10: Who stole grandma’s body?!: The Doctor’s Riots of 1788
41:28 Share

This episode is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. Most of you listening right now are probably multitasking. Yep, while you're listening to me talk, you're probably also driving, cleaning, exercising, or maybe even grocery shopping. But if you're not in some kind of moving vehicle, there's something else you could be doing right now. Getting an auto quote from Progressive Insurance.

It's easy and you can save money by doing it from your phone. Drivers who save by switching to Progressive save nearly $750 on average. And auto customers qualify for an average of seven discounts. Discounts for having multiple vehicles on your policy, being a homeowner and more.

So just like your favorite podcast, Progressive will be with you 24, 7, 365 days a year. So you're protected no matter what. Multitask right now. Quote your car insurance at Progressive.com to join the over 28 million drivers who trust Progressive.

This is an ad by BetterHelp. What?

What are your self-care non-negotiables? The things you know make you feel better, even when it's impossible to make time for them. Like that workout you try to squeeze in between kids' activities, work, and everything else you have going on, and before you know it, it gets pushed to tomorrow.

Sound familiar? But it's the moments when you feel like you have no time for yourself when those non-negotiables are more important than ever. Those are the things that keep you strong, healthy, motivated, and prepared to take on everything life demands of you. So why not make therapy one of them?

BetterHelp Online Therapy makes it easy to get started with affordable phone, video, or live chat sessions you can do from anywhere, and the option to message your therapist between sessions if anything comes up. Never skip therapy day with BetterHelp. Visit betterhelp.com slash darkhistory today to get 10% off your first month. That's betterhelp, H-E-L-P dot com slash darkhistory.

Hi friends! I hope you're having a wonderful day today. My name is Bailey Sarian and this is the Dark History Podcast. Round of applause. You get it? Anyways, if you're a curious cat like myself, then come on this journey. Come on, let's go together and let's learn something new, shall we?

Okay, so I kind of like to do an intro to all of my podcast stories so far where I kind of tell you the background as to where I got inspired for this story, you know? So let me tell you what today's all about because the other night I was laying in bed. It's like two in the morning and naturally I'm thinking about Ed Gein.

What? He was a very interesting person. If you don't know who Ed Gein is, I did a whole story about him on my murder mystery makeup over on my YouTube. In summary, he would dig up bodies from graves and like use their skin to make super unique shit, to say the least. Like lampshades, chairs, wall art.

It was different. It was different. But then again, because it's 2 a.m., my mind is like wandering all over the place, right? And I was like,

How sick is it that in high school, they make you or students dissect frogs? I mean, my school didn't have the budget for that. Instead, they showed us pictures of what the frog looked like on the inside with like arrows pointing to what's in a frog, you know? I don't know. Obviously, it didn't stick for me, at least. Then it led me to when did humans start dissecting other humans? Because it had to start somewhere, right?

You know, like have you ever paid attention to how your mind just jumps around? I didn't think so, but this is how mine works. Okay, so let's open up my dark history book and gain some knowledge.

Shall we? Yes, we shall. Let's go. Okay, here we go. Medical science had to start somewhere, right? I mean, like how did doctors or scientists learn how like the human body even worked in the first place? Like where's the heart located or where's the stomach, you know? Whatever else is inside of us, like where's that at? Well, in order to learn the inside of the body, dissection was a pretty important part of the game.

So naturally that got me thinking and I started Googling away, looking into the history of dissection. Oh yes, oh yes. Remember, see, Ed Gein, frogs, dissection, it's coming together. Shush, it's coming together.

Anyway, so that's when I came across something called the Doctors' Riot, which took place in the 1700s, right? Now, this was super sketchy. Essentially, the problem was that doctors used to just straight up steal bodies right out of the graves, okay? And then they'd carry them back to the lab and then use them to practice on. I mean, okay, sure. But the biggest problem here was that they didn't ask.

They didn't ask the families. They didn't ask the dead person before they died. They didn't ask a damn soul, okay? A graveyard was like running to the store really quick, but instead of picking up a gallon of milk, you were picking up, you know, a freshly dead grandma. I mean, that's how it was treated. I don't know. I didn't say that. It's kind of like that. I was giving you an example. Now, again, this kind of makes sense.

I said kinda. You know, like they had to start somewhere. And the only way to learn was to open up actual bodies. But the biggest obstacle in the doctor's way

Religion. Religion's the problem. You see, cemeteries were, and they still are, considered a very sacred place. Many believing that if the body of your friend/family were not in their grave, then their souls would not go to heaven. Forever, they would be stuck in this limbo, and I mean, that's the ultimate punishment. So what do you think happened when a bunch of doctors took it upon themselves to steal bodies from the local cemeteries without telling a soul?

Well, I'm sure you can imagine that didn't go over so well. And that, my friends, is what leads us to today's story, the doctor's riot. Babe, let's set the scene. Let's go back to the year 1788. The place, New York City.

New York City was nothing like we know it today. I mean, there were no skyscrapers. There wasn't all the hustle and bustle. Manhattan was basically just a farmland at the time, and the tallest buildings were the churches with their bell towers. Sweet Baby Jesus was the center of everyone's lives and towns.

New York City was a brand new land to this place we were just calling America, which at the time had a population around 30,000 people. It was a starting point for most immigrants, and when they came to America, their first stop would be in New York. So most of them were Irish and German immigrants, and this being 1788, there were still a lot of Native American tribes in the area, but a big chunk of this population was actually enslaved people

They made up around one fifth of the entire population. So they made up about 20% of the population at the time. A lot of people nowadays associate slavery with the South, but it was common all over America and especially in the growing city of New York. And like the majority of America at this time, cemeteries, they were even segregated. So there were different graveyards for white people and black people.

I'm not just like bringing this up randomly. This is important to the story because a lot of this centers around white doctors using a black cemetery as a personal body store. Quote, unquote, for science, of course. I mean, I say it in quotes, but it was really in the name of science. So let's talk about science at the time in New York City. If you wanted to be someone in medicine, then you went to King's College Medical School.

Now this was established just 20 years earlier in 1767 and was technically the only medical school in New York. If you went to King's College at this time, you were considered like, oh my God, a rock star of medicine and highly respected. I'm taking a wild guess here and I'm also rolling my eyeballs.

but I'm assuming it was mainly for, you know, the whiteys. One of the biggest things that the school was looking into was the study of anatomy, the human body. How did the body work? You know, we take for granted now that all this work had been done already, but back then, I mean, they didn't know anything. You break a bone,

They're like, "Well, why'd you break?" And the doctor's like, "I don't know, it looks bad though, so we should do something about it." So it's like they were interested in learning more and to do this, they again had to dissect bodies. New York wanted laws like they had in Massachusetts. So you know how today you can sign up to donate your body to science or universities on your ID for when you die?

Well, back in 1770s, when you died, you had to be buried and like that was your only option. Boring. But New York wanted to be again like Massachusetts, who already had some laws in place. For example, if you died in a duel. Remember duel? We talked about it in the Andrew Jackson story. Great. So if you died in a duel, it was legal for your body to be used for dissection.

So doctors in Massachusetts didn't have any trouble finding bodies to dissect. Doctors in New York City wanted a similar law, but because of all like the religious reasons and also just the idea that people thought doctors cutting into bodies was honestly really creepy and gross, the city was just like, no, no bodies for you, no. So this made it so the only real legal way to get rid of a dead body was pretty straightforward. You had to bury it.

And once the body was buried, nobody could dig it up unless their relatives gave them permission. If you got caught digging up a body, I'm looking at you, Ed Gein, you best believe your ass, you know, is going to jail. The other thing preventing New York from adopting laws like Massachusetts was that the church had a lot of influence in the city.

Again, there was one medical school and a shit ton of churches. So honestly, they were just outnumbered. And the college had a hard time getting their hands on some bodies. I mean, they need something to practice on. So this left professors at King's College with three choices. One, give up on teaching anatomy altogether. Two, teach quote unquote theory about the human body. So basically just guessing. Or three,

they could steal some bodies themselves. Well, not to spoil the entire episode, but these doctors, they wanted bodies, right? I mean, they were gonna catch a body whether the church said they could or not.

So they got their brightest candles and they marched through cow shit in the dead of night and started digging up freshly deceased people from what was called like commoner's graves. Let's pause for an ad really quick. Hold on. This episode is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. Most of you listening right now are probably multitasking.

Yep, while you're listening to me talk, you're probably also driving, cleaning, exercising, or maybe even grocery shopping. But if you're not in some kind of moving vehicle, there's something else you could be doing right now. Getting an auto quote from Progressive Insurance. It's easy and you can save money by doing it from your phone. Drivers who save by switching to Progressive save nearly $750 on average. And auto customers qualify for an average of seven discounts.

discounts for having multiple vehicles on your policy, being a homeowner, and more. So just like your favorite podcast, Progressive will be with you 24, 7, 365 days a year so you're protected no matter what. Multitask right now. Quote your car insurance at Progressive.com to join the over 28 million drivers who trust Progressive.

This is an ad by BetterHelp.

What are your self-care non-negotiables? The things you know make you feel better, even when it's impossible to make time for them. Like that workout you try to squeeze in between kids' activities, work, and everything else you have going on, and before you know it, it gets pushed to tomorrow.

Sound familiar? But it's the moments when you feel like you have no time for yourself when those non-negotiables are more important than ever. Those are the things that keep you strong, healthy, motivated, and prepared to take on everything life demands of you. So why not make therapy one of them?

BetterHelp Online Therapy makes it easy to get started with affordable phone, video, or live chat sessions you can do from anywhere. And the option to message your therapist between sessions if anything comes up. Never skip therapy day with BetterHelp. Visit betterhelp.com slash darkhistory today to get 10% off your first month. That's betterhelp, H-E-L-P dot com slash darkhistory.

At this time, the local government did supply some bodies to doctors at these schools, okay? But they would only give them a few at a time. I mean, bodies are kind of limited. So here's the thing. All these bodies belonged to criminals that had been recently executed and the dissection was actually considered part of their punishment.

Damned in life, damned in death. That's how New York looked at it. But there still wasn't enough executions to meet the demand for bodies. And I'm not even making this part up. There were public hangings in New York at this time, and medical students from rival schools would actually fight over who gets the corpse. Super hard times, I know. Super rough.

So you know how nowadays teachers barely have enough school supplies because of budget cuts? Well, it's kind of like that since students at King's College were expected to bring a quill for writing, some paper to write on, and their own human body. Not theirs, another one to bring in. Bring your own, you know, supplies. Because it's not like the professors were always able to get their hands on a body to study with. So they just kind of like, you know, left it up to the students.

And yeah, it was frowned upon to dig up the bodies, but like, you know, they probably just didn't ask too many questions about where the students were getting the bodies, if you know what I mean. Like the school couldn't officially ask for students to rob graves, right? Of course, this is considered taboo and risky, but these students are young, they're 19. They feel entitled and everything is a competition. I think it's almost more funny to picture teachers alluding to it, like,

"I don't know, you gotta show up with a body tomorrow, but don't steal it, just come with one." So the kids just kinda like went for it. And they would get drunk beforehand to do it because again, they're 19 years old, they're college students and they're carrying bodies all over town. Graveyards for the poor were usually just open plots of land with maybe a light fence. And of course they didn't have security.

Well, again, the doctors need bodies, we get it Bailey. So they weren't going to target the graveyards of the rich and famous, that'd be too risky. Instead, they'd go after the graveyards of poor people and unmarked graves. Now those they viewed as quote, "Lesser than in society." So they figured if no one cared about them while they were living, yeah, no one's gonna care about them when they're dead, you know? Great, free bodies.

So when the students needed bodies, guess where they looked? The graves of enslaved people. And they thought nobody would question it. Yeah, they thought. So let me introduce you to a man named Scipio Gray. Oh yeah, now he had a small but important role in this story.

You see, our guy Scipio was a formerly enslaved person, a free man, who bought a big, empty lot and made it a private burial ground for his community. Now Scipio owned the yard, lived in a house next to it, and just kept the graveyard clean. Scipio's graveyard was about a half a mile from King's College, and it wasn't even the closest one.

But all the other graveyards kept getting robbed, and so members of the community started to guard the ones that were closer to the college. So students started to get a little bold, a little brash, and they would go all the way out to Scipio's graveyard to get some bodies. Half a mile is a long way to sneak a whole ass body. Have you ever tried to move a dead body? Yeah, I have.

It's hard, it's hard. Or so I hear. Don't ask me how I know, okay? It was like a dare in high school. I don't know, I'm kidding. But am I? I'm just kidding. Kidding. But poor Scipio kept getting his graves robbed. And of course, nobody wanted to do anything about it because...

I freaking roll. They were graves of enslaved people. I mean, this grave robbing thing was happening to everyone. So by their logic, as long as the students were getting the bodies they needed from enslaved people's graves, they wouldn't come after the white graves. Great.

Scipio and the black community were getting so freaking fed up with this and they decided to start a petition. And they were like begging the city council to address all of this grave robbing. The petition was written by someone who went by the name, Humanio.

Now that wasn't their real name and whoever it was, they wanted to stay anonymous. So, you know, they could protect themselves from any backlash they might receive. That's why you stay anonymous sometimes. So thousands of free and enslaved people, they signed this petition to try and get the city to pay attention, you know? But there was no official response from the government. We don't actually know what came of this petition because it was never even mentioned in any of the meeting records from this time.

And I have a sneaking suspicion as to why. Most of the city council, including the mayor, owned enslaved people at this time.

Shitty, yeah, but that's like where we're at at this time. Even though the city didn't bother to respond, the petition was printed in the local papers and it got a lot of people wondering who the hell is this Eumannio person? You know, is it a city official? Is it a doctor? Maybe it's Scipio himself? I mean, it is his graveyard that keeps getting robbed, so it would make sense that he would want to speak up.

But it's kind of funny. It's actually not funny, but it's kind of funny because the real petition is about addressing like the problems going on with the grave digging. But they're like, who wrote this letter? Let's figure it out. That's where people's brains are at. Great.

So the mystery of the petition started a big old back and forth between Jumainio and an anonymous medical student who also started writing to the papers. Jumainio would write the paper saying that black grave sites needed to be treated just as fairly as white grave sites. Like he's not asking for much, okay?

But the student who was writing would basically just say that Humanio was being a bingo baby. Like, shut up, Humanio. Stay in your lane, you know, and let the professionals do their job.

That's not condescending at all. We're only talking about the eternal damnation of our loved ones. So readers started picking the letters apart to figure out who the author was. This mystery person had to be able to read and write, so that eliminated a lot of the enslaved people right off the bat. Historians to this day, they don't really know who wrote these letters that enraged the white doctors, but they narrowed it down to a few people.

One potential author was a 15 year old, which isn't impossible, but it was highly unlikely. So the historians and the court of public opinion at the time, they decided that Humanio is Scipio. Scipio is Humanio. Dun, dun, dun. Thank you. That was great. We aren't that shocked.

But the whole point of staying anonymous is to protect yourself from backlash. And now the people decided Scipio is humanio. And Jesus, all hell breaks loose for him. Poor guy. His house is broken into by a bunch of grave robbing students and he gets attacked. For what?

Now, we don't know for sure, but apparently the anonymous medical student from the paper was there too. Now, these students all started bullying Scipio and telling him to stop writing these letters. They literally said to him, quote, I'd do this to my own grandma if I had the chance, end quote.

Like, okay, I don't know, but okay. So they just keep robbing him. And when I say robbing him, I mean, they were stealing fricking bodies right in front of him, like digging them up. I don't know what they were. I think they were like putting the bodies over their shoulder and like walking out. Like that's, it's a little weird, but they were doing that, you know, whatever.

Now, we're at a point where bodies are being stolen, graves are being robbed, and nobody wants to do anything about it because it's just black bodies being robbed. So you're probably wondering if there's a doctor's riot like the story is about, then when are you going to get to the doctor's going to a riot? You promised me riot, Bailey. Okay.

You don't need to riot, calm down. You're at an eight and I need you at a three, okay? I promise we're about to get severed arms, militias and doctors hiding behind chimneys.

This episode is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. Most of you listening right now are probably multitasking. Yep, while you're listening to me talk, you're probably also driving, cleaning, exercising, or maybe even grocery shopping. But if you're not in some kind of moving vehicle, there's something else you could be doing right now. Getting an auto quote from Progressive Insurance.

It's easy and you can save money by doing it from your phone. Drivers who save by switching to Progressive save nearly $750 on average. And auto customers qualify for an average of seven discounts. Discounts for having multiple vehicles on your policy, being a homeowner, and more. So just like your favorite podcast, Progressive will be with you 24, 7, 365 days a year so you're protected no matter what.

Multitask right now. Quote your car insurance at Progressive.com to join the over 28 million drivers who trust Progressive. Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and affiliates. National average 12-month savings of $744 by new customer survey who saved with Progressive between June 2022 and May 2023. Potential savings will vary. Discounts not available in all states and situations. Rakuten is the smartest way to save money when you shop because members get cash back at over 3,500 stores across every category.

including fashion, beauty, electronics, home essentials, travel, dining, and more. Your favorite stores like Walmart, Lenovo, and Wine.com pay Rakuten a commission for sending them shoppers, and Rakuten shares the commission with its members. And that could be you. Cashback is deposited directly into your PayPal account, or if you prefer,

Rakuten can send you a check. The choice is yours. You can even maximize your savings by stacking cash back on top of other deals, like store sales and coupons. You're already shopping at your favorite stores. Why not save while you're doing it? Membership is free and it's easy to sign up. Get the Rakuten app now and join the 70 million members who are already saving. Cash back rates change daily. See Rakuten.com for details. That's R-A-K-U-T-E-N.

Your cash back really adds up. Hi, we're back. April 13th, 1788. The day that shit really hit the fan. 3 p.m., okay? Some boys, some younger boys are playing outside of the local hospital. You know, what boys do, hopscotch, jacks, pick up sticks.

I don't know what they're doing, but they were like hooting and hollering outside, just being loud little boys. I don't have kids, but I'm assuming that's what they were doing. And you know how kids are. They're like the most curious of them all.

So being the curious little kids that they were, one of the boys was like, hey, I wonder what's going on inside of the hospital. You know, like we should we should go peek in and see. So one of them, one of the boys, grabs a nearby ladder, climbs up the side of the of the building to peek inside the window and see what's going on. So he's like looking inside, like what's going on in there? Right.

Great. So the boy gets up there and he looks in the window and he sees a doctor named John Hicks working inside. John notices that the boys are watching him and he thinks that they're just being annoying. So he grabs a severed arm he's been working on. He pulls it up and he like waves it at the boy and tells him to shut up and go away. An arm, like an actual arm.

Yeah. John pops up a couple of times in the story. So like keep the shithead in mind. Okay. What's even more fucked up is that he knew that one of the kid's mom had just recently died and basically said to the kids like, hey kid, this is your mom's arm, like waving it at him. So obviously this kid is freaked out, right? So he runs home crying to his dad who was like nearby working. I mean, I say the kid was freaked out, but I'm

I'm sure the dad was pretty freaked out by this too. It's pretty damn gruesome. So they decide to like go to the grave site to make sure that their mom and wife's body are still there in her grave. And guess what? Guess what? They looked at her grave site and they realized that her body was indeed missing. Yikes. So now this dude is pissed off and honestly, same, same.

He goes and gets his buddy and he's like, "Hey guys, this is getting out of control. These doctors are super fucked up and they're just stealing bodies left and right." Like they, whatever. So they all head over to the hospital to confront the doctors. They storm the operating rooms, but to their surprise, they don't find any doctors, okay? They had all left for the day or they ran away, I don't know.

But what they did find were partially dissected bodies, which made them even more upset. So the group collected all of the bodies they could in hopes to finally put them to rest by reburying them. I know, everyone's just carrying bodies around. Like it's very wild, wild times. 1788, wow, wild. So if you're wondering what the doctors were up to at this time, let me tell you, the crowd was thinking the same thing.

So a smaller group of people go out to some of the doctors' houses, you know, and they're like knocking on the doors. They want some answers. So they end up capturing four of the doctors. But before anything could happen, magically, the mayor shows up with a sheriff to rescue these poor doctors from this angry mob. Now, by this time, there was a mob of angry civilians that was growing, and the doctors were fearing for their lives.

I mean, it's kind of weird though, 'cause if you're not doing anything, why should you be fearing for your lives? Huh? You know, if you're innocent. Anyways, so the sheriff ends up putting the doctors in the local jail for the night to protect them from any harm, thinking like, oh, this, don't worry, this is all gonna blow over by the morning. So then the crowd dispersed sometime after they met the sheriff. The end. Just kidding. Just kidding. Of course not. We're only like halfway through. Buckle in. Okay, so.

Overnight, those medical students broke into the graveyard of one of the biggest churches in town and someone stole the body of a white woman. Gasp.

I mean, the mob just dispersed. Like, come on, give it a few nights. Jeez. He must have had a paper due on the human skin the next day or something. Like, you know, he's got to get good grades. In my personal opinion, I think they didn't want to hit Scipio's gravesite because there was like a lot of heat going on. It was on high alert, you know? So they're like, hey, let's hit the other side of town. No one's looking at the white graves. Let's go over there.

So obviously this made people mad all over again, okay? I mean, the issue had been festering for a while. And remember up until this point, it was mainly black bodies and non-religious grave sites that were being affected. And people were able to turn a blind eye to that, you know, but now...

There's arms hanging out of windows and a white woman's body was being stolen from a church. And we know from experience that nothing gets people more fired up than a white woman being fucked with, even a dead one. And at a church. That's like the three...

sins of 1788. If you'd like to know how mobs become riots, get a white woman involved, okay? Instant riot. Well, now everyone is pissed. Better late than never, I guess, you know? So early the next morning, a big crowd started to gather because they wanted to take this woman's body back to her grave. So they decided to go back to the doctor's houses and search for any other missing bodies they might have.

Well, they had their sights set on John Hicks. Remember the doctor who was waving the arm out the window? He's like, "Eh." That guy? Well, they went looking for him, but he was already hiding somewhere and they could not locate this man.

Some historians say, and I think this is honestly like one of the funniest parts, but they thought that John Hicks was in one of the houses the mob checked, but he was hiding in someone's chimney. Yeah, like some kind of deranged Santa Claus. His bag of toys is just a bag of human arms. I don't know. But they never found him, the mob.

So they needed someone else to like hold accountable for all this grave robbing. But before we get into that, we should definitely pause for an hour. This episode is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. Most of you listening right now are probably multitasking. Yep, while you're listening to me talk, you're probably also driving, cleaning, exercising, or maybe even grocery shopping. But if you're not in some kind of moving vehicle, there's something else you could be doing right now. Getting an auto quote from Progressive Insurance.

It's easy and you can save money by doing it from your phone. Drivers who save by switching to Progressive save nearly $750 on average. And auto customers qualify for an average of seven discounts. Discounts for having multiple vehicles on your policy, being a homeowner and more.

So just like your favorite podcast, Progressive will be with you 24-7, 365 days a year, so you're protected no matter what. Multitask right now. Quote your car insurance at Progressive.com to join the over 28 million drivers who trust Progressive.

Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and affiliates. National average 12-month savings of $744 by new customer surveyed who saved with Progressive between June 2022 and May 2023. Potential savings will vary. Discounts not available in all states and situations. This is an ad by BetterHelp. What are your self-care non-negotiables? The things you know make you feel better even when it's impossible to make time for them.

Like that workout you try to squeeze in between kids' activities, work, and everything else you have going on, and before you know it, it gets pushed to tomorrow. Sound familiar? But it's the moments when you feel like you have no time for yourself when those non-negotiables are more important than ever. Those are the things that keep you strong, healthy, motivated, and prepared to take on everything life demands of you. So why not make therapy one of them?

BetterHelp Online Therapy makes it easy to get started with affordable phone, video, or live chat sessions you can do from anywhere, and the option to message your therapist between sessions if anything comes up. Never skip therapy day with BetterHelp.

Visit BetterHelp.com/DarkHistory today to get 10% off your first month. That's BetterHelp, H-E-L-P.com/DarkHistory. So the mob, they weren't sure who to go after, so they broke into every doctor's house in town.

They're busting down doors, flipping couches, ripping heaters, just destroying furniture and just doing general angry mob shit, right? And the mob just kept growing. And by the afternoon, it had grown to over 400 people.

They even got both the mayor and the governor of New York out there in the streets, begging people to go home. Now remember, the sheriff had created like a little safe haven for these doctors over at the jail. So once the mob got wind of this, they're like, "Hey, let's go over to the jail, you know, let's go over there and demand that they be let out. Come talk to us, bro." You know? I guess so they could like beat them up or something.

We don't really know what they would have done with them, but I'm sure it couldn't have been good. They kind of deserved it though. Maybe hack them up and use their bodies. Just saying a suggestion. It's like when someone says, "Hey, just come outside. Like, I just want to talk. I just want to talk." Like, it's a trick. They don't just want to talk. Nobody just wants to talk. Okay? There's no talking involved.

Well, anyways, the mayor convinced a small militia to go up against the mob and try to break things up. They're like, "Calm down, everyone, calm your tits." And I've talked about militias before, but basically all it is is before large police forces were a thing, smaller groups of men would get together and act like an amateur army. So this mini militia shows up and it's literally like 18 people up against this big ass mob.

So the mob basically ignores them, right? 'Cause it's only 18 people first. But the mob was getting restless and they see these dudes with their guns, so they swarm them. They take their weapons and they just start breaking them over their knees, telling them to F off, you know, get out of here. That must've honestly been pretty humbling for those guys. They had to go home empty handed with like their tails between their legs.

Well, now the mob is supercharged up and they keep getting bigger and bigger. And it ends up being like 5,000 people outside of the jailhouse. And they start trying to actually break in.

Keep in mind, remember earlier I said there was 30,000 people living in New York at the time? Yeah, so that's like almost 20% of the whole population was at this riot. I mean, that's insane. So they picked up bricks, they're throwing them, okay, they're throwing stones, and they're just fucking shit up left and right. But the people in the jail, they actually managed to like hold them off and hold them back.

So the mob starts breaking the picket fences around the jail and they're using these sticks as weapons. It's like, girl, girl, it was a scene, okay? It was just wild, okay? So the governor is in a panic.

He puts out the word that they need all available militia men to come down and help break up this huge ass crowd. But the others in the militia tell them like, sir, we can't really do that. And he's like, well, why not? You know, we need them here. And they're like, well, that's because the rest of the militia is actually the ones in the riot. Plot fucking twist. Good for them. So

So the governor kind of made do with what he had and managed to get about 50 men together. Most of them were just a bunch of rich dudes or men of higher stature, as they called them back then. But, oh, by the way, fun fact, one of them was actually Alexander Hamilton. His name is Alexander Hamilton. You know, he was there. Wow. But Hamilton didn't really fight or like get his hands dirty in any way, but...

He like stood in the front of the crowd and like begged them, please stop writing. Like you're all better than this, you guys. You're all better than this. And the crowd was like, beat it nerd. And like pushed him, pushed past him pretty much. It's not an important part to the story, but it's just a little fun celebrity name drop. The mob is at full capacity. It's nighttime now.

The militia is trying to get to the jail, but every time they get close to it, the mob starts throwing bricks, stones, and sticks at them. The governor had told the militia not to shoot at them because he just didn't want to, you know, escalate the whole situation that was going on.

One militia guy got hit in the head and this started a very violent chain reaction. Oh yes, it did. So this guy gets hit in the head and then he's like screaming for the militia to fire their guns. So bang, bang, right? Bang, bang.

off they go firing at the mob. But remember back then guns, they're nothing like they are today. It takes like a full three minutes to reload after one shot. So they're reloading and it's just, it's a little slower version, you know?

The militia ended up killing eight mob members on their first shot and started to reload. It was so loud there that most of the people involved in the mob didn't even realize that they were being shot at.

Once the militia fired again, the mob figured out what was actually happening and started to charge at them. And then shit just got real crazy real fast, right? They kept throwing stuff at the jail while also fighting the militia, and everyone's just losing their shit. It was a full-blown riot with chaos everywhere, with almost, again, 20% of New York's population.

That's a party, you know? The fighting lasted until afternoon the next day. But what was most important was that the mob never got inside the jail.

They tried. We'll give you an A for effort. They really tried. And besides the people who got shot right at the start, there weren't any other deaths reported. So in a weird way, that rinky-dinky army did their job. Or maybe that this riot just wasn't trying to be violent and they were just trying to...

bring some acknowledgement to the situation. But this is not to say that all the doctors got off easy, okay? There were other many mobs that formed around the city, hunting down stray doctors and medical students who were trying to escape the chaos. They were basically just beating them up. There was one doctor, Samuel Bard, who refused to leave the city. So when the mob found him at his house, he...

He threw open like his doors and windows and prepared to fight them himself. He's like, he opened up all his stuff. He's like, "Yeah, if you want me, like come and get me." But the mob was honestly impressed with his bravery. So they just like decide to leave him alone. That's kind of cool. You know, I don't know. It makes you wonder how far this whole thing would have gone if the doctors had just faced the music and dealt with the reality of this fucked up situation.

Surely they had some morals at some point. They just wanted to study the human body. It's almost like if you see a bear in the wild, you're supposed to play dead.

We should pause for an ad break, Mr. Crow. Do you agree? Do you have to go potty? Do you want me to take you outside to go potty? This episode is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. Most of you listening right now are probably multitasking. Yep, while you're listening to me talk, you're probably also driving, cleaning, exercising, or maybe even grocery shopping. But if you're not in some kind of moving vehicle, there's something else you could be doing right now. Getting an auto quote from Progressive Insurance.

It's easy and you can save money by doing it from your phone. Drivers who save by switching to Progressive save nearly $750 on average. And auto customers qualify for an average of seven discounts. Discounts for having multiple vehicles on your policy, being a homeowner and more.

So just like your favorite podcast, Progressive will be with you 24-7, 365 days a year, so you're protected no matter what. Multitask right now. Quote your car insurance at Progressive.com to join the over 28 million drivers who trust Progressive.

Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and affiliates. National average 12-month savings of $744 by new customer surveyed who saved with Progressive between June 2022 and May 2023. Potential savings will vary. Discounts not available in all states and situations. This is an ad by BetterHelp. What are your self-care non-negotiables? The things you know make you feel better even when it's impossible to make time for them.

Like that workout you try to squeeze in between kids' activities, work, and everything else you have going on, and before you know it, it gets pushed to tomorrow. Sound familiar? But it's the moments when you feel like you have no time for yourself when those non-negotiables are more important than ever. Those are the things that keep you strong, healthy, motivated, and prepared to take on everything life demands of you. So why not make therapy one of them?

BetterHelp Online Therapy makes it easy to get started with affordable phone, video, or live chat sessions you can do from anywhere, and the option to message your therapist between sessions if anything comes up. Never skip therapy day with BetterHelp.

Visit BetterHelp.com slash Dark History today to get 10% off your first month. That's BetterHelp, H-E-L-P dot com slash Dark History. Anyway, by the next day, the militia got the mob to split up and everything kind of died down.

There were more militia that came in from out of town to keep things calm. And the governor even ordered a military parade to be held just to show the mob that, you know, order would be maintained. And now the doctors started to change their tune a bit.

They had to take this whole grave robbing thing seriously now. I mean, they saw how fast this whole thing escalated. Like, damn it. We got to deal with this shit. Damn it. What's actually a little funny is that the city of New York, they blamed the doctors for this mess and fully sent them a bill for the damages from the mob.

Oh, how the tables have turned. Hope their insurance will cover it. Was it insurance back then? I don't know. In case you forgot, the thing people were most mad about was the body of a white woman being stolen from the cemetery. And a few medical students were arrested for this crime and would go on trial like a month later. And I freaking roll, the trial was thrown out.

Geez. And none of the students faced any consequences. How are people gonna learn from their mistakes when their mistakes are never like, you know, mistakes? So I guess that hasn't changed much either. Now there was this big anti-doctor culture happening. Oh yes, oh yeah. Even newspapers wouldn't post medical advertisements for a few days.

Well, guess who pops up in this one again? Oh, it's Mr. John Hicks, the doctor who played with the severed arm. Creepy Santa? Him, yeah. He decides he needs to clear his name, okay, and he publishes a letter. The thing about John is John gets real brave when he's writing letters, but as soon as the mob shows up, he gets real hard to find. So in other words, John Hicks was a little bitch.

This letter he writes says basically, quote, End quote.

And then he just went ahead and like left town. I'm telling you, he was a little bitch 'cause he just left. He avoided all real consequences. The town was pretty torn up and the doctors probably didn't pay that bill. So the city wanted to blame somebody for all of this. I mean, this needed to be put to rest and everyone needs to just move on, right? They need closure.

And after everything, a grand jury said that the people who died in the riots should be honored. But the real crime here was not the body snatchers. It was the mob itself. In other words, the doctors were bad, but the people involved with the mob, they were worse. Or maybe, I don't know, maybe they just wanted change to happen. Lord forbid. So New York City recognized this as an opportunity to pass some big fat penal laws.

Penal. So they created one that made grave robbing even more illegal than it already was. But this time it was very specifically targeted towards doctors saying they couldn't dig up bodies and use them for dissection. But they recognized it was important for science to have bodies to experiment on. So they allowed people who received the death penalty to have their bodies donated to medical schools. Yay? Yay?

I just wanted to say it again. I just like penal. It's just such a word, isn't it? Penal, penal. But the biggest outcome from this is that the doctors in New York, honestly, just had a really bad reputation for a long time, as they should. I mean, they were freaking stealing bodies.

You want to be praised for that? Geez. The public felt betrayed by what the doctors had done. And now whenever they thought about doctors, they thought of their friends and family's bodies being stolen just to be caught up in some medical school. I mean, how disrespectful. So the doctors did their best to improve their reputations by saying that the people they were working on actually just didn't matter.

They were like, this ain't your grandma kid, okay? They're just like prisoners, unknown randos and some minorities. As usual, white people try to minimize their crimes by saying, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Wait a minute.

This doesn't really hurt anybody that I know. So how could it be wrong? Well, I'm sure we all can agree here that it was wrong, okay? It's not enough to persecute and terrorize black Americans during their life. You gotta do it in death too. One problem I have with the mob is that they had nothing to say when Scipio was trying to play by the rules and write letters because God forbid a black man exercises right to assemble and protect his property. You know, how do you think this would have played out if

if he had attacked the students who were robbing him? Question mark? I mean, hello? I'm sure that wouldn't have ended well. The white doctors and medical students did all these bad things, but history has blamed the mob for the violence and not the doctors. Once again, a story of people of privilege escaping any of the justice they deserve. Outside of these events and people within this story, the idea behind what motivated both sides is sort of...

at that crossroads of science and humanity. They just wanted to learn about the human body, you know? And studying dead bodies was super important to advancing medical science at the time, but it was also super frowned upon and illegal. I mean, I guess like they did what they had to do, but on the other hand, like, you know, I wouldn't want, I'm sure you wouldn't want, nobody would want their mom's body being taken from the ground

to some like hungover 22 year old who could like look at their kidneys. So doctors are now supposed to act by a code of ethics. Basically do no harm. I'm pretty sure. Don't wave a dismembered arm at the kids is like also on there if you read between the lines somewhere. Nowadays, we are more prepared to have that hard conversation of some stuff we can't learn because it would be

kind of fucked up to test, you know? So we just like have to accept it and can't know about it. Like what happens to people who are forced to stay awake for a month straight? I don't know. It's probably horrible. And maybe there's like some science in there, but there's no way you can actually go about testing that on someone without literally torturing them. That's like some science that, you know, as of right now, we're just going to probably have to let go of it. Yeah.

But the problem with ethics is that they're kinda like strongly worded suggestions. So that's why we have laws. And even people who are super smart and in positions of power should honestly be checked because, you know, just 'cause they're in power and super smart doesn't mean that they're not abusing their positions.

Uh-huh. Because they seem to be the ones always sliding down the slippery slope, claiming it's for the greater good. If people keep dying from a ruptured appendix, but nobody knows how to find the appendix, then you need to get like some dead bodies to find that thing so you can start saving some live bodies.

You see, it's a tricky but important balance and this is why I didn't become a doctor. Wasn't that fun? Wasn't that a fun little story we learned today? So next time you're at the DMV, which I hope is a long time from now because it's like literally Satan's butthole, take a second and think about that organ donation box because some years ago, people didn't even have a choice.

And then check it. Don't be selfish. After you're long gone, you don't need that shit anyways. You're not using it anymore. Well, I would love to hear your thoughts. Do you know more about this? Let's continue the conversation over on social media using the hashtag dark history. I would love to hear what kind of bodies you've been snatching.

Join me over on my YouTube where you can watch these episodes on Thursday after the podcast airs, except for next week, okay? Next week, we're going to take a little vacay and then we'll be back the following week on September 15th. And I am looking forward to see you there. Also, you can catch my murder mystery makeup, which drops every Monday over on my YouTube. If you miss me, you know, come over there.

I hope you have a wonderful rest of your day. You make good choices and I'll be talking to you later, September 15th. Bye. Dark History is an Audioboom original. This podcast is executive produced by Bailey Sarian, Chelsea Durgan from Slash Management, and Ed Simpson from Wheelhouse DNA. Produced by Lexi Kiven, Daryl Christon, and Spencer Strassmore.

Research provided by Lauren Burrows. Writers, Jed Bookout, Michael Oberst, Joey Scavuzzo, and me, Bailey Sarian. Historical consultant for today's episode, Sam Keen, author of The Icepick Surgeon. And of course, me again. Hi, I'm your host, Princess, Princess Bailey Sarian. I just want to be princess. How about that?

When you drive a vehicle so reliable it's backed by a 10-year, 100,000-mile limited warranty, you stop thinking about what you can't do and start doing what you never thought possible. Visit your local Kia dealer today to see what you're capable of in a vehicle that inspires confidence around every corner.

Kia. Movement that inspires. Call 800-333-4KIA for details. Always drive safely. Limited inventory available. Warranties include 10-year 100,000-mile powertrain and 5-year 60,000-mile basic. Warranties are limited. See retailer for details.