David Viens, California chef, admits to slow-cooking his wife’s body

David Viens, a chef on trial for murdering his wife, is giving Hannibal Lecter a run for his money. 

On a recording that was played before the court Tuesday, the California chef admitted to slow-cooking his wife's body for four days, until all that was left was her skull. 

He explained that he shoved her body in a 55-gallon vat of boiling water. He kept it submerged with weights, and mixed her remains with other kitchen waste before getting rid of it, the Associated Press reported.

"For some reason I just got violent," he told detectives. 

I know, we gagged too. 

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Dawn Viens disappeared in October 2009, and her husband admitted to investigators (as well as to his ex-girlfriend and daughter) that he'd taped his wife's mouth shut and tied up her hands and feet with duct tape, the Los Angeles Times reported. 

Viens was the head chef at the former Thyme Café in Torrance, which he co-owned with Dawn, according to NBC News. 

He jumped off an 80-foot cliff in March 2011 after he found out he was a suspect in his wife's disappearance. The interview with detectives was done from his hospital bed, and he has been confined to a wheelchair as a result of his injuries, the AP reported. 

Somehow, despite all this, the man has plead not guilty to his wife's murder.