In , four men were charged with body-stealing. They had been selling body parts they obtained without consent from corpses in morgues and funeral homes in New York City. The body parts were sold for transplant and medical study.
Although there are many modern laws designed to prevent body snatching, it continues to be a lucrative underground business. All rights reserved. History Detectives. Body Snatching Around The World The dark practice of body snatching is directly tied to the advancements in the study of anatomy and medicine.
Thomas Dwight, a critic of professional grave robbers, lamented about the deplorable conditions of the body trade and their unscrupulous desire for more money. The history of the District of Columbia is in this respect a truly disgraceful one.
They needed a way to keep their supplies flowing while at the same time removing the professional grave robber from the equation. In , the federal government heard the cry of the medical community. The United States Congress created an Anatomical Board within the District of Columbia that consisted of members from each medical school in the city, a public health officer, and medical representatives from the Army and Navy.
Unclaimed dead from the poor community of Washington would be sent to medical schools according to the number of students enrolled each year. This brought to a close the need for the professional grave robber in Washington. Despite the unsavory nature of the business, nineteenth-century grave robbing produced many positive impacts on the growth of modern medicine. View the discussion thread. Oak Hill Cemetery in Washington. Llewellin Eliot, Washington Medical Annals, pg. No such mechanism existed in the United States, England, or Scotland.
So medical schools needing dissection material acquired corpses the best way they could—by sending janitors, students, and medical doctors to rob fresh graves. Such pillaging, while technically a misdemeanor, was seldom prosecuted. Politicians protected it in the name of common good, and the police looked the other way, unless forced to take action.
Lawyers argued that because the previous occupant had vacated the body, its ownership was in doubt. So why bother? There was no victim, or so lawyers contended, unless a cemetery sued, which never happened because many were in cahoots with resurrectionists.
The story began with Mrs. Her niece, Jane Smith, had been buried earlier that evening and the more the Federal Hill matron tossed and turned, the more she became convinced that grave robbers had stolen the body afterward.
There in disturbed earth she found the evidence—a crucifix that Jane had worn to the grave when she was laid to rest next to her mother, who had died six months earlier. Now four robbers—all medical school janitors—had pillaged both graves. Reburying would take too much time, so they took her putrid remains along and the school used her skeleton. Louis and south to Atlanta. No one admitted involvement. Students there had gasped when they witnessed her naked nubility. A grand jury indicted Jensen, along with Emil A.
This night was dedicated to history, to be played out in reenactments of the lives of some of the people buried in this year-old cemetery. Graveyards have always attracted history buffs and genealogists--along with others less dedicated to preservation.
Modern-day grave robbers. The valuables are sitting right outside the tombs: the statues--particularly angels--urns, columns, benches and fountains that beautify the grave sites. Across the South these items are being stolen by the hundreds, destined for antique shops and flea markets, where they bring high prices as garden decorations.
Johnnie Cadle, 78, of Swainsboro, Ga. The 3-foot-tall boy angel, made of Italian marble, was the centerpiece of a large monument erected in a small rural cemetery about 80 years ago. Spotting a suspicious-looking pickup truck, the superintendent locked the cemetery gates and called police.
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