Shoe leather

When I was studying anthropodermic books in graduate school, I came across related examples of items other than book-bindings made from human skin. Among them was this pair of shoes (2nd image, color photo here) fashioned from the hide of "Big Nose" George Parrott. Thanks go to Sue for bringing the story back to mind so that I can relay it to you. It will not be my 1st post about shoes (see Burial shoes, Klompen, and Gumshoe), but it may be the strangest...

George Parrott a.k.a. George Manuse and George Warden was an American cattle rustler. In 1878, after he and his gang bungled a train robbery in Wyoming, they murdered 2 lawmen, resulting in a $20,000 bounty offered for their apprehension. The following year, still at large, they pulled off the daring daytime robbery of as much as $14,000 from wealthy Montana merchant Morris Cahn - despite the fact that Cahn was traveling with more than 2 dozen army troops. Still in Montana, Big Nose George was arrested in 1880 and returned to Wyoming to face charges of murder. He almost managed to escape from jail days before he was to hang, and an outraged lynch mob some 200-strong strung Parrott up from a telegraph pole. The doctors who took possession of the body after death used its components for a number of purposes:

• They studied the outlaw's brain for clues to his criminality.
• They sawed off his cranium and presented it to Lillian Heath, who later became Wyoming's 1st female doctor, and is said to have used it as an ashtray, a pen holder, and doorstop.
• A death mask was made of Parrott's face.
• The skin of his thighs and chest was removed and sent to a tannery in Denver, where it was made into a medical bag and a pair of shoes that one of the doctors wore to his inaugural ball when he was elected governor of Wyoming in 1892.

Big Nose George's dismembered body was finally buried behind the doctor's office after it had been preserved for about a year in a whiskey barrel filled with brine. It wasn't until 1950 that the remains resurfaced - still in the barrel stumbled upon by construction workers. Inside were the skull (minus the cranium) and the shoes (photo here). An elderly Dr. Heath sent the skull cap to the scene and it matched up perfectly. Much later, DNA testing confirmed the identity and journalist Chuck Woodbury touched Big Nose George's preserved skin:

"I was incredibly lucky to visit the day that photographer Craig Pindell and historian/writer Larry K. Brown were photographing George for the archives of the Wyoming State Museum. After they were done, they put the shoes and skull back in the normally closed-up glass case. When they weren't looking, I managed to cop a feel of the shoes, which are 2-toned. They're skin color on the front and brown in back - kinda like saddle shoes. Only the soles are made of cow leather. And they are very worn, proving that the doctor wore his George shoes a lot. I rubbed the shoes. I figured they'd be flimsy. I was shocked that they were very sturdy."

The shoes, partial skull, and death mask are on permanent display at the Carbon County Museum (photos here and here). The skull cap may be seen at the Union Pacific Museum. The medicine bag has never been found...

NOTE: If you are hungry for another instance of shoes made from human hide, have a look at this 1883 report about the alleged gruesome activities that took place at the Tewksbury State Almshouse in Massachusetts. Among other abuses, the lengthy report details the tanning of human hides and includes patterns for cutting the leather and a photograph of a sample that was entered into evidence.

Samuel Pickering

My favorite professor while at the University of Connecticut was Samuel Pickering, who still teaches in the English Department. He is a prolific essayist and an inspiration for the Robin Williams character in the film Dead Poets Society. I reestablished contact with him several years ago and sent occasional e-mails about my progress toward my M.A. When I told him I was writing about anthropodermic books and that the trial transcript of William Corder--bound in his own hide--was on display, his response included a quote from “Anchorite,” an unpublished essay of his about the museum at the back of Surgeons’ Hall in Edinburgh:

Displayed in a separate case along with historical matter describing William Burke’s malevolent doings was a pocketbook, the cover of which had been fashioned from Burke’s skin. “Skin from his forearms,” a volunteer told me…In Edinburgh Burke’s skin has the status of a relic, demonic but still a relic worthy of display.

William Burke and his partner in crime William Hare were notorious bodysnatchers and it was thought quite fitting that Burke's sentence for his multiple murders to supply doctors with bodies for dissection was to be anatomized himself. Today, his skeleton (pictured above) and death mask are also on display.

Anthropodermic binding

William Corder (1803-1828) was convicted and executed for Suffolk, England's infamous Murder in the Red Barn. The judge passed sentence as follows:

Nothing remains now for me to do but to pass upon you the awful sentence of the law, and that sentence is - That you be taken back to the prison from whence you came, and that you be taken from thence, on Monday next, to a place of Execution, and that you there be hanged by the Neck until you are Dead ; and that your body shall afterwards be dissected and anatomized ; and may the Lord God Almighty, of his infinite goodness, have mercy on your soul!

So my first solid stab at researching public dissection is to look further into this case. I had studied it from another angle during graduate school, because in addition to Corder's body being anatomized, his skin was tanned and used to bind a transcript of his trial. Pictured above--along with a portrait, his death mask, and an illustration of his hanging--it can still be seen today. It was one of the many anthropodermic bindings I wrote and made presentations about. Another, which I had a look at when I was in Boston, is The Highwayman.