet to come. Furher investigation showed that had been robbing the graves of several parisian gothic graveyards since he was 17, stealing the bones, and mutilating mummified remains. When asked the reason why he was storing stolen blood bags inside his refridgerator, Nico simply answered that he drinked it on a reguilar basis. He also confessed to being on a very special diet. Working as a mortuary assistant for 10 months, he had been using his position as a means to fulsill his lifelong fantasy, anthropophagia. When left alone to stitch the bodys after the autopsys, he would cut strips of meat from the rib, and eat them. He sometimes brought pieces of flesh to his place, where he cooked them.

Being faced with this modern vampire, investigators had one last question to ask: why did he began to kill ? At first, Nico claimed that the motive was robbery. But the coldly calculated Modus Operandi he used, as well as the unnecessary overkill (5 shots in the head, and the use of furniture to smash his victim's skull) and the carefull removal of fingerprints, proved that something far more sinister was involved. That indicated a clearly senseless, yet premeditated, murder. The victim being homosexual, investigators at first wondered if there was a sexual component in this case. But there was none. It simply turned out that the young killer was looking for any victim, male or female. and the killer wasn't looking for sex. He was just looking for death.

Over the couple of years preceding his trial, Nico revealed some of the complexity of his warped mind to board of specially chosen court psychiatrists. Dozens of tests were made on him, revealing a borderline psychotic personality. He showed signs of suffering from visual and audio hallucinations, specially while performing acts of grave robbery. But his craving for human flesh remained a mystery.

The trial took place in May 1997. After lenghty debates over the mental sanity of the accused., judge Waechter convicetd Nico of one count of first degree murder, but since that the defendant was lacking substancial ability to control his impulses, according to law 242 of the french system, Nico was condemned to a relatively short sentence of 12 years.

Prison revealed another side of Nico personality. The reclusive satanist began to receive hundred of letters from groupies and teenage satanists worldwide. His dark charisma seemed to appeal to a very special audience, who asked for autographs and signed drawings. Some compared the long haired and dark eyed french vampire to an Anne Rice character. But it was his newly found artistic capacitys that sparked the interest of collectors of unsual art.
 

See Nico Art