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The reason for exhuming, mummifying, or otherwise displaying the deceased bodies of heads of state is to either 1. continue to pay your respects, or 2. to make sure they are really dead, depending on your end of the political spectrum.
Eva Perón
Eva Perón was first lady of Argentina from 1946 until her death from cancer in 1952. A monument was to be built where her body could be displayed, but when president Jaun Perón was overthrown by the military, he fled the country without making arrangements for his wife’s corpse. Evita’s body was missing for 16 years, until the military government revealed she had been buried in Italy. In 1971, Juan Perón had her body exhumed and delivered to his new home in Spain. He returned to Argentina in 1973 to begin his third term as president. After his death in 1974, his successor (and third wife) Isabel Perón arranged for Eva’s coffin to be brought back to Argentina, where she was displayed beside her husband’s body for a time. She was finally buried in Buenos Aires in an extremely secure tomb to guard against further “disappearance”.
Juan Perón’s grave was desecrated in 1987, and his hands were stolen.
Nicholas II
The last Tsar of Russia, Nicholas II was executed in Yekaterinburg in 1918, a year after he abdicated the throne. His wife, four daughters, son, the family’s doctor, and three servants were also killed. The bodies were hidden in a mine shaft, then later taken to the woods and dismembered. Nine skeletons were found in 1991. DNA tests revealed that five were of the same family, and four were unrelated. The related bones were found to match DNA of various royal families that were related to Nicholas or his wife Alexandra, leading scientists to conclude they belonged to the tsar and his family. The bones of the Romanov family were reburied in July of 1998 in the Saint Catherine Cathedral in St. Petersburg, despite reservations from the church, as skeptical officials cited the two missing children. The remains of what is believed to be the other two children were found in 2007.
Ho Chi Minh
Ho Chi Minh was the leader of North Vietnam for 24 years, as prime minister and then president until his death in 1969. He had wished to be cremated, but his body was instead put on display in a mausoleum in Hanoi. The Soviet Union, which had founder Vladimir Lenin on display, made a gift of a crystal coffin, and lent technological expertise in the embalming procedure. “Uncle Ho’s” tomb is open for visitors every day.
Mao Zedong
Mao Zedong led the Communist party in China and was the leader of the People’s Republic of China from 1949 until his death in 1976. Like Ho Chi Minh before him, he wished to be cremated, but was instead placed on public display. A mausoleum was built right after his death at Tiananmen Square in Beijing, on the site that was once the main gate of the Imperial City. Since Mao’s internment, there have been at least three vandalism attempts, all thwarted by police.
Ferdinand Marcos
Ferdinand Marcos was president of the Philippines from 1965 to 1986. He died in exile in Hawaii in 1989. His body was refused entry into the Philippines, so his wife Imelda arranged to keep it in refrigeration at a mausoleum in Oahu. In 2001, Marcos’ corpse was allowed to return to the Philippines during the administration of president Ridel Ramos, who is distantly related to Marcos. However, plans to bury the former president anywhere in the Philippines brought instant protest. Imelda Marcos refuses to bury her husband’s body until he is given full military honors, so he remains in a glass-topped coffin, on display at the Marco’s family mausoleum in the village of Batac.
Abraham Lincoln
President Abraham Lincoln’s coffin was moved 17 times after his funeral, mostly for construction and renovation of his tomb in Illinois, and the coffin itself was opened five times! A gang of counterfeiters attempted to take Lincoln’s body from his tomb in 1876. The plan was to hold the corpse for ransom, but they only moved the coffin a few inches when they were interrupted by police who were alerted by a Secret Service agent who had infiltrated the gang. Lincoln’s coffin was removed from the tomb during reconstruction of the tomb in 1900-1901. Before the reburial, the coffin was opened for witnesses. 23 people took a look and agreed that the body, with its still-recognizable features, was indeed Abraham Lincoln. Afterward, Lincoln’s coffin was buried for the final time, and covered with 4,000 pounds of concrete.
Further reading: 6 Restless Corpses and 6 More Restless Corpses
i remember seeing lincoln’s tomb on a school trip in the 8th grade, like, 13 years ago now. there is a bust of him right outside of the building, if i remember correctly, and if you rub his nose it brings you good luck. you can see the nose on a sunny day for HUNDREDS of miles as it is the only part that has been rubbed gold througout time. the rest of the statue remains bronze.
posted by ashley on 4-10-2008 at 8:57 am
umm, i meant yards. not miles. my bad :)
posted by ashley on 4-10-2008 at 8:59 am
It’s an Illinois thing–rubbing Lincoln’s nose is supposed to bring luck. Any statue of him in the state where his nose is within reach of mortals has the nose shined bright. I think it’s neat. :-).
posted by Annette on 4-10-2008 at 9:31 am
i didn’t know that it was anywhere in the state! i think that’s another reason why everyone south of 80 thinks chicago is NOT a part of illinois.
another fun-fact: in bloomington (which is the birthplace of the republican party,) there is a statue of lincoln sitting on a bench outside of the old courthouse in the middle of downtown bloomington. when i was in college, this was a photo-shoot favorite for drunken ISU and IWU attendants. i think everyone has at least one picture that was taken of them posing on the bench with lincoln, completely trashed. ah, college :)
posted by ashley on 4-10-2008 at 9:39 am
I can not express how much I love these corpses. Please, keep the bodies rolling.
posted by mary on 4-10-2008 at 12:25 pm
Ripon, Wisconsin is actually the birthplace of the Republican Party, not Bloomington, Illinois.
Meeting at a school house in Ripon on February 28, 1854, some thirty opponents of the Nebraska Act called for the organization of a new political party and suggested that Republican would be the most appropriate name (to link their cause with the Declaration of Independence). The radicals also took a leading role in the creation of the Republican Party in many northern states during the summer of 1854. While conservatives and many moderates were content merely to call for the restoration of the Missouri Compromise or a prohibition of slavery extension, the radicals insisted that no further political compromise with slavery was possible.
The February 1854 meeting was the first political meeting of the group that would become the Republican Party. The first meeting by a group that called itself “Republican” took place later in 1854 in Jackson, Michigan. Both cities, along with Exeter, New Hampshire and Crawfordsville, Iowa, bill themselves as the “Birthplace of the Republican Party,” however, Jackson is most often associated with this idea, as the event taking place was the first official Republican Party meeting.
The modern Ripon Society, a Republican think tank, takes its name from Ripon, Wisconsin.
posted by MrB on 4-10-2008 at 1:22 pm
I heard once that Evita’s body was kept on Juan’s coffee table at his home in Spain and his wife at the time would brush Evita’s hair every day and dust the body. You wouldn’t happen to know if this is really a true story, would you?
posted by MH on 4-10-2008 at 4:16 pm
What about Lenin? I just read a great article about how Stalin tried to have Lenin declared a genius on the basis of a study of his brain.
posted by Iain on 4-10-2008 at 8:32 pm
Lenin was linked in the first article in this series.
MH, I read things like that; but they are usually referred to as rumors.
posted by Miss Cellania on 4-10-2008 at 9:12 pm
Actually, it was the year 1992 when Marcos’ remains were brought back to the Philippines, a few months before Fidel V. Ramos was elected president. They are also not so distantly related. The two men were second cousins and Ramos served as army chief during Marcos’ presidency.
posted by Leizl on 4-10-2008 at 9:26 pm
i only wrote that statment in jest. anyone that has lived in bloomington knows that moe davis, the owner of tobin’s pizza, is what i like to refer to as “bloomington personified.”
thanks for that though, it was interesting!
posted by ashley on 4-11-2008 at 10:10 am
There’s an error. It’s “Fidel” Ramos, not “Ridel.”
posted by palatyne on 4-14-2008 at 1:12 am
The abraham lincoln fiasco is interesting. I wonder how the secret service infiltrated the group in that amount of time.
posted by Death Quiz on 5-5-2008 at 3:48 pm