Washington City Paper: Contents for Apr. 22

Esprit De Corpse
If you’re buried in a Washington cemetery these days, you can expect to rest in peace. It wasn’t always so.

Cover Story

At approximately 3:30 on the morning of Dec. 1, 1878, the occupants of 505 10th St. NW, a tenement located near the corner of E Street, were awakened by a loud pounding on the building’s front door. After gathering up their courage, several of the women living in the building cautiously descended the stairs to see who was calling at such an indecent hour. Their nocturnal visitor turned out to be one John Stewart, a black man whose chief defining characteristic happened to be that he was dead.

He hadn’t come on his own. He was accompanied by two grave robbers, who’d just “resurrected” him from the predominantly black Columbian Harmony Cemetery on Brentwood Road NE. The body snatchers believed themselves to be on the doorstep of the dissection room of the medical department of Georgetown University, where they planned to sell Stewart’s body to an eager batch of medical students. They were wrong—that was next door. When the intrepid ladies of 505 10th St. opened their door, the body snatchers did what anybody who’s been carrying a dead body that he doesn’t particularly want to be seen hauling around would do: They heaved it inside. There it knocked down one unfortunate occupant and sent the rest into the street screaming, “Police!” and “Murder!”... Continued

Issue of Apr. 22 - 28, 2005

News and Features

Esprit De Corpse
If you’re buried in a Washington cemetery these days, you can expect to rest in peace. It wasn’t always so.
Cover Story By Michael Little
Hall Monitor
Selected readings from D.C. Public Schools incident reports
The City By Mike Kanin
Stalled Out
The District’s new program to catch car thieves hits a road block.
The City By Jason Cherkis
Price Pick of the Week
Celebrating the District’s Real-Estate Boom
Seller's Market By Constantine Caloudas
How Dreary— to Be—Somebody!
The Mail By Eric Cheevers
Animal Instincts
The Mail By Tim McMullen
Lotsa Naches
The Mail By Jim Cassell
Change the Channel
The Mail By Matt Gonter
Words Cannot Express...
The Mail By Jeremy Seth Taylor

Columns

Insurance Is Bliss
Cheap Seats By Dave McKenna
Bible Club
City Desk By Jeff Horwitz
Getting Over the Bar
City Desk By Jeff Horwitz
FENTY TRIES TO BULK UP
Loose Lips By James Jones
Noms de Plume
Dept. of Media By Erik Wemple

Eats

Color Me Beautiful
Young & Hungry By Todd Kliman

Movies

Combat Theater
Film Review By Mark Jenkins
Much ’Toon Much
Film Review By Tricia Olszewski
Funny Business
Talking Pictures By Mark Jenkins

Music

Hearts and Clubs
Music Review By Joe Warminsky

Theater

Making Marry
Theater Review By Trey Graham

Arts and Events

Mr. Phillips’ Neighborhood
Artifacts By Mark Jenkins
Culture Vultures
What does it take to get an arts grant from the D.C. government?
Culture Vultures By Mike Kanin
Let It B
Two decades into his film career, Terry Michael King has finally finished a project that really means something to him: a remake of a dog-food-grade Mexican horror flick.
Arts By Jeff Horwitz
STEALING THE SHOW
Show & Tell By Chris Shott