In the 1880's, his skin was made into a pair of shoes and part of his skull was used as an ashtray

May 11, 1950, construction workers working on the Rawlins National Bank on Cedar Street in Rawlins, Wyoming found a whiskey barrel filled with bones. They were shocked to find that the barrel contained a skull with the top sawed off, a bottle of vegetable compound, and a pair of leather shoes.

The shoes made from the remains of Big Nose George.Photo byCarbon County Museum

The Carbon County Museum in Rawlins, Wyoming, exhibits artifacts of the American West. But there is one display visitors are said to make a beeline to when visiting. The display seems to be a pair of two-toned leather shoes. What makes these shoes so unusual is they are made from the skin of the late-1800s outlaw, Big Nose George.

Why are these gruesome shoes made from the skin of Big Nose George and how did they get here?

“Big Nose” George Parrott Was a bandit, murderer, and horse thief. In the late 1870’s, Parrott and his gang killed a pair of lawmen in Wyoming after a failed train robbery. Two years later, due to public outcry, he was captured.

Soon after capture, he was returned to Wyoming. When they arrived at the train station, an angry lynch mob was waiting for him. But somehow the mob was convinced to allow him to go to trial.

During the trial he was found guilty and sentenced to be hanged. While awaiting his sentence in jail in Rawlins, he managed to remove his shackles and beat up a jailer on his way out. He was stopped by the jailer’s wife, who held Parrott at gunpoint. This sparked a new town mob that rushed into the jail and dragged the outlaw into the street.

The mob attempted to hang Parrott on a telegraph pole. But this first attempt failed, and he fell to the ground. The second attempt the mob used a shorter rope that failed to break Parrott’s neck. He soon freed his hands and climbed up the pole. Parrott fell off the pole and was again strung up for a third and final time. This final attempt not only killed him, but the rope had rubbed his ears clean off. You can’t make this stuff up.

The Body

The body was taken to the local Rawlins coroner’s office. The physicians John Osborne and Thomas Maghee, wanted to experiment on Parrott’s remains. They felt by doing this they could find the source of his criminality. The body was placed in a whiskey barrel in their office. The two men conducted experiments over the year. Around this time Dr. Osborne sent some of Parrot’s skin to a tannery to have a pair of shoes, a medical bag, and a coin purse made.

The doctors also cut off the top portion of the skull to expose his brain. Maghee’s give the portion cutoff the skull to his assistant, Lillian Heath. Over the years, she used it as an ashtray and sometimes a doorstop.

Dr. John Osborne, who had shoes made from Parrott’s skin.Photo byCarbon County Museum

Finding the Barrel

The doctors eventually buried the barrel and its contents. Many decades later, the barrel was finally uncovered in 1950 by construction workers.

By this time the assistant was in her eighties and a doctor herself. Dr. Lillian Heath was contacted, and her skull cap was sent to the scene. When seeing if it fit the skull in the barrel, they found it was a perfect fit. DNA testing later confirmed the remains were those of Big Nose George.

Big Nose GeorgePhoto byFind-a-Grave

Where is Big Nose George?

Today the shoes made from the skin of Big Nose George are on permanent display at the Carbon County Museum, Rawlins, Wyoming. Also on display is the bottom part of his skull and his earless death mask. The shackles used during the hanging of the outlaw, as well as the skull cap, are on display at the Union Pacific Museum in Omaha, Nebraska.

The whereabouts of the medical bag are unknown. The coin purse made of Parrott’s scrotum, was once part of the Carbon County collection is lost and at time its whereabouts is unknown.

The locations of what is left of Big Nose George remains is unknown.

How do you feel about these items being on display? Let us know in the comments.

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References

• https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/big-nose-george-skin-shoes-wyoming
• https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Nose_George
• https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/113537447/george-parrott
• https://en.m.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Lillian_Heath&wprov=rarw1
• https://en.m.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=John_Eugene_Osborne&wprov=rarw1
• https://cfmedicine.nlm.nih.gov/physicians/biography_354.html
• Mysteries at the Museum S2 E8