Day In The Life Of A Body Snatcher

After Dark: Myths, Misdeeds & the Paranormal

History Hit

Myths, Folklore, Mystery, History, Ghosts, Society & Culture, Murder, Ufos, True Crime, Paranormal, Supernatural, Serial Killers

4.6 • 1.2K Ratings

🗓️ 18 September 2025

⏱️ 46 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Join Anthony and Maddy as they spend a day - or should that be night? - in the life of a 19th century body snatcher.

Find out which months they favoured for body snatching, why they never stole the dead body's possessions, and why they would never steal a body under a full moon - all referenced from a real-life grave robber's diary.

Edited by Tom Delargy. Produced by Stuart Beckwith. Senior Producer is Charlotte Long.

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All music from Epidemic Sounds.

After Dark: Myths, Misdeeds & the Paranormal is a History Hit podcast.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Crave the satisfaction of finding lost items, uncovering hidden objects, and solving challenging puzzles.
0:06.0	Disney Magic Match 3D is a brand new Disney puzzle game, where mystery meets Disney Magic.
0:11.5	Play today to start searching, solving, and sorting through piles of 3D Disney objects to find and match special items.
0:18.3	Match your way through enchanted levels to reveal adorably plump treasures from films like
0:22.5	Beauty and the Beast, Alice in Wonderland, Cinderella, Aladdin, and more.
0:26.3	Chaos has never been cozier.
0:28.1	Download Disney Magic Match 3D on the Apple App Store or Google Play Store and play today.
0:35.3	Hello and welcome to After Dark.
0:37.3	Now, we are never shy of getting up close and personal with the darker side of history.
0:41.3	Obviously, that's the whole remit of what we do.
0:43.4	But it doesn't come much darker than body snatchers, grave robbers, or as they're sometimes known, resurrectionists.
0:49.6	And I'm going to hand over to Maddie now to set the scene for this episode.
1:02.4	Music I'm going to hand over to Maddie now to set the scene for this episode. London 1812, night time.
1:05.7	Down at the Thames-Docklands, ships creek at anchor,
1:09.2	heavy with tea and textiles brought from across Britain's empire.
1:13.5	Along the skyline, the first great factories of the Industrial Revolution are grinding into life,
1:19.8	casting black silhouettes against the night's sky.
1:23.0	But in the shadows of this booming, busy and changing city, another industry thrives,
1:29.3	one that feeds not on coal or cotton, but on the freshly dead.
1:35.2	Joseph Naples moves quickly through the narrow lanes of Islington, a short-handled shovel
1:40.6	slung under his coat.
1:42.4	Beside him his gang kept the gloom, boots muffled on the damp earth as they slip into the churchyard.
	...

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