Speaker 1: Welcome to Brainstuff production of I Heart Radio. Hey Brainstuff
Speaker 1: Lauren Vogelbaum here. Politicians are under a lot of scrutiny
Speaker 1: these days for everything from their tweets to their fashion choices.
Speaker 1: Times sure have changed since the eighteen nineties, when a
Speaker 1: new governor could show up to his inauguration proudly sporting
Speaker 1: shoes made from the skin of a hanged human felon.
Speaker 1: The skin in question belonged to an outlaw known by
Speaker 1: the name of George Parrot or Big Nosed George, who
Speaker 1: was hanged in Rawlins, Wyoming. In one he had tried
Speaker 1: and failed to rob a train and subsequently killed two
Speaker 1: of the lamen who came after him. Before this incident, George,
Speaker 1: whose nose by all accounts was really remarkably large, was
Speaker 1: just as small time horse thief. But after fleeing to
Speaker 1: Montana following the murders and botched robbery, he robbed the
Speaker 1: military calm boy of a local merchant who was traveling
Speaker 1: back east with a bunch of cash. This successful hall
Speaker 1: saw Parrot get cocky. He returned to the town where
Speaker 1: the merchant was from, went into a saloon and started
Speaker 1: bragging about the robbery and murders back in Wyoming. This
Speaker 1: boasting resulted in his eventual capture and returned to Wyoming. There,
Speaker 1: he unsuccessfully tried to escape from prison and was then
Speaker 1: lynched and hanged on a telegraph poll by an angry
Speaker 1: mob of more than two hundred people. After Parrot's death,
Speaker 1: nobody showed up to claim the body, so one John Osborne,
Speaker 1: the doctor who had pronounced him dead, took his body
Speaker 1: home for medical study. Corpses variously obtained were popular learning
Speaker 1: and teaching materials at the time. Osborne extracted Parrot's brain
Speaker 1: and gave it to a friend, the surgeon Thomas McGee,
Speaker 1: who wanted to study whether signs of criminality show up
Speaker 1: in brain structures. Osbourne also sawed off the top portion
Speaker 1: of George's skull and gave it to one Lillian heat,
Speaker 1: a then fifteen year old girl who would go on
Speaker 1: to become Wyoming's first female physician. She reportedly kept it
Speaker 1: her entire life, using it at different times as an
Speaker 1: ash tray and a doorstop. The bottom portion of parrots
Speaker 1: skull Osborne put in a barrel with the rest of
Speaker 1: the bones. Not one to waste any part of the
Speaker 1: outlaw's corpse Osborne then skinned Parrot's body and had a
Speaker 1: pair of shoes and a medical bag made out of
Speaker 1: this human skin. Years later, Osborne entered politics and was
Speaker 1: elected governor of Wyoming. To his inauguration, he wore the
Speaker 1: shoes that a dozen years earlier had been a man
Speaker 1: talk about a political statement. That very footwear is now
Speaker 1: on display along with the death mask that Osborne cast
Speaker 1: after parent's death, in the Carbon County Museum in Rawlings, Wyoming.
Speaker 1: The bag, however, has never been found. Today's episode was
Speaker 1: written by Jesselyn Shields and produced by Tyler Clang. For
Speaker 1: more on this and lots of other topics, visit how
Speaker 1: Stuff works dot com. If you'd like to hear more
Speaker 1: about the story of Big Nose George Parrot, we did
Speaker 1: an episode about him over on one of my other podcasts,
Speaker 1: American Shadows, look for the episode dead Ends. Brain Stuff
Speaker 1: is production of I Heart Radio. For more podcasts in
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