More stories were told about Cunningham than of any other of the
resurrectionists in Ohio, of his grave robbing episodes and of his
escapades in eluding law officers. He was the bogeyman of all
ill-behaved children in the environs of Cincinnati during the period
when he plied his trade in corpses, which was between the years 1855 and
1871. He was known locally by various names, including Old Man Dead and
The Ghoul, but he was more familiarly called “Old Cunny,” not simply
because it was a contraction of his real name but since he was as
cunning as the proverbial fox, and due to his adroitness and daring, he
was deserving of the cognomen.
He was born in Ireland in 1807 and is described as having been a big
raw-boned man with muscles like Hercules, a protruding lower jaw and an
insatiable thirst for hard liquor. During the day he was ostensibly a
dray-man, but at night he plied his trade as a professional
resurrectionist, supplying the medical colleges of Cincinnati with
cadavers which he and his hired helpers exhumed from the local
cemeteries.
According to a Cincinnati physician, who knew him in a business way,
“Cunny was an expert in his business.... Usually he took the body to
town in a buggy sitting in the seat beside him. The corpse was dressed
up in an old coat, vest and hat. He would hold the reins in his right
hand while he would steady the corpse with his left arm around the waist
of his silent companion. Whenever people passed and the corpse would
gravitate forward and downward Cunny would slap his inoffensive partner
in the face and say to him ‘Sit up! This is the last time I am going to
take you home when you get drunk. The idea of a man with a family
disgracing himself in this way!’”[1]