Meet George Parrott, AKA "Big Nose George," an outlaw in Wyoming who was hanged by an angry mob in 1881 for attempted train robbery. As Parrott had no family to claim his corpse, a doctor named John Eugene Osborn took it as part of a study of the brains of criminals.
When the brain study didn't turn up anything unusual, Osborn gave the corpse's skin to a tannery with instructions to make it into a medicine bag and a pair of shoes.
Doctor John Eugene Osborn later became the first Democratic Governor of Wyoming. He wore the shoes to his inaugural ball.
Read the full story over at Cult of Weird