In 1911 England, the above children were murdered by Patrick Higgins, their father, and dropped into an abandoned, flooded quarry. The adipocere-laden corpses of the two boys were recovered 18 months after the event. The father of the boys was named as suspect. He was arrested, tried, convicted, and executed for the dastardly crimes. The victims, however, did not then rest. They were cut up, with pieces such as the heads sent to the Edinburgh police laboratory. As there were no kin, the rest was buried in a pauper's grave. The body parts purloined by the forensic case investigator are presumably still there today, preserved in formaldehyde. The above image is from the forensic investigator's published memoirs, graciously provided by an anonymous contributor. Below is the complete note that accompanied the above photo:
Sir Sydney Smith was second only to Sir Bernard Spilsbury as a pathologist--and
that's debatable. If you can get your hands on a copy of his memoirs, Mostly Murder
(London: Granada Publishing, 1984) do. The third chapter is about the Hopetoun Quarry
murder; a fellow named Patrick Higgins killed his two young sons in 1911 and threw
their bodies in a disused quarry. Over the course of eighteen months, they were
converted into adipocere, which Smith says: "In each body the formation was complete
apart from the feet, which had been covered by the boots, and in which the
adipocerous condition was therefore not so far advanced." [p. 46] The story of the
solution of the case is fascinating, and I'd highly recommend finding the book and
reading it yourself.... there's also a description of the case in Colin Evans's
Casebook of Forensic Detection (New York: Wiley, 1996), but Smith's own version is
far superior.
However, what I wanted to pass on to you is the epilogue to the case. Higgins was
found guilty and hanged. Afterwards, Smith and Harvey Littlejohn, who was Chief
Surgeon to the Police in Edinburgh and also professor (later Chair) of Medical
Jurisprudence at Edinburgh, decided it was a shame for such ideal examples of
This photo is of the remains of the famous "Lady of the Lake". She was murdered by her husband and
tossed into a deep lake in Washington state, in 1932. Seven years later, two fishermen hooked an object in Crescent Lake. It turned out
to be Hallie Illingsworth, a 36 year-old waitress
who was reported by her husband to have run off with a sailor in 1932. Her corpse
had turned entirely into adipocere. It took investigators three more years, until 1942, for her identity to become known, via dental records. Mrs. Illingsworth was from nearby Port Angeles, Washington. Police learned that her jealous husband had often beat her. The coroner estimated her death occurred in 1932, the same year in which Monty Illingsworth had told friends that his wife had run off to Alaska with a sailor. He was extradited to Washington and charged with murder. Mr. Illingsworth was found guilty and sentenced to life in prison. An experimental play was recently written and staged around this incident- the only known play built around an adipocere-laden corpse as a central character!
Not really on topic perhaps, it brings up an interesting question. Specifically for forensic pathologists, cemeterians, and funeral directors: what is the
First off, congratulations on a generally edifying site. Finding
genuine and interesting content on the web is becoming a rare treat.
That said, in comparing the two photographs, I suspect that the stains
visible are garden variety rust merely color shifted in the pixelized
color photo. Caskets, being fundamentally the same as car body parts
deteriorate in much the same manner. Once the enamel is breached the
rust blooms and spreads, in this case showing vividly on the white
casket. Having spent a fair amount of time in New Orleans cemeteries,
where above ground burial, coupled with periodic disinterment to make way
for new occupants is the rule I've seen quite a few "used" caskets.
Traditionally, when a new occupant is placed in a tomb, the old casket
is discarded and the remains (usually skeletal) are placed in an ossuary
pit in the base of the tomb. Practically speaking, this means that a
peek into the dumpsters yields caskets in addition to the usual flowers
and grass clippings. Unfortunately, for purposes of your site,
adipocere formation is almost totally precluded by this burial method,
coupled with the high heat of the region. Most metal caskets I've seen
were fairly consistent with the stains in the photo being rust. Anything
more visceral would likely have been washed away by submersion and
scoured by being shot through six feet of wet earth, not to mention
leakage would indicate a total breach of the casket exterior making it
fill with water rather than rise to the surface and float.
Although its somewhat outside of your scope, I'll also mention that
caskets do often leak, with results as gory as anything you might
speculate about the photo, particularly in above ground interment. It
is not uncommon for metal sealer caskets to literally blow a gasket due
to gas buildup during decomposition, disgorging their, usually liquified,
contents in a, shall we say, aerosol manner. Also anecdotally, loose
caskets aren't all that uncommon, and the industry has accounted for
things like the floating guest in the photo by placing a gasketed tube
in the decorative work on the casket in which is placed a watertight
test tube with information identifying the occupant so as to speed their reinterment.
Jim Dugan
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Below is an answer to our riddle, courtesy Mr. Jim Dugan of New Orleans. Mr. Dugan is employed in the death care industry there.
Bad news..... and sad news. This visitor to the above home had been buried in a small, low-laying cemetery in North Carolina, when hurricane Floyd came ashore and dislodged many resting places. Already a good candidate for adipocere formation due to a wetlands grave; if this had been a very recent burial, adipocere formation is virtually guaranteed.
likely source of the ruddy stains on the side of this floating casket? Incidentally, your web master does not possess the answer to this macabre riddle.
Pictured above and to the right is the Philadelphia Soap Lady's "partner", the D.C. Soap Man. The living William von Ellenbogen, an American Revolutionary War soldier, could never have imagined that his adipoceral remains would be disinterred some 75 years after his death, and displayed for many years afterward, at the Smithsonian Museum in Washington, D.C.! Yet that did happen. Perhaps for the better, Mr. von Ellenbogen is no longer on public display.
Note the patina on the "dry" adipocere.... a yellow-tan color, obtained through many years of burial and further years of display. Notice his lips are still recognisable! On the black-and-white image, note that Mr. von Ellenbogen is still wearing his stockings, and how the adipocere has formed over them in places. Quite fascinating.
Is it adipocere?
Or is it mold?
Or both?
The following three photos from an unknown disinterment were located on the web by loyal "Adipocere" viewer Kevin King, who states he has attempted to find the original source of the images. However, he's had no success on this front to date.
About the photos: obviously, the deceased gentleman in question has been in that particular condition for some time. A wet burial; indications of mud in the metal casket, with much mold and "rot" to the cloth interior lining of the casket. The burial clothes appear wearable (with much cleaning, of course). Our contributor Mr. King believes it's remarkable that the condition of the casket lining stands in sharp contrast to the condition of the clothing. Agreed.
The corpse itself has faired much better, overall. Either adipocere has formed on the face and hands, or a white mold has covered the skin instead. Or perhaps is it a combination of the two substances?
Nothing is known about the date of burial, or the date of disinterral. King (a former mortuary employee during the 1970's) thinks the casket (not pictured here) is a model from the 1960's or 1970's; this would likely indicate time of death. However, the photos appear to have been recently taken, due to the crispness of the images (a digital camera was used, perhaps?). Is it possible the dead gentleman has been in moist Terra Firma for two or three decades? And why was he brought back up to the surface? And why was this disinterral photographed in such detail (there are numerous other photos not included here)? So many mysteries left to ponder.
For those who care to know, this body is probably typical of what can be found in any grave in any North American cemetery. Due to the prevailing custom of embalming, many- and perhaps most bodies interred throughout the U.S.A. and Canada, are in a like condition. So much for the old "ashes to ashes, dust to dust".
Are there other opinions about these images, and the cause of the skin's "soapy" appearance?
More Lee Harvey Oswald exhumation photos from 1981 (see the other LHO photo on the Images1 page of this site for more information). Buried 18 years in a wet grave, the accused JFK assasin's waterlogged casket was exhumed for a new autopsy at the behest of Oswald's widow, in order to settle certain questions about who was actually in the casket. As you can see, Mr. Oswald 's head was not preserved particularly well; but it was indeed preserved to a large degree, by adipocere formation. The whitish substance on the skull is adipocere; much the rest of the rotted flesh had adipocere in pockets throughout. Oswald's head was severed for one autopsy photo, which was supposed to be limited to his teeth (for dental records identification purposes only). Obviously, other images were taken as well. The purple arrow and question mark, along with the red circle, pertain to previously noted autopsy information from LHO's original November 1963 autopsy. In case you were wondering, Mr. Oswald's remains were still quite odiferous almost two decades after his burial, per published reports. Below are photos of the living LHO from the time of JFK's November 1963 assasination.
Adipoceral corpse pulled from a watery grave in a Canadian lake. The body was that that of a woman missing seven years. The condition of this individual was described as being hard and waxy, rather than the usual soft and unctuous, as waterlogged adipocerated bodies are often found.
More adipocere, this time from Taiwan. Beautiful examples of long-buried saponified corpses. The heads seen huge and misshapen; they are not. Adipocere takes up more space than living flesh does, hence the appearance of large heads. Note how these bodies developed heavy saponification on the head and torso, while very little if any on the hands and feet. Very common situation with burials. Clothing covering body areas can contribute to adipocere formation, along with excess body fat, soil conditions (the ph factor), degree of groundwater entering the grave, and so forth. Exhumation specialists worldwide say that the above photos are typical of what they find when removing burials from graves. Time since deaths unknown to this webmaster, but no doubt in each instance several years, at the very least. Even corpses buried a hundred years or more, especially in the USA and Canada, where embalming, metallic caskets and burial vaults are common, can be found intact, due to adipocere formation.
