The Bizarre Case of the Professor and the Reanimated Corpse

Like his father before him, Friedrich Christian Juncker was a professor of medicine at the University of Halle in Germany. This was in the 18th century, when procuring human corpses for anatomy class was a dicey undertaking, and they were often bought from grave robbers. Juncker agreed to purchase two fresh corpses, executed criminals which were delivered at night when the university was closed. So the professor stored them in a closet at his home until morning. But late that night, he began to hear strange sounds.

It sounded almost like a rumbling and scratching noise, and as he walked around the house by candlelight trying to figure out what it was, he noticed that it seemed to be coming from the closet and its makeshift morgue within. At first, he thought that his cat might have been locked in there with the dead bodies, and so he opened the door to take a look around inside. As he examined the room he could see in the flickering, dancing light of the candle that one of the sacks that had held the bodies had been torn open, and not only that, the corpse within was gone, although the other body was still lying there untouched. His first reaction was that someone had stolen it, and so he checked around the house but found no unlocked doors or windows, and no sign of forced entry or an intruder. He then went back to that darkened closet in bafflement, and as he stared at that empty sack his attention was drawn by a sort of sigh from the shadows in the corner. This time when he raised the candle, the jumping flame eerily illuminated the form of the missing corpse sitting in the corner on a chair, as if it were the most normal thing in the world.

Juncker's first response was to run away to his bedroom, but the "corpse" followed him. Juncker not only had to confront the man, but then decide what to do about him. Years passed before Juncker knew he made the right decision. Is this a true story? Who knows, but it's a compelling tale you can read at Mysterious Universe. -via Strange Company


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