Names of human bones in Sung Tz’u’s The Washing Away of Wrongs, 1843 edition, edited by Ruǎn Qíxīn. Image from Wikipedia

The oldest existing forensic science text is The Washing Away of Wrongs (also known as the Collected Cases of Injustice Rectified, or Hsi yuan chi lu), written around 1247 CE. Sung Tz’u (or Song Ci), who is considered to be the “Founding Father of Forensic Science in China,” wrote this text to help bureaucrats of the Southern Sung Dynasty navigate the complex inquest process, provide instructions on how examine a corpse, and determine cause of death.  This forensic manual predates the earliest European texts on the subject by hundreds of years.

By the time The Washing Away of Wrongs was written in the mid-thirteenth century China had already been conducting forensic assessments for violent or suspicious deaths for centuries. Going as far back to at least the Ch’in Dynasty (221-207 BCE), the Chinese government ordered forensic investigations in hanging deaths (Sung 1247/1981, p. 4). Then in 995 CE, a decree was issued establishing an inquest system for homicides, unusual deaths, and serious injuries.

Bureaucrats, not full-time detectives or forensic scientists, were responsible for leading inquests as a small part of their duties (Sung 1247/1981, p. 5).  Professionals, who were the equivalent of coroners or midwives, were asked to examine a corpse during an inquest (Sung 1247/1981, p. 11).   According to McKnight’s translation (1981), there was an institutional distrust of coroners and midwives because they were not government officials (Sung 1247/1981, p. 18).  So bureaucrats were tasked with confirming the findings of a coroner during an autopsy (Sung 1247/1981, p. 21). To do this, they had to be able to indicate the specific wound responsible for death, differentiate between accidental and deliberate deaths, and distinguish between peri-mortem and post-mortem wounds (Sung 1247/1981, p. 21).

The Washing Away of Wrongs was written as step-by-step guide to avoid errors during this process because Sung Tz’u believed it was important to prevent the miscarriage of justice (Sung 1247/1981, p. 38). He compiled “materials from various authors, corrected them, and added his own observations (Sung 1247/1981, p. 39).

The parts of this text where Sung Tz’u discusses proper inquest procedure and documentation are pretty boring. But the sections about the human skeleton, decomposition, and case studies are really interesting because they illustrate the use of forensic anthropology in a medieval context.

In the below excerpts from Brian McKnight’s 1981 translation of The Washing Away of Wrongs, Sung Tz’u describes how medieval investigators tried to use forensic anthropological techniques to differentiate between male and female bodies, time since death, and cause of death. Although there are many inaccuracies, it’s fascinating to read how these methods were starting to be developed and applied in different cases.

Examination of Bones (1.82a/71-1.82b/71)

Man has three hundred sixty-five bones, corresponding to the three hundred sixty-five days in a year.

The bones of men are whitish. Those of females are darker. (When women give birth, their bones produce blood like a flow of water. Therefore, the bones will be darkish. If someone swallows poison, the bones will also be darkish. This must be examined very carefully before deciding [whether the bones should be adjudged light or dark].)

Skulls: in a male, there are a total of eight plates, counting from the nape of the neck to the ears, together with the plates of the back of the skull. There is a horizontal suture across the back of the skull and a vertical one running down to the hairline in the back. In women, there are only six plates. There are only six plates. There is a horizontal suture across the back of the skull, but no vertical suture.

…The pelvic bone resembles the kidneys of a pig, with the indented part under the spine. In males, at the place where this bone meets the spinal column it is concave. On each side, there are little pointed stems like the upturned angular ends of palace roofs. It has nine holes. (p.95-97)

Decay of Corpses in the Four Seasons (1.37a/68-1.32b/69)

During the three months of spring, when a body is two or three days old, the flesh of the mouth, nose, belly, ribs, and chest becomes slightly livid. After ten days, a foul liquid issues from the nose and ears…

During the three months of summer, when the body is one or two days old, the flesh will change color, beginning with the face, belly, ribs, and chest. When three days have passed, a foul liquid will issue from the mouth and nose, and maggots will appear. The whole body will swell, the lips will pull back, the skin will rot and separate from the flesh, and blisters will appear. After four or five days, the hair falls out…

During the three months of autumn, after two or three days have passed, a body will be first as described above for the spring, with the flesh of the face, belly, ribs, and chest changed in color. After four or five days, a foul liquid will issue from the mouth and nose, the whole body will swell, the lips will curl back, and blisters will appear. After six or seven days, the hair will out.

During the three winter months, when four or five days have passed, the flesh of the corpse will turn yellowish purple. After half a month, the symptoms described above will appear first, with the face, mouth, nose, sides, and chest all changing color. Sometimes, if the place is damp, and the corpse is wrapped in mats and buried, this will slow the process of decay. Again, consider carefully whether it is the beginning or end of the month, and determine your actions according to the seasons of spring or autumn.

When it is extremely hot, decomposition of the corpse begins even after a single day. It becomes livid or blackish and begins to smell. After three or four days the skin and flesh become rotten, the corpse swells, maggots appear, there is a discharge from the mouth and nose, and the hair falls out.

In extremely cold weather, five days is equivalent to one day in a time of great heat, and half a month the equivalent of three or four extremely hot days. In spring or fall when the weather is equable, two or three days are equivalent to one day in summer, and eight or nine days are equivalent to three or four summer days. But men maybe fat or thin, old or young. Those who are fat or young decay easily. Those who are thin or old decay more slowly. Also, the climate is not the same in north and south, and in the mountains the coldness and warmth are constant. At such times, even more care than usual must be exercised in investigating all changes. (p. 86-87)

Discussion of Miscellaneous Doubtful and Difficult Cases: Part Two (17)

Formerly, a man was found drowned in a deep pool. He had been there a long time. The affair was made known because of spite. The investigating official saw that the corpse had no skin or flesh left on it. Only the skull and bones remained. A succession of dispatched officials were not willing to hold an inquest. The superior office assigned the responsibility to several men. Only one official was willing to accept it. He then went to the place to examine the bones. First, he very carefully examined what could be seen. There were no other pieces of evidence. He then took the skull and washed it. He took a hot water jug and carefully poured clean hot water into the skull through the fontanel, examining the water to see if any sand or mud came through the nose. He used this to determine whether or not the victim had been alive when he entered the water so had drowned. Generally, when living people fall into the water, sand or dirt will be aspirated into the nose. If the body was put into the water after death, then there will be no sand or mud.

In Kuang-yu, there was an evil rogue who plotted to kill a young boy and seize what he had been carrying on the trip. When the crime was discovered, the day when the murder had been committed was already long and past. The criminal confessed, saying, “I beat him and then threw him in the water.” The office of the Sheriff had already dragged the body from the water. The flesh had rotted away, and there were only bones left, so there could bot be an inquest. In the end, [the investigating official] could not avoid suspecting a coincidence [i.e., that the bones belonged to someone else], so no one dared to make a judgment.   Eventually, someone, in reading over the case records, noted that in the depositions of relatives turned in the original investigating official, one relative had state this his younger brother had been pigeon breasted and undersized. Subsequently, an official was dispatched to conduct a re-inquest. The chest bones were as described. Only then did they dare to pronounce a penalty. (p. 70-71)

References

Sung, T. (1247). The Washing Away of Wrongs: Forensic Medicine in Thirteenth-Century China (Science, Medicine, and Technology in East Asia). (Brian E. McKnight, Trans.). Ann Arbor, MI: Center for Chinese Studies, The University of Michigan. (Original work published in 1247).

Marie-Thérèse in Vienna in 1796 soon after her exile from France. Image from Wikipedia.

The Countess and the Princess

In 1807 an enigmatic couple arrived in the village of Hildburghausen in Central Germany and lived in the castle of Eishausen for the next 30 years. The villagers referred to the solitary duo as the Dunkelgrafen or the “Dark Counts” because when the couple was seen outside of the castle they were either in a carriage or the woman hid behind a veil.

The woman known as the Dark Countess died in 1837 and was buried under the name of Sophia Botta in a cemetery in Hildburghausen, and her partner, who went by Vavel de Versay, died in 1845. Versay was later identified as Leonardus Cornelius van der Valck, secretary of the Dutch embassy in Paris.

Drawing of the tomb of the Dark Countess, or Dunkelgräfin from ca. 1863. Image from Wikipedia.

Because of the couple’s covert lifestyle and fondness for fake names, people started to speculate about the Dark Countess’s true identity. One of the most popular rumors was the Dark Countess was really Marie-Thérèse Charlotte of France, the daughter of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette.

Marie-Thérèse (1778-1851) was imprisoned in the Temple Tower with her parents and little brother, Louis XVII, in 1792. Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette were guillotined in 1793 and her brother died from tuberculosis in 1795. After Marie-Thérèse was released from the Temple in 1795, she went to live in exile in Vienna and married her cousin Louis Antoine, Duke of Angoulême and the eldest son of Charles X. Marie-Thérèse died in 1851 and was buried in the Franciscan Monastery of Kostanjevica in Southern Slovenia.

Some rejected the official story of Marie-Thérèse life and put forward the “substitution theory.” According to this theory, the princess was so traumatized from witnessing the execution of parents and from her imprisonment in the Temple that she switched places with her half sister, Ernestine Lambriquet, and lived in hiding as the Dark Countess in Hildburghausen.

To find out if the Dark Countess and Marie-Thérèse were the same person a group of scientists had to dig up the grave of the Dark Countess and compare the DNA to a known relative.

DNA Tests

The grave of the Dark Countess. Image from Poleman on Wikipedia

On October 15, 2013 the grave of the Dark Countess was exhumed and two small fragments of bone were removed from a femur. The forensic team obtained a DNA sample was from a maternal descendent of Marie Antoinette’s sister, His Royal Highness (HRH) Prince Alexander of Saxe-Gessaphe, and mtDNA data on the heart of Louis XVII, Marie-Thérèse’s brother, which had been published earlier. The scientists compared the samples and the results were published in Forensic Sciences International: Genetics in an article written by Walther Parson, Codula Berger, Timo Sänger, and Sabine Lutz-Bonengel titled “Molecular genetic analysis on the remains of the Dark Countess: Revisiting the French Royal family.”

The analysis by Parson, Berger, Sänger, and Lutz-Bonengel revealed that the mtDNA haplotypes from HRH Alexander’s buccal swabs and Louis XVII’s heart matched. But the mtDNA from the Dark Countess’s bones did not match either HRH Alexander or Louis XVII’s heart, which meant that the Dark Countess was not Princess Marie-Thérèse Charlotte.

The mystery of the Dunkelgrafen endures.

Parson, W; Berger, C; Sänger, T; Lutz-Bonengel, S. (2015). Molecular genetic analysis on the remains of the Dark Countess: Revisiting the French Royal family. Forensic Sciences International, 19. Retrieved from: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1872497315300612

Hymn for the bi-centennial anniversary of the settlement of Norwich, CT on paper made by the Chelsea Manufacturing Company in 1859. From the Collection of the Brown University Library.

The people of Norwich, CT celebrated the bi-centennial anniversary of their city’s settlement September 7th and 8th in 1859. To mark the occasion, the publishers of the local newspapers printed a hymn on brown paper to be sung during the festivities.  The paper, measuring 25cm by 16cm, is unremarkable except for a statement at the bottom of the page that states that it was printed on paper produced from the linen wrappings of mummies.

“The largest paper manufacturer in the world. The material of which it is made, was brought from Egypt. It was taken from the ancient tombs where it had been used in embalming mummies. A part of the process of manufacturing is exhibited in the procession. The daily production of the Company’s mills is about 14,000 pounds.”

The hymn for the bi-centennial anniversary of the settlement of Norwich is one of the few existing pieces of mummy paper.  Dr. Isaiah Deck, a hobby archaeologist and explorer, introduced the idea of mummy paper in 1855 in an article titled “On a Supply of Paper Material from the Mummy Pits of Egypt” in which he proposed mummy linen as an alternate source of rags. Deck claimed that during a trip to Egypt he saw mummies and mummy parts buried in the desert and calculated that there were millions and millions of yards of linen rags just waiting to be harvested from tombs and burial pits and that this would supply the American paper industry for years. But it’s not clear if this was satire or if Deck was serious.

Wooden container containing mumia, the powdered remains of Egyptian mummies. Photo from Wikipedia.

Considering that Westerners had been grinding up Egyptian mummies for medicine, known as mumia, and paint, known as mummy brown, it wouldn’t be hard to believe that Americans would turn mummy wrappings into paper. Not to mention that in the early 19^th century  museums and wealthy people unwrapped mummies for entertainment at unrolling parties.

From the 14th to the end of the 19th century cotton was one of the main fibers used in paper production. Known as cotton or rag paper, mills used fiber crops, like flax and cotton, as well as rags to produce it.  But rag paper required a lot of cotton for production. According to an 1855 issue of the Annual of Scientific Discovery: Or, Yearbook of Facts in Sciences and Art, 1½ pounds of rags was required to make one pound of paper.  It was calculated that the 750 paper mills in the U.S. in the mid-1800’s needed 405,000,000 pounds of rags annually, approximately the same out as France and England combined.

Mills experienced shortages regularly due to the large quantity of cotton needed to manufacture paper.  Mill owners purchased cotton scraps from scavengers, known as rag-pickers, and imported discarded cotton scraps from Europe.  When the shortages worsened in the mid-1800’s, paper manufacturers had to import discarded cotton clothing and rags from Egypt.

But there is some dispute among scholars about whether or not paper mills went so far as to use ancient mummy linen in paper production.  Those that believe mummy paper was manufactured cite newspaper reports and stories from paper mill workers as evidence.

In 1858, the Cleveland Daily Leader reported that a correspondent from the  Journal of Commerce visited a paper mill in Gardiner, ME shortly after a rag shipment from Egypt.  This reporter claimed to have witnessed mummy wrappings mixed in with discards clothes and rags.

“Yesterday I visited, in company with Mayor Woods (of Gardiner,) the two principal paper factories, and I was astonished in looking at the millions of pounds of rags piled up in warehouses or spread over acres of ground to find that a portion of them had recently arrived from Alexandria in Egypt.  They were the most disagreeable odiferous old clothes that I have ever had the fortune to smell.  This, doubtless, was owing to the fact that a part of them were in a damaged state.  The Egyptian rags has been collected from all corners of the Pacha’s dominous – from the living and the dead.  How many cast off garments of Howadjis and Hadjis; how many tons of big, loose, Turkish ragged breeches; and how many headpieces in the shape of old doffed turbans, the deponent sayeth not.  But the most singular and the cleanest division of the whole filthy mass came not from the limbs of the present generation of travelers-pilgrims, peasants, soldiers and sailors of Egypt-but were the plundered wrappings of men, bulls, crocodiles and cats, torn from the respectable defunct members of the same…Mummy clothes as well as old rags of Italy…are ground up and come forth mingled in fond embrace and in the purest white.”

19th century illustration of Gaston Maspero unwrapping a mummy in Cairo, 1886. Image from Wikipedia.

There are also stories told by relatives of paper mill workers about the making of mummy paper.  William Joseph “Dard” Hunter some of these in his book Papermaking: The History and Technique of an Ancient Craft. One of the more detailed accounts happened at a mill owned by I. Augustus Stanwood in Gardiner, ME. Stanwood’s son Daniel told Hunter that his father opened the mill in Gardiner in 1863. When his father had a hard time finding an adequate supply of rags during the Civil War he imported several shipments of mummies from Egypt just for their linen.

Some scholars, however, are skeptical about the existence of mummy paper. Joseph Dane, in The Myth of Print Culture: Essays on Evidence, Textuality, and Bibliographical Method, maintains that there is little evidence to confirm the production of mummy paper. He says that the accounts relating to its production, like the Stanwood story, are “vaguely documented or pure products of oral history.”

It’s also difficult to find other publications, aside from the Norwich celebratory hymn, that are printed on mummy paper.  One of the few other examples is an issue of the Syracuse Daily Standard printed on July 31, 1856.  According to Nevart Apikian in ‘Mummy Paper Caused a Stir‘ (The Post-Standard of Syracuse, NY), the “City Item” section of the issue in question proclaimed:

“Our daily is now printed on paper made from rags imported directly from the land of the Pharaohs on the banks of the Nile. They were imported by George W. Ryan, veteran paper manufacturer from Marcellus Falls in this county; and he thinks they are quite as good as the general run of English and French rags.”

Plus there is no empirical evidence to substantiate that mummy paper was ever produced.  In the American Antiquarian, S.J. Wolfe, author of Mummies in Nineteenth Century America: Ancient Egyptians as Artifacts, writes that chemical and microscopic analysis would show only that the paper came from cotton or linen.  Also carbon-14 dating would likely be inconclusive because the linen from mummies would have been mixed in with rags from other sources in the mill beaters. Despite Daniel Stanwood’s account of multiple shipments of mummies that were sent to his father’s mill from Egypt, Wolfe was not able to find any existing shipping or paper mill records that indicate any such cargo was ever transported.

So was the hymn for the Norwich bi-centennial anniversary printed on ‘mummy paper’?

As Wolfe points out, there is no way to know for sure. It’s certainly possible that the Chelsea Manufacturing Company imported rags and discarded clothes from Egypt, like the Gardiner mill did in 1858, and mummy wrappings were jumbled in with a larger shipment of clothes and other rags from the region, but this may have been by accident rather by design.

Cotton shortages were only a problem until the second half of the 19th century when mills started using wood pulp in the paper-making process.  Today linen or rag based paper is used primarily in printing currency and high-end paper.

The morning of November 16, 1880, Wilhelm Friedrich Kühne (1837–1900), a professor of physiology at the University of Heidelberg, dissected the head of an executed murderer in his dark room within minutes of the man’s death. Kühne worked around the contracting muscles in the left eye socket to remove the eye and develop an image from the retina of the last thing this man saw.¹

According to Douglas Lanska in “Optograms and Criminology: Science, News Reporting, and Fanciful Novels,” (from Literature, Neurology, and Neuroscience: Historical and Literary Connections) Kühne equated “vision to a repetitive photographic process” and he considered the eyes to be “whole photographic workshop.”¹ He believed it was possible to develop images, like photographs, from the eyes of the dead. Kühne called the image fixed on the corpse’s retina an optogram, and the process of developing this image optography. If his experiment on the murderer’s head was successful, then optopgrahy had the potential of revolutionizing the investigation of violent crime.

Cross-section of the human eye. Image from Wikipedia.

Kühne’s research was inspired by the work of physiologist Franz Christian Boll. In 1876, Boll discovered a pigment in the rods of the human retina that bleaches in the light and is restored in the dark. Kühne took this observation a step further by demonstrating that retinal pigment, which he called “visual purple” (also known as rhodopsin), remains after death unless the retinas are exposed to light. ¹ Also, if light hits the retinas post-mortem then a photochemical reaction takes place that bleaches this tissue. To develop optograms, he needed to find a way to fix the rhodopsin in the retina.²

Kühne first conducted optography experiments on frogs and rabbits. Lanska describes the macabre process that Kühne used to get his animal optograms. He secured the heads of rabbits and frogs so they remained motionless and were forced to stare at windows or gas flames. After the animals had gazed at these objects for hours, Kühne cut off their heads, removed the eyes, and dissected the halves containing the retinas. To fix the rhodopsin, the light-sensitive tissue was hardened in an alum solution and then immersed in sulfuric acid in a dark room.¹

Kuhne rabbit optogram (1878). Image from Wikipedia and the College of Optometrists.

Kühne’s best-defined retinal images came from his rabbit experiments in 1878. He secured rabbits so that they were forced to stare at windows in the daylight. The resulting optograms were so distinct that individual windowpanes could be seen on the right side of the retina.

But optography was problematic for forensic investigations. Kühne conducted hundreds of experiments, and even in the most ideal circumstances most optograms were hazy and quickly faded. He also discovered that the eyes had to be removed very quickly after death otherwise the eye started to decompose and images couldn’t be retrieved.

On November 16, 1880, Kühne got his first and only chance to get a human optogram with the execution of Erhard Gustav Reif. Reif was convicted of drowning his two youngest children and was sentenced to death by guillotine. Because the eyes had to be removed soon after death, Kühne had to remove Reif’s eyes within minutes of the guillotine blade falling,

Drawing of the human optogram from Reif’s eye. From: Wikipedia and the College of Optometrists.

Supposedly Kühne was able to develop an optogram from Reif’s retina but only the drawing of the image exists. The optogram loosely resembles a guillotine blade, but it wasn’t possible for Reif to have seen the blade before his decapitation because he was blindfolded before the blade fell. Some, like Derek Ogbourne, who created the Museum of Optography, believe the shape may represent the steps he climbed to get to the guillotine. ²

Many 19th-century forensic scientists and doctors felt optograms were of little use to murder investigations because the images were hazy and faded quickly. One such physician was W.C. Ayres, an American who worked with Kühne on his numerous optography experiments. Ayres’ position on forensic optography was summarized in an 1881 issue of Microscopical News and Northern Microscopist, which reported that he believed it was “utterly idle to look for the picture of a man’s face, or of the surroundings, on the retina of a person who has met with a sudden death, even amid the most favourable circumstances.”³

Despite the objections of doctors and detectives early on, optograms were used occasionally in forensic contexts in the 20th century. They were famously admitted as evidence in the murder trial of Fritz Heinrich Angerstein (1891–1925), a German man accused of killing his wife and seven other people on December 2, 1924. During the post-mortem examinations, the coroner in this case reportedly had the retinas of two of the victims photographed because he saw an image of the murderer holding a hatchet. Optography was rumored to also have been used in the Jack the Ripper case.

Although forensic optography has been thoroughly debunked, fiction writers can’t seem to get enough of the idea, and it has been used numerous times as a plot device: Jules Verne included it in his 1902 novel Les Freres Kip; it was used in two episodes of Doctor Who (one in 1975, the other in 2013); and an optogram was developed from the optic nerve of murder victim in a 2008 episode of Fringe.

Resources cited

1. Lanska, D. (2013) Optograms and Criminology: Science, News Reporting, and Fanciful Novels. In Stiles, A; Finger, S.; and Boller, F (Eds.), In Literature, Neurology, and Neuroscience: Historical and Literary Connections. Oxford, UK: Elsevier.

2. Ogbourne, D. (n.d.). Optography and optograms. Retrieved from: http://www.college-optometrists.org/en/college/museyeum/online_exhibitions/eye/optography.cfm

3. Permanent Eye Pictures. (n.d.). In Davis, G.E. (Eds). Microscopical News and Northern Microscopist, Volume 1. London, UK: Tubbs, Brook, & Chrystal.

Painting by Edward Percy Moran (c. 1917) depicting the story of Betsy Ross presenting the first American flag to General George Washington. From Wikipedia

Betsy Ross was a talented seamstress and upholsterer who was widely believed to have made the first American flag. She was also an 18th century entrepreneur who made supplies for the American soldiers during the Revolution and lost two of her three husbands during the war. In preparation for the country’s 200^th anniversary, the Betsy Ross Foundation and her descendants wanted to exhume her grave and rebury her remains in the courtyard of her historic home, where it was believed she sewed the first flag. But when a team of excavators dug under her grave marker in December of 1975 there was nothing at the bottom.

Elizabeth “Betsy” Griscom Ross Ashburn Claypoole (January 1, 1752-January 30, 1836) was born to a Quaker family in Philadelphia on January 1, 1752.  Betsy had three husbands: John Ross, Joseph Ashburn, and John Claypoole.  Her first two husbands, John Ross and Joseph Ashburn, were killed during the American Revolution.  Betsy was a professionally trained upholsterer who repaired uniforms, made tents and blankets, and prepared musket ball ammunition cartridges for the troops during the war.  Betsy owned and operated an upholstery business in Philadelphia until she retired in 1827 at the age of 75 years old.  But she is best known for sewing first American flag, a claim that is now debated.

The “Betsy Ross flag” with 13 stars and red and white stripes. Image credit: jacobolus on Wikipedia.

The story that Betsy Ross was the creator the first American flag originated with her grandson, William Canby, who presented a paper about how his grandmother made the flag to the Historical Society of Philadelphia in 1870.  According to Canby, General George Washington visited his grandmother in the spring of 1776 to commission her to sew the “stars and stripes” flag.  The “Betsy Ross flag” was designed with alternating red and white stripes and a circle of 13 five-pointed stars against a blue background.  The flag was originally supposed to have six-pointed stars but Betsy suggested five-pointed stars because they were easier to make.  Canby’s assertion was based on stories told to him by his family members, including Betsy’s daughters, who all signed affidavits

Those who don’t believe Ross created the first flag argue there are no records to back up the Canby’s claim. There were also a few other flag makers working for the patriot cause in the Philadelphia area during this time that could have made the first flag.

Those who believe that Ross made this “stars and stripes” flag say that Betsy was known to have sewn flags for the fledgling country during and after the Revolution.  George Washington is known to have been in Philadelphia in the spring of 1776, when Ross’ family say she was visited by the general.  Also any documentation about who made the first flag has been lost or destroyed, so this lack of evidence cannot disprove the Canby story.

In 1836 at the age of 84-years-old, Betsy Ross died and was buried with her third husband in the Free Quaker burial ground in the center of Philadelphia.  When the city of Philadelphia purchased this cemetery 20 years later, the remains of Betsy Ross and John Claypoole were moved to the Mount Moriah Cemetery.

In 1975, the Betsy Ross Foundation and Betsy Ross’ descendants petitioned to have her grave exhumed and her remains reburied in the courtyard of the Betsy Ross House, which had been turned into a historical landmark.  The Betsy Ross Foundation hired physical anthropologist Dr. Alan Mann, who was then at the University of Pennsylvania, to supervise the project.

Mann and his team of excavators began the exhumation under Betsy’s grave marker at Mount Moriah on Monday, December 15, 1975.  When they reached the bottom of the plot they found nothing.  When the team dug a few feet away from the marker they found a coffin that contained the bones of a male, who Mann believed was either Betsy’s grandson or great-grandson.  At the time, Mann was worried that he would be held responsible for misplacing Betsy Ross’ bones.

“Just what I need,” Mann told reporters at the end of the first day.  “Getting blamed for losing Betsy Ross.”¹

Mann would have better luck the next day.  On December 16, 1975, he dug a little further away and unearthed two boxes.  The remains of a male were in the larger box, and the remains of an elderly female were in the smaller box.  According to Mann, these were the bones of Betsy Ross and her third husband John Claypoole because “evidence found at the grave site exactly matches reports” from Betsy’s reburial in 1856.  But none of the newspaper accounts say exactly what this evidence was.

“There’s no question about this one,” he told the press.  “All indications point to this one.  It was a great distance away from the grave marker, but it was put up in 1923 and that’s 70 years after she was moved to this cemetery.”²

Mann could only rely on historical records and a physical examination of the bones to establish a presumptive identification, which meant he could not say with any scientific certainty that the remains he found belonged to Betsy Ross.  Only DNA testing could positively identify the body and that was not available to Mann at the time.

The grave of Betsy Ross and her 3rd husband John Claypoole at the Betsy Ross House. Image credit: Jim, the Photographer on Flickr.

Betsy Ross and John Claypoole were eventually reburied in the courtyard of the Betsy Ross House.

Works Cited

“Betsy Ross bones being moved again.” (1975, December 21). The Montana Standard.

“Searchers sure they found Betsy Ross’ body.” (1975, 17 December). The Argus.

Photo of Jack Parsons from a 1938 edition of the LA Times. Parsons pictured w/the replica bomb he built for the Kynette trial. Image from Wikipedia.

Although the Suicide Squad is best known today as a movie about a fictional group of supervillains drafted by the government to undertake dangerous missions in exchange for commuted sentences, there was a real-life Suicide Squad at Caltech in the 1940’s. As I read about the original Suicide Squad, I became fascinated with the life and death of its strangest member, Jack Parsons.

Jack Parsons (2 October 1914-17 June 1952) was an explosives aficionado who worked at the rocketry research lab at Caltech, who also helped establish Aerojet and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). Parsons’ devised rocket fuels that were the predecessors for the fuel that powered the NASA space shuttles, and made advancements in rocket propulsion, or jet propulsion, at a time when rockets were more likely to be written about in science fiction novels than studied at any university.¹  During his short life he also testified as a forensic explosives expert, was deeply involved in occult magic, tried to conceive a supernatural child through a series of sex Magick rituals, and befriended L. Ron Hubbard.

In 1952, Parsons died at the young age of 37 from fatal injuries he suffered from an explosion at his home laboratory. Although officially deemed an accident, some believed the explosion could have been set on purpose, either by Parsons to end his life or by an unknown assassin.^3,9

Marvel Whiteside Parsons, better known as Jack Parsons, was born to a wealthy Pasadena family in 1914. He tried to pursue his interest in rockets after high school by attending Pasadena Junior College and Stanford University but he had to drop out when his family fell on hard financial times.

Parsons didn’t let the lack of a formal education stop him from pursuing his dreams. He and his friend from high school, Ed Forman, tested homemade rocket engines powered by gunpowder.¹ Parsons would mix the fuels for the rockets and Forman would build the engines. When they decided to build a more difficult liquid propellant rocket motor, Parsons and Forman looked to a local university for help.²

They attended a seminar on rocket-powered aircraft in 1935 at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), one of the few universities where students could study rocket engineering. Parsons and Forman were put in touch with a PhD student named Frank Malina, who was writing a thesis on rocket propulsion.² Theodore von Kármán, the director at Guggenheim Aeronautical Laboratory (GALCIT) at Caltech, let Parsons, Forman, and Malina work on their projects in the GALCIT lab. Then in 1936 Malina created a degree program for which they were to build a rocket that could be fueled by solid or liquid propellants.² From then on the trio was formally known as the GALCIT Rocket Research Project.

The Suicide Squad in the Arroyo Seco, November 1936. Left foreground to right: Rudolph Schott, Amo Smith, Frank Malina, Ed Forman, and Jack Parsons. Image from Wikipedia.

Parsons scouted locations to test their rockets and was reportedly drawn to the sinister energy of the Devil’s Gate Gorge, which got its name from a rock face in the canyon that resembles a profile of a horned demon.⁷ The Devil’s Gate Gorge was located at the narrowest part of the Arroyo Secco Canyon near the site of a dam, about a quarter mile from the Caltech campus. The GALCIT Rocket Research Project conducted its first test in Devil’s Gate Gorge on October 29, 1936.²

The Devil’s Gate at the Arroyo Seco River. The “devil’s profile” can been seen in the rock to the right. Image from Wikipedia.

After a series of tests in the gorge, and no one was hurt or killed, von Kármán granted the GALCIT Rocket Research Project access to testing facilities on the Caltech campus. The rocketry group was notorious at Caltech because their experiments often resulted in damage to campus property. During one test a leaky valve spewed a caustic liquid all over the campus lawn and turned it brown. After another experiment, a motor misfired and emitted a gas in the laboratory that rusted all of the equipment.² During another test a piece of equipment was hurled across the lab and was embedded into a wall. The members of the GALCIT Rocket Research Project became infamous for their perceived collective death wish so their fellow students referred to them as the Suicide Squad. Soon the Suicide Squad was forced to return to the Devil’s Gate Gorge to protect the students and the campus.¹⁰

Photo from the LA Times (1938) of Jack Parsons with the replica pipe bomb used in the Kynette Trial. Image from Wikipedia.

The Suicide Squad didn’t get funding for the first few years of its work. In order to make extra money Parsons testified as a forensics explosives expert witness. His most well-known forensics work was for the trial of Captain Earl Kynette in 1938. In the late 1930’s, a private investigator, and former LAPD detective, named Harry Raymond investigated corruption within the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) and city government. Some powerful people were scared of what Raymond’s inquiries would reveal and decided to stop him at all costs.

On January 14, 1938 Raymond was injured by a car bomb that had been planted under his car. Captain Earl Kynette was the prime suspect and stood trial for attempted murder. Parsons was hired to construct a replica bomb and deduce the explosives used to ignite it. He successfully reconstructed the bomb and the resulting explosion. Kynette was found guilty and shipped to San Quentin. Parsons expert testimony is largely credited with the resulting guilty verdict.³

In 1939, the Suicide Squad received its first funding from the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA), the National Academy of Sciences (NAS), and the military. As World War II started to ramp up, Parsons and the Suicide Squad were tapped by the US Air Corps to design and manufacture Jet-Assisted take Off (JATO) engines and formulate stable solid rocket fuels that could be stored for a long time.⁴

The GALCIT Rocket Research Project eventually branched off into two entities to handle production and research. Aerojet was established in 1941 to fulfill the engine orders for the government and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) was started in 1943 for rocket engine research and development.¹

The “wickedest man in the world” Aleister Crowley. Image from Wikipedia.

Parsons life changed when he attended a Gnostic Mass hosted by an occult group called the Church of Thelema in 1939. Thelema was a religion and philosophy founded by Aleister Crowley, an infamous English occultist. Thelema’s dominant principle was “Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.” ¹ According to George Pendle, author of the Parsons biography Strange Angel, Jack was attracted to the occult because he believed magic challenged the physical limits of the world, like the rockets he studied, and could be used as a tool to explore “unseen metaphysical worlds.” ¹ Parsons joined the California branch of the Thelemite group, known as the Agape Lodge, and immersed himself in the Thelema’s occult “Magick.” ¹ Crowley changed the spelling to Magick in order to distinguish his occult practice from stage magic because it was meant to be “the Science and Art of causing Change to occur in conformity with Will.”

Parsons used the money he earned from Aerojet to lease a house in Pasadena’s Millionaire’s Row, which he called the “Parsonage.” ¹ The Thelamite Agape Lodge relocated to the “Parsonage” and Jack rented rooms to artists, writers, and social misfits.

Jack parted ways with Aerojet around the end of World War II. Parsons believed that there wasn’t much business for rocketry after the war and Aerojet was eager to separate itself from Parsons’ weird personal life.^5,6 In 1944 Parsons sold his Aerojet stock for $50,000 and purchased the lease on the Parsonage.⁶

In 1945 Jack met and befriended a young sci-fi writer named L. Ron Hubbard, who would eventually found the Church of Scientology. From January to March of 1946 Parsons and Hubbard conducted a series of sex magick rituals, called the Babalon Working, that were meant to conceive and incarnate the Thelemite goddess, Babalon. ⁶

After Parsons and Hubbard completed the Babalon Working, Hubbard ran off with Jack’s girlfriend. Jack wouldn’t be heartbroken for long.

In February of 1946, Parsons meet a new Parsonage resident named Marjorie Cameron, who he believed was sent to him to help him conceive the goddess Babalon in human form. Jack and Marjorie were married on October 19, 1946.

In 1949 Parsons started work with the Hughes Aircraft Company to design and construct a chemical plant. The next year, Hughes reported some confidential documents missing that were related to its rocket program. After an investigation by the FBI, investigators suspected that Parsons was involved with the theft and had planned to submit the files to the Israeli government in return for a job.⁷ Parsons was fired from Hughes, his security clearance was revoked, and he was permanently banned from working on classified projects. The only reason he was not arrested for espionage was that the documents were not considered state secrets.⁶

For the next few years Jack had to work odd jobs, some of which involved mixing explosives in his home lab. On June 17th, 1952 Parsons was mixing and packing explosives for a trip to Mexico when a blast ripped through Parson’s Pasadena home.

When police arrived at the house, they found Jack on the floor surrounded by rocket propulsion notes and occult drawings. He was missing half of his face and most of his right arm. There is some discrepancy regarding his last words. According to one source, his last words were, “I wasn’t done.” And another source recounts them as “Who will take care of me now.” ⁶ About an hour later Jack Parsons was dead.

Pasadena Police Department officer Ernie Howard at the scene of the explosion that killed John Whiteside “Jack” Parsons. Image from Wikipedia

The detectives investigating Jack’s death found that the blast occurred as the result of an accident when Jack dropped bottle of explosive material. ⁸ Despite this decision, rumors of suicide and assassination and persisted among his friends, family, and the community.³ Some of his former housemates believed he could have committed because he was depressed due to the downward spiral of his career or personal life.³ Others thought he might have been assassinated by the LAPD for his role in convicting their brother in blue, Captain Earl Kynette.^3,9 This tragedy was compounded when Jack’s mother, Ruth Parsons, committed suicide by overdosing on sleeping medication within hours of Jack’s death.

Today Aerojet is known as Aerojet Rocketdyne and is a manufacturer of rocket and missile propulsion systems. And JPL is managed by Caltech for NASA and is located near the Devil’s Gate Gorge where the Suicide Squad conducted their first tests.

Jack Parsons is regarded as one of the fathers of rocketry because of his innovations in rocket engineering and early support of space exploration.

References

1. Pendle, G. (2015). The last of the magicians. Retrieved from: http://motherboard.vice.com/read/the-last-of-the-magicians
2. Malina, F. (1986). The rocket pioneers. Retrieved from: http://calteches.library.caltech.edu/601/2/Malina.pdf
3. Pendle, G. (2006). Strange Angel: The otherworldly life of rocket scientist John Whiteside Parsons. Orlando, FL: Harcourt Publishing.
4. Solon, O. (2014). Occultist father of rocketry ‘written out’ of Nasa’s history. Retrieved from: http://www.wired.co.uk/article/jpl-jack-parsons
5. Landis, G. (2005). The three rocketeers. Retrieved from: http://www.americanscientist.org/bookshelf/pub/the-three-rocketeers
6. Carter, J. and Wilson, R.A. (2005). Sex and Rockets: The occult world of Jack Parsons. Port Townsend, WA: Feral House.
7. Anderson, B. (2012). The Hell Portal Where NASA’s Rocket King Hung Out With L. Ron Hubbard. Retrieved from: http://motherboard.vice.com/blog/hunting-the-hell-portal-where-the-founder-of-nasa-s-jpl-divined-cosmic-rockets-with-l-ron
8. “Jet expert dies in blast, mother commits suicide.” (1952). Fresno Bee.
9. Rasmussen, C. (2000). Life as Satanist Propelled Rocketeer. Retrieved from: http://articles.latimes.com/2000/mar/19/local/me-10501/2
10. “Launch Points: The suicide Squad.” (2015). Retrieved from: https://eands.caltech.edu/2015/02/04/launch-points-the-suicide-squad/

Anterior and posterior views of the 13th century anatomical specimens. Image credit: Bill Jamieson from the Archives of Medical Science.

In 2003, a medical antiquities dealer sold an unusual item, a partial mummified body, to a private Canadian collector. This specimen only consisted of a partial skull, neck, and top of the torso, and measured 17.3 inches by 18.9 inches (44cm x 48cm). Very little was known about his dissected body, so a team of forensic scientists came together to shed some light on this medical artifact.

A multidisciplinary analysis, which included an anthropological analysis, genetic tests, radiological examination, and radiocarbon dating, was conducted on the mummified body in 2012. Philippe Charlier, from the Department of Forensic Medicine and Pathology at the University Hospital R. Poincaré, and colleagues published their research in an article titled “A glimpse into the early origins of medieval anatomy through the oldest conserved human dissection (Western Europe, 13^th c. A.D.).”

A morphological examination revealed rodent bite marks and traces of insect infestation. When scientists looked closely enough they could even see red facial hair. The person who preserved this specimen sawed off the top of the skull, removed the brain, and sectioned the torso horizontally several inches below the shoulders. Researchers observed saw marks on the 4^th and 5^th thoracic vertebrae, both scapular bodies, the sternal manubrium, and parts of the 2^nd through 5^th left and right ribs.¹

After an anthropological analysis of the skull, the team estimated that this was a Caucasian male who was at least 45 years old when he died. They observed osteoarthritis in the jaw (temporomandibular joint) and collarbones (clavicles). The team also found that the man also experienced major tooth loss before he died because he had only the front 8 teeth in his lower jaw (mandible).¹

Charlier and his team mentioned an “intense wood smoke odor” associated with the dissected body and thought it was possible that smoking was used to mummify the corpse. The preservation method also included a mixture of a form of mercury called cinnabar, Cassel earth, and gypsum injected into the veins and arteries. Charlier et al write that the presence of the red mercury-based vascular filling maybe “indirect proof of the use of syringes – or, at least, vascular injection material – during the 13^th c.”¹

A tissue sample was extracted for a mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) test to try to find out where the man’s matrilineal ancestors originated. But the recovered genetic sequence was not long enough to determine a mitochondrial haplogroup. Although the tests did confirm that the specimen is indeed male.¹

Researchers weren’t able to discern the identity of this mummified corpse, his cause of death, or who preserved his remains. ¹

Another tissue sample was taken for radiocarbon dating and the results showed that the anatomical specimen dates to the medieval period between 1200 and 1280 A.D. This date range makes this specimen important, because, according to Charlier et al., “Fragments of dissected human bodies dating from before the 19^th century are rare and are mainly found in archaeological contexts.” ¹

This partial cadaver was preserved at a time when the practice of human dissection was revived at medical schools after being dormant in Europe since the time of the ancient Greeks. Greek physicians, like Herophilus and Erasistratus, practiced anatomical dissections in the 3rd century B.C. ¹  But in subsequent centuries, Greek and Roman physicians preferred surface examinations of the human body or the dissection of animals. The practice went into decline across Europe during the Dark Ages, or the early part of the Medieval Period, between 500 and 1000 A.D. ¹

There was a renewed interest in the study of medicine in Europe during the 12^th and 13^th centuries thanks to the spread of universities. Mondino de Liuzzi, a physician who taught at the University of Bologna who is credited with being the first to reintroduce the instruction of anatomy in medical schools, conducted the first public dissection in Europe since Herophilus and Erasistratus on a criminal’s corpse in 1315.^1,2,3 Although cadaveric dissections started to be performed in these early European medical schools, they were heavily regulated by the church and local governments.^1,4

The reemergence of anatomical dissections in Europe led to the advent of European forensic science. The earliest written record of a European autopsy happened in Italy in 1286 and was conducted so that a physician could determine the source of an epidemic.¹ In 1315, the city of Bologna became the first European city to establish a system of forensic examinations by experts.⁵

The anatomical research and forensic science are linked because advances in the former lead to progress in the latter.  The knowledge of normal and abnormal anatomy is necessary for medical examiners to accurately determine cause of death. For example, medical examiners need to understand how diseases affect various organs, the effects of poison on the body, or the signs of inconspicuous fatal injuries in a corpse. So the discovery of artifacts that relate to the history of medicine, particularly the field anatomy, are really interesting especially if forensic science can be used to reveal a little bit about the specimens…sort of like a circle of science.

References cited

1. Charlier, P., Huynh-Charlier, I., Poupon, J., Lancelot, E., Campos, P.F., Favier, D., Jeannel, G.F., Bonati, M.R., Lorin del la Grandmaison, G., Hervé, C. (2014 May 12). A glimpse into the early origins of medieval anatomy through the oldest conserved human dissection (Western Europe, 13^th A.D.). Retrieved from: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4042035/
2. Mondino De’ Luzzi. (n.d.) Retrieved from: https://www.britannica.com/biography/Mondino-de-Luzzi
3. Mavrodi, A. and Paraskevas, G. (2014 February). Mondino de Luzzi: a luminous figure in the darkness of the Middle Ages. Retrieved from: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3944418/
4. Ghosh, S.K. (2015 September). Human cadaveric dissection: a historical account from ancient Greece to the modern era. Retrieved from: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4582158/#!po=4.97076
5. McKnight, B.E.  Introduction. The Washing Away of Wrongs: Forensic Medicine in Thirteenth-Century China (Science, Medicine, and Technology in East Asia) by Sung Tz’u, 1247.  Ann Arbor, MI: Center for Chinese Studies, The University of Michigan, 1981, pp. 1-34.

Illustration of Stonewall Jackson’s deathbed. Image credit: Navel from Wikipedia.

General Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia fought the Union’s Army of the Potomac, which was commanded by Major General Joseph Hooker, at the Battle of Chancellorsville in Virginia between April 30 and May 6, 1863.   The Battle of Chancellorsville is known as one of General Lee’s greatest victories of the American Civil War because, despite being massively outnumbered, Lee forced Hooker’s army to retreat. But General Lee suffered a significant loss during the battle when one of his most brilliant strategists, General Thomas Jonathan “Stonewall” Jackson, was shot and died shortly after.

General “Stonewall” Jackson was shot in his left arm and right hand at the Battle of Chancellorsville on May 2, 1863. Although the bullets were removed and his left arm was amputated immediately, he died eight days later. Investigators studied the projectiles that were removed from Jackson’s body in order to verify who fired the lethal shots. This case is significant because it is one of the earliest applications of ballistic principles in a death investigation.

Thomas Jonathan Jackson (January 21, 1824-May 10, 1863) graduated from West Point in 1846 and fought with the U.S. Army in the Mexican American War. When the American Civil War started in 1861, he trained new recruits for the Confederate Army and was given command of an infantry regiment. “Stonewall” Jackson earned his famous moniker at the First Battle of Bull Run in July of 1861 when the then brigadier general charged his troops forward to reinforce the Confederate defensive line against a Union attack “like a stone wall.” Jackson is probably most famous for his Shenandoah Valley Campaign in the spring of 1862 during which he marched his troops more than 650 miles in order to keep the Union Army from attacking the Confederate capital in Richmond, VA.

From April 30 to May 6, 1863, Jackson fought under the command of General Robert E. Lee at the Battle of Chancellorsville. As the fighting started to dwindle at sundown on May 2^nd, Jackson and his aids returned to the Confederate lines.   As Lee and his men approached, a North Carolina regiment mistook them for Union troops and fired on them. Jackson was hit in his left arm right below the shoulder and in his right hand.¹

Dr. Hunter McGuire, the chief surgeon of the Army of Northern Virginia, amputated Stonewall Jackson’s left arm in an attempt to save his life. But Jackson died anyway eight days later on May 10, 1863 and McGuire attributed his death to complications from pneumonia.¹

The bullets in Jackson’s left arm and right hand were removed during surgery and were later examined during an investigation into his death to confirm it was the result of friendly fire. It was noteworthy that the projectiles were round balls fired from a smoothbore musket because there were two categories of muskets used during the Civil War, those with smoothbore barrels and those with rifled barrels. ^1,2

Image of a 35 remington caliber, microgroove rifled barrel. Image credit: Released into the public domain by Rickochet on Wikipedia.

A smoothbore weapon does not have rifled grooves etched into the barrel. Smoothbore muskets had a shorter range and were less accurate than their rifled counterparts. Rifling, or spiral grooves etched into the walls of the inside of the barrels, was invented in the 16^th century but was not part of widespread gun production until the 19^th century. This was an important innovation in firearms manufacture because when a bullet passed through the barrel the rifling caused the bullet to spin, which made the shot more stable and accurate. By the time Jackson was shot, most of the muskets used by the Confederate Army were smoothbore and most rifles used by the Union army had rifled barrels.

Ballistic analysis eliminated Union troops as the source of the shot and confirmed witness accounts that Jackson was injured by and eventually killed by his own men.

Most of Stonewall Jackson’s body was sent to his family in Lexington, VA where it was buried.  His left arm, however, was buried in a private cemetery at Ellwood Manor, not far from the Chancellorsville battlefield.  According to Ramona Martinez in “The Curious Fate Of Stonewall Jackson’s Arm,” Union solders exhumed the limb in 1864 and reburied it in an unknown location.  Then in 1903, one of Jackson’s officers erected a granite headstone at what was thought to be the appendage’s final resting place but it’s “unclear” if it marks the exact spot or if it is buried nearby.

References Cited

1. Smith, B.C. (1975). “The Last Illness and Death of General Thomas Jonathan (Stonewall) Jackson.” VMI Alumni Review.
2. Albin, M.S. (2001). “The Wounding, Amputation and Death of Thomas Jonathan “Stonewall” Jackson Some Medical and Historical Insights.” Bulletin of Anesthesia History, Vol. 19, Number 4.
3. Martinez, R. (2012). The Curious Fate Of Stonewall Jackson’s Arm. Retrieved from: http://www.npr.org/2012/06/28/155804965/the-curious-fate-of-stonewall-jacksons-arm

The Coronation of Inês de Castro in 1361. Painted by Pierre-Charles Comte ca 1849. Image credit: Scailyna on Wikipedia.

According to legend, in the mid-14th century a heart-broken King Peter (Pedro) I of Portugal exhumed the corpse of his lover to have her posthumously crowned queen.  The romantic scandals of European royalty could fill a library so it can be difficult to find a story of a torrid liaison that stands out.  But the tale of the coronation of Inês de Castro, the Corpse Queen of Portugal, is difficult to forget.

Inês de Castro was born sometime in 1325 to a noble family of Castilian descent from the Kingdom of Galicia, which was located in the northwestern part of the Iberian peninsula.  In 1340, when she was just 15 years old, Inês was sent to the court of Crown Prince Peter I of Portugal to be the lady-in-waiting to his wife, Constanza of Castile.  However, the Peter and Inês fell in love and they started an affair.

Constanza died five years later, in 1345, shortly after she gave birth to Ferdinand I, who was the future king of Portugal.  After Constance’s death, Peter asked his father, King Afonso IV, for permission to marry Inês. Afonso hoped to make a better match for his son and wanted his affair with her to end. So in addition to refusing his son’s request, Afonso banished Inês from court.  But her exile didn’t prevent the couple from continuing their relationship.

Peter and Inês moved to a villa near Coimbra that was dramatically dubbed the Villa of Tears.  Between 1346 and 1354, Inês and Peter had four children, though only three survived infancy.

Murder of Inês de Castro. Paiting by Columbano Bordalo Pinheiro, ca. 1901/04. Image Credit: Wikipedia.

King Afonso IV and his advisers were afraid that Inês’ relationship with Pedro gave the Spanish influence over his son. So he sent three assassins to Inês and Peter’s home in 1355 to put a violent end to their illicit affair.  When the killers arrived at the villa, they found Inês and her children sitting near a fountain but Peter was nowhere to be found. Some sources say that she was stabbed to death another says she was beheaded in front of her children.  Inês’ body was eventually buried at the Monastery of Santa Clara in Coimbra.

When Afonso died in 1357, Peter inherited the throne and immediately set about getting revenge. He brought two of Inês’ three murderers to justice and had their hearts ripped out while he watched.

Peter declared that he and Inês married in secret and that she was the rightful queen of Portugal. He then ordered that her corpse be crowned during his coronation ceremony (another article says that her body was exhumed and crowned in 1361)

While this gesture was romantic, albeit creepy, it was also practical because it was attempt by Peter to legitimize his children with his lover.

Inês’ decomposing body was clothed in royal robes, a crown was placed on her head, and she was placed on a throne next to Peter in the Cathedral of Coimbra.  Then he made all of the nobles to line up to kiss her decaying hand.

An issue of Dublin Magazine published in 1852 describes the ceremony:

“Pedro, on occasion of his coronation, in the Cathedral of Coimbra, caused the corpse of Inez, in the Convent of Santa Clara, to be taken out, after having lain there from 1355 to 1357, dressed in royal robes, and placed on a throne beside him. He publicly swore to the fact of their marriage at Braganza, by a dispensation from Rome, caused her to be proclaimed queen, and crowned as such; and compelled all the nobles to do her corpse homage, and kiss the cold dead hand, jealously watching for any symptom of repugnance.”

After the ceremony, Inês’ body was taken to the Monastery of Alcobaça and placed in a tomb with her effigy. Her tomb faces Peter’s so they will rise facing each other during the Last Judgment.

The effigy on the tomb of Inês de Castro at the Monastery of Alcobaça. Image credit: Wikipedia

Many people believe the coronation of the Corpse Queen of Portugal is merely a legend and didn’t happen.  This is probably because the idea of exhuming a dead body for a ceremony seems ridiculous.  But the Catholic Church actually exhumed a dead pope for a trial known as the Cadaver Synod in 897 and asked him questions. So the coronation of a dead queen is no less believable.

Antoine Wiertz painting entitled Premature Burial. Image credit: Wikipedia

Frightening stories of people who were accidentally buried alive, also known as premature burial, have been repeated around fireplaces and reported in newspapers since the 18^th century.  True or not, these tales really scared a lot of people so families went to extreme measures to make sure someone was really dead.  People buried loved ones in safety coffins, coffins that were constructed with devices that allowed an occupant to signal to the surface they had been buried alive, or placed them in dead houses, structures where bodies were stored until they started to decompose.

The widespread fear of being buried alive, also known as taphophobia, eventually emerged as an urban legend known as the “Lady with the Ring.”  This legend has variations told throughout Europe and common features, besides premature burial, include an expensive ring and grave robbers. But one of these “Lady with the Ring’ tales went beyond legend and left its mark in an Irish cemetery.

In Shankill Cemetery, one of the oldest cemeteries in Belfast, there is a grave marker for a woman named Margorie McCall that has the following inscription, “Lived Once, Buried Twice.”

Margorie McCall resided in the town of Lurgan with her husband, John McCall, about 300 years ago. She came down with a sudden illness in 1705 and seemed to die. During the wake, her loved ones tried to remove an expensive ring from her finger because they feared it would attract grave robbers. But the band didn’t budge and Margorie was buried in Shankill Cemetery with it on her hand.

Grave robbers found out about Margorie’s expensive ring and went to the cemetery the night after she was interred to dig up her grave. When they failed to pry it off her hand, one of the grave robbers pulled out a knife to cut off her finger. As soon as the blade cut Margorie’s finger and drew blood, she woke up from her deep sleep with a start. This scared the crap out of the grave robbers and they immediately ran off. She then climbed out of her coffin and walked home.

Margorie’s family sat around the hearth talking and mourning her loss when they heard a knock at the door. John opened the door and saw his wife standing in the doorway in her dirty funeral clothes.

Margorie McCall supposedly lived for years after this and even had children after the traumatizing event. According to the tale, when she died for real, she was buried in the same plot she climbed out of in 1705.

Mark McConville and Denise Calnan interviewed Jim Conway, a local historian, for an article they wrote for the Independent. Conway researched parish records in Lurgan and found records for the deaths of nine Margorie McCalls, three of which were married to a John McCall. But he could not find any evidence of a Margorie McCall who was married to a John McCall and died in 1705. Despite this, Conway believes this story is true because parish records may not have been accurate because of a famine.

Read about tales of premature burial that were reported in newspapers from the 18^th to the 20^th centuries.

Patent drawing for J. G. Krichbaum’s safety coffin. Image credit: Wikipedia.

Taphophobia, or the fear of premature burial, reached a fever pitch at the end of the 19^th century and early 20^th century. One of the reasons for this was people realized that the methods doctors used to confirm death were sometimes unreliable. Physicians of this era depended on their senses to detect a pulse or respiration, so when patients had an illness, like cholera, that could mimic the stillness of death there was always a possibility that someone could be buried alive.

Countless articles about premature burial were published in newspapers in Europe and the U.S.-though the actual number of cases was probably greatly exaggerated. After hearing these stories, people went to great lengths to avoid a similar fate. They wrote clauses into their wills about how dispose of their bodies, inventors created coffins with mechanisms to contact the outside world, and societies dedicated to the prevention of premature burial set guidelines for doctors to confirm death.

Below, in chronological order, are excerpts that describe the odd and innovative ways they tried to avoid being buried alive.

Design for Safety Coffin. Dr Johann Taberger Der Scheintod Hanover 1829. Image Credit: Wikipedia

The Saint Paul Globe January 4, 1880

“Poor Memory.”

A painter of celebrity in Paris, when his first wife-he has now married another-was sick unto death, was informed by her of her great fear of being buried alive, and thereupon promised to make an incision in her neck when he thought her dead. He, however, failed to recollect it. Some months after he was dining with a friend and paying court to the one he wished to make successor to the deceased one. Out of a brown study, he suddenly exclaimed, “By Jove! I forgot to cut my wife’s throat.” It needed long explanations before the other took him.

The Courier-Journal January 24, 1891

“His Heart Cut Out.”

“A Baltimore Physician’s Burial Alive Prevented By a Peculiar Will.”

Dr. Charles F. Heuser died on Wednesday. In his will he had stipulated that his heart should be cut out, viewed and restored to its place, and that his body be then cremated.

The Saint Paul Globe September 25, 1895

“If Buried Alive.”

Mr. Deveau, who says he spent twelve years of his life and a fortune perfecting the grave signal, has been exhibiting it during the summer in the Sea Beach palace at Coney Island…

The grave signal consists of a rod that runs down through a tube into the coffin and rests upon the forehead of the interred. A series of rubber valves prevents the egress of vapor from the grave. At the slightest movement of the body in the coffin the rod flies up, all the valves are opened, air flows into the prison and the unfortunate who thus wakes up in the darkness and on the other side of the earth waits patiently until some one strolling through the cemetery notices that the little red ball signal on the top of the grave is displayed, and thereupon sounds the alarm.”

The Evening Times April 30, 1896

“Plate Glass Coffins.”

The latest invention in coffins is a glass casket, which, among other advantages, will relieve the fears of those whose minds constantly revert to being buried alive. By this coffin the mourners will be able to detect the slightest movement of the corpse through the transparent walls…

Although resembling the metallic or wooden casket in shape, the glass coffin is radically different in every other respect. Not only is it made of glass, but an in-moulded network of wire reinforces the strength of the sides and top. The glass employed in the construction of the caskets will be of the heavy plate description, which, when carefully joined in compact form, will prove fully as strong as the wooden article now in use.

The Daily Herald September 14, 1896

“X Rays Do It.”

“An Infallible Indication of Death Said to Have Been Discovered.”

At last what seems an infallible indication of death has been discovered. Scores of people have a horror of being buried alive, and there have been many attempts made to discover some test aside from time that will assure friends that death has really occurred and that the burial may safely proceed. Heretofore none of these tests has been absolute, and each has failed signally.

Dr. C.L. Barnes, a Chicago physician, has recently been experimenting with X rays, and he now announces that they will determine positively whether real death has occurred or whether the patient is in a trance. Dr. Barnes made a shadow-graph of his own hand, and on the same plate laid the dissected hand of a cadaver. When the plate was developed, after being exposed to the mysterious rays for some time, the difference in the two radiographs was noticeable. The dead flesh offered more resistance to the penetration of the rays than the living, and a glance would determine which was the hand of the corpse.

Merck’s Archives, Vol. 2 1900

“Tests of Death”

Application has been made to the Secretary of State for a charter for the American Society for the Prevention of Premature Burial. By the provisions of this society physicians of the State of New York will be compelled to furnish a death certificate with the following formula: Two or more incisions in an artery; the palm of the hand exposed to the flame of a candle not more than five inches away; a mirror or crystal held to the lips, with no signs of respiration; a hot iron or steel placed against the flesh without producing a blister. Mortuary chapels to be established in which the bodies of the dead are to be held several hors before burial.

The New York Times July 27, 1912

“Feared Being Buried Alive.”

“Mrs. Brown Wanted Veins Opened Before Interment of Her Body.”

The will which accompanied the report of the appraisal of the estate of Sibella Harriott Brown, who died on April 16, 1911, disclosed the fact that the testator was afraid of being buried alive…

In the will she says:

‘If I shall die in England I wish to be buried with my parents in Kensal Green Cemetery in their grave No. 27,336, and I expressly request that my executors take every precaution against my being buried alive, and for this purpose I direct them to allow a full and sufficient time to elapse between by death and my funeral and to have my body examined by experienced surgeons, who shall see that by veins are opened before my body is committed to the grave.’

The Brownsville Herald August 2, 1930

“Buried Alive”

“Mexican Inventor Proves Idea Is Practicable”

Rodriguez, in collaboration with Enrique Bosdet, a Mexican of Canadian parentage, is the co-inventor of a device to apprehend the burial of supposedly dead persons alive…

The invention consists of a breathing and speaking tube leading from the coffin to the exterior of the grave. Upon the slightest movement on the part of buried person this tube opens, but it cannot be opened except from underground. An automatic bell, which is connected with the office of the overseer of the cemetery, then rings until the buried person is resurrected.

The chandelier made of human bones at Sedlec Ossuary. Image credit: vagabondvince310 on Flickr

A chandelier of Sedlec Ossuary, Czech Republic, made of skulls and bones. Image Credit: Wikipedia

The human bone chandeliers in the Crypt at Santa Maria dell’Orazione et Morte. Image credit: Lalupa via Wikipedia.

 The Crypt of Santa Maria della Concezione

Vintage postcard ca. 1897 showing one of the human bone chandeliers in hte Capuchin Crypts at Santa Maria della Concezione dei Cappuccini.

Cabaret du Néant

The human bone chandelier at the Cabaret du Néant. Image credit: billyjane via Flickr.

The tavern room at the Cabaret du Néant, ca. 1920’s. Image credit: Casas-Rodríguez Collection via Flickr.

People used to believe that the corpses of murder victims could identify their killers – sort of a zombie testimony.

Courts all over Europe, up until the 19^th century in some places, practiced a ritual called the bier-right. The bier-right was a type of trial by ordeal during which an accused killer was forced to touch the body of a murder victim. If the corpse bled, then the accused was found guilty. It was believed that a dead body could intentionally make its wounds weep because a corpse could still act a little while after death.

Historians think that the last time a bier-right was practiced in Scotland was during the investigation of the murder of Sir James Standsfield in 1688. In this case, James Standsfield’s bleeding corpse led to the conviction and execution of his son, Philip Standsfield. A pamphlet titled, “A True relation of a Barbarous Bloody Murther, Committed by Philip Standsfield upon the Person of Sir James Standsfield his Father…” explains the gory details.

The body of Sir James Standsfield was found floating in a river near Edinburgh in 1688. Many people considered James’ death suspicious so surgeons were summoned from Edinburgh to view his body.

“The Corps being taken up in Morum Church, two Chyrurgeons were appointed to view it, who making an Incision about the Neck, found in one part under the Ear much stagnated or clotted Blood, and that the Joynts had been distended, also by the blackness of the Face many symptoms of strangling appeared, finding at the same time no water in the Stomach or Bowels, with many other Observations, up which they concluded him to be murthered before he was thrown in the water…”

James Standsfield’s corpse supposedly identified his killer when his relatives had to move his body to the coffin after the autopsy.

“And what further happened was exceeding remarkable, in which the finger of God, to discover more plainly the Murtherer visibly, appeared was, that a Speech being made, after the Wounds were sewed up, that some of Sir James’s nearest Relations should take him up off the place where he lay and lift him into his Coffin, the son, viz Philip Standsfield, attempting to raise the left side of his head and shoulders, whilst one Mr. Row raised the other side, the Blood sprung out upon Philip Standsfield’s Hand, at which wiping it upon his Coat and struck with terror and remorse, he cried out, Lord have mercy upon me, and so retired to a Pew, where the Chyrurgeon ordered him some Treacle-water to prevent his swooning away.”

Illustration from a novel The Ghost Ship by John Conroy Hutcheson. Image credit: Wikipedia

According to legend, some time in the 1940’s a ship named the S.S. Ourang Medan sent a distress signal as it traveled through the South Pacific.  The S.O.S. said that the officers aboard were dead and rest of the crew were dying.  Another vessel answered the call and, when its crew boarded the Ourang Medan, they saw dead bodies lying all over the deck.  Since none of the corpses had any visible marks and there wasn’t any sign of blood, it was a mystery as to how so many sailors had perished.  The rescuers searched for possible survivors on the bridge and below deck but had to abandon ship when they heard an explosion.  A fire eventually burned the Ourang Medan entirely.

Many people doubt that the Ourang Medan existed or that its crew was mysteriously killed  because the legend of this ghost ship has a few versions with differing details.  But if the crew of this ship was slaughtered in some horrific manner, forensic science can offer some insight on the possible causes of death.

Theories for Cause of Death

If the ship existed and the corpses aboard the ghost ship were found with no signs of blood or marks, then there are a few possibilities like poison and hazardous gases.

Fast-Acting Poison

Fast acting poisons like cyanide or strychnine can kill within minutes after ingestion without any outward signs of foul play.  Cyanide, in the form of salts or gas, causes death by interfering with the way cells process oxygen (cellular hypoxia).  This poison can cause seizures and death within minutes of ingestion or inhalation.

Strychnine also kills within minutes of swallowing thanks to violent convulsions that prevent respiration.  But this poison has a bitter taste and would be easily detected if ingested.

This theory means that this was either a suicide, a mass murder, or a murder-suicide.  If this was a suicide then there would not have been a distress call to begin with.  This also doesn’t explain the explosion.

Carbon Monoxide Poisoning

Another theory put forward for the mass deaths onboard the Ourang Medan is carbon monoxide poisoning caused by a malfunction in the ship’s boiler system. Carbon monoxide is a odorless toxic gas that can kill if too much is inhaled.  Lethal amounts of the toxic gas can cause asphyxiation within minutes of inhalation.

Carbon monoxide poisoning would explain the deaths of the crew inside the ship, but this cause of death doesn’t make sense for the bodies outside on the deck.  Outdoor carbon monoxide poisoning is extremely rare because the gas needs to saturate the atmosphere.

Hazardous Materials 

Other people speculate that the vessel was transporting hazardous chemicals like nitroglycerin or some sort of nerve gas.  According to this version, when sea water breached the containers holding this material, a toxic gas was released that could have killed the crew.

There are many skeptics who doubt the veracity of this ghost ship legend because there are at least three versions that note different dates, locations, and describe the ship in different ways.

Report from the Yorkshire Post in 1940

Estelle Hargraves of the Skittish Library uncovered one of the earliest reports known to have been published about this gruesome ghost ship.  The article, “Mystery SOS From Death Ship,” is a first hand account from one of the merchant marine officers who claimed to have boarded the floating vessel.  It was reported by the Associated Press and published in the Yorkshire Post on November 21, 1940.

‘We were about 200 miles south-west of the Solomon Islands,’ said the officer, ‘when we intercepted the following signal, ‘SOS from the steamship Ourang Medan.  Beg ships with short wave wireless get touch doctor. urgent.’

‘With our short wave set we relayed the call for help.  Medical stations in Germany, Rome, and France replied.  We informed the Ourang Medan and asked her to transmit her request.

‘The Ourang Medan replied with its auxillary transmitter.  ‘Probable second officer dead.  Other members crew also killed.  Disregard medical consultation.  SOS urgent assistance warship…’

‘At the end of 16 hours we sighted a big ship on the horizon.  It flew no flag, was listing slightly to the starboard, and the propeller motionless.  From our bridge we could see it was the Ourang Medan…’

‘We launched two lifeboats with eight men in each and rowed across to the Ourang Medan and boarded her.’

‘Bodies of sailors were lying about on the deck.  We could find no sign of a wound on any of them.  Death seemed to have taken them by surprise at their posts.’

‘On the captain’s bridge we found the body of a second officer.  We counted 12 bodies, three of them of deck officers, but we reckoned the Ourang Medan  should have had a crew of about 40.’

‘The captain decided to search the officers’ quarters but we heard an explosion in the ship’s hold. A column of smoke belched from the second hatchway.’

Report from De locomotief: Samarangsch handels- en advertentie-blad in 1948

This article was published in the Dutch-Indonesian newspaper De locomotief: Samarangsch handels- en advertentie-blad three times between February 3rd and 28th of 1948.  The original story can be found here but Hargaves summarizes a portion of it:

“At some point around June 1947, a SOS message in Morse code was sent by the Dutch freighter ship, the Ourang Medan. The ship was in distress in a position 400 nautical miles south-east of the Marshall Islands in the Pacific Ocean… As received by the US ships the City of Baltimore and the Silver Star, the first message said “S.O.S. from Ourang Medan * * * we float. All officers including the Captain, dead in chartroom and on the bridge. Probably whole of crew dead * * *.” Some morse gibberish followed, and then the second, and final, message sent by a doomed radio operator was received. It simply said “I die.”  (Summary from Estelle Hargraves)

The crew from the Silver Star found the Ourang Medan crew in much the same way that the sailors from the earlier account did: corpses on the deck, eyes and mouths frozen open.  Again, nothing was found that would explain the deaths.  A fire erupted soon after the crew boarded and the ship exploded.

Report from The Proceedings from the Merchant Marine Council in 1952

Another version of the Ourgan Medan legend was written for The Proceedings from the Merchant Marine Council in 1952

“Perhaps one of the most perturbing sea dramas occurred in February 1948.  Radio silence was broken with an urgent S.O.S. from the S.S. Ourang Medan, a Dutch vessel, then proceeding through the Straits of Malacca.  The strange distress call, transmitted in Morse Code, eerily read, ‘S.O.S. from Ourang Medan * * * we float.  All officers, including the Captain, dead in chartroom and on the bridge.  Probably whole of crew dead * * *’  A few confused dots and dashes later two words came through clearly.  They were ‘I die.’  Then, nothing more.  Later the Ourang Medan was found adrift approximately 50 miles from her indicated position.  When the vessel which had stumbled across her sent a boat over to investigate, the sailors swarming aboard the Ourang Medan found a sight seldom seen.  There wasn’t a living person or creature on board.  There were dead men every where.  Bodies were strewn about the decks, in the passageways, in the charthouse, on the bridge.  Sprawled on their backs, the frozen faces upturned to the sun with mouths gaping open and eyes staring, the dead bodies resembled horrible caricatures.  Even the ship’s dog was found dead.  Yet, the bodies seemed to bear no sign of injury or wounds.  Then, when a fire was discovered in No.4 hold, she had to be abandoned.  A few minutes later an explosion followed and the Ourang Medan sank.”

Some people doubt this Dutch corpse ship existed because the vessel itself wasn’t listed on a register of merchant ships and, as Hargraves carefully points out, crucial details of the accounts vary.

Supposedly the S.S. Ourang Medan is not listed in the Lloyd’s Shipping Register, a list published annually of all merchant vessels weighing more than 100 gross tonnes.

There are three different years in which the ship was supposedly found: 1940, 1947, and 1948.  Each version also describes a different location where the vessel was discovered: near the Solomon Islands, the Marshall Islands, and the Straits of Malacca. Also, the Yorkshire Post story describes the Ourang Medan as a steamship, and the Dutch version says its freighter.

True or not, this story is definitely compelling, which is probably why it keeps getting retold.

Hargraves’ article is really informative and well-researched.  It’s definitely worth a read for anyone who wants to learn more about Ourang Medan.

Tomb of George Washington ca. 1859. Image credit: Wikipedia.

George Washington (1732-1799) was many things: Founding Father, Commander-In-Chief, and the First President of the United States. He was also almost America’s first zombie.

Washington became seriously sick after he got caught in a rainstorm in 1799. His doctors tried to use bloodletting, the drawing of blood to treat illnesses, to cure him. The bloodletting didn’t work and he died the night of December 14, 1799-about two years after he left office.

Shortly after his death, some of Washington’s loved ones thought about reanimating his dead body. William Thornton, one of his close friends and a European-trained physician, thought it was possible to resurrect his corpse using lamb’s blood. Thornton wrote about the plan about twenty-years later:

I proposed to attempt his restoration, in the following manner.  First to thaw him in cold water, then to lay him in blankets, & by degrees & by friction to give him warmth, and to put into activity the minute blood vessels, at the same time to open a passage to the Lungs by the Trachaea, and to inflate them with air, to produce an artificial respiration, and to transfuse blood into him from a lamb.

The idea might seem silly today but the first blood transfusion experiments involved injecting animal blood into human patients. Dr. Jean-Baptiste Denys, physician to King Louis XIV of France, performed the first blood transfusion in 1667 by transfusing the sheep’s blood into a 15-year-old boy. Although this boy survived, subsequent experiments had tragic results and future transfusion tests with animal blood were prohibited.  Human to human blood transfusions weren’t performed until the early 19th century.

Thornton didn’t get his way and George Washington was allowed to continue to rest in peace. His body still resides in a marble sarcophagus at his Mt. Vernon estate.

Cartoon of a galvanized corpse from the Library of Congress’s Prints and Photographs division. Image credit: Wikipedia.

George Forster was hanged at Newgate Prison on January 18, 1803 for murdering his wife and daughter.  After the execution, Forster’s (also spelled Foster in The Newgate Calendar) body was carried to a nearby house so that Giovanni Aldini (April 10, 1762 – January 17, 1834), an Italian physicist and professor at the University of Bologna, could conduct a gruesome experiment that many believe inspired Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein.

“Galvanic” electrodes applied to a frog’s legs. From The science of common things: a familiar explanation of the first principles of physical science. For schools, families, and young students. Image Credit: Wikipedia.

Aldini’s work was greatly inspired by his uncle Luigi Galvani (September 9, 1737 – December 4, 1798).  Galvani’s experiments on the nerves and legs of frogs helped him to establish a link between electricity and muscle movement.  He used the term ‘animal electricity‘ to describe the electrical force that originated in the brain and flowed through the nerves to set muscles of his specimens in motion. Because of Galvani’s pioneering work, the study of the effects of electricity on organisms became known as galvanism. Doctors would go on to treat various medical ailments, like epilepsy and paralysis, with electricity. Today, the study of electricity produced by the body is known as electricophysiology.

From what I can tell, Galvani only tested his hypotheses on animals and never got the opportunity to experiment with a human corpse.  But his nephew, Giovanni Aldini, was able to demonstrate the effects of electricity on the human body during a particularly macabre experiment on George Forster’s corpse.

Forster was indicted for the murder of his wife and daughter on January 14, 1803.  Forster’s wife and daughter were last seen alive with him at the Mitre Tavern in London near the Paddington Canal a few weeks previous on December 5th.  The bodies of his wife and daughter were pulled from the canal a few days later.  A jury eventually found Forster guilty of the crime and sentenced him to death.

On January 18, 1803 Forster was hanged and his corpse was brought to a nearby house where Aldini performed a galvanic demonstration in front of an audience made up of surgeons

Aldini built a device for his experiments that consisted of conducting rods and a battery.  He applied the conducting rods to different parts of the body from head to tail.   The experiment was described in an 1887 issue of The Newgate Calendar, a monthly publication that contained descriptions of executions at Newgate Prison.

“M. Aldini, who was the nephew of the discoverer of this most interesting science, showed the powers of Galvanism to be far superior to those of any other stimulant.  On the first application of the process to the face, the jaw of the deceased criminal began to quiver, and the adjoining muscles were horribly contorted, and one eye actually opened.  In the subsequent part of the process, the right hand was raised and clenched, and the legs and thighs were set in motion. Mr. Pass, the beadle of the Surgeons’ Company, being officially present during the time of the extraordinary experiments, was so alarmed, that on his going home he died that night.”

The work of Galvani and Aldini contributed to the understanding of the relationship between physiology and electrical currents.  Many researchers agree that by the time novelist Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley wrote the famous gothic novel Frankenstein: Or the Modern Prometheus in 1816, she would have heard about Aldini’s infamous corpse experiment and used it as inspiration for the method that Frankenstein used to animate his monster.

“All is Vanity” by C. Allan Gilbert. Life, death, and meaning of existence are intertwined. Image credit: Wikipedia

Lord Byron (January 22, 1788 – April 19, 1824), née George Gordon Byron (I love that his middle name is Gordon), was a leading poet of the Romantic movement and a good friend of fellow writers Mary and Percy Bysshe Shelley.  He also had a flair for the macabre. Byron had a skull cup specially made that he proudly displayed at his ancestral home.

Lord Byron’s family estate was Newstead Abbey in Nottinghamshire.  The abbey was an Augustinian priory until King Henry VIII granted it to one of Byron’s ancestors in 1540, during the Dissolution of the Monasteries.  The grounds of Newstead Abbey had a graveyard where some of the deceased Augustinian monks had been buried centuries earlier.  Some time in the early 1800’s, the gardener at Newstead found a skull from one of these ancient graves and brought it to Byron. Byron then had it turned into a chalice.

There is an account of the skull cup attributed to Byron in The Complete Works of Lord Byron, Vol. 2 (1835),

“The gardener, in digging, discovered a skull that had probably belonged to some jolly friar or monk of the abbey, about the time it was demonasteried.  Observing it to be of giant size, and in a perfect state of preservation, a strange fancy seized me of having it set and mounted as a drinking cup.  I accordingly sent it to town, and it returned a mottled color like a tortoiseshell.”

Byron was so inspired by his skull cup that he wrote a poem about it.

Lines Inscribed Upon a Cup Formed from a Skull (1808)

Start not—nor deem my spirit fled:

In me behold the only skull

From which, unlike a living head,

Whatever flows is never dull.

I lived, I loved, I quaff’d, like thee:

I died: let earth my bones resign;

Fill up—thou canst not injure me;

The worm hath fouler lips than thine.

Better to hold the sparkling grape,

Than nurse the earth-worm’s slimy brood;

And circle in the goblet’s shape

The drink of Gods, than reptiles’ food.

Where once my wit, perchance, hath shone,

In aid of others’ let me shine;

And when, alas! our brains are gone,

What nobler substitute than wine?

Quaff while thou canst—another race,

When thou and thine like me are sped,

May rescue thee from earth’s embrace,

And rhyme and revel with the dead.

Why not? since through life’s little day

Our heads such sad effects produce;

Redeem’d from worms and wasting clay,

This chance is theirs, to be of use.

Byron sold Newstead Abbey in 1818 to Colonel Thomas Widman.  The skull cup was reportedly left at the Abbey in the possession of Colonel Widman when Byron moved.  At some point, though, the gruesome chalice disappeared.

Today, Newstead Abbey is now a museum owned by the Nottingham City Council.  The Abbey commissioned jeweler Jo Pond to create a replica, which can be seen on the artist’s website.

Skeleton of a camel from the Royal Natural History Volume 2. Image credit: Wikipedia

In the spring of 1883, a coroner was dispatched to investigate the gruesome death of a woman on a sheep ranch in eastern Arizona.  The only witness to the killing was a woman who barricaded herself inside a ranch house during the attack.  According to her, when the men left with the herd the two women and their children gathered in the house.  The unfortunate woman had gone down to a nearby spring to gather some water.  The witness heard screaming a short time later and looked out of the window. She described the assailant as “red, very tall and ridden by a devil.”

The coroner found trampled brush and huge hoofprints at the death scene.  The woman’s body was covered in injuries consistent with a death caused by crushing blows.  The coroner, however, didn’t believe the witness’ story about a demon in the saddle of a red specter.  But without any further evidence he didn’t have any other choice but to rule the “death in some manner unknown to the jury.”

This devilish apparition became known as the “Red Ghost” and people all over the Arizona territory told stories about this apparition.  Folks claimed that it was 30 feet tall and would disappear before their eyes when chased.  But the next credible story came from a hunter named Si Hamlin a few weeks after the death at the sheep farm.

Si Hamlin, sometimes also referred to as Cyrus Hamblin, was in the Salt River area of Arizona when he spotted the “Red Ghost” through the brush.  He got close enough to see that it was a camel with something large on its back.  He thought the camel’s cargo might be a man but he didn’t get close enough to be sure before it disappeared into some trees.

What was a camel doing in Arizona?

When Jefferson Davis was Secretary of War (1853-1857) he advocated for the creation of a Camel Corps in the Army.  Davis believed that camels would help with the westward expansion through the Southwest because of their ability to carry large loads through arid environments.  Congress approved of the Camel Corps in 1855 and by 1857 the Army purchased 75 camels.  They were stationed at Camp Verde in Texas and were used to transport supplies.  The camels weren’t used for long.  By 1864 the Camel Corps had been disbanded and the camels were sent all over the Southwest.  Some ended up with the Confederate Army when they seized Camp Verde, some were sold to zoos, some were used by mining companies to haul supplies, and others were just turned loose to roam the desert.

The Camel Corps explains the presence of a rogue ungulate terrorizing the people that lived in the Arizona desert.  What could explain the presence of the “demon” on its back?

The answer to this question came about a month after the Si Hamlin sighting.  Early one morning, two prospectors were working in the Verde Valley when they saw a red camel grazing on the mesa.  The miners fired at it and missed.  When the poor animal jumped and ran off something fell to the ground.  They found that it was “a man’s head, dry and withered, but with flesh and hair still on it.”

The “Red Ghost” that tormented Arizona turned out to be nothing more than the decaying corpse of an unidentified man strapped to a camel.  As the days passed, and the body decomposed further, more parts fell away.

About a month after the two prospectors shot at the camel, a cowboy spotted the “Red Ghost” in his branding corral.  He approached it on his horse and tried to lasso the animal.  The camel charged and nearly killed the cowboy. Although the animal ran off, the cowboy got close enough to see the dwindling remains of a corpse on its back.

This was the last sighting of the “Red Ghost” for the next ten years.  Then in 1893 a rancher named Mizoo Hastings saw a scarred, red camel grazing in his garden.  This time the “Red Ghost” would not escape.  Hastings fired his rifle and killed the camel.  By 1893, nothing remained of the corpse, though the animal bore the scars from the leather straps that once kept the body in place.

The “Red Ghost” might have been nothing but a ghost story told to scare people around a campfire.  But this gruesome apparition could have been an unfortunate camel with a corpse strapped to his back.

Beauchene or exploded human skull. Preparation by Deyrolle shop in the nineteenth century, Paris France. Image credit: Didier Descouens via Wikipedia

The Beauchêne skull, or exploded skull, is a type of anatomical preparation for which the bones are separated and mounted in anatomical position, but spaced out, so that it looks like the bones are suspended in mid-air.  The Beauchêne skull is a common teaching aid in anatomy classes because it enables students to view bones in context and pull them out for closer examination.  Artists, like Ryan Matthew Cohn and Antonio Del Prete, construct exploded skulls because they are compelling objects.

The exploded skull was a critical development in the study of anatomy but many people (including me) have credited the wrong person with its creation.  In 2011, Robert J. Spinner, Jean-François Vincent, and Alexandra P. Wolanskyj set out to discover the true innovator of the exploded skull preparation.  The authors revealed their findings in the journal Clinical Anatomy in an article titled “Discovering the elusive Beauchêne: The originator of the disarticulated anatomic technique.”

The skull is made up of 22 bones (8 in the cranium and 14 in the face).  All of these bones, except for the mandible (or jaw bone), are immovable because they are held in place by fibrous sutures, or joints.  To create a Beauchêne skull, all of the bones have to be disarticulated, or separated, then remounted in anatomical position using wires to space them out.  The finished product looks like time froze while the bones of the skull flew apart.  The result is a teaching aid where each piece is removable so that the bones can be viewed more closely.  The Mutter Museum website quotes a section from Martin Hildebrand’s Anatomical Preparations (1968) that describes how to prepare a Beauchêne skull:

“Clean the skull meticulously, bleaching it if desired, and degreasing it if necessary. The skull is then boiled or macerated until the cranial sutures are loosened. At this point the skull bones can be disarticulated by hand while the skull is wet. If the cranial bones are difficult to separate, the braincase should be further soaked until disarticulation is possible. Once the bones are disarticulated, they are dried and mounted according to the desired design of the creator. Wires or small strips of celluloid are used to space the bones, and individual bones or assembled units of the skull are supported on a wooden base by heavy wires.”

What we know is the Beauchêne method was devised sometime in France in the early 19th century by someone with advanced anatomical knowledge.   Spinner, Vincent, and Wolanskyj identified the following people who could have developed this technique: Claude Beauchêne; Edmé Pierre Chauvot de Beauchêne (1749-1825); and Edmé François Chauvot de Beauchêne (1780-1830), who was Edmé Pierre’s son. The authors scoured genealogical records and 19th century resources to research the background of each person.  Then the authors used criteria like time period, occupation, and relevant experience to identify the exploded skull creator.

The most common name that is erroneously given as the person who created the exploded skull technique is Claude Beauchêne, who supposedly was an anatomist that lived in Paris in the 1850’s.  But Spinner et al. could not find any evidence of a Claude Beauchêne who was an anatomist in France during the early to mid-19th century.

Edmé Pierre Chauvot de Beauchêne, the elder, was a prominent physician and psychologist.  He was a physician to King Louis XVI and XVIII, conducted pioneering studies in “hysteria,” and was a member of the Academy of Medicine and Chevalier de la Legion d’Honneur.  HIs son, Edmé François Chauvot de Beauchêne (1780-1830), was an eminent anatomist who was the Deputy Chief of Anatomical Works of the Faculté de Madeline de Paris and member of the Société Anatomique de Paris.  Beauchêne, the junior, was also a surgeon who was Deputy Head Surgeon at Hôpital Saint-Antoine in Paris and surgeon to King Charles X.

Spinner, Vincent, and Wolanskyj argue that Edmé François Chauvot Beauchêne likely invented the Beauchêne skull due to his academic roles and professional experience.  The authors think that it was the similarities in names that caused the confusion.

Body Syrian bishop’s during his funeral. The corpse is seated in church, between 1940 and 1946. Image credit: Eric and Edith Matson Photograph Collection via Wikipedia.

While doing some research on heart burials, the ritual internment of the heart separate from the rest of the corpse, I came across an account of the odd and days-long funeral of the prince-bishops of Würzburg in an article by Estrella Weisos-Krejci entitled, “Heart burial in medieval and early post-medieval Central Europe.”  The medieval funerary custom among the prince-bishops of Würzburg involved propping the corpse up in a sitting position so that he could be transported around the city of Würzburg then his heart, intestines, and corpse were buried in three different locations.

The preferred method of burial among medieval European nobility was whole body internment due to their belief in the physical resurrection of the body.  Some aristocrats, however, chose to have their hearts removed and corpses eviscerated, the removal of the organs in the abdominal cavity. These organs would then be buried in places that had sentimental or political value to the deceased.

According to Estrella Weisos-Krejci, evisceration and division of upper class corpses likely started for practical reasons.  For example, if a corpse needed to be preserved for a long journey home from a far off battlefield, the best way to postpone decay would be to remove the internal organs and dispose of them where the corpse was treated.

Krejci notes that English and French nobility started burying the heart and entrails for ritual reasons as early as the 12th century.  Medieval English nobility tended to only give the heart a special memorial.  The French upper-class of this period buried the heart, intestines, and corpse separately, called a tripartite burial.

Most German-speaking areas didn’t start to venerate a corpse’s internal organs until the late 16th or 17th centuries, but Krejci describes a mortuary tradition among the prince-bishops of Würzburg that involved the burial of the heart, intestines, and corpse in three different churches during a funeral that lasted two to three days.

The prince-bishop was a bishop in the Eastern Church who had spiritual and secular responsibilities to a diocese.  Once the prince-bishop of Würzburg was elected by fellow clergy they lived and died at Marienberg fortress next to the Main River in the city of Würzburg, located in northern Bavaria.

For this unique burial ritual, the heart was interred at Ebrach Abbey, the intestines were buried at St. Mary’s Church in the Marienberg Fortress of Würzburg, and the corpse was entombed in the Würzburg Cathedral. According to Krejci, they practiced this tripartite burial in the 15th century and possibly earlier, but Professor Dr. Armin Dietz states they buried their hearts and intestines separately as early as the 13^th century.

Krejci found a description of the Würzburg prince-bishop’s peculiar funerary custom in a 15th century funeral report written by Melchior Zobel of Giebelstadt.

Immediately after they died, the heart and intestines were removed and preserved.  The entrails were placed in a container, preserved with lime, then interred in the castle church at Marienberg, also known as St. Mary’s.  The heart, present throughout the days-long funeral ceremony, was embalmed and put in glass vessel.

The body was also embalmed then placed in seated position, which was a common funerary tradition for priests in the Eastern Orthodox Church.  In order to keep the head and body upright, the corpse was impaled with a rod and a servant had the macabre task of holding the head up throughout the two to three day long ritual.

Panorama of Würzburg (left), the River Main, and castle Marienberg (right). Matthäus Merian in Cornelis Danckerts, “Historis”, 1642. Image credit: Wikipedia

The first ceremony took place at St. James’ Abbey, also known as the monastery of the Scots and located between Marienberg castle and Würzburg city center.  The heart, seated corpse, and the servant holding up the head were carted on a bier from Marienberg castle to St. James’ Abbey where the body was displayed for one night.  The next day the seated corpse and heart were carted over the bridge to the Würzburg cathedral, for the second ceremony.  The corpse was displayed at the Würzburg cathedral on top of the baptismal font for one day.  Then the body and heart were taken to the monastery of Neumünster for a third ceremony.  The body was returned to the Würzburg cathedral where the corpse was interred after some city officials (usually judges) cast their *wands* into the grave. The heart was taken about 30 miles (50km) west to be interred at Ebrach Abbey.

The above information comes from Estrella Weisos-Krejci’s article “Heart burial in medieval and early post-medieval Central Europe.”

At one point there were about 30 hearts at Ebrach Abbey but most were destroyed during the German Peasants’ War in the 16th century.  These prince-bishops stopped burying their hearts at Ebrach Abbey around the end of the 16th century and intestinal internment at St. Mary’s at the Marienberg Fortress in the 18th century.

References:

Dietz, A. ‘Eternal Hearts—History of Heart Burial in Europe.’ Retrieved from: http://www.heartsymbol.com/english/index.html?heartburial_11.html

Weiss-Krejci, E. (2010). ‘Heart burial in medieval and early post-medieval central Europe’. In Body Parts and Bodies Whole, pp. 119-134. Katharina Rebay-Salisbury, Marie Louise Stig Sorensen and Jessica Hughes (eds.). Studies in Funerary Archaeology 5. Oxford, UK: Oxbow Books.