Jess Hardiman
FBI investigators must have had the shock of their lives when they arrived at a man’s home to find it ‘decorated’ with human remains.
On 11 July, the FBI arrived at the Kentucky home of James William Nott to search the premises in connection to stolen human remains, which were being sold and shipped online.
When asked if anyone else was in the house with him, Nott chillingly replied: “Only my dead friends.”
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The FBI began investigating Nott after they found he had spoken to Jeremy Pauley, from Pennsylvania, who was being examined for his role in nationwide scam involving human remains.
Authorities said Pauley shared details of a network of individuals related to the scheme – which saw the stolen body parts sold via online marketplaces – including Cedric Lodge, the morgue manager of Harvard Medical School, who was charged last month.
When they arrived at Nott’s home, they found dozens of human remains, including 40 human skulls, spinal cords, femurs and hip bones – which an agent later said were ‘decorated around the home’ and on his bed.
The agent recalled in a court document: “One skull had a head scarf around it. One skull was located on the mattress where Nott slept.”
A Harvard Medical bag was also found at the house, police said, along with an AK-47 rifle near his bed, a .38 caliber revolver, several fully loaded and unloaded rifle magazines, extra ammunition, inert grenades and two plates of body armor.
According to authorities, Nott used the pseudonym ’William Burke’ on Facebook, with an affidavit saying it was the name of a 19th-century Scottish serial killer who – with partner William Hare – sold the bodies of victims to Robert Knox, an Edinburgh University anatomy lecturer.
Pauley, Lodge and four others involved in the scheme were charged in federal court in Pennsylvania with interstate transportation of stolen property and conspiracy.
Naturally, news of Nott’s ‘dead friends’ didn’t sit too well with those who lived nearby.
“He just lived over here so I’m shocked and nervous now that something like that could be going on,” neighbor Caroline Branum told ABC’s WHAS11.
She added: “[It’s] scary because we got kids around here and he could just go off the deep end, who knows.”