GRAVE CONCERNS
Charlie Chaplin’s coffin was stolen from a Swiss cemetery 40 years ago. MARION McMULLEN looks back on infamous bodysnatchers and grave robbers who have dared to disturb final resting places
SILENT movie star Charlie Chaplin was the unlikely victim of grave robbers 40 years ago. The world mourned when the walking stick-twirling comic in the baggy pants passed away at the age of 88. He was buried two days later in the Swiss village of Corsier-sur-Vevey near Lake Geneva following a simple funeral.
But two months later grave robbers struck and his coffin was found to be missing. There was a public outcry and theories about the disappearance on March 2, 1978, abounded, but thieves later demanded a ransom of 600,000 Swiss francs (£400,000) for the return of the coffin.
Sir Charlie Chaplin’s widow, Lady Oona Chaplin, refused to dignify the demand and said: “Charlie would have thought it ridiculous.”
The body was eventually found in a field near the cemetery 11 weeks after it was first taken. It was reburied in the same grave, but a theft-proof concrete tomb was this time placed around the final resting place of the comedy legend.
A 38-year-old Bulgarian, Gantscho Ganev, and 24-year-old Polish man Roman Wardas, were later convicted of the crime.
Wardas was the mastermind and was sentenced to four and a half years hard labour and his accomplice was given a suspended 18-month sentence.
Bodysnatching is nothing new. There was a plot to steal the body of famous American president Abraham Lincoln from Oak Ridge Cemetery in Virginia on election day in 1876 and hold it to ransom.
The audacious plot by a counterfeiting ring was foiled by a Secret Service agent called Lewis G Swegles who posed as a member of the gang.
They had planned to stuff the body in a sack and hide it in some sand dunes while they demanded a ransom of $200,000 in gold and the release from prison of their master engraver Benjamin Boyd.
They were struggling trying to pry off the heavy white marble lid off the sarcophagus when Swegles alerted eight agents who were in hiding in the cemetery. The gang fled but were captured in Chicago days later and eventually sentenced to a year in prison.
Radical political writer and pamphleteer William Cobbett turned bodysnatcher to dig up Common Sense author Thomas Paine from his humble final resting place in America in 1819 with the intention of reburying it in a lavish tomb in England. However, he was unable to come up with any money for the memorial when he arrived in Liverpool and ended up keeping Paine’s body in an old trunk until his own death in 1835.
Paine died in poverty, but had once implored: “Let me alone when I am dead. I should not like my bones to be disturbed.” No one knows what happened to Paine’s remains following Cobbett’s death.
Even earlier was the case of bodysnatcher Thomas Tuite, who was caught by a sentry in Dublin in 1825 with five bodies in his possession and his pockets full of teeth.
Teeth were in demand at that time and could fetch several pounds.
Edinburgh labourers
William Burke and William Hare were two of the most notorious 19th century bodysnatchers.
They joined forces to provide bodies to anatomy lecturer Dr Robert Knox at Edinburgh University’s medical school and targeted newly buried coffins.
The scheme provided them with a steady source of cash, but they soon found digging up bodies in the middle of the night hard work and progressed to murder. They preyed on prostitutes and loners and often plied their victims with drink before smothering them. They were paid up to £10 for each body they provided and literally got away with murder for 11 months until the body of an Irishwoman called Margaret Docherty was discovered at Hare’s boarding house and was later found to have been moved to Dr Knox’s dissecting theatre. He was questioned by police, but not charged because he had technically not committed any offence.
Burke and Hare were both arrested. The latter gave evidence against Burke and was freed as a result of his confession.
Burke himself was hanged in front of a crowd of up to 25,000 people in 1829. His body was later publicly dissected and his skeleton was donated to Edinburgh Medical School.