"Peeper" Is Suspected As Grave Robber

New York, 1928

Cordon of State Police Thrown Around Baldwinsville

Start Night Vigil

Ghoul Mutilates Body After Opening Casket

State troopers and deputy sheriffs seeking the ghoul who entered the grave of Mrs. Cora O'Brien, 51, and mutilated her body, Saturday night prepared to keep vigil in Baldwinsville for a "peeper," who is believed be the grave robber.

This "peeper," according to Sergt. M. F. Dillon of the State police who is directing the search, has been seen for five consecutive nights in Baldwinsville peering into the windows of homes and loitering about the cemeteries.

The information was withheld from the officials until Saturday afternoon.

"People wouldn't talk until they realized how serious a thing this was," Sergeant Dillon explained. "Then they came forward with plenty of information. Now we have a real lead to work on."

The State police officer added that medical authorities had told him that a man with the form of insanity which would cause him to enter a grave and mutilate a body would, in all probability, be given to peering into houses. This form of insanity, the medical authorities stated, causes the victim to return to the scene of his crime.

Therefore, the vigil Saturday night was based upon scientific knowledge. It began with a special detail of troopers stationed in the cemetery and about every home where the "peeper" has left tracks.

Sergeant Dillon, who had not been in bed since the empty grave was discovered Friday morning, took active charge and prepared to remain on duty all night.

The troopers were assisted by Deputy Sheriffs Edward Hoffmire and John Carey and Chief of Police Edward McCarty, the latter chief of the Baldwinsville police force.

The vigil began with Sergeant Dillon confident the "peeper" would be captured, and that he would prove to be the grave robber.

With the preliminary investigation completed, the full horror of the crime was made apparent. The vandal passed at least three hours in the Riverside Cemetery, which is located on the banks of the Seneca River.

After opening the grave until the casket was revealed, he pushed open and dragged the body to the grass near the grave.

Then, according to the manner in which Sergeant Dillon reconstructed the crime, he dragged the body by the hair for more than 100 feet. This was proved by bruises on the body.

One hundred feet from the grave, probably using a flashlight, he mutilated the body in a horrible manner. He left behind him his rubbers, his overalls and a shovel.

The rays of a flashlight, believed to have been held by the vandal, were seen in St. Marys Cemetery in Baldwinsville several nights before the grave of Mrs. O'Brien was opened. The same night the "peeper" was active in the village.

—Syracuse Herald, Syracuse, NY, April 15, 1928, p. 1, second section.

Decatur Doctor Caught Digging Up Negro Cadaver

Illinois, 1879

BODY SNATCHING.

A Decatur Doctor After a Negro Cadaver

His Operations Brought to a Sudden Conclusion.

The Decaturites are all worked up over a body snatching affair that occurred last Friday night. A prominent Decatur physician is implicated in the affair, and if he shows up the Decatur folks promise him an anti-cordial reception.

It seems that the above mentioned physician wanted to increase his knowledge of the human frame, and with this end in view he climbed the fence of a Decatur graveyard, having in his possession those necessary grave-robbing instruments, a pick and shovel. Strange to say this son of Esculapius seems to have a horror for the Caucasians. The reason of this is not known, but it is thought that Caucasian "stiffs" do not "pan out" as well as those of other races, therefore he concluded to get a "subject" of the African persuasion.

Having arrived at this conclusion he wended his way toward the "last resting place" of a recently "planted" negro. As soon as the grave was reached he unslung his pick and immediately began to delve into the newly made grave. He worked away with a will, and he was just stooping to raise the lid of the coffin when the deep stillness of the night was broken by the loud report of what seemed to him about seventeen cannons. The bullets flew past his cranium and buried themselves in the earth a few feet beyond him. The perspiration started in great beads to his forehead, and dropping his pick and shovel he precipitately fled. Scaling the graveyard fence, he took a short cut for his stable. Arriving there he immediately hitched his horse to a buggy, and in less time than it takes to "blow up a safe" he was driving across the country at a "Sleepy Tom" gait, and no tidings of his whereabouts have been received up to this writing.

The names of all parties are reserved, as it is thought that there will be further developments made.

—Fort Wayne Sentinel, Fort Wayne, IN, Aug. 19, 1879, p. 4.