Note: The following story contains details that some may find offensive and disturbing. Discretion is advised.

He's accused of some of the worst crimes his country has ever seen. But on Thursday, the man some are calling the "cannibal" of Mexico City refused to put in a plea in court. Jose Luis Calva is charged with killing, dismembering and possibly eating the remains of his girlfriend, after her family's missing person's report brought police to his apartment earlier this month.

When asked for a statement of his guilt or innocence, Calva refused to say anything. "I can't get my thoughts together right now," he told the judge. The accused has apparently admitted that he killed 32-year-old Alejandra Galeana, but he denies the gruesome cannibal accusation that has turned his case into a worldwide horror show. Cops discovered pieces of human flesh in a frying pan when they raided his residence.

But the suspect insists he was going to feed it to the dogs in his neighbourhood as a means to dispose of the body. "He killed her because he was high on cocaine," defense attorney Humberto Guerrero explains. "He didn't eat her, he just cut her body up."

Prosecutors don't buy it, noting Calva took pains to carefully prepare his gruesome dish, including seasoning the flesh with lime juice - something no one would do for a dog.

The 38-year-old leaves behind a long list of ex-girlfriends, two of whom cops suspect he may have also murdered and dismembered. So far, they haven't charged him with those crimes.

The surviving exes say the man they remembered passed himself off as a charming playwright, television personality, reporter, novelist, actor and poet. But he became domineering once they were going out together. "He must have had a super personality, to charm me the way he did," a former date known only as "Veronica R." relates. She's a drugstore employee and cops believe Calva targeted her to get medication to control his anxiety.

The mother of the woman he's accused of killing recalls her daughter's date as being extremely self-centered. "[He was] a very vain person ... everything was me, me, me," remembers Soledad Garavito.

A former acquaintance agrees. "The way in which he treated his girlfriend, it seemed like a classic dominant-submissive relationship," the anonymous friend recounts. "He would say things like 'Who told you you could talk?'"

In addition to pieces of rotting flesh and body parts found strewn around his apartment, cops discovered a large amount of sadomasochistic films and literature, along with his literary efforts, which he would often sell on the street to earn some quick cash. "I am going to imagine myself as a balloon the size of the sun, and I'm going to roll around in the cosmos that is me," he wrote in an essay called "The Night Before."

Calva's past is shrouded with sadness. He was abandoned by his mother as a child and his father died when he was only two. He was raped by one of his brother's friends when he was seven, none of which excuses any of the heinous acts police allege he committed later in life.