James Nott and Jeremy Pauley (inset) were both charged in a sprawling cadaver-selling case. (Mugshot of Nott: Oldham County Jail; mugshot of Pauley: Cumberland County District Attorney’s Office)
Federal prosecutors have charged yet another man allegedly connected to a nationwide network of cadaver trafficking.
Investigators discovered a slew of human remains — including “skulls, spinal cords, femurs, and hip bone” — when executing the search warrant at the home of James Nott, 39, his home on Tuesday, according to authorities.
“The skulls were decorated around the furniture,” they wrote of the ghastly scene in a newly-released affidavit. “One skull had a head scarf around it. One skull was located on the mattress where Nott slept.”
Nott was apparently open with authorities when they came to his home.
“Only my dead friends,” the defendant allegedly said, when an agent asked if anyone else was in his apartment.
The Kentucky man is currently charged with being a prohibited person in possession of a firearm because he allegedly possessed guns after a 2011 conviction for possession of an unregistered destructive device (bomb-making materials) and possession of a firearm by an unlawful user of marijuana.
Federal prosecutors have not charged Nott with having stolen remains.
Authorities said that he landed on their radar because he communicated with co-defendant Jeremy Pauley on Facebook while using the account name “William Burke.” In a footnote, authorities noted that is the name of a serial killer from the 19th century. The real Burke and his partner William Hare were active in Edinburgh between 1827 and 1828, selling victims’ bodies to Dr. Robert Knox, a lecturer at the Anatomy Department in the University of Edinburgh. Knox was never tried in the matter, but the controversy left him in disgrace.
Back in the present day, “Burke” and Pauley discussed sales, according to the affidavit.
For example, Nott/Burke allegedly wrote to Pauley on Facebook, sending pictures and videos of skulls for sale.
“These will be here soon,” Nott wrote, according to the FBI. “Not claimed yet.”
“Yeah some of these prices are f—— garbage out there,” Pauley wrote, according to the affidavit. “I don’t mind paying up a little for shop stock. Makes things look good. How much total for the couple and the last video you sent plus the spines?”
Nott allegedly posted on Facebook as recently as June regarding human remains on sale. The FBI claims that in addition to locating “human remains including approximately 40 human skulls, spinal cords, femurs, and hip bones” inside Nott’s Mt. Washington apartment, investigators also found an AK-47 with a loaded magazine, a Charter Arms .38 special revolver, inert grenades, and two plates for body armor.
“According to the United States Postal Service, Nott receives things from out of the country and then resells those items within the United States,” the FBI filing said.
A judge ruled Wednesday that U.S. Marshals will hold Nott in custody “pending further order of Court.”
This is another chapter in a sprawling body-selling controversy.
It all started with Pauley. The Pennsylvania man was charged in state court last year for allegedly trafficking in stolen body parts. From there, authorities claimed Arkansas woman Candace Chapman Scott sold him remains that she stole from the mortuary were she worked.
The next chapter of the story put a black eye on perhaps the United States’ most famous university. Federal prosecutors charged Cedric Lodge, the one-time morgue manager of Harvard Medical School, with stealing and selling body parts that had been donated for medical research. He allegedly allowed co-defendants Katrina Maclean, 44, Joshua Taylor, 46, and others into the HMS morgue to pick out body parts for purchase. Prosecutors also charged his wife, Denise Lodge, as a participant in the scheme.
Authorities claimed Maclean had Pauley as a client, shipping him human skin. She allegedly even engaged his services to tan the skin into leather. In lieu of payment, Maclean agreed to give Pauley human skin. When she asked, Cedric Lodge agreed to help her find skin at HMS to send to Pauley, authorities said. She allegedly shipped human skin from Massachusetts to Pauley. Several days later, Maclean contacted him to confirm if it arrived because she “wanted to make sure it got to you and I don’t expect agents at my door,” documents in her case said.
Pauley had previously reached a plea agreement with federal authorities, but his sentencing hearing — which had been set for Tuesday, July 11, the day of the Nott search warrant — was canceled and has yet to be rescheduled.
Authorities in the new affidavit did not note a direct link between Nott and Harvard except for a Harvard Medical School bag found in his apartment. They did mention Lodge as backstory.
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