The Corpse
Hazel's body was taken to Adams Vermillion Furniture which also sold caskets and functioned as a funeral parlor. No one showed up to claim her, but the body wasn't decomposing, either — supposedly an effect of the poison. With an endless supply of curious visitors the proprietor started charging 10¢ a gander to see the notorious outlaw. The corpse was later loaned out to various exhibitors, including Adams' brother in Tuscaloosa, and Captain Harvey Lee Boswell, before it came into the possession of O. C. Brooks in 1907. He featured the well-preserved remains in his traveling show for 40 years. When he died, Brooks left Hazel to his nephew, on the condition that any money raised from displaying her be donated to charity.
As the story goes, Brooks' nephew used Hazel to raise money to build churches in Tennessee before bringing her back to Bessemer, where she became an infamous attraction at the newly-formed Hall of History. After a long run, and an appearance in a National Geographic Channel documentary, Hazel's owners decided to finally lay her ashes to rest.
Read more about this topic: Hazel Farris
Famous quotes containing the word corpse:
“The Politician’s corpse was laid away.
While all of his acquaintance sneered and slanged,
I wept: for I had longed to see him hanged.”
—Hilaire Belloc (1870–1953)
“There is no way of conveying to the corpse the reasons you have made him one—you have the corpse, and you are, thereafter, at the mercy of a fact which missed the truth, which means that the corpse has you.”
—James Baldwin (1924–1987)