Body snatching

Body snatching is the practice of stealing corpses from graves and selling them, usually to medical researchers in need of cadavers for anatomical study. Although the history of body snatching can be traced back to the fourteenth century, the practice reached its height in both Europe and North America during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The upsurge in body snatching during that time was largely a result of a decline in the number of executions being performed, which meant fewer bodies were available for study at medical schools. As a result, medical students and other researchers increasingly turned to body snatching to secure cadavers for their research. Eventually, body snatching became so common that people began taking special measures to ensure that their loved ones' remains could not be easily stolen from their graves. In some cases, people even angrily attacked medical researchers suspected of using stolen bodies. Despite the fact that various laws were passed to end the practice, body snatching continued until medical schools began acquiring cadavers through donation in the twentieth century.

Background

The use of cadavers for studying human anatomy and medicine dates back many centuries. Before human dissection became a common practice, most medical researchers referred to the work of ancient Greek anatomist Galen, who dissected animals and concluded that human anatomy must be the same as that of the pigs, monkeys, and other creatures he examined. When later anatomists began dissecting actual human bodies, they discovered that Galen's assumption was incorrect and that humans did not share the same anatomical characteristics as other animals. This breakthrough fueled a new interest in human anatomical research and a growing need for bodies to dissect.

Traditionally, the general public saw dissection as a terrifying act of mutilation that not only left a person's physical remains maimed and dismembered but also caused similar damage to a person's soul. Many viewed dissection as a fate worse than death. As a result, researchers were typically allowed to dissect only the corpses of executed criminals who were unworthy of a proper grave. In earlier times, when executions were common and relatively few medical schools and other institutions were performing human dissections, an ample supply of cadavers existed to meet researchers' demands. Over time, as executions became less common and the number of medical schools and practicing anatomists grew, demand began to outpace supply, and new sources of cadavers had to be found.

With few other options available, anatomists sometimes turned to illicit means to acquire the cadavers they needed for their research. As early as the fourteenth century, desperate medical students began sneaking into cemeteries and exhuming the corpses of the recently deceased for use as cadavers. In time, body snatching of this sort became so common that it practically evolved into a profession. By the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, professional body snatchers, known as "resurrectionists," dug up fresh corpses and sold them to doctors and medical schools willing to turn a blind eye to their methods. As the public became aware of this practice, body snatching became a heated issue that often led to violence.

Overview

Body snatching first emerged shortly after the Bolognese professor Mundinus revived the practice of dissection in the early fourteenth century. The first recorded case of body snatching occurred in 1319 when several Bolognese medical students resorted to grave robbery to procure cadavers for their research. At the time, however, such incidents were rare. With relatively few people conducting anatomical research and a ready supply of cadavers thanks to frequent executions, there was little call for anything as distasteful as body snatching. Over time, that began to change. By the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the dwindling number of available corpses and the rising demand for cadavers made body snatching a necessity. Thus, many researchers enlisted the help of resurrectionists.

Resurrectionists were paid to exhume recently buried bodies and deliver them to medical schools for dissection. Most resurrectionists focused their attention on new graves, both because the bodies were fresher and because new graves were easier to dig into. Some resurrectionists even scouted new graves by enlisting spies who attended funerals to gather information about the grave in question and the best way to approach the exhumation. Generally, resurrectionists preferred to snatch bodies from paupers' graves in which several deceased poor people were often buried. Single graves and crypts where the wealthier deceased were buried were typically more difficult to penetrate. In the United States, resurrectionists frequently targeted the graves of African Americans.

As people became aware of body snatching and learned that resurrectionists were stealing bodies from graves to sell to medical schools, they began taking measures to protect their loved ones' remains. In some cases, the departed were buried in multiple coffins or in iron or lead coffins. Others sought to ward off resurrectionists by equipping their loved ones' graves with special alarms, adding layers of straw or other materials to the dirt used to fill graves to make it more difficult to dig through, or installing special iron cages called mortsafes that prevented resurrectionists from accessing coffins. Sometimes armed watchmen were also hired to protect graves from resurrectionists.

By the late eighteenth century, the body-snatching problem and the public furor it created were growing out of control. In April 1788, that furor boiled over into a violent outburst in New York City known as the Doctors' Riot. Although the exact circumstances concerning how the riot started remain unclear, an angry mob upset about body snatching descended on the medical school at New York Hospital and destroyed specimens and equipment. Twenty people were killed in the attack. Throughout the remainder of the eighteenth century and into the nineteenth century, a string of similar riots took place in cities across the United States.

In an effort to curb the body-snatching problem in the United Kingdom, lawmakers introduced the 1832 Anatomy Act. In addition to criminalizing body snatching, the Anatomy Act addressed the need for cadavers by allowing medical schools to legally take possession of the unclaimed remains of paupers. Ultimately, this and other laws did little to stop body snatching or quell the public's rising outrage over the practice. In the end, body snatching simply faded away as the need for cadavers was increasingly met through donations and other avenues. Despite its unsavory nature, however, body snatching played an important role in early anatomical research and contributed significantly to doctors' understanding of the human body and how it works.

Bibliography

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Lennox, Suzie. Bodysnatchers: Digging up the Untold Stories of Britain's Resurrection Men. Pen & Sword History, 2016.

Lovejoy, Bess. "The Gory New York City Riot That Shaped American Medicine." Smithsonian, 17 June 2014, www.smithsonianmag.com/history/gory-new-york-city-riot-shaped-american-medicine-180951766/. Accessed 6 Jan. 2025.

Morton, Ella. "Grave Cages and Medical Murder: The Body-Snatching Era in Scotland." Slate, 11 Feb. 2015, www.slate.com/blogs/atlas‗obscura/2015/02/11/greyfriars‗kirkland‗mortsafes‗in‗edinburgh‗scotland.html. Accessed 6 Jan. 2025.

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Welsh, Gabriella. “Resurrection Men: Body Snatching and Grave Robbing in the Federal City, Part 1.” Congressional Cemetery, 22 Sept. 2023, congressionalcemetery.org/blog/resurrection-men-body-snatching-and-grave-robbing-in-the-federal-city-part-1/. Accessed 6 Jan. 2025.