John or Jean Baptiste was a grave digger in Salt Lake City in the late 1850s/early 1860s. He stole the clothing and valuables out of hundreds of coffins, pawned them, used them in his home, and even wore them. He was exiled to an island in the Great Salt Lake, but disappeared.
See the following web pages for a more complete story of John Baptiste.
http://historytogo.utah.gov/utah_cha...nbaptiste.html
http://www.utahgothic.com/history/baptiste.html
Interesting find, SaltCity! Welcome to FADforum!
Death Hag
This place has ALL kinds....?
While that is an interesting story, I was stuck on the fact that no one came forward to claim the first guy's body (John W. Dawson) so a police officer paid for his burial clothes & funeral. Then conveniently a week later the dead guy's brother shows up to move the body to a family cemetery? hmmm...
Originally Posted by RaRaRamona
Maybe the guy was a complete ass and they were contemplating if they should bother with him or not, and then plagued with guilt they decided to claim him....
Haha! It would be an interesting site to see lots of naked Mormons rising up at the resurrection, rummaging through a box looking for their clothes! But how will they know what clothes is theirs?
Also, doesn't clothes deteriorate over time? So in a sense, all corpses would be naked, right?
That could be tue...how did he notice his clothes were gone? I wish we had a "disgusted" or "squirmy" smiley.
Renowned Death Hag
There's an island in the middle of Salt Lake?
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