Amputated leg at center of custody dispute between man who wants to be buried whole and man who wants the leg as Halloween exhibit

**Jenna** · 10-02-07, 02:44 PM

A US man who stored his amputated leg in a barbecue smoker that was later auctioned off is locked in a custody dispute with the man who bought it.
John Wood's smoker was sold to Shannon Whisnant last week after he fell behind on payments at the storage facility in North Carolina where it was kept.
He wants his leg back but Mr Whisnant says he has a receipt for the smoker's contents and wants to share ownership.
Mr Wood's leg was amputated above the knee after a plane crash in 2004.
He asked to keep the leg so he could be buried as a whole man when he died, and stored it at the facility in Maiden after losing his home.
But when Mr Wood failed to pay the necessary rental fees, the storage company auctioned the smoker and all its contents.
'Strange incident'
After buying the smoker last Tuesday, Mr Whisnant looked inside and found a man's leg wrapped in a wire screen.

Halloween's just around the corner - the price will go up if I get the leg

He initially gave the leg to the police, who concluded it had not been removed as a result of a crime and sent it to a funeral home until Mr Wood could pick it up.
But after making money by charging adults $3 (£1.47) and children $1 (49p) to look inside the empty smoker, Mr Whisnant asked for it back.
His request was refused by the funeral home, so he decided to try to persuade Mr Wood to share custody and profits.
"I told him I'd share custody of it..." Mr Whisnant said.
"It's a strange incident and Halloween's just around the corner. The price will go up if I get the leg."
'Despicable'
Mr Wood, who now lives in Greenville, South Carolina, has insisted he is not interested in using the leg to make money and plans to travel to Maiden as soon as possible to reclaim it.
"I just think it's despicable," he said.
"I don't mind having the 15 minutes of fame, but I'm not looking to really profit off this thing.
"He's making a freak show out of it."
Having had his offer rejected, Mr Whisnant has threatened to begin legal action if the leg is not returned to him by next week.
He says he has a receipt showing he bought both the smoker and its contents at the auction. "Everybody knows it's mine, period," he said. "And if anyone tries to take it, I want everything they got."

North Carolina pair feud over leg
Shannon Whisnant
Tuesday, 2 October 2007,
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7024124.stm

**Pudge** · 10-02-07, 02:51 PM

I'm not so sure the guy who bought the smoker has a leg to stand on in court.......

1*girl · 10-02-07, 02:54 PM

Custody??? of an amputated leg? Wtf?

**trekgirl** · 10-02-07, 05:51 PM

Not as strange as it sounds. A woman sued a hospital for possession of her uterus after a hysterectomy. She wanted to "give it a proper burial."

I have kept the metal pieces taken from my foot as well as my wisdom teeth that were just removed.

1*girl · 10-02-07, 06:31 PM

Originally Posted by wacopnewbie

Not as strange as it sounds. A woman sued a hospital for possession of her uterus after a hysterectomy. She wanted to "give it a proper burial."

I have kept the metal pieces taken from my foot as well as my wisdom teeth that were just removed.

Metal pieces, casts, even teeth are different stories. Not an actual limb. And that lady with the uterus-I thought she wanted to turn it into pill form and take the capsules or something? Or was that a different chick?

**armsmaster270** · 10-02-07, 07:34 PM

Just proves what we all learned on the street. There some weird people out there.

**trekgirl** · 10-03-07, 07:25 PM

Originally Posted by 1*girl

Metal pieces, casts, even teeth are different stories. Not an actual limb. And that lady with the uterus-I thought she wanted to turn it into pill form and take the capsules or something? Or was that a different chick?

riginally, yes she wanted to do something weird with it because of something she had heard, but she eventually changed her mind and chose to bury it. I wonder if she ever won the court case?

**Virginian** · 10-04-07, 09:03 AM

So one wants to be a whole dude and the other wants to be an a-hole, dude.

**Buttercup** · 10-04-07, 11:36 AM

Originally Posted by Virginian

So one wants to be a whole dude and the other wants to be an a-hole, dude.

How long did it take you to come up with that one?

**Virginian** · 10-04-07, 12:09 PM

Originally Posted by Buttercup

How long did it take you to come up with that one?

No time at all - I've been waiting to use that line!!

**Bear365** · 10-04-07, 06:08 PM

I would love to have a real leg as a haloween exhibit. Just like using skined grapes to feel like eyeballs. I always wanted a real eyeball just to throw people for a loop. "Hey dude you just touched a real human eyeball, thats no trick I got it from the kid down the street." How bout a simple solution if the guy doesn't die before this Haloween then the dude who bought the smoker gets to use the leg. After the display of the century gets taken down then the guys leg can be returned so he can be burried "whole."

**Tony** · 10-04-07, 06:30 PM

Originally Posted by Pudge113

I'm not so sure the guy who bought the smoker has a leg to stand on in court.......

That's a shocker!!! But I still laughed!!!

Originally Posted by armsmaster270

Just proves what we all learned on the street. There some weird people out there.

Some!?!?!

**mack** · 10-04-07, 06:40 PM

ewwww ewwwww ewwwww!!!!!!!!!!! Think about it, an amputated leg, how gross must that be? I mean it isn't like it is in formaldehyde or anything, it is in wire! I repeat, ewwwww!

1*girl · 10-04-07, 09:31 PM

In a smoker of all things. Who's going to want to use that for their next turkey?

**Willowdared** · 10-04-07, 10:02 PM

I don't know....this just does not seem credible to me. There are pretty strict rules to how hospitals handle such things. It's considered a bio-hazard after all.

**Buttercup** · 10-04-07, 10:20 PM

I'm going to go out on a limb here - maybe it was embalmed?

**Ducky** · 10-04-07, 10:51 PM

Earlier quote from a different article "I told him I'd share custody of it," Whisnant said. "Kind of like young'uns."

Anyone else get the echo of banjos off the guy who bought it?

http://blogs.usatoday.com/ondeadline...-wins-cus.html
S.C. man wins custody of his amputated leg

Ownership of an amputated leg that was found inside a barbecue grill is no longer in limbo.
Reuters tells us that North Carolina police have returned it to John Wood of Spartanburg, S.C., rejecting Shannon Whisnant's claim that the limb belonged to him because he bought the grill and its embalmed contents at an auction. Whisnant wanted to display the leg for Halloween and charge gawkers. (In an article earlier today, the Charlotte Observer wrote that Whisnant sees movie deals, book contracts, a museum and just plain ol' bragging rights. ...)
Wood lost the leg after a 2004 plane crash and stored it in the smoker, which wound up in a storage locker. Whisnant bought the smoker when Wood's belongings were auctioned off to pay back rent he owed on the space.
Maiden, N.C., police said Whisnant had surrendered his claim by 911 and asking officers to take it away when he discovered it last week.
"The simple fact is that he said he didn't want it," Maiden P.D. Capt. Tracy Ledford told Reuters, which says he chuckled his way through an interview about the case that has made for lively gossip in the small North Carolina town. "The guy don't have a leg to stand on. He's not getting the leg back."
No comment from Wood or Whisnant.

**Willowdared** · 10-05-07, 10:40 AM

Originally Posted by Buttercup

I'm going to go out on a limb here - maybe it was embalmed?

Even if it was embalmed, it would still decay, just at a slower rate. It would have to be kept in an airtight container or frozen to maintain it's state.

**Ducky** · 10-05-07, 10:44 AM

I thought I remember reading somewhere that he'd dried it out, but I can't find the article now.

**Buttercup** · 10-05-07, 10:45 AM

Originally Posted by PDawg

Even if it was embalmed, it would still decay, just at a slower rate. It would have to be kept in an airtight container or frozen to maintain it's state.

I read an article today that said it was embalmed, but in another article it said that it had dried out.