A Place Of A Skull

I've been sitting on this story for quite awhile, because frankly I really don't know what quite to make of it. It may be an incidental story, of little or no importance. It may have implications as bizarre as it appears to be on the surface. As far as that goes, there might not be a word of truth to it. But it is interesting as hell, so I repeat it here, with the admonition that, by all rights, I can not vouch for it's authenticity. It is certainly interesting, however, and worth looking into.

It involves a man by the name of James Wirt, a United States Atttorney General from the year 1817 until 1829, a man who argued more than 170 cases before the United States Supreme Court and who, in 1807, was the prosecutor in the conspiracy trial of Aaron Burr.

Wirt also, in 1832, was a candidate for President of the United States for the Anti-Masonic Party. Not too many years after this, Wirt died, reportedly from a cold. He was buried in a tomb, deep inside a crypt.

Until, that is, his skull was discovered sitting on a shelf in the office of Washington D.C. Council Member Jim Graham, where it had evidently been for some time. According to Graham, an openly gay D.C. Councilman and immigrant of as yet undetemined origin, he had gotten the skull from a book shop owner by the name of Alan Stypeck. Stypeck, in turn, said he acquired the gruesome souvenier from a cleaning supplies salesman by the name of Robert White, who died in 2003, and who used to have a John F. Kennedy Museum in his basement.

In order to determine whether the skull actually belonged to Wirt, forensic anthropologist Douglas Owlsley was called in. After swimming through an ocean of red tape, Owsley finally had the tomb opened. In addition to the skeleton of Wirt, reported with a large hole in the side of the skull, there were other bodies, including one that was not listed. Stuffed behind a metal ladder that leads down to the tomb was the skeleton of a baby, which Owsley believes to have been a recent addition. From here it was hinted strongly that there may have been some form of ritual sacrifice involving this infant, and Wirts anti-Masonic connections were further noted in this regard.

Graham insits that he is not in the habit of collecting skulls or other body parts, and that he knows nothing about the skulls origins or how it came to be in the possession of Mr. White, or why, or anything other than his presentation of it by the aforementioned Mr. Stypeck.

The origin of this story is actually quite vaque, and I have heard no references to it anywhere. It is worth noting, however, that Congressman Graham, in addition to advocating for the rights of immigrants to vote in local elections, and himself representing a district which has a heavy immigrant population, and which in fact has no single racial or ethnic majority, has made doubltess quite a few enemies.

In fact, he is an enemy of slumlords everywhere, and a perusal of his web-site (which is linked to by way of the post title) would reveal that he has probably made many wealthy and powerful enemies in this regard. He also takes a tough stance on businesses such as bars that don't enforce safty standards. He has even proposed that any bar where a murder has occurred should be closed.

Yet, he is pro-police, and has proposed additional hiring of cops, asking for more than 200 in his district. So, it is easy to see why some would consider him as much of a nuisance as he does a good many of the properties he would have either torn down or forcibly rehabilitated.

Yet, is this story a clumsy attempt by someone to embarrass him, or is it actually a matter of pure fiction?

Or, is there a sinister truth somewhere here that is hiding just below the surface, a truth that should have remained buried, lo, these last one hundred seventy years.

Whatever the case, it is worth noting, by the way, that next year-2007-will mark the 200th anniversary of the treason trial of Aaron Burr, the trial William Wirt prosecuted, albeit unsuccessfully.

Connection?