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Why were 10 dead bodies found in Benjamin Franklin’s basement? (Ambassador's London residence)
IO9 ^ | April 14, 2012 | Lauren Davis

Posted on 04/14/2012 11:25:49 AM PDT by DogByte6RER

Why were 10 dead bodies found in Benjamin Franklin’s basement?

In 1998, a group called the Friends of Benjamin Franklin House began renovations on Franklin's London residence, No. 36 Craven Street, and discovered a nasty surprise: 1,200 pieces of bone from 10 bodies, six of which were children. And the bodies were buried in the basement around the time Franklin was living in the house.

No, Franklin didn't engage in a murder spree in between penning Poor Richard's Almanack and flying kites in lightning storms. In fact, it's unlikely that the bodies were murder victims at all. The bones were sawed through and bore scalpel marks, suggesting the bodies were used for an anatomical study. And it just so happens that Franklin's dear friend William Hewson, whose mother-in-law owned Franklin's home, was a student of the famed anatomist William Hunter. Historical speculation holds that Hewson, after digging up these bodies or paying a "resurrection man" for the remains, set up a lab in Franklin's basement for his own anatomical studies.

The question remains, however: did Franklin know about the bodies? It's possible that he participated in, or at least witnessed Hewson's studies, but Hewson could have used the basement — and then buried the bodies — when Franklin wasn't around. Without further historical evidence, we can't know if the bodies in the basement would have been as much of a surprise to Franklin as they were to the renovation team.


TOPICS: Chit/Chat; Conspiracy; History; Miscellaneous; Science; Society; Weird Stuff
KEYWORDS: 1757; 1775; ancientautopsies; benjaminfranklin; england; foundingfathers; franklin; godsgravesglyphs; grossanatomy; london; mystery; unitedkingdom
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1 posted on 04/14/2012 11:26:04 AM PDT by DogByte6RER
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More background info ...

From 1757 to 1775, Ben Franklin lived in an elegant four-story Georgian house at No. 36 Craven Street in London during his time as an ambassador for the American colonies. In late 1998, a group calling itself Friends of Benjamin Franklin House began to convert the dilapidated building into a museum to honor Franklin, whose other home in Philadelphia had been razed in 1812 to make way for new construction (a “ghost house” frame now sits on the site).

Read the full text here:

http://www.mentalfloss.com/blogs/archives/123480


2 posted on 04/14/2012 11:27:33 AM PDT by DogByte6RER ("Loose lips sink ships")
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To: DogByte6RER

By tomorrow, all 10 bodies will be named “Trayvon.”


3 posted on 04/14/2012 11:28:40 AM PDT by LyinLibs (If victims of islam were more "islamophobic," maybe they'd still be alive.)
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To: DogByte6RER; Pharmboy

 GGG managers are SunkenCiv, StayAt HomeMother & Ernest_at_the_Beach
Thanks DogByte6RER.

Just adding to the catalog, not sending a general distribution.

To all -- please ping me to other topics which are appropriate for the GGG list.


4 posted on 04/14/2012 11:30:37 AM PDT by SunkenCiv (FReepathon 2Q time -- https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/)
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To: DogByte6RER

Or,


5 posted on 04/14/2012 11:32:10 AM PDT by Ruy Dias de Bivar
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To: DogByte6RER

I’m almost starting to believe headlines mislead me on purpose.


6 posted on 04/14/2012 11:34:24 AM PDT by Tublecane
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To: DogByte6RER

As we speak, Tim Burton and Johnny Depp are working on the script... (joking)


7 posted on 04/14/2012 11:41:17 AM PDT by Dogbert41 ("...or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the Great King. " -Jesus)
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To: LyinLibs

And the msm will declare Franklin was a cannibal and/or satanist.


8 posted on 04/14/2012 11:43:42 AM PDT by bgill
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To: Dogbert41

Heh ... yeah, probably something like “Benjamin Franklin Zombie Slayer”


9 posted on 04/14/2012 11:49:48 AM PDT by DogByte6RER ("Loose lips sink ships")
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To: LyinLibs
By tomorrow, all 10 bodies will be named “Trayvon.”

Spot on funny.

10 posted on 04/14/2012 11:52:00 AM PDT by Stentor ("All cults of personality start out as high drama and end up as low comedy.")
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To: DogByte6RER

It wasn’t his house. He was a lodger there.


11 posted on 04/14/2012 11:54:17 AM PDT by Harmless Teddy Bear (Would you sing if someone sucked YOU up the vacuum cleaner hose?)
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To: DogByte6RER

They were there because he missed the day the dead cart came by.


12 posted on 04/14/2012 12:05:13 PM PDT by SkyDancer ("Talent Without Ambition Is Sad - Ambition Without Talent Is Worse")
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To: DogByte6RER

I, for one, am more concerned about any bodies that have been secreted as a result of forming Obama’s fake life history.


13 posted on 04/14/2012 12:08:24 PM PDT by Gaffer
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To: DogByte6RER
Never trust a folk hero.

Or a politician for that matter.

There's always a few skeletons in the basement.

Not always literally, though.

14 posted on 04/14/2012 12:12:46 PM PDT by x
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To: DogByte6RER
Hewson's death was like that of Bazarov in Ivan Turgenev's Fathers and Sons

The scenario they paint is plausible...but I wonder if they can date the bones precisely to the period when Franklin was living there.

Did they find any traces of elderberry wine?

15 posted on 04/14/2012 12:26:24 PM PDT by Verginius Rufus
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To: LyinLibs

“By tomorrow, all 10 bodies will be named “Trayvon.”

ROFLMAO!!! You are quick!


16 posted on 04/14/2012 12:38:27 PM PDT by jocon307
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To: Tublecane

Headline writers are told to write headline to get people to stop and read the article. So yes to some extent their job is to hype the story and mislead us slightly.


17 posted on 04/14/2012 1:00:32 PM PDT by JLS (How to turn a recession into a depression: elect a Dem president with a big majorities in Congress)
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To: DogByte6RER

I saw this story covered on the History channel (or perhaps Discovery) several months ago.

When Franklin was there, he had befriended a young Englishman who was studying anatomy and medicine. Franklin permitted him to use the basement, I think, as a sort of lab. The bones are from cadavers.

At least that’s the way I recall the story.


18 posted on 04/14/2012 1:36:49 PM PDT by octex
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To: DogByte6RER

Ben Franklin is said to have been a member of the Hellfire Club while he was in England. I’m a bit surprised not to see any reference to that.


19 posted on 04/14/2012 2:10:30 PM PDT by Cicero (Marcus Tullius)
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To: DogByte6RER

i read somewhere once that htey were cadavers for study purposes-


20 posted on 04/14/2012 2:21:32 PM PDT by CottShop (Scientific belief does not constitute scientific evidence, nor does it convey scientific knowledge)
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