Jeremy Bentham was an interesting guy who advocated for things like equal rights for women and the abolition of slavery.
Jeremy Bentham also had written into his Will that his body be preserved, stored in a cabinet and brought out for special board meetings.
Then one day his head, which was not preserved well…fell off. So they made a wax one and stuck his real head between his feet ( see picture above) .
Jeremy Bentham’s Head
I’m sorry to say I couldn’t have made this stuff up.
God, I wish I had.
Irregular Bones 
Sweet lovin’ Moses, at least I wasn’t eating breakfast this time!
You may not be making this up, but my question is how in the world to you find this stuff?!
May I suggest you re-post this at “Mrs. Parson’s House”?
E-gad.
Hi Lori
Can do for the re-post…the first time I came across this story was on Ripley’s Believe It or Not ( back in the day when Jack Palance and his daughter hosted it) it’s since turned up on ‘ Haunted Specials’ that the History and Travel channels run around Halloween.
And recently Tony made reference to it on another post so here it is!
amm
This might be giving me nightmares tonight. Where is he located and is he still preserved?
He’s in England and yep…he’s juiced up for good.
Yes, this is true and the body is preserved at UCL(Uni College London)!! every time i walk past him and i feel like he will ask me something in a minute..spooky 😮
Wow Louise, that is very cool. Do they have is real head on display too?
The real head is now elsewhere
I can confirm this is true, as a guard kindly allowed me to visit with Mr. Bentham back in ’92. Looked just as pictured above. Without the head.
W
Waldo
You have AWES0ME friends.
Actually it’s creepy indeed. It’s one of the first things they tell you when you go to study to UCL.
Induction week = J. Bentham’s head & body… which are supposed to be present at meetings wtf?
Everybody were laughing rathet than being shocked.
In fact, he is recorded in the meeting minutes as “present, but not voting” 🙂
That do nothing…first chance we get to replace him with someone who can truly represent the wax heads I say we do it
🙂
Just learned about his theory today in International Economics… well some of it. Had to look more into myself.
I was 14 back in 1981 when I studied drama at the University of London. I saw the Ripley’s Believe it or Not episode a few months before going to London and promptly forgot about Mr. Bentham. But I remembered him the first day of class when he was staring me down at the end of the hall! It took me a couple of weeks, but I finally went up to him and stared him down. Eventually, I got the willys and left… 🙂
That’s a great memory Don, thanks for sharing it~