Photos With Civil War Corpse Lead to Arrest

Bostonist first read about this story yesterday morning in the Metro and then in the Globe, so we figured it was actually true, bizarre, but true. It seems that Neil J. Goodwin, a 19-year-old man from Salisbury, was ordered to do some sprucing up to a cemetary in Newburyport; the court ordered him to this community service after breaking and entering a home last year. Perhaps Goodwin was fuming over having to manicure the lawns over at the cemetary or maybe he had a thing for 142-year-old corpses, because he decided to break into a Civil War veteran's tomb and then play with the body's remains. He even went so far to pose for pictures with a skull resting neatly on his shoulder.

So how did the police even find out about this crypt being corrupted? On Saturday, they received an anonymous phone call, followed up with a package of three photos displaying Goodwin and the corpse. Police arrested Goodwin and are holding him on $10,000 bail since he got arrested while on probabtion. Of course, Goodwin is claiming that the tomb was already broken into and that the skull was already out of the casket. According to Channel 7 News, this same crypt was broken into in the early 80s by high school students, who decided to steal a skeleton.

Bostonist thinks the quote in the Globe from Lieutenant Richard Siemasko of the Newburyport police, sums it up best: "I can't even imagine what was in his head. This is just a whole new level of weird for me."

Image courtesy of WHDH TV/Channel 7