The 1877 Cincinnati Grave Robbery
Shortly after midnight on a summer night in 1877, a middle-aged man named Howard Dormer entered a cemetery in Cincinnati, Ohio.
He was not there to mourn the dead.
Dormer was a grave robber. His plan was to steal a recently buried body and sell it to a local medical school.
At the time, grave robbing was a serious problem in Cincinnati. Medical schools needed human bodies for anatomy lessons and surgical training. Legal supplies were limited, creating a market for stolen corpses.
Dormer knew the work was dangerous. Police were beginning to patrol cemeteries regularly, and other grave robbers could also target the same fresh graves.
That night, he was taking a major risk.
Why Grave Robbers Stole Bodies
Medical schools needed cadavers
During the 19th century, medical students needed human bodies to study anatomy and practice surgical techniques.
But obtaining bodies legally could be difficult.
This created an illegal trade in corpses. Grave robbers, sometimes called resurrectionists, could dig up recently buried people and sell their bodies to medical schools.
The practice caused fear and anger among families. A grave was supposed to protect the dead, but grave robbers could break into it soon after burial.
Fresh graves were valuable
Dormer had information about a newly filled grave.
A fresh burial meant less time and effort was needed to reach the coffin. But it also created competition.
Other grave robbers could be looking for the same opportunity. Police were another threat.
So Dormer wanted to get in, remove the body and leave before anyone noticed.
Howard Dormer Enters the Cemetery
Dormer first hid in an alley while a police officer passed during his patrol.
After the officer disappeared around a corner, Dormer checked the street.
He appeared to be alone.
He then carried his supplies across the street and climbed over an eight-foot brick cemetery wall.
Inside, he moved around the cemetery until he found the grave he had been looking for.
Dormer dropped his bag beside it.
Inside were the tools he needed, including a shovel, rope and a large body bag.
He started digging.
Dormer Reaches the Coffin
After about an hour, Dormer reached the coffin.
He was standing inside the grave when he pried open the coffin lid with a crowbar.
The body was still there.
Dormer pulled the corpse out and lifted it onto the grass. He then placed it inside the body bag and zipped it shut.
His next problem was getting the body out of the cemetery.
The same eight-foot wall he had climbed over earlier now stood between him and freedom.
Dormer tied a rope to the body bag and began dragging it toward the wall.
The Body Becomes a Deadly Trap
Dormer reached the wall and stopped to catch his breath.
He needed to climb over it while bringing the body with him.
He gave himself some slack in the rope and climbed onto the top of the wall.
For a moment, everything seemed to be going according to plan.
The body was still on the ground.
Dormer only needed to pull it up onto the wall and then lower it to the street.
But as he pulled the body upward, something suddenly startled him.
Dormer turned around.
There was nobody there.
The noise had apparently been harmless.
But his reaction caused a fatal mistake.
Howard Dormer Falls From the Wall
When Dormer turned, he accidentally kicked the body.
The corpse began falling back into the cemetery.
At the same time, Dormer lost his balance and fell toward the street.
The rope connecting him to the body moved around his neck as both fell in opposite directions.
The body landed inside the cemetery.
Its weight acted like an anchor.
Dormer, meanwhile, was left hanging outside the wall.
The rope had tightened around his neck.
His feet could not reach the ground, but he was also unable to pull himself back onto the wall.
The body he had tried to steal had effectively trapped him.
A Police Officer Finds a Strange Shadow
About an hour later, at around 4 a.m., police officer Edward Owens was walking outside the cemetery.
As he approached the front gate, he noticed something unusual.
There was a strange shadow near the wall.
When Owens got closer, he realized what he was seeing.
A corpse appeared to be hanging from the cemetery wall.
Owens immediately suspected a grave robbery.
He believed the person responsible might still be nearby.
Owens enters the cemetery
Owens considered climbing over the eight-foot wall.
But he was relatively short and not in good physical shape, so he decided to enter through the cemetery gate instead.
He ran around to the other side of the wall.
But there was no grave robber waiting for him.
There was no movement.
The cemetery was dark and silent.
Owens wondered whether the robber had heard him approaching and escaped.
He also considered that someone might be hiding nearby.
So he moved forward carefully.
One hand was extended in front of him.
The other held his nightstick.
Then his fingers touched something strange.
It was the body bag.
The Truth About the Hanging Corpse
Owens had initially assumed the corpse hanging from the wall was the body Dormer had stolen.
It wasn’t.
The corpse outside the cemetery was Howard Dormer.
The body inside the cemetery was the person Dormer had intended to steal.
The grave robber had died while trying to remove the corpse.
His own escape attempt had turned into a fatal accident.
How the Grave Robbery Went Wrong
The chain of events was remarkably simple:
- Dormer entered the cemetery.
- He dug up a freshly buried body.
- He placed the body in a bag.
- He dragged it toward the cemetery wall.
- He climbed onto the eight-foot wall.
- He pulled the body toward him.
- A harmless noise startled him.
- He kicked the body back into the cemetery.
- He fell toward the street.
- The rope tightened around his neck.
- The body acted as an anchor.
- Dormer could not free himself.
The very thing he had stolen became the weight that trapped him.
The Dangers of Grave Robbing in the 19th Century
Dormer’s death also shows how dangerous grave robbing could be.
Grave robbers faced more than the possibility of arrest. They worked at night, often in darkness and under pressure. They had to dig several feet into the ground, move heavy coffins and bodies, and escape without being noticed.
They also faced competition from other grave robbers.
And in Dormer’s case, a simple loss of balance turned a criminal operation into a fatal accident.
What Happened That Night?
The story ended with Officer Edward Owens finding both bodies.
The corpse inside the cemetery was the body Dormer had tried to steal.
The corpse outside the wall was Dormer himself.
What had looked like evidence of a grave robbery was actually the final scene of the grave robber’s death.
Dormer had entered the cemetery intending to profit from another person’s death. Instead, the body he tried to steal became part of the accident that killed him.
Conclusion
The 1877 death of Howard Dormer shows the risks faced by grave robbers during a period when stolen bodies were part of an illegal trade supplying medical schools.
Dormer’s plan was straightforward: enter the cemetery, remove a fresh body and escape.
But a sudden startle caused him to lose his balance. The rope connected him to the corpse, and the body’s weight left him hanging outside the cemetery wall.
When police arrived, they initially thought they had discovered a grave robber in the act.
They had actually discovered the grave robber’s own body.