1 00:00:05,200 --> 00:00:08,360 Speaker 1: The farmer was beside himself. He was meant for a 2 00:00:08,440 --> 00:00:10,960 Speaker 1: life in the field, not the jail cell. But he 3 00:00:11,039 --> 00:00:13,680 Speaker 1: had been convicted of murder, and now he had been 4 00:00:13,680 --> 00:00:17,240 Speaker 1: sentenced to die. He probably never saw his life heading 5 00:00:17,280 --> 00:00:20,360 Speaker 1: in this direction, but desperation had made him do some 6 00:00:20,480 --> 00:00:23,960 Speaker 1: unspeakable things. This farmer had met a peasant girl who 7 00:00:23,960 --> 00:00:26,760 Speaker 1: had been traveling the country, and hired her to work 8 00:00:26,800 --> 00:00:29,600 Speaker 1: in his house. She confided in him that she had 9 00:00:29,640 --> 00:00:32,600 Speaker 1: been saving some money to go to America. The farmer, 10 00:00:32,800 --> 00:00:36,120 Speaker 1: deeply in debt, saw in the girl a temporary relief 11 00:00:36,200 --> 00:00:39,840 Speaker 1: for his financial woes, so one dark night he coaxed 12 00:00:39,840 --> 00:00:42,400 Speaker 1: the girl to follow him from their house. Her body 13 00:00:42,479 --> 00:00:46,240 Speaker 1: was found sometime later, and the investigations trail led pretty 14 00:00:46,240 --> 00:00:49,640 Speaker 1: obviously right back to our farmer. In the days leading 15 00:00:49,720 --> 00:00:52,600 Speaker 1: up to his execution, he had become a nervous wreck, 16 00:00:52,880 --> 00:00:55,920 Speaker 1: so much so that it was actually delayed. Yet the 17 00:00:56,000 --> 00:00:58,800 Speaker 1: final day had now arrived, But in the same way 18 00:00:58,840 --> 00:01:01,880 Speaker 1: that he had counted down days in dread, many others 19 00:01:01,920 --> 00:01:06,000 Speaker 1: were waiting too, not with fear, but with curious anticipation. 20 00:01:06,440 --> 00:01:09,600 Speaker 1: In fact, extra trains had been scheduled to accommodate the 21 00:01:09,720 --> 00:01:12,480 Speaker 1: thousands of people who were flooding in from all over 22 00:01:12,520 --> 00:01:15,640 Speaker 1: Germany who wanted to catch a glimpse of the farmer's 23 00:01:15,680 --> 00:01:18,800 Speaker 1: final breath. When the time for his execution came, the 24 00:01:18,840 --> 00:01:22,039 Speaker 1: farmer was taken from his cell by soldiers and escorted 25 00:01:22,080 --> 00:01:25,160 Speaker 1: up the scaffolding platform by two priests. The three men 26 00:01:25,319 --> 00:01:28,880 Speaker 1: began to pray, and the the crowd fell silent. The farmer meanwhile, 27 00:01:29,240 --> 00:01:32,920 Speaker 1: fell deathly pale. With the prayer finished, the priests helped 28 00:01:33,000 --> 00:01:35,560 Speaker 1: lift the farmer up and situate him in a wooden 29 00:01:35,640 --> 00:01:38,440 Speaker 1: chair while his arms and legs were bound so that 30 00:01:38,480 --> 00:01:40,960 Speaker 1: he would be unable to move. The faces and the 31 00:01:40,959 --> 00:01:44,040 Speaker 1: crowd made for his last glimpse of the world just 32 00:01:44,120 --> 00:01:48,000 Speaker 1: before the blindfold was placed over his eyes. Next, leather 33 00:01:48,160 --> 00:01:51,680 Speaker 1: strap was fastened under his chin and extended upward over 34 00:01:51,760 --> 00:01:54,360 Speaker 1: his head. This wouldn't be a hanging, you see, but 35 00:01:54,480 --> 00:01:57,920 Speaker 1: a beheading. The strap pulled high and taut, would allow 36 00:01:58,000 --> 00:02:01,920 Speaker 1: for a clean swing. The executioner, a headsman as he 37 00:02:01,960 --> 00:02:05,120 Speaker 1: was often called, was almost seventy years old and clad 38 00:02:05,160 --> 00:02:07,400 Speaker 1: in a cloak. He was a notable character in the 39 00:02:07,400 --> 00:02:10,000 Speaker 1: community for his station in life. He had an air 40 00:02:10,040 --> 00:02:13,480 Speaker 1: of plainness and respectability about him, and a sense of 41 00:02:13,520 --> 00:02:17,919 Speaker 1: solemn duty. When everything and everyone was in their proper place, 42 00:02:18,200 --> 00:02:21,280 Speaker 1: the headsman picked up a large sword. Still, not a 43 00:02:21,320 --> 00:02:24,800 Speaker 1: whisper could be heard amongst the crowd. The headsman raised 44 00:02:24,840 --> 00:02:27,200 Speaker 1: his tool and rotated it as if to show it 45 00:02:27,240 --> 00:02:29,600 Speaker 1: off to all of those who had assembled to witness 46 00:02:29,639 --> 00:02:32,679 Speaker 1: the event. He stepped forward, and, after making a few 47 00:02:32,720 --> 00:02:36,880 Speaker 1: final adjustments, positioned his sword very deliberately a few inches 48 00:02:36,960 --> 00:02:39,200 Speaker 1: from the farmer's neck. He wanted to make sure that 49 00:02:39,240 --> 00:02:41,959 Speaker 1: when he struck, it would be in just the right place. 50 00:02:42,400 --> 00:02:45,600 Speaker 1: Holding the sword horizontally with both hands and about a 51 00:02:45,639 --> 00:02:48,880 Speaker 1: foot away from the man's neck, the headsman swung, made 52 00:02:48,919 --> 00:02:53,240 Speaker 1: contact with our unfortunate farmer, and severed his vertebrae. With 53 00:02:53,280 --> 00:02:55,919 Speaker 1: a few more hacks through muscle and tissue and skin, 54 00:02:56,280 --> 00:02:59,600 Speaker 1: the farmer's head lopped off. The whole process of severing 55 00:02:59,600 --> 00:03:04,040 Speaker 1: the head is over almost instantaneously. The assistant executioner then 56 00:03:04,120 --> 00:03:06,680 Speaker 1: held the head high in the air. It read like 57 00:03:06,760 --> 00:03:09,720 Speaker 1: a perverse trophy, a warning sign to all those who 58 00:03:09,760 --> 00:03:13,120 Speaker 1: might consider committing similar crimes. But if you think this 59 00:03:13,200 --> 00:03:16,560 Speaker 1: whole spectacle is shocking, what came next might just take 60 00:03:16,600 --> 00:03:19,120 Speaker 1: it to the next level. As the farmer's head was 61 00:03:19,160 --> 00:03:23,360 Speaker 1: still held above the crowd. About ten onlookers rushed forward. 62 00:03:23,720 --> 00:03:26,840 Speaker 1: They jockeyed with their outstretched arms, trying to catch the 63 00:03:26,880 --> 00:03:30,160 Speaker 1: blood spurting from the dead man's trunk in the goblets 64 00:03:30,200 --> 00:03:32,960 Speaker 1: that they had brought from their home. According to one source, 65 00:03:33,080 --> 00:03:36,360 Speaker 1: one of the men jumped on the scaffolding, grabbed the corpse, 66 00:03:36,440 --> 00:03:38,760 Speaker 1: and tipped it over as if he were pouring a 67 00:03:38,800 --> 00:03:42,160 Speaker 1: decanter of fine red wine. He drank from the bloody 68 00:03:42,240 --> 00:03:46,120 Speaker 1: stump of the man's neck, overcome with ecstasy and relief. 69 00:03:46,760 --> 00:03:50,040 Speaker 1: You see, these men were epileptics, and it was believed 70 00:03:50,080 --> 00:03:52,720 Speaker 1: that the blood from the body of a freshly executed 71 00:03:52,760 --> 00:03:55,880 Speaker 1: person was a key remedy to their affliction. It was 72 00:03:55,920 --> 00:03:58,600 Speaker 1: thought to be full of vim and vigor and life force, 73 00:03:58,840 --> 00:04:02,960 Speaker 1: a soothing tonic for the brains malfunctioning electrolytes. When we 74 00:04:03,000 --> 00:04:05,920 Speaker 1: hear the word cannibalism, a few images might come to 75 00:04:05,960 --> 00:04:09,360 Speaker 1: our minds. Perhaps we think of secluded or primitive tribal 76 00:04:09,360 --> 00:04:12,720 Speaker 1: groups or cults scattered in out of reach regions around 77 00:04:12,720 --> 00:04:15,480 Speaker 1: the globe, or coming a bit closer to home, we 78 00:04:15,560 --> 00:04:19,120 Speaker 1: might think of groups like the Donner Party, Ordinary civilized 79 00:04:19,120 --> 00:04:23,320 Speaker 1: folk who due to extreme and extraordinary conditions, were pushed 80 00:04:23,320 --> 00:04:27,560 Speaker 1: to inhumane activities that were simply for survival. Yet, humans 81 00:04:27,600 --> 00:04:31,200 Speaker 1: likewise have a long history of willfully practicing this kind 82 00:04:31,240 --> 00:04:34,960 Speaker 1: of medicinal cannibalism which we saw unfold here at the 83 00:04:35,000 --> 00:04:37,720 Speaker 1: scaffold in Germany, and we need not look back far 84 00:04:38,080 --> 00:04:40,320 Speaker 1: to find examples of it. In the case of our 85 00:04:40,360 --> 00:04:43,120 Speaker 1: most unfortunate farmer, you might be surprised to hear that 86 00:04:43,200 --> 00:04:46,920 Speaker 1: the year was eighteen sixty one. That's the same year 87 00:04:46,920 --> 00:04:49,760 Speaker 1: that the American Civil War began. The first version of 88 00:04:49,760 --> 00:04:52,640 Speaker 1: the Periodic Table would be published just a few years later. 89 00:04:53,040 --> 00:04:55,640 Speaker 1: Louis Pasteur was right in the middle of his career 90 00:04:55,839 --> 00:05:00,360 Speaker 1: revolutionizing germ theory. This moment, you see, was far from 91 00:05:00,360 --> 00:05:03,440 Speaker 1: a remote primitive period in the past. It was a 92 00:05:03,480 --> 00:05:08,719 Speaker 1: part of the modern world. I'm Aaron Manky, and welcome 93 00:05:09,240 --> 00:05:17,840 Speaker 1: to bedside manners. If you get a headache today, you 94 00:05:18,040 --> 00:05:20,880 Speaker 1: might take some ib profin or maybe an antacid to 95 00:05:20,960 --> 00:05:24,400 Speaker 1: treat the stomach ache. These remedies, though, haven't been options 96 00:05:24,440 --> 00:05:27,440 Speaker 1: for most of human history. Prior to the major medical 97 00:05:27,520 --> 00:05:31,120 Speaker 1: and pharmaceutical advancements of the twentieth century, there were far 98 00:05:31,200 --> 00:05:34,720 Speaker 1: more gaps in our understanding between illnesses and their cures. 99 00:05:35,080 --> 00:05:37,159 Speaker 1: But you might be thinking, why did we fill that 100 00:05:37,240 --> 00:05:41,000 Speaker 1: gap by choosing to drink hot, bubbling human blood. What 101 00:05:41,080 --> 00:05:43,479 Speaker 1: we need to understand first is that for nearly all 102 00:05:43,520 --> 00:05:46,320 Speaker 1: of history, the human body has been understood to be 103 00:05:46,440 --> 00:05:50,240 Speaker 1: special compared to other living organisms. That is, in the 104 00:05:50,320 --> 00:05:53,880 Speaker 1: Judaeo Christian tradition, the belief of God's image and creation 105 00:05:54,320 --> 00:05:57,000 Speaker 1: lad people to try to find his imprints. In the 106 00:05:57,000 --> 00:05:59,440 Speaker 1: case of humans, these imprints could be the lines in 107 00:05:59,520 --> 00:06:03,240 Speaker 1: one's home, wrinkles on the forehead, the size of their nose, 108 00:06:03,400 --> 00:06:06,480 Speaker 1: or the color of their hair. These features were believed 109 00:06:06,520 --> 00:06:10,640 Speaker 1: to convey the way in which God made each individual unique. 110 00:06:10,960 --> 00:06:14,040 Speaker 1: This idea was paired with an ancient concept concerning the 111 00:06:14,120 --> 00:06:18,520 Speaker 1: interconnectedness of all matter. Plants and animals that resembled certain 112 00:06:18,520 --> 00:06:21,920 Speaker 1: body parts were thought to contain healing powers for those 113 00:06:21,960 --> 00:06:24,800 Speaker 1: body parts. It was thought that God had left such 114 00:06:24,880 --> 00:06:30,080 Speaker 1: resemblances as deliberate clues throughout creation for humans to learn from. 115 00:06:30,080 --> 00:06:33,720 Speaker 1: This phenomenon has come to be referred to as sympathetic magic. 116 00:06:34,120 --> 00:06:37,039 Speaker 1: This idea that like needed to be cured by like 117 00:06:37,400 --> 00:06:41,440 Speaker 1: would become a major part of the tradition of medical cannibalism. 118 00:06:41,800 --> 00:06:45,120 Speaker 1: An assumption championed by our good friend Paracelsius and his 119 00:06:45,200 --> 00:06:48,039 Speaker 1: followers was that the spirit was not just a way 120 00:06:48,080 --> 00:06:51,320 Speaker 1: of talking abstractly about the human essence, but was understood 121 00:06:51,360 --> 00:06:54,600 Speaker 1: to be a very real physiological part of the human body, 122 00:06:54,839 --> 00:06:58,120 Speaker 1: and was thought to be contained in the blood. By 123 00:06:58,160 --> 00:07:03,040 Speaker 1: consuming human bodies, weak living humans could take the vitality 124 00:07:03,120 --> 00:07:07,400 Speaker 1: and thus find a possible cure from deceased humans. Now, 125 00:07:07,440 --> 00:07:10,840 Speaker 1: another somewhat related assumption that would be very important to 126 00:07:10,840 --> 00:07:14,240 Speaker 1: the practice of corpse medicine was that bodies killed violently 127 00:07:14,360 --> 00:07:18,120 Speaker 1: and suddenly were the best dying. A quick, violent death, 128 00:07:18,240 --> 00:07:21,240 Speaker 1: rather than a long, slow decline from illness or old age, 129 00:07:21,320 --> 00:07:23,680 Speaker 1: meant that the life force within the body was still 130 00:07:23,720 --> 00:07:27,400 Speaker 1: strong at the point of death. Some recipes even advocated 131 00:07:27,440 --> 00:07:30,040 Speaker 1: for blood to be taken, especially from people in their 132 00:07:30,040 --> 00:07:33,120 Speaker 1: mid twenties, as they would have most likely been physically 133 00:07:33,200 --> 00:07:36,160 Speaker 1: in the prime of life. This was evidently often paired 134 00:07:36,160 --> 00:07:39,080 Speaker 1: with the idea that a person's lifespan was fore ordained, 135 00:07:39,160 --> 00:07:42,520 Speaker 1: and thus if that were cut short, the residual power 136 00:07:42,600 --> 00:07:46,200 Speaker 1: that remained in the body could be transferred to someone else. 137 00:07:46,520 --> 00:07:51,760 Speaker 1: The seventeenth century medical textbook Pharmacopeia Medico Kaimaka advocates the 138 00:07:51,800 --> 00:07:55,480 Speaker 1: practice of drinking blood and even describes some bodies as 139 00:07:55,520 --> 00:07:59,520 Speaker 1: being more beneficial than others. It prescribed that one acquire, 140 00:07:59,760 --> 00:08:03,760 Speaker 1: and I quote, a fresh, unspotted cadaver of a red 141 00:08:03,800 --> 00:08:07,080 Speaker 1: headed man, because in them the blood is thinner and 142 00:08:07,120 --> 00:08:10,920 Speaker 1: the flesh hence more excellent. Better still, if that body 143 00:08:10,960 --> 00:08:14,640 Speaker 1: had been about twenty four years old and recently executed, 144 00:08:14,880 --> 00:08:17,240 Speaker 1: the body should be laid out for twenty four hours, 145 00:08:17,240 --> 00:08:20,200 Speaker 1: but only in good weather, it recommended, after which it 146 00:08:20,200 --> 00:08:24,160 Speaker 1: should be cut into pieces and sprinkled with aloe and mirror. Then, 147 00:08:24,320 --> 00:08:27,640 Speaker 1: it said, soak it in spirits of wine for several days, 148 00:08:27,880 --> 00:08:30,440 Speaker 1: hang it up for six to ten hours, soak it 149 00:08:30,520 --> 00:08:33,680 Speaker 1: again in spirits of wine. Then let the pieces dry 150 00:08:33,840 --> 00:08:36,800 Speaker 1: and dry air in a shady spot. Thus they will 151 00:08:36,840 --> 00:08:40,480 Speaker 1: be similar to smoked meat and will not stink. The 152 00:08:40,520 --> 00:08:44,000 Speaker 1: practice of medical cannibalism reached its peak in Western Europe 153 00:08:44,040 --> 00:08:46,760 Speaker 1: towards the end of the Renaissance and lasted well into 154 00:08:46,760 --> 00:08:49,760 Speaker 1: the latter years of the eighteenth century. And lest you 155 00:08:49,800 --> 00:08:52,720 Speaker 1: think that this is just a folk practice, people across 156 00:08:52,800 --> 00:08:56,120 Speaker 1: class lines participated in corpse medicine on a more or 157 00:08:56,200 --> 00:09:01,439 Speaker 1: less routine basis. The influential eighteenth century theologian and clergyman 158 00:09:01,600 --> 00:09:05,600 Speaker 1: Richard Baxter was treated for a fit of bleeding by 159 00:09:05,720 --> 00:09:09,400 Speaker 1: applying moss that had been grown on a buried human skull. 160 00:09:09,920 --> 00:09:12,840 Speaker 1: The unfortunate Charles the Second, who, if you recall, met 161 00:09:12,880 --> 00:09:16,000 Speaker 1: his demise in a previous episode, was famously fond of 162 00:09:16,040 --> 00:09:19,440 Speaker 1: something known as the King's drops, which consisted of human 163 00:09:19,480 --> 00:09:22,480 Speaker 1: skulls ground to a fine powder and mixed with alcohol, 164 00:09:22,800 --> 00:09:26,200 Speaker 1: which was then drunk to cure a variety of diseases. 165 00:09:26,520 --> 00:09:30,600 Speaker 1: With interest peaking in the sixteenth century, European apothecaries were 166 00:09:30,679 --> 00:09:34,120 Speaker 1: chock full of salves and powders made of pillaged mummies. 167 00:09:34,520 --> 00:09:38,160 Speaker 1: But as mummies became harder to come by, people's cannibalistic 168 00:09:38,200 --> 00:09:42,440 Speaker 1: attention shifted from ancient Egypt to their local gallows, and 169 00:09:42,520 --> 00:09:45,440 Speaker 1: that likewise brought attention not just to the bodies of 170 00:09:45,480 --> 00:09:48,040 Speaker 1: those who were executed, but to the person tasked with 171 00:09:48,160 --> 00:09:51,360 Speaker 1: carrying out the deadly deed itself. It was a strange role, 172 00:09:51,559 --> 00:09:55,040 Speaker 1: this one of the executioner. Their job was to end lives, 173 00:09:55,400 --> 00:09:59,360 Speaker 1: and yet when the rich and poor, educated and uneducated 174 00:09:59,400 --> 00:10:02,560 Speaker 1: alike look to the gallows for medicine. We find that 175 00:10:02,720 --> 00:10:07,120 Speaker 1: life and death, punishment and healing became in the person 176 00:10:07,200 --> 00:10:18,480 Speaker 1: of the executioner, the very strangest of bedfellows. Let's imagine 177 00:10:18,520 --> 00:10:21,080 Speaker 1: that you are a good family man. You're an attentive 178 00:10:21,160 --> 00:10:24,160 Speaker 1: husband and father, teaching your children your trade so that 179 00:10:24,200 --> 00:10:26,760 Speaker 1: they can make a living when they grow up. Perhaps 180 00:10:26,760 --> 00:10:29,480 Speaker 1: you enjoy spending time in your garden. Maybe you like 181 00:10:29,640 --> 00:10:32,679 Speaker 1: to feed stray cats. You go to church when or 182 00:10:32,720 --> 00:10:35,160 Speaker 1: if you are able. What is more, you have a 183 00:10:35,200 --> 00:10:38,640 Speaker 1: relatively well paid job working for the government, and yet 184 00:10:38,720 --> 00:10:42,120 Speaker 1: the wages of your honest labors include the crippling stain 185 00:10:42,240 --> 00:10:45,760 Speaker 1: of dishonor by virtue of the tasks which your government 186 00:10:45,840 --> 00:10:48,920 Speaker 1: job requires you to perform. And what's worse, this social 187 00:10:49,000 --> 00:10:52,680 Speaker 1: disease is both a blood borne pathogen because your children 188 00:10:52,679 --> 00:10:56,920 Speaker 1: automatically inherit it, and it's also highly contagious. An otherwise 189 00:10:57,000 --> 00:11:00,760 Speaker 1: honorable member of your town could contract your dishonnor simply 190 00:11:00,800 --> 00:11:04,559 Speaker 1: by getting too close. If you're allowed into churches or taverns, 191 00:11:04,800 --> 00:11:07,480 Speaker 1: you have to stay in a special section, far away 192 00:11:07,520 --> 00:11:10,440 Speaker 1: from other people. Sometimes you even are required to wear 193 00:11:10,480 --> 00:11:13,440 Speaker 1: special clothing whenever you're in public, so that people will 194 00:11:13,440 --> 00:11:16,440 Speaker 1: notice stay away from you, so it's no surprise to 195 00:11:16,480 --> 00:11:19,199 Speaker 1: you or anyone else when people cross the street when 196 00:11:19,200 --> 00:11:21,960 Speaker 1: they see you coming, and that few are ever willing 197 00:11:22,000 --> 00:11:25,000 Speaker 1: to darken the doorway of your house. This is your lots, 198 00:11:25,040 --> 00:11:29,240 Speaker 1: of course, because you're a professional executioner in pre modern Europe, 199 00:11:29,600 --> 00:11:31,880 Speaker 1: and on account of your trade, there are very few 200 00:11:31,880 --> 00:11:35,960 Speaker 1: people in society who are considered more repulsive, more untouchable, 201 00:11:36,000 --> 00:11:40,400 Speaker 1: and dishonorable than yourself. Executing criminals has been around for 202 00:11:40,440 --> 00:11:43,199 Speaker 1: as long as there have been well crime, but for 203 00:11:43,320 --> 00:11:46,000 Speaker 1: a long time, governments took a rather passive role in 204 00:11:46,040 --> 00:11:49,400 Speaker 1: criminal prosecution. They began to change that in the late 205 00:11:49,440 --> 00:11:53,960 Speaker 1: Middle Ages, though, local governments became more proactive in investigating 206 00:11:54,000 --> 00:11:58,360 Speaker 1: and punishing crime, resulting in a rise of convictions. Likewise, 207 00:11:58,400 --> 00:12:03,000 Speaker 1: a new array of specialized public spectacles of punishment were developed, 208 00:12:03,240 --> 00:12:06,480 Speaker 1: which were meant to both demonstrate the government's power and 209 00:12:06,600 --> 00:12:10,560 Speaker 1: to horrify any onlooker who might even consider entering into 210 00:12:10,600 --> 00:12:13,640 Speaker 1: a life of crime themselves, and this in turn led 211 00:12:13,679 --> 00:12:16,440 Speaker 1: to the creation of a professional class of people who 212 00:12:16,600 --> 00:12:21,560 Speaker 1: doled out these punishments. Enter the professional executioner now The 213 00:12:21,679 --> 00:12:26,160 Speaker 1: executioner's main job was to carry out all interrogations, particularly 214 00:12:26,160 --> 00:12:29,480 Speaker 1: with the skilled use of torture, and to dispatch those 215 00:12:29,520 --> 00:12:32,760 Speaker 1: found guilty in whatever way the authorities dictated. He often 216 00:12:32,800 --> 00:12:36,400 Speaker 1: had many other dirty or demeaning tasks, though, such as 217 00:12:36,480 --> 00:12:40,040 Speaker 1: overseeing the town's sex workers, cleaning the public out houses, 218 00:12:40,360 --> 00:12:43,800 Speaker 1: and driving lepers out of town. Even still, people would 219 00:12:43,840 --> 00:12:47,040 Speaker 1: apply for this job. For those born into an execution 220 00:12:47,120 --> 00:12:49,640 Speaker 1: or family, there was little else they could actually do. 221 00:12:49,960 --> 00:12:53,920 Speaker 1: Their familial dishonor after all, excluded them from practicing pretty 222 00:12:53,960 --> 00:12:57,840 Speaker 1: much any other trade, and it paid surprisingly well. But 223 00:12:57,920 --> 00:13:01,240 Speaker 1: not only that, this trade, which pushed them far to 224 00:13:01,320 --> 00:13:05,199 Speaker 1: the edges of society, also opened one very particular back 225 00:13:05,280 --> 00:13:09,480 Speaker 1: door among the honorable of all classes. For centuries, you see, 226 00:13:09,720 --> 00:13:15,400 Speaker 1: reviled executioners also moonlighted as revered village healers. In Germany, 227 00:13:15,480 --> 00:13:19,120 Speaker 1: which had a particularly developed tradition of execution or healers, 228 00:13:19,360 --> 00:13:21,920 Speaker 1: we first heard about execution or medicine in the early 229 00:13:22,000 --> 00:13:25,560 Speaker 1: fifteenth century when an executioner set up a stand to 230 00:13:25,800 --> 00:13:29,400 Speaker 1: sell local remedies. In fourteen sixty, in the city of Munich, 231 00:13:29,520 --> 00:13:32,640 Speaker 1: they hired an executioner to treat local burn victims. A 232 00:13:32,679 --> 00:13:34,839 Speaker 1: few years later, the city hired one to help treat 233 00:13:34,880 --> 00:13:38,840 Speaker 1: local pregnant women as well as folks afflicted with venereal diseases. 234 00:13:39,120 --> 00:13:43,480 Speaker 1: They were true gig workers, occupying multiple community spaces and 235 00:13:43,520 --> 00:13:46,640 Speaker 1: wearing many hats. In the moments that they were healing, 236 00:13:46,800 --> 00:13:50,640 Speaker 1: the social boundary of acceptability flexed for them. How much 237 00:13:50,640 --> 00:13:53,760 Speaker 1: did it flex well? Later on, King Frederick the First 238 00:13:53,760 --> 00:13:57,960 Speaker 1: of Prussia hired Berlin's executioner to be his personal physician 239 00:13:58,280 --> 00:14:01,400 Speaker 1: at the moment when medicine was attempting to professionalize. And 240 00:14:01,440 --> 00:14:04,600 Speaker 1: we've heard all about physicians, guilds, barber surgeons and the 241 00:14:04,640 --> 00:14:08,920 Speaker 1: likes earlier in our series. Executioners occupied a very complicated 242 00:14:09,000 --> 00:14:13,000 Speaker 1: liminal space. Public executions unfolded almost as a kind of 243 00:14:13,040 --> 00:14:17,240 Speaker 1: sacred liturgy, which began days before the execution itself. In 244 00:14:17,280 --> 00:14:20,560 Speaker 1: the process, the condemned criminal, so long as they repented 245 00:14:20,640 --> 00:14:25,080 Speaker 1: and received absolution, was thoroughly transformed from a vile center 246 00:14:25,360 --> 00:14:27,960 Speaker 1: into a saintly martyr in the eyes of the public. 247 00:14:28,640 --> 00:14:31,480 Speaker 1: These rituals caused the bodies of these criminals to take 248 00:14:31,480 --> 00:14:34,040 Speaker 1: on a kind of spiritual power of their own in 249 00:14:34,120 --> 00:14:37,800 Speaker 1: the popular mind and from the gallows. Then the executioner 250 00:14:37,880 --> 00:14:41,840 Speaker 1: became a kind of pharmacist of the sympathetic magic variety 251 00:14:41,840 --> 00:14:45,200 Speaker 1: of medicine, a lucrative side gig that helped bulk up 252 00:14:45,200 --> 00:14:48,880 Speaker 1: their salaries. Epileptics, as we've seen, might pay to drink 253 00:14:48,920 --> 00:14:51,960 Speaker 1: the hot blood from a criminals caldaver, or they might 254 00:14:52,000 --> 00:14:55,640 Speaker 1: consume ground skulls or drink wine from the skull of 255 00:14:55,680 --> 00:15:00,240 Speaker 1: an executed criminal. Executioners often provided local apothecaries with the 256 00:15:00,320 --> 00:15:03,320 Speaker 1: raw materials for medicines like these, but they were also 257 00:15:03,440 --> 00:15:07,040 Speaker 1: good examples of some of the early direct consumer marketing folks. 258 00:15:07,240 --> 00:15:10,920 Speaker 1: People would buy corpse medicine right from the executioner himself. 259 00:15:11,200 --> 00:15:13,440 Speaker 1: This way they could be assured of its quality and 260 00:15:13,920 --> 00:15:17,680 Speaker 1: know about the efficacy of it. Sometimes executioners served as 261 00:15:17,680 --> 00:15:22,280 Speaker 1: a competitor to apothecaries selling human fat and goblets of 262 00:15:22,280 --> 00:15:25,880 Speaker 1: blood at reduced prices, cutting out the middleman, kind of 263 00:15:25,880 --> 00:15:29,400 Speaker 1: like a farmer's market, but for medicines made of human 264 00:15:29,480 --> 00:15:33,960 Speaker 1: body parts. Right, people with external maladies like goiter's could 265 00:15:34,000 --> 00:15:36,720 Speaker 1: come to the gallows and pay the executioner to rub 266 00:15:36,760 --> 00:15:40,080 Speaker 1: the hand of a freshly dispatched criminal over their skin. 267 00:15:40,600 --> 00:15:44,240 Speaker 1: Novelist Victor Hugo famous for authoring The Hunchback of Notre Dame, 268 00:15:44,520 --> 00:15:48,120 Speaker 1: documented the case of the last person executed in Guernsey, 269 00:15:48,120 --> 00:15:50,480 Speaker 1: one of the Channel islands off the coast of France. 270 00:15:50,840 --> 00:15:54,360 Speaker 1: He wrote that epileptics came and could not be prevented 271 00:15:54,400 --> 00:15:57,440 Speaker 1: from seizing the convulsive hand of the dead man and 272 00:15:57,520 --> 00:16:00,960 Speaker 1: passing it frantically over their faces, and this power to 273 00:16:01,040 --> 00:16:05,800 Speaker 1: heal was likewise sometimes transferred to the executioner himself. Now, remember, 274 00:16:05,920 --> 00:16:09,120 Speaker 1: being physically touched by an executioner would in almost any 275 00:16:09,120 --> 00:16:13,360 Speaker 1: other circumstance infect a person with their dishonor which might 276 00:16:13,400 --> 00:16:16,040 Speaker 1: result in being ejected from their own guild. In a 277 00:16:16,040 --> 00:16:19,280 Speaker 1: healing context, though the executioner's touch was thought to have 278 00:16:19,320 --> 00:16:24,040 Speaker 1: almost magical healing power. In a more practical sense, executioners 279 00:16:24,120 --> 00:16:27,600 Speaker 1: knew the human body better than most physicians at the time, who, 280 00:16:27,720 --> 00:16:31,160 Speaker 1: as we've learned in earlier episodes, looked down on touching 281 00:16:31,200 --> 00:16:33,800 Speaker 1: the body. You have to remember that during this period 282 00:16:34,080 --> 00:16:38,400 Speaker 1: human dissections were incredibly rare. Executioners were among the few 283 00:16:38,400 --> 00:16:42,200 Speaker 1: who had any practical hands on experiences with human bodies 284 00:16:42,440 --> 00:16:46,880 Speaker 1: and human anatomy in real time. The medicine. These executioners 285 00:16:46,880 --> 00:16:51,040 Speaker 1: often performed was external setting bones and suturing skin, the 286 00:16:51,120 --> 00:16:53,680 Speaker 1: skills and knowledge of which were passed down from father 287 00:16:53,800 --> 00:16:56,720 Speaker 1: to son, just as the necessary skills of the deadly 288 00:16:56,800 --> 00:16:59,280 Speaker 1: part of their trade were passed down. It was highly 289 00:16:59,320 --> 00:17:02,160 Speaker 1: practical work, and they evidently were very good at what 290 00:17:02,200 --> 00:17:06,440 Speaker 1: they did. Executioners were a kind of living crossroads. They're 291 00:17:06,520 --> 00:17:10,440 Speaker 1: deadly trade imbued them with a socially lethal disease, but 292 00:17:10,560 --> 00:17:14,320 Speaker 1: the same trade made them attractive and powerful healers, capable 293 00:17:14,440 --> 00:17:17,560 Speaker 1: of greater social mobility than just about anyone else at 294 00:17:17,560 --> 00:17:20,920 Speaker 1: the time, and in at least one case, these execution 295 00:17:21,000 --> 00:17:30,040 Speaker 1: or healers could find their dishonor cured by their own medicine. 296 00:17:33,119 --> 00:17:36,439 Speaker 1: Franz Schmidt had never known a life without shame, but 297 00:17:36,560 --> 00:17:39,840 Speaker 1: his parents had. Their small town of Hoff, Germany, was 298 00:17:39,920 --> 00:17:43,680 Speaker 1: laid under siege, their lord having abandoned them. When he returned, 299 00:17:43,680 --> 00:17:46,439 Speaker 1: his people were, as you can imagine, pretty upset with 300 00:17:46,520 --> 00:17:50,040 Speaker 1: his performance. As tensions in the community rose further, he 301 00:17:50,119 --> 00:17:52,480 Speaker 1: caught wind of an attempt on his life. He had 302 00:17:52,520 --> 00:17:57,119 Speaker 1: three local gunsmiths arrested, and, invoking an ancient custom, the 303 00:17:57,200 --> 00:18:00,880 Speaker 1: cowardly lord commanded an innocent bystandard to carry out their 304 00:18:00,880 --> 00:18:05,119 Speaker 1: executions as opposed to sending for a professional. The unfortunate 305 00:18:05,160 --> 00:18:08,760 Speaker 1: person chosen for the job was France's father, Heinrich, a 306 00:18:08,800 --> 00:18:12,359 Speaker 1: respectable woodsman, and he couldn't protest, which meant that his 307 00:18:12,440 --> 00:18:16,320 Speaker 1: fate was sealed. France was born shortly after sometime in 308 00:18:16,359 --> 00:18:19,840 Speaker 1: the first half of fifteen fifty four. Heinrich was determined 309 00:18:19,840 --> 00:18:21,679 Speaker 1: to make the best of the lot that was forced 310 00:18:21,720 --> 00:18:25,439 Speaker 1: upon his family. After France's mother died, he remarried and 311 00:18:25,480 --> 00:18:28,840 Speaker 1: relocated the family. He applied for better pain and more 312 00:18:28,880 --> 00:18:32,520 Speaker 1: prestigious execution or positions, and eventually found work for the 313 00:18:32,560 --> 00:18:35,679 Speaker 1: prince Bishop of Bamberg. France would grow up listening to 314 00:18:35,720 --> 00:18:39,320 Speaker 1: the song of the local hangman, receiving a rudimentary education 315 00:18:39,400 --> 00:18:42,720 Speaker 1: at home. He would shadow his father at executions as 316 00:18:42,760 --> 00:18:45,720 Speaker 1: his apprentice, studying the trade, knowing full well that it 317 00:18:45,720 --> 00:18:48,320 Speaker 1: would be his own someday. By the age of twelve, 318 00:18:48,600 --> 00:18:52,359 Speaker 1: he was already practicing different forms of dispatching condemned criminals. 319 00:18:52,760 --> 00:18:56,160 Speaker 1: Now the most difficult method of execution, according to Heinrich, 320 00:18:56,280 --> 00:18:59,840 Speaker 1: was the infamous beheading by sword. He took his cherished 321 00:18:59,840 --> 00:19:02,360 Speaker 1: in streament down from the mantel over the fireplace and 322 00:19:02,400 --> 00:19:05,600 Speaker 1: allowed his son to practice on pumpkins and gourds. They 323 00:19:05,640 --> 00:19:09,080 Speaker 1: eventually moved on to livestock as France learned to definitely 324 00:19:09,080 --> 00:19:12,520 Speaker 1: wield the weapon and his aim became true. France came 325 00:19:12,560 --> 00:19:15,240 Speaker 1: of age during a period of history that historians referred 326 00:19:15,240 --> 00:19:18,439 Speaker 1: to as the Golden Age of the executioner. It marked 327 00:19:18,440 --> 00:19:22,560 Speaker 1: the culmination of a long transformation of German law, which 328 00:19:22,600 --> 00:19:25,840 Speaker 1: in part saw the part time hangman evolved into the 329 00:19:25,880 --> 00:19:30,280 Speaker 1: office of a full time, salaried professional executioner, who, while 330 00:19:30,320 --> 00:19:34,359 Speaker 1: still officially dishonorable, enjoyed a much better status and social 331 00:19:34,400 --> 00:19:38,400 Speaker 1: position than had executioners in the past. This evolved role 332 00:19:38,480 --> 00:19:41,960 Speaker 1: of the executioner, though required a higher standard of work 333 00:19:42,240 --> 00:19:47,040 Speaker 1: and personal character, their family's life was largely comfortable. Heinrich, 334 00:19:47,119 --> 00:19:49,440 Speaker 1: made as much money as a teacher or a pastor, 335 00:19:49,560 --> 00:19:52,600 Speaker 1: and had an enviable amount of job security. He was 336 00:19:52,640 --> 00:19:56,560 Speaker 1: known and respected for his honesty, integrity, and diligence, and 337 00:19:56,720 --> 00:20:00,159 Speaker 1: young France watched closely, taking pains to model at through 338 00:20:00,280 --> 00:20:03,520 Speaker 1: his father, because he knew this was deeply necessary if 339 00:20:03,560 --> 00:20:06,359 Speaker 1: they were to ever restore their family's name. He might 340 00:20:06,400 --> 00:20:09,800 Speaker 1: have been angry, yes, but he was also principled and determined. 341 00:20:10,320 --> 00:20:13,480 Speaker 1: France's training culminated when he was nineteen years old. He 342 00:20:13,560 --> 00:20:16,520 Speaker 1: and his father traveled to Bamberg to dispatch a criminal 343 00:20:16,560 --> 00:20:19,679 Speaker 1: as part of his test to become a recognized master 344 00:20:19,880 --> 00:20:22,960 Speaker 1: of his trade. Although hangings required the least amount of 345 00:20:23,040 --> 00:20:25,840 Speaker 1: skill for an executioner, there was always a chance that 346 00:20:25,920 --> 00:20:28,800 Speaker 1: something could go wrong for him. But as it would happen, 347 00:20:29,160 --> 00:20:32,040 Speaker 1: the convict was dropped and swung freely from his neck. 348 00:20:32,400 --> 00:20:35,440 Speaker 1: I hate to say it, given the circumstances, but France 349 00:20:35,440 --> 00:20:38,399 Speaker 1: couldn't have hoped for a better day. His father climbed 350 00:20:38,400 --> 00:20:41,359 Speaker 1: to top the scaffolding and, standing tall and in accordance 351 00:20:41,359 --> 00:20:45,040 Speaker 1: with ancient custom, slapped France across the face three times. 352 00:20:45,320 --> 00:20:48,520 Speaker 1: He had passed the test with flying colors. Having achieved 353 00:20:48,640 --> 00:20:52,440 Speaker 1: master executioner status, France now needed to refine his skills 354 00:20:52,480 --> 00:20:55,320 Speaker 1: and build a client base. Like any good tradesman at 355 00:20:55,320 --> 00:20:57,720 Speaker 1: the time, he set out on the road, working on 356 00:20:57,760 --> 00:21:00,719 Speaker 1: a gig basis and gaining experience as he did so. 357 00:21:01,000 --> 00:21:04,639 Speaker 1: Think of it as something like a study abroad for executioners. 358 00:21:05,040 --> 00:21:08,480 Speaker 1: As France grew in technical skill, he also very intentionally 359 00:21:08,600 --> 00:21:13,359 Speaker 1: cultivated a reputation as a respectable man who kept respectable company. 360 00:21:13,480 --> 00:21:16,399 Speaker 1: Most dramatically, he swore off alcohol for the rest of 361 00:21:16,440 --> 00:21:21,160 Speaker 1: his life, quite uncharacteristic for an executioner, and people noticed 362 00:21:21,200 --> 00:21:25,880 Speaker 1: his self possession with admiration. The breakthrough moment in France's life, 363 00:21:25,920 --> 00:21:28,639 Speaker 1: which would open up the path to his family's restoration, 364 00:21:28,960 --> 00:21:31,480 Speaker 1: was in fifteen seventy eight, when he was appointed the 365 00:21:31,520 --> 00:21:35,119 Speaker 1: Master executioner of the city of Nuremberg. The city was 366 00:21:35,160 --> 00:21:38,240 Speaker 1: spectacular for its day, made up of hundreds of streets, 367 00:21:38,480 --> 00:21:43,360 Speaker 1: ornate public buildings, bustling with artisans and merchants, public squares 368 00:21:43,400 --> 00:21:47,880 Speaker 1: and parks, and amazingly a well developed water and sewage system. 369 00:21:48,080 --> 00:21:51,080 Speaker 1: It stood in stark contrast to the squalid hoff of 370 00:21:51,119 --> 00:21:54,200 Speaker 1: France's youth. As part of his salary, France was given 371 00:21:54,200 --> 00:21:57,000 Speaker 1: his own stately home and a five year contract that 372 00:21:57,040 --> 00:22:00,640 Speaker 1: made him the best paid executioner in the Empire. Within 373 00:22:00,680 --> 00:22:03,840 Speaker 1: a few years, he received the guarantee of lifetime appointments 374 00:22:03,840 --> 00:22:07,119 Speaker 1: in Nuremberg, a pay raise, and even a pension. But 375 00:22:07,240 --> 00:22:10,720 Speaker 1: even still, being an executioner always came with a price. 376 00:22:11,200 --> 00:22:13,880 Speaker 1: On one occasion, for example, he was forced to torture 377 00:22:13,920 --> 00:22:17,600 Speaker 1: and execute his own brother in law, Friedrich Verner, over 378 00:22:17,640 --> 00:22:21,600 Speaker 1: the course of several decades, France would carefully and painstakingly 379 00:22:21,720 --> 00:22:26,680 Speaker 1: establish an incredibly good name for himself as Nuremberg's faithful executioner. 380 00:22:27,040 --> 00:22:31,840 Speaker 1: He performed hundreds of executions, maintained excellent relations with city officials, 381 00:22:32,080 --> 00:22:35,320 Speaker 1: and became widely known for his technical skill, his piety, 382 00:22:35,600 --> 00:22:38,719 Speaker 1: and his calm demeanor. He was also widely known for 383 00:22:38,800 --> 00:22:43,080 Speaker 1: his successful medical trade. For him, healing and not torturing 384 00:22:43,080 --> 00:22:46,879 Speaker 1: and killing was his true vocation. By his own accounting, 385 00:22:46,920 --> 00:22:50,720 Speaker 1: he treated over fifteen thousand people nursing to health, prisoners 386 00:22:50,760 --> 00:22:54,520 Speaker 1: whom had confessed under torture, high society types, and everyone 387 00:22:54,600 --> 00:22:57,760 Speaker 1: in between. We know this because of the diaries he kept, 388 00:22:58,040 --> 00:23:00,920 Speaker 1: and he did so for an entire four plus decade 389 00:23:00,960 --> 00:23:03,600 Speaker 1: service to the Emperor. He retired as an old man, 390 00:23:03,960 --> 00:23:07,119 Speaker 1: but still had one task left to do. In June 391 00:23:07,119 --> 00:23:10,240 Speaker 1: of sixty four, he sent a letter to the Emperor. 392 00:23:10,560 --> 00:23:14,160 Speaker 1: In it, he told of his honorable exploits, focusing especially 393 00:23:14,200 --> 00:23:17,240 Speaker 1: on his medical work, which had benefited so many people 394 00:23:17,280 --> 00:23:19,919 Speaker 1: in his community. In all of this, he asked for 395 00:23:20,040 --> 00:23:23,760 Speaker 1: one thing in return, that the Emperor restore his family's 396 00:23:23,800 --> 00:23:27,080 Speaker 1: honor that had been stolen from them. Doing so would 397 00:23:27,119 --> 00:23:29,240 Speaker 1: release his sons from a life that they were set 398 00:23:29,240 --> 00:23:33,320 Speaker 1: to inherit and open up a world of possibilities for them. 399 00:23:33,359 --> 00:23:37,320 Speaker 1: Three months later, he received a letter of response. It said, 400 00:23:37,560 --> 00:23:40,480 Speaker 1: on account of the subservient petition to us from the 401 00:23:40,560 --> 00:23:43,879 Speaker 1: highly esteemed Mayor and Council of the City of Nuremberg, 402 00:23:44,160 --> 00:23:47,280 Speaker 1: the inherited shame of Franz Schmidt that prevents him and 403 00:23:47,440 --> 00:23:51,320 Speaker 1: his heirs from being considered upright or presents other barriers, 404 00:23:51,640 --> 00:23:56,560 Speaker 1: is out of imperial might and clemency hereby abolished and dissolved, 405 00:23:56,840 --> 00:24:01,520 Speaker 1: and his honorable status among other reputable people declared and restored. 406 00:24:02,080 --> 00:24:05,040 Speaker 1: It's possible that this man alone killed more people than 407 00:24:05,080 --> 00:24:08,520 Speaker 1: anyone in the entire Empire. But with this letter the 408 00:24:08,600 --> 00:24:12,119 Speaker 1: story turned once more. He would experience honor for the 409 00:24:12,160 --> 00:24:14,960 Speaker 1: first time in his life, something that his father had 410 00:24:15,000 --> 00:24:18,560 Speaker 1: so quickly been stripped of. His sons could now exist 411 00:24:18,560 --> 00:24:22,159 Speaker 1: in a society that welcomed them with open arms, and 412 00:24:22,200 --> 00:24:25,040 Speaker 1: could now begin to chart a path of their own. 413 00:24:31,640 --> 00:24:34,399 Speaker 1: By the end of the nineteenth century, public executions of 414 00:24:34,440 --> 00:24:38,280 Speaker 1: any kind were largely abolished in most European countries. Some 415 00:24:38,320 --> 00:24:42,160 Speaker 1: countries even abolished the death penalty altogether, as criminal bodies, 416 00:24:42,200 --> 00:24:44,520 Speaker 1: and those who sold their parts became more and more 417 00:24:44,560 --> 00:24:47,200 Speaker 1: difficult to come by. Folks turned less and less to 418 00:24:47,240 --> 00:24:50,800 Speaker 1: the gallows to cure what ailed them. Yet corpse medicine 419 00:24:51,040 --> 00:24:55,720 Speaker 1: didn't disappear entirely. It just evolved these days. Of course, 420 00:24:55,800 --> 00:24:58,240 Speaker 1: we might not eat or drink the blood or body 421 00:24:58,280 --> 00:25:01,760 Speaker 1: parts of other humans in order to cure our various ailments, 422 00:25:02,160 --> 00:25:05,159 Speaker 1: but we do, at least in principle, sometimes engage in 423 00:25:05,200 --> 00:25:08,440 Speaker 1: a very similar activity and for the very same reasons 424 00:25:08,440 --> 00:25:11,520 Speaker 1: as the folks in Frantz Schmidt's day. Think about blood 425 00:25:11,520 --> 00:25:16,320 Speaker 1: transfusions and organ transplants. Sure these are deeply scientific procedures, 426 00:25:16,600 --> 00:25:19,119 Speaker 1: but at their roots they arose from the realization that 427 00:25:19,560 --> 00:25:22,520 Speaker 1: sometimes there are afflictions in our bodies that can be 428 00:25:22,560 --> 00:25:26,880 Speaker 1: cured by and only by transferring the blood or organs, 429 00:25:26,960 --> 00:25:29,960 Speaker 1: and thus the ability to live from one human body 430 00:25:30,000 --> 00:25:33,040 Speaker 1: to another. In principle, we might say we are doing 431 00:25:33,080 --> 00:25:35,119 Speaker 1: the same thing as the folks who came to the 432 00:25:35,160 --> 00:25:39,960 Speaker 1: executioners for their medications. Only the methodology and the physiological 433 00:25:40,040 --> 00:25:43,119 Speaker 1: understanding beneath it looks just a bit different. In the 434 00:25:43,160 --> 00:25:46,240 Speaker 1: life and career of the ever faithful execution or healer, 435 00:25:46,400 --> 00:25:49,960 Speaker 1: fronts Schmidt, we see two healing miracles at work. On 436 00:25:49,960 --> 00:25:52,800 Speaker 1: one hand, he, like so many others in his trade, 437 00:25:53,160 --> 00:25:55,920 Speaker 1: was a source of medicine and healing for the community 438 00:25:55,960 --> 00:25:59,600 Speaker 1: around him. But that work of healing, intimately connected, as 439 00:25:59,600 --> 00:26:02,640 Speaker 1: it was, with his dishonorable trade of being a professional 440 00:26:02,760 --> 00:26:05,600 Speaker 1: killer on behalf of the government, was also the means 441 00:26:05,760 --> 00:26:08,760 Speaker 1: of his own healing in the social sense. And for 442 00:26:08,760 --> 00:26:11,560 Speaker 1: those of you who love a happy ending, here's one 443 00:26:11,640 --> 00:26:14,960 Speaker 1: more detail for you. After his death, it was declared 444 00:26:15,000 --> 00:26:17,800 Speaker 1: that France would be remembered in court records as a 445 00:26:17,880 --> 00:26:22,760 Speaker 1: physician and not as an executioner, the deadly and dishonorable 446 00:26:22,840 --> 00:26:32,560 Speaker 1: job that he'd held for over forty five years. It's 447 00:26:32,560 --> 00:26:35,480 Speaker 1: wild to imagine that's in the grand scheme of things. 448 00:26:35,680 --> 00:26:39,040 Speaker 1: These gruesome stories you've heard today didn't actually take place 449 00:26:39,119 --> 00:26:41,640 Speaker 1: that long ago. We'd like to believe that as time 450 00:26:41,680 --> 00:26:45,800 Speaker 1: marches on, progress does too. But sometimes old habits and 451 00:26:45,920 --> 00:26:49,800 Speaker 1: old beliefs die hard, which is why there's more to explore. 452 00:26:50,200 --> 00:26:53,120 Speaker 1: Stick around through this brief sponsor break, and my teammates 453 00:26:53,200 --> 00:26:57,360 Speaker 1: Robin Miniter will tell you all about one more cannibalistic treatment. 454 00:27:01,359 --> 00:27:05,480 Speaker 1: Right the South Korean Custom Service knew they had a 455 00:27:05,520 --> 00:27:08,399 Speaker 1: problem on their hands. They've been cracking open pills and 456 00:27:08,440 --> 00:27:11,280 Speaker 1: testing powders, which usually was a very typical part of 457 00:27:11,280 --> 00:27:14,800 Speaker 1: their job, but for about seven months, one particular kind 458 00:27:14,800 --> 00:27:17,399 Speaker 1: of case started showing up more frequently, and by the 459 00:27:17,440 --> 00:27:20,320 Speaker 1: time they completed their investigation and released their report in 460 00:27:20,400 --> 00:27:24,560 Speaker 1: mid the agents had documented over thirty five cases and 461 00:27:24,920 --> 00:27:29,920 Speaker 1: confiscated over seventeen thousand pills that contained dehydrated and powdered 462 00:27:30,200 --> 00:27:34,200 Speaker 1: human remains. Further testing show that these remains were young, 463 00:27:34,600 --> 00:27:38,000 Speaker 1: very young. The data pointed to them originating largely from 464 00:27:38,119 --> 00:27:42,159 Speaker 1: unborn fetuses are stillborn babies. Some capsules even contained the 465 00:27:42,200 --> 00:27:46,199 Speaker 1: remnants of fingernails and human hair. Consuming placentas as a 466 00:27:46,200 --> 00:27:48,880 Speaker 1: way to improve blood supply and increased stamina has long 467 00:27:48,920 --> 00:27:51,960 Speaker 1: been practiced in China, and these particular pills were billed 468 00:27:52,000 --> 00:27:55,840 Speaker 1: as youth enhancing stamina boosters. Ironically, not only does this 469 00:27:55,960 --> 00:27:59,119 Speaker 1: not work, but the super bacteria discovered within the capsules 470 00:27:59,480 --> 00:28:03,240 Speaker 1: is actually pretty deadly. The idea that ingesting someone else's 471 00:28:03,280 --> 00:28:06,200 Speaker 1: blood supply is not only curative but life giving is 472 00:28:06,200 --> 00:28:08,520 Speaker 1: a belief that we just can't seem to shake, and 473 00:28:08,560 --> 00:28:11,160 Speaker 1: we see it underground in the cases of folks who 474 00:28:11,160 --> 00:28:15,080 Speaker 1: call themselves medical sanguinarians, which are roughly the equivalent of 475 00:28:15,119 --> 00:28:17,879 Speaker 1: modern day vampires. But we also see this in the 476 00:28:17,920 --> 00:28:21,399 Speaker 1: bright light of day. A startup company called Ambrosia Medical 477 00:28:21,520 --> 00:28:25,560 Speaker 1: was launched in which offered a very particular kind of service, 478 00:28:26,160 --> 00:28:29,760 Speaker 1: blood transfusions for older patients, using the blood specifically of 479 00:28:29,760 --> 00:28:32,040 Speaker 1: a young donor. The idea was that it would help 480 00:28:32,080 --> 00:28:36,080 Speaker 1: them reverse the aging process. In seventeen, the company ran 481 00:28:36,119 --> 00:28:38,920 Speaker 1: a trial to study the effects of young blood transfusions 482 00:28:38,920 --> 00:28:42,160 Speaker 1: and what the possible health benefits might be. The procedure 483 00:28:42,200 --> 00:28:45,120 Speaker 1: would involve transfusing one and a half leaders of plasma 484 00:28:45,240 --> 00:28:47,560 Speaker 1: from a younger donor over a two day period into 485 00:28:47,560 --> 00:28:50,280 Speaker 1: an older patient to the tune of eight thousand dollars. 486 00:28:50,920 --> 00:28:54,080 Speaker 1: In eighteen, Ambrosia announced a plan to open its flagship 487 00:28:54,080 --> 00:28:56,520 Speaker 1: clinic in New York City, with dreams of expanding to 488 00:28:56,520 --> 00:28:59,360 Speaker 1: other wealthy cities. That didn't end up happening, but there 489 00:28:59,400 --> 00:29:01,960 Speaker 1: are smattering of sites across the US where people could 490 00:29:02,000 --> 00:29:04,760 Speaker 1: go and have the procedure performed. The results of the 491 00:29:05,160 --> 00:29:08,840 Speaker 1: study were never published. It seems even so many people 492 00:29:08,840 --> 00:29:11,520 Speaker 1: shelled up big money eight thousand dollars from one leader, 493 00:29:11,600 --> 00:29:14,880 Speaker 1: or twelve thousand dollars for two of young blood, despite 494 00:29:14,880 --> 00:29:17,840 Speaker 1: there being no clinical evidence that would be beneficial, and 495 00:29:17,880 --> 00:29:20,240 Speaker 1: despite the fact that it came with many risks and 496 00:29:20,360 --> 00:29:24,800 Speaker 1: rosia medical shutdown in Our scientific and medical knowledge has 497 00:29:24,840 --> 00:29:28,160 Speaker 1: increased dramatically over the last several hundred years, and yet 498 00:29:28,360 --> 00:29:31,000 Speaker 1: it seems that we're not as far removed from spreading 499 00:29:31,040 --> 00:29:33,200 Speaker 1: jam made of human blood on a piece of toast, 500 00:29:33,320 --> 00:29:36,240 Speaker 1: or sipping a goblet of hot, bubbling blood alongside the 501 00:29:36,280 --> 00:29:39,240 Speaker 1: gallows and our attempts to be healthy as we might 502 00:29:39,280 --> 00:29:45,120 Speaker 1: like to think. Grim and Mild Presents Bedside Manners was 503 00:29:45,240 --> 00:29:49,000 Speaker 1: executive produced by Aaron Manky and narrated by Aaron Manky 504 00:29:49,120 --> 00:29:52,520 Speaker 1: and Robin Minat. Writing for this season was provided by 505 00:29:52,640 --> 00:29:56,640 Speaker 1: Robin Miniter, with research by Sam Alberty, Taylor Haggard Orn 506 00:29:56,760 --> 00:30:00,680 Speaker 1: and Robin Miniter. Production assistance was provided by Josh Thane, 507 00:30:01,040 --> 00:30:05,080 Speaker 1: Jesse Funk, Alex Williams, and Matt Frederick. You can learn 508 00:30:05,080 --> 00:30:07,600 Speaker 1: more about this show, the Grim and Mild team, and 509 00:30:07,680 --> 00:30:10,400 Speaker 1: all the other podcasts that we make over at Grimm 510 00:30:10,520 --> 00:30:14,640 Speaker 1: and Mild dot com, and as always, thanks for listening.