Head Number 7
By Always True Crime
Donating your body to science is a final, noble act. If you’re donating it to one of the world’s most prestigious medical schools you might even hope you will contribute to a scientific breakthrough. But at Harvard Medical School something went wrong…the head of their mortuary had gone rogue and in 2019 a shocking discovery led to the realisation that body parts were being sold online.
So how did Cedric Lodge go from respected member of the Harvard community to running a network of human oddity collectors, and making huge profits? And what were their customers doing with the body parts?
In Head Number 7 geneticist and ancient DNA expert Professor Turi King, takes you inside Cedric’s descent into darkness, finds out more about the people who donated their bodies only to be sold for parts and asks, who owns your body after you die?
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Latest episode
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Preparing for Trial: 8
The families want justice, but is the law on their side? They fight a class action against the university, while preparations for Cedric’s trial are underway - but will it ever happen? We speak to the lawyer who defended one of the most infamous b… -
Priceless: 7
Are the bodies allegedly sold from the Harvard morgue priceless or worthless? Turi learns it’s an argument that’s key to the case. And finds out the surprising ways a donated body can help science and technology, from football helmets to ejec… -
In Life, and Death: 6
Turi looks at the complicated history of universities and human remains - from grave robbing to buying bones with your books. And learn about the broadcasting legend who ended up mixed up in a plot involving the mafia and the UK’s National Health … -
Blast Test: 5
What rights do you have over your own corpse? If you donate your body to science what will actually become of it? As the families of the victims mobilise they learn about the legal grey areas that exist around the rights of a corpse.Listen … -
14 Tonnes: 4
Harvard writes a letter to the family members of those allegedly sold from their mortuary and the story hits the news. Who were the people behind the bodies donated to Harvard Medical School? The families take action.Listen to episodes of H… -
Five Gallon Bucket: 3
A woman in Pennsylvania is leaving her husband, as she packs up she goes down to his cellar - she’s been told not to go in there. She finds a bucket full of human organs, her discovery brings Cedric’s alleged network of collectors crashing down.&n… -
Wets: 2
What were Cedric’s customers doing with the body parts they purchased and how illegal is it? The dark world of human “oddity” collectors is revealed, and the price tags that come with a clandestine purchase.Listen to episodes of Head Number… -
An Anatomical Gift: 1
For 15 years Cedric Lodge has run Harvard Medical School mortuary - he’s a quirky local legend with a licence plate that reads “GRIM-R”, and he even has a place in the Universities hall of fame, but all that changes when he’s arrested for the most m… -
Introducing: Head Number Seven
In June 2023 over a hundred people got a letter from Harvard Medical School, what it said changed their lives forever. Head Number 7 tells a story about an FBI investigation, an underground network, and human remains being sold on social media. Join…