The Body Snatchers

The Body Snatchers sound like they should be a grisly tale of ghosts or vampires. However, the body snatchers were gangs of people who used to dig up the recently deceased in the dead of night to snatch the corpse and to sell it. But why were people involved in this gruesome activity? During the 19th century the only bodies that could be used for medical research were those of criminals who were executed at the gallows for their crimes. This was in part due to religion, Christianity at the time believed that the dead were only admitted to heaven if the body was complete and intact. Obviously criminals would go to hell anyway, so there was no harm in cutting up their corpses, in fact it added to the sense of punishment. Medical teachers would dissect the bodies in demonstrations in front of medical students as well as ghoulish members of the publish who probably had a morbid sense of curiosity to see the innards of some of the most notorious criminals of the time. Remember that in those days there were not refrigerators, so bodies would start to decay and smell very quickly. During the summer months the demonstrations would have been a very pungent experience. In the 1700s many people were executed sometimes for the most trivial of crimes, this meant a steady supply of fresh corpses. But by the 19th century around 55 people were hanged each year, but the growing number of medical schools needed around 500 corpses a year. The grisly body snatching trade made up for the shortfall. The body snatchers supplied medical student and surgeons with stolen bodies to study, not only to train the next generation of doctors and surgeons, but also for medical advancement. Indeed the era saw the development of a small pox vaccine, advances in obstetrics, dental surgery and the treatment and detection of venereal disease. With executions on the decline and families guarding the graves of their loved ones as body snatching came to the public's attention, some body snatchers turned to murder. The medical professions would pay a premium price for corpses as fresh as a recently murdered one. A good fresh body would fetch more then the average yearly salary. The body snatching shenanigans declined in 1832 with the Anatomy Act, which freed up more bodies for medical research and expelled the need for the ghoulish black trade in corpses. However, it is thought that many of the coffins buried in London graveyards at the time are actually empty from where the grave was struck by the body snatchers.

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