Linden F. Edwards

“ This is not the last we hear of Old Cunny’s widow, who has been described as being “a bony, brawny-jawed Irish woman, with a mouth like an alligator.” She had evidently taken up Old Cunny’s business where he left off, judging from a news item that appeared in the OHIO STATE JOURNAL of December 6, 1878, under the date line Cincinnati, December 5. According to this news report, a gang of resurrectionists consisting of five persons was arrested in that city, included among which were two women, one of whom was “the widow of Cunningham, of former notoriety in this business.” ”

“ He was born in Ireland in 1807 and is described as having been a big raw-boned man with muscles like Hercules, a protruding lower jaw and an insatiable thirst for hard liquor. During the day he was ostensibly a dray-man, but at night he plied his trade as a professional resurrectionist, 2 supplying the medical colleges of Cincinnati with cadavers which he and his hired helpers exhumed from the local cemeteries. ”

“ Inasmuch as the identities of the procurers and of the bodies which they delivered to the medical colleges were unknown to the anatomy professors, all business transactions having been carried on through an intermediary person—usually the janitor—the professors were consequently absolved of being a principal or accessory to the crime of body snatching. ”

“ Yesterday morning about one o’clock, the attention of two police officers was attracted by the figure of an old man driving at a rapid rate down a Cincinnati street followed by a crowd of men and boys running after him, hooting and hollowing ‘Stop him! ”

“ 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 the city with subjects for dissection, 7 and, who, it is understood, has amassed quite a handsome competency at his contraband employment. ”

“ Indeed, after a consideration of the ease with which any one can get into the grounds, it is not a matter of surprise if Cunny or some other professional has often paid nocturnal visits to the Wesleyan and obtained subjects for the various medical colleges. ”

“ In recent years he has developed an interest in the history of medicine, particularly in the history of anatomy.
Dr. Edwards married Elizabeth Smith on September 2, 1925, and has one daughter. He currently holds the post of professor of anatomy in the College of Medicine at Ohio State University. ”