Happy Thursday Fixers! Wow, did I get sucked down the rabbit hole for this one. My original intent was to showcase the various rigs used in the 19th century to alert people that you weren’t as dead as they thought you were when they buried you. But then I found this picture and was off on a tangent so here we are.
Turns out being dead in a cemetery was just as hazardous as NOT being dead. As the medical community took off, the demand for cadavers to practice on increased. But the problem was Victorians had the mindset that being dissected after death was sure to keep you from Heaven so only the bodies of hanged criminals were given to the universities. Undeterred, the scholars merely started to hire “Resurrectionists” that were paid obscene amounts of money (for the time period) to bring in corpses for study. The above photo was one of many ways average people tried to protect their loved ones.
Digging through six feet of dirt was too obvious and time consuming so many body snatchers would merely dig a tunnel to the end of the coffin, break in the side and use a rope to haul their prize out quickly under cover of darkness. So the wooden plank would be bolted to the coffin floor and the metal collar fastened around the neck of the deceased. Then when the body snatchers busted through the coffin to get the rope around them, the body would stay firmly in place (and in Heaven).
But that was only the beginning of this bizarre war on grave robbing. More after the jump!
If you were from a more affluent family, there were a myriad of ways proposed to keep greedy Frankensteins at bay. Some families erected iron gates:
Or covered the graves with poured concrete slabs:
Or later on, created what look like fortified stone houses inside the cemetery where, for a price, your loved ones could decay in peace under the watchful eyes of armed guards until they were no longer useful to science. At which time you could safely remove and bury them.
This History Channel has a great video clip about the practice of buying safety in nested triple coffins placed within fortified and heavily guarded underground vaults.
I even came across several accounts where spring mounted guns or landmines had been set to trap unwary Resurrectionists but couldn’t find diagrams or photos to corroborate (1000 Internets if you can find me one!) EDIT: The Fixer Google-fu is strong. 1000 Internets to Fixer Keith for being on the ball! Check out the PBS article on explosive coffins!
The fervor to protect the dead finally passed with the creation of laws that allowed for unclaimed bodies and those of volunteers to be donated to the medical field. But in many cemeteries the remnants are still visible today.
Information and images courtesy of: University of Aberdeen and Leseay.Tripod.Com
Favorite Comment: Fixer Malligant says, “I can see this being a major problem for the undead, in fact I think this is what brought them to their end, not the work of Helsing!”
‘Ah ha! I am ze creature of ze night! I rise again!’
*Thunk Thunk*
‘Ah S**t..’
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Copy & paste this:
![\"Quantcast\"/](\"http://pixel.quantserve.com/pixel/p-483xl95pmUiaY.gif\")
*Whack* *squeek squeek squeek* *driiiiiiiill* *Hammer* *Hammer* *Hammer* “THERE! That’ll make sure those grave-robbing sons of B—-es don’t steal you, Emmy-lou!”
“But Leroy – I’m not dead yet!”
“Minor point.”
I want to go for a walk!
You’re not fooling anyone you know!
I feel happy I feel happy!
*THWACK* ninepence.
“I’m feeling much better…”
You’re not fooling anyone, you know.
“im not dead yet!”
“of course you are!”
“i feel quite all right actually, i think ill go for a walk!”
*THUMP* “there, now hes dead.”
I feel happy! I feel happy!
You’re not fooling anyone, you know.
Your not foolin’ anyone! You’ll be stone dead in a minute!
“I FEEL HAPPEEEEE!!!!”
*Thunk*
Right see you next week
I feel happy….
I feel Happy!
I am not dead yet!
I’m feeling much better….
I can’t take her like that! It’s against regulations!
I dont want to go on a cart
I think I’ll go for a walk….
Sorry TexasDan, I goofed up
Ninepence says you take a sudden turn for the worse. And no, I’m not holding a shovel. This is a, a very oddly shaped sled. OOH LOOK A WITCH *thwack*
I feeeeeel happeeeee!!!
What’s the symbol for Choking Laughter, Must Get Kleenex!? XD??
So, did she say that an exploding coffin was preferred over mere exhumation for medical purposes? The mind reels.
They should bring back the jogs (the locked collar and chain they chained people to the walls with) so I can be put in it. =)
You might want to check out this “History Detectives story about a “Cemetery torpedo”:
http://www.pbs.org/opb/historydetectives/investigations/703_cemetaryalarm.html
Also a sidebar about body snatching:
http://www.pbs.org/opb/historydetectives/investigations/703_bodysnatching.html
Thirst! wait wut
This was interesting to see. As a scientist myself, I don’t think many people realize this was such an issue in medical schools. Between not having proper preservation techniques and the inability to legally get cadavers to dissect, it was very difficult for students to learn proper human anatomy. Interestingly, despite all the body snatching going on, it was basically a misdomeanor, meaning you weren’t getting in that much trouble.
Then people starting killing other people to sell to medical schools. Hence the name of “burking.”
Up the close and down the stair,
In the house with Burke and Hare.
Burke’s the butcher, Hare’s the thief
Knox, the man who buys the beef.
I still dont completly understand how the first one works.
the wood part is nailed to the coffin and then metal part goes around the neck of the dead person. when someone tries to pull them out of the coffin by their feet they cant because the collar stops them from coming out.
Alternatively, when your idiot assistant inadvertently attaches the loop inside the casket prematurely, you simply lop the head off the cadaver, re-assemble the body with the neck passing through the loop and suture the whole mess back together.
.. or you could just duct-tape the body to the casket, covering all or it mummy-style.
i wanna be duck-taped in a coffin when im dead
Just leave the head off and put it in a jar labeled “Abby Normal”
he he he! That’s a good one!
“So who’s head did you bring me?”
“Abby.. Somebody”
“Abby…who?”
“Abby Normal.”
(Quite possibly one of his best films, IMO.)
SED A GIVE??????
http://www.pbs.org/opb/historydetectives/investigations/703_cemetaryalarm.html
Tada! Where’s my 1000 Internets?
Here is a grave bomb I found on my first google search.
http://www.graveaddiction.com/wforum/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=2322
I’m sure there are other pics out there.
Idol
Wow! On your FIRST google? You must be the best googling googler that ever googled.
He said on his first Google search you dimwit.
Uh, yeah: most people put in their name for their *first* Google search, not grave paraphernalia.
*rimshot*
Wow, thanks – really neat information – although gruesome if thought on for too long…
If you needed a really fresh cadaver you could avoid these preventative measures and hire William Burke and William Hare to give you nice, fresh corpses for a small fee of course.
Up the step and down the stair;
In and out with Burke and Hare,
Burke’s the butcher, Hare’s the thief,
Knox is the boy who buys the beef.
I think they only succeeded in 16 corpses.
And their manner of work was picking out ‘not so much missed persons’ drown them with booze then suffocate them for a clean, non damaged body.
They were active in Edinburgh if I remember correctly. Or some town/city named a similar way.
They got caught because they killed a prostitute which some of the Students and a Proffessor recognised while they were doing their research.
Yeah prostitution wasn’t as big of a deal as these days
Everybody now!
♫ An’ it’s doon the close an’ up the stair
A but-an’-ben wi’ Burke and Hare
Burke’s the butcher, Hare’s the thief
And Knox is the man that buys the beef. ♫
Just don’t ask too many questions about how the deceased died…
The Victorians did not believe that desecration of the body kept one out of heaven, that’s just one of the many misconceptions people today have about the 19th century. They did believe that a grave was to be respected, and that respect for the dead was one of the signs of a civilized society
Thy kludge doth amuse, and heartily. Wherefore doth thou getith thine pictures of these kludgeies?
Whatchasayin?
http://patentmuseum.com/imagesPat/413.jpg
http://www.pbs.org/opb/historydetectives/investigations/703_cemetaryalarm.html
There was a piece on PBS History Detectives about explosives used against grave robbers.
If I had the time today I would have looked it up for you, but I’m off on a trip soon and I have to pack.
Hope I helped.
“I’m setting booty twaps.”
“You mean booby traps.”
“That’s what I said, booty twaps!”
We aren’t hunting any pirate treasure, Alley Cat!
I KNEW I heard about an anti-grave robbing explosive on History Detectives! It took me a while, but I found it again: http://www.pbs.org/opb/historydetectives/investigations/703_cemetaryalarm.html If you follow the video link, the grave “torpedo” story is about 37 minutes in.
A PBS show called History Detectives had a story about the landmines a year or two ago.
Sure it can be used as an alarm if you are stuck in a coffin…
or it can be a way to alert people to get a running start from the ZOMBIES!!!
I was going to say that these are ways to make sure the zombies stay in their graves.
I think I’d just rather be cremated.
Like that first implement, studies have shown cremation to be an issue at resurrection time.
If you too have been affected by a similar terrible ordeal, call us now for free advice on your rights. The Differently Alive shall not be oppressed!
nice Pratchett reference
That is crazy, weird, and interesting. But you used the word “myriad” incorrectly. It’s basically a fancier version of “many”. If you can substitute the word “many”, you are using “myraid” correctly. Incorrect: “There were a myriad of different methods…” Correct: “There were myriad different methods…”
“There were a myriad of ways” works just fine. That’s really nit-picking. Especially in an era where people can’t decide to use the right “Your/You’re”.
Would it be morbid of me to think of Billy Mays’ great-great-great-grandfather selling these things?
Ummm.. yes. But wait, there more?
At The ScamWow Crematorium we Promise we’ll bury the body, or a reasonable replica, and your relatives will never know you sold your dearly departed for the price of a public funeral. It’s a Win – Win deal. Remember, Billy sentcha. (with apologies to the Mays family)
The “six feet under” did not come in until a Mr. Chadwick was hired by the British in the 1830′s to figure out how to get cemetery sanitation and crookery under control. Before then, some people would be triple or quadruple stacked and the topmost body would have body parts sticking up out of the ground. Further, cemeteries were well over capacity. While a good amount of snatching happened after Mr. Chadwick’s report and subsequent reforms, it was much easier to take off with a body before then.
In addition to thwarting pesky grave robbers with the giant neck staple, the surviving family members could do pretty much anything they wanted to since they wouldn’t have to worry about their dead loved ones rolling over in their graves.
HAHAHAHA. me likey1
Excellent point. I hope someone put them on my ancestors. Because I’ve certainly caused them to roll over many times unless they were affixed with a Stability Staple. I used to believe that’s what “Holy Rollers” were all about – people rolling over in their graves. But Mummy, aren’t they dead? Yes, honey. So how can they roll over? Go ask your father…
Reminds me of the movie I Sell The Dead… It’s a horror comedy about resurrectionists. Worth a wathing or two, especially if your interested in this stuff.
That’s EXACTLY what I was thinking of when I read this! I was reading down through the comments to see if anyone else had mentioned it. I only watched it at first because Dominic Monaghan is in it, but I loved the whole thing!
hrmm, I’m getting cremated (hopefully after I die), that seems to be the best way to go.
Hmmm, coffins rigged with explosives .. So let me get this straight: being dissected in a laboratory with onlookers cancels your ticket to Heaven .. But your cadaver being atomized by TNT and mixed with the surrounding earth, the body of the would-be body snatcher, bits of coffin and headstone, etc. does not. Interesting theology.
I am going to be smug here. Deal with it.
“there were a myriad of ways…”
This should be “there were myriad ways…”. It’s like using the word plentiful.
Now go ahead and dorrect my grammar.
What if I dorrect your spelling instead?
Abraham Lincoln’s body was stolen from his tomb and held for ransome. When they got the body back, the family not only reburied him, but poured concrete over the coffin so that nobody would be able to get to the body again.
Hey, Eva Paron’s body disappeared for like 20 some years.
Actually, the thieves who stole Lincoln’s body were caught in the act- their plot had been infiltrated and the cops were waiting for them.
This raised the question of what to charge them with- at the time, Illinois had no law criminalizing grave-robbing. They couldn’t be charged with kidnapping because a corpse was not legally a person, nor with theft because a corpse was also not property. they were finally tried for grand larceny- for stealing the coffin, which was property and had a known value of $75.
Hmmm. I think I’m going to bring this back into vogue, only under the guise of preventing your deceased loved ones from being part of the zombie invasion.
I can see this being a major problem for the undead, infact I think this is what brought them to their end, not the work of Helsing!
“Ah ha! I am ze creature of ze night! I rise again!”
*Thunk Thunk*
“Ah S**t..*
That explains those graves where someone poured concrete over the coffin and then laid a decorative layer of shells to cover things…
That was to try to keep them from floating away during hurricanes!!
That was to prevent the pine boxes from floating away during hurricanes… and to keep pesky critters from…well, you know.
I bet these things also worked great in times of zombie plague. Hard for the living dead to rise when they are bolted into exploding coffins…
By coincidence:
http://probablybadnews.com/2010/05/06/why-did-he-do-this/
Does anyone know if there are any reasons for wrought iron fences being placed around gaves, other than for protecting them from being raided for med school cadavers? I always wondered what the deal was with those fences, but I’m pretty sure I’ve seen some around graves that are far more recent than Victorian times.
Usually it’s to mark it out as a private plot,keep people from walking over the grave and any plantings/etc. A lot of times you see them around a group of graves–a family plot. It’s also popular in cultures where people spend a lot of time tending graves, hanging in the cemetery, etc.
oh, and they look pretty.
And they keep the critters out. Believe me, there are critters that would also desecrate the graveyards in days of old. The Capital is surrounded by beautiful iron fencing, not to keep out people, but to keep out wandering livestock… or that’s what they told us in the 2nd grade on a field trip.
It’s to make sure that the zombie hordes are trapped.
imagine the explosive use lasted a very long time… come on time team, dig that old burial site up…
Next you ought to use the kludges they had to inform people they were NOT dead. Like the bell system to sound an alarm above ground that was linked to a rope that led into the coffin and the mirror to show you were breathing.
Nothing like the fear of being buried alive!
Being necked shackled? Awesome!
PBS looked at one of the explosive protection deveices. See more info at http://www.pbs.org/opb/historydetectives/investigations/703_cemetaryalarm.html
Maybe the iron fences were to keep away fairies.
“created what look like fortified stone houses inside the cemetery”
You mean mausoleums?
Ew ew ew ew ew D8
these comments never make sense
This is so true! My great-grandfather wrote down a story in the family history book of his grandmother burying her husband under her bedroom windows to guard against grave robbers (since he was such “a fine speciman of a man”)
damn you tanks! YES NO FAT ZOMBIES EXPLODING ON ME! aahh that feels so good after left for dead