The Dollop with Dave Anthony and Gareth Reynolds - 65 - Strange Case of William Shy

Episode Date: March 12, 2015

Dave Anthony and Gareth Reynolds examine Confederate officer Lieutenant Colonel William Shy and his grave.SOURCESTOUR DATESREDBUBBLE MERCHPATREON

When you're staying at an Airbnb you might be like me wondering could my place be an Airbnb and if it could what could it earn? You could be sitting on an Airbnb and not even know it. That in-law sweet guest house where your parents stay only part-time Airbnb it and make some money the rest of the year whether you could use a little extra money to cover some bills or for something a little more fun. Your home might be worth more than you think. Find out how much at Airbnb.ca slash host. Hello and you're listening to The Dollop. This is an American History

podcast in which each week I, Dave Anthony, read a story to Gareth Reynolds who has no idea what the topic is about. Did you forget your part? No but I think you say that you've called me your friend in the past. So I didn't say that? No whatever I guess we're on icy ground now. And the friendship ended here. It's an awkward time to end it. Do you want to look who to do? I'll do one buck. People say this is funny. Not Gary Gareth. Dave okay. Someone or something is tickling people. Is it for fun? And this is not going to come with tickling clots. Okay. You are queen fakie of hate uptown. All hail Queen Shit of Liesville. A bunch of religious virgins go to mingle. And do what?

Someone named their child Almond. Because he's nuts. Either that or there was an autocorrect that I didn't notice. Fuck. That could have happened. Either's okay. Because Almond's a pretty fucked up name for a young walnut. But not in that time. This is my boy Trey Trunk. Who gives a fuck? Here's Walnut. He is my boy Walnut. So Almondie Fisk was granted the first patent for a cast iron coffin called the Fisk airtight coffin or cast a raised metal in 1848. Okay. In 1849 the cast iron coffin was publicly unveiled at the New York State Agriculture Society Fair in Syracuse, New York. Must be a great time. It's a great fair. Yeah. Yeah, who doesn't want to go to the coffin exhibit at the fair. I do wonder how it was received though because in this time you can't be sure how people if people be like well weirdo or if people are like my goodness it's the hot of luxury. Holy look at that casket. It's airtight. I want to die in there right now.

Pistachio will you buy me it for our anniversary? You darn right I will Dorothy. Known as the Fisk mummy this metal coffin was a little eerie because it was shaped like a corpse wrapped in a burial shroud. It's interesting. Basically reseming an Egyptian sarcophagus with sculpted arms and had a glass window to view the face of the cadaver. Okay well that is terrible. That's just totally terrifying. No it's it's totally the worst idea ever. It's a winder. Yeah you don't want a winder in the decomposing. Yeah no. Just for the face. Yeah you'd rather the chest. So you look down and the eyes are looking right back up at you. Yeah the dead eyes as

it's starting to erode in the ground. Oh yeah. Oh my god was that a tear? Hey neighbor. The but the but the the glass window could be covered with a metal plate when the coffin was ready for burial so when you're gonna throw the when you're gonna throw the dirt on the top you'd put a little metal cover on top of it. What's the point that there's no point? Yeah there's no point in that. Close the shutter. No point in that. You're gonna be throwing dirt on it. You don't want the dead guy to be no one he's okay. I'm sorry. Fisk added accents like drapery rosewood and silk fringe to lessen its disturbing impact on prospective buyers. Well that is just so if you're adding curtains to a coffin

you've made a disturbing coffin and it's time to redo it. I don't know curtains are pretty nice. Okay that's when he's just overordered he's like god I ordered a thousand of these. Let's just put drapes on the inside. Some blinds. The cast iron coffins were popular in the mid-1800s among wealthier families. In response to high demand Fisk established the Fisk and Raymond Company and began production in Providence, Rhode Island. While pine coffins in the 1850s would have a cost of around two dollars, a Fisk coffin would command a price upwards of a hundred dollars. Okay. Nonetheless the metallic coffins were greatly desired by the more

affluent individuals and families for their potential to deter grave robbers. Having your body taken out of the ground by creeps. It seems like almost everything in the 1800s was about trying to stop people from picking up. Because up until then it's like I would just pay the two dollars but once you hear like oh it's an investment in keeping your body in the ground instead of just like taken and done with whatever they want. In order to keep up with demand Fisk additionally licensed the right to manufacture the the coffins to two larger firms. The design of materials were chosen because of their ability to

protect the body and prevent decomposition so that it could endure transportation or delayed internment. But for what purpose? Oh we'll get to that. The airtight cases. Oh by the way horrible answer. That's the classic dollop answer. Yeah but it's still terrifying. We'll get to that. We'll get to it. There's a reason is what you're saying which is troubling. The airtight cases were valued for their potential to preserve the remains of individuals who died far from home. Okay okay according to Fisk's 1848 patent quote from a coffin of this description the air may be exhausted so completely as entirely to

prevent the decay of the contained body on principles well understood or if preferred the coffin may be filled with any gas or fluid having the property of preventing petrification. So it's kind of like Tupperware for a corpse. Yep that's exactly what it is. It's corpse Tupperware. There we go. It's corpse or wear. I could watch you drink from that weird glass all day. You gave it to me. In 1849 Fisk's foundry on Long Island in New York burned down along with all the company's machinery tools and inventory. Fisk borrowed 15,000 from two investors John G. Forbes and Horace White. Horace White was the governor of New York so

all would be fine until Fisk's health declined the next year. He then transferred all of his patents and his business to Forbes and White. Fisk died on October 1850 turns out from an illness he contracted while fighting the blaze. Oh wow okay. Did you enjoy that dollop? This please. This isn't my first rodeo asshole. Other companies like Crane Breed and company of Cincinnati and W. and Raymond and company of New York and Chicago were granted licenses to produce cast iron coffins. These companies introduced modified versions that replaced the sarcophagus shape with a rectangular casket and simplified the

design so it could be mass produced. The models were popular during the Civil War with wealthy families who wanted their loved ones killed in battle to be buried near the family home. Okay well that's good it's smart. I mean the mummy's factor was probably not like making it a hot item. Throws you off a little bit. The mummy part. You know that's a guy who's like I've got two ideas let's do both. The battle in Asheville the Civil War was in its waning months. The North's superior industrial strength and never-ending supply of manpower had taken their toll on the Confederacy. Everything was going downhill for the

rebels. The Union was now concentrating almost all of its force against the quote other rebel army the army of Tennessee. This army was the last hope for the South. It was led by General John H. Bell Hood who at this time was physically beaten and an emotionally unstable man. I can imagine. Gotta have the weight of the world on your shoulders when you're like come on slavery. He had lost the use of one arm at Gettysburg and lost a leg at the Battle of Chikamaga. Hey this man should not be involved in war anymore. Once you're down two limbs you're out. He had to literally be strapped to his horse to travel. Oh my god what he's in

charge. All right everyone listen to the man who's hanging underneath his pony. Tie the general to the bottom of the horse. Excuse me. You help me help me don't embarrass me. I would yell charge but I have rolled over to the bottom of the horse. Could you push me back a top. And tie me down harder. Which is where the song tie me down harder came from. No Johnson cannot tie the knots again. Oh sorry sir. I didn't realize how limbless he was. Hood was a student of the old-school method of fighting. Which you didn't need arms. That the only honorable way to attack was head-on with banners flying. That wasn't the

game the Civil War was playing. Those guys always did well in the Civil War. Hood was said to have associated Valor with casualty lists. In the Battle of Franklin on November 30th 1864 in one day's fighting he suffered 6202 casualties. Holy shit. I didn't know there were 70 people. If no other battle did any army have so many generals killed and wounded. Jesus. Five Confederate generals were killed outright. Six were wounded. One of which soon died and one was captured. So he sounds like a terrible leader. Yeah all right we're gonna attack them where they can see us. Okay generals out front. Hood was

ready for more the next day only to discover the Union forces had snuck away during the night for Nashville. Hood pursued. His troops were sick worn down and many were barefoot. Ugh. That's how you want to fight a war. No that's not even how you want to be in Die Hard. No. Let alone a fucking actual war. Nashville was heavily fortified. When Hood arrived his troops were attacked. Many ran away. Some held out and fought the hope was battle. Small pockets of resistance fought for a couple of days. One of these with the was the 20th Tennessee under the command of Colonel William M. Shy. They were positioned on Compton's Hill.

William Maybury Shy was born in Bourbon, Kentucky. Bourbon County, Kentucky on May 24th, 1838. He was one of ten children. His older brother James Shy organized the Parry Guards which became company G of the 20th Tennessee Infantry. I thought so. William or Bill as he was popularly known by his comrades enlisted as a private and company H of the 20th Tennessee on its Inceptions. In the spring after the battle of Fish and Creek he was elected Lieutenant. He was known to be I've been a man of quiet disposition a man of deeds rather than words. He was modest and gentle always calm and collected in

battle. He quickly rose the ranks from captain in 1862 to major in 1863 then Lieutenant Colonel while leading his men through the battles of Shiloh, Port Hudson, Murph's morrow, Hoover Gap, Missionary Ridge, Atlanta and finally Nashville where he was Colonel of the 20th. Right. He's got a good good res going. Does he have a headshot? Yep. Great. On Compton's Hill he found himself surrounded by three sides by thousands of Union soldiers receiving fire from all angles. Around 4 p.m. it began to rain. The men are not slept in days. They were tired, cold, wet, hungry but still they fought on. Suddenly the

massive federal attack began. There were just a few minutes of violent fighting and then it was all over. They came so fast with so many that the small force atop the hill was completely overwhelmed. The entire command of defenders was annihilated. Only 65 individuals escaped. Colonel William M. Shy was killed. Compton Hill will later be renamed Shy Hill in his honor. The battle of Nashville was over. You sad? It's not it's not an easy time for me. Well, hold on. When word of something about to happen, David, he's gonna come back to life. Shut up, he's kind of adrenaline. When word of Colonel Shy's death reached his family it is

unknown how it was received because his mother sympathized with the south and his father sympathized with the north. And this is like this is like a Republican and a Democrat. I'm glad my son died. That'll teach him to be wrong. Yeah, the dad was like that's right. Damn right we killed our son. Yeah. You take that mama. What'd I tell you? Our boy's dad. Good. He was on the wrong side. I told you so. I told you so. Being unmarried, the chore of recovering his body fell to his parents. But it was almost impossible for a civilian to get permission to travel the roads because the pursuit of the fling Confederate army after the battle of

Nashville, right? So they're fucking scurrying everywhere. Yeah. So the Shy family solicited the help of their close friend, Dr. Daniel B. Cliff, who held a very influential position in the community. Dr. Cliff made a raise in his wife, Mrs. Virginia Cliff, to go to Nashville to recover Colonel Shy's body. But where is his body? I mean, his body is just on that mountain. It's on that it's on Compton Hill. Yeah, they're like, he's dead. You want to pick him up? Yeah. Or you know, we'll leave him there or whatever. Take out a delivery. What are you after? Do you want to come and get her or let her rock? You got two options.

Also, you can't come. You got to send somebody else who's more important. You can't just go take a body. You can't just go running around in this day and age. I love that he sends his wife. Yeah. Apparently she was the one who she was the one who was grieving. He was too busy gloating. He was on the go. No, this is the doc. The doctor sent his wife. Oh, the doctor sent his wife. Yeah, the doctor says okay. Now, no one knows why he sent his lady. Maybe it was because he's a pussy. He thought he thought that's what chivalry was. Sure. Yeah. Ladies first, go get it. Probably was attending to wounded because of the war. From a newspaper

report at the time, Virginia Whitfield Cliff took a spring wagon with the Negro man to drive and brought his body home. This privilege was accorded her by because of Dr. Cliff's connection with the North. Mrs. Cliff found him without a stitch of clothing on, shot through the center of his forehead and impaled on a tree with a bayonet. Jesus. So he got really killed. Yeah. He got like double killed. Yeah, they were like, be sure. Light them on fire too. Take out his eyes. Take his ass and heart out. Colonel Shy was brought home and laid to rest in the family cemetery at Two Rivers near Franklin, Tennessee. Dr. Cliff was

skilled in the art of embalming. Shy was buried in the family graveyard and the marker still stands, a white shaft in a cow lot. Excuse me? You heard me. A white shaft in a cow lot. You betcha. Sounds like a Scottish farmer. There were eight members of the Shy family buried in the graveyard in the 1800s and 1900s. Is there any appeal to that? To having you're burying everybody in the backyard? To just being like your dead body near people you knew and were related to? It's a little weird. I mean to me, I don't need anybody buried in the backyard. Yeah, I would just rather go to my own thing. Yeah,

there's a place you go to. Yeah, just be off of my own area. I don't need anyone I know around watching me decompose. It's all weird. The bayonet and can and the canteen of Colonel Shy are still in the possession of his family. The grave of Colonel Shy lay peacefully behind the beautiful antebellum home on the Rio Del Rio Pike for over a hundred years. On December 28th, 1977, that's amazing because that's quite a jump. Well, it did make a time jump. Okay, we did. December 24th, 1977, Ben and Mary Griffith had recently purchased the antebellum estate. Hopefully. While Miss Griffin was showing the mansion and grounds to Fran and

Christmas Eve, she noticed that one of the plots had been disturbed. Oh no. The gravestones heading bore the following inscription. Lieutenant Colonel William Shy, 20th Tennessee Infantry, CSA born May 24th, 1838, killed at the Battle of Nashville this is December 16th, 1864. The grievous immediately called the Sheriff's Department. Since the sheriff's didn't consider this an emergency because he believed that would be grave robbers dug up the plot to steal Civil War memorabilia, he waited until after Christmas to investigate. Go ahead and take a hold on that. Some good police work right there, boy. You know what? They

ain't going nowhere. No, they are going somewhere. Come on. Nobody, nobody does anything on Christmas. It's a holiday. Come on now. When the sheriff returned on December 29th and inspected the grave, he discovered a headless decomposed body dressed in a formal black jacket, white shirt, and white gloves. The investigators at the site agreed that this was the body of a recent homicide victim. Oh Jesus. And it had advanced state of decay. Their theory was that a murderer or murderers had attempted to hide the victim's body in plain sight by burying it in a used plot, but got scared off by Mrs. Griffith and her

guest in the middle of disposing of the corpse. So they, it was a recently killed person that they decided to hide in the tomb, but then they ran away because... Right, they were burying a, they were burying a body. I like, I like their plan. It's a good plan. From the fundamental aspect, I do think that is a, it's a fair, fair idea. It's solid. Nobody's gonna be looking in a grave for a body. Right. Honestly. It's a solid plan. Local authorities would not match, could not match the headless corpse with any of their missing person reports. While theories abounded, some even speculated that the head might have been

removed to hamper the identification of the body. Since the Sheriff's Department needed help identifying the body and estimating the time of death, they asked forensic anthropologist Dr. William M. Bass of the University of Tennessee at Knoxville to help with the recovery and analysis of the remains. Okay. Excerpts from the local paper, the Franklin, December 21st, 1977. I can't be right. Williamson County authorities investigating the tampering of a civil war soldier's grave discovered that a second body had been placed in the grave probably from within the last year. The body is an adult male clad in what

appeared to be a tuxedo. The body of Colonel Shy in its steel vault was undisturbed, officials said. Nashville Banner, December 31st, 1977. It looks like we have a homicide on our hands, said Chief Deputy Fleming Williams. Yeah, it's not a suicide. Dr. Bass arrived and a more thorough search turned up the head and other missing body parts. Oh my god. It was reported the body was found in a sitting position and then it had been dead for six months. As Bass excavated what he what was left of the body, he found a small hole in the top of the coffin, possibly caused by a pick or a shovel. When Bass looked inside the metal

coffin, he found nothing but sludge, which didn't surprise him. He had exhumed a 19th century cemetery in Tennessee and found little more than small bone fragments. Sludge? So what he found was Colonel Shy. Yeah, but sludge? Yeah, but that's what happens to bodies. They turn into sludge? Sure. Have you ever seen CSI Las Vegas? Never seen CSI Las Vegas, but I was under the impression that we were just becoming bones. We weren't becoming a sludge. No, some if you're like in a tightly, if you're like in a body bag or something. If you're one of the fancy ones. Well, if you're in something that doesn't let air in or out, then you'll turn

into like a juicy sort of... So who would want that? Do you want to be juice? Maybe. I don't know, juice is good. You want to be grave suit? I might want to be juice. Well, this is... I think we found a very key difference. Bass examined the bones back in his laboratory. According to his osteological analysis, the remains belonged to a white male in his mid-20s to early 30s. It was about 5'10". Due to the presence of pink tissue and decomposing tissue, Bass believed that this person had only been dead between six and 12 months. Sheriff's investigators discovered 17 fragments of skull during an additional inspection of the coffin. When Bass

glued them back together, he found that the cause of death was a gunshot wound to the head with a large caliber gun at close range. The entrance wound was in the right, the forehead right above the left eye, and the exit wound was near the base of the skull. Now during the battle of Nashville, shy was shot at point-blank range with a 58 caliber ball to the head. Dr. Bass began to suspect that he had made a huge error in the timeline of death. When the teeth were examined, he discovered that many of them had cavities, but there were no signs of modern dental care such as fillings. Then the clothes were examined and there were

no synthetic fibers and labels, things that are typically seen in modern garments. Also, it was a ruffled shirt and a black tuxedo coat and white gloves, like you know, in the 18 fucking hundreds. Bass determined that the body was 113 years old. So late. He realized. That's a bad calculator. I mean. What? It's off a little bit. Six months to 113 years. I mean. Easily, you know. Like what a tuxedo. Well, this is pretty open and shut. He realized the body belonged to William Cheyenne. It had been pulled out through the small hole in the lid while looters are trying to rob the grave. Dr. Bass told the National Banner, I got the

age, sex, race, height and weight right, but I was off on the time of death by 113 years. That's really being like really like that's really kind of putting a shine on a turd right there, right? I mean, you know, I got the sex right. I got the height was correct. How do you get the height wrong? I nailed everything. How do you get the height wrong out of corpse and they'll everything except the one except the one thing that I'm actually good at except for the thing that maybe you can't just do based on vision. Dr. Bass reflected on how he could have miscalculated the time since death by more than 100 years. There was in bombing

fluid arsenic present in the flesh, though unbombing does not preserve human remains. A body will not stay uncrupted forever because in bombing fluids only delay the inevitable process of decomposition. Okay. Colonel Scheiss. Colonel Scheiss corpse was protected from oxygen inside his hermetically sealed coffin. The Fisk coffin was also constructed to prevent bacteria, a necessary part of petrification from flourishing. And the metal coffin protected the body from insects which can burrow through wood coffins and feast on human remains. Wait, it's the Fisk coffin. The coffin made him between the

embalming fluid and the Fisk coffin. He was just like a dude hanging out. He was just you could have fucking opened it up and looked that little window and but he would have been like, Hey, what's up? I think you just sold me on the Fisk coffin. What's up, girl? You're like, What's going on? The case in its errors made international headlines and lent to it. Didn't they know that he got the height right? Good Lord. The case in its errors made international headlines and lent to an innovation in forensic anthropology. Dr. Bass believed that his error was caused by a lack of

understanding of what happens to the body during decomposition. So it was the kernel shy case that motivated Dr. Bass to start the anthropological research facility at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, better known as the body farm. The body farm is a research facility where human decomposition can be studied in a variety of settings. The research facility opened up in 1980 to provide a setting for forensic anthropologists to document postmortem changes and to experiment with factors that affect time since death estimates. It consists of a 2.5. Hey, what kind of business you guys

opening up? We live on the plot next door. Yeah, we opening up a body farm. Okay. So we just gonna throw bodies out here and see how quick they rot and stuff. Let me get my husband. What kind of place you got over there? We raised chickens. Stale! Stale! Come eat these zombie folks. Probably better if your chickens don't come over here. You know, we ain't gonna have a fence. We just gonna put up a line. I'm walking away to signify that this conversation is done. Okay, well if you died just go ahead and fall this way. I'm slowly turning my walk into a trot. Trotting away now. It consists of a 2.5 acre wooded plot surrounded by a razor

wire fence. At any one time there are a number of bodies placed in different settings throughout the facility and left to decompose. What the fuck is this place? What? The bodies are exposed in a number of ways in order to provide insights into decomposition under varying conditions. Detailed observation and records of the decomposition process are kept including the sequence and speed of decomposition and the effects of insect activity. But who gives, honestly, who gives a fuck? It's the fucking people who try to determine how long a body's been somewhere. But who gives a fuck? Because you have to know when a person

died if they got murdered. But you know, I mean, how is this a big enough problem that we need a body farm? I mean, I would say no. This is not the 1800s when people are getting robbed all the time. But a body farm is just fun. It's not fun. I think it's fun. Oh, God. My son has a body farm. Oh, come on, kids, or go to the body farm. That's an ant farm. My son has an ant farm. Yeah. The body farm received its first donation in 1981 and over a hundred bodies are donated each year to the facility. I mean, that's fucking banana. People are like, I want my body to ride outside. Oh, yeah, I want to be tossed. I want to be looked at while I just shred

while I slowly shred. I want to hang from a tree till I'm gone. Do whatever you want. And honestly, guys, I mean this. If any of you want to fuck me, just have at it. I don't even give a fuck. I'm here for you guys. Over a thousand bodies have been given to the body farm. Oh, today there are six body farms in the United States. Oh, I'm glad to see they're franchising. There is the University of Tennessee, Texas State University, Sam Houston State University, Southern Illinois, Colorado, Mesa, and the University of California University of Pennsylvania. California University of Pennsylvania. Boy, that's got to be

confusing when you get in there. You're like, where the fuck am I heading? I'm going to California. No. It's the California University. No of Pennsylvania. So what? The campus is in Iowa. Welcome to the California University of Pennsylvania campus in Iowa. Welcome to the clarification course. Earlier this year, the Fox Valley Technical College in Wisconsin announced they would open their own body farm. Thanks, Wisconsin. Work will begin on a new body farm near Yaramundi on the outskirts of Sydney, Australia in 2015 on a patch of land owned by the University of Technology, Sydney. Will we be there? Oh, I hope so.

We could do a fun sort of dollop body farm time. If you go to the body farm half price. Half price body farm day. Half price. That's gonna be the first body farm outside the United States. Oh, well, I'm glad to see. Unless, of course, you're including Campuchia or any of the other places where people were slaughtered. Oh, yeah. Well, we're not. On Monday, the 13th, on February in February, 1978, a cold rain was falling. The service was brief. There was no drum moral or rifle salute. Six civilian just members of the sons of the Confederacy carried the great coffin to its resting place. Members of the D.A.C.

were also on hand with Confederate flags and one was placed on the grave. The Reverend Charles Fulton of St. Paul's Episcopal Church set a set of short eulogy over the shy coffin. Mrs. Montana praised Franklin's historical community for its warmth and sincerity. She remarked, I guess he could have been put back in the ground in a pine box, but the people of Franklin gave him a very warm ceremony. And Colonel William Shy was buried a second. That's all she had. Yeah, it's all she has. It really did not stuff it up. Well, they didn't set him on fire. Well, he's still starting here, but he isn't. We validate. Anyway, that's how the body farm came to

be. Jesus Christ. You are welcome. Yeah. Good. No, disgusting. I mean, I'm like, I just don't see much advantage to there's if someone if you're like, if you're someone you knew got killed and they'd been out there for six months, they can figure out exactly when it happened and then start. But six months, we know what we're dealing with. Like we don't need like we basically know like what the decadent the decomposition rate probably is. We just don't need if someone is in some crazy coffin. But are those happening? I mean, the only thing now is you're getting buried like like weirdos will be like, I want to be buried in a

kiss coffin. Like that's what we're dealing with now is like vanity coffin. Kiss coffin. Yeah, there's a kiss coffin. Are you shocked by that? Yeah, kiss merchandise is everything. Are you shitting me? For 100 bucks, Gene Simmons will come and lick your doorknob. I mean, they don't give a fuck. Kiss body farm? Different. People like so we can kiss them. No, no. It's all Paul Stanley's. All right. Well, that was the kiss body farm I'd go to. I would go to that too. That I'd go to if you were like after you die, you get you become a member of kiss. I'd be like, fuck, that sounds better. Thanks to Betsy Phillips

for the suggestion. That was a good one. That's it. That's the end of the small up. Well, we tried. Okay. We tried. Sure. Sure. Sure. Sure. Sure.