His wife and children helped in the business of burials, and over the years and decades that would follow from taking in that first corpse Charles became a big name in California funerals. by Caleb Wilde in Aggregate Death. When the editor of a mortuary industry newsletter started asking too many questions about the companys business practices, Sconce sent two of his boys over to the mans house dressed as policemen. Two months later, Waters was dead, presumably of a heart attack. Traditionally, Cemetery Board investigators have spent more time looking at audits than on enforcement, Gill said. A burning foot fell out. Sconce said his words were misinterpreted. On November 23, 1986, the nearly century-old facility burned to the ground after Davids employees somehow shoved 19 bodies into each of the ovens at once. David wasnt too excited about embalming school, but he did see an opportunity to make money in the cremation business. Sconces thugs had also gone after Ron Hast and his partner Stephen Nimz the year before at their home in the Hollywood Hills. Lamb Funeral Home ptyi liikekaupan seurauksena Davidin vanhemmille Laurieannelle ja Jerrylle sen jlkeen, kun pariskunta osti hautaustoimiston Lauriannen islt, Lawrencelta. Harvested hearts, eyes, and brains were then sold on the black market for up to $95 a pop. After stealing their stereo equipment, he coolly joined them in their pew at church. But it wasnt long until residents noticed the thick black smoke pouring night and day from the chimneys, the rancid oils that streamed from the building into a makeshift pit (the burning fat from the bodies), and the constant comings and goings. 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. 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. Although the crematoriums ovens would eventually operate 24 hours a day, David Sconce continued to push the limits of maximum capacity. Two books, entitled Chop Shop and A Family Business, have been written about David Sconces escapades. 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. He would attract business from area funeral homes with his half-priced cremations and make up for the low cost with high volume. The Lamb Funeral Home was the essence of an old-style mortuary, operated by a family that was the All-American stuff of advertising copy. Its a true shame that his name has to be connected to the funeral industry at all. Best coffee city in the world? On so many levels, David Sconces story is one that deathcare professionals dont like to hear. 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. And as for the Lamb Funeral Home, the business built by Charles Lamb in 1929? Coastal Cremations charged other mortuaries only $55 per cremation and sought business widely as the use of cremation boomed in California. They then attacked the man and threw jalapeno sauce and ammonia into his eyes. Ex-mortician who committed bizarre Calif. crimes decades ago could get life sentence Associated Press LOS ANGELES - David Wayne Sconce's past life as a mortician has come back to haunt him. Twenty years ago, only 10% of the dead were cremated. Cremations are now highly regulated affairs. In March of 1985, Careless Whisper by George Michael was a Billboard hit single. Home. For the following year we had about 1,500 to 2,000 people calling us to find out if Mountain View or the Lamb Family had cremated their loved ones. The investigators findings at both Oscar Ceramics and Sconces former Glendora home, about a 30-minute drive east from Pasadena, led to a class-action lawsuit filed by the relatives of 5,000 deceased people against the Lamb Family Funeral Home and other funeral homes that used its services; the lawsuit was settled out of court in 1992 for $15.4 million. In the slumber rooms, families were encouraged to make themselves as much at home as though they were in their own residence, according to an old company brochure. Laurieanne had always been her fathers golden child when it came to the care of the those who sought out the Lamb familys services. It was stupid but it was funny, he said. 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. When it came time to collect the ashes for the families, employees were instructed to collect 3.5 to 5 pounds for female remains and 5 to 7 pounds for male. In one case, according to prosecutors, survivors were prevented from viewing their loved ones body because the eyes had already been taken. 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. Operating under a license for a ceramics factory, David cremated bodies in the facilitys massive brick kilns until the fire chiefs gruesome discovery in January 1987. But Dr. Thomas Weber, owner of the Telephase Society, a pioneer in the field of low-cost burial, said the deal was too good to be true. Obsessed with fellow morticians, whom he regarded as business rivals, Sconce assembled a team of beefcake lackeys that he met at LA Kings hockey gamesa group of ex-football players he called his boys. They were tasked with traveling throughout Southern California, ferrying bodies to the crematorium, running errands, and roughing up other morticians to discourage them from competing with Sconces business. David, however, was aware that there was a lucrative, and underserved, market for human organs for research and educational purposesand the form signed by family members would only need a little re-working to authorize their removal without explicitly informing a bereaved family that anything other than a pacemaker would be removed. Online condolences may be left to the family at www.lambfuneralhomes.com. But he was denied entrance to the Altadena facility because he did not have a search warrant. . There was jovial Jerry Sconce, 55, the Bible college football coach, his church organist wife, Laurieanne Lamb Sconce, 52, and their son David, 32, a charming ex-football player who had plans to grab a big piece of Californias booming cremation industry. 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. His business plan caught on, and business boomed. 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. 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. Cremation was once a niche business. Property Type. But they had aimed at Nimzs glass eye, foiling the plot, and at least one of Sconces associates later pleaded guilty to assault. Without further adieu, lets fire up the crematory ovens as we step back in time thirty years to sunny Pasadena, California and the Lamb Funeral Home, where in the depths of the ovens something sinister has begun. When family members came to pick up the remains of their loved ones, they were handed a box with the ashes of hundreds of people, scooped from the drum and measured out by weight according to the gender of the deceased. Sconces main competitor was Timothy R. Waters, who owned the Alpha Society, a Burbank-based cremation service, and who had a reputation for stealing business from other morticians. Death Facts: Part 72. David Sconce had not been raised in the funeral business. After David dropped out of college, worked as a casino dealer and a hockey stadium usher, and was unable to pass the police departments vision test, his parents convinced him to get his embalmers license and join the family business at age 26. He violated this probation by moving to Montana without permission in 2006, and again by stealing a neighbors rifle in 2012. Sensing an opportunity, David Sconce set out to command the market. He had veered towards his fathers interests more than his mothers, and had played football. His company, Coastal Cremations Inc., would advertise itself to funeral homes in Los Angeles that didnt have access to a crematorium. 8 pages of shocking photographs. The tissue harvesting itself was, unsurprisingly, not handled delicately. David didnt last long in college, dropped out after his teams losing streak started hurting his prospects. The autopsy report found traces of the heart medication digoxin in his bloodstream, only Waters was not on any heart medication. 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. The embalming business boomed. 7 years ago. All Obituaries. Sconce had bulldozed the front- and backyards of the house before leaving town, but he hadnt completely covered his tracks. Either those crimes were all unrelated to each other, or that was one hell of a road trip. Fantastic. Instead, the ashes were scattered in a vacant lot in the foothills. George Deukmejian at the end of the summer session. Waters demonstrated his success with flamboyance, appointing his thick fingers with bejeweled rings and draping his neck with gold chains. Scattered around the interior, caked black with the accumulated bodily grime from the brick ovens, were trash cans brimming with human ashes and prosthetic devices. Sconce would arrange to pick up a body, transfer it to the Lamb familys crematorium in Altadena, wait the two hours it took to cremate a single bodyone hour to burn, one hour to cool the ovenand bring the ashes back to the funeral home. As profits grew, so did Davids sick ego. You can find him being mistaken on Google Search for a hockey player whose name is one letter off from his, or you can find him on Twitter. To make the company seem official, he and his cronies rigged up a telephone line that they attached directly to a nearby phone pole, stretching a long wire to a receiver on the dashboard of a car, from which they took calls. Estephan said he never had any run-ins with David Sconce. Thats the way it was supposed to be done. Hissentence also carried the caveat of lifetime probation, which he violated often in multiple ways, including selling forged bus tickets in Arizona and attempting to pawn a stolen rifle in Montana (he and his parents were penniless after settling a $15.4 million dollar lawsuit out of court in 1992). In 1986, David Sconce and his parents expanded the family enterprise with the creation of Coastal International Eye and Tissue Bank.