His cannibalism has been denounced as arising from
choice, as growing out of a depraved and perverted appetite, instead of
being the result of necessity. On the fourth of April, 1879, this
strange man granted an interview to the author, and in this and
succeeding interviews he reluctantly made a statement which was reduced
to writing. "What is the use," he would urge, "of my making a statement?
People incline to believe the most horrible reports concerning a man,
and they will not credit what I say in my own defense. My conscience is
clear. I am an old man, and am calmly awaiting my death. God is my
judge, and it long ago ceased to trouble me that people shunned and
slandered me."
Keseberg is six feet in height, is well proportioned, and weighs from
one hundred and seventy-five to one hundred and eighty pounds. He is
active, vigorous, and of an erect, manly carriage, despite his years and
his many afflictions. He has clear blue eyes, regular features, light
hair and beard, a distinct, rapid mode of enunciation, a loud voice, and
a somewhat excited manner of speech. In conversing he looks one squarely
and steadily in the eye, and appears like an honest, intelligent German.
He speaks and writes German, French, Spanish, and English, and his
selection of words proves him a scholar.
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