# The grave of the Elephant Man has been Discovered **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [May 6, 2019, 10:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-grave-of-the-elephant-man-has-been-discovered/833546 "2019-05-06T10:01:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Cicero](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cicero/32/3594_2.png) [@Cicero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cicero)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2019, 10:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-grave-of-the-elephant-man-has-been-discovered/833546/1 "2019-05-06T10:01:32Z")
Well according to[this story](https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-05-06/elephant-man-joseph-merricks-unmarked-grave-found-by-author/11082460) it has. I have doubts. Maybe Amelia Earhart is there as well with Lord Lucan. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2019, 11:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-grave-of-the-elephant-man-has-been-discovered/833546/2 "2019-05-06T11:54:11Z")
> [@Cicero](#): > > Well according to[this story](https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-05-06/elephant-man-joseph-merricks-unmarked-grave-found-by-author/11082460) it has. > > I have doubts. Maybe Amelia Earhart is there as well with Lord Lucan. Interesting. There were soft tissue samples preserved in fluid, I’ve read, but apparently they dried out during WWII, so we no longer have any skin samples (unless some were preserved elsewhere). ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2019, 12:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-grave-of-the-elephant-man-has-been-discovered/833546/3 "2019-05-06T12:23:47Z")
Wouldn’t you expect other elephant men buried nearby, or is that a myth? ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2019, 12:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-grave-of-the-elephant-man-has-been-discovered/833546/4 "2019-05-06T12:57:41Z")
> [@kayaker](#): > > Wouldn’t you expect other elephant men buried nearby, or is that a myth? Like the Fabled Elephant Men Burial Ground? I think it’s just a myth. Besides, he had his tusks removed when he was still young, so you shouldn’t hope to find ivory there.\* \*True, but underappreciated because it’s not in the movie or the play – Joseph Merrick was called “The Elephant Man” not just because of the rough texture of his skin and his oversized arm and legs. He also had a “tusk” growing from his mouth. He had it removed in a bout of no doubt very painful, no-anaesthetic surgery when he was still pretty young. It’s described in Peter Ford and Michael Howell’s undeservedly obscure book **The True History of the Elephant Man**. [https://www.amazon.com/True-History-Elephant-Man-Extraordinary/dp/0749005165](https://www.amazon.com/True-History-Elephant-Man-Extraordinary/dp/0749005165) It’s also mentioned in the Wikipedia article, which cites Howell and Ford (although, for some reason, then give a 1992 date for the book, which first published circa 1980) – [Joseph Merrick - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Merrick) ---
**Author:** ![dba\_Fred](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c37758/32.png) [@dba\_Fred](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dba_Fred)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2019, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-grave-of-the-elephant-man-has-been-discovered/833546/5 "2019-05-06T20:56:56Z")
The tusk removal wouldn’t have been as difficult in Alabama where the tusks-a-loosa, Groucho Marx said so. ---
**Author:** ![markn\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f9ae1b/32.png) [@markn\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/markn_1)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2019, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-grave-of-the-elephant-man-has-been-discovered/833546/6 "2019-05-06T21:47:50Z")
One morning I shot an elephant man in my pajamas. How he got into my pajamas I’ll never know. ---
**Author:** ![Yllaria](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yllaria/32/3452_2.png) [@Yllaria](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yllaria)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2019, 11:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-grave-of-the-elephant-man-has-been-discovered/833546/7 "2019-05-06T23:24:38Z")
Huh. I was watching a YouTube top ten video last night. It was the top ten makeup transformations in movies. One of the movies on the list was about the Elephant Man. It said that the makeup artist not only studied pictures of his face, he studied his skeleton, too. And there was a shot of the skeleton. Was that skeleton a copy? Someone else’s? Have I fallen into a time warp again? ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2019, 11:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-grave-of-the-elephant-man-has-been-discovered/833546/8 "2019-05-06T23:42:45Z")
No, it’s true his skeleton was preserved. The claim is that the grave contains soft tissue removed from his bones. ---
**Author:** ![Ike\_Witt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ike_witt/32/283_2.png) [@Ike\_Witt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ike_Witt)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2019, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-grave-of-the-elephant-man-has-been-discovered/833546/9 "2019-05-07T00:35:41Z")
Didn’t Michael Jackson own the bones at one point? ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2019, 1:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-grave-of-the-elephant-man-has-been-discovered/833546/10 "2019-05-07T01:05:41Z")
There’s a story that MJ tried to buy the bones. It’s disputed if that ever happened. Certainly if it happened at all, the offer was rejected. [Some info here](https://kerryhennigan.wordpress.com/2017/10/07/leave-me-alone-michael-jackson-and-the-elephant-mans-bones/). ---
**Author:** ![Lucas\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lucas_jackson/32/303_2.png) [@Lucas\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lucas_Jackson)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2019, 3:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-grave-of-the-elephant-man-has-been-discovered/833546/11 "2019-05-07T03:11:32Z")
> [@markn\_1](#): > > One morning I shot an elephant man in my pajamas. How he got into my pajamas I’ll never know. How can you tell an elephant man has been in your refrigerator? There’s foot prints in the butter!