WEBVTT - William Jansen, a King Among Ghouls 0:00:03.279 --> 0:00:06.920 Welcome to Criminalia, a production of Shonda Land Audio in 0:00:07.000 --> 0:00:16.440 partnership with I Heart Radio. He was hardly the only 0:00:16.560 --> 0:00:20.119 professional body snatcher or resurrection man as the press like 0:00:20.200 --> 0:00:21.840 to call him in Washington, d C. In the late 0:00:21.880 --> 0:00:25.000 nineteenth century, but he's definitely one of the most colorful 0:00:25.320 --> 0:00:28.120 and his name lives on today. Welcome to Criminalia. I'm 0:00:28.160 --> 0:00:32.479 Maria tram Marquis and I'm Holly Fry. Let's talk about it. 0:00:32.560 --> 0:00:36.520 Man named William M. Jansen, also known as Vigo Ross, 0:00:36.880 --> 0:00:43.479 Vigo Jansen, Vigo Jansen Ross, and sometimes even James Jardine Jansen, 0:00:43.760 --> 0:00:46.480 was a Danish immigrant who became one of the most 0:00:46.560 --> 0:00:50.240 famous or infamous body snatchers along the East coast of 0:00:50.280 --> 0:00:54.640 the United States during the nineteenth century. He claimed to 0:00:54.760 --> 0:00:57.520 have had medical training in his native country, and some 0:00:57.720 --> 0:01:01.920 reports do refer to him as a talented practitioner, which 0:01:02.000 --> 0:01:04.679 seems to back up that claim. Maybe not. It is 0:01:04.720 --> 0:01:08.240 also said, though, that his alcoholism and not really any 0:01:08.360 --> 0:01:11.440 questions about his medical training, was what kept him from 0:01:11.440 --> 0:01:14.959 practicing in the United States. But right now we're not 0:01:15.080 --> 0:01:18.160 interested in either of those things. Actually, what we do 0:01:18.240 --> 0:01:22.119 know at some point is Jansen, who was probably pronounced 0:01:22.120 --> 0:01:25.680 as Johnson in his native country, but it gets americanized, 0:01:25.720 --> 0:01:28.520 so we're going with that. But he became known here 0:01:29.120 --> 0:01:34.399 as Jansen, the Resurrectionist and even the resurrection King. Jansen 0:01:34.440 --> 0:01:36.840 was a professional body snatcher who dug up graves in 0:01:36.880 --> 0:01:39.640 burial grounds around Washington, d c. And sold the stolen 0:01:39.680 --> 0:01:43.560 corpses to local medical colleges and universities, and because there 0:01:43.600 --> 0:01:46.560 were several medical schools in Washington, the city became a 0:01:46.680 --> 0:01:49.800 kind of hub for such activity. He's also known to 0:01:49.840 --> 0:01:52.000 have said there was no better business to be in 0:01:52.080 --> 0:01:57.440 for making money. Courses in anatomy and dissection were prerequisites 0:01:57.520 --> 0:02:01.680 for all new medical students, and as enrollment grew, that 0:02:01.760 --> 0:02:05.680 requirement spurred the demand for bodies, and with an increase 0:02:05.720 --> 0:02:09.440 in demand came an increase in price. The city had 0:02:09.440 --> 0:02:12.640 a finite number of corpses to be disinterred, and each 0:02:12.680 --> 0:02:16.200 corpse was a hot commodity. According to one account, a 0:02:16.200 --> 0:02:20.040 local doctor who became a professional resurrectionist claimed that it 0:02:20.080 --> 0:02:23.520 was pretty standard to receive upwards of a hundred dollars 0:02:23.600 --> 0:02:27.040 per body sold, or about half that if the market 0:02:27.080 --> 0:02:30.119 was overloaded. You should take those numbers with a grain 0:02:30.200 --> 0:02:33.080 of salt. Though there's a different account of the profession 0:02:33.240 --> 0:02:36.040 that stated that bodies would be sold for about twenty 0:02:36.080 --> 0:02:39.800 dollars to local medical schools or hospitals for research purposes, 0:02:40.200 --> 0:02:42.919 and a completely different report says that the price for 0:02:43.040 --> 0:02:47.840 corpses typically ranged from fifteen dollars to twenty five dollars 0:02:48.080 --> 0:02:51.720 in Washington at the time, unskilled laborers could expect to 0:02:51.720 --> 0:02:54.240 make a couple of dollars a day. So you can 0:02:54.280 --> 0:02:58.520 see how body snatching would be pretty lucrative work. Regardless 0:02:58.639 --> 0:03:02.080 of which of the aforementioned price points is the most accurate, 0:03:02.720 --> 0:03:05.799 and any of these numbers are actually pretty good money 0:03:05.840 --> 0:03:09.800 for someone plying the body trade in the late nineteenth century. 0:03:10.040 --> 0:03:13.200 Jansen's exact years in operation are a little bit fuzzy, 0:03:13.240 --> 0:03:18.280 but he was absolutely operating in the eighteen eighties. Thomas Dwight, 0:03:18.560 --> 0:03:22.320 an American physician, anatomist, teacher, and the person known as 0:03:22.360 --> 0:03:25.800 the father of American forensic anthropology, was a critic of 0:03:25.840 --> 0:03:29.320 the resurrectionists. He spoke about the deplorable conditions of the 0:03:29.360 --> 0:03:32.600 trade and the immoral and unethical ways body snatchers made 0:03:32.600 --> 0:03:36.320 their money. We quote, not only has the professional body 0:03:36.320 --> 0:03:39.920 snatcher flourished, but a new figure has arisen, the dealer 0:03:40.000 --> 0:03:42.920 in dead bodies, who, either by theft or by corruption, 0:03:43.080 --> 0:03:44.960 is able to distribute them at a high rate of 0:03:44.960 --> 0:03:47.920 payment to colleges throughout the country. The history of the 0:03:47.920 --> 0:03:52.360 District of Columbia is in this respect a truly disgraceful one. 0:03:52.800 --> 0:03:55.880 We have had the demoralizing spectacle of some five hundred 0:03:55.920 --> 0:03:59.440 students among several schools, almost under the shadow of the capital, 0:04:00.040 --> 0:04:04.160 secting bodies that everyone knew had been illegally obtained. While 0:04:04.280 --> 0:04:09.080 many medical professionals commented similarly on the sheer audacity of 0:04:09.120 --> 0:04:12.560 this work, they also supplied the money to keep that supply. 0:04:12.680 --> 0:04:17.120 Chain Moving cadavers had become as indispensable to medicine as 0:04:17.160 --> 0:04:22.120 a surgeon's scalpel. Dissecting cadavers was important to understanding and 0:04:22.240 --> 0:04:26.080 learning human anatomy. But to be fair, no one found 0:04:26.120 --> 0:04:29.560 the dissection of human cadavers a pleasant undertaking. It was 0:04:29.640 --> 0:04:34.440 a necessary one. Scottish anatomist William Hunter said about it, quote, 0:04:34.680 --> 0:04:38.440 anatomy is the basis of surgery. It informs the head, 0:04:38.880 --> 0:04:42.279 guides the hand, and familiarizes the heart to a kind 0:04:42.320 --> 0:04:46.279 of necessary in humanity. Until the very end of the 0:04:46.320 --> 0:04:49.359 nineteenth century, the laws about grave robbing and body snatching 0:04:49.400 --> 0:04:52.800 were fairly lacks in Washington, d c. And by fairly 0:04:52.880 --> 0:04:56.520 lacks we mean there was no law against body snatching 0:04:56.560 --> 0:05:00.720 in the District of Columbia until the eighteen ninet As 0:05:00.760 --> 0:05:03.600 long as the resurrectionist left the victim's clothing and any 0:05:03.640 --> 0:05:07.520 other items behind, they couldn't be prosecuted for larceny. As 0:05:07.520 --> 0:05:10.320 a result, police who caught a body snatcher, even in 0:05:10.400 --> 0:05:13.719 the act of snatching a body, could only charge them 0:05:13.720 --> 0:05:17.159 with violation of some obscure or vaguely relevant law that 0:05:17.240 --> 0:05:20.760 brought about nothing more than a very minor penalty. Many 0:05:20.800 --> 0:05:23.960 resurrectionists in the city, though, took everything from the grave, 0:05:24.040 --> 0:05:28.960 which was a risky proposition, although probably easier than undressing 0:05:29.000 --> 0:05:31.679 a dead body. We are going to take a break 0:05:31.720 --> 0:05:34.080 here for a word from our sponsor, and when we're 0:05:34.120 --> 0:05:37.440 back we will talk about Jansen's first high profile job 0:05:38.000 --> 0:05:54.040 and arrest. Welcome back to Criminalia. Jansen's first big job 0:05:54.320 --> 0:05:59.200 wasn't his most famous job. Let's explain. Although he is 0:05:59.320 --> 0:06:01.720 best known for his work in the District of Columbia. 0:06:02.120 --> 0:06:06.919 William Jansen's first high profile body snatching job was in Baltimore, Maryland. 0:06:07.279 --> 0:06:10.040 That was in December of eighteen eighty and Jansen was 0:06:10.160 --> 0:06:14.400 arrested for snatching the corpses of two women, and Carter 0:06:14.600 --> 0:06:18.960 and Jenny Smith from the Baltimore Cemetery. But it wasn't 0:06:19.360 --> 0:06:22.280 because he was caught in the act of stealing these bodies. 0:06:22.320 --> 0:06:25.360 In fact, he was known to be pretty meticulous when 0:06:25.400 --> 0:06:28.600 it came to covering up his tracks. He was arrested 0:06:28.800 --> 0:06:31.960 after a relative of the deceased mother and daughter, a 0:06:32.000 --> 0:06:35.440 woman who was named Elizabeth Joyner, had a dream that 0:06:35.480 --> 0:06:39.159 their bodies had been stolen. She reported her dream to 0:06:39.160 --> 0:06:43.520 the authorities, and it turns out she was right. It's 0:06:43.560 --> 0:06:46.520 from reports of this case that we know Jansen's appearance. 0:06:46.720 --> 0:06:49.960 He was quote about five ft eight inches high, large 0:06:50.040 --> 0:06:54.320 robust frame, black hair, swarthy complexion, and with accountenance anything 0:06:54.360 --> 0:06:57.680 but open. He wore a long rubber coat, rubber boots, 0:06:57.680 --> 0:07:01.400 and heavy gloves to work. According to this same newspaper account, 0:07:01.440 --> 0:07:04.880 he also seemed to be perpetually drunk, possibly confirming the 0:07:04.920 --> 0:07:07.080 rumor we learned about him at the top of the episode. 0:07:07.839 --> 0:07:10.680 Of note, we also have learned so far this season 0:07:10.800 --> 0:07:13.200 that this seems to have been a kind of occupational 0:07:13.320 --> 0:07:18.320 hazard among body snatchers. One famous resurrectionist and we won't 0:07:18.400 --> 0:07:20.160 name names because he's on our list of people to 0:07:20.200 --> 0:07:23.480 talk about this season. He's quoted as saying he kept 0:07:23.480 --> 0:07:26.400 a bottle on his bedside table just in case he 0:07:26.440 --> 0:07:31.920 woke up. Resurrectionists, also called ghoules in media reports from 0:07:31.920 --> 0:07:34.920 the time, we're by nature a bold sort of person 0:07:35.360 --> 0:07:37.400 you needed to be for the kind of job you 0:07:37.440 --> 0:07:41.320 were trying to pull off every night. But Jansen was bold, 0:07:41.640 --> 0:07:46.920 all caps on that. In Washington, d c. In January three, 0:07:47.160 --> 0:07:50.560 he snatched the body of Charles Shaw, a nineteen year 0:07:50.560 --> 0:07:53.160 old black man who had been executed by hanging for 0:07:53.200 --> 0:07:56.560 the murder of his sister. He stole that body, and 0:07:56.640 --> 0:07:59.240 he sold it, and then he stole it a second time, 0:08:00.080 --> 0:08:04.240 and it all happened within thirty six hours of Shaw's execution. 0:08:05.080 --> 0:08:08.160 According to reports by the Washington Post, Shaw had been 0:08:08.200 --> 0:08:11.920 buried in Potter's Field shortly after his death. Just in 0:08:11.960 --> 0:08:14.600 case you don't know that term. A potter's field is 0:08:14.600 --> 0:08:18.360 a public burial place for the poor, or for unknown persons, 0:08:18.480 --> 0:08:22.320 or for criminals. It was daytime when Shaw was interred, 0:08:22.360 --> 0:08:25.400 so not the typical time of day when a resurrection 0:08:25.440 --> 0:08:29.120 man would normally work. Part of their entire success was 0:08:29.160 --> 0:08:32.280 that they worked under cover of darkness and could hide 0:08:32.280 --> 0:08:36.800 their activities and their faces. But within an hour after 0:08:36.880 --> 0:08:40.760 Shaw's burial, Jansen was on the scene exhuming the body 0:08:40.920 --> 0:08:45.160 in broad daylight. According to the post, Jansen joke quote, 0:08:45.480 --> 0:08:47.600 go and get the wagon and I will hold him. 0:08:47.840 --> 0:08:51.680 He can't get away from me now. The reporter wrote, quote, 0:08:51.720 --> 0:08:54.000 no other man on earth would have had the nerve 0:08:54.200 --> 0:08:58.000 to enter a cemetery in broad daylight and exume a corpse. 0:08:59.000 --> 0:09:03.360 What happened next wasn't typical for Jansen. Jensen felt he 0:09:03.360 --> 0:09:05.280 was cheated out of his share of profits during the 0:09:05.320 --> 0:09:07.600 sale of the corpse, which was to have been sold 0:09:07.640 --> 0:09:11.120 for eighteen dollars. The details of what happened when Shaw's 0:09:11.160 --> 0:09:14.520 corpse was sold to Georgetown berries among local news reports, 0:09:14.520 --> 0:09:18.000 though the first was like this. Jansen sent his assistant 0:09:18.000 --> 0:09:20.960 to sell Shaw's body to Georgetown Medical School and expected 0:09:21.000 --> 0:09:25.600 him to return with payment. But medical students at Georgetown 0:09:25.640 --> 0:09:28.560 refused to pay Jensen's asking price, and his assistant returned 0:09:28.559 --> 0:09:32.040 with only half of the agreed race. Jensen retaliated with 0:09:32.080 --> 0:09:35.440 a plan to steal the body back. The second goes 0:09:35.520 --> 0:09:39.720 like this. According to Jansen, he snatched Shaw's body in 0:09:39.760 --> 0:09:42.520 the company of a doctor Crook, who was a physician 0:09:42.600 --> 0:09:46.880 at Georgetown Medical School. Upon being received at Georgetown, the 0:09:46.960 --> 0:09:51.280 corpse was placed on a dissecting board, as was customary. 0:09:51.360 --> 0:09:55.079 According to the Post, the physicians and students divvied up 0:09:55.120 --> 0:09:59.559 and auctioned off parts of the cadaver. This sounds horrifying 0:10:00.000 --> 0:10:03.200 as leeve, but it was apparently pretty common practice upon 0:10:03.240 --> 0:10:06.760 receiving a new corpse at a medical school, different classes 0:10:06.760 --> 0:10:09.800 would be studying different parts of anatomy, so it makes 0:10:09.800 --> 0:10:12.800 sense that they could use one corpse for multiple purposes. 0:10:13.679 --> 0:10:16.960 Shaw's arms and legs, for instance, are reported to have 0:10:17.000 --> 0:10:20.080 been sold for three dollars each. When it came to 0:10:20.120 --> 0:10:24.000 the financial piece, Crook, it seemed to Jansen ended up 0:10:24.040 --> 0:10:28.680 pocketing most, if not all, of the money, and Jansen, angry, 0:10:28.760 --> 0:10:31.880 actually told a Post reporter quote, I will take that 0:10:31.920 --> 0:10:34.960 body out tonight if I am arrested in the attempt. 0:10:35.320 --> 0:10:37.920 It belongs to me. I got it and I have 0:10:38.040 --> 0:10:42.280 not been treated right. Whichever details you prefer, one thing 0:10:42.360 --> 0:10:45.240 is sure. Jansen was upset over the treatment of the 0:10:45.280 --> 0:10:48.720 body and the treatment of himself, and he did return 0:10:48.760 --> 0:10:51.760 to Georgetown Medical to take it back. The story diverges 0:10:51.800 --> 0:10:55.920 a bit here again. According to The Washington Post, Jansen 0:10:56.000 --> 0:10:59.439 needed another person to help him transport the body and 0:10:59.559 --> 0:11:02.760 hired him and named John Mack for the job. Mac 0:11:02.920 --> 0:11:05.320 was a local hack or hack Man that was a 0:11:05.360 --> 0:11:08.920 taxi driver at the time. For two dollars according to Mac, 0:11:09.120 --> 0:11:12.520 or five dollars according to Jansen, and a fresh bottle 0:11:12.520 --> 0:11:16.880 of whiskey. According to both accounts, Mac transported Jansen along 0:11:16.920 --> 0:11:20.200 with the cadaver to Freedman Hospital, which was very close 0:11:20.240 --> 0:11:24.400 to where you'll find present day Howard University. Unfortunately, though, 0:11:24.440 --> 0:11:28.880 that bottle of whiskey was their downfall. Apparently they traded 0:11:29.000 --> 0:11:31.640 and drank it at the same time. Because Mac was 0:11:31.760 --> 0:11:35.360 unable to complete the mission, he mistakenly took them to 0:11:35.440 --> 0:11:39.760 Colombian University's National Medical College, which is now George Washington 0:11:39.840 --> 0:11:43.160 Medical School, and that was about three miles away from 0:11:43.200 --> 0:11:47.480 the correct destination. By the time Jansen got them to Freedman, 0:11:47.679 --> 0:11:50.720 the sun was rising and Mac had a change of heart. 0:11:51.360 --> 0:11:53.760 He left the scene as soon as they arrived and 0:11:53.800 --> 0:11:57.080 reported Jansen at the second Precinct station on U Street, 0:11:57.400 --> 0:12:00.760 where he also turned Shaw's corpse over to the authorities. 0:12:01.559 --> 0:12:04.720 Jensen was arrested that same day and reportedly told the 0:12:04.800 --> 0:12:07.760 arresting officer quote, I've been expecting you. I knew he 0:12:07.800 --> 0:12:11.040 would come. He was arrested and charged with transporting a 0:12:11.120 --> 0:12:13.520 human corpse through the streets without a permit, but he 0:12:13.600 --> 0:12:17.400 was convicted of malicious trespass three days later. He was 0:12:17.440 --> 0:12:19.840 sentenced to eleven months and twenty nine days in jail. 0:12:21.000 --> 0:12:24.000 During his time in jail, Jansen spoke openly to the 0:12:24.040 --> 0:12:27.520 press about his career, claiming to have stolen and sold 0:12:27.559 --> 0:12:30.320 more than two hundred bodies in Washington, d c. And 0:12:30.360 --> 0:12:33.320 along the East Coast. It seems to have been a 0:12:33.320 --> 0:12:37.280 bit of a symbiotic relationship. The media loved a good story, 0:12:37.480 --> 0:12:41.000 and Jansen loved to talk to the media. He was 0:12:41.080 --> 0:12:43.800 friendly with several reporters at the Washington Post, and he 0:12:43.880 --> 0:12:47.319 really enjoyed giving interviews. We have already quoted him from 0:12:47.360 --> 0:12:50.280 a few that he gave, and he gave interviews as 0:12:50.320 --> 0:12:53.160 often as he could, it seems, boasting to the press 0:12:53.200 --> 0:12:57.080 about his exploits. Sometimes he tipped them off to a 0:12:57.120 --> 0:13:00.760 good body snatching story, but it was and just for ego. 0:13:01.240 --> 0:13:04.480 Jensen also spoke at length defending his profession, explaining how 0:13:04.520 --> 0:13:07.200 important it was to not only the medical community, but 0:13:07.320 --> 0:13:10.200 also to the health of the community at large. When 0:13:10.200 --> 0:13:12.960 you learn about him, it becomes clear pretty quickly that 0:13:13.080 --> 0:13:15.560 Jensen liked the money and the media attention that he 0:13:15.600 --> 0:13:19.439 afforded as a body snatcher. But by all accounts, Jansen 0:13:19.559 --> 0:13:21.600 also seemed to truly believe that the work he did 0:13:21.640 --> 0:13:24.840 as a resurrectionist was an important contribution to the advancement 0:13:24.840 --> 0:13:28.240 of medical science. We're going to take a break for 0:13:28.280 --> 0:13:31.160 a word from our sponsor, and when we return, we 0:13:31.240 --> 0:13:35.520 will talk about Jansen's retirement from body snatching and what 0:13:35.640 --> 0:13:50.560 he was doing on stage at the Theater Comique. Welcome 0:13:50.559 --> 0:13:54.280 back to Criminalia. Let's talk about William Jensen's change of 0:13:54.360 --> 0:13:59.240 career after his release from jail. So, after he got 0:13:59.240 --> 0:14:03.320 out of jail, and perhaps it's speculated inspired by the 0:14:03.400 --> 0:14:09.320 increasing legislation regarding body snatching, Jansen retired from his resurrectionist career. 0:14:10.200 --> 0:14:13.520 There's also some speculation that maybe he just lost interest, 0:14:13.720 --> 0:14:16.839 but there is also speculation that he could no longer 0:14:16.920 --> 0:14:19.480 do the work because he had become too well known. 0:14:20.360 --> 0:14:24.880 In eighty four, Jansen reportedly borrowed funds from Judge Henry Hilton, 0:14:25.200 --> 0:14:29.440 American jurist and businessman, and attempted to reinvent his career. 0:14:30.160 --> 0:14:34.680 He would become a lecturer about himself and it would 0:14:34.680 --> 0:14:39.280 be a series about his legendary career. On May eighteenth 0:14:39.360 --> 0:14:43.000 that year, he made his dramatic debut at the Theater Comique, 0:14:43.200 --> 0:14:46.600 which is a popular vaudeville theater in northwest Washington, d c. 0:14:47.280 --> 0:14:50.040 Less than a mile from the White House. The theater's 0:14:50.080 --> 0:14:53.600 motto was a feast awaits you fit for royalty at 0:14:53.640 --> 0:14:59.800 Plebeian prices, and they welcomed the Resurrection King to their stage. 0:15:00.040 --> 0:15:03.840 The show is described as half lecture and half demonstration 0:15:03.960 --> 0:15:06.560 of the life of a body snatcher. Jensen set the 0:15:06.600 --> 0:15:09.560 tone with his audience by saying, quote, no one respects 0:15:09.560 --> 0:15:11.840 a dead person more than I do, but some respect 0:15:11.920 --> 0:15:14.840 is due to the living. He suffered from stage fright 0:15:14.920 --> 0:15:18.320 and attendance was sparse. In fact, we think he may 0:15:18.400 --> 0:15:21.520 have performed for just one night, but accounts vary on 0:15:21.640 --> 0:15:25.240 that the show went like this. Jensen spoke about the 0:15:25.280 --> 0:15:28.760 scientific and medical benefits of his work, and he closed 0:15:28.960 --> 0:15:31.600 with a bit of a re enactment or kind of 0:15:31.640 --> 0:15:35.400 a pantomime of his work, which included an assistant to 0:15:35.520 --> 0:15:38.240 act as a stand in for a corpse and several 0:15:38.280 --> 0:15:41.520 piles of soil on the stage. But Jensen's assistant was 0:15:41.560 --> 0:15:45.520 ticklish and burst into laughter every time he was picked up. 0:15:45.800 --> 0:15:49.000 No one wants a laughing corpse. The Washington Posts theater 0:15:49.080 --> 0:15:53.200 critic reported Jensen spoke inaudibly and his thick Danish accent 0:15:53.280 --> 0:15:57.200 was difficult to understand. He also suggested Jensen sneaked nips 0:15:57.200 --> 0:15:59.920 of alcohol throughout his act among jeers and cat calls 0:16:00.000 --> 0:16:02.360 from the audience, who yelled things like, what kind of 0:16:02.360 --> 0:16:05.240 show is this? Anyway? It was a flop, is what 0:16:05.320 --> 0:16:10.920 it was. Local Washington residents, it's reported in historical records, 0:16:11.280 --> 0:16:15.280 actually raised funds to get Jansen to leave their city, 0:16:15.480 --> 0:16:17.800 and we don't hear much about him over the next 0:16:17.840 --> 0:16:21.960 three years of his life. He does surface outside of Washington, though, 0:16:22.360 --> 0:16:24.600 according to the New York Times, he worked as an 0:16:24.600 --> 0:16:28.600 attendant at what was known as the Wards Island Lunatic Asylum, 0:16:28.760 --> 0:16:31.640 located in the northern end of the East River between 0:16:31.680 --> 0:16:36.320 Manhattan and Queens In October of eight seven, according to 0:16:36.360 --> 0:16:39.840 a brief published in The Washington Post, Jansen died with 0:16:39.960 --> 0:16:43.480 quote starvation staring him in the face in a quote 0:16:43.520 --> 0:16:47.000 fifteen cent lodging house on Pearl Street in New York City. 0:16:47.920 --> 0:16:50.720 His cause of death was a self inflicted gunshot wound 0:16:50.760 --> 0:16:54.640 to the head. Depending on which rough estimate you choose 0:16:54.640 --> 0:16:58.520 to believe, Jansen was probably between forty and fifty years 0:16:58.560 --> 0:17:02.160 old when he died. If it seems like we've talked 0:17:02.160 --> 0:17:05.439 a lot about Jansen and the Washington Post reporters, we 0:17:05.560 --> 0:17:09.200 have at that's because he loved talking to them about himself. 0:17:09.720 --> 0:17:12.640 True or not, most of the stories were likely produced 0:17:12.760 --> 0:17:17.320 or at least inflated by a sensationalistic press, local cops 0:17:17.359 --> 0:17:21.040 looking to be quoted, or of course, Jansen himself. The 0:17:21.080 --> 0:17:25.480 Post printed many articles covering his career as a resurrectionist 0:17:25.480 --> 0:17:28.360 in Washington, d c. As well as his brief appearance 0:17:28.359 --> 0:17:32.440 on stage, and the paper published a long obituary eulogizing 0:17:32.520 --> 0:17:35.760 him upon his death. Some have come to view their 0:17:35.800 --> 0:17:39.000 farewell to him as a farewell to resurrectionists in general 0:17:39.200 --> 0:17:42.200 and their business of providing medical schools with teaching tools. 0:17:42.640 --> 0:17:46.119 From it, we quote, the King of Ghouls is dead. 0:17:46.640 --> 0:17:49.160 He was born to be a grave robber and followed 0:17:49.200 --> 0:17:52.560 his trade by instinct. He was proud, strange to say, 0:17:52.720 --> 0:17:55.800 of his work, and gloried in doing it in a systematic, 0:17:55.960 --> 0:17:59.159 scientific way. He did not belong to that class of 0:17:59.200 --> 0:18:02.560 grave robbers steal bodies for ransom that simply sought to 0:18:02.600 --> 0:18:06.480 supply medical colleges with subjects for dissection. It continues that 0:18:06.520 --> 0:18:09.639 he was quote most happy in the companionship of corpses, 0:18:09.760 --> 0:18:13.080 and that he quote grimly lamented his inability to rob 0:18:13.200 --> 0:18:15.840 his own grave, because no one could do such things 0:18:15.880 --> 0:18:19.920 as well. Jansen's death, which happened around the same time 0:18:19.920 --> 0:18:23.960 as new legislation regarding body snatching for medical purposes and 0:18:24.240 --> 0:18:28.560 enforcement of that legislation, is often considered the end of 0:18:28.640 --> 0:18:33.000 traditional body snatching in the United States. In nineteen o two, 0:18:33.040 --> 0:18:36.280 the Anatomical Board of the District of Columbia was established 0:18:36.280 --> 0:18:40.600 by Act of Congress, fifteen years after Jansen's death. That 0:18:40.680 --> 0:18:43.080 board was made up of members from each medical school 0:18:43.119 --> 0:18:46.600 in the city, plus a public health officer, and medical 0:18:46.640 --> 0:18:50.760 representatives from the Army and Navy. The board's business was 0:18:50.800 --> 0:18:54.159 to see that unclaimed dead bodies were distributed for medical 0:18:54.200 --> 0:18:57.960 purposes among medical and dental schools on the basis of 0:18:58.040 --> 0:19:02.000 each school's enrollment each year, and with that, the Professional 0:19:02.040 --> 0:19:12.639 Resurrectionist was closed for business in Washington, d C. So Holly, yes, 0:19:13.480 --> 0:19:17.840 I've prepared some embalming fluid. Yes, tell me about this. 0:19:19.400 --> 0:19:23.119 The second I started looking at this story, there was 0:19:23.240 --> 0:19:25.760 only one thing that I wanted to call my dream, 0:19:26.960 --> 0:19:34.359 and it is the tinglish assistant. I loved detail about 0:19:34.400 --> 0:19:38.320 his stage. It's fantastic, and so I thought about what 0:19:38.320 --> 0:19:41.280 would work in that way. And the mention of whiskey, 0:19:41.320 --> 0:19:43.400 so I knew whiskey had to be in it. And 0:19:43.480 --> 0:19:46.240 I wanted something with bubbles, but I didn't want to 0:19:46.280 --> 0:19:48.320 do a champagne cocktail because I've done a few of 0:19:48.359 --> 0:19:52.520 those lately. I came up with something that chairs DNA 0:19:52.600 --> 0:19:57.440 with a few different cocktails, and I accidentally made something glorious. 0:19:59.080 --> 0:20:02.800 It has a lot of ingredients, but they're pretty basic. 0:20:02.920 --> 0:20:06.840 Nothing is too crazy. You're off the beaten path. You're 0:20:06.840 --> 0:20:10.200 gonna start by putting a sprig of fresh rosemary into 0:20:10.280 --> 0:20:12.600 your cocktail shaker and just give it a press with 0:20:12.680 --> 0:20:14.639 your muddler. You don't have to like muddle muddle it. 0:20:14.960 --> 0:20:17.199 You're just breaking the surface of those fronds so that 0:20:17.240 --> 0:20:19.200 the flavor and the oils can join the party that's 0:20:19.200 --> 0:20:21.679 about to happen, because then you're going to add to 0:20:21.760 --> 0:20:25.800 that three quarters of an ounce of lemon cello, So 0:20:25.880 --> 0:20:29.920 your lemon liqueur, three quarters of an ounce of whiskey. 0:20:29.960 --> 0:20:33.439 I'm gonna leave this to the drinker. I used Irish 0:20:33.440 --> 0:20:36.160 whiskey that tends to be my favorite, and then three 0:20:36.200 --> 0:20:39.440 quarters of an ounce of gin. So it's a heavy hitter. 0:20:40.000 --> 0:20:44.320 You can scale it up if you really want a 0:20:44.520 --> 0:20:48.080 Mama Jamma of a drink, you could do one ounce, 0:20:48.119 --> 0:20:50.360 one ounce, one ounce, but like keep in mind, this 0:20:50.400 --> 0:20:53.879 is a lot of alcohol. And then as an optional, 0:20:54.160 --> 0:20:57.280 you can add a splash of simple syrup or vanilla syrup. 0:20:57.480 --> 0:20:59.280 It depends on whether or not you want sweet. That 0:20:59.359 --> 0:21:01.840 lemon cello is already going to add some sweetness to it. 0:21:02.359 --> 0:21:05.600 And then you add a drop of liquid smoke. One drop, 0:21:05.680 --> 0:21:08.640 that's all you need to give it an interesting flavor 0:21:08.720 --> 0:21:13.680 and and kind of expansive smoky edges. And then one 0:21:13.720 --> 0:21:16.520 egg white. God, it's an egg white drink. It's an 0:21:16.560 --> 0:21:18.680 egg white drink. You don't have to include the egg white, 0:21:18.720 --> 0:21:21.080 but I highly recommend it. So then you have your 0:21:21.119 --> 0:21:22.720 egg white, and then you're just going to shake this 0:21:22.800 --> 0:21:25.600 thing like hell, like a minimum of fifteen seconds because 0:21:26.040 --> 0:21:28.680 you really want that egg white to get nice and frothy. 0:21:28.720 --> 0:21:31.240 You can shake it with ice if you want, but 0:21:31.359 --> 0:21:34.320 it won't get as frothy. I like to shake it 0:21:34.400 --> 0:21:37.520 without ice. That's just me. And then you will strain 0:21:37.600 --> 0:21:40.200 it over ice. This is different from some other eggy 0:21:40.280 --> 0:21:42.600 drinks because you don't always strain. You're gonna lose some 0:21:42.640 --> 0:21:46.160 egg white in the process. That is okay, that's by design, 0:21:46.720 --> 0:21:49.440 because what we want to create and what we will 0:21:49.520 --> 0:21:52.919 create is a very delicate and airy froth that's on 0:21:52.960 --> 0:21:56.080 top of this thing. So when you pour it in, 0:21:56.600 --> 0:21:59.000 you may not even see that it has a whole 0:21:59.040 --> 0:22:03.520 lot of that frothy hen to it. But then you're 0:22:03.560 --> 0:22:07.080 gonna pour a couple ounces of ginger ale onto it, 0:22:07.440 --> 0:22:10.760 and that egg white kind of blooms into this beautiful 0:22:10.800 --> 0:22:15.320 cloud that is very airy. It's almost meringue lights in 0:22:15.560 --> 0:22:18.439 how airy it is, and there's a little bit of 0:22:18.440 --> 0:22:20.320 stiffness to it, but not too much. And then just 0:22:20.400 --> 0:22:23.360 garnish that biz with a sprig of rosemary and you're 0:22:23.400 --> 0:22:28.240 off to the races. Oh no, it's so good, and 0:22:28.280 --> 0:22:33.760 it doesn't taste like any of the alcohol a little 0:22:33.880 --> 0:22:37.159 dangerous in that regard. It's three different kinds of alcohol 0:22:37.200 --> 0:22:39.840 going together. If you scale it up, please be careful, 0:22:39.920 --> 0:22:43.240 drink responsibly always. But um, yeah, it's one of those 0:22:43.240 --> 0:22:45.919 things that, like some of the other drinks that exist 0:22:46.000 --> 0:22:47.879 in the world, where there's a lot of alcohol, but 0:22:47.920 --> 0:22:51.200 they somehow all mask one another. And you were like, oh, 0:22:51.240 --> 0:22:52.960 this doesn't taste like alcohol, and you have a couple 0:22:53.000 --> 0:22:54.639 while you're sitting and talking and then you get up 0:22:54.640 --> 0:22:57.560 and you go, oh, it has that effect, So just 0:22:57.640 --> 0:23:01.600 be careful. The mock tail is all so delicious, but 0:23:01.680 --> 0:23:05.320 of course a good bit different because we're not including 0:23:05.359 --> 0:23:10.680 three kinds of it's a little change. So you will, 0:23:10.760 --> 0:23:14.280 once again in a shaker, press your rosemary sprig as 0:23:14.320 --> 0:23:16.720 you did above. You have an option here. You can 0:23:16.720 --> 0:23:20.520 either go with two ounces of cold coffee, or if 0:23:20.520 --> 0:23:22.200 you want to do a little bit of a combo, 0:23:22.359 --> 0:23:24.800 you can do like an ounce of cold coffee and 0:23:24.840 --> 0:23:27.719 an ounce of cold herbal tea. Of you're choosing, this 0:23:27.800 --> 0:23:29.840 is where I feel like a chrysanthemum tea might be 0:23:29.880 --> 0:23:32.520 really lovely. And then you're going to add an ounce 0:23:32.520 --> 0:23:35.119 of lemon juice and to this. You do want to 0:23:35.119 --> 0:23:37.840 sweeten it because you're not doing a liqueur that has sugar. 0:23:38.000 --> 0:23:41.040 So add like a half an ounce a quarter to 0:23:41.080 --> 0:23:43.399 a half an ounce of simple or vanilla syrup, that 0:23:43.520 --> 0:23:46.760 same drop of liquid, smoke that same egg white, shake 0:23:46.800 --> 0:23:49.760 it and pour it and top it and garnish it 0:23:49.920 --> 0:23:52.640 like you would the cocktail, and once again it gets 0:23:52.640 --> 0:23:56.400 that beautiful, frothy top to it. It's so pretty, it's 0:23:56.480 --> 0:24:01.840 so delicious. This is like one that I was like, 0:24:01.920 --> 0:24:04.560 this is not gonna work, and then it did and 0:24:04.600 --> 0:24:08.399 I felt like a magician. And that's the ticklish assistant. 0:24:08.680 --> 0:24:11.600 So it has some bubbles which I associate with ticklishness, 0:24:11.840 --> 0:24:14.040 and it will tickle your palette in a way that 0:24:14.119 --> 0:24:16.640