Publication information

Source: Hawaiian Gazette
Source type: newspaper
Document type: article
Document title: none
Author(s): anonymous
City of publication: Honolulu, Hawaii Territory
Date of publication: 12 November 1901
Volume number: 36
Issue number: 99
Pagination: 8

 
Citation
[untitled]. Hawaiian Gazette 12 Nov. 1901 v36n99: p. 8.
 
Transcription
full text
 
Keywords
Leon Czolgosz (disposal of remains); Charles F. Chandler (public statements).
 
Named persons
Charles F. Chandler; Cornelius V. Collins; Leon Czolgosz; J. Warren Mead.
 
Document


[untitled]

     NEW YORK, October 31.—If the body of Leon Czolgosz were exhumed tomorrow it would be found well preserved in a plaster of paris cast instead of having been dissolved and disintegrated by the action of the quicklime and vitriol with which it was covered when interred in the prison burial lot at Auburn. It had been determined by Warden Mead and Superintendent Cornelius Collins to destroy the body so that no trace of the assassin should remain as a possible incentive to relic hunters. When the body was interred a layer of quicklime has already been placed in the grave. On this the coffin, the lid of which had been removed, was laid, and the body was then covered with two barrels of quicklime. Over this a carboy of vitriol or sulphuric acid was poured, two more barrels of quicklime was thrown in, and over all earth was shoveled until the grave was filled.
     It was anticipated that as a result of the action of the sulphuric acid and quicklime, the body would be dissolved within twelve hours, but it is improbable that this has been the case. When quicklime and sulphuric acid are combined the chemical result is plaster of paris and water. “It is entirely probable that Czolgosz’ body is inclosed [sic] in a plaster of paris cast,” said Professor Charles F. Chandler of the College of Physicians and Surgeons and of the University of New York tonight. “Plaster of paris would result from the combination of sulphuric acid and quicklime.”