What do you think?
Rate this book
Grave Dealings: Body Snatching in Philadelphia, 1762–1883
This new history explores the social, cultural, practical and legal history of body snatching in America's first capital city.
In the 18th century the first American medical school was established in Philadelphia. Following the model of European universities, anatomical lectures were conducted with cadavers. But where did the bodies come from? Dissection was viewed as a fate worse than death, and the only legal source of “stiffs” was executed criminals. But there were not enough. As the medical profession and its need for “anatomical material” grew, a new, macabre practice body snatching.
Body snatchers secretly obtained bodies from cemeteries and sold them to medical schools for dissection. But how did body snatching work? How did body snatchers and medical schools avoid getting caught, and what happened when they did? How did the era of the body snatchers end? Grave Body Snatching In Philadelphia, 1762-1883 digs through archives to unearth the forgotten history of a time of graveyard patrols and anatomy riots, when the dead needed protection from the living. Philadelphia pioneered and became the center of American medical education and practice–and body snatching–in the 18th and 19th centuries.
Grave Dealings explores the social, cultural, practical, and legal aspects of body snatching in America’s first capital city and relates it to the continuing ethical struggles that surround the treatment of human remains to this day.
In the 18th century the first American medical school was established in Philadelphia. Following the model of European universities, anatomical lectures were conducted with cadavers. But where did the bodies come from? Dissection was viewed as a fate worse than death, and the only legal source of “stiffs” was executed criminals. But there were not enough. As the medical profession and its need for “anatomical material” grew, a new, macabre practice body snatching.
Body snatchers secretly obtained bodies from cemeteries and sold them to medical schools for dissection. But how did body snatching work? How did body snatchers and medical schools avoid getting caught, and what happened when they did? How did the era of the body snatchers end? Grave Body Snatching In Philadelphia, 1762-1883 digs through archives to unearth the forgotten history of a time of graveyard patrols and anatomy riots, when the dead needed protection from the living. Philadelphia pioneered and became the center of American medical education and practice–and body snatching–in the 18th and 19th centuries.
Grave Dealings explores the social, cultural, practical, and legal aspects of body snatching in America’s first capital city and relates it to the continuing ethical struggles that surround the treatment of human remains to this day.
- GenresNonfiction
327 pages, Kindle Edition
Published September 30, 2025
About the author
Tim Dewysockie
1 book2 followersI am a historian with over two decades of experience working in libraries. In 2025 my first book, Grave Dealings: Body Snatching in Philadelphia, 1762–1883, was published by Brookline Books. I earned a Master’s degree in Library and Information Science, specializing in Archival science, from Drexel University in 2016 and a Master’s degree in History from Rowan University in 2020. I currently work at Rowan University Libraries.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
June 29, 2026
Well researched, well written, and important to learn about. Macabre for sure.
November 1, 2026
Tim Dewysockie's Grave Dealings: Body Snatching in Philadelphia, 1762-1883 is based on the research he did for his master's thesis, "Body Snatching in Philadelphia: A Social and Cultural History, 1762-1883," at Rowan University. He broadly covers the history of body snatching in Philadelphia and traces its development from an individual pursuit in the eighteenth century to an organized practice in the nineteenth century. He argues, "Because Philadelphia was so central to the practice, the history of body snatching in the city is really the history of body snatching in America." (xiv) I enjoyed reading this book and I think it is very accessible to general readers.
Dewysockie argues Philadelphia is where body snatching began in the United States due to its early firsts in medical history (ex: first hospital in 1751, first anatomical lecture in 1762, first medical school in 1765). He also argues Philadelphia's medical success was predicated on body snatching. While I was already familiar with some of this history, I still found it interesting and learned some new things as well. For example, in the chapter "Defending the Dead" Dewysockie examines grave guns, coffin torpedoes (kinda like a shotgun), grave torpedoes (more like a landmine), burial safes, burial vaults, and safety coffins (concern of not being buried alive). He looks at how they worked and how impractical they ultimately were. It was also interesting to read about the gentleman agreements between medical/anatomy schools and body snatchers. The Afterword raises some good questions about the legacy of body snatching - ethical questions for museum collections, the oddities trade, and the current use of unclaimed bodies in medical research.
Dewysockie provides endnotes and a selected bibliography of primary and secondary sources at the end of the book. Some of his primary sources include diaries, medical articles, letters, patents, poems, and newspaper articles. He also provides Pennsylvania's anatomy law of 1883 in an appendix.
I would recommend Grave Dealings to anyone interested in medical history, early American history, and or the history of Philadelphia.
Dewysockie argues Philadelphia is where body snatching began in the United States due to its early firsts in medical history (ex: first hospital in 1751, first anatomical lecture in 1762, first medical school in 1765). He also argues Philadelphia's medical success was predicated on body snatching. While I was already familiar with some of this history, I still found it interesting and learned some new things as well. For example, in the chapter "Defending the Dead" Dewysockie examines grave guns, coffin torpedoes (kinda like a shotgun), grave torpedoes (more like a landmine), burial safes, burial vaults, and safety coffins (concern of not being buried alive). He looks at how they worked and how impractical they ultimately were. It was also interesting to read about the gentleman agreements between medical/anatomy schools and body snatchers. The Afterword raises some good questions about the legacy of body snatching - ethical questions for museum collections, the oddities trade, and the current use of unclaimed bodies in medical research.
Dewysockie provides endnotes and a selected bibliography of primary and secondary sources at the end of the book. Some of his primary sources include diaries, medical articles, letters, patents, poems, and newspaper articles. He also provides Pennsylvania's anatomy law of 1883 in an appendix.
I would recommend Grave Dealings to anyone interested in medical history, early American history, and or the history of Philadelphia.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
November 9, 2025
This was such a fascinating (and thoroughly macabre) read! I was not at all familiar with the degree to which body snatchers - along with complicit medical schools and local government officials - menaced the recently deceased of Philadelphia.
(Things got so bad there someone developed a patent for a coffin-defending automatic shotgun. Wild stuff!)
(Things got so bad there someone developed a patent for a coffin-defending automatic shotgun. Wild stuff!)
October 27, 2026
A tough read, but interesting.
June 13, 2026
I didn’t read the whole book BUT, I really enjoyed the first half that I did read. I’m not super into history so the fact that this could hold my attention for as long as it did is great. Recommend, especially if you like history.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews