Human Brains Sold on EBay Were Stolen (We’re Shocked, too)

A man who'd bought six brains online became worried that they hadn't been ethically acquired. Do tell, Daily Mail:

Indiana's David Charles was arrested on December 16 after investigators were tipped off by Brian Kubasco, from San Diego, who became suspicious about six jars of brain tissue he'd bought on eBay for $600.

Marion County court documents allege Charles broke into the Indiana Medical History Museum several times between September 7 and October 16 and stole jars of preserved human tissues, including brain samples, from long-dead psychiatric patients.

The museum is on the grounds of a former state psychiatric hospital, Central State Hospital, which closed in 1994.

The museum's director executive director, Mary Ellen Hennessey Nottage,said the tissues are from autopsies spanning from roughly the 1890s to the 1940s.

The accused is said to have stolen sixty brains, as well as other human specimens, which leads us to a few pertinent questions:

  1. Who sells brains or other human tissues on eBay—is that not a red flag itself? (And is it lucrative? Asking for a friend.)
  2. What do you need them for in volume?
  3. Is a state psychiatric hospital-turned medical museum not the perfect creepy place for a Hannibal episode, or at least a wrap party?

Comments

  1. Laura K. Curtis

    Uh…what did the guy who BOUGHT the brains want with them?

  2. Teddy P

    ^ Perhaps he was a zombie and got hungry.

  3. Brian Greene

    It was brainless of the thief/salesman to think he could get away with this.

  4. LynnBalabanos

    WTF? This whole story had me rolling. What’s even more funny is that the thief stole 60 brains. So apparently, Brian (the buyer) isn’t the only one on EBay shopping for brains. Or human tissue. Yuck.

Comments are closed.

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