Topic: Karl Tanzler

Karl Tanzler, a German eccentric in Key West, became infamous for his obsessive attempt to reanimate the corpse of Maria Elena Milagro de Hoyos after she died of tuberculosis. Tanzler kept her body in a specially constructed mausoleum and later his home, using various devices to maintain its integrity. He eventually published his account in Raymond Palmer's magazines, claiming he was visited by the ghost of an ancestral alchemist.

A historical overlap occurred in Key West when HP Lovecraft visited the town at the same time Karl Tanzler was attempting to reanimate a corpse. While there is no proof they met, both were eccentrics with pretensions to science living in a small bohemian community alongside figures like Ernest Hemingway. Evidence suggests Tanzler may have been a German government agent, as he received monthly payments from Germany, a detail woven into the fictional narrative of The Lovecraft Code.