# Methods of criminal disposal of bodies **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 24, 2005, 6:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/methods-of-criminal-disposal-of-bodies/296012 "2005-03-24T06:18:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![WeRSauron](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/f19dbf/32.png) [@WeRSauron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WeRSauron)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2005, 6:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/methods-of-criminal-disposal-of-bodies/296012/1 "2005-03-24T06:18:49Z")
Movies, books, and real-life people demonstrate various ways of disposing of the dead. Conventionally, the dead are disposed of by burial in cemetaries and by cremation. However, when the criminal element becomes involved, destroying the corpse must be done in a way that the corpse cannot be traced to the criminal. Yet even criminals bury and cremate. Nevertheless, these methods keep open possibilities for detection and tracing the body to the criminal. Unique methods criminals use seem to be to weigh the body down in a body of water. “Sleeping with the fishes,” as it’s sometimes called. Or dissolving the body in a vat of acid. What other methods are used that are practical and effective? Is there a reason why criminals are not wont to use more effective methods? WRS ---
**Author:** ![even\_sven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/dfb087/32.png) [@even\_sven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/even_sven)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2005, 8:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/methods-of-criminal-disposal-of-bodies/296012/2 "2005-03-24T08:50:27Z")
Many crimes are done in passion, and the perpetrator doesn’t have time to make elaborate preparations, and afterwards they just want to get away from the crime and pretend that it never happened. Only a few people are capable of thinking clearly when they have just done something horrible and know they could face life in jail or worse for it. The attitude is not usually to perpetrate a perfect murder, but to cover your actions as quickly as possible and buy some time. With enough time, people start thinking they can get away with it and the bodies eventually are found. ---
**Author:** ![Bricker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2005, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/methods-of-criminal-disposal-of-bodies/296012/3 "2005-03-24T16:00:50Z")
It’s also rather difficult to dispose of a body. For all the light-hearted talk about dissolution in a vat of acid… ask yourself: if you had a body to dispose of right now, have you a vat of acid handy? Bodies disposed of at sea - even weighted down - are notorious for finding their way to shore. You might ask Scott Peterson for his views on the efficacy of this method of disposal. There are many methods that might destroy a body – a fully-equipped butcher’s shop and a pack of hungry dogs, for example, could be used in tandem to eliminate your little problem. But once again - have you a fully-equipped butcher shop at hand? If you happen to be building a large building, you can pour a concrete slab over your victim. If you happen to have access to a crematorium, you can come in after hours, fire up the furnace, and reduce your victim to ash, which can then be flushed down the commode. Do you happen to work in the construction or funeral industries? **even sven** is on the money in her post above: most murderers are simply making do with what they have around them, and are not rich in useful resources. ---
**Author:** ![Bippy\_the\_Beardless](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ac8455/32.png) [@Bippy\_the\_Beardless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bippy_the_Beardless)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2005, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/methods-of-criminal-disposal-of-bodies/296012/4 "2005-03-24T16:23:28Z")
Is this the joke “Help me dispose of the bodies” thread come to life? I ususally just bury them under the celler. It isn’t very secure, but it’ll gives the Police something to do when they catch me. If you get rid of all the bodies, how are you going to prove your score to the other inmates in the assylum? ---
**Author:** ![David\_Simmons](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9de053/32.png) [@David\_Simmons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/David_Simmons)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2005, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/methods-of-criminal-disposal-of-bodies/296012/5 "2005-03-24T16:26:31Z")
> [@Bricker](#): > > It’s also rather difficult to dispose of a body. For all the light-hearted talk about dissolution in a vat of acid… ask yourself: if you had a body to dispose of right now, have you a vat of acid handy? > > Bodies disposed of at sea - even weighted down - are notorious for finding their way to shore. You might ask Scott Peterson for his views on the efficacy of this method of disposal. > > There are many methods that might destroy a body – a fully-equipped butcher’s shop and a pack of hungry dogs, for example, could be used in tandem to eliminate your little problem. But once again - have you a fully-equipped butcher shop at hand? If you happen to be building a large building, you can pour a concrete slab over your victim. If you happen to have access to a crematorium, you can come in after hours, fire up the furnace, and reduce your victim to ash, which can then be flushed down the commode. Do you happen to work in the construction or funeral industries? > **even sven** is on the money in her post above: most murderers are simply making do with what they have around them, and are not rich in useful resources. Yeah. Based on the track record, bodies aren’t as easy to get rid of as might be thought. However, it can be done if you prepare in advance, _viz_ Jimmy Hoffa. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2005, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/methods-of-criminal-disposal-of-bodies/296012/6 "2005-03-24T16:35:34Z")
I just mail 'em to nonexistent addresses. ---
**Author:** ![MEBuckner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mebuckner/32/2896_2.png) [@MEBuckner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MEBuckner)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2005, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/methods-of-criminal-disposal-of-bodies/296012/7 "2005-03-24T16:39:52Z")
**Moderator’s Note:** Me, I just move 'em to General Questions. ---
**Author:** ![mittu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ecd19e/32.png) [@mittu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mittu)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2005, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/methods-of-criminal-disposal-of-bodies/296012/8 "2005-03-24T16:57:55Z")
Grab a shovel and bury the body in a graveyard, nobody is going to think of looking there, as long as you are careful replacing the sod the ground shouldn’t even look disturbed unless you examine it closely. ---
**Author:** ![the\_first\_supraliminal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f475e1/32.png) [@the\_first\_supraliminal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/the_first_supraliminal)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2005, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/methods-of-criminal-disposal-of-bodies/296012/9 "2005-03-24T17:13:50Z")
Around here, 90% of the bodies are left where they drop. And 1/3 of the killers are immediately apprehended, often on some other charge, like carjacking or robbery. Not a clever bunch. ---
**Author:** ![Misery\_Loves\_Co](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7cd45c/32.png) [@Misery\_Loves\_Co](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Misery_Loves_Co)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2005, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/methods-of-criminal-disposal-of-bodies/296012/10 "2005-03-24T17:16:49Z")
> [@mittu](#): > > Grab a shovel and bury the body in a graveyard, nobody is going to think of looking there, as long as you are careful replacing the sod the ground shouldn’t even look disturbed unless you examine it closely. This gets my award for the most creative idea. If you’ve got the balls to do so, pick a grave of someone who was just interred. If you don’t, pick one of those really old, not-used much anymore graveyards. ---
**Author:** ![Sigene](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/df788c/32.png) [@Sigene](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sigene)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2005, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/methods-of-criminal-disposal-of-bodies/296012/11 "2005-03-24T17:34:23Z")
[http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/03/24/chili.finger.reut/index.html](http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/03/24/chili.finger.reut/index.html) ---
**Author:** ![the\_first\_supraliminal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f475e1/32.png) [@the\_first\_supraliminal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/the_first_supraliminal)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2005, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/methods-of-criminal-disposal-of-bodies/296012/12 "2005-03-24T17:44:16Z")
There was a famous murderer who used acid [http://209.150.104.196/horror/bedlambound/library/haigh.html](http://209.150.104.196/horror/bedlambound/library/haigh.html) > [@](#): > > In 1949, John George Haigh burst into the headlines as an inhuman monster who had been killing for profit for many years. According to his own confession, the mass murderer had dissolved his victims in acid after drinking their blood. Though some British newspapers seized upon the morbid curiosity of their readers - describing him as a vampire and gleefully repeating his colourful accounts of the crimes - Haigh was a cunning, predatory criminal who tried to cheat the hangman by feigning insanity. > … > At the time Haigh rented a small basement workroom at 79 Gloucester Road in Kensington (some sources place the building on Leopold Road) where he allegedly devoted time to his “inventions.” On September 9th, 1944, He took his former employers’ son Donald to his workshop and killed him. The murder was carefully planned - having bludgeoned his victim with a club (or a similar weapon), Haigh then destroyed the body in a vat of acid. When bone and flesh had been reduced to a sludge-like mess, he poured the gooey residue onto the dirt surface of an open yard behind the building. He apparently thought there had to be a whole body left to convict him. But little bits were enough. ---
**Author:** ![Lightnin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lightnin/32/180_2.png) [@Lightnin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lightnin)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2005, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/methods-of-criminal-disposal-of-bodies/296012/13 "2005-03-24T17:54:50Z")
I think Bricktop said it best in **Snatch** : > [@](#): > > You’re always gonna have problems lifting a body in one piece. Apparently the best thing to do is cut up a corpse into six pieces and pile it all together. > … > And when you got your six pieces, you gotta get rid of them, because it’s no good leaving it in the deep freeze for your mum to discover, now is it? Then I hear the best thing to do is feed them to pigs. You got to starve the pigs for a few days, then the sight of a chopped-up body will look like curry to a pisshead. You gotta shave the heads of your victims, and pull the teeth out for the sake of the piggies’ digestion. You could do this afterwards, of course, but you don’t want to go sievin’ through pig shit, now do you? They will go through bone like butter. You need at least sixteen pigs to finish the job in one sitting, so be wary of any man who keeps a pig farm. They will go through a body that weighs 200 pounds in about eight minutes. That means that a single pig can consume two pounds of uncooked flesh every minute. Hence the expression, “as greedy as a pig”. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2005, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/methods-of-criminal-disposal-of-bodies/296012/14 "2005-03-24T18:03:21Z")
There’s also the Hannibal Lechter disposal method.Endorsed by Jeffrey Dahmer. Ted Bundy had a secret cave where he kept his “souvenirs”. Use to have oral sex with them there. ---
**Author:** ![rfgdxm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c0e974/32.png) [@rfgdxm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rfgdxm)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2005, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/methods-of-criminal-disposal-of-bodies/296012/15 "2005-03-24T18:04:45Z")
> [@David Simmons](#): > > Yeah. Based on the track record, bodies aren’t as easy to get rid of as might be thought. > > However, it can be done if you prepare in advance, _viz_ Jimmy Hoffa. True. To easily dispose of a body tends to require you be able to lure the person somewhere where it will be easy. This is believed to be the case with Hoffa. If I can somehow get my intended victim to a remote spot, I could have in advance dug an open grave there, off my victim, and quickly put them in the open grave and cover it up. Absent witnesses to me doing this, the police almost surely would never find the body. ---
**Author:** ![tremorviolet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e47774/32.png) [@tremorviolet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tremorviolet)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2005, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/methods-of-criminal-disposal-of-bodies/296012/16 "2005-03-24T18:10:52Z")
Whenever I watch “New Detectives” (it’s on TLC or Discover, I forget which) I’m always amazed at how little the lab workers need to identify a body. In one case, a guy killed his wife, rented a _chipper-shredder_ and spewed her remains along a creek in the middle of nowhere in the dead of night. Investigating the area, they found part of _one tooth_ and had enough to convict the guy. ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2005, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/methods-of-criminal-disposal-of-bodies/296012/17 "2005-03-24T18:40:40Z")
A tip to those who think that burning a house will consume dead bodies: No, it doesn’t. Scorch 'em a little, yeah, but it’s still recognizably a human body. Good thing most murderers are stupid. ---
**Author:** ![PatriotX](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c4cdca/32.png) [@PatriotX](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatriotX)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2005, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/methods-of-criminal-disposal-of-bodies/296012/18 "2005-03-24T19:32:21Z")
> [@dropzone](#): > > Good thing most murderers are stupid. The ones who get caqught anyway. ---
**Author:** ![trupa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/aeb1de/32.png) [@trupa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/trupa)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2005, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/methods-of-criminal-disposal-of-bodies/296012/19 "2005-03-24T19:48:59Z")
Canada’s latest candidate for most prolific mass murderer, whose name escapes me at the moment, apparently fed his victims to the pigs on his pig farm in BC. Apparently pigs, who are omnivorous, will eat people, bones and all. I don’t know if he cut the bodies down to more manageable pieces beforehand though. The police had to recruit students from the local anthropology faculty to assist with combing through all the “little bits” for DNA analysis. :eek: All the victim’s families were ever told was that their relative’s “DNA was found on the scene”. There is a publication ban in effect on this case at the moment. I have also read that this was a method of disposing of bodies used in Ireland, during the “troubles” This is also why I have read that when feeding pigs, especially several large adults at once, one needs to be careful to remain standing at all times and not fall down. Any farmers care to comment? ---
**Author:** ![rfgdxm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c0e974/32.png) [@rfgdxm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rfgdxm)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2005, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/methods-of-criminal-disposal-of-bodies/296012/20 "2005-03-24T20:00:01Z")
> [@PatriotX](#): > > The ones who get caqught anyway. Interesting thought. In cases of murder where the murderer disposes of the body with no evidence, these may just end up listed as missing person reports. Thus in cases where the corpse is made to vanish without a trace, these may not even be recognized as murders. Think in particular here of cases involving married people. If the spouse just vanishes, it could be yet another case where they used one of the 50 ways to leave their lover. And a devious spouse with murder in mind often could lure the victim to somewhere the body could be unfindably disposed of. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/methods-of-criminal-disposal-of-bodies/296012.md?page=2)