George Parrot , known as Big Nose George because of his large nasal appendage, he was just one more rustler of the many who stole cattle in the Far West of which nothing would have been known if he had not fallen, after his death, into the hands of science .
Big Nose George
In 1878, tired of their work , George's gang decided to engage in train robbery, a less laborious and much more lucrative business. After their first unsuccessful assault in Wyoming, they killed the two pursuing lawmen. For the capture of George and his gang members (brothers Jesse and Frank James and Dutch Charley) a $20,000 reward was offered. They continued to do their thing until in 1880, George and Dutch were captured in Montana after getting drunk and bragging about being the perpetrators of the Wyoming train murders. His bluster, fueled by several bottles of peleón whiskey, and the succulent reward were his undoing. Dutch was lynched on the spot and George was taken to Rawlins (Wyoming) to answer for his crimes. He was sentenced to hang. While awaiting the execution of the sentence, he tried to escape but was captured again... on April 2, 1881, the locals of Rawlins lynched him by hanging him from a telegraph pole... And so far nothing unusual in the life of a rustler and train robber but …
The fact is that George's body ended up in the hands of two local doctors, John E. Osborne and Thomas Maghee , with the purpose of studying the mind of a criminal and being able to establish physiological parameters that would explain his behavior. They sawed her skull to study the brain but they must not have been satisfied with the results, so they decided to give that body some use:the sawn part of the skull was given to Lillian Heath , Maghee's young assistant and later to become Wyoming's first female doctor, who for years she used as an ashtray and a doorstop; the skin from her chest, including her nipples, and from her thighs was sent to a tanner in Denver to make a doctor's bag and a pair of shoes; and the rest of the body was left in a whiskey barrel. When Dr. Osborne became governor, the first Democrat from Wyoming, he was wearing the George shoes in taking possession of it.
Lillian Heath with the lid
What could have remained an urban legend took a 180% turn on May 11, 1950. When foundation work was being carried out to expand the Rawlins National Bank, a barrel containing a capless , the bones of a body and some shoes. He contacted Dr. Lillian Heath, now in her eighties, who still had the lid and it was found to fit perfectly... it was the remains of Big Nose George and his shoes, only the briefcase was missing . To date, the skull and shoes are on display at The Carbon County Museum of Rawlins.
