Welcome to Brainstuff production of I Heart Radio. Hey Brainstuff Lauren Vogelbaum here. Politicians are under a lot of scrutiny these days for everything from their tweets to their fashion choices. Times sure have changed since the eighteen nineties, when a new governor could show up to his inauguration proudly sporting shoes made from the skin of a hanged human felon. The skin in question belonged to an outlaw known by the name of George Parrot or Big Nosed George, who
was hanged in Rawlins, Wyoming. In one he had tried and failed to rob a train and subsequently killed two of the lamen who came after him. Before this incident, George, whose nose by all accounts was really remarkably large, was just as small time horse thief. But after fleeing to Montana following the murders and botched robbery, he robbed the military calm boy of a local merchant who was traveling back east with a bunch of cash. This successful hall
saw Parrot get cocky. He returned to the town where the merchant was from, went into a saloon and started bragging about the robbery and murders back in Wyoming. This boasting resulted in his eventual capture and returned to Wyoming. There, he unsuccessfully tried to escape from prison and was then lynched and hanged on a telegraph poll by an angry
mob of more than two hundred people. After Parrot's death, nobody showed up to claim the body, so one John Osborne, the doctor who had pronounced him dead, took his body home for medical study. Corpses variously obtained were popular learning and teaching materials at the time. Osborne extracted Parrot's brain and gave it to a friend, the surgeon Thomas McGee, who wanted to study whether signs of criminality show up
in brain structures. Osbourne also sawed off the top portion of George's skull and gave it to one Lillian heat, a then fifteen year old girl who would go on to become Wyoming's first female physician. She reportedly kept it her entire life, using it at different times as an ash tray and a doorstop. The bottom portion of parrots skull Osborne put in a barrel with the rest of
the bones. Not one to waste any part of the outlaw's corpse Osborne then skinned Parrot's body and had a pair of shoes and a medical bag made out of this human skin. Years later, Osborne entered politics and was elected governor of Wyoming. To his inauguration, he wore the shoes that a dozen years earlier had been a man
talk about a political statement. That very footwear is now on display along with the death mask that Osborne cast after parent's death, in the Carbon County Museum in Rawlings, Wyoming. The bag, however, has never been found. Today's episode was written by Jesselyn Shields and produced by Tyler Clang. For more on this and lots of other topics, visit how
Stuff works dot com. If you'd like to hear more about the story of Big Nose George Parrot, we did an episode about him over on one of my other podcasts, American Shadows, look for the episode dead Ends. Brain Stuff is production of I Heart Radio. For more podcasts in my heart Radio, visit the heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.