Discover the Doctor's Riot of 1788 and the grim history of body snatching. Learn about 18th-century anatomy riots and the shocking modern-day black market for body parts. Episode Resources: Get your copy of "Doctors' Riot of 1788: Body Snatching, Bloodletting, and Anatomy in America" by Andy McPheeConnect with Andy McPheeIn 1788, a furious mob stormed the streets of New York, not over taxes or tyranny, but over stolen corpses. This was the Doctor's Riot of 1788, a violent clash that exposed the grim underworld of 18th-century medical science. What drove medical students to dig up fresh graves in the dead of night? In this episode, we're joined by author Andy McPhee to discuss his book, The Doctor's Riot of 1788, and uncover the shocking history of body snatching, a practice that, in some forms, continues to this day. We explore the central dilemma: how could medicine advance without access to the one thing society refused to give? The history of body snatching in America is a dark and fascinating tale of science, ethics, and social class. Author Andy McPhee details how, five years after the Revolutionary War, New York City was a tinderbox of tension. Medical students at New York Hospital, desperate for cadavers to study anatomy, regularly stole bodies from the "Negroes Burial Ground." While the city's Black population protested, their pleas were ignored. The situation exploded only when students began taking bodies from the white Trinity church graveyard. The riot was sparked by a medical student, likely John Hicks, Jr., who taunted a young boy by dangling a dismembered arm from a window, claiming it was the boy's recently deceased mother. This single act ignited days of chaos, pitting a mob against founding fathers like John Jay and Baron von Steuben, who tried - and failed - to quell the violence. This episode delves into the legal and moral gray areas of the time, explaining the critical difference between body snatching and grave robbing; one was a minor offense, the other a serious crime. This legal loophole allowed "resurrectionists" to flourish, supplying medical schools across the country. McPhee reveals that the Doctor's Riot was not an isolated incident but one of many "anatomy riots" that occurred at medical schools across the young nation, from Baltimore to Vermont's "Hubbardton Raid." The conversation then takes a startling turn to the present, revealing the horrifying reality of modern body snatching. We discuss the case of "Masterpiece Theater" host Alistair Cooke, whose bones were stolen and sold after his death, and the recent Harvard Medical School morgue scandal involving Cedric Lodge, showing how an unregulated "body broker" market continues to exploit the dead for profit. About Our Guest: Andy McPhee is a historical nonfiction author and the writer of The Doctor's Riot of 1788. In this interview, he shares his meticulous research process, which involved diving into digital archives like HathiTrust, archive.org, and Newspapers.com to piece together this forgotten chapter of American history and verify sources from a time when journalism was notoriously biased. Timestamps / Chapters: (00:00) The Shocking Story of the Doctor's Riot (01:33) How the Author Discovered This Forgotten History (09:11) Body Snatching vs. Grave Robbing: The Critical Difference (10:42) The Unbelievably Mild Penalties for Stealing a Corpse (16:04) The Spark: John Hicks Jr. and the Arm in the Window (20:09) Founding Fathers vs. The Mob: How Hamilton & John Jay Faced the Riot (28:37) The Barbaric State of 18th-Century Medical Science (31:53) Racial Tensions and the Unwritten Rules of Body Snatching (35:45) Modern Body Snatching: The Alistair Cooke & Harvard Morgue Scandals (41:39) "Mary's Ghost": A Haunting Poem from the Era
