Fate of CT “Leather Man”

An article titled “Let Private ‘Leather Man’ Rest in Peace, Teachers Says” in lohud.com, which provides local news for the lower Hudson Valley, New York and Connecticut, describes a controversy over the fate of the remains of the “Leather Man.”

As a team of scientists prepares to exhume the body of the famed “Leather Man,” a Connecticut resident is advocating to leave the mysterious 19th-century figure alone. In November, the Ossining Historical Society received approvals from the state Supreme Court to dig up the obscure leather-clad wanderer so forensic testing could be conducted on his remains. The society owns Sparta Cemetery, where the Leather Man was buried in 1889.

Donald Johnson, a Connecticut school teacher, opposes the exhumation. While the remains will be relocated to a safer site, the intent of the exhumation to extract DNA for research purposes, is wrong, argues Johnson, who launched a web site to express his opposition to the historical society’s plans.

URL: http://www.lohud.com/article/20110509/NEWS02/105090319/Let-private-Leather-Man-rest-peace-teacher-says?

This article is updated by a Huffington Post article.

URL: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/margie-goldsmith/exhuming-the-leather-man-_b_862032.html