14 DAY TRIAL // No less than 18 human heads, all still covered in skin and wrapped in plastic, were discovered at the O’Hare Airport in Chicago. The finding confounded authorities, more so after establishing that they were part of a medical shipment.
As it turns out, it lacked the necessary paperwork and, as the Examiner reports, because of it, the heads had to remain in custody of the Cook County medical examiner’s office.
They have been claimed by the crematorium in Schiller Park, Ill.
The heads were part of a medical shipment that had left the US, destination Rome, Italy, to be part of medical research. When the shipment doubled back and entered the US again, authorities noticed that accompanying papers were not in proper order.
“They were all properly preserved and tagged for the purpose of anatomical study. The paperwork just isn’t properly done,” medical examiner Tony Brucci told ABC News at the time word of this got out in the press.
As the video above notes, it is not illegal to move body parts by plane if they are part of a medical study.