History Main / GraveRobbing

* The same thing happened to a prominent New York businessman, although this time it was for ransom, not medical research.

* In the aftermath of the AmericanCivilWar, there was an unsuccessful plot to steal Lincoln's corpse and hold it for ransom.

A grave robber (or [[TombRaider tomb raider]]) digs up a grave or breaks into a crypt or mausoleum to steal the corpse inside, whether it be [[ForScience for medical research]], profit by selling the body to medical researchers (which used to be done by shady professions called Bodysnatchers or Resurrectionists), [[{{Mad Scientist}} resurrection of]] [[CreatingLife the dead]], or... [[{{Necromantic}} whatever reason]]. This also includes stealing treasure, valuables, and [[ArtifactOfDoom Artifacts Of Doom]] that happen to be buried with the corpse, not just the corpse itself, especially if the tomb belonged to royalty. In some situations this can also include vandalism of the corpse if the robber is trying to make a statement or just feels [[ForTheEvulz especially spiteful]].

* ''RepoTheGeneticOpera'' has a singing, dancing MrExposition in the Graverobber (played by the fantastic Terrence Zdunich). He slinks around stealing Zydrate from dead bodies and telling us how this CrapsackWorld came to be. And does it really, really [[EarWorm earwormily]], as shown in the page quote.

* In one of the ''FridayTheThirteenth'' movies, Jason is accidentally resurrected by [[LightningCanDoAnything lightning]] when a survivor from the last film dug up his corpse.

* Most versions of ''[[FrankensteinsMonster Frankenstein]]'' have this as the primary method of retrieving "materials" for the creation of the monster.

** In the first season episodes "Pie-lette" and "The Fun in Funeral" has the Schatz brothers, who own a funeral home, and regulary steal valubles from corpses.

* Every third [[DungeonCrawling Dungeon Crawl]] in any game involves breaking into an ancient tomb full of wondrous relics, and looting it. Some parties make multiple trips.

** It's also very profitable. And of course, the reaction when you [[spoiler: dig up a ghoul who has accidentaly buried. This leads to funny comments and one confused PC]].

* You need to dig up several graves in ''KingsQuest 4'', although you return the items to ghosts to which they belong so it's not ''exactly'' stealing.

* [[{{Yu-Gi-Oh}} Bakura, the Tombrobber.]] MoralDissonance in that his start was robbing from the evil kings who sacrifice his village for dark magic. The youngest of these kings? The Hero.
** This said, Atem had no part in the massacre at Kul Elna; it was the High Priest Akhenaden who performed the wicked deed, and ultimately became the very manifestation of evil, Zorc Necrophades, who [[HeroicSacrifice Atem sealed in the Millennium Puzzle along with himself]].

** Speaking of body desecrations, [[FridgeLogic currently there is a number of mummified corpses on display in the central museum of Cairo (and maybe other ones too) for all those tourist drones to gawk on and serve as an attraction (along with the tombs themselves)]]. [[MoralDissonance Huh]].

* The [[MoralDissonance United States]] [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pillaging#Looting_of_Native_American_archaeological_sites systematically plundered and destroyed many Native American sacred sites]]. This practice continued well into the 20th century until it was banned by the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act in 1990.

---->-- ''PrinceOfPersia'' reboot

* Played for laughs in ''A Night In The Lonesome October'' by RogerZelazny: Not only do all the Players, good guys or bad, engage in the practice, but one night they all raid the same cemetery at the same time, and commence trading the excavated body parts needed for their various rituals and schemes.

* In MarkTwain's ''{{The Adventures of Tom Sawyer}}'', this is what Dr. Robinson, Injun Joe and Muff Potter are doing in the graveyard until Joe murders Robinson. (presumably for medical research, as the ringleader is a doctor)

* Every third [[DungeonCrawling Dungeon Crawl]] involves breaking into an ancient tomb full of wondrous relics, and looting it. Some parties make multiple trips.

* The {{Ravenloft}} adventure ''Ship of Horrors'' pits heroes against a grave-robbing clan [[spoiler: of reanimated corpses]] which provide bodies to a nasty necromancer.

* One early quest in KingdomOfLoathing requires you to rob the grave of a deceased legendary wizard so you can get the key to his tower. Humorously, before you can rob his grave, you have to win a grave robbing shovel from another enemy in the area called a grave rober (yes, it's supposed to be spelled like that, the area in question is the Misspelled Cemetary). And later on, you can fight grave rober zmobies, who keep trying to rob their OWN graves, and get pissed and attack you out of frustration because they keep failing to find anything to rob.

** [[FridgeLogic Not sure how this gains anything, since the same amount of work (or more) is going into the fake burials. Then there's the smell and health hazards of the real bodies lying around.]]

** Not just Scotland, the practice was common in many countries. "Doctor riots", mobs beating up medical professionals after a grave had been found desecrated, occurred in several US cities in the nineteenth century. Scotland is most famous because of those jolly chaps Burke and Hare who realised that waiting for bodies to be buried, then digging them up took longer than making fresh bodies out of unsuspecting boarders.

** Speaking of body desecrations. [[FridgeLogic Currently there is a number of mummified corpses on display in the central museum of Cairo (and maybe other ones too) for all those tourist drones to gawk on and serve as an attraction (along with the tombs themselves)]]. [[MoralDissonance Huh]].

* Some mention should go to [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burke_and_Hare_murders Burke and Hare]], who committed murders to supply corpses for dissection, apparently because grave-robbing was just ''too much work''. Several films have been made about them.

-->''And it's my job to steal and rob '''GRAAAAAAAAAAVESSSSS'''!''
--->-- The Graverobber, ''RepoTheGeneticOpera''

** And then he's actually shown stealing [[spoiler: Nagato's eyes, from his tomb]].

** Speaking of body desecreations. [[FridgeLogic Currently there is a number of mummified corpses on display in the central museum of Cairo (and maybe other ones too) for all those tourist drones to gawk on and serve as an attraction (along with the tombs themselves)]]. [[MoralDissonance Huh]].

* Most versions of ''{{Frankenstein}}'' have this as the primary method of retrieving "materials" for the creation of the monster.

** And then he's actually shown stealing [[spoiler: Nagato's eyes]].

[[GirlGenius http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Graverobber.png]]
[[caption-width:277:In some areas, graverobbing is an honorable family business.]]

--> ''Zydrate comes in a little glass vial...''

* [[YuGiOh Bakura, the Tombrobber.]] MoralDissonance in that his start was robbing from the evil kings who sacrifice his village for dark magic. The youngest of these kings? The Hero.

* Quite a few ''LegendOfZelda'' games have Link go into tombs or graves to find items. One of the better known times is in ''Ocarina of Time'', when he goes into the former keeper of the Graveyard's tomb and races the ghost to get the hookshot (on the other hand, the ghost willingly hands it over, so does that count?) A more obvious example in ''Majora's Mask'' would be on the Third Day, when the keeper of ''that'' graveyard breaks into the Royal Family tomb and not only openly admits to Link that he is looking for treasure hidden there, he asks Link to help him.