Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-03-15
MRS. GRINDERS BODY
The POisoner's Remains Were Sue.
csssfully Embalmed.
As PERFECT TODAY AS IN LIFE.
The Burial Place II Unknown at Present
Except to Two Persons.
A CASE OF EMOTIONAL INSANITY

Notwithstanding the solicituds that many
people entertain in respect to the disposition
Of their remains after mortality has put on
immortality. it would astonish many people
to know that a considerable number of the
bodies of their acquaintance of former days
are preserved in the city in state that
makes them appear almost as inviting as
when in the living flesh.
Among them was the body of Martha
Grinder, the notorious poisoner who horri-
fed Pittsburg by her criminal mania in the
time of the Civil War. For many years
after she was hanged her body was
in the possession OF W. 81. Devore,
the undertaken, who at that time did un-
dertaking for the county. After keeping
the body in such perfect state that any ac-
quaiDtance would recognize it at sight until
some time in the '7Os, Mr.. Devore became
so exasperated that he determined to get rid
Of the remainder Of Martha. She had made
him promise when he was her costumer that
her body should not be buried as that Of Q
pauper, nor at night, and also that the
doctors should not have it. 30 one day he
and Frank Calhoun put 1t into a coffin and
sent 1t to some cemetery, and even the man
who dug the grave and put the body into the
ground knows nothing of the matter.
The funeral was almost as eI-
elusive as that of Moses, as
but two people know where the remains Of
the modern Borgia lie. Mr.. Devore was
provoked to thus get rid of the body on ac-
count of the pestering of some people who
did not like him and who ANNOYED him al
most necessarily by sending the morbidly
curious to his establishment to ask for q
sight of the body.
The spiteful and Morbidly Curious
Some Of the old-tims reporters 'had 1t in
for him" also because they could not learn
of the disposition. and there were some
doctors who badgered him. Among the
importunate was . minister of the gospel,
and one day Mr. Devors gratifed
the preachers curiosity, after making
him swear on the Bible not to divuIge.
Mr. Devore's experience proved that it is
not the ignorant alone who are morbidly
curious, but persons of all grades OF in
tellect, for beyond q testimonial to the eff
cheney of the modern embalming art, there
was nothing more remarkable about the
body than there would have been In .
plaster cast we'll executed.
The features, save that they were not
lighted by the CLEAN of intelligence given
by the eyes, were as perfect ten years after
the hanging as they were the day previous.
A finger or toe might be broken of, but
it could not be hurt and the sharpest
knife would scarce make a scratch on the
body. There is none of the responsiveness
about properly embalmed body of to-day
that accompanies the Egyptian mummy,
and were the embalmed body of the present
placed in a tomb in the dry climate of
Egypt, there is no reason to doubt that the
could be preserved intact until
GabriePs horn blows. Such bodies are
to body snatchers, except to those
who work for ransom, as the dissecting
knife would have no impression on them.
Case Of Emotional Insanity.
Mrs. Grinder was hanged before tho day
hat the lawyers had perfected their theory
VI emotional insanity, for she was emotion
Sly insane if ever anyone was, as she |
poisoned without any dlscoverable motive.
The late John Stewart was Sheriff at the |
lime, and he deputed Mr.. Deyore to make |
pleasant" funeral arrangements with Mrs. |
Grinder, as she was somewhat cranky on the |
ubiect, but always showed a willingness to
7ieId to Mr.. Devore's suggestions when the |
ane coming from others were spurned, and |
cious cause OF her being hanged.
When Miss Buchanan, the first known Of
Mrs. Grinders victims, was being laid out
or burial in an outfit she has purchased
or her wedding the ladies had trouble in
itting silk dress on the body and they
sked Mr.. Devore to assist. It seems that
ne of them was suspicious and asked Mr..
)evore what he thought was the cause Of
Hiss Buchanan's death. He replied that
he body looked to him as though it indi-
ated arsenical poisoning. Afterward,
then Mrs Grinder was arrested, he remem-
cred that the women looked suggestively at
ach other and one made remark that indi-
ated that she thought there had been Q
rime committed, but he had paid no atten-
ion to it at the time. Mrs. Grinder then
wed in a court off Hand, now Ninth street.
Some time later Mrs. Grinder sheltered
lex woman and her baby for some months.
he woman boarded with Mrs. Grinder and
ne latter seemed to be very fond OF her
uest. One day the baby died suddenly
nd was buried by Mr.. Devore. The
other requested him to bring buggy and
Ike her to the cemetery so that she could
ark the place of the child's grave. They
ot into the buggy and took the little coffin
with them. Just as they started Mrs.
rinder
Offered Thorn q Drink Of Water.
The Agmaa drank, but AE, DsT0rs re-