HBO’s The Mortician, a documentary series premiering June 1, examines the startling true story of a cremator who went to prison for mishandling human remains.
In the 1980s, David Sconce ran a cremation business that deliberately mixed up human remains and robbed families of their loved ones’ valuables. Sconce, who was in and out of prison after pleading guilty to his crimes in 1989, even speaks in the three-part series.
The episodes, premiering weekly, detail the unethical ways that David Sconce increased the cremation business for his family’s funeral home, Lamb Funeral Home in Pasadena, California. In the series, Sconce’s former employees reveal the terrifying things that they saw while working for him and customers talk about how traumatic it was to receive incorrect remains from Sconce’s business. And current morticians weigh in on the correct ways to take care of human remains.
Director Joshua Rofé says viewers may be able to relate the cremation scandal to other scandals they see in the news about companies cutting corners in order to make as much profit as possible in exchange for as little work as possible. But in the funeral industry, he says, “it’s pretty damn gruesome.”
Here’s a look at the most surprising moments in The Mortician.
How David Sconce got caught
Pasadena-area funeral home directors became suspicious of Sconce when he was completing more cremations than his competitors—and at lower prices. That’s because, as former employees explain in the series, Sconce’s team would cremate multiple bodies at a time—breaking a collarbone, arm, or leg to squeeze as many bodies into the oven as possible.
When his operation moved further out into the California desert, production ramped up, cremating 150-200 bodies at a time. A soldier who liberated Auschwitz happened to live near Sconce’s operation in the desert and phoned 911 because he smelled burning flesh, a smell he said he’d never forget after World War II. That’s…
