Today’s Hairy yet Truly Morbid Fact!
Hair can provide crime investigators with important clues. Apart from burning, hair is virtually indestructible. It remains identifiable even on bodies in an advanced state of decomposition or attached to objects after a crime has been committed. The forensic scientist using a microscope can make even a single head hair yield information about the race, sex, an age of its owner, and while hair does not have the same individual character as a fingerprint, it can provide vital evidence.
For example, in August 1951, a woman’s body was found in a rural spot near Nottingham. The victim, Mabel Tattershaw, a 48-year-old housewife, had been strangled. Minute inspection of her clothing revealed some hairs which were immediately sent to the forensic laboratory, where microscopic examination showed them to be identical with the head hair of Leonard Mills, an 18-year-old clerk and the chief suspect. Together with other damning evidence, these hairs helped to take a murderer to the scaffold.
Culled from: Crimes and Punishment, the Illustrated Crime Encyclopedia, Volume 11
Morbid Sightseeing: Taphophile Edition!
Here’s a fascinating bit of cemetery lore from Edinburgh, Scotland:
“Amid the cracked, moss-covered gravestones of Greyfriars Kirkyard, an Edinburgh church cemetery established in the mid-16th century, sit two large iron cages. Each covers a grave, and each is secured with a chain and padlock. These cages are known as mortsafes, and they were installed in the early 19th century to deter resurrectionists—otherwise known as body snatchers.”
Grave Cages and Medical Murder: The Body-Snatching Era in Scotland
Thanks to Teelo for the link.
“…they were installed in the early 19th century to deter resurrectionists—otherwise known as body snatchers.”
Of all possible reasons, I’m glad it was that one. 🙂