Meet The TikToker Selling Human Bones Online 

They should've mentioned how Princeton has been using the bones belonging to two young victims of the police bombing of MOVE & refuse to give them back to the families. Maybe more attention brought to that situation would help bring those girls to the final resting place they deserve.

It's kinda scary that someone can think they're donating their body to some university for students to learn but then it is sold and goes all around the country and ends up in some person's house as a showpiece.

The way he wears his clothes looks exactly like what a character from a game who has interest in bones looks like

When someone donates something, that item shouldn't end up in a for-profit business end of story. The person never donated their remains to be put in a 22yo tiktoker's apartment as a means for making him money

“Everyone’s gotta pay rent” He can’t get behind burying them with respect, because he already views it as a commodity. Sad. The crazy thing is when I was in anatomy class, the professor said all the figures were actual bones because they were cheaper than the replicas at that point. In the movie Poltergeist, those are real bones, the director said the same thing. Bones from India were cheaper than buying a replica. My question as far as legality, it seems that possessing any type of bone is legal, but what about an eyeball? A heart, a lung? A man in PA was just arrested for this because he collected and sold human remains on FB marketplace. So my question is, where does the law begin and end on this?

"But here at Johns bones" He knows He is the only person that works there 🤣

He kinda sidestepped the obvious that most people who want real bones are only interested in the fact they're real. As an anatomy student I would rather have fake bones then the worry about taking them home to study would be gone.

Even if you donate your body to science it is entirely possible that your body will end up being sold to some shady company or somewhere else. A man donated his body to a local hospital and it ended up in a weapons test of the us military i.e. sold by the hospital. So the person in the video is doing exactly the same as "ethical" companies that take donations.

Your born You go to school You go to college You find your dream job You fall in love You get married You have kids You retire and enjoy your later years You get to see your grandkids You die YOU END UP ON THE WALL OF A 22 YEAR OLDS APARTMENT BEING PROMOTED ON TIKTOK

The progression from animal to human is like a serial killer

Dude said “ I don’t believe in hoarding “. Camera man “ pointing to the entire collections “ 😂

Its gross to think my loved ones and my own bones will possibly end up being sold on this market because we marked ourselves as organ donors. I also read a story about a woman's remains being sold to a military company to test a rocket on...gross

I hope my Bones won't be sold to pay someone's Electricity Bills.

Eh, when I'm dead, I won't have any use for my bones anyway. It is not like my bones constitute what I am as a living person. After I die, there is just the memories of me until they also fade into oblivion.

I actually wrote my college thesis on this very subject. I entitled it " Fighting for the humanity in classroom bones: history of anatomical specimens" This is a huge problem in universities and museums. Not even to mention private collectors. These bones were collected from essentially graves of poor people. Usually people of color and immigrants. In fact, there are records of slave owners selling the bodies of their slaves after they passed to medical schools. Not even to mention all of the human remains that were stolen from native American grave sites and taken as wardrophies during the genocide of native peoples in the United States. It deeply disturbs me that we can sell human bodies that were not freely given by the people who once occupied them. By still capitalizing on these people's bodies, It's perpetuating, the racist and horribly unjust system that allowed them to be taken in the first place.

If i donate my body for science, I would rather be cremated than end up in a collectors house.

Dudes acting like he's trying to get by but he clearly has money. Said he had half a mil minimum sitting in that room and then says he's gotta pay the rent hahaha

I get it, we need to be able to study anatomy but, it should only be able to come from people who donate The Remains, Not from some person who selling some someone they don't even know about.

This seems sketchy AF. I sure as hell wouldn’t want MY remains in some person’s apartment and being sold to someone else I don’t know. Seems violating 🤔😬

He’s unethically acquiring human bones and then sells them

I thought this was illegal. I remember watching a show on Netflix YEARS ago about an oddities shop.. and anything with actual human remains they weren’t legally allowed to buy or sell. Idk if there’s ways around that or if the laws have changed… or if bones are a different story but.. I always thought it was illegal.

He literally said this was his way of paying rent lmao.

I’ve never heard someone so excited to say “here is my spine wall. It’s my wall. Of spines”

Maybe I interpreted this wrong but dude came off a tad rude and judgemental when he kept repeating that he wouldn't be involved over and over. I bet he wouldn't be as rude to a funeral director, and those guys profit tremendously from handing human remains. Some of whom are totally exploiting families who have no choice but pay the thousands of dollars it costs for a simple service and burial/cremation.

With all do respect...this TikToker has a very immature perspective on this topic... Looking at and knowing the history alone, makes my skin scrawl just seeing his apartment. I loved that y'all interviewed the Professor.. some great facts and incite. Loved his perspective.

My dad wanted to be a classroom skeleton and was told no.

Vice : Where does the bodies come from? JonBones : its usually inherited by the people...and body donated for medical educations and scientific research Me : Erm....They come from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, philipines and etc...

Some people have skeletons in their closet. Other people have skeletons in every room of their house. Those people are probably on an FBI watch list.

I took an osteology class when I was in college back in 2010 . We studied actual human bones that had been donated.

I'm fine with my body going to science and whatnot but I'm not ok with my bones winding up like this. Once it's done with the purpose it was used for, put me in the ground or something, at least have that respect for my body. A lot of bodies that wind up being traded like this are sadly not legitimate. Hell, I'm almost inspired to start a non-profit that buys whatever bones I can just to put them to rest. What should happen currently is that any bones which provenance can't be 100% given as legal should be surrendered and put to rest because there's just too many remains out there which were disturbed from their rest. Though I'm not a religious person, I still feel people should be respected. After we do a full wipe across the sector, we can start again, hell it's a good thing because the prices will skyrocket and that's a good thing.

There's a misconception that systems where people get to donate their bodies to science avoid these hurdles altogether. These systems were mostly born in the XXth century because those that ended up under the knife before that were mostly the poor and the indigent, forced to sell their bodies, or claimed because there was no one else to claim their bodies and afford a burial. But in truth, body donation schemes were largely abused by coroners and the medical establishment, which blurred the lines of informed consent and kept the bodies for longer than the law intended, leading to several scandals. If you have the stomach for it, I do recommend the books by historian Elizabeth Hurren on how the UK tangled with that delicate question in the XIXth and XXth centuries. "Dying for Victorian medicine" in particular is tragic but very informative.

As a paleontologist, this makes my skin crawl. There is no way to profit off of the bone trade ethically.

Hey JonsBones has no way of knowing whether or not they are working with indigenous or graverobbed bones. They generally do not have the paperwork for their bones and Jon is not actually an osteologist or anthropologist and is not licensed to be doing this work. Most of the bones in the shop have unknown origins. Please do not shop from him and seek out actual professionals who do the work to seek out the information on where the bones actually came from.

I would love to end up on someone's mantel, just chilling there- continuing to be a part of someone's life.

When drug dealers and thieves make the excuse "I gotta pay rent somehow" to justify the shadiness...

Creepy AF, serial killer vibes

This bloke has travelled forward in time from the 80s to sell bones.

Dude seems creepy

Ethical, unethical...There is the catacombs in Paris, the infamous houses of the dead in London, England during the Black Plague, the Churches in Portugal literally floor to ceiling human remains as cemetery plots were just rental basis. In some countries cemetery plots are still just rentals!! really have to consider that these individuals may have been sold to medical industries by their family members to help with household income in India, China at the time. Also consider that dealing with the indigent and poverty stricken dead was often dealt with by sales of the remains or just giving them away! The ideal of the way to treat humans alive or otherwise is at best, still, an ethical debate as there are numerous countries that don't consider mishandling of these remains a huge deal! Humans are not respected once dead in some countries. Back around one hundred years ago, consider that we had LEGAL child labour and did not have humane treatment for children or women (being considered property of their male family members at the time). Remember the Humane Society was established for the humane treatment of children and animals!!

A person’s belongings including their bones should be respected and treated in the way that person wanted. No consent given means they should just bury them. What he’s doing is wrong imo

If his building had a fire, the investigators would think they stumbled across the world's most prolific serial killer! 🙀 Fascinating episode as always, Vice!😻

Before my granny passed, she had told me not to waste my gas money going to the cemetery to visit her bones. Her soul is awaiting Jesus. Who cares what is left behind. How fun! I would love for my skull to travel the world seeing that my living self never has!

There is nothing educational about it. Has to be illegal. And it’s creepy someone’s grandma is there being sold

Jon bones jones?

You dont need your body when your gone, i rather have someone appreciate my bones than rot in dark damp grave. So what if people earn a bit of money of my bones, helping even after death. I also want to add that i think much more people should consider being organ donors, why waste your body when you can save many lifes?

When Jon dies I want his skeleton displayed in my home for educational purposes

“I don’t believe in hoarding” Didn’t stay a second after that lmfao

I'm surprised people feel so strongly about this! I don't care what happens to my bones after I die. We are born from dust and will become dust.

Well good luck finding the original person, location and family that these bones belonged to. All of those who are concerned about the ethical aspect are you going to take the time, money and resources to find who the bones belonged to and what their wishes were before they died? Yeah I didn't think so. He's getting them from people who want nothing to do with bones that their doctor grandpa passed down.

The moment he said half a million dollars, people are going to find him and steal the bones lol

This reminds me, what ever happen to that horror show in Arizona for “donated body parts”. Anyone who’s thinks this is insane and already question this industry. I highly suggest looking up this story.

Deep down he knows he is not doing the right thing, he is just convincing himself he is doing something good.

I hope my body can go towards something like this. Even if I had a limb removed I'd like to keep it and sell it to someone who would appreciate it. lol I hope my friends and family can get some $$ for my bones to offset the cost of death in the US.

""Pieces end up in the trash." LOL. What pieces are we talking about here? Human pieces?

You nailed it Dexter.

"Gotta pay rent!" is the worst possible response he could've given here. What a sleazy guy.

Looks like the Predator’s Closet with all those spines😂

reporter got schooled at the end

Why is he upset that people bury the bones cos they don't know what to do with it?? I'm mind blown

He should make a spine guitar! Metal AF!

I'm going to stick with my plastic skull.. 😅

The one guy you don't want saying to you - "I have a bone to pick with you"

I made comments here on a positive note about the business this man is in10 months ago. I stand by all of my comments to this day. It costs a lot of money to inter bones, burial ain't free and family cannot always or even mostly be relied on for seeing to your remains once you are gone!! These bones have a use and this man simply meets that use.

But in my country during the first year of med school a lot of students buy real bone set. So I think this should continue

It is stigmatized, if he is really helping ppl with remains that they don't know what to do with. I think that's a respectable cause. And it's not hoarding, it would technically be inventory... Because that's his business. I do agree that clearly back in the 1920s there was a ton of grave robbing, and a lot of those old companies probably did procure them through unethical means. I feel like "Ask a Mortician" dose a much better job broaching these types of subjects. I thought the reporter was kinda passive aggressive at the end. Like I get he doesn't want anything to do with selling bones. But it's off-putting when the reporter is judgemental. 🤔 Soured the interview for sure.

I don’t know who I’m more worried about , the people selling these things or the people BUYING them lol

Where does he think the people got those skeletons from that were “inherited” many of those doctors stole native bones to “study”

Naive of the journalist to say he didn’t want anything to do with it when I’m sure be benefits from it’s medical/ dental explorations in their beginnings. ie, Chiropractors, dentists, hip/ knee replacements etc etc etc …..

The journalist says he wouldn't want to be involved but he is involved by making the video. And he's profiting off of the skeleton trade by making the video.

"buried because people don't know what to do with them." They know exactly what to do with them.

This is every first year medical students dream, many a nights were passed waiting for someone to pass them their femurs and tibias because not everyone had a full set of skeleton.

Oh for Pete's sake. They're just BONES. They aren't a part of your decaying matter (which I suppose there's an argument about how that goes on to live in other organic matter). I look at this the same way I look at vintage fur. Should we make new fur clothes? Prob not. Just as we likely shouldn't continue to get new bones, at least without documented consent. But what's the harm in using what's already out there? And who cares if the man uses it to pay his bills? Good for him.

We humans are funny. I think we are too attached to our loved ones dead bodies/bones, however, that’s only my opinion.

I’m not concerned, those bones are literally that.

Maybe I’m just stupid, but why is it such a mystery as to what to do with them? Like, what’s wrong with just giving them a burial? I must be missing something.

This dude just got arrested near me and near where he was in Pa that was in possession of human bones and brains and different body parts it was pretty crazy!

I'm pretty sure the people that the bones belonged to no longer have any feelings about where their skeletons are, seeing as they are dead. Burials, wakes, cremations, and whatever other death rituals humans have are for the living to process their grief and give THEM closure. They are not for the dead because the dead don't need closure - they already have it, whatever it is. What the guy said at the end to the interviewer is right, he is at least making use of what's already there and he isn't disrespectful about it. The interviewer is acting like he's morally superior, but offers no solution other than to just ignore the problem that already exists. Is leaving them in a warehouse doing nothing until they turn to dust any better or worse than selling them and using them for education? This guy is doing this to support himself through life - so what? He's alive, these people are dead, and whether they were procured unethically or who they were is never going to be traced because no one is going to spend the exorbitant amount of money on DNA testing and tracing to do it. It's not like he's removing the skeletons from crime scenes or mass graves. They are where they are, the evidence of how they got there is long gone or too expensive to try and uncover, and he's at least doing something productive and supporting himself. He's not harming anyone.

I am quite worried on how haunted this place might be though 😳😨😱

I told my children long ago, when I die... sell my skeleton on tik tok

I'm looking forward to the Netflix docuseries about this soon to be serial killer next year . fs

The interviewer says, I don't want to be involved, so...yeah, pass the buck. Jon's not doing that, he is in a legal business and has a good ethical stance on this and IS wanting to be involved to 'deal' with these pieces.

"i dont live in a chateau with lamborghuinis" no but was happy to say his collection is worth 500k-600k...

''where do they come from'' he's stated before that they are usually from dentists,old house sales,dr's retired pieces. They are medical specimens. I don't see the problem if these have previously been used over and over again for learning purposes,so why shouldn't jon take care of these? at least thery'e being appreciated on his shelf,come on. Otherwise they'd be buried and would crumble away.Isn't it better that the memory of these people lives on through these bones rather than crumbling into dust?

THIS RIGHT HERE IS WHY PEOPLE DONT BECOME AN ORGAN DONOR, I like the heart on my I'd and I am a donor and am happy to be But I understand why others don't when they see stuff like that

How many did he supply himself?

Ah yes let me just get some human remains for my mid modern home

Is it bad I only clicked on this to find out where to buy some? 💀

How is this really that different from archaeology? There are TONS of mummies and other human remains in museums all over the world. Cherishing, respecting, and learning from human remains isn’t necessarily a bad thing. These specimens are out there. I think INTENT is a very big piece of all of this. Flaunting your human bones on tiktok as macabre accessories to show how quirky or hardcore you are is distasteful, even to me. I have a few pieces of human remains in my private collection. I look at myself as a caretaker. I have no idea who these people were in life, but I try my best to respect that this was a person, with a life, family, dreams, etc. These people are cared for now.

So Vice journalist draws the line at profiting off the remains trade/ education but is anything in the world genuinely non-profit? Resources come from somewhere and someone gets compensated eventually. Maintaining a stable environment alone for those bones probably requires cost and upkeep. Journalism provides an incredible service of sharing information and perspectives, but should it interject opinions, not hypotheticals that skew how we view a story objectively and profit?

What are two Processus styloideus worth? Roughly 4 and 4.5 cm long. Both from a documented medical case. Just a very rough estimate.

In my country it is illegal to privately posess any kind of human remains wich were taken from dead bodies. The only exceptions are for historical artefacts, teaching and research, in these cases certain certified institutions are allowed to acquire and keep / collect them. If a person wants to donate their body for educating medical personal or medical research, it is not allowed for them or their relatives to have any kind of financial gain from this descision. All donated bodies have to get cremated and afterwards buried at a cemetery within maximum two years. If a person is not donating their body, they have to get either buried or cremated within 7 days after the death. Nobody is allowed to keep any cremation ashes, they have to get buried at a cemetery aswell. Lately there has been a lot of political pressure on museums and universities to return colonial human artefacts to their places of origin and allow them to get buried in dignity. Private collections are highly illegal. In my whole life - besides from collections in museums and holy relics at churches - I've seen human bones only twice. First my former school had a skeleton for educational purposes in their collection, it had been there since the mid 1800's. And the second time during a archaeological dig at my local church, where they examined some medieval graves.

I own afew real human bones and I can tell you I’d much rather have them in my office respectfully displayed and use them for education than their fate before I owned them. People who inherit them really don’t know what to do and get scared assuming it’s illegal and throw them out. I’d rather my skull or femur be in a suede and hickory mount than in a land fill.

The audacity. The disrespect.

Because of this, Amazon is about to be flooded with bones 🤣😂

In every business there is always a dark secret behind

as an archaeologist, this just feels wrong even to me 😟

Don't have an issue with that kid selling those bones, I don't blame him and he seems to have a real interest In them. Honestly, without those grave robbers back in the day who knows how quickly the medical field would have advanced. It's wrong but it happened

I like how Vice reports on the difficult subjects… gangs, drugs, ect. without judgement. Yet, this was highly biased and judgmental reporting. I ain’t worried about it. You do you Jon’s Bones.

When I die I want my skull to be used as the hood ornament on a rat rod Hearse.

I thought this was the dude from “Grave Robbing for Morons” at first lol