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The first cut -

The first recorded anatomization of a cadaver took place in 1319 in Bologna, Italy. However, prevailing religious views on the desecration of corpses often meant that such work was performed in secrecy.

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Origins of body snatching -

Anatomical research on human cadavers became commonplace in the 14th century after the Christian Church relaxed its views on the desecration of the human body. The practice was legalized in England in 1540 when Henry VIII gave patronage to the Company of Barber-Surgeons, allowing them access to four executed felons each year.

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Anatomy lectures in medical schools -

Lectures presented by physicians in medical schools using dead bodies widened the knowledge of human anatomy. But dissections, the main way doctors aimed to gain understanding, required fresh corpses, and supply simply wasn't meeting demand.

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John Hunter (1728–1793) -

John Hunter was one of the most distinguished scientists and surgeons of his day. But even this respected physician resorted to underhand methods in order to further his reputation. Hunter ran his own private museum and had offered to pay Charles Byrne, a 2.31-m (7ft 7 in) Irishman in ill health, for his corpse. Byrne resisted, knowing that Hunter wanted his body for dissection. However after his death, Hunter illegally snatched the coffin containing Byrne's body and eventually had his skeleton put on display. It's still exhibited today, at the Hunterian Museum at the Royal College of Surgeons. Hunter is pictured in caricature, fleeing watchmen on guard duty in a cemetery.

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"Death and dissection" -

In fact, the only legal supply of corpses for anatomical purposes in the United Kingdom at the time were those condemned to "death and dissection" by the courts.

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The rise of the resurrectionists -

However, throughout the 18th century competition between institutions to present the next medical breakthrough saw many unscrupulous anatomists employ "resurrectionists," men who would exhume the bodies of the recently dead in exchange for a discreet cash payment. Thus was born the macabre practice of body snatching. Pictured are resurrectionists raiding a cemetery to provide a cadaver for dissection.

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Exploiting a loophole -

While the practice of disinterment was despised by the general public, bodies were not legally anybody's property. It was a loophole fully exploited by the greedy and unethical resurrectionists.

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In the service of the undead -

The popular press presented resurrectionists as immoral beings in the employ of the undead. In this sketch, two body snatchers are at work watched by a skeleton from the underworld.

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Supply and demand -

But even the rise of the resurrectionists and their shameless art couldn't satisfy the needs of burgeoning hospitals and teaching centers, especially in big cities, a fact not lost on two shady characters: William Burke and William Hare. 

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William Burke and William Hare -

Burke and Hare met each other in Edinburgh, Scotland. Realizing that there was a healthy profit to be made in dead bodies—but preferring not to pilfer gravesites—the pair embarked on one of the most notorious killing sprees of early 19th-century Great Britain.

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Dr. Robert Knox (1791–1862) -

The murderous duo were responsible for 16 homicides over a period of 10 months or so, committed in 1823. They sold the corpses to Scottish anatomist Dr. Robert Knox for dissection at his anatomy lectures.

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The body count continues -

Burke would later hang for his crimes while Hare, who'd turned king's evidence (i.e. gave evidence for the crown), escaped the noose. Knox meanwhile faced no charges because Burke's statement to police effectively exonerated the surgeon. But his reputation thereafter was forever tarnished. Illustrated is the skeleton of James Wilson, one of the victims of Burke and Hare. Their activities led to the passing of the Anatomy Act 1832, but not before another case of body snatching made national headlines.

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The London Burkers -

In 1831 a group of body snatchers known as the "London Burkers" came to prominence. The gang modeled their modus operandi on the notorious Burke and Hare killings, murdering victims to sell to anatomists. The Burkers⁠—John Bishop, Thomas Williams, James May, and Michael Shields⁠—operated out of Bethnal Green in London's East End. After their apprehension in 1831, the gang admitted to stealing between 500 and 1,000 bodies over a 12-year period. They were caught after May and Bishop delivered a suspiciously fresh corpse of a younger boy. He had in fact been murdered, a crime for which the two men were later hanged. The remaining gang members were, incredibly, cleared of any wrongdoing. Pictured left to right is Bishop, Williams, and May.

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Criminal act -

'The Reward of Cruelty' (1751) by English artist William Hogarth depicts a criminal dissected by surgeons, as was common practice before the Anatomy Act 1832.

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Anatomy Act 1832 -

The Anatomy Act of 1832 was passed in the wake of the Burke and Hare case and marked a key stage in the history of anatomy and human dissection. It effectively gave free license to doctors, teachers of anatomy, and bona fide medical students to dissect donated bodies in the hope that it would deter the illegal trade in corpses.

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Graveyard watch house -

As an added precaution against would-be body snatchers, watch houses were built on roadside cemeteries. These simple structures housed two or three men employed to watch over the recently buried. This example was photographed in Rotherhithe, south-east London, and dates back to 1821.

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Guarding the dead -

This watch house guards the entrance to a cemetery in Lower Thames Street in the City of London.

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Looking after the recently buried -

Also located in the City, in the Smithfield district, is this watch house on Giltspur Street.

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Mortsafe -

Another means of safeguarding the dead was by erecting a mortsafe over a plot. Designed to protect graves from disturbance, the mortsafe was a cage crafted out of heavy iron that began appearing in graveyards in 1816. This example has been preserved in Greyfriars Cemetery in Edinburgh.

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Body snatching in the US -

Body snatching as a phenomenon developed at a slower pace in the United States mainly because medical research and education lagged behind that found in Great Britain and Europe. But as interest in anatomical dissection grew, so did the emergence of the resurrectionists.

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Thomas Paine (1737–1809) -

The body of Revolutionary War pamphleteer Thomas Paine, the author of 'Common Sense,' which advocated independence from Great Britain to people in the Thirteen Colonies, wasn't so much as snatched as exhumed in 1819 by fellow pamphleteer and Englishman William Cobbett, so that he could rebury Paine's body on English soil in a lavish tomb. The idea never came to pass and the remains of Paine were still among Cobbett's effects when he died over 15 years later, and then lost for good.

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John Scott Harrison (1804–1878) -

A later cause célèbre was the snatching in 1878 of the body of Ohio congressman John Scott Harrison, son of William Henry Harrison, the ninth president of the United States. One of Harrison's sons eventually recovered the body hidden in a chute at Ohio Medical College and had it reinterred.

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Alexander Turney Stewart (1803–1876) -

The body of Scots-Irish dry-goods tycoon Alexander Turney Stewart was stolen from its tomb on the morning of November 7, 1878. The thieves demanded a US$20,000 ransom, or nearly half a million dollars in today's currency. The ransom was paid and the remains were returned, although never verified as his.

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'Night Doctors' -

For well over a century after the end of the Civil War, so-called night doctors drifted through cities and African-American folklore seeking out victims to unearth and sell to medical schools throughout the South. This unwholesome practice was partly the reason why so many African Americans fled the region in the early to mid 20th century and headed North, a mass exodus now known as The Great Migration.

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Charlie Chaplin (1889–1977) -

Contemporary examples of modern-day body snatching include the bizarre case of Charlie Chaplin, whose coffin was dug up and stolen on March 1, 1978 by Roman Wardas and Gantcho Ganev. A ransom was demanded, but the comedian's corpse was discovered before any money was paid and reinterred in Corsier cemetery in a reinforced concrete vault.

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Attempt on Elvis Presley's body -

On August 29, 1977, an attempt appeared to be made by three men to steal the body of Elvis Presley who had been interred in a mausoleum in Forest Hills Cemetery, Memphis. The singer's remains now lie within the guarded grounds of Graceland, his home for many years.

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Tassos Papadopoulos (1934–2008) -

Three men snatched the body of Tassos Papadopoulos, the former president of the Republic of Cyprus, on the first anniversary of his death in 1978. One of the accomplices had demanded a ransom to return the body but another, bizarrely, tried to use the corpse as a bargaining chip to secure the release of a friend imprisoned for murder. The cadaver was eventually returned. 

Sources: (The Guardian) (Historic UK) (The East End) (Britannica) (The Paris Review) (Showbiz Cheat Sheet)

See also: Spectacular gravesites of famous people

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