Today's BillionGraves newsletter contains an interesting article on grave robbing as well as the measures taken to prevent them.
Apparently there were two major reasons for this macabre practice: first, there was money to be made by selling cadavers to medical schools and second, there was gain from holding bodies for ransom (apparently there were several serious attempts made on the body of Abraham Lincoln).
As a result, families employed a variety of ways to deter robbers. IMO the most inventive was in 1878 when someone came up with a "torpedo coffin"--that is, a coffin that was booby-trapped with explosives.
The full piece is here: https://blog.billiongraves.com/grave-robbers-in-the-victorian-era/
Apparently there were two major reasons for this macabre practice: first, there was money to be made by selling cadavers to medical schools and second, there was gain from holding bodies for ransom (apparently there were several serious attempts made on the body of Abraham Lincoln).
As a result, families employed a variety of ways to deter robbers. IMO the most inventive was in 1878 when someone came up with a "torpedo coffin"--that is, a coffin that was booby-trapped with explosives.
The full piece is here: https://blog.billiongraves.com/grave-robbers-in-the-victorian-era/