Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1884-08-21


tenant Kisiingbury Establishes the Fact
of the Terrible Straits to Which the Greedy
Party were Resiuced-Tlle Living Owe
Their Lives to the Dead.
ROCHESTER,, N. T., August Is.
The disintermento of Lieutenant Kis ing
bury's body, of Arctic fame, from its
grave in Mount Hope Cemetery was
made here yesterday with the consent
Klslingbury, brothers of the deceased.
The disclosures resulting from subse-
autopsy are of the most revoltfng char
acter. Lieutenant Kislingbury's reIa-
tions had become filed with horrible
doubts on reading the sensational stories
recently published regarding cannibal-
ism among the starving members of the
Greedy expedition, and they .dete mined
to learn the truth by exhuming the re.
mains and having them examined by COM
petent physicians. Doctors Charles
Buckley and f. A. Vaudeville yesterday
afternoon made pubic their sworn state
ment as to the post mortem examination,
which was witnessed by eight persons.
The massive iron casket was first re-
moved as unearthed to the cemetery
chapel, where the fifty-two iron bolts
which secured the cover were IN
screwed. An unusual circumstance was
the absence of foul gas In the coffin,
proving that no decomposition had set
in. The mass of snowy cotton waste
was then removed from the lower por-
ton of the dead mans body. The right
limb was missing from its socket, and
was found to be fastened under the
left one. When the enshrouded.
form had been lifted from its
t.r ~ hi
seen where the body had rested, but they
at burials. The body was packed in cot
ton batting and wrapped in cotton cloth
tied with strings. Within this covering
was another, consisting of single WOOL
en- blanket No wounds were visible on
The head, although the eyes were sunken
and wasted. The hair was thick and
from five to six inches long, the face be-
ing covered with u heavy reddish beard
and mustache. The skin and muscles of
the face and neck were intact,
but from the upper portion of the
sternum and clavicle to the fifth rib the
skin and muscles had been removed on
both sides. The skin and flesh were en-.
TREY removed from both thighs and legs
the skin upon the knee and
ankle points. Both feet were intact, and
no vestige of integument or flesh upon
e Their arm, the interosseus membrane OF
the right forearm alone remaining. Flesh
and muscles on both hands We're found
well preserved. The examination of the
posterior portion of the body
showed that the skin and muscles Of
the Dack had been cut CO mpletely
away down to the bones with the excep.
ton of few pieces of skin. The pelvic
bones were entirely denuded, and al the
were attached TO the body
by ligaments only. ALI the organs of the
abdominal and thoracic cavity were pres
emit, and there were no signs Of recent
in the stomach or bowels.
hardened Jumps of fecal matter dis
.eneed the large intestines, composed of
hair moss and woody fibre.
1t is the opinion of Doctors Buckley
md Vaudeville that the flesh had
been cut away with a sharp fnstru-
nent, and that remaining Of the feet,
lands and face showed no signs of de-
.ay. The remains were fully identified
IS those of Lieutenant Kislingbury.