MUTILATING THE DEAD.

Patea Mail, 26 October 1880, Page 4

MUTILATING THE DEAD.

Body-snatching, as it is termed, baa lately been carried on in the United States to an extent which it is difficult to account for. The American resurrectionists do not confine their operations merely to obtaining bodies for dissecting purposes, but arc actuated by other motives than the advancement of science. A curious revelation on the subject was made the other day by three negroes who wore arrested and tried before a justice of the peace at Olinda, Lamar Comity, Alabama, for mutilating bodies of white people buried in a neighbouring graveyard. The negroes pleaded guilty, but urged in excuse that they dug up the bodies only for the purpose of getting the bones of (he hands, which, if carried in their pockets, would, (they thought, make them lucky at card-playing. On their way to the gaol they were kind enough to point out several graves they had opened, in order to got at the bones they required to bring them good fortune. An examination of one of the graves Unis pointed out showed that a forearm and both hands had been removed from the body it contained. The citizens of Olinda were, by latest accounts, about to have the graveyard thoroughly overhauled, to sec what remained of the remains of their relatives and friends after the depredations of those unprincipled negroes, whose proceedings have aroused general indignation.