Grave Robbing Makes a Comeback
by Ian Mosley
Two hundred years ago, gangs of ghouls called “Resurrection Men” crept through the foggy night in Britain and in America, stealthily unearthing the coffins of the newly buried dead and stealing their bodies for sale to medical schools and doctors who needed specimens for medical experimentation. Mary Shelley’s novel “Frankenstein” was written at about the time when this practice became prevalent. The Frankenstein story had its “Igor” doing this.
Now, the Resurrection Men are back. According to a St. Louis Today article “Grave robbing has become an above-ground affair. Gone are the days when enterprising thieves would dig up an old grave and pillage for gold teeth and rings. Today, it’s mostly the bronze markers and flower vases that draw their attention. Rising scrap metal prices, coupled with the lagging economy, have triggered a string of cemetery thefts both locally and across the nation.”
The ghouls also target brass and copper fittings on caskets and funeral laying-out clothing, which is usually the deceased man’s best suit, although these being lazy Generation X thieves, they get these things by breaking into funeral homes at night, and not by good old-fashioned digging by the light of the moon. (more…)