Buzz
Animal hides, once tanned and processed into leather, have been integral to human history, serving diverse purposes from footwear and straps to car upholstery, purses, and even items associated with certain subcultures, as famously referenced in *Fifty Shades of Grey*. While cowhide is the most widely used, the rarest form of leather, akin to the fictional Soylent Green, is derived from human skin.
Anthropodermic bibliopegy, the practice of binding books in human skin, is a well-known trope in horror stories and supernatural media. But this eerie tradition extends beyond books. Throughout history, various individuals have sought to create objects wrapped in or crafted from the skin of heroes, victims, criminals, or eccentrics. Below, we explore the top ten unsettling examples of such human leather artifacts.
A word of caution: Some entries, especially those linked to the French Revolution, are regarded by historians as potentially apocryphal, possibly serving as propaganda rather than factual accounts.
10. Drum
Jan Ziska, a fifteenth-century Hussite military leader also known as Jan z Trocnova, refused to let death halt his Protestant rebellion against the Catholic Church. Despite losing both eyes, he led victorious campaigns against the Holy Roman Emperor, invaded Austria and Moravia, and fought in a civil war. Legend has it that, as he succumbed to the plague while marching to Bohemia, Ziska commanded his followers to flay his body, tan his skin, and stretch it over a drum to strike fear into his enemies even after his death.
9. Waistcoat
Amid the chaos of the French Revolution’s Reign of Terror, Saint-Just emerged as a prominent political figure, military leader, and ally of Robespierre. As a member of the Committee of Public Safety, he sent countless individuals to the guillotine. According to de la Meuse’s *Anecdotes*, Saint-Just’s romantic pursuit of a tall, beautiful woman was rejected. Enraged, he had her arrested, executed, and her skin tanned into a waistcoat, which he wore daily. An alternate version claims the woman was a thieving maid who met a grim fate.
8. Cigar Case
Henri Pranzini, a notorious French criminal of the late 1800s known as the 'Splendid Darling,' captivated global attention during his trial and met his end at the guillotine. In a macabre twist, unverified accounts suggest parts of his body were sold as morbid collectibles, including a tooth fashioned into a ring for an admirer. It is rumored that a member of the Sûretè, France's secret police, acquired a portion of Pranzini's skin and commissioned a cigar case from it as a grim keepsake.
7. Book
Among the most infamous entries on this list is a book currently housed in the Boston Athenaeum library. Titled *Hic Liber Waltonis Cute Compactus Est* (this book is bound in Walton’s skin), it tells the story of James Allen, alias George Walton, a notorious 19th-century highwayman who succumbed to tuberculosis in prison in 1837. Before his death, Allen requested his skin be used to bind a copy of his autobiography, which he wished to present to John Fenno, a former victim who had courageously confronted him after being shot. The book stayed with the Fenno family until it was donated to the library.
6. Calling Card Case
In 19th-century Edinburgh, Scotland, the infamous duo William Burke and William Hare murdered seventeen people and sold their bodies to a doctor for dissection. Burke was eventually caught, convicted, and hanged. His body was dissected, with his skeleton and death mask displayed at the University of Edinburgh’s Anatomical Museum. Other parts of his corpse were repurposed into macabre items, including a pocketbook binding and a calling card case crafted from the skin of his left hand, now exhibited at the Police Information Centre on Edinburgh’s Royal Mile.
5. Wallet
In 1833, Antoine LeBlanc, a French immigrant in Morristown, New Jersey, brutally murdered three people, stole their valuables, and attempted to flee the gruesome scene. He was captured, convicted, and sentenced to death by hanging. The judge further decreed that LeBlanc’s body be dissected post-execution. Reports claim his skin was tanned and fashioned into wallets and coin purses, while signed strips of his skin were sold as morbid souvenirs. Long dismissed as folklore, these tales gained credibility in 1979 when LeBlanc’s death mask and a suspected human leather wallet were found in the home of a local historian and collector of 19th-century artifacts.
4. Boot
The origins of the skin used in this case remain a mystery. In 1876, Mr. Mahrenholz of H&A Mahrenholz in New York, a shoemaker known for experimenting with unconventional leathers like catfish and anaconda, acquired skin from the stomach, back, and buttocks of two unidentified elderly men who had died and been dissected. After tanning the skin using dog manure and water—a common practice at the time, as dog waste, known as 'pure,' was a sought-after commodity for tanneries—he crafted an elegant display boot. This unique creation was sent to the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, D.C., where it remains part of their collection.
3. For the People, of the People
During the French Revolution, it is said that the Committee of Public Safety recognized the untapped potential of human skin from guillotine victims. They authorized the use of the Muedon castle near Paris as a tannery to produce leather from these remains. Reports suggest that many men wore breeches and boots crafted from this human leather, which was praised for its suppleness and high quality. According to the author Montgaillard, men’s skin was favored for its chamois-like texture, while women’s skin was deemed too soft for practical use.
Throughout history, the remains of the deceased have been repurposed for various uses, including dentures, fertilizer, fashion, and decorative arts. While the idea may evoke unease, it reflects humanity’s enduring fascination with objects made from the dead—a poignant reminder of our own mortality.
2. High Heeled Shoes
Hermann Boerhaave, a renowned Dutch physician and botanist from Leyden during the late 1600s and early 1700s, reportedly possessed a unique private collection of oddities. Among these was a pair of women’s high-heeled shoes crafted from the leather of an executed male criminal. The uppers featured the man’s nipples prominently placed as a macabre decorative element. The origins of these shoes remain a mystery, but Henry Stephens, in *Notes and Queries Volume II, Series II* (1856), claimed to have seen them in 1818.
1. Slippers
In 1633, French King Louis XIII established the Cabinet du Roi, a private museum of curiosities at the Palace of Versailles. Among its unusual artifacts was a pair of slippers made from human skin, donated by Parisian surgeon Pierre Sue in the late 18th century. The collection also included a human leather belt with a visible nipple. Pierre’s descendant, Eugène Sue, carried on the tradition by binding an 1854 edition of *Le Mystères de Paris* in the skin of a woman who had loved him.
