The Missing Corpse

by Wayne Fanebust

"The grave robbing of one of the country's wealthiest Gilded Age tycoons - Alexander T. Stewart, the "Merchant Prince of Manhattan"--Set off a media firestorm and one of the most celebrated police investigations in the city's history. Immortalized in Mark Twain's story, "The Stolen White Elephant," this crime captured the imagination of the American public." "While many believed that Stewart was the victim of grave robbers, those craven criminals who kept medical schools - which, in the 19th century were officially barred from experimenting on cadavers - supplied with bodies, others speculated that a ransom was the motive, or that the stunt was meant as a political statement, a backlash against the wealthy. Newspapers fought fiercely for exclusive coverage and stories that could outdo their rivals. Clergy took the opportunity to equate the grave robbery with such "sinful behavior" as drinking and prostitution." "Spiritualists and clairvoyants offered their services, and people even con