Davids mother Laurieanne Lamb Sconce and her husband Jerry bought out the family business from her father in 1985. After graduating from high school in Glendora, he enrolled in Azusa Pacific, the Christian college where his father worked, with the hopes of becoming a football star and playing for the Seattle Seahawks. The impact David Sconce left on the funeral business is still being felt today. With the help of her husband, a glad-handing former football coach at Azusa-Pacific College, Laurieanne began taking control of the business from her parents about a decade ago, just as the publics interest in cremation blossomed. He had veered towards his fathers interests more than his mothers, and had played football. The Lamb Funeral Home in Fontanelle is assisting the family. No matter how weird you think a story about the funeral business could be, prepare to be surprised and pretty grossed out. A Family Business: A Chilling Tale of Greed as One Family Commits Unspeakable Crimes Against the Dead Ken Englade 3.53 244 ratings17 reviews They were the owners of funeral homeand organ harvesters. But, as if the organ theft and filling sales werent enough, there was yet another black mark to discuss. Although he was caught, he avoided jail after leading police to the stolen equipment. For two months, Sconce cremated bodies with diesel fuel in industrial-size ceramic kilns. Jerry Sconce told him to put in 3 1/2 to 5 pounds of ash if the deceased was a female and 5 to 7 pounds for a male, Dame said. But the heirs to the fourth-generation funeral empire betrayed that trust with a series of gruesome crimes against the dead. I was at the ovens at Auschwitz, the man said chillingly, Wentworth recalled. In court, it was revealed that over a three-month period, they had sold 136 brains (at about $80 each), 145 hearts ($95 each), and 100 lungs ($60 each) for use in medical schools. The Sconces were arrested on numerous charges relating to forgery of donor consent forms, removal of organs and body parts from the dead and selling them to organ banks and for scientific research, removal of gold dental fillings, and theft of funds from trust accounts. Im your host, the BOOzy Barrister, here to guide you through the dark world of human, and not-so-human, nature as we explore the paranormal, the macabre, the spooky, and the downright sickening aspects of the law. In 1994, he was found guilty of selling fake bus tickets in Arizona. By all accounts a beefy man with a love for money, when other options ran dry for him his parents decided to bring him into the family business. She loved funeral work, especially the task of beautifying the dead: applying makeup to the waxen skin of the embalmed. That broke the previous record of 18 bodies in one furnace, the employee said. 7 years ago. While serving his sentence, he narrowly escaped charges for the murder of the owner of a local crematorium, although David had openly bragged to his lackies that hed slipped deadly oleander into the mans drink the day he died. His daughter Laurieanne Lamb Sconce began assuming control in the mid-'70s. Home. He knew what Sconce was up to with his cremation racket, and threatened to out him in the industry newsletter, Mortuary Management, which was run by a fellow mortician, Ron Hast, and published local gossip and stories about the latest trends in the funeral business. How in the world did David Sconce manage to get away with this for so long? And with this new surge in interest came an opportunity for money, an opportunity that David Sconce sniffed out and latched on todespite the fact the Lamb Funeral Home had only two crematory ovens, and both of them were old and, until now, rarely used. What they did is, they tried to corner the market, said Joe Estephan, funeral director of the Cremation Society of California. In 2015, an LA-based paranormal investigation group suggested in a blog post that the building may be haunted, but it was eventually purchased by a light bulb distributor which in 2018 turned the second floor into a three-bedroom apartment available for rent for $4,700 per month. Best coffee city in the world? and passed on the business to his son, Lawrence, who became president of the Pasadena school board. Another part of his cover story was that they were using the ovens to make heat shield tiles for the Space Shuttle. They anointed their boss with a grandiose nickname: Little Hitler.. When you make your funeral plans, choosing a proper funeral home is important. They said David would lift and carry cardboard-enclosed corpses around the facility for exercise, use a crowbar to crack open sternums, and store eyeballs in used cola cans. The Lamb Funeral Home (the funeral home owned by Sconce) case led to a massive lawsuit that also involved 100 mortuaries that contracted with the funeral home for cremations. The grisly discoveries on Jan. 20, 1987, have touched off one of the most bizarre scandals in the history of the California funeral industry. Bear in mind that the inside of these furnaces were only slightly larger than a phone booth, and the world record for the number of livepeople stuffed into one of those is only fourteen. On the morning of Sunday, November 23, 1986, the Altadena crematorium burned down after employees tried cramming in a record 38 bodies at once. On February 19, 2019, a reader of the paranormal website commented on the blog about Lamb Funeral Home that his or her mother-in-laws body was one of those mistreated by David Sconce. David Wayne Sconce was the accused, and it was alleged that back in 1985 he had killed a rival mortician, Timothy R. Waters, to stop him exposing some dark and illegal activities at the Lamb Funeral Home, the family business where Sconce worked. Los Angeles in the 1980s was a lush, neon, dusty city. I dont think so, its a ceramics shop, Wentworth replied. David Sconce had not been raised in the funeral business. He was sentenced to five years in prison and released in 1991 after serving two and a half years. There have been three books published on the Lamb Funeral Home scandal and I have all of them. He even used such colorful terms for this act as popping chops and making the pliers sing. Hed then sell the gold to a jeweler buddy of his, which reportedly netted him an additional $6,000 a month. In 1974, as a freshman planning to major in business, he robbed a former girlfriends house twicethe second time on Christmas Eve, while she was at church with her familyas revenge for breaking up with him. Simi Valley police plan soon to turned the case over to Ventura County Dist. Sensing an opportunity, David Sconce set out to command the market. At the peak of his business in 1986, according to state cemetery board reports, Sconce burned 8,000 bodies a year. But possibly, just possibly, watched over by those denied a final rest. Six law firms, including Melvin Bellis in San Francisco, have filed a class-action lawsuit on behalf of relatives of 16,000 decedents, accusing 100 mortuaries of sending bodies to the Sconces despite indications that something was wrong. The revelations have also prompted a new state law making it easier to police crematories and lawsuits against scores of other mortuaries that sent bodies to the Lamb Funeral Home in Pasadena, attracted by its bargain-basement prices. Criteria Reorder Criteria. David's mother Laurieanne Lamb Sconce and her husband Jerry bought out the family business from her father in 1985. Laurieanne was a bright, cheerful, God-fearing woman once described as movie-star beautiful by a rival mortician, and who played the church organ and wrote gospel songs with her choral group, the Chapelbelles. But he recalled that on the night the business was transferred to him, several people broke into the offices. As the Sconces awaited arraignment, the police made another morbid discovery. The insane true story of the 1980s mortician who turned his familys funeral home into a nightmare cremation factorypulling gold teeth, harvesting organs, and threatening anyone who got in his way. He was released in 1991. Not yet. Traditionally, Cemetery Board investigators have spent more time looking at audits than on enforcement, Gill said. We would like to get out of the Lamb Funeral Home business, Bruce Lamb said. The society has 5,000 members, who pay the society to arrange their cremations. But Sconce beat Waters to the punch, quite literally. Next Freaky Friday: Silence of the Lamb Funeral Home This wider lens gives you a glimpse of a dark place where sociopathy meets capitalism and legal dysfunction. A double-oven structure built in 1895, it was known among funeral directors as the oldest crematorium west of the Mississippi. As for David Sconce, he would return again and again to court, with new charges and new parole violations. But under the then-current California regulations, their crimes weremisdemeanors. And, with everything wrapped up in a semi-legal bow, David embarked on his next venture: scooping out eyes, hearts, and brains from the deceased and selling them to researchers throughout the country, having his mom forge the signatures of the next of kin on declaration forms, and making a tidy sum on the side. After Sconce took what he wanted from cadavers, he overloaded the old Altadena crematorium, whose stone, single-body retorts had been built at the turn of the century. He decorated the interior with couches, chairs, and various other accoutrements to make mourners feel comfortable. . Waters demonstrated his success with flamboyance, appointing his thick fingers with bejeweled rings and draping his neck with gold chains. MISSOULA, Mont. This month, we have a real treat for you, a home cooked meal if you wish, arising from the curious case of Pasadena Californias Lamb Funeral Home and its erstwhile owner, David Sconce, whose attempts to make it exceedingly clear You cant take it with you led to a massive reform of the California mortuary laws and regulations. He violated this probation by moving to Montana without permission in 2006, and again by stealing a neighbors rifle in 2012. The case involves the Lamb Funeral Home, was founded in 1929 by Mrs. Sconce's grandfather; Coastal Cremations Inc., of which David Sconce was president, and Coastal International Eye and Tissue Bank. .more Get A Copy At the time, the charges wouldnt stick because three toxicologists couldnt agree that oleander was the cause of death. You're the first one to shed a tear and the last one to leave the post-funeral . At the warehouse, the soles of their shoes stuck to floors slick with human fluids, and when they pried open one of the hinged doors of Sconces kilns, the remains of a human foot fell out, engulfed in flames. With the family reputation tarnished, the Lamb brothers have agreed to surrender the funeral homes current license, and they have applied for another one to operate under a new name, the Pasadena Funeral Home. In 1985, David, Laurieanne, and Jerry set up Coastal International Eye and Tissue Bank, in order to help their son traffic organs; later, in court, former employees revealed that, over a three-month period between 1985 and 1986, the Lambs had sold 136 brains, 145 hearts, and 100 lungs to a firm supplying organs for research to medical schools. In the 1980s, cremations were just coming into vogue as an inexpensive option for the funeral of a loved one. Get the best of Cracked sent directly to your inbox! Although the crematoriums ovens would eventually operate 24 hours a day, David Sconce continued to push the limits of maximum capacity. Twenty years ago, only 10% of the dead were cremated. Oscar Ceramics was the latest in a string of shady money-making schemes for David Sconce, a failed college football player and fourth-generation crematory owner. His tale of deception, greed, and complete disregard for tradition, decency, and even the law is disgraceful. This Guy Might Be Up To Something). If somebody offers you a new Ford for $8,000 and Im paying $16,000 . It was designed to be elegant but comfortable, filled with sofas and armchairs. Well, for one, Sconce had no reason to fear any serious repercussions. Just in case the universe hadnt made it obvious enough what was reallyhappening in that warehouse, when Wentworth opened one of the kilns, a human foot fell out still burning. Edwards testified that Sconce told him he had dropped something into Waters drink at a restaurant--authorities later decided it was in Simi Valley--a month before the Burbank mortician died. On November 23, 1986, the crematorium caught fire after two employees tried to break the company record by putting nineteenbodies in each furnace. Twenty percent of them.. They were each sentenced to three years and eight months in prison. He employed many of his old football buddies as muscle, not just to transport and handle the dead bodies, but also to intimidate funeral home directors into doing business with Coastal Cremations and scare/beat the crap out of anyone who could potentially expose their misdeeds. It is used, but in great shape. David wasnt too excited about embalming school, but he did see an opportunity to make money in the cremation business. His dad, Jerry, had played for the University of California, Santa Barbara, and later became the head coach at Azusa Pacific College, where David enrolled in 1974. This means you can plan for you, or your loved one, to be cremated at Riemann family funeral homes or others without the concerns that may be raised by reading on. He liked to attend hockey games with a bunch of beefy, ex-football players that he called his boys. Sconces boys testified that they listened to his boasts, ran his errands and roughed up his enemies. The Lamb Funeral Home was founded by Lawrence Lamb. They were the owners of funeral homeand organ harvesters. But cremation alone wasnt enough to float the business, and other funeral homes began to wonder how David could undercut the competition by so much and not lose moneyand the answer is simple. In 1989, defendant and appellant David Wayne Sconce pled guilty to multiple counts relating to the improper handling and disposition of human remains in Los Angeles Superior Court case No. The Lamb Family Funeral Home still stands on the corner of Orange Grove Boulevard in Pasadena. In one case, according to prosecutors, survivors were prevented from viewing their loved ones body because the eyes had already been taken. That was a great step towards preventing another disaster like this from ever happening again, or at the very least ensuring it would be detected long before it could even remotely get this bad. Sconces thugs had also gone after Ron Hast and his partner Stephen Nimz the year before at their home in the Hollywood Hills. It all began with the Lamb Family Funeral Home, a decades-old business that serviced its clientele from a gracious Spanish Revival building on busy Orange Grove Boulevard in Pasadena, bounded by a strip mall on one side and a residential neighborhood on the other. His employees called him Little Hitler because of the number of bodies he burned. The three bedrooms available for rent in the former funeral home were given walk-in closets, and the master bedroom outfitted with a freestanding soaking tub. David Wayne Sconce made headlines in the late 1980s when he pleaded guilty to the gruesome charges of commingling bodies and taking gold from the dead. He also pleaded guilty to soliciting a hit man to murder another rival, and was given the bizarre sentence of lifetime probation, a legal ruling many scholars might refer to as a pretty valid argument for burning this goddamn place to the ground.. . A polite, articulate man with penetrating blue eyes, David Sconce complained in the jailhouse interview that the case against him and his family was trumped up by prosecutors and funeral industry bigwigs, people with big places, expensive caskets, who want to squash innovators. Under the state Health and Safety Code, it is a misdemeanor to cremate more than one body at a time. As the story goes, Nimz opened the door to two large men posing as policemen who sprayed him in the eyes with a mixture of jalapeo juice and ammonia; they hoped to blind him, so they could beat him up without being identified. I was at the ovens at Auschwitz.. It was done without their permission or knowledge. However, funerals can be funded by asking friends and family to donate to an online GoFundMe page that could start raising money to help families cover the funeral costs. In 1982, his parents encouraged him to go back to school, become an embalmer and join the family business on his mothers side: Lamb Funeral Home in Pasadena, founded by Davids great-grandfather back in 1929. The history of funerary practices in America reflect a complex evolution of the relationship between death and money. For more than 60 years, Southern Californians entrusted the bodies of their loved ones to the Sconce family's Lamb Funeral Home. The Ventura County coroners office re-examined tissues saved from the original autopsy of Waters and changed the cause of death to poisoning by oleander, a common plant in California. He would attract business from area funeral homes with his half-priced cremations and make up for the low cost with high volume. Property Type. In 1990, while Sconce was still in prison, new charges were brought against him for Waterss death, but the case was ultimately dismissed after three separate toxicologists, including Dr. Fredric Riederswho later testified in the O. J. Simpson casecould not agree if there was oleander poison in Waterss blood. Show Filters Close Filters Close Map. by Caleb Wilde in Aggregate Death. Before the fire that forced the Lamb Funeral Home to move its crematory services off-site, the record was 18 bodies in the oven at once. But David lacked the compassion and the charisma necessary to work with bereaved people. Over the next century, the American funeral industry would upsell grieving families with services such as embalming and makeup, mahogany caskets, expensive headstones, and elaborate funeralsa practice later exposed by journalist and activist Jessica Mitford in her groundbreaking 1963 book, The American Way of Death. For just $55 per body, he was now offering lower prices than every other crematorium in the region, if not the entire country. David Sconces 1989 trial resulted in a five-year prison term for mutilating corpses, conducting mass cremations, and having his employees rough up three rival morticians. But he had been in some trouble, notably when he admitted to police that he had broken into the house of a girlfriends parents when she refused to go out with him anymore. Sure, the inspectors had their suspicions that something wasnt right, but every time they tried to inspect the facility, they were turned away and told to come back with a warrant, which was hard to acquire because all of Coastal Cremations (forged) paperwork made everything appear legit. That infamous title belongs to David Wayne Sconce. Cremations are now highly regulated affairs. Its resulted in a great tragedy for them, for a third-generation business and for the families of the deceased. During the questioning, the couple threw their son under the bus, blaming him for the cremation conspiracy. Built in 1895, the Pasadena Crematorium offered only two ovens, each of which David would stuff with five, six, and eventually as many as 18 bodies at a time. When Abraham Lincoln was shot, his embalmed corpse was beautified by Dr. Thomas Holmes, the father of embalming, and sent on tour across the nation. Charged with four felonies, he was extradited to California, and sentenced to 25 years to life. 8 pages of shocking photographs. Later, Davids cash-paid employees would tell horrific tales of Little Hitlers (as they called him) joy at popping chops, his term for extracting gold teeth, which hed sell to a local jeweler for an extra $6,000 each month. Literally flames and whatnot would be coming out of their chimney, says Jay Brown, whose familys mortuary was next to the Lamb crematory. . Laurieanne had given birth to her first child, a son, when she was just a few days shy of her 20th birthday, and it was this son, David, who would go on to both inherit Jerrys charm and take his talent for scheming to an entirely new level. Skilled in consoling the grief-stricken, she had customers sign complicated and sometimes forged documents which enabled her son to mine the bodies of their recently deceased for organs, which could then be sold to medical schools and research centers. However, funerals do tend to cost a lot of money, which is why people tend to opt for a cheaper option. But he was denied entrance to the Altadena facility because he did not have a search warrant. And that was enough to spur the fire department into action, stopping by for an administrative inspection of the premises and, upon opening the oven, being greeted with the sight of a wall of bodiesand a partially burned foot falling to the floor in front of the chief. When the Coen Brothers needed someone to show The Dude how to really roll, they could turn to only one man: Hall of Fame professional bowler Barry Asher. There was no information about how much more money they had made selling parts on the black market, because people in those circles arent that keen on paper trails. By 1985, the man who journalist Ken Englade would later dub the Cremation King of California displayed his sick sense of humor with a vanity plate on his Corvette that read I BRN 4 U, while Coastal Cremations employees zipped up and down the coast, shoving bodies packed in cardboard into the back of company vans and station wagons. by Caleb Wilde in Aggregate Death. But thats maybe not that surprising for a team that used nepotism as a recruitment tool. Two months later, Waters was dead, presumably of a heart attack. Estephan said he never had any run-ins with David Sconce. The sole purpose of the company was to facilitate Davids already-flourishing side gig trafficking organs hed removed from soon-to-be-cremated bodies. The bank, run out of the Pasadena funeral home, in a three-month period sold 136 brains, 145 hearts and 100 lungs to a North Carolina firm supplying organs for research to medical schools, according to records presented at the preliminary hearing. The ovens went from barely used to running for upwards of 18 hours a day to handle the load of up to a hundred bodies in storage, awaiting their final disposition in David Sconces flames. A proliferation of people and cars had led to the citys signature smog, and gridlock gripped the streets. For sixty years, families in Southern California trusted the Sconce-owned Lamb Funeral Home with their loved ones' remains. A crowbar cracked open sternums in order to access organs. They were, for lack of a better term, working in bulk. He entered the plea pursuant to an agreement offered by California Superior Court Judge Terry Smerling. Lamb Funeral Home | 3911 Lafayette Rd | Hopkinsville, KY 42240 | Tel: 1-270-889-9393 | | Lamb Funeral Home | 3911 Lafayette Rd | Hopkinsville, KY 42240 | Tel: 1-270-889-9393 | Fax: 1-270-886-5262 | Home. That morning, employee John Hallinan said, he and another worker loaded 38 bodies into the two furnaces, each measuring 3.5 feet high by 4 feet wide by 8 feet long.
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