There are several ways to discard a body once death occurs. None of them are pleasant to contemplate, and some are downright disturbing. Before the 20th century, if a body only appeared to be dead, but the “deceased” was, in fact, still alive, premature burial was a possibility—a horrific fate, indeed. Even when death is unequivocal, the idea of burying a loved one in earth or sea, reducing a corpse to ash, or leaving a body unclaimed in a remote grave can be terrifying. Yet there exists a third, even more unsettling option: after death a person’s remains may be embalmed or mummified and then exhibited for the curious public, turning the dead into a macabre attraction.
10 Creepy Corpses on Display
10 Luang Pho Daeng
Born in 1894 on Koh Samui, a Thai island, Luang Pho Daeng was a Buddhist monk who entered his final meditation in 1973. His preserved body, still frozen in the pose he held at death, now rests inside a golden, glass‑enclosed case at Wat Khunaram temple.
Early records show that Daeng was first ordained as a monk in his youth, later left the order to marry and father six children, and eventually returned to monastic life after his offspring grew up. He traveled to Bangkok for deeper study, then settled back on Samui, meditating in a cave at Tham Yai (today’s Tamarind Springs) before moving to the family home behind Wat Khunaram.
Approaching his eightieth year, Daeng sensed his end was near and gathered his disciples to share his final wishes. He stipulated that if his body began to decompose it should be cremated and the ashes scattered at the famed “Saam Jaeg” three‑forked intersection in Hua Thanon. If, however, decay did not set in, the corpse was to be displayed upright in a coffin as a teaching tool for future generations.
Although the monk’s eyes have vanished as they re‑entered his head, the rest of his remains are remarkably intact. Monks have placed sunglasses on the mummified monk to soften his eerie appearance.
Further research has revealed that tiny gecko eggs sometimes hatch inside his body, with some eggs discovered in his eye sockets, mouth, and beneath the skin during radiographic scans, adding an extra layer of creepiness to the exhibit.
9 Speedy Atkins
Charles Henry “Speedy” Atkins (1875‑1928) met an unceremonious end, destined for a pauper’s grave, yet his mummified form lingered in a funeral home’s closet, occasionally opened for locals and tourists to peer at.
According to the Chicago Sun‑Times, Atkins became a local sensation. When, 66 years after his death, his remains finally received a proper burial, about 200 people gathered at Washington Street Baptist Church in Paducah, Kentucky, snapping photos beside the open casket and paying their respects in a lively farewell ceremony. Velma Hamock, the embalmer’s widow, famously remarked, “I never saw a dead man bring so much happiness to people.”
The secret behind Atkins’s remarkable preservation lay in a special embalming fluid devised by undertaker A. Z. Hamock. The concoction’s chemicals allowed the corpse to endure much like ancient Egyptian mummies. Unfortunately, Hamock took the formula to his own grave, leaving the exact recipe lost to history.
Atkins had drowned while fishing, leaving no family or friends to claim his body. Hamock obtained permission from the coroner to experiment on the unclaimed remains, applying his new preservative. The result was astounding: over six and a half decades later, the corpse showed no foul odor and retained most of its facial features, earning the respect and fascination of his hometown.
8 Elmer McCurdy
Train robber Elmer McCurdy (1880‑1911) famously declared he would never be captured alive. Ironically, after being shot to death by an Oklahoma sheriff’s posse, his corpse embarked on a second career as a “fun‑house dummy.”
McCurdy’s mummified remains spent years in a museum warehouse, occasionally painted to glow in the dark and displayed from the gallows of a carnival’s fun‑house. The body even appeared as a prop on an episode of The Six Million Dollar Man. The truth emerged when one of the dummy’s arms detached; a technician trying to re‑attach it discovered real human bone where none should have been.
Further investigation revealed a bullet lodged in McCurdy’s stomach. Tracing the prop’s ownership uncovered a trail: after his death, the posse’s sheriff sold the corpse to a carnival owner who mummified it. It changed hands several times before ending up with carnival magnate Louis Sonney, who used it as security for a loan that went unpaid.
McCurdy remained a star attraction in Sonney’s traveling freak show until the end of World War II, when such spectacles waned in popularity. The body later sold to the Hollywood Wax Museum and eventually purchased by Nu‑Pike Amusement Park, where it was painted and hung from a gallows display.
His final resting place is at Summit View Cemetery in Guthrie, Oklahoma, where a simple tombstone records only his death and burial years, omitting the puzzling 66‑year gap between the two dates.
7 Hazel Farris
Today, Hazel Farris’s corpse is a skeletal shell: most of her hair has vanished, her eyes are missing, the nose is largely gone, many teeth have fallen out, and her right ring finger is absent. The remaining bones bear the scars of a violent life.
Born around 1880, Farris shot five men, killing each, before taking her own life to evade capture. Her first victim was her husband, who, after a night of drinking, challenged her plan to purchase a new hat; the argument turned deadly, and she shot him twice.
When neighbors heard the gunfire and alerted authorities, three lawmen stormed the house and were also slain by Farris’s “outrage, steel nerve, and deadly aim.” A passing deputy sheriff entered the scene, stumbled over a body, and his gun discharged, severing the ring finger of his opponent’s right hand. Undeterred, Farris freed herself, shot the deputy, and fled, tallying a grim total of five kills before escaping.
Farris later fled to Bessemer, Alabama, where she fell for a man who, upon learning her story, likely turned her in for a reward. To avoid incarceration, she poisoned herself.
After her body desiccated in a combined furniture store and funeral home, locals, intrigued by the legend of “Hazel the Mummy,” paid a dime each to view her remains. Carnival showman Orlando C. Brooks later purchased the corpse, exhibiting it “for the benefit of science” for a fee. A poster claimed the exhibit offered a worthwhile study and promised a $500 reward to anyone, including doctors, who could prove the mummy was fraudulent.
6 Samuel Perry Dinsmoor
Deep in the American heartland, the Garden of Eden in Lucas, Kansas, showcases roughly 150 concrete sculptures reflecting the political and religious musings of retired schoolteacher and Civil War veteran Samuel Perry Dinsmoor (1843‑1932).
Dinsmoor, an eccentric populist, devoted the final 25 years of his life to this grand art project after retirement. He first erected a limestone home resembling a log cabin, complete with concrete porch spindles cast inside broken bottles. He proudly described the residence as “the most unique home for living or dead on Earth.”
The Kansas Historical Society notes that Dinsmoor spent the next quarter‑century pouring 113 tons of concrete into sculptures that illustrated his interpretation of the Bible and modern civilization through a populist lens. The Garden of Eden also features a concrete mausoleum housing his mummified remains and those of his wife; visitors can glimpse his body through a glass pane in the mausoleum’s lid, while his wife rests unseen in a sealed crypt below.
5 The West Virginia Philippi Mummies
In a quaint train station turned Barbour County Historical Museum in Philippi, West Virginia, a modest backroom houses the mummified remains of two women, available for a dollar‑a‑peek.
Graham Hamrick, a farmer‑turned‑amateur‑scientist, became enamored with the 19th‑century Egyptomania craze and sought to replicate ancient mummification techniques. After experimenting with fruits, meats, and small animals, he decided to apply his method to human corpses.
Hamrick purchased two bodies from the Trans‑Allegheny Lunatic Asylum (also known as the West Virginia Hospital for the Insane). Such acquisitions were not uncommon at the time, as some mental‑health institutions disposed of patients without families in unethical ways. He also obtained an infant’s corpse and a detached hand. The exact formula he used remains unknown, as Hamrick took it to the grave.
The mummies briefly toured with circus legend P.T. Barnum before returning to West Virginia. Over the years they were stored in a barn, and at one point even under a local man’s bed. In 1985, a flood damaged the remains; after drying in the sun, the surviving mummy was relocated to its present home in the museum. The infant was too damaged to preserve, and the hand was lost.
4 Sir Christian Friedrich von Kahlbutz
The mummified corpse of Sir Christian Friedrich von Kahlbutz (1651‑1702) has placed the tiny German town of Kampehl, with just 130 residents, on the map. The knight’s body, housed in a glass‑topped crypt, attracts up to 150,000 visitors annually.
In 1991, not everyone welcomed the cadaver’s presence. Mayor Edmund Bublitz opposed the display despite its tourist draw, while the state had previously managed the attraction during the Communist era, charging admission and compensating the local Lutheran church that owned the crypt.
Pastor Peter Freimark defended the exhibit, noting its allure stemmed from its “macabre, obscene, cruel, grisly and…erotic” qualities—traits he claimed resonated with the German psyche.
The “erotic” aspect ties back to the knight’s notorious reputation: he fathered 30 illegitimate children in addition to 11 legitimate heirs and allegedly claimed the right to “deflower all brides in his fiefdom.” When a rejected bride’s fiancé was found with a split skull, Kahlbutz was charged with murder, though he maintained his innocence, allegedly declaring, “If I am the murderer, may it be God’s will that my body never decay.”
The conflict between church and state persisted until German reunification in 1990. The mayor once arranged for six unemployed men to move the body to the fire station, but the plan was aborted after local opposition. Today, the knight remains undisturbed in his glass‑covered crypt, continuing to draw paying customers.
3 Charles Eugene de Croy
St. Nicholas’s Church in Tallinn, Estonia, shelters the mummified remains of Charles Eugene de Croy (1651‑1702), a duke who fought for the Russian army at Narva in 1701 and was captured by Sweden’s King Charles XII.
Following his death in 1702, financial constraints prevented a proper burial, so his body was propped up in a side chapel near the main entrance. The dry climate preserved his corpse, turning it into a local attraction until 1897, when authorities finally interred him.
Visitors in the 1880s described his appearance as striking: a grey‑toned complexion, a damaged nose, thin lips, and a yellow‑brown hue to the skin, all while he remained dressed in his formal attire.
2 Christian Jacobsen Drakenberg
Christian Jacobsen Drakenberg (1626‑1772) was a sea‑faring adventurer who, at age 68, was captured by Algerine pirates during a 1694 voyage to Spain. After escaping, he returned to Denmark and became a favored storyteller among the aristocracy, delighting audiences with increasingly outrageous tales.
Perhaps the most astonishing claim about Drakenberg is that he lived to the age of 145, a fact highlighted in the 1856 English Cyclopaedia, which called his longevity “one of the most extraordinary instances of longevity on record.”
Following his death, his body was mummified and displayed at the cathedral in Aarhus, where curious onlookers would stealthily open the casket to pluck a hair from his chin. In 1835 he was described as a “kind of natural mummy,” but at the queen’s request he received a proper burial in 1840 beneath the cathedral floor.
1 Xin Zhui
Also known as Marquise Dai, Xin Zhui (c. 217 BC‑168 BC) was married to the Marquis Dai of the Western Han Dynasty. Her remarkably preserved body was discovered in December 1971 while excavating an air‑raid shelter near an army hospital in Hunan Province.
Her wooden burial chamber, sealed beneath a thick layer of white clay and 11,000 pounds of charcoal to prevent water intrusion, also contained the remains of her husband, a child, and over 3,000 cultural artifacts.
The burial method created a stable temperature and humidity, producing a low‑oxygen, antiseptic environment that kept her body in superb condition, while her companions, exposed to moisture, suffered typical decay.
Because of this exceptional preservation, Xin’s skin remained supple, her joints flexible, and her internal organs largely free from decay. Researchers were even able to type her blood and determine that she likely died of a heart attack around age 50, caused by a diet rich in indulgent foods and a sedentary lifestyle.
A secret compound was injected into her circulatory system to further halt decomposition, and her corpse now resides on display at the Hunan Municipal Museum in Changsha.