Consuming criminal corpses: Fascination with the dead criminal body

Abstract

The body of the criminal has long held a macabre fascination. From the earliest times to the nineteenth century, the public execution of criminals in Britain and America drew large crowds to witness the punishment being carried out. Even after the termination of public executions, the fascination with death through the criminal corpse has continued. This is demonstrated by a tourist-like interest and curiosity emerging to the extent of celebrated status being attained by certain criminals and their deaths. This article engages with the macabre fascination and celebration of death and the criminal corpse by exploring the gruesome tourism and pursuit of souvenirs relating to specific dead criminals in Britain and America. Using a broad sweep of case studies dating between 1800 and the 1970s – including Scottish body snatchers Burke and Hare, and murderers, William Corder, and Gary Gilmore – the enthralment with the criminal corpse will be examined and conceptualised. I draw on Seltzer's notion of wound culture, whereby society is fascinated and thrilled with violence and death, to argue that the consumption of criminal corpses is a grisly aspect of contemporary consumer culture in which even the macabre can gain celebrated, or celebrity, status.