Grave robbing used to be a real concern. We read of the body-knapping of Miss Prude Temple by a medical student in Walpole As It Was and As It Is by George Aldrich, The Claremont Manufacturing Co., Claremont, N.H., 1880, page 252:
Lydia [Floyd], b. at Weston, June 1, 1768; m. Jonas Temple, of Westmoreland, and had six ch., one of whom, Pruda, d., aged about 20 years. She was buried in the cemetery at Westmoreland, and was disinterred by one Noble Orr, a medical student in town, for anatomical purposes, immediately after the burial. Orr had an accomplice, a brother student, it is said, who was a native of this town, whose name is withheld for considerate purposes. The first knowledge gained of this nefarious transaction was that a portion of her grave clothes was found on the fence enclosing the cemetery. When this discovery was made the greatest excitement prevailed throughout the town, and continued for a long time. Orr did not live many years after; [page 253] but before he died he wrote a letter to the bereaved parents, stating that the body was not dissected, but buried behind the college buildings at Hanover, N. H. The letter came too late to assuage the mother’s grief, for she was already dead and buried.