On another occasion, he and two of his helpers were apprehended on
Reading Road near Walnut Hills with their booty which consisted of two
bodies which they had just exhumed from a cemetery near Hartley and were
concealed in gunny sacks. The three were immediately placed under arrest
and taken to the Ninth Street police station and the bodies were
delivered to a near-by funeral establishment for subsequent
identification.
The following morning the suspects were released on bail, and that
afternoon two unassuming individuals, unknown to the attendant in
charge, called at the undertaker’s establishment and claiming they were
from the coroner’s office, demanded the bodies for the purpose of
holding an inquest on them. The two bodies were released without
hesitation. Upon the arrival of the proprietor, when told of the
incident he contacted the coroner’s office only to learn that the bodies
in question had not been sent for or been seen. Inasmuch as there were
no corpi delicti as evidence, no case could be made out against Old
Cunny, and he and his confederates were released.[3]
In the CINCINNATI DAILY GAZETTE, under date of November 22, 1870, is a
news item to the effect that a body delivered to one of the medical
colleges of that city “was stolen by the enterprising sawbones of a
rival establishment during the night. Old Cunny was therefore compelled
to make another midnight expedition last night much to his disgust—not
that he dislikes the business, but that he is now getting old, and that
which was once pleasant recreation has now become somewhat of a burden.”
Wonder if it ever occurred to that reporter that there is a strong
likelihood that Old Cunny himself might have been the guilty one who
“stole” the body and re-sold it to a rival institution? Such episodes
were known to occur.
Evidently not all of Old Cunny’s contraband was destined for the anatomy
laboratories in Cincinnati, as judged from a news item in the CINCINNATI
DAILY GAZETTE, dated January 20, 1870. According to this news report
“Cunningham, the resurrectionist, deposited a box at the U. S. express
office marked ‘Glass with care, C. O. D. Dr. M. P. Hayden, Leavenworth,
Kan.’ Suspicions of the company’s agents were excited, and when they
opened the box it contained the body of a negro woman prepared for the
dissecting knife and served up in a sack. The freight was returned to
Mr. Cunningham.”