WEBVTT - SYSK Selects: How Cremation Works 0:00:00.760 --> 0:00:03.480 Hey, everybody, it's me Josh and for this week's s 0:00:03.600 --> 0:00:06.960 Y s K Selex, I've chosen How Cremation Works. It 0:00:07.080 --> 0:00:09.160 came out back in August of two thousand and ten, 0:00:09.480 --> 0:00:13.000 and at the time, death was a very hot topic. 0:00:13.160 --> 0:00:15.960 So please forgive us if we seem a little irreverent, 0:00:16.239 --> 0:00:19.960 a little overenthusiastic when we're talking about this. But it's 0:00:20.000 --> 0:00:23.439 a really interesting episode and I still stand by it today. 0:00:23.800 --> 0:00:31.960 I hope you enjoy. Welcome to Stuff you Should Know 0:00:32.600 --> 0:00:40.839 from House Stuff Works dot com. Hey, and welcome to 0:00:40.880 --> 0:00:45.000 the podcast. I'm Josh Clark. There's Charles W. Chuckers Bryant 0:00:45.000 --> 0:00:48.720 with a full beard. Actually, yeah, do you know what 0:00:48.760 --> 0:00:52.600 that would smell like if it caught fire? It would 0:00:52.640 --> 0:00:56.520 smell like mayonnaise. It's It's smell worse than Mandaid's ever did. 0:00:57.000 --> 0:01:00.400 Jerry's in there like she doesn't like the smell. Burning 0:01:00.440 --> 0:01:04.840 here or manx um burning Manis would be particularly bad 0:01:04.920 --> 0:01:07.040 if you had hair on top of the burning. Harry 0:01:07.080 --> 0:01:10.120 Manse the worst thing you can burn, So Chuck, hopefully 0:01:10.160 --> 0:01:12.880 that will never happen while you're alive. It could possibly 0:01:12.920 --> 0:01:16.720 happen um after you're deceased. If you're cremated like a 0:01:16.760 --> 0:01:19.759 fellow named Ralph White. Who you know about? I've never 0:01:19.800 --> 0:01:21.560 heard of the guy you have to chuck. Do you 0:01:21.600 --> 0:01:26.280 remember that horrid webcast we used to have. There's a 0:01:26.319 --> 0:01:29.600 guy he was the president past president of the Adventurers 0:01:29.880 --> 0:01:32.440 Adventurers Club and not to be confused with the one 0:01:32.480 --> 0:01:35.680 from South Park. This guy, Um was a real life 0:01:35.680 --> 0:01:39.160 adventure and he was I think he was like a 0:01:40.080 --> 0:01:45.200 cameraman for UM a skydiving show called rip Chord National Geographic. 0:01:45.680 --> 0:01:49.280 He was there when they discovered the Titanic. Ye Buddies 0:01:49.280 --> 0:01:52.160 with the Jim Cameron, Yeah he was. He was second 0:01:52.160 --> 0:01:55.120 director I think on Titanic. Yeah, who was Jim Cameron 0:01:55.160 --> 0:01:57.040 was also in that club, the little Club in l A. 0:01:57.160 --> 0:02:00.000 That's right. Yeah, I'll bet Ralph White got Jim Camer 0:02:00.040 --> 0:02:02.240 run in probably And are we calling him Jim now? 0:02:02.480 --> 0:02:05.200 I didn't realize we were on that friendly basis Jim 0:02:05.240 --> 0:02:08.160 or Jimmy. Well, anyway, Ralph White was had a pretty 0:02:08.160 --> 0:02:11.880 cool post not post mortem. He had a very cool 0:02:11.960 --> 0:02:15.880 posthumous story, and that was he was cremated and his 0:02:16.040 --> 0:02:19.720 friends were so dedicated and loyal to him that um, 0:02:19.760 --> 0:02:22.120 whenever they go on to travel. Now, they take about 0:02:22.320 --> 0:02:24.800 a tenth about a teaspoon or a tenth of a 0:02:24.800 --> 0:02:29.280 teaspoon some very small amount of Ralph White's cremated remains 0:02:29.639 --> 0:02:32.280 and scatter him wherever they go. Pretty cool. Yeah, I 0:02:32.320 --> 0:02:35.600 think he's in the whaling wall in Jerusalem. Um, he's 0:02:35.760 --> 0:02:39.680 in Lake Bacall. He went on a space flight. And 0:02:39.840 --> 0:02:44.639 Ralph White's posthumous adventures kind of illustrate all the wonderful 0:02:44.639 --> 0:02:47.200 things you can do with a cremated body, which is 0:02:47.240 --> 0:02:49.320 one of the reasons why people choose to be cremated. 0:02:49.320 --> 0:02:53.760 It's highly portable, right, and it's nothing new, Chuck. Cremation 0:02:53.800 --> 0:02:56.560 has been going on for a very long time, hasn't it. Yeah, 0:02:56.600 --> 0:02:58.800 we won't get into I mean, there's we could rattle 0:02:58.800 --> 0:03:01.360 off every country and when they started, but we really 0:03:01.360 --> 0:03:05.480 could because of this fine, fine article written by a freelancer, right, 0:03:05.480 --> 0:03:07.959 Michelle Kim. I've never heard of this person before, but 0:03:08.280 --> 0:03:11.760 was a really great article. Um, but it has been 0:03:11.760 --> 0:03:14.400 around since prehistoric times. China has been doing it since 0:03:14.800 --> 0:03:17.880 eight thousand BC. That's more than ten thousand years ago. 0:03:17.919 --> 0:03:19.920 More than ten thousand years ago. One part of the 0:03:19.960 --> 0:03:22.360 history I did find interesting though and fitting since we did. 0:03:22.360 --> 0:03:25.880 Our Freemason cast was the Freemasons during the French Revolution 0:03:26.000 --> 0:03:28.680 kind of push for cremation because it was the whole 0:03:28.800 --> 0:03:31.400 not anti religion, but just sort of mixing it up 0:03:31.440 --> 0:03:35.080 with religion. No, they were anti Catholic Church, well, very 0:03:35.160 --> 0:03:37.280 much against the Church, and they were saying, if you 0:03:37.760 --> 0:03:40.440 have yourself cremated, it's kind of like sticking your thumb 0:03:40.520 --> 0:03:43.520 up the because well because Catholic said you can't get 0:03:43.600 --> 0:03:46.120 cremated for a long time. Yeah, well it kind of 0:03:46.160 --> 0:03:50.320 contradicts the whole resurrection thing. Yeah, you know, like the 0:03:50.320 --> 0:03:53.240 body's kind of gotta be intact. It's like the one 0:03:53.320 --> 0:03:55.920 thing we can't do. You know. We can rise from 0:03:55.960 --> 0:03:59.480 the dead, but if your bird sorry, yeah, and you 0:03:59.480 --> 0:04:01.720 you don't want to come back and find that you're 0:04:01.800 --> 0:04:03.760 nothing but ashes, because you're going to be ticked off, 0:04:03.840 --> 0:04:08.320 right right. Uh. The actual creamator, the cremation chamber, which 0:04:08.360 --> 0:04:10.400 I like to call the cremator, even though it's not. 0:04:10.600 --> 0:04:13.320 It sounds like a crib star product from the Adventures 0:04:13.320 --> 0:04:15.720 of Pete and Pete it does. It was invented in 0:04:15.720 --> 0:04:19.960 the late eighteen hundreds by Professor Brunetti and Uh. It 0:04:20.120 --> 0:04:23.760 started in earnest in the United States in Pennsylvania in 0:04:23.800 --> 0:04:28.400 eighteen seventy six, when Pennsylvania is an non licensed state, still, 0:04:28.440 --> 0:04:30.640 which I thought was interesting. Is it really Well, there's 0:04:30.920 --> 0:04:32.960 a little bit of a scandal that we'll talk about 0:04:33.080 --> 0:04:37.800 later that. Um. Apparently, the the crematory business, you either 0:04:37.839 --> 0:04:41.960 have fine upstanding people or like come of the earth, yeah, 0:04:42.400 --> 0:04:46.400 running these places. Right, Yeah, let's talk about how this works, 0:04:46.400 --> 0:04:48.159 all right, Yeah, Well I got a step for you 0:04:48.200 --> 0:04:51.320 real quick though. As far as it's popularity, Um, in 0:04:51.440 --> 0:04:55.760 ninety three point six percent of bodies were cremated, and 0:04:56.000 --> 0:04:58.560 just a few years ago that numbers at thirty and 0:04:58.560 --> 0:05:01.880 they expected to be half. Right. Well, there's a lot 0:05:01.920 --> 0:05:04.400 of a lot of reasons why, right, I mean, we're 0:05:04.480 --> 0:05:07.559 running out of land. Um. There's a lot of people 0:05:07.560 --> 0:05:11.080 who think that burials aren't so green, which is true. Yeah, 0:05:11.240 --> 0:05:14.520 um yeah, because they use like, you know, really nice 0:05:14.560 --> 0:05:17.279 woods and metals, and you have to pour cement lining 0:05:18.000 --> 0:05:20.719 the bodies, embalms, so it's going to eventually leak out 0:05:20.760 --> 0:05:23.640 all of those things. Right. We'll talk later about whether 0:05:23.720 --> 0:05:29.080 or not cremations green and the spoilers it's not sort 0:05:29.120 --> 0:05:31.000 of is, but it's not well it's not green, but 0:05:31.240 --> 0:05:35.000 it's definitely not green. It's not brown either, it's not black. 0:05:35.080 --> 0:05:40.560 It's somewhere between. So chuckers, you're ready to talk. Yeah, Like, 0:05:40.680 --> 0:05:44.800 just the actual process is pretty gruesome. Um. Initially they 0:05:44.800 --> 0:05:47.480 store the body in a cool room just to keep 0:05:47.520 --> 0:05:51.080 it nice and fresh for the cremation. Um. It's usually 0:05:51.120 --> 0:05:54.200 examined by a coroner and they have to like sign 0:05:54.240 --> 0:05:56.039 off and say this is good to go, because you 0:05:56.040 --> 0:05:58.320 can't exhume the body later on if you need to. 0:05:59.160 --> 0:06:02.760 So no accidental death that hasn't been fully vetted, like 0:06:02.800 --> 0:06:05.960 I imagine, they wouldn't cremate like someone that was had 0:06:05.960 --> 0:06:08.760 any kind of relation to a crime or anything like that, 0:06:09.120 --> 0:06:12.279 at least not for a long time. Uh. And then 0:06:12.560 --> 0:06:15.039 what happens is they remove some things from your body. 0:06:15.160 --> 0:06:24.279 If you have the following pacemaker, breast implants, silicon breast implants, prothesis, 0:06:25.160 --> 0:06:28.760 or cancer seeds, the little radioactive seeds that they inject 0:06:28.800 --> 0:06:31.280 into a tumor and then shoot with like a laser 0:06:32.040 --> 0:06:34.679 or a radio frequency generator. Yeah, none of this stuff 0:06:34.760 --> 0:06:37.040 is good for for cremation, so they remove that from 0:06:37.040 --> 0:06:41.080 your body. But there's some things that can't be removed well, 0:06:41.080 --> 0:06:43.320 they could remove it, but they tend not to each 0:06:44.120 --> 0:06:49.280 fillings mercury fillings, yeah, jewelry and glasses like some people want, 0:06:49.400 --> 0:06:51.440 like you would be buried with your glasses on. They 0:06:51.480 --> 0:06:54.080 want you cremated with your glasses. Right. But in some countries, 0:06:54.120 --> 0:06:55.520 I didn't look this up, so I don't know what 0:06:55.560 --> 0:06:59.360 countries there are laws against anybody who's cremating a body 0:06:59.440 --> 0:07:02.600 from touch anything on the body, right, right, you gotta 0:07:02.640 --> 0:07:04.840 do it how you get it right, that's what they 0:07:04.839 --> 0:07:06.320 say on the shirt. So you can buy I think 0:07:06.320 --> 0:07:09.160 in the gift shop. Uh. And then they put the 0:07:09.200 --> 0:07:12.840 body once it's been removed, these things into a flammable 0:07:12.880 --> 0:07:16.960 box like a pine or cardboard box or one made 0:07:16.960 --> 0:07:21.280 of hairy man. They slide it into the incinerator is 0:07:21.280 --> 0:07:25.800 already preheated, by the way, yes, to at least degrees fahrenheight, 0:07:26.120 --> 0:07:29.400 which is five degrees celsius. I think, off the top 0:07:29.440 --> 0:07:33.600 of my head. Um, and that's hot, chuck, it's gotta 0:07:33.640 --> 0:07:35.840 be hot. But that's not like you don't just put 0:07:35.880 --> 0:07:38.560 the body in and then it just burns. It just 0:07:38.640 --> 0:07:43.640 catches fire. Right now, they actually shoot a column of 0:07:43.760 --> 0:07:46.960 flame at the torso like a jet engine. Yeah, basically, 0:07:47.120 --> 0:07:49.320 So once the body's in what's it called the retort, 0:07:50.040 --> 0:07:52.000 It's called a retort. They slide it in there on 0:07:52.040 --> 0:07:55.400 the old metal rollers and uh families. Sometimes you can 0:07:55.400 --> 0:07:59.240 watch this process through the window if you want, and 0:07:59.320 --> 0:08:01.840 if you're hinder you and if it's a Hindu cremation, 0:08:01.880 --> 0:08:04.840 you can actually push go right. Yeah, I guess to 0:08:04.920 --> 0:08:08.400 start the column of flame, right you just like so long? Yeah? 0:08:09.360 --> 0:08:16.200 So here ant tina Hindu. Uh So the door is 0:08:16.240 --> 0:08:18.760 sealed up obviously. Um, like you said, they aim at 0:08:18.760 --> 0:08:21.240 your torso and then this is what happens. This is 0:08:21.280 --> 0:08:24.920 the gruesome part um as you would expect when you 0:08:24.960 --> 0:08:28.600 have a jet engine jet flame shot at your torso. 0:08:30.240 --> 0:08:33.800 It ignites the container initially, obviously, your body starts to 0:08:33.880 --> 0:08:37.319 dry out all that water that's in your body pretty quick. Yeah. 0:08:37.360 --> 0:08:41.000 I would imagine your soft tissue tightens up, it burns up, 0:08:41.080 --> 0:08:45.440 and it vaporizes. Your skin discolors and blisters and splits, 0:08:46.120 --> 0:08:49.760 just like a broad worth on a grill. Yeah, exactly. 0:08:50.880 --> 0:08:54.079 The muscle chars, it flexes, and your limbs actually can 0:08:54.160 --> 0:08:57.880 extend like your limbs are moving. I looked all over 0:08:57.920 --> 0:09:00.760 the place to find the discussions of about this stuff 0:09:00.960 --> 0:09:03.160 about like a body sitting up. That's the closest thing 0:09:03.160 --> 0:09:05.040 I saw was does a body sit up? I think 0:09:05.080 --> 0:09:08.080 it was a wicky answer, so that it has zero credibility. 0:09:08.120 --> 0:09:11.520 But if you're if your muscles are contracting or tightening 0:09:11.600 --> 0:09:13.959 or doing anything like, yeah, your arms can go up. 0:09:14.000 --> 0:09:17.400 And I mean imagine the people eight and eight thousand 0:09:17.400 --> 0:09:20.560 BC in China. They're like, wait, they're not dead, They're 0:09:20.600 --> 0:09:23.360 like yeah. At a goldfish, I tried to flush one 0:09:23.400 --> 0:09:25.520 time and I put him in and he started swimming again, 0:09:26.040 --> 0:09:28.000 and then I'd put him back in the tank and 0:09:28.000 --> 0:09:30.440 he just floated. So it was just like the water 0:09:30.520 --> 0:09:33.040 most and those well, no, I didn't flush it like 0:09:33.080 --> 0:09:34.400 I would when I put him in the toilet. He 0:09:34.400 --> 0:09:37.480 started moving every single time. It was weird. That is weird. 0:09:37.559 --> 0:09:41.040 I'm pretty convinced he was dead though. Are he was 0:09:41.080 --> 0:09:42.600 by the time I froze him in a block of ice? 0:09:42.880 --> 0:09:45.480 You'll find out when you get to heaven. That's right. Um, 0:09:45.600 --> 0:09:48.600 So your muscles have charred and tightened, and your limbs 0:09:48.600 --> 0:09:52.000 are flailing about, and your bones, obviously you're the last 0:09:52.040 --> 0:09:55.520 thing to go, and they are calcified and then kind 0:09:55.520 --> 0:09:58.040 of just flake off and crumble into little bone bits, yeah, 0:09:58.120 --> 0:10:01.920 and chuck. Uh. The bone that are uh or the 0:10:01.960 --> 0:10:04.880 stuff that is left are these charred bones that are 0:10:05.240 --> 0:10:06.920 really it doesn't take a whole lot, I think to 0:10:07.000 --> 0:10:09.559 pulverize them, but it does take an extra step and 0:10:09.600 --> 0:10:12.000 they actually do hold their shape. So you go from 0:10:12.240 --> 0:10:14.680 a body in a box to like a charred skeleton 0:10:15.360 --> 0:10:18.080 is what it ultimately comes down to. And you either 0:10:18.200 --> 0:10:22.360 rake or sweep the remaining like bone material into something 0:10:22.400 --> 0:10:26.320 called the cremulator clemulator, and that is the that's a 0:10:26.360 --> 0:10:30.760 grinder that grinds up everything and pulverizes into this fine 0:10:30.920 --> 0:10:36.160 grainy actually coarse grainy powder. Yeah. They described it as 0:10:36.200 --> 0:10:38.600 like um ash is sort of a weird word because 0:10:38.600 --> 0:10:41.360 it's not like like charred ash from your fire. It's 0:10:41.400 --> 0:10:43.720 it's more like gravel, they said, like little tiny bits 0:10:43.720 --> 0:10:48.280 of gravel because it's pulverized bone. Right, um. And it 0:10:48.440 --> 0:10:51.560 usually takes about two to three hours, depending on the 0:10:51.679 --> 0:10:56.440 kind of uh creamatory I guess whatever machine you put 0:10:56.440 --> 0:10:59.280 it in. Yeah, there's different kinds, right, and how big 0:10:59.320 --> 0:11:01.560 your bones are to that has something to do with 0:11:01.559 --> 0:11:05.040 it too. But also um, I found that it depends 0:11:05.080 --> 0:11:08.440 on the level of Well, there's there's something called the 0:11:08.679 --> 0:11:15.120 um Entertech four. You should go on to Matthew's crematorium 0:11:15.160 --> 0:11:18.400 dot com. They have specs and it's just weird because 0:11:18.440 --> 0:11:22.720 these guys are like selling their crematorium. Uh, and here's 0:11:22.760 --> 0:11:24.600 all the specs for him. And this thing is like 0:11:24.720 --> 0:11:27.400 state of the art. Intertech four is um and it 0:11:27.440 --> 0:11:30.240 burns body and no more than seventy five minutes. Really, 0:11:30.800 --> 0:11:33.480 that's pretty good. That must have been the modern ones 0:11:33.520 --> 0:11:35.439 that they say are all like automated. Now, well they 0:11:35.480 --> 0:11:38.560 also sell them ones that burn the body in four hours. 0:11:39.200 --> 0:11:41.120 So it's like low end to high end. Okay, you 0:11:41.160 --> 0:11:43.600 know what I mean. Pay for what you get UM. 0:11:43.640 --> 0:11:45.400 And at the end of this whole process, you're gonna 0:11:45.480 --> 0:11:48.120 end up with about three to nine pounds of ash. 0:11:48.360 --> 0:11:50.960 And that's actually that's where it depends on your bones. 0:11:51.000 --> 0:11:53.000 They say it doesn't matter like how fat you are, 0:11:53.480 --> 0:11:55.640 because I think that burns away pretty easily. Yeah, I 0:11:55.640 --> 0:11:58.640 would think. So it's like your bone structure. Yeah, bones 0:11:58.679 --> 0:12:34.280 tough to burn, I guess. So, so chuck. These things. 0:12:34.520 --> 0:12:38.400 We said that they are preheated to about degrees right, 0:12:38.440 --> 0:12:40.960 but they get up to about two thousand. So you 0:12:41.000 --> 0:12:43.240 can't just build this thing. You can't build an inner 0:12:43.320 --> 0:12:48.040 tech or whatever you're building out of UM regular brick 0:12:48.120 --> 0:12:50.040 or somement or something like that. I think it explode 0:12:50.080 --> 0:12:52.560 the first time you tried to do this. So they 0:12:52.840 --> 0:12:58.439 specialized composite brick material. And actually, over time the interior 0:12:58.440 --> 0:13:01.440 will be eaten away by the heat and the expansion 0:13:01.480 --> 0:13:05.319 and contraction will actually lose surface. So apparently what's recommended 0:13:05.400 --> 0:13:08.520 is after UM the bricks lose about half of their width, 0:13:08.920 --> 0:13:11.200 they have to be replaced. Yeah, and it sounds kind 0:13:11.200 --> 0:13:13.360 of crude, but the way it's described in the article, 0:13:13.400 --> 0:13:15.280 and the way I've heard it described is it's it's 0:13:15.280 --> 0:13:17.720 sort of like a pizza oven. Yeah, they're made of 0:13:17.760 --> 0:13:23.640 similar things. Cooka pizza, cookad body, cooka body. So these 0:13:23.640 --> 0:13:29.000 things go for a two fifty thousand something like that. UM, 0:13:29.040 --> 0:13:33.000 and they use natural gas or propane or um propane 0:13:33.040 --> 0:13:37.320 accessories or diesel. I've seen UM. But they used to 0:13:37.360 --> 0:13:40.160 burn coal, and I imagine that was a real pain 0:13:41.400 --> 0:13:43.920 in generated body. Back in the sixties. I think they 0:13:43.920 --> 0:13:46.560 were still using coal. Gotta keep stoking that fire. Right. 0:13:46.960 --> 0:13:49.560 Another thing I thought was cool was UM, and I 0:13:49.600 --> 0:13:51.480 started thinking too. When you when you burn a fire, 0:13:51.520 --> 0:13:53.880 obviously you see ashes kind of floating all over the place, 0:13:53.960 --> 0:13:56.080 and I thought, well, surely they've got a you know, 0:13:56.200 --> 0:13:58.719 account for that when you're burning a body, and they do, 0:13:58.880 --> 0:14:03.160 they ignite a second flame in a side chamber and 0:14:03.280 --> 0:14:06.880 that burns off dust that's trying to escape the retort, 0:14:07.240 --> 0:14:10.680 and some of them even shoot water at the top 0:14:10.720 --> 0:14:12.559 to make sure none of the dust escapes out of 0:14:12.600 --> 0:14:15.400 the top of the plume. I guess it's called wet scrubbing. 0:14:15.600 --> 0:14:18.360 Wet scrubbing. What else do we do? Oh, that was 0:14:18.400 --> 0:14:22.080 the a fluoride thing, right, keepscrubbing the inside of the 0:14:22.400 --> 0:14:27.200 and carbon sequestion sequestration. Yeah, my brain is getting too 0:14:27.200 --> 0:14:29.480 full these days. I too. We need to stop doing 0:14:29.480 --> 0:14:32.960 the show. And after it's all done, you can actually 0:14:33.040 --> 0:14:37.120 get remains, cremated remains. And I found that they say 0:14:37.120 --> 0:14:39.720 that you shouldn't call them cremaines. That's what the the 0:14:39.800 --> 0:14:42.800 c A n A says. Why they just say, it's 0:14:42.800 --> 0:14:46.160 sort of a crude thing that people non industry people say, 0:14:46.200 --> 0:14:48.720 let's just shorten it. And they're like, they think it's disrespected, 0:14:49.360 --> 0:14:51.560 so we won't say the word cremains. But you can 0:14:51.600 --> 0:14:54.840 have your cremated remains mailed to you via USPS if 0:14:54.840 --> 0:14:57.520 you want, but that's it in the United States. Yeah, 0:14:57.720 --> 0:15:00.640 you can't do it via FedEx or up Yes, or 0:15:00.840 --> 0:15:04.400 you can't if they know what's in the box. Um, 0:15:04.480 --> 0:15:07.400 and I couldn't find out why. There's no explanation on 0:15:07.520 --> 0:15:10.880 ups IS or fedexercite. They just say you can't, we 0:15:10.920 --> 0:15:15.640 won't ship that. They also won't ship a disinterred body. Well, 0:15:15.800 --> 0:15:18.800 thank goodness for that, I guess. But um, the only 0:15:18.800 --> 0:15:20.760 thing I could the only suggestion I could find why 0:15:20.760 --> 0:15:24.840 they wouldn't do this, You can't ensure cremated remains. Oh yeah, 0:15:24.840 --> 0:15:28.040 that's probably it, which I imagine they ensure everything somehow, 0:15:28.320 --> 0:15:30.160 and they want to get hit with a lawsuit, right 0:15:30.240 --> 0:15:33.680 because people get mad when you lose their Yeah. Probably so. 0:15:34.040 --> 0:15:36.080 The other cool thing about the USPS, though, is that 0:15:36.400 --> 0:15:37.960 they make sure to point out that it's got to 0:15:38.000 --> 0:15:40.840 be a sift proof box. You don't want like ashes 0:15:40.920 --> 0:15:42.520 leaking out the side, and you have to have like 0:15:42.560 --> 0:15:44.840 somebody's got a sign for it. Right. So usually if 0:15:44.880 --> 0:15:47.560 you don't get an urn or whatever, when when you 0:15:47.600 --> 0:15:52.080 get your cremated remains, Um, the crematorium will have them 0:15:52.120 --> 0:15:55.640 in like basically a plastic bag inside maybe a plastic 0:15:55.680 --> 0:15:59.600 line box designed to hold this kind of thing, right, Yeah, 0:15:59.640 --> 0:16:03.400 and they're maybe just like very small remnants of other 0:16:03.480 --> 0:16:06.160 people with your remains. Like they do the best job 0:16:06.160 --> 0:16:08.840 they can. They burn one body at a time. Um, 0:16:08.880 --> 0:16:10.200 like you know, if you're on the up and up, 0:16:10.600 --> 0:16:14.440 as a good cremator should be. But inevitably, when you're 0:16:14.440 --> 0:16:16.360 talking about ash and you're sweeping it out, there might 0:16:16.360 --> 0:16:18.280 be a little bit of Joe mixed in with Harry, 0:16:18.320 --> 0:16:20.200 if you know what I mean. Well, I know what 0:16:20.240 --> 0:16:24.200 you mean, so chuck it. Also, I guess the industry 0:16:24.240 --> 0:16:27.720 standard is just like you don't want to switch babies 0:16:27.720 --> 0:16:30.120 in the hospital at the other end of life, you 0:16:30.160 --> 0:16:34.760 don't want to switch cremated remains of dead people. So 0:16:34.800 --> 0:16:37.400 apparently they'll stick a tag in your mouth like a 0:16:37.400 --> 0:16:40.120 metal disc, or they'll put it somewhere on your person 0:16:40.480 --> 0:16:43.240 so that when you're when you're melted down, this thing 0:16:43.320 --> 0:16:46.840 is still there so you can be identified. Um, you've 0:16:46.840 --> 0:16:49.400 got paperwork that goes with you from the moment you 0:16:49.440 --> 0:16:51.520 come to the crematorium of the moment you leave. That's 0:16:51.520 --> 0:16:56.000 supposed to be with you every step of the way. Um, 0:16:56.120 --> 0:16:59.440 and there's basically all this is supposed to avoid a 0:16:59.480 --> 0:17:03.119 mix up, right, You're supposed to It doesn't always, especially 0:17:03.120 --> 0:17:08.480 when the crematorium operator or owner isn't on the up 0:17:08.480 --> 0:17:10.240 and up, as you said. And there's been plenty of 0:17:10.280 --> 0:17:12.399 examples of that, haven't there been. Yeah. I was a 0:17:12.400 --> 0:17:16.000 little alarmed to find out how little regulation goes on 0:17:16.080 --> 0:17:19.479 in some states. Yeah, only until the Tri States tri 0:17:19.600 --> 0:17:26.080 state crematorium scandal of I think two. Did Georgia close 0:17:26.520 --> 0:17:29.320 its loopholes and now all crematoriums have to be licensed 0:17:29.320 --> 0:17:31.720 by the state. Yeah, in Georgia. But and and I 0:17:31.840 --> 0:17:34.160 actually got a different number here she said, twenty three 0:17:34.160 --> 0:17:37.480 of the fifty states license, I've actually got only eight 0:17:37.600 --> 0:17:40.240 do not license, is what I found. Oh well, that's 0:17:40.320 --> 0:17:44.080 that's cuttering. But if you look all of these, um, 0:17:44.280 --> 0:17:48.440 the examples in this article are in the two thousands. 0:17:48.440 --> 0:17:52.400 So I wonder if that caused like a state expansion 0:17:52.440 --> 0:17:56.520 and crematorium regulation reform. I would say so because if 0:17:56.520 --> 0:17:58.200 you what happened in Georgia will tell you a sec 0:17:58.280 --> 0:18:00.320 But if you see this on the news and you're 0:18:00.359 --> 0:18:04.200 in like Pennsylvania, they don't want that kind of news. 0:18:04.280 --> 0:18:07.040 Hitting their state, so I would imagine it probably spurred 0:18:07.080 --> 0:18:11.840 some some action Pennsylvania, Bud I did. We'll talk about 0:18:11.840 --> 0:18:16.200 the Georgia guy first, Mary Brent Marsh, Yeah, pleaded guilty 0:18:16.280 --> 0:18:20.879 and apologized. Yeah, he he owned a CREMATORI UM in 0:18:21.040 --> 0:18:24.199 Noble Georgia, and neither Chuck Nora, I know where that is, 0:18:24.720 --> 0:18:28.840 so don't ask. UM. I think it's a probably in 0:18:28.880 --> 0:18:33.160 the north west, because it's where Tennessee, Georgia, and Alabama 0:18:33.160 --> 0:18:35.720 come together, which is why you call it try state crematorium. 0:18:35.720 --> 0:18:38.640 He was serving all three states, UM, and in all 0:18:38.680 --> 0:18:43.000 three states the bodies of the beloved deceased were basically 0:18:43.440 --> 0:18:48.040 half buried out in the backyard because the cremator broke 0:18:48.080 --> 0:18:50.560 down and they just never got it fixed. Yeah, the 0:18:50.560 --> 0:18:54.000 incinerator broke and so I think three d and thirty 0:18:54.080 --> 0:18:59.359 six bodies in total were found and UM I found 0:18:59.359 --> 0:19:04.320 the Originally they could only charge him with accepting money 0:19:04.359 --> 0:19:06.880 and fraud for services not rendered. Yeah, there was no 0:19:07.080 --> 0:19:08.840 there was no law in the books. They hit him 0:19:08.840 --> 0:19:11.080 with some other stuff though I think it must have 0:19:11.080 --> 0:19:13.199 come out after this article. He was actually charged with 0:19:13.720 --> 0:19:18.000 almost eight hundred counts of theft and abuse of a corpse, 0:19:18.600 --> 0:19:21.120 so they actually charging with stealing these corpses. You don't 0:19:21.119 --> 0:19:23.320 want to go to prison within an abuse of a 0:19:23.359 --> 0:19:26.080 corpse wrap on your head. They'll find out about that. Yeah, 0:19:26.160 --> 0:19:28.959 and he was sentenced to eight thousand years in prison 0:19:29.720 --> 0:19:33.680 and UM plea bargain that down to twelve years. Somehow 0:19:34.080 --> 0:19:37.520 did you say eight thousand years? That was almost a 0:19:37.600 --> 0:19:41.679 spit take that you were drinking your deep drink and 0:19:41.720 --> 0:19:44.680 you almost fit it out. Uh So yeah, eight thousand 0:19:44.720 --> 0:19:46.920 down to twelve, which is pretty good deal for him. 0:19:47.040 --> 0:19:50.840 Um there was a thirty six million dollar settlement from 0:19:50.920 --> 0:19:53.480 fifty eight funeral homes that sent bodies to the sky, 0:19:53.760 --> 0:19:56.400 so they sued the funeral homes and then they brought 0:19:56.400 --> 0:20:01.200 a suit, an eighty million dollar civil suits settlement against um, 0:20:01.240 --> 0:20:04.880 this guy and his father's estate. And they probably don't 0:20:04.880 --> 0:20:06.399 have that kind of does, so they're probably gonna do 0:20:06.480 --> 0:20:08.280 what happens when that happens, which is you go after 0:20:08.320 --> 0:20:11.720 the insurance company. Oh yeah, the Georgia farm. But the 0:20:11.760 --> 0:20:15.159 guy didn't even get around to having the incinerator fixed. 0:20:15.720 --> 0:20:19.119 He didn't have eighty millions. He's got three bodies in 0:20:19.160 --> 0:20:21.920 his backyard. But yeah, so he's uh he's in jail 0:20:22.000 --> 0:20:25.280 right now. As far as yeah, almost for eight thousand years. 0:20:26.119 --> 0:20:28.720 That's a long sentence. You said Pennsylvania didn't want that 0:20:28.960 --> 0:20:32.040 to happen. Probably it did. In two thousand five. What 0:20:32.080 --> 0:20:35.040 happened there There was a guy who ran a crematorium 0:20:35.040 --> 0:20:37.320 and he had a he had a deal with the 0:20:37.400 --> 0:20:42.960 local women's hospital to cremate the remains of pre term babies, 0:20:43.359 --> 0:20:47.760 basically aborted fetuses. This guy's job was to incinerate him. 0:20:47.760 --> 0:20:50.520 It's probably not a fun contract to sign. No, even 0:20:50.560 --> 0:20:52.120 if that's the way you make your money, you can't 0:20:52.160 --> 0:20:55.080 feel great about like closing that deal, right, yeah, yeah, 0:20:55.160 --> 0:20:58.480 you don't go out for a big fat steak um 0:20:58.680 --> 0:21:01.199 the thor and he's I guess we're tipped off. And 0:21:01.240 --> 0:21:04.639 they went into his garage and found in boxes the 0:21:04.760 --> 0:21:09.440 remains of three hundred fetuses. Actually nineteen of them were 0:21:09.480 --> 0:21:14.240 post term really, so they were born children um that 0:21:14.280 --> 0:21:16.200 he was supposed to cremate, and he didn't. But he 0:21:16.320 --> 0:21:20.160 could only get them on nineteen counts because they're unborn, 0:21:20.960 --> 0:21:24.040 so he couldn't. They weren't technically human beings under the 0:21:24.080 --> 0:21:26.120 eyes of the loss, so he didn't get anything for those. 0:21:26.160 --> 0:21:28.760 But for the nineteen he he got in some trouble 0:21:29.800 --> 0:21:31.439 in his body. I don't know, but he had him 0:21:31.480 --> 0:21:33.639 in boxes in his garage to which is apparently the 0:21:33.800 --> 0:21:37.240 m O of the shady crematorium operator. Yeah, I hope 0:21:37.240 --> 0:21:39.000 they threw the book at him. Oh yeah, I'm sure 0:21:39.000 --> 0:21:41.560 they did. That makes me angry. Uh can't you tell 0:21:41.560 --> 0:21:44.600 how angry at him? Um? In Lake Elson or California, 0:21:44.680 --> 0:21:48.680 Josh in two thousand three, a a dodgy owner was 0:21:48.720 --> 0:21:53.240 selling body parts for medical research, like heads to people, 0:21:53.720 --> 0:21:57.000 which means that he was cutting these heads off. Oh yeah, 0:21:57.040 --> 0:21:59.760 and he was sentenced to twenty years in prison and 0:22:00.040 --> 0:22:04.560 does say just say Prisson. And then in Mississippi, Uh, 0:22:04.600 --> 0:22:08.800 there was a really nice guy named Mark Seep who 0:22:09.160 --> 0:22:13.040 was mixing human remains together, giving out wrong ashes, dumping 0:22:13.080 --> 0:22:15.800 them into trash bends. And he was found guilty and 0:22:15.800 --> 0:22:18.600 put in jail to Yeah did you say that, um Marie, 0:22:18.680 --> 0:22:22.399 Brent Marsh was giving people wood, ash and cement. I 0:22:22.400 --> 0:22:24.320 didn't mention that, but yeah, that's what he did. Yeah, 0:22:24.320 --> 0:22:25.840 Because I mean it's not like he was just like, 0:22:25.880 --> 0:22:28.399 oh I got nothing and they burned up entirely. He 0:22:28.480 --> 0:22:31.320 was like, here's some cement. And an urn. Thanks for 0:22:31.359 --> 0:22:34.520