Anti-Body Snatching Defenses In Graveyards: Burke + Hare and the Anatomists

[Archaic]

Hi everyone.

My friend Sarah ('Nurse Sarah' on Casebook) just returned from a trip to Scotland and sent me some photos. Some of the photos showed the elaborate "anti-bodysnatching" devices still visible in Edinburgh cemeteries, and I found them so incredible that with Sarah's permission I'm posting them for the rest of you to see.

Just imagine how people of these days felt. Not only had their loved one died, forcing them to face all the painful issues that entails, such as their own grief, the purchase of a casket and a grave-plot, the funeral arrangements, and preparations for a long period of formal mourning, but they also had to cope with the very real terror that their deceased loved one might be ruthlessly dug up by body-snatchers and the corpse sold to anatomists for a bit of coin.

Christian Jewish and Muslim religions taught that at the End Of The World and the Coming of the Last Judgment, the dead would be Resurrected- physical bodies and all. So in addition to the other emotional trauma involved, to have the corpse of your loved one stolen, sold, and dissected had enormous religious significance.

These photos are from the famous Greyfriars Kirkyard in Edinbugh. The awful metal railings and other devices people had to resort to are called "mortsafes"= "deathsafes".

Best regards,
Archaic

[Archaic]

Mort-Stones and Mortsafe Cages

I found some other very interesting photos that are apparently under copyright, so I am providing links to their websites.

This first link has a nice photo of an early mortsafe, called a "mort-stone". It was a long slab of stone so heavy any would-be grave-robbers couldn't move it. (My guess is that they could dig around it though, and that's probably why various other designs came into use.)

Mort-stone: http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/174883

This website 'Cemetery Explorers' has some photos of huge mortsafe "cages" and has some really cool photography of old cemeteries... Note the photo of the wonderful rainbow over the old headstone at Croydon Cemetery! Cemetery Explorers is a blog with numerous entries and fabulous photos; it is written by Alexandra Kathryn Mosca, who has authored a book on the famous Green-Wood Cemetery in New York.

Cemetery Explorers: http://cemeteryexplorers.blogspot.co...1_archive.html

Best regards,
Archaic

[mklhawley]

Very interesting photos Archaic. So, the Anatomy Act was passed in 1832, some 50 years before the Whitechapel murders. The statement makes it seem this act did the trick.

Mike

[Archaic]

1832 Anatomy Act & The Resurrection Men

Hi Mike.

Yes, the 1832 Anatomy Act made cadavers available to medical schools, which not only assisted the medical schools and their student, but destroyed the profit-motive for "body-snatching". Prior to to the passage of the 1832 Anatomy Act, the Murder Act of 1752 stated that only the bodies of executed murderers could be legally obtained for dissection. Because the general public had such a horror of dissection, consigning executed murderers to the fate of post-mortem dissection was considered yet another 'punishment' for their crimes.

The men who engaged in the mercenary activity of supplying bodies to the medical schools were called "resurrection men" or "resurrectionists". They needed bodies that had not yet undergone decomposition- in other words, the newly dead. That's why they raided graveyards and stole freshly-buried bodies. The metal and stone devices called "Mort-Safes" were usually used for a short period of time, until the body was no longer 'fresh' and had begun to decompose, because at that point it was no longer of use to the corpse thieves.

Those who couldn't afford a mort-safe often stood guard in person at the grave of their loved one. Entire families did this, taking turns night and day, until they were sure the corpse was too old and decayed to be of monetary value to thieves. The psychological stress and trauma this must have entailed for grieving families is incredibly sad.

Some churches created 'Watch-Houses', which were basically guard-houses to protect the church cemetery. Some are still standing today. Churches also built huge vaults where bodies were temporarily interred until they had started to decompose, at which point the could be safely buried. Because Scotland had very advanced medical schools in which Human Anatomy was studied, church cemeteries close to the cities of Edinburgh, Glasgow and Aberdeen took the greatest precautions against the body-snatchers.

The notorious pair Burke & Hare became famous because they took their mercenary activities even further- instead of stealing the newly dead, they murdered people to meet the demand for undecayed corpses suitable for medical study. Murder gave them a regular supply of fresh bodies, and thus a regular supply of income. Murdering in order to sell the corpse or its parts became known as "Burking".

53 years after the passage of the Anatomy Act, with the advent of Jack the Ripper and the Torso Murders, there were a few old-fashioned types who still clung to the belief that the motive was to obtain body parts for dissection, and so surmised that the killer was a deranged doctor or medical student. It was quickly proven that corpses and specimens were so cheap that this was exposed as an untenable theory. (I posted an 1888 Medical Journal article that listed the prices paid for various body parts or whole corpses, and the prices were very cheap indeed. If you want to see the prices, they're listed in the 'Oct 15, 1888 Medical & Organ Theft Thread', Post #37: http://forum.casebook.org/showthread.php?t=3572&page=4)

Here's a good article on the basics of the1832 Anatomy Act http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anatomy_Act_1832

There was a great deal of opposition to the Act -such as by the Archbishop of Canterbury- but it finally passed.

Best regards,
Archaic

Note: The coffin-shaped mort-safes in the left hand photo were originally buried underground with the coffin placed inside of them. They are from a Scottish cemetery.

[Wickerman]

...53 years after the passage of the Anatomy Act, with the advent of Jack the Ripper and the Torso Murders, there were a few old-fashioned types who still clung to the belief that the motive was to obtain body parts for dissection, and so surmised that the killer was a deranged doctor or medical student. It was quickly proven that corpses and specimens were so cheap that this was exposed as an untenable theory.....

How does this "logical" fact contest the actions of an "illogical" minded criminal?
Are we supposed to think a deraged doctor/student will think logically?
Is it not rather illogical in itself to expect logic in the commission of an illogical act?


Does your organ price-list apply equally to the general public, or only to registered members of the medical community?
The point being, could a foreign medical practioner, who is not a member of the British Medical Society, also buy organs for study?
The Ripper investigation turned up many foreign-trained medical practitioners who we might suspect were not sufficiently qualified in the eyes of the British Medical Association to be allowed in as members.
So the price-list, though interesting, still does not say who it was for.

Note: The coffin-shaped mort-safes in the left hand photo were originally buried underground with the coffin placed inside of them. They are from a Scottish cemetery.

Great photo's, thanks.
Sort of begs the question, "why bother with a coffin, when encased in an iron basket?".

Martin Fido, (Crimes, Detection and Death of Jack the Ripper) also wrote a decent little book entitled, Bodysnatchers, A History of the Resurrectionists 1742-1832, 1988.

There is also another book, The Body Snatchers - Frederick Drimmer, 1981.
Where a comment is offered with respect to your Iron Baskets:
Quote:
"Iron Coffins, despite what the advertisement said, were costly; their price was £31. Also on the expensive side was the burial safe, introduced later in America. This was a cage that enclosed the coffin and was lowered with it into the grave".

Regards, Jon S.

[Archaic]

Iron Coffins, Mort-Safes, Etc.

Hi Jon.

I don't know if a "foreign" doctor could purchase British medical specimens & cadavers, but if you what to research this point I'm sure we'd all be interested to hear the results. I would imagine that a foreign doctor would at least have access to medical specimens in his own country, and would not need to go to England and commit murder in order to obtain them.

Personally, I put the Whitechapel Murders as far beyond "illogical"; more like psychopathological. But if you are interested in the "Mad Doctor/Medical Student Theory" there are threads devoted to that subject.

Thanks Jon for the info on Martin Fido's book on 'Bodysnatchers'; it sounds very interesting. I'll add it to my Amazon Wish List

I think I can answer your question "Sort of begs the question, "why bother with a coffin, when encased in an iron basket?".
One good reason is that, historically, executed traitors and other criminals were deliberately exposed to view by having their dead bodies placed inside metal cages very like mort-safes and hung from gibbets, so that they actually decomposed in full view of the public. Anything remotely resembling that ghastly indignity must have been a real horror to everyone.

The custom of placing a deceased loved one in a coffin is of course very old, and still continues today. (Even people being cremated are often placed in expensive coffins that are usually cremated with them- something I've never understood.) Even in the time of "mort-safes", the coffin was highly visible. The coffin was often kept at the deceased's home or a mortuary chapel for the "viewing" of the deceased, then it was present in church for the Funeral Mass. Next it was conveyed to the cemetery in a horse-drawn hearse, and carried by pall-bearers to the grave. There would usually be a graveside ceremony and the coffin would be lowered into the ground. The religious representative usually says "Ashes to ashes, Dust to dust", and the family members drop symbolic handfuls of earth into the grave. It's very hard to imagine any of these deeply emotional socio-religious practices occurring with a dead body exposed to view inside a metal cage. Even if it was wrapped in a shroud, I would think such a practice would greatly add to the trauma and grief experienced by the deceased's friends and family. Human beings tend to have a particular horror of dropping dirt onto the faces of the dead, which is another reason why coffins came into usage.

But apparently some of the "metal-basket"-type coffin covers were buried with the coffin and removed after a couple of weeks, when the corpse was no longer fresh enough to be worth money to grave-robbers. Then they were used again to protect fresh graves.

You also mentioned iron coffins. I found a photo of an iron coffin that is in the collection of the Science Museum of London. From the look of it some kind of wooden was probably still placed inside it. It does appear that a great quantity of iron was used for this one, which would have made it prohibitively expensive for most people.

The first photo is the Iron Coffin from the Science Museum of London.
The second is a photo of several basket-type mort-safes in Logierait Kirkyard in Scotland. I think the child-sized mort-safe on the right is very poignant.

Best regards,
Archaic

[Archaic]

'Relics of the Bodysnatchers'- 1921 Paper & Original Mortsafe Iron Tackle

Hi everyone.

Here's the first section of a fascinating 1921 paper I found about the history of Scottish mortsafes. I was wondering how the heavy mortsafes were handled by those conducting the burial- after all, they were designed to be too heavy for a gang of body-snatchers to lift. This paper explains that huge tripod-shaped iron tackles had been used to raise and lower the weighty mortsafes, but in the years prior to 1921 no examples of these tackles were known to exist. This paper was written because an intact Mortsafe Iron Tackle was discovered at Inverurie, Scotland. Its history and the secret "hiding place" that had kept safe for about 100 years make for very interesting reading. (The link to the rest of the paper is at the bottom of the page.)

"PROCEEDINGS OF THE SOCIETY OF ANTIQUARIES OF SCOTLAND VOL. LV.15 Volume 55 (1920-21)

'RELICS OF THE BODY-SNATCHERS': SUPPLEMENTARY NOTES ON MORTSAFE TACKLE, MORTSAFES, WATCH-HOUSES, AND PUBLIC VAULTS, MOSTLY IN ABERDEENSHIRE. BY JAMES RITCHIE, F.E.I.S., CORRESPONDING MEMBER.

INVERURIE MORTSAFE TACKLE.
The mortsafes which were so frequently in use about a century ago were intentionally made very heavy to prevent their removal or destruction by unauthorised persons who might wish to gain access to the bodies they protected. Therefore for lowering them into position in the grave at the time of burial, and for lifting them out again when all danger of body-snatching was past, strong tackle was required. This tackle, when not in use, required to be carefully stored in some safe place, where it would not be liable to be seized by the body-snatchers and used by them for their evil purposes during the hours of darkness.

In the paper referred to above no illustration of this mortsafe tackle was given, because no existing specimen was known to the writer. But the publication of the paper brought forth the information that the mortsafe tackle formerly used in the church yard of Inverurie was still in existence and in good order. It had been stored on the premises of Mr Gray, baker, Inverurie, whose shop and dwelling-house were at the south end of the town, not far from the churchyard. This was a very suitable place for its safekeeping, not only because it was convenient for the churchyard, but because, on the premises of a baker, it would be under observation both by day and night.

After the Inverurie mortsafes ceased to be used, the iron ones which lay in the churchyard disappeared, having probably been sold for old iron, as has happened in many other instances; but the stone one still remains, and is at present lying in the churchyard. This example may be compared with another stone mortsafe at Skene churchyard .

For some reason the iron tackle was not disposed of, but continued to lie on the premises of Mr Gray, till gradually its very existence became forgotten except by those who had it in charge. It is very much to the credit of Mr Gray and his descendants that they still preserved this interesting example of mortsafe tackle long after its usefulness had departed, and finally secured its permanent preservation by presenting it to the Inverurie Museum, where it may now be seen by anyone interested in the subject. (See Photo Below)

The tackle consists of an iron ring, 6½ inches in diameter, from which depend three jointed rods made of rounded iron, ¾ of an inch thick. Two of these rods are of equal length, each measuring 3 feet 4 inches, while the third is exactly 2 feet longer. The lower member of each rod is flattened, and has its end turned up into a hook to which the mortsafe could be attached. Some mortsafes were provided with three rings, two at the shoulders and one near the foot, to which the tackle could be hooked, while others had a couple of chains passed round them for the same purpose. For lowering the mortsafe into the grave, sheer poles were erected to which the tackle was attached. The original poles have disappeared; those seen in the photograph are merely temporary erections showing how the tackle was used. The two shorter rods were attached to the shoulders of the mortsafe, while the longer one was fixed near its foot. The short wooden rod shown in the photograph, inserted between the two shoulder-rods, has been placed there merely to keep them apart in the position they occupied when in use. "

The rest of the paper is well worth reading for the detailed history and fascinating anecdotes it contains. Apparently some coffin-shaped iron mortsafes became water-troughs for farm animals!
And in Culsalmond the strongly-built church vault (designed to hold corpses for at least 6 weeks, until they were decomposed enough to be past any monetary value to grave-robbers) was later put to a very peculiar use- as the site of a children's Sunday School!! This occurred in about 1860, and it is noted that the location "was not liked by the children."

Here's a link to the paper: Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, 'Relics of the Bady-Snatchers': http://www.tngenweb.org/darkside/mor...mortsafe2.html

Best regards,
Archaic

[c.d.]

Here in the U.S., graveyards are being robbed of bronze markers and statues. The criminals are reselling them for scrap metal.

There was also one horrible case where cemetery owners were digging up bodies and throwing them in the woods so the graves could be resold.

c.d.

[Brenda]

.

Thanks for all this info, Archaic, especially to the cemetary explorers site. I think old graveyards are so fascinating, especially the artwork of the tombstones. I love art and history, and old graveyards provide both!

I also find the thought of grave-robbing to be...macabre, something totally unimaginable. The Burke and Hare stories always give me the shivers!

I think this is a very interesting subject all the way around.

[Wickerman]

Hi Jon.

I don't know if a "foreign" doctor could purchase British medical specimens & cadavers, but if you what to research this point I'm sure we'd all be interested to hear the results......

I'm sure we would, we did make an attempt some 5-6 yrs ago, to no avail. What we were looking for was some statement to the effect "available to the general public". Simply by default we assume the organ price-list is for members of the BMA only, unless otherwise stated.
Could not find any wording to the contrary.

I would imagine that a foreign doctor would at least have access to medical specimens in his own country, and would not need to go to England and commit murder in order to obtain them....

I am not referring to a visiting medical man, more like migrants or refugees. These Russian, Hungarian or Polish Jews who sought refuge in London, some of whom claimed medical background, like the late suspect George Chapman, who appears to have had medical training yet could not attain an equal position in the UK.
Ostrog & Szermeredy made similar claims, that they had been a doctor or surgeon in Europe.

Regards, Jon S.

[Nurse Sarah]

Archaic

Good to see the photos up Thanks!

I have enjoyed reading all your posts with more information on the mort-safes. I agree, how tragic to have to wait until the body had basically decomposed until you gave them their righful burial...more expense too.

I have never seen anything like it until I came across them in Greyfriars Kirkyard. At the time, a tourguide was telling a story about them to a group. I had to wait ages until they left and I could take a picture!


I look forward to reading more on them and seeing more photos...and here was me thinking it was just a Scottish thing

[stevenb]

Reminds me of H H Holmes the serial killer, who insisted on being buried inside a huge cement block. I think he was afraid of him brain being sliced up...

[Archaic]

Great Website: 'Echoes of the Resurrection Men'

Hi C.D., Brenda, Jon and Steve; thank you for your comments.

We all have to thank Sarah for sending me the cool photos from Scotland that I posted at the beginning of they thread, because they are what piqued my curiosity!

Yes, it's true that bronze and copper are being stolen from cemeteries for their scrap value...there are even people stealing war memorials for their scrap value, which is so incredibly low I can hardly believe it.

The comment about H.H. Holmes is interesting. He did horrible things to the corpses of his victims and sold their skeletons, so he had a morbid fear of that being done to him. I don't really understand why his wish to be encased in cement was granted. I can't help but wish they did turn his vile remains over to scientists.

Here's another very interesting and well-organized website that has lots of info on Burke & Hare, body-snatching, mort-safes, the Anatomy Act, and human funerary customs throughout history.

The homepage of the website is called 'Echoes of the Resurrection Men': http://www.abdn.ac.uk/bodysnatchers/index.php

Here's a link to the page titled "An Introduction to Grave-Robbing In Scotland" which explains the conditions that gave rise to body-snatching. (*Note that it has several related tabs at the top.) http://www.abdn.ac.uk/bodysnatchers/background.php

I think you guys will like it.

Best regards,
Archaic

[Celesta]

Archie and Sarah,

This is absolutely amazing! Thank you!

[mklhawley]

Burking

Greetings all,

I thought this was interesting and appropriate for this thread. It's an article from The Post Express, September 22, 1887.



Mike