The Ketchum keystone. [volume] (Ketchum, Idaho) 1885-1899, 1889-03-30
7, IDAHO, SATURDAY, MARCH 80, 1889.
LIZ cARoH, THE SPY.

LIZ CARON, THE SPY.
| No man in the country just nov
is attracting more attention than Lt
Caron, the Irish informer, alleged
war spy, would-be betrayer of Pow
derly, ETC., and the papers almost
daily contain some reference to him
The latest yesterday was that Le
Caron was indentical with DR.. Nor.
ton, the famous body snatcher who
operated at Toledo dozen years
ago. The News yesterday came
across a physician who knew con
siderable about Morton. He said
{" If LIE Caron is the same man as
the DR.. Morton they now claim he
is, he used to be in the body snatch.
ing business to large extent in
Ohio. The papers state that he was
arrested and jailed at Toledo. The
authorities supposing he had small.
pox, moved him from the Jail to
the pest house and from there he
escaped. He painted his face, neck
and chest with croton oil, the bis
ters from which are hard to tell
from smallpox pustules. DR.. Heyl,
who served a year in our Jail for
body snatching, and Morton were
in the business together for while.
Heyl was city physician of Colum-
bus and used to give Morton pauper
tickets to travel to the neighboring
towns. He worked graveyards at
Delaware, London and Circleville.
One day Morton got on train at
Columbus, wearing conspicuously
a Masonic pin. When he handed
the conductor his pauper ticket the
latter, who was Mason, gave Nor
ton the choice of taking off the pin
or paying his fare, and he paid
the cash. Morton's greatest body
snatching job in the West was steal
ing the body of John Scott Harri-
son, father of President Harrison.
He sold the body to the Medical
College of Ohio. The body was
buried near that of w. III. Harrison,
the father, at South Bend. At this
time it was discovered that a grave
near by had been robbed and Mr..
John Harrison, a brother of the
President, visited Cincinnati, and
with the chief of police, was search
ing different medical colleges. AT
the Ohio medical college they found
a body hanging by the neck in a
chute. On pulling it up John Har-
rison was called upon to see if it
was the missing one. He looked at
the face, said "It's father" and
tainted. While helping friends to
find a missing body, he had. to his
surprise and horror, found his own
fathers. General Harrison was no.
titled at once and went to Cincin-
nati. Warrants were sworn out for
the college janitor and for part of
the faculty, but they all had joined
the know-nothing society. So far
as they knew the body had walked
in and hung itself in the chute.
Well, that was Morton's work, and
a member of the faculty told me
that Morton was the ringleader in
the stealing of A. I. Stewards body.
Mr.. Harrison's body was stolen in
the spring of 1S78-in May, think.
I was demonstrator Of anatomy at
the time in a medical college in
Ohio, and knew something of the
body snatching business"
did you know Heyl?"
"Yes, we were at the medical col
lege together. No young man had
more to make him happy or to give
him a good start in the world.
There is no better family in this
country than the one to which he
belonged. Morton generally hung
out a sign with some name on it
and let on to be a doctor. While in
Columbus he had two women with
him. One he claimed to be his wife
and one her, or his, sister. He has
served time for body snatching
either at Baltimore or Washington.
All this happened ten or twelve
years ago, and many things are for
gotten, as my attention has not
been called to the matter since.
Morton would take a bottle of whis-
ky, after being well filled up, and
start for a graveyard and operate
alone. He needed whisky for his
work and always had it. Stealing
body is lonesome job at the best,
but without help a difficult one.
Morton was wiry, but not a large
man. While / was demonstrator |
received offers for furnishing ina
terial' from all over the country,
bat during my three years in that
Office not body came into the col
lege that had friends to: mourn for it.
Friendless paupers and inmates OF
public institutions we're considered
legitimate material. and we gener-
ally get them, too. The inside of this
business is not pleasing but ghastly
| Vu-1~,,sllx No,ro