Cemetery Gun

3D ModelNoAI

In the 18th and 19th centuries, grave-robbing was a serious problem. Surgeons and medical students could only legally dissect the bodies of executed criminals or the very few people who had donated their bodies to medical science. A black market in corpses developed and grave-robbers started stealing recently buried bodies from graveyards. Family members or cemetery keepers would have to keep watch to prevent the ‘resurrection men’ from digging up the grave. This type of gun was developed to combat this macabre trade. The flintlock weapon was mounted on a spinning mechanism set up at the foot of a grave, and rigged with tripwires. A prospective grave-robber, stumbling over the tripwire in the dark, would trigger the weapon. The guns were rented by the week, so only the wealthy could afford to protect their graves. Cemetery guns were eventually outlawed in England in the 1820s.