-
March 11, 2013 post by Greater Adirondack Ghost and Tour Company (Plattsburgh, NY) on Facebook:
Here's an interesting one, this device, known as a "cemetery gun," served as a very real deterrent to would be grave robbers during the golden age of body snatching. The weapon would be positioned on the deceased's grave, cocked, primed, and loaded, ready to fire upon unsuspecting thieves if they crossed any of it's three tripwires. Understandably, cemetery guns were outlawed in England in 1827. Another popular safeguard of the day was the "Grave Torpedo," an explosive device which would be buried and attached to the coffin. Any disturbance caused it to explode, killing the offending individual...
Victorian ‘Coffin Torpedoes’ Blasted Would-Be Body Snatchers Grave robbing got more hazardous in the 1880s. by Lucy Tiven April 3, 2017 on AtlasObscura.
Ohio's Ghoulish Gambit Against Grave Robbing: Coffin Torpedoes on WOSU 89.7 NPR News | By Gabe Rosenberg Published May 17, 2017 .
- Gordon’s Leap: A Tale from the Heyday of the Resurrectionists March 18, 2015 Stephen J. Taylor at Hoosier State Chronicles Indiana's Digital Historic Newspaper Program.
- The business of body snatching in Indianapolis by Dawn Mitchell published May 1, 2016 on the IndyStar.com.
- In Need of Cadavers, 19th-Century Medical Students Raided Baltimore’s Graves With a half-dozen medical schools and a shortage of bodies, grave robbing thrived—and with no consequences for the culprits Antero Pietila, What It Means To Be American October 25, 2018 on Smithsonian Magazine.
- Grave Concerns originally with a video discussing grave robbing when
In 1879 five physicians founded the Fort Wayne Medical College in the old Hugh McCulloch mansion on Superior Street. Students were required to pay tuition, study hard and provide their own cadavers for dissection. The need for medical cadavers inspired the very lucrative profession of grave robbing and no cemetery within fifty miles of Fort Wayne was safe.
by Eric Olson, 21Country Featured Reporter originally published November 13, 2018 on 21AliveNews.com is now on Internet Archive Wayback Machine. - CHAPTER 1 “A NECESSARY INHUMANITY” from SUCH HORRIBLE BUSINESS by James Tobin at Heritage Project University of Michigan.
- Body Snatchers: Tales from the Crypt and Beyond Sheena Morrison` at The Unltimate History Project.
-
October 31, 2023 post by the Indiana Historical Bureau on Facebook:
Happy #Halloween ! In the mood for a spooky story? Check out our #IndianaHistoryBlog on the Hoosier undertaker Rufus Cantrell.
Rufus Cantrell was a lot of things: A driver. A porter. A clerk. An undertaker. In 1902, he added a new title to that list: The King of Ghouls. Along with approximately 7 other men, Cantrell ran one of the most successful body-snatching syndicates in Indianapolis. The thieves sold the corpses to medical schools willing to overlook the method of procurement. While a macabre and fascinating story, the grave robbing caused unimaginable pain trauma to the victims’ families.
Learn more about Cantrell through our #IndianaHistoryBlog : “King of Ghouls” Rufus Cantrell & Grave-Robbing in Indianapolis
-
On March 2, 1978, Swiss authorities announced that "grave robbers acting under cover of darkness stole the body of...
Posted by Newspapers.com on Sunday, March 2, 2025Sunday, March 2, 2025 post by Newspapers.com on Facebook:
On March 2, 1978, Swiss authorities announced that "grave robbers acting under cover of darkness stole the body of comedian Charlie Chaplin" from a small cemetery in Switzerland.
Chaplin's widow received a ransom demand, which she refused to pay. Police caught the two grave robbers 5 weeks later, and Chaplin's family reburied his body in a concrete vault.
Read this article from the Greensboro Daily News on our site: Grave Robbers Steal Body of Comedian Charlie Chaplin
free genealogy since 1996