It could be one of those urban legends told around a campfire. Or, something out of Ripley's believe it or not. Read along and you'll find how two people a century apart came to meet.
On the night of 18 October, almost 32 years ago, someone was rifling through the already vandalized contents of the mausoleum where John Jacob Crouse and his family were buried. The objective? To find a human skull.
The Crouse Mausoleum, a Romanesque Revival structure rests on one of the rolling hills of Oakwood Cemetery in Syracuse, New York. It contains the bodies of patriarch John Crouse (d.1889), his wife Catherine (d.1885) and sons John Jacob (d.1886) and Daniel Edgar (d.1892). They were one of the wealthiest families in Syracuse at the time, owing to John the elder's investments in railroads, telegraph stock and government bonds, a board membership in banking and a successful partnership in a wholesale grocery business. Crouse College at Syracuse University was built with their money.
John Jacob, the older son of John and Catherine grew up in his father's grocery business, and in his later years became president of both the Trust and Deposit Company and the State Bank of Syracuse. He was an alderman of the city before being elected mayor in 1876. Plagued by health issues and weighing about 300 pounds, he was just 51 years old when he died of a massive heart attack while sleeping.
As happens too frequently with older cemeteries, Oakwood eventually became a place to drink and party. Just a short walk from Syracuse University, it was a gathering place for students, and anyone else looking for somewhere to let loose. It wasn't uncommon to find the grounds littered with trash, beer cans and bottles. Mausoleums were broken into. Resting places disturbed. It was a far cry from the Victorian era tradition of families riding from the city in carriages to visit deceased loved ones and picnic on the lawn.
Kevin McQuain was a talented freshman art major at Syracuse University. The recipient of a scholarship, wanted to get a skull to help him in drawing classes. Purchasing one would be very expensive, so when a “regular” at the cemetery mentioned he knew where a skull was available McQuain jumped at the chance. Later that evening, he headed to the Crouse mausoleum.
It didn't take him long to find what he was looking for amidst damaged caskets, decomposing limbs and assorted garbage. Stuffing John Jacob's skull in a paper bag he made his way to the Flint Hall dorm on the SU campus.
When you think about a skull, you might imagine the clean white bone at the top of a skeleton in a medical office. This particular skull was dirty, with bits of old flesh still attached.
The next day, McQuain took a trash can, filled it with water and bleach and proceeded to boil the skull on the community stove on the dorm's third floor. It wasn't long before an alarmingly foul odor wafted through the halls. Campus security was called and then the police.
McQuain was arrested and charged with body stealing, a felony. There was quite an uproar when the authorities discovered who the skull belonged to. At his court appearance, the judge admonished him with a history lesson of who John Jacob Crouse was. He was then sentenced to 200 hours of community service. Syracuse University also revoked his scholarship. Unable to pay tuition, he left school the following year and went home to New York. It was an expensive lesson for want of a skull.
The incident earned him the moniker "Skully", a name he eventually gave to the record label he started in New York City in the mid 1990's.
Today the outer doors of the Crouse Mausoleum are chained shut. It's difficult to see past them and a second set just beyond. I managed to catch a small glimpse of white marble and a dull bit of color on the upper back wall from one of the only stained glass windows left in the tower.
So there you have it. Truth can be stranger than fiction, and in some cases, people lose their heads. But it makes for interesting reading and I hope that's what you've found here.
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Photographs taken by Christine Shephard and all written copy may not be used in any other format or publication without express written permission.
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