The grave of a mysterious man who wandered Connecticut and New York in the 19th century will be moved but it holds little more than a handful of coffin nails.
The exhumation of the Leatherman's resting place resulted in no visible remains of his body, Ossining Historical Society President Norman MacDonald said on Wednesday.
The plain pine coffin was lowered into a newly dug hole in a suburban New York cemetery on Wednesday. The grave marker says "The Leatherman."
The excavated earth -- presumed to bear his organic imprint -- is still being moved away from a busy highway and to a quieter grave nearby. So are the nails.
Leatherman, named for his outfit of animal skins, made a 365-mile loop through the same towns about every month. He said little and relied on handouts for food. He sheltered himself, summer and winter, outdoors.
Don Johnson, a North Haven middle school teacher, recently taught his students the Leatherman’s amazing story and pushed to keep the remains where they had been. His class was divided on whether or not to remove the remains.
Johnson launched the Web site “Leave the Leatherman Alone.”
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The historical society also had hoped to arrange some DNA testing.
