Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1878-08-08
Cincinnati Enquirer.

Last Friday night coffin containing the
dead body of q coiored man was driven to
the Ohio Medical College, taken from the
wagon and carried up the stairs, with little,
if any, effort at concealment. Arriving i'll
the "dead-roomn the body was taken
from the coffin, the large artery in the side
of the neck cut, the blood removed and the
arteries filed with a preservative fluid, after
which the body, Invested of it's clothing was
tumbled, with no further ceremony, into the
''pickling- tub along with a couple of dozen
others which had been quietly accommodating
during the past month. There was peculiar
lack of the secrecy which accompanies most
of the operations of this sort by which dead
bodies are transferred to the dead-room of
the college, and business-like air about the
whole transaction which indicated that
it was somewhat different from
and body-snatching. little inquiry
one-that in fact, the body was that of one
of the most notorious body-snatchers of the
city, and that the lack of secrecy in the mat
ter was from the fact that it was merely the
carrying out of plain business transaction,
that the dead man had in his life sold his
/ body to the college for dissection after DEATH
receiving the payment and that in accord
ance with this agreement his body was thus
being removed to the dissecting room for
that purpose. Charley Keaton, the dead
man, was in his life one of the most active
body-snatchers in this city. and from his
hands have hundreds of "stiffs''-bodies
from many of the burying grounds in the
city and vicinity, somebody's loved ones to
whose memory tears have fallen and marble
shafts aspired Instrumentation sent down
through the terrible 'schute,'' and upward
through the death shaft to the dissecting
room. Keaton was a colored man of about
forty, and had been for more than ten years
in the business of body snatching, making
good money at it, and coming to
rather enjoy it than otherwise.
To him there was nothing more
!, in the handling of stiffs than in so many
, bolts OF cloth or sacks of grain, and no more
in dissection than in the business of the
butcher OF meat vender. He began his work
with sold Cunny,'' the noted resurrection
list. and followed it through all seasons and
. all weather, until only a few weeks before
his death, II it he encountered all sorts of
weather and exposures, and so contracted
,, colds and cough which finally led to bleed
my VI Guo lungs, dIu So Ills lllo among Ult
dead ended in death, whose presence was as
familiar to him as the days of his years OF
manhood. To him the medical college,
the chute, the dead-room, the picking vault
and even dissection had no horrors; faml
iarity with these had deprived him of that
feeling Of repugnance SO common to man
kind, and especially to his race, and as
: result he had expressed a Willingness in lift,
: that his remains after death should be sub
9 mitted to the dissecting knife Sin the inter
4 est of SCIENCE as he said. TO
9 he considered his business, ant
3 that he supplied, inseparably in
: terwoven with the science of anatomy ant
e medicine, and as result he had sold-de
: liberately sold during his lifetime his bod,
to the college professors. receiving the usua
q price, $50 cash in hand, and giving receip
! and statement that his body should become
t the property of the college after dissection
i Indeed, he seemed rather to prefer that hi
skeleton should stand beside that of ole
. "Cunny'' in the museum of the college thar
: to mold to nothingness in the dark
q damp earth, and i'll life he frequently con
!. templated Cunny's skeleton as it stands
0 spade in hand, in the college, evidently re
: fecting that he would some day stand be
side it, and keep the sole man. compan
, through the many years that the colleg
, ; shall stand, instead of being consigned t.
!. the changes and final nothingness of tn
Potter's field grave.
So when old Charley died on Friday last
. the college authorities were notified, hi
: wife, who had accompanied him on many @
! his nightly expeditions, and is herself a
. expert anatomist, prepared the body fo
:, dissection, and after the brief funeral SCI
. . vices it was removed from the house o
: Barr street. where he lived and whence b
had sailed forth for many nightly excul
IL sions in the homes of the dead, and take
. directly to- the college, where it was prepa,
i ed and put in pickle. 1t is pronounced ..es
;. celent material, . being well developed an
. obtained without serious delay after death.
8 Whether this is strictly professional, q
: viewed from a body -snatcher's standpoint
= = seems extremely doubtful. A system Whic
!. takes the body with the consent Of all partie
70 concerned direct from the death bed to th
> dissecting-room and upon an agreed upo
u and already paid price, seems to be one whic
must undermine the business of the profes
sion, and therefore should be frowned dow
nv evarv na4riotin body cna tcbar