body snatching
Let me take you through the dark streets of Georgian Britain — to quiet country graveyards, fresh corpses, and a world where students paid for their studies in cadavers.
Where First?
New to body snatching? You’re in for a treat. Start here for the background — it gets grim fast.
Welcome to the darker side of medical history.
Why Did Anatomists Hire Body Snatchers?
With demand for cadavers so high, why not dig one up yourself? Here’s why that wasn’t such a good idea.
What Did Body Snatchers Actually Do?
Think it’s just about digging up a corpse? Think again. A whole web of intrigue lays behind this macabre art.
Body Snatching Medical Students of Scotland
Want to be top of the class or cover your tuition fees? You’d need to pay in corpses.
Dissecting Season
Didn’t know that was a thing? It was. Dissect in winter — or face the stench and rot of summer. But when did it start, and what did it mean for the body snatchers?
protecting the dead ~ The World of the Mortsafe
Why Are There Cages Over Graves?
Some say it’s to keep the vampires in – they couldn’t be further from the truth.
Protecting Scotland’s Dead
Dive into the history of the mortsafe – an impenetrable iron cage. Scotland’s answer to the ‘bloody body snatcher‘.
Greyfriars Kirkyard
Edinburgh’s ‘City of the Dead’ ~ the infamous Greyfriars Kirkyard home of the double-bedder mortsafe.
#1 Body Snatching Prevention
Got money and a bit of clout? Or just scared stiff of the dissecting table? Time to get yourself a caged lair.
Mortstones: The The First Line of Defence
A simple way to stop body snatchers— or so people thought. So why didn’t it work?
Body Snatching Prevention For the Poor
How do you protect your loved ones from the body snatchers when you can’t afford to buy a mortsafe?
The Afterlife of Mortsafes
All good things must come to an end and after 1832, the fear of bodysnatching began ever so slowly to decline.
But what happened to all the mortsafes so hastily put together to protect the dead? This is their story…
Think Body Snatching has ended? Think Again
Modern Body Snatching Cases
Think bodysnatching ended in 1832? Not even close. From cannibalism to ransom, here are 8 modern cases that might make you want your own mortsafe.
Famous People Stolen
When you’re reach and famous, seems like everyone wants a piece of you. From stolen hearts to presidential body parts, here’s what fame gets you.
my recommended Body Snatching Reads
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The World Of The Body Snatcher
Body Snatching 101 ~ Aka ‘The Handbook’
There was no great skill needed to be a body snatcher – although it certainly helped if you knew what you were doing.
This is your guide to Georgian body snatching.
Rules of Body Snatching
You can’t just go in ‘willy-nilly’ and start digging! There’s certain things you need to know first…
#5 Body Snatching punishments
Got caught? Here’s what you can expect if you were caught with a cadaver or two in Georgian Britain.
Stealing A Cadaver
A closer look at the body snatching trade – from chosing a cadaver to digging it out, just how did they do it?
bizarre hiding places for corpses
Been caught with contraband? Discover a few strange places body snatchers hid a corpse before making a run for it.
What Did Body Snatchers Actually Do?
Think it was just about digging up a cadaver? Think again. A whole web of intrigue lay behind this macabre art.
Pitfalls of Transporting Cadavers
Got bodies to move? It didn’t always go smoothly, not matter how you disguised the goods.
Georgian Dentures
Sell the corpse to the anatomist, the teeth to the dentist — one side hustle from body snatching was selling teeth for dentures. But could you have worn them?
Ready For A Road Trip?
Body Snatching in The Highlands
A perfect location targeted by body snatchers eager to get a corpse for the dissecting table, at whatever cost.
Coastal Graveyards with a darker past
No graveyard was safe when it came to body snatching — discover these graveyards with macabre links to the trade.
Darker Side of the Scottish borders
Hidden within some of the smaller parishes of the Scottish Borders, lies a dark secret most people have no idea exists.
Body Snatching on the a75
Discover graveyards visited by the resurrection men along the A75 — Scotland’s most haunted road.
Take yourself off the beaten track
Staying in Edinburgh? Escape the tartan and the tourists traps for a while and discover body snatching sites hidden in the depths of Scotland.
london body snatchers
life of a london body snatcher
Follow the pages from a body snatcher’s diary and discover the life of a London body snatcher.
famous london body snatchers
Meet the men who kept the London anatomy schools supplied with cadavers during the dissecting season.
the infamous joesph Naples
Gang member who specialised in selling extremities — this is the tale of just one legendary London snatcher.
Picking Oakum in a victorian prison
From picking oakum to scaling the prison walls to escape — this is one body snatchers account of being locked up .
Tales from the archives
an edinburgh Body Snatcher
Dr Knox didn’t just get dead bodies from Burke & Hare… meet Andrew Merrylees, a TRUE Edinburgh bodysnatcher!
John McIntire ~ A Miraculous Circumstance
When Prinny Goes Grave Robbing
Looking for murderers Burke & hare?
They weren’t body snatchers so you won’t find them here, try these posts instead.
