What The History Podcast

Resurrection Blues and Shock to the System

In this episode Suzie goes in search of the Resurrection Man and Trevor tells the shocking tale of Walter Summerford.  What the history?

WHAT THE HISTORY?

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Sources:

THE RESURRECTION MEN

Bay N, Bay B 2010, ‘Greek anatomist Herophilus: the father of anatomy’, Anatomy and Cell Biology Journal, v. 43 (4); 2010 Dec, pp. 280-283 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3026179/

Hypno C 2018, ‘The Resurrection Men – Body Snatching in 19th Century Britain’                                                         https://owlcation.com/humanities/resurrectionists-body-snatching-in-19th-century-britain

Levinson D n.d ‘Body Snatching’  https://www.britannica.com/topic/body-snatching#ref1179705

Ravilious K 2013, ‘Haunt of the Resurrection Men’, Archaeology Magazine,  https://www.archaeology.org/issues/89-1305/features/737-royal-london-hospital-burials

Ruxton D 2017, ‘‘The Irish Times’ 19th century guide to digging up a dead body’ https://www.irishtimes.com/news/offbeat/the-irish-times-19th-century-guide-to-digging-up-a-dead-body-1.2953684

Skulls in the Stars 2013, ‘The Resurrection Men: When people would kill to get into cemeteries’ https://skullsinthestars.com/2013/01/23/the-resurrection-men-when-people-would-kill-to-get-into-cemeteries/

The Proceedings of the Old Bailey 1831, ‘John Bishop, Thomas Williams, James May. Killing: murder’ Old Bailey Online https://www.oldbaileyonline.org/browse.jsp?id=t18311201-17-defend279&div=t18311201-17

WALTER SUMMERFORD

Paying a Divine Debt: The Unfortunate Story of Walter Summerford – Swale Life

Walter Summerford: Everything comes in threes, no wait fours? – The Folklorist

The British officer who was struck by lightning four separate times – The Vintage News

Did you know that a man named Walter Summerford was struck by lightning 3 times – This Will Blow Your Mind

Other stuff:

The word history in the opening theme has been extracted from…

History Never Repeats – Split Enz (1981)

History Repeating – Propellerheads feat: Miss Shirley Bassey (1998)

Flame Trees – Cold Chisel (1984)

You’re History – Shakespeare’s Sister (1989)

Centuries – Fall Out Boy (2015)

Fade out – Shock Treatment (Shock Treatment OST)

All music used under fair use provisions.