Jean Baptiste

Have you ever heard of Jean Baptiste? I had not either until last week. I absolutely love podcasts and I happened to be listening to one the other day when the host started talking about an individual who was banished to Antelope Island.

The story, in a nutshell, goes like this.....

Jean Baptiste was Salt Lake City's resident grave digger around 1860. Reportedly, families of loved ones who had deceased relatives in the SLC cemetery started noticing Jean Baptiste roaming Salt Lake City in clothes that suspiciously looked like the ones they had buried loved ones in. There was an investigation and some graves were opened, only to find the bodies without clothes. Apparently Jean Baptiste had done this to about 300 graves.

There was a mob that gathered that wanted justice given to Baptiste, he was imprisoned for a time but it wasn't safe for him in the big house. So, what's the next best thing to do? Exile him to Antelope Island of course! The only problem being that the Great Salt Lake dries up a bit in the summertime which makes it shallow enough to swim back across. To prevent this, he was moved to Fremont Island, where he disappeared. Some cattle owners went to the island to check on their livestock and found one had been killed and the skin tanned..it was presumed for clothing.

Rumor is that Jean Baptiste was never found but there was a body found at the mouth of the Jordan River with a clamp on its leg. It was refuted that Jean had a ball and chain around his leg...but from there on he was known as the "Ghoul of the Great Salt Lake".

I love, love, love this story. What the devil??? I about fell off of my chair when I heard this. PLUS it is rumored that his EARS were cut off as punishment. ??????? Sheesh, those pioneers knew how to exact punishment. Supposedly there is an article from the Salt Lake Trib about this back in March of 1893 but I didn't feel like paying to search for that article.

There is a smidgen more information at this site and a few others around...how salacious!

http://www.saltlakemagazine.com/Salt-Lake-Magazine/April-2009/Scandals-shame-skeletons-in-the-closetA-look-at-some-of-Utahs-most-dubious-achievements/EXILE-The-strange-tale-of-Jean-Baptiste/