History – Body Snatching! on the 17Th May 1978 the Body of Famous Actor

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History – Body Snatching! On the 17th May 1978 the body of famous actor Charlie Chaplin was found. The strange thing about this is that Charlie had died on Christmas day 1977 and he was buried in a cemetery near the family home. However, his body, still in the coffin, was stolen from his grave! It took 11 weeks to find the stolen body. The people who stole Charlie’s body were hoping to get a large amount of money to return it. This certainly wasn’t the first time people had stolen human bodies. Video clip - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h7L8CM03lMo Before 1832 it was illegal for anyone to dissect human bodies (apart from some criminals). Who do you think would want to dissect a human body? Why would they want to? Why do you think they were not allowed to? In 1832 a new law was introduced that allowed doctors, medical students and teachers of anatomy to dissect bodies that were donated to them. Before this the only way anyone could dissect a body was if a criminal was executed and the court said they could have the body. This meant that very few bodies were available for doctors to study. Doctors said it was important to do this so they could learn how the human body worked. So, some doctors would pay for bodies that came from other places! People started to steal dead bodies from hospitals, morgues and even graveyards. But they had to be fresh! Grave with metal bars to stop body snatchers. A watchtower in a cemetery to catch body snatchers. What could happen when doctors are offering money for fresh, dead bodies? Well, what could go wrong did go wrong. Enter two criminals called William Burke and William Hare who were living in Edinburgh, Scotland. An elderly man, who owed William Hare £4, died. To get his money back, the two men stole his body and sold it to a Professor who taught anatomy. He paid them just over £7. The two men thought this would be an easy way to get money. It is thought that Hare and Burke killed at least 16 people who they then sold as fresh bodies. They were eventually court when someone discovered one of their victims under a bed. William Hare turned on his partner in crime and blamed him for the murders. The police accepted this and Hare was jailed while Burke was sentenced to death. Ironically, as he was a convicted killer, Burke’s body was given to a medical school for dissection! His skeleton is still on show in Surgeon’s Hall in Edinburgh. The scandal of the murders helped to bring in the new law that allowed dissection of donated bodies. Video clip - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GyKoKVR6ilg .

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