Product Review

Cincinnati Cemeteries is not only a history of graveyards and their occupants. It also investigates the culture of death and dying in Cincinnati: from the infamous Pearl Bryan murder and the 19th-century cholera epidemics, to the body snatchers who stole the corpse of Benjamin Harrison’s father and the notorious “resurrection men.” In a city teeming with immigrants and transients these “sack ‘em up” grave robbers had ample opportunities to supply cadavers to Cincinnati’s medical schools. And if fresh graves weren’t available, they lurked for victims in the saloons and the dark alleys of Vine Street and the West End.