BY LINDEN F. EDWARDS Prepared by the Staff of the Public Library of Fort Wayne and Allen County 1955 One of a historical series, this pamphlet is published under the direction of the governing Boards of the Public Library of Fort Wayne and Allen County. BOARD·OF·TRUSTEES·OF·THE·SCHOOL·CITY·OF·FORT·WAYNE PUBLIC LIBRARY BOARD FOR ALLEN COUNTY The members of this Board include the members of the Board of Trustees of the School City of Fort Wayne (with the same officers) together with the following

In the following publication Linden F. Edwards relates the evil deeds of Ohio’s most notorious resurrectionist, William Cunningham. The paper was originally published in THE OHIO STATE MEDICAL JOURNAL, Volume 50, May, 1954. The author has graciously granted permission to reproduce the article. The Boards and the Staff of the Public Library of Fort Wayne and Allen County present this publication in the hope that it will interest local readers. Linden F. Edwards The son of Albert R. and Mary E. (H

More stories were told about Cunningham than of any other of the resurrectionists in Ohio, of his grave robbing episodes and of his escapades in eluding law officers. He was the bogeyman of all ill-behaved children in the environs of Cincinnati during the period when he plied his trade in corpses, which was between the years 1855 and 1871. He was known locally by various names, including Old Man Dead and The Ghoul, but he was more familiarly called “Old Cunny,” not simply because it was a contra

Illustrative of Old Cunny’s cleverness are the following incidents related about him. One night between the hours of eleven and twelve o’clock he and two of his confederates stopped at a saloon in Carthage to have a drink. His identity being known by almost everyone in the environs of Cincinnati and his nightly movements always arousing suspicion, after he and his helpers had departed several of the patrons of the saloon organized themselves into a posse and proceeded to follow the ghouls to the

On another occasion, he and two of his helpers were apprehended on Reading Road near Walnut Hills with their booty which consisted of two bodies which they had just exhumed from a cemetery near Hartley and were concealed in gunny sacks. The three were immediately placed under arrest and taken to the Ninth Street police station and the bodies were delivered to a near-by funeral establishment for subsequent identification. The following morning the suspects were released on bail, and that afternoo

Old Cunny’s villainous nature is well illustrated in a story told of him when he took ghastly revenge on some frolicking medical students who had played some sort of a joke on him. According to the story, he became so enraged with the students that he knowingly dug up the body of a smallpox victim which he delivered to the dissecting room, as a result of which the unprotected students promptly became infected with the disease. [4] Although Cunningham probably was booked in the police records of

As is the usual fate of all culprits who fail to learn that “crime does not pay,” the law finally caught up with the hero of this tale. Old Cunny’s end is best described in a feature article which appeared in the August 31, 1871, issue of the CINCINNATI DAILY ENQUIRER, entitled “The Champion Resurrectionist Caught.” Under this caption it is pointed out that “Everybody knows ‘Old Cunny,’ the resurrectionist, whose occupation for many years past has been to supply the various medical colleges of t

It is not known whether or not he was able to fulfill his promise. However, it is known from the announcement in the local daily press that Old Cunny met his demise on November 2, 1871, at the age of 64. [5] According to Juettner that was not the end, however, of his earthly remains; for on authority of this author, prior to Cunningham’s death, he had sold his body to the Medical College of Ohio, and when he died it was turned over to that institution by his “bereaved widow” who managed to get a