GRAVE ROBBING
From Knob Knowledge
Before The Citadel offered a biology major, they offered pre-medical studies. Wanting to dissect a human corpse instead of animal corpses, Cadet Phillip Smoak accompanied by three freshmen went to a cemetery on Johns Island on Saturday night, November 17, 1934. They saw a fresh grave and proceeded to dig. After they opened the casket they saw that the body was starting to decompose so they cut off the head and brought it back to The Citadel where Smoak apparently was planning to dissect it. The head was put in a pillow case and hung on the door knob. A cadet on guard duty asked what was in the pillow case and hit it with his rifle butt. A human head rolled across the room. Smoak was expelled and the three other cadets (Landis Carter, James Griffin, and Hugh Rogers, Jr.) were permitted to resign. Hugh Rogers was later readmitted but did not graduate. Rogers later became a navy pilot, graduating from Pensacola in 1938. Smoak later graduated from medical school, and became a distinguished physician. The cadets were accompanied by a non-cadet, George Prouty, the son of the Registrar, Major Leonard Prouty, and an unnamed young woman. (Source: Dennis D. Nicholson, A History of The Citadel: The Years of Summerall and Clark, pp. 159-161. U430 .C5 N53 1994; Source for the cemetery being on Johns Island: communication of Dr. Henry Rittenberg, Class of 1938, to LTC Herbert T. Nath. Colonel Nath reported that Nicholson goes into more detail but doesn't mention the episode of the pillow case or the head rolling on the floor after being hit with the rifle butt. This was related to Colonel Nath by another alumnus. Colonel Nath thought that this might or might not have in fact happened.) (HN)
