When Philadelphia Had a Body Snatching Problem

NOTE DATE CHANGE! Due to difficulties securing our usual venues, the meeting was moved to Wed. Oct. 21 at Christ Church Neighborhood House, 20 N. American St., on the 2nd floor in the Great Hall.

The next monthly meeting of the Association of Philadelphia Tour Guides (APT) will be held on Wednesday, October 21 at 7 pm (this is the new date as we are unable to hold it on the usual second Wednesday date this month), featuring Tim Dewysockie, the author of Grave Dealings: Body Snatching in Philadelphia, 1762-1883. The first American medical school in the 18th century was established in Philadelphia. Doctors needed cadavers for anatomical lectures, but fresh bodies were hard to get. The only legal source of cadavers was executed criminals, and there weren’t enough of them.

The solution? Body snatchers stole bodies from cemeteries and sold them to medical schools for dissection. In Grave Dealings: Body Snatching In Philadelphia, 1762-1883, Tim digs through archives to unearth the forgotten history of a time of graveyard crimes and the seedy underworld of resurrectionists plying their trade. Philadelphia pioneered many medical innovations and became the center of American medical education … and body snatching!

Tim will speak on many aspects of body snatching in Philadelphia. It was not until the 1880s that Pennsylvania enacted laws to stop the practice of body snatching and established laws governing the use and disposal of human remains. Grave Dealings was named an Anisfield-Wolf finalist for 2026 and shortlisted for the Athenaeum of Philadelphia Literary Award.

Tim Dewysockie graduated from Rowan University in 2020 with a master’s degree in history and has a passion for local history. Tim has worked in libraries and archives for almost two decades. Tim currently works at Rowan University Libraries in New Jersey.

The meeting will be at Christ Church Neighborhood House, 20 N. American St., on the second floor in the Great Hall. Come early for dinner and drinks! The Zoom link will be available in the APT Tour Talk newsletter the week of the meeting; non-members should contact Marianne Ruane [email protected] no later than 5 pm the day of the meeting to receive the link. A recording will be available on the APT YouTube page for a month following the talk.

APT meetings are open to aspiring and working tour guides as well as anyone with an interest in Philadelphia-focused history. Attend one meeting for free and then it is $60 to join the association for the year or $10 per monthly meeting in-person event. (Early bird pricing in effect now for the 2027 Membership Drive.) Zoom meetings are free. Please join us for convivial company, good food, fascinating presentations, and lively discussions!