-Caveat Lector-
www.sfgate.com Remnants of Secret Society Pose a Mystery
Across the U.S.
Skeletons found in old lodges of Odd Fellows
Maria Glod, Washington Post
Friday, March 30, 2001
©2001 San Francisco Chronicle
URL:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2001/03/30
/MN184584.DTL
Warrenton, Va. -- Paul Wallace was alone, repairing overloaded circuits in
the old red- brick building, when he discovered a tiny door to a dark recess
between two walls.
Inside was a black wooden box. Curious, Wallace tugged it from its dark
resting place. A white shroud appeared. Then leathery ribs. Then white
candles.
"It was like a Dracula movie," Wallace said. "The top of the skull was
covered, but you could see the rib cage and the sinew."
For a good 20 minutes, Wallace sat frozen. Finally, he returned the skeleton
to its home between the walls of the Warrenton lodge of the Independent
Order of Odd Fellows.
When police learned of Wallace's macabre discovery, they rushed to get a
search warrant and seized the remains. State medical examiners are studying
the bones. Around town, neighbors speculate about the identity of the corpse
and why she was there. But perhaps the strangest thing about the mini-drama
captivating this small town is that strikingly similar mysteries have played
out across the country.
It turns out that skeletons like "Jane Doe Odd Fellow," as one officer calls
her, reside in closets, drawers, attics and crawl spaces in Odd Fellows
lodges nationwide. To members of the age-old fraternal order, the skeleton
is a symbol of mortality, a treasured relic used in one of their most solemn
and secret rituals: initiation.
But for many residents in the towns where the bones are found, the whole
thing is just plain odd.
"A lot of people thought it was weird. They were like, 'What if it were my
daughter?' " Wallace said.
"I just couldn't believe it," said Elaine Walters, who lived in an apartment
below the lodge as a child. "You have visions of people stealing it from a
grave in the 1700s."
As with many fraternal orders that compete with today's fast-paced
lifestyles, interest in the Odd Fellows has waned, and many lodges have
closed.
More and more of the skeletons are emerging from their hiding places --
often to the shock of the souls who come upon them. In recent years, the
discovery of Odd Fellows skeletons has sparked police investigations in
Missouri, Indiana, Pennsylvania and Nebraska. In Oklahoma, the remains
prompted a work crew to flee in terror.
Last year, Jim Leuschke, a Missouri accountant active in theater, was
offered two free caskets by a disbanding Odd Fellows lodge. Always on the
lookout for interesting props, he picked up the ornate wooden coffins and
pried one open to find a partial plaster skeleton.
Leuschke was unloading the coffins into his garage when the top of the
second one jarred loose. What he saw wasn't plaster.
"I told the kids, 'Just keep it to yourselves. I don't want you telling
anybody we've got skeletons in our garage,' " he said.
Leuschke eventually reported his find, and skeptical police officers showed
up at his door. "No one could believe what we had there," he said.
Lisa Stone, a Chicago historian who has studied fraternal organizations,
said one surprising part of the rituals is that the group has kept them
secret for so long. The rituals are "not a booga-booga scary thing," but out
of context, the skeletons are "frighteningly powerful objects," she said.
She noted that many fraternal orders, including the Masons, use similar
images.
Even the Warrenton police haven't been able to get the Odd Fellows to betray
their order. Lt. Kerry White said members have cooperated -- but with one
caveat. "They specifically asked us not to divulge what they told us," he
said.
Odd Fellows Virginia Grand Lodge Secretary Jack Gibson Jr. bristles at the
description of the organization's rituals. "I don't like the word 'secret,'
" Gibson said. "It is a ceremony that is confined to the members, and if you
're not a member, you don't discuss it."
Why so hush-hush? "It makes you different," Gibson said.
Wayne Colegrove, a longtime Odd Fellow from New York, still remembers his
initiation more than 50 years ago. He hesitates to reveal too much but
speaks of passwords and a skeleton that "wasn't to be seen by anybody until
you take the degree."
"The words they say are something like, 'You're here, and pretty soon you're
gone, and there's a hereafter,' " Colegrove said. "It's a lesson in life."
The Odd Fellows skeletons have popped up in costume shops and as decorations
in bars. One made its way into a serial killer display at a New Orleans art
gallery. Another made an appearance in the cult classic horror film "Dawn of
the Dead."
The Independent Order of the Odd Fellows dates to 17th-century England as a
charitable organization that worked to help families in need and buried
their dead. The first American lodge opened in Baltimore in 1819.
Present-day Odd Fellows support a professorship of ophthalmology at Johns
Hopkins University and contribute to the Arthritis Foundation and American
Heart Association. The organization's symbol -- three interlocking rings --
represents friendship, love and truth.
The skeletons likely were purchased from scientific or fraternal supply
companies. One catalog from the early 1900s advertised a "genuine, full-size
selected specimen, set up and wired, fairly deodorized."
"Every one has a different story," said Randall Kremer, a spokesman at the
Smithsonian Institution. "The companies would obtain skeletons from anywhere
possible. They could be indigents. Or often people, especially at the higher
levels of society, were anxious to donate their remains for scientific
study."
So far, authorities have learned that the Warrenton remains are those of a
Caucasian woman who stood about 5 feet 1. Her arms, feet and lower jaw are
missing. She could have died from 10 to 150 years ago. Medical examiners
studying the bones are consulting with anthropologists at the Smithsonian,
police said.
Wallace, the electrician who revealed Jane Doe Odd Fellow, sees no harm in
having her sent back to the hall. "It's not witchcraft. It's not satanic,"
Wallace said. "They do a lot of good works."
Still, he said, he hasn't stopped wondering where she came from.
"Who was this person? When did they die? How did they die?" Wallace said.
©2001 San Francisco Chronicle Page A - 6
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