Delaware backstory: Cannon's skull now spends Halloween at Smithsonian
*Reposting entire article as the original is technically not available at the source.
Quote:
For ages, the skull of Delaware's most notorious murderess was put on public display for Halloween, but nevermore.
It was that of Patty Cannon of Sussex County, the notorious head of a crime ring that kidnapped free and freed African Americans in the 1800s and sold them into slavery in the deep South.
Called the nation's first female serial killer, she died May 11, 1829, in Georgetown, awaiting trial on charges of murdering a white slave trader and two children.
After her death - a suspected suicide by poison to avoid hanging - she was buried outside the Sussex County Courthouse.
But her own bones did not rest in peace. Her grave later was moved and courthouse employee Charles I. Joseph reportedly got her skull at that time, said Margie Cyr, Dover Public Library director. "It hung on a nail in his barn," she said.
Later, he gave the skull to a relative, Alfred Joseph, who donated the skull to the Dover Public Library in a storage box lined in red satin, she said.
For decades, the skull was brought out for a Halloween display that also promoted reading about Cannon's disgraceful chapter of Delaware history.
Cyr doesn't know when the displays ended. "It was many years ago," she said, as laws were enacted to limit displays of human remains. After that, the skull sat in storage - until the library was on the move. "Last year, when we were packing up and getting ready," Cyr said, she contacted The Smithsonian Institute in Washington, D.C.
The skull's tale proved too intriguing for The Smithsonian to pass up. The skull is now on longterm loan, under Douglas W. Owsley, the Division Head of Physical Anthropology at The Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History. His goal is to learn everything possible about the person from whom it came.
No one ever challenged the skull's identity, but there are no known historic images of Cannon and, Cyr said, "there was a fire at the courthouse that destroyed all the records." Her birthdate is unknown, but historians say she was about 70 when she died.
Marrow analysis has proven the skull is female, Smithsonian spokeswoman Katie Sabella said. Owsley also confirmed it is consistent with that of someone about 70 years old who died when Cannon did, she said.
Proving identity may be elusive. Comparing descendants' mitochondrial DNA, passed by mothers, is not possible, since Cannon's only daughter had no children, Sabella said.
And whether Cannon died by suicide may stay a mystery.
"We cannot at this point check for the ingestion of poison as cause of death because that sort of toxin would not be evident in the bone if it killed rapidly," Sabella said.
And while the skull no longer is there, a visitor recently went to the Dover Public Library just to check on it, Cyr said.
Charles Joseph of Hendersonville, Tenn., the donor's grandson, wasn't disappointed the skull was gone or not on display, she said, adding, "he was glad to hear that it's at The Smithsonian."
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Was guided to this story while looking at stuff related to the cremains from the previous post.