Donating your body to science is a final, noble act. If you’re donating it to one of the world’s most prestigious medical schools you might even hope you will contribute to a scientific breakthrough. But at Harvard Medical School something went wrong…the head of their mortuary had gone rogue and in 2019 a shocking discovery led to the realisation that body parts were being sold online.
So how did Cedric Lodge go from respected member of the Harvard community to running a network of human oddity collectors, and making huge profits? And what were their customers doing with the body parts?
In Head Number 7 geneticist and ancient DNA expert Professor Turi King, takes you inside Cedric’s descent into darkness, finds out more about the people who donated their bodies only to be sold for parts and asks, who owns your body after you die?
Listen to episodes of Head Number 7 exclusively and ad-free by joining Wondery+ in the Wondery App or Apple Podcasts. Start your free trial today by visiting wondery.com/links/head-number-seven
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Donating your body to science is a final, noble act. If you’re donating it to one of the world’s most prestigious medical schools you might even hope you will contribute to a scientific breakthrough. But at Harvard Medical School something went wrong…the head of their mortuary had gone rogue and in 2019 a shocking discovery led to the realisation that body parts were being sold online.
So how did Cedric Lodge go from respected member of the Harvard community to running a network of human oddity collectors, and making huge profits? And what were their customers doing with the body parts?
In Head Number 7 geneticist and ancient DNA expert Professor Turi King, takes you inside Cedric’s descent into darkness, finds out more about the people who donated their bodies only to be sold for parts and asks, who owns your body after you die?
Listen to episodes of Head Number 7 exclusively and ad-free by joining Wondery+ in the Wondery App or Apple Podcasts. Start your free trial today by visiting wondery.com/links/head-number-seven
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
For 15 years Cedric Lodge has run Harvard Medical School mortuary - he’s a quirky local legend with a licence plate that reads “GRIM-R”, and he even has a place in the Universities hall of fame, but all that changes when he’s arrested for the most macabre crimes imaginable...selling body parts of those who donated their bodies to the medical school. The customers? Online collectors of the macabre.
Geneticist and ancient DNA expert Professor Turi King explores this extraordinary story with lawyers, scientists and the family members of those who donated their bodies to Harvard Medical School while Cedric Lodge was running the morgue. Turi meets three victims: Amy Dasch, whose husband James was a brilliant biologist and innovator, who believed donating his body was the extension of his work as a scientist. Author and academic Jack Porter who lectures at Harvard, but now has to grapple with the fact his wife Raya may have been sold by Lodge. And Jennie Dunkley, who's husband Barry spent a lifetime working in law enforcement.
Listen to episodes of Head Number 7 exclusively and ad-free by joining Wondery+ in the Wondery App or Apple Podcasts. Start your free trial today by visiting https://wondery.com/links/head-number-7/.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
