He ate his dad! – Need to visit – Before to the Place

In May of 1977, police were called to an apartment complex near SE 25 and Douglas. The Oklahoma Times photo archive later described it as the scene where police found evidence of what they called a “cannibal slaying.” The archive also identifies Gregory W. Canatis as the man arrested for allegedly killing and eating his father.

Theodore Canatis was killed inside the apartment he shared with his son. Gregory was 20 years old at the time, and a psychiatric report from Central State Hospital says he had been admitted there on May 6, 1977, under a district court order. The listed allegation was first-degree murder.

According to that report, Gregory told officials that he and his father had been arguing. He said the fight turned violent after a butcher knife became involved. What happened next turned the case from a family murder into one of the most disturbing crimes in Oklahoma history. The report describes Gregory admitting that he dismembered his father’s body and attempted to dispose of parts of it.

The case did not unfold like a normal murder trial. It quickly became tied to Gregory’s mental condition and his placement at Central State Hospital. Years later, the case was also mentioned in a forensic medical article, which described it as a rare case of familial cannibalism in Oklahoma in 1977.

Today, the apartment complex at SE 25 and Douglas is remembered mostly through old newspaper records and archived photos. But behind the shocking headlines was Theodore Canatis, a father whose life ended in a terrible and almost unthinkable way.