Police in Cincinnati are dealing with a bizarre and disgusting crime after Kenneth Douglas, 55, (shown on the far left) claims to have had sex with over 100 bodies while working at the Hamilton County morgue. These cases can raise some difficult criminal issues as shown in other recent cases. Putting aside the criminal charges, the question will be civil lawsuits filed by the families of identified deceased women victimized by this man, described accurately by Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters as “just a pig.” The case also supports the account of David Steffen who admitted to killing Karen Range but always denied raping her. It turns out that Douglas raped Range in 1983.
Douglas says that he would hold “parties” with drugs and alcohol while sexually abusing corpses. Deters says that they have confirmed at least three corpses, adding “This guy’s just a pig. I can’t explain why someone would do something like this. … This is off-the-charts weird.” That seems a clinically accurate description. Douglas is already serving a prison sentence after pleading guilty to having sex with the nearly beheaded body of 19-year-old murder victim Karen Range in 1982. He has been tied to two other corpses with DNA evidence.
One was Charlene Edwards who was strangled to death while she was six months pregnant. The other was Angel Hicks, 24.
The criminal penalty for abuse of a corpse is only one year. There is legislation to increase the penalty to five years in Ohio.
Other states have been dealing with a slew of corpse abuse cases, including an intense debate in Wisconsin whether sexually assaulting a corpse is technically “rape.” Oregon recently had a similar debate over the definition of corpse related crimes.
The common law takes a harsh view on the mishandling of corpses. For recent articles, click here and here. The question is whether any of these families will now be able to sue the county for negligence in the hiring, training, or supervision of Douglas. A court may toll the statute of limitations, but they would have to have sued after the time of the disclosure of the abuse.
For the full story, click here.
Dude you can not rape a corpse! For the same reason you can not kill a corpse. Necrophilia is and should be a crime, however confusing it with rape devalues the latter.. you born again or something?
How did this individual get the corpses out of the morgue to wherever he had these sick parties with drugs and alcohol? Or did he bring the drugs and booze into the morgue?
Either way, I would say that Hamilton County is liable as well for such limited security measures. They should pay each family of the victims a sizable punitive judgement.
And personally, I think that he is just a sick guy that needs to be locked away somewhere for the rest of his days. I am not sure a mental facility would correct this type of behavior but I would consider him dangerous especially if he no longer has access to cadavers as he may kill to satisfy his perversion.
i do this with dead bodies all the time whats wrong with it?
This is probably one of the more disgusting things I have ever read in my whole entire life. This guy is a waste of resources. He’s not a pig, pigs would not do something so disgusting.
Childhood
through to old age
no safety for Woman
on Earth, no refuge in death, nor
the grave.
argh!
BIL,
Your reply is spot on. It’s a mental health issue. Thoughts from posters at the newspaper link ranged from:
“What’s the big deal? Society has worked VERY hard to normalize other deviant and perverted sexual behaviors like homosexuality. Now that this battle is progressing well, necrophilia is just another aberrant behavior on that list.” Not funny….
“That weird freak needs to be castrated and let the families victims of his abuse beat the HEL out of him.” Ouch….
“As sick and horrible as this is I cannot help but wonder why even investigate further. Why tell the families of these poor dead women. For GOD sake…put this guy to death, and be done with it.” WTF….
Sentenced to a hospital is the civilized way to go.
The big question to me is is this a crime that merits prison time or the psych ward? Honestly, I have to lean toward psych ward. Necrophilia is more than just wanting a DB for a date. It’s a dangerously objectifying behavior that could lead to all sorts of trouble and/or be a sign of something more pathologically worrisome. And before anyone thinks I’m being soft on crime over mental illness, I’d like to remind you I think child molesters should be used for scientific experimentation and then fed into a wood chipper. But this is a crime that when manifest is a good chance to take Barney’s advice and “nip it in the bud.” Which raises another topic related to incarceration of mentally ill defendants. At what age does intervention cease to be a meaningful alternative to incarceration? At age 55, no amount of therapy is likely to help this man within a meaningful time frame, so is it wise to use the more expensive hospitalized containment environment over a traditional cell? When does the value of treatment outweigh the the cost and social utility of simple containment?