Body-Snatchers in Broomall!
By Sam Pickard
It’s October once again, so let us echo ill-fated King Richard and “talk of graves, of worms, and epitaphs…”[1] The grave being discussed was sadly graced with no epitaph and worms were never able to begin their work on the mortal remains consigned to the earth. In December 1859 it was reported that a grave in a Marple churchyard had been disturbed by body-snatchers seeking to provide medical students with a corpse to perfect their knowledge.
Body-Snatchers in a Marple Cemetery
On December 6, 1858, the Pennsylvania Inquirer ran an article entitled “Robbery—A Grave Opened, and the Body Stolen,” which had originally appeared in the Delaware County Republican, a Chester newspaper. The article purported that “a grave containing the body of an Irish person, lately buried in Marple Presbyterian church grave-yard, was dug open and the body carried off.” A laborer named Franklin Lewis noticed a disturbed grave in the cemetery as he was on his way to work. Lewis had noticed discarded clothing around the grave and dirt—probably dried—that indicated that the grave had been disturbed several days before. The article noted that local residents had connected the presumed body-snatching with the theft of a horse and wagon belonging to Marple physician Dr. J. Morris Moore on the night of November 30th. The theory circulating around Marple was that the same people who had stolen the wagon had also robbed the grave and then used the wagon to transport the body. The horse and wagon had subsequently been returned and a $50 reward claimed.[2]
Who would steal a body to begin with and why?
Why would anyone want to steal a body from its grave? The usual motive at the time was medical education. With the field of medicine becoming increasingly formalized and professionalized during the 1700s and 1800s, having more than a basic grasp of human anatomy gleaned from text books became a necessity. Despite the growing desire and need for the educational dissection of human bodies, there was not an ample supply. The idea of willingly donating one’s body to science would have been an alien concept to most people during the time period, and as a result, executed criminals were initially the main source of cadavers, though it was not uncommon for people on the lower rungs of the social ladder—such as Native American prisoners, enslaved people, or occasionally paupers—to face dissection.[3]
As the number of medical schools grew in the first half of the 1800s, the number of bodies obtained from executions proved to be woefully inadequate.[4] Medical professors and their students turned to digging up freshly buried bodies under the cover of night, but soon subcontracted this work out to people termed “body-snatchers” or, more politely, “resurrectionists.” Medical schools in cities like Philadelphia set up a fair division of bodies and often paid bribes to cemetery employees and city officials to obtain access to cemeteries without fear of prosecution. While city cemeteries were often targeted early on, body-snatchers eventually expanded their range into outlying counties. No matter the location, November through February remained their prime season because the cold slowed decay.[5]
When choosing a grave to rob, the team of body-snatchers would conduct daytime reconnaissance and then return at night. Often working in a team of three, two would be left at the grave with a third circling the wagon to avoid drawing attention. Typically, a tarp would be laid next to the grave to keep the surrounding grass free of dirt. A small hole would be dug near the head of the grave, the coffin broken open, and the body dragged out by a rope around its chin. Once on the surface, the body would be stripped of its clothes, which would be tossed back in the coffin and the hole carefully filled.[6] Once transported to Philadelphia, the body could be sold to a medical school, with the article noting that in December 1858 a cadaver “generally commands from ten to twelve dollars.”[7]
What more do we know about the Marple body-snatching?
So, whose body was stolen? What more do we know about this incident? Beyond the article in the Pennsylvania Inquirer, there isn’t much. Even the local newspapers from early December 1858—the Chester Delaware County Republican (which the initial article came from) and the Media Delaware County American have not survived. The Marple Presbyterian Church was able to find the records for two burials from 1858, though both occurred too long before the snatching.[8] Even the name of the man who discovered the crime—Franklin Lewis—may be wrong. No one by that name lived in Marple at the time of the 1860 census just a year and a half after the incident.
This lack of information is not uncommon, especially in a relatively rural area of during the mid-19th century, and this can be challenging for uncovering a full account of an incident. Despite this, with the records we have, we can build out a reasonable reconstruction of what happened.
The body was simply described as being that of “an Irish person.” Assuming that this detail is correct, this may have been a relative newcomer to Marple. While they may have been Presbyterian or another Protestant denomination, my hunch is that it is unlikely that they were an actual member of the Marple Presbyterian congregation due to the lack of notation about their passing and burial. I may be wrong about that, however. In 1860 there were 76 individuals born in Ireland living in Marple Township. While some were farmers and owned decent tracts of land, many more were farm laborers or domestic servants. There was even a group of older handloom weavers employed by William Wiley, himself an Irish immigrant. It’s likely that the unfortunate individual came from this class.[9]
While there is no Franklin Lewis on the 1860 census, there is a Francis Lewis, a 28-year-old day laborer from Virginia who appears to have lived on the west side of what is now South Sproul Road.[10] Additionally, across from Marple Presbyterian and its graveyard still stands the stone house in which Dr. J. Morris Moore lived.[11]
What May Have Happened…
With all of this information, we can begin to piece together what may have happened. [Bear in mind, this is simply a speculative reconstruction from the information we have.] An Irish immigrant, perhaps a laborer or a domestic servant who had come to Marple without family for work died. This person was then interred in Marple Presbyterian’s graveyard—perhaps their employer was a member of the congregation.
A group of body-snatchers may have been tipped off to this individual’s passing and burial—the body of a working-class newcomer, without nearby family, buried in a country churchyard, would have been a tempting target. Striking under the cover of darkness on Tuesday, November 30, 1859, the grave would have been quietly opened, the coffin broken open, and the body extricated from the grave. Quickly removing any clothing the individual had been buried in to hamper identification, they began to make their escape. The fact that clothing was left on the surface along with noticeable amounts of disturbed soil hints that the grave robbers may have been inexperienced or rushed.
Perhaps the body was heavier than expected or taking the horse and wagon was part of the plan all along, but at this point, one or more of the snatchers quietly crossed the road from the cemetery to Dr. Moore’s property and made off with the horse and wagon. The stolen human remains were loaded into the rear of the wagon and the party quickly set off for Philadelphia, where they would sell the body to a medical school.
While Dr. Moore quickly realized that his horse and wagon had been taken, and offered a $50 reward for their return, apparently no one noticed that a grave in the cemetery across the road had been disturbed until later in the week, when Francis (“Frank”?) Lewis made his discovery while on his way to work.
Sadly, the with the absence of further facts, the narrative of this incident in Marple history comes to an unsatisfying conclusion. It is unlikely that the identity of the person ripped from their resting place and denied a decent burial will ever be known, but perhaps this story can serve as a sort of epitaph for them.
This post was originally published on October 28, 2021 as “Grave Robbing in Marple!”
[1] William Shakespeare, The Life and Death of King Richard the Second, Act 3, Scene 2.
[2] “Robbery—A Grave Opened, and the Body Stolen,” Pennsylvania Inquirer (Philadelphia), 6 December 1858, 1.
[3] Michael Sappol, A Traffic of Dead Bodies: Anatomy and Embodied Social Identity in Nineteenth-Century America (Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 2002), 100-102.
[4] Sappol, A Traffic of Dead Bodies, 110.
[5] Megan J. Highet, “Body Snatching & Grave Robbing: Bodies for Science,”
History and Anthropology 16, no. 4 (December 2005), 419, DOI: 10.1080/02757200500390981419.
[6] Highet, “Body Snatching & Grave Robbing,” 419-420.
[7] “Robbery—A Grave Opened, and the Body Stolen,” Pennsylvania Inquirer (Philadelphia), 6 December 1858, 1.
[8] Rev. Karen Nelson, emails to author, 1-4 August 2021.
[9] 1860 U.S. Census, Schedule 1.—Free Inhabitants, Pennsylvania, Delaware County, Marple Township.
[10] 1860 U.S. Census, Schedule 1.—Free Inhabitants, Pennsylvania, Delaware Co., Marple Twp., page 109, line 1; D. J. Lake and S. N. Beers, Map of the Vicinity of Philadelphia (Philadelphia: John E. Gillette, C. K. Stone, 1860).
[11] 1860 U.S. Census, Schedule 1.—Free Inhabitants, Pennsylvania, Delaware Co., Marple Twp., page 112, line 20; Lake and Beers, Map of the Vicinity of Philadelphia.