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I'm a PhD student researching the role of the archaeological dead in contemporary British society. Think of this as a scrapbook of all the interesting links, snippets of information and random bits and bobs I come across pertaining to death, dying and the dead. Enjoy?!

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    Molly in the morgue: The eccentric memoir of the woman who worked on 8,000 autopsies alongside the legendary pathologist Keith Simpson and the hangman Albert PierrepointWorld War II saw many women pitched into tough professions, but Molly Lefebure was the only young female working in the morgues of London. Now 93 and living in a nursing home in Winchester, Hampshire, she has written a memoir recalling some of her most tantalising cases. The young man I was supposed to be going out with that night was incredulous. Not only had I just cancelled our date but — as far as he was concerned —— I’d betrayed a morbid, unfeminine streak. ‘Why do you not prefer me to a corpse?’ he wailed. ‘There must be something wrong with you — it’s so unnatural.’ Wearily, I delivered my stock speech about how fascinating I found my work, but he wasn’t listening. Instead, like more than one of my war-time boyfriends, he nastily accused me of necrophilia. The catalyst for all this upset was my boss, Dr Simpson, who’d telephoned just as I was doing my hair. He sounded excited: there was a very interesting shooting case at a South London mortuary, he said, and he suggested picking me up on the way.  It was always a strict rule with me that my job came first. But, to be honest, I felt much more inclined to spend the evening in a mortuary than with a hysterical young man who was lacking in imagination. How could I expect him to understand that corpses all had fascinating stories — of hopes unfulfilled, joys that ended in sorrow, love, sacrifice, broken hearts, stupidity, depravity and crime of every description? And my goodness, how they talked!  Everything about them talked. The way they looked, the way they died, where they died, why they died. They were all there on the post-mortem (p.m.) table: the tart who picked up a killer; the baby left to starve; the soldier who came home to find his wife in bed with another man and gassed himself; the sailor who came home to find his wife in bed with another man and shot her.  (Source: The Daily Mail)

    Molly in the morgue: The eccentric memoir of the woman who worked on 8,000 autopsies alongside the legendary pathologist Keith Simpson and the hangman Albert Pierrepoint

    World War II saw many women pitched into tough professions, but Molly Lefebure was the only young female working in the morgues of London. Now 93 and living in a nursing home in Winchester, Hampshire, she has written a memoir recalling some of her most tantalising cases.

    The young man I was supposed to be going out with that night was incredulous. Not only had I just cancelled our date but — as far as he was concerned —— I’d betrayed a morbid, unfeminine streak.

    ‘Why do you not prefer me to a corpse?’ he wailed. ‘There must be something wrong with you — it’s so unnatural.’

    Wearily, I delivered my stock speech about how fascinating I found my work, but he wasn’t listening. Instead, like more than one of my war-time boyfriends, he nastily accused me of necrophilia.

    The catalyst for all this upset was my boss, Dr Simpson, who’d telephoned just as I was doing my hair. He sounded excited: there was a very interesting shooting case at a South London mortuary, he said, and he suggested picking me up on the way. 

    It was always a strict rule with me that my job came first. But, to be honest, I felt much more inclined to spend the evening in a mortuary than with a hysterical young man who was lacking in imagination.

    How could I expect him to understand that corpses all had fascinating stories — of hopes unfulfilled, joys that ended in sorrow, love, sacrifice, broken hearts, stupidity, depravity and crime of every description? And my goodness, how they talked! 

    Everything about them talked. The way they looked, the way they died, where they died, why they died.

    They were all there on the post-mortem (p.m.) table: the tart who picked up a killer; the baby left to starve; the soldier who came home to find his wife in bed with another man and gassed himself; the sailor who came home to find his wife in bed with another man and shot her. 

    (Source: The Daily Mail)

    The man who looks death in the face: Paddy Shennan meets morgue manager Mike Murphy

    SOME might think it’s a conversation killer – “Where am I going today? Down the morgue” – but it isn’t. People are fascinated by life and death matters – but, mostly it seems, death matters.

    This is something the down-to-earth and unflappable Mike Murphy, mortuary and bereavement services manager at the Royal Liverpool Hospital, knows all about.

    Mike, 46, from Aintree, says: “Everyone asks me about it. I’m always the main topic of conversation in a pub – ‘You’ll never guess what he does!’

    “I assist the pathologist by dissecting, reconstructing and preparing bodies for viewing. And people say ‘Can I just ask you about my Aunty Betty/mum/dad? I’ve got some unanswered questions that have been playing on my mind. Does your hair still grow when you die?’ ‘No, it doesn’t! ‘Your finger nails?’ ‘No, they don’t!’”

    It’s the same for his son – chip off the old block Jack, 20, who is employed by the city council, rather than the NHS, as an Anatomical Pathology Technician (APT) at the neighbouring city mortuary in Pembroke Place.

    And there’s more …

    Full story here.

    theossuary: From the article “The Morgue” by Rachael Weaver in Meanjin. midnightgallery: Paris Morgue 1883. A kind of dark tourism was commonplace in the nineteenth century, with a variety of different spectacles and events associated with violence, death and deformity often becoming framed or experienced as macabre and sensational forms of entertainment. Executions, the trials of infamous criminals, waxworks and anatomical museums, and even slums and opium dens could all be relied upon to draw fascinated viewers whose expressions of horror in response to what they saw most often equalled their curiosity and enjoyment. The newspapers played a crucial role in sensationalising the banal details of everyday life in the modern metropolis by embedding them within thrilling narratives of urban danger and excitement. Every fight or brawl, anonymous suicide, railway accident, murder or infanticide became not just an event to be reported in itself, but also a story of the community’s engagement with trauma, death and violence. News reports of the large crowds that flocked to the sites related to notorious crimes such as cemeteries, court houses, prisons and murder scenes confirmed the sensational nature of a case and, in turn, helped to draw increasing numbers of onlookers. The Paris morgue was one of the most famous international sites for this kind of macabre voyeurism in the nineteenth century. From 1864 until 1921 the morgue was located on the quai de l’Archevêché near Notre Dame, nearly within jumping distance of the Seine (from the waters of which many of its subjects were retrieved). The bodies of the anonymous dead were displayed on black marble slabs behind a large glass window for members of the public to view, day or night, seven days a week. Green curtains were hung at either end so that authorities were able to obscure the public’s view when changing the exhibits, intensifying its resemblance to a stage show. Comparisons to waxworks, the theatre and even department store windows were made regularly in sensational newspaper commentaries, which always accompanied the appearance of a new corpse, while the morgue itself was included along with the city’s other tourist attractions in all the guidebooks of Paris.

    theossuary:

    From the article “The Morgue” by Rachael Weaver in Meanjin.

    midnightgallery:

    Paris Morgue 1883.

    A kind of dark tourism was commonplace in the nineteenth century, with a variety of different spectacles and events associated with violence, death and deformity often becoming framed or experienced as macabre and sensational forms of entertainment. Executions, the trials of infamous criminals, waxworks and anatomical museums, and even slums and opium dens could all be relied upon to draw fascinated viewers whose expressions of horror in response to what they saw most often equalled their curiosity and enjoyment. The newspapers played a crucial role in sensationalising the banal details of everyday life in the modern metropolis by embedding them within thrilling narratives of urban danger and excitement. Every fight or brawl, anonymous suicide, railway accident, murder or infanticide became not just an event to be reported in itself, but also a story of the community’s engagement with trauma, death and violence. News reports of the large crowds that flocked to the sites related to notorious crimes such as cemeteries, court houses, prisons and murder scenes confirmed the sensational nature of a case and, in turn, helped to draw increasing numbers of onlookers.

    The Paris morgue was one of the most famous international sites for this kind of macabre voyeurism in the nineteenth century. From 1864 until 1921 the morgue was located on the quai de l’Archevêché near Notre Dame, nearly within jumping distance of the Seine (from the waters of which many of its subjects were retrieved). The bodies of the anonymous dead were displayed on black marble slabs behind a large glass window for members of the public to view, day or night, seven days a week. Green curtains were hung at either end so that authorities were able to obscure the public’s view when changing the exhibits, intensifying its resemblance to a stage show. Comparisons to waxworks, the theatre and even department store windows were made regularly in sensational newspaper commentaries, which always accompanied the appearance of a new corpse, while the morgue itself was included along with the city’s other tourist attractions in all the guidebooks of Paris.

    (via theossuary)

    The unclaimed dead: medical examiners post photos of unidentified corpses on the internet in the hopes that loved ones will find them

    The corpses’ faces are mostly bloated, their skin pale and discolored. One man’s lips are stiffened into a grim frown and he stares with half-open eyes. Another man appears to be sleeping, his color natural enough that he almost looks alive.

    Forensic investigator Michael Simley knows some people will find the photographs unsettling, but he said he decided to post them online for an important reason: the bodies are unidentified. 

    All were found in Wisconsin’s most populous area, Milwaukee County, and have been without names for years — decades, in some cases — and Simley said he’s desperate to find answers.

    ‘We’re not doing these people justice to let them go unidentified. These are family members, friends, people who are missed,’ Mr Simley said. 

    ‘Everyone deserves to be recognized as who they were in life. Being buried as a Jane or John Doe doesn’t sit well with me.’

    Investigators nationwide use a variety of tools when asking for the public’s help identifying corpses. Many release sketches or 3-D clay models, along with photos of tattoos, clothing or jewelry of the deceased. But a handful are now taking the more extreme step of releasing photographs of faces. 

    Russian caviar found stashed in St Petersburg morgue

    Strange, but true…!

    Russian police say they have discovered a large haul of rare caviar stored in a morgue freezer in St Petersburg.

    Jars were also found next to bodies lying in coffins for viewing by relatives the next day, police said.

    A businessman and a morgue attendant have been arrested. The businessman was said to be renting part of the morgue for his funeral services firm.

    They told police the caviar had been intended to personal use during the pending new year celebrations.

    Via Death Reference Desk Cook County Gives Unclaimed Dead Bodies a Two Week Notice (sort of…) There was a bit of a dead body tug-of-war this week in Chicago. According to an October 4 article in the Chicago Tribune, any dead body left unclaimed for two weeks in the Medical Examiner’s office will be handed over to the Illinois Anatomical Gift Association. But wait, that’s not totally true. According to an October 5 article in the Chicago Tribune, the Medical Examiner’s office will not donate any unclaimed body to the Anatomical Gift Association when the ME’s office knows that the next-of-kin cannot afford to have the dead body claimed and the next-of-kin want a burial. A sad story that reflects the economic difficulties being faced by more and more American families. Click the picture to read the rest of the article.

    Via Death Reference Desk

    Cook County Gives Unclaimed Dead Bodies a Two Week Notice (sort of…)

    There was a bit of a dead body tug-of-war this week in Chicago. According to an October 4 article in the Chicago Tribune, any dead body left unclaimed for two weeks in the Medical Examiner’s office will be handed over to the Illinois Anatomical Gift Association.

    But wait, that’s not totally true.

    According to an October 5 article in the Chicago Tribune, the Medical Examiner’s office will not donate any unclaimed body to the Anatomical Gift Association when the ME’s office knows that the next-of-kin cannot afford to have the dead body claimed and the next-of-kin want a burial.

    A sad story that reflects the economic difficulties being faced by more and more American families. Click the picture to read the rest of the article.

    Turkish mortuary alarm to detect life among the dead A local council in central Turkey has built a morgue with a warning system, in case apparently dead bodies come back to life. The Turkish Anatolia news agency reported the mortuary’s refrigerators are sensitive to movement inside. A cemetery official said the slightest motion would set off an alarm. “If the patient, proclaimed dead by doctors, awakens from a state of unconsciousness, then we consider each and every possibility,” he said. The official, Akif Kayadurmus, added that the refrigerator doors were kitted out with internal door handles. The mortuary in the municipality of Malatya province, has a capacity for 36 bodies. Well, following the recent news story of the gentleman who woke up in a South African morgue, I guess you just can’t be too careful! ;o)

    Turkish mortuary alarm to detect life among the dead

    A local council in central Turkey has built a morgue with a warning system, in case apparently dead bodies come back to life.

    The Turkish Anatolia news agency reported the mortuary’s refrigerators are sensitive to movement inside.

    A cemetery official said the slightest motion would set off an alarm.

    “If the patient, proclaimed dead by doctors, awakens from a state of unconsciousness, then we consider each and every possibility,” he said.

    The official, Akif Kayadurmus, added that the refrigerator doors were kitted out with internal door handles.

    The mortuary in the municipality of Malatya province, has a capacity for 36 bodies.

    Well, following the recent news story of the gentleman who woke up in a South African morgue, I guess you just can’t be too careful! ;o)