How Did Human-Skin Shoes Feature in a Politician's Wardrobe?

In the late 1800s, a doctor who autopsied a criminal had the man's skin made into human leather. Learn the macabre story in this episode of BrainStuff.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to Brainstuff production of I Heart Radio. Hey Brainstuff
Lauren Vogelbaum here. Politicians are under a lot of scrutiny
these days for everything from their tweets to their fashion choices.
Times sure have changed since the eighteen nineties, when a
new governor could show up to his inauguration proudly sporting

(00:23):
shoes made from the skin of a hanged human felon.
The skin in question belonged to an outlaw known by
the name of George Parrot or Big Nosed George, who
was hanged in Rawlins, Wyoming. In one he had tried
and failed to rob a train and subsequently killed two
of the lamen who came after him. Before this incident, George,

(00:47):
whose nose by all accounts was really remarkably large, was
just as small time horse thief. But after fleeing to
Montana following the murders and botched robbery, he robbed the
military calm boy of a local merchant who was traveling
back east with a bunch of cash. This successful hall
saw Parrot get cocky. He returned to the town where

(01:10):
the merchant was from, went into a saloon and started
bragging about the robbery and murders back in Wyoming. This
boasting resulted in his eventual capture and returned to Wyoming. There,
he unsuccessfully tried to escape from prison and was then
lynched and hanged on a telegraph poll by an angry
mob of more than two hundred people. After Parrot's death,

(01:32):
nobody showed up to claim the body, so one John Osborne,
the doctor who had pronounced him dead, took his body
home for medical study. Corpses variously obtained were popular learning
and teaching materials at the time. Osborne extracted Parrot's brain
and gave it to a friend, the surgeon Thomas McGee,

(01:52):
who wanted to study whether signs of criminality show up
in brain structures. Osbourne also sawed off the top portion
of George's skull and gave it to one Lillian heat,
a then fifteen year old girl who would go on
to become Wyoming's first female physician. She reportedly kept it
her entire life, using it at different times as an
ash tray and a doorstop. The bottom portion of parrots

(02:15):
skull Osborne put in a barrel with the rest of
the bones. Not one to waste any part of the
outlaw's corpse Osborne then skinned Parrot's body and had a
pair of shoes and a medical bag made out of
this human skin. Years later, Osborne entered politics and was
elected governor of Wyoming. To his inauguration, he wore the

(02:38):
shoes that a dozen years earlier had been a man
talk about a political statement. That very footwear is now
on display along with the death mask that Osborne cast
after parent's death, in the Carbon County Museum in Rawlings, Wyoming.
The bag, however, has never been found. Today's episode was

(03:02):
written by Jesselyn Shields and produced by Tyler Clang. For
more on this and lots of other topics, visit how
Stuff works dot com. If you'd like to hear more
about the story of Big Nose George Parrot, we did
an episode about him over on one of my other podcasts,
American Shadows, look for the episode dead Ends. Brain Stuff
is production of I Heart Radio. For more podcasts in

(03:23):
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or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.