The Wisdom Bar – "Body Snatching For Science: History of Grave Misconduct"

💡 A smarter night out in NYC—fascinating speakers, craft beer, and real conversation. 💡

🍻 Craft Beer and Snacks Included with Ticket Purchase!

Are you ready for a Spooky Season delight? Prepare for horror with a side of history...

Join us as we unearth the dark underbelly of medical history and the 100 plus year reign of the body snatchers. Driven by a severe shortage of legal cadavers for medical training, professional "ghouls" built a lucrative seasonal industry by secretly exhuming fresh corpses from local burial sites.

This illicit trade disproportionately targeted marginalized communities, igniting public fury and violent “anatomy riots,” including New York City’s infamous 1788 uprising. While families fought back with creative defensive measures to protect their dead, the grim business of body snatching persisted for generations, until modern anatomy laws and shifting medical practices claimed to shut it down. Or did they? Join us for a thrilling evening of true crime as we find out where all the bodies aren't buried.

James Henry is a NYC tour guide, a nine-year veteran guide at Green-Wood Cemetery, and a specialist in NYC cemeteries and burial grounds. He is currently working on a graphic novel about the global history of body snatching. He is also featured as a guide on Bowery Boys Walks & a guest on The Gilded Gentleman podcast.

We'll explore:

• How the history of modern medicine is built on the stolen bodies of the poor and disenfranchised.
• How for over a century in America, illicit grave robbing supplied anatomical demand until state institutions quietly took over the trade through early 20th-century 'unclaimed body' laws.
• How today, a new "Golden Age" of body exploitation has arrived, as unregulated for-profit body brokers capitalize on dismantled oversight and put a price tag on vulnerable remains once again.

This might be for you if you...

• Are intrigued by medical history or NYC history
• Are a true-crime fan or cemetery enthusiast
• Are curious about our shared, unknown, dark history
• Enjoy lecture-based and conversation-focused events of any kind — think Ted Talks in bars, Lectures on Tap, or micro learning meets dinner party
• Want to switch up your usual weeknight. Why not make it interesting? 🤓

Event venue & nearby stays

Fabrik NYC, 12-16 Vestry Street, New York, United States

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