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Tom's Guide
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Tom's Guide
How to watch 'The Mortician' online – stream true crime from anywhere
"I don't put any value in anybody after they're dead and gone," says David Sconce. Everybody's entitled to their own opinion, the only problem here is that Sconce was the man running the Lamb Funeral Home in Pasadena, California before he was busted and is now the focus of three part docuseries "The Mortician"... Here's how you can watch "The Mortician" online around the world and from anywhere with a VPN. "The Mortician" premieres in the U.S. on Monday, June 2 on HBO at 9.00 p.m. ET/ 6.00 p.m. PT. and is available on Max at the same time.• U.S. — HBO/Max• CAN — Crave• AUS — Max • Watch anywhere — try NordVPN risk-free If you've recently lost a loved one you might be best advised to skip this show because, although he is by no means a typical mortician, Sconce does much to destroy the element of trust the bereaved need to take for granted in those they expect to take care of their dead. The details of his malpractice would not be out of place in a horror film. He mutilated bodies, stole fillings from the corpses, sold organs, returned fake ashes and intimidated (even plotted to kill) rivals in the industry. By enacting the most rapacious elements of capitalism and undertaking multiple cremations simultaneously he took a family business from 195 cremations in 1981 to more than 25,280 five years later – an increase in volume of almost 13,000%. Ironically, it was this incredible turnover and the suspicions of neighbors complianing of the smell that prompted a low enforcement investigation that uncovered the brutal, illegal shortcuts at work and, ultimately, his incarceration and downfall. Director Joshua Rofe was in the right place at the right time to interview Sconce after his release on parole. You can judge whether he has reflected upon his crimes and repented for yourself. Read on and discover how you can watch "The Mortician" online with all the streaming details you need below. "The Mortician" premieres in the U.S. on Monday, June 2 on HBO at 9.00 p.m. ET/ 6.00 p.m. PT. and is available on Max at the same time. Max prices start at $9.99/month if you don't mind ads, going to $16.99/month for ad-free and $20.99/month if you want the option to watch content on up to four devices and in 4K. For even better value, you can pay for a whole year upfront and effectively get 12 months for the price of 10 on any of its tiers. HBO can also be added to OTT streaming services such as Hulu, Amazon Prime Video and Disney Plus. Traveling outside the States? You'll need to use a VPN to unblock Max when abroad. Max is no. 1 on our best streaming services list for its vast, high-quality library, including all of HBO's prestige series like "Game of Thrones", "The Last of Us" and "Succession", plus recent offerings among the best Max shows such as "House of the Dragon", "True Detective: Night Country" and "The White Lotus". If you're traveling overseas and "The Mortician" isn't airing where you're currently located, that doesn't mean you have to miss the show while you're away from home. With the right VPN (virtual private network), you can stream the show from wherever you are. We've evaluated many options, and the best VPN you can get right now is NordVPN. It meets the VPN needs of the vast majority of users, offering outstanding compatibility with most devices and impressive connection speeds. You can try it risk-free for 30 days if you take advantage of NordVPN's no-quibble money-back guarantee. There's a good reason you've heard of NordVPN. We specialize in testing and reviewing VPN services and NordVPN is the one we rate best. It's outstanding at unblocking streaming services, it's fast and it has top-level security features too. With over 6,000 servers across 110+ countries, and at a great price too, it's easy to recommend. Get over 70% off NordVPN with this deal Using a VPN is incredibly simple. 1. Install the VPN of your choice. As we've said, NordVPN is our favorite. 2. Choose the location you wish to connect to in the VPN app. For instance, if you're visiting the U.K. and want to view a U.S. service, you'd select a U.S. server from the location list. 3. Sit back and enjoy the show. Head to your streaming service app — so Max, for example — and watch "The Mortician" online from wherever you are in the world. "The Mortician" premiered in Canada on Crave on Sunday, June 1. Crave subscriptions start at $9.99/month for its Basic plan (720p video, includes ads) all the way up to $22/month for Premium (ad-free, 4K, downloadable shows). Those on vacation away from Canada will need one of the best VPNs to log in back home to use Crave. We recommend NordVPN. Unfortunately, there is no release date in the U.K. for "The Mortician". When that changes you'll read about that here first. Americans and Canadians on vacation in the U.K. who just can't wait will need a good streaming VPN to log in back home. We recommend NordVPN. "The Mortician" premieres in Oz on Max (now available Down Under) on Monday, June 2. New episodes will drop weekly, every Friday at the same time. Plans start at AU$11.99/month and run up to a premium version of AU$21.99. Not at home? Don't panic. You can still watch the show from your usual domestic streaming platform with a VPN. We recommend NordVPN. Here is the full episode schedule for "The Mortician": Season 01 Episode 01: "TBA" - Sunday, June 1 S01 E02: "TBA" - Sunday, June 8 S01 E03: "TBA" - Sunday, June 15 Sconce was sentenced to five years in prison for mutilating corpses, holding mass cremations at $55 a body and hiring strongmen to assault rival morticians in 1989. He was released after serving two and a half years but sentenced to 25 years to life in 2013 after violating the lifetime probation a judge had imposed on him - following a guilty plea to murder conspiracy in 1997 - by being found in possession of a stolen firearm. He was released on parole in 2023. We test and review VPN services in the context of legal recreational uses. For example: 1. Accessing a service from another country (subject to the terms and conditions of that service). 2. Protecting your online security and strengthening your online privacy when abroad. We do not support or condone the illegal or malicious use of VPN services. Consuming pirated content that is paid-for is neither endorsed nor approved by Future Publishing.
Express Tribune
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Express Tribune
HBO's 'The Mortician' explores David Sconce's funeral industry scandal and cremation crimes
HBO's The Mortician, a new three-part documentary series, reveals the disturbing true story of David Sconce, a crematorium operator who went to prison in 1989 for grossly mishandling human remains. The series, which premiered on June 1, features accounts from former employees, traumatised clients, and Sconce himself, offering a rare insight into one of the most unsettling scandals in US funeral history. In the 1980s, Sconce ran Lamb Funeral Home in Pasadena, California. He increased profits by cremating multiple bodies at once—often breaking bones to fit more in the chamber—and delivering mixed ashes to grieving families. His methods raised suspicions when he completed far more cremations than competitors at lower prices. A WWII veteran eventually reported the smell of burning flesh near Sconce's desert facility, triggering an investigation. Sconce pled guilty in 1989 to charges including mishandling remains and extracting gold fillings from corpses. He served time and was later returned to prison in 2013 for violating probation. He was released on parole in 2023. Former staff detail shocking practices, such as removing clothing and jewellery from bodies for resale. Sconce's ex-wife recalls catching him cracking teeth with a hammer and collecting gold in a cup labelled 'Au'. Sconce remains unapologetic, dismissing concerns over mixed remains and stating, 'That's not a person anymore.' Director Joshua Rofé includes Sconce's voice to provoke reflection, asserting that confronting such behaviour is essential for understanding the darker sides of humanity.
Time Magazine
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Time Magazine
The Chilling True Story Behind HBO's The Mortician
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 when Sconce got busted. In 1989, Sconce pled guilty to mishandling human remains and mining the corpses' teeth for gold fillings at Lamb Funeral Home. He served a couple of years in prison, and then was sent back in 2013 for violating his lifetime probation by being in possession of a firearm. He was released on parole in 2023. Funeral directors stress in the series that Sconce was a bad apple. They say the Sconce scandal led to more rules and regulations regarding cremations, including laws requiring unannounced inspections of crematories. Taking dental gold or silver is a felony now. How David Sconce carried out the illegal cremation business People who carried out cremations for Sconce recall the red flags they noticed while working for him. Former employees described stripping clothes off of bodies to sell and cutting off body parts to get jewelry to sell. There were running competitions among the employees to see who could fit the most bodies in the oven. Andre Augustine, who worked for Sconce, claims that Sconce's former employees didn't know which remains to put in which box. Clients would get the remains of not only their loved one, but also the remains of other bodies. Sconce's ex-wife Barbara Hunt says her husband was secretive about the cremation business, and claims that she only learned what he was doing from news coverage. But, she recalls, once she saw Sconce sitting on the floor of the garage cracking teeth with a hammer and putting the gold in a styrofoam cup that said 'Au,' the chemical symbol for gold. 'He sold the gold,' Hunt says. 'I just sat there thinking, what world am I in?' Why David Sconce has no regrets Sconce openly talks about cremating multiple bodies at once in the series with no sense of shame. As the series shows, he used to drive a corvette with the license plate 'I BRN 4U.' He argues that because crematories can never clean the ovens of every speck of ash before they put another body into the oven, it justifies what he did. 'Comingling of ash is not a big deal. I don't put any value in anybody after they're gone and dead. They shouldn't when I'm gone and dead. That's not a person anymore.' He said that most families signed up for Sconce to scatter their cremated relatives at sea, with no relatives in attendance, so he doesn't see why anyone would care if the ashes he scattered at sea came from one body or multiple bodies. When asked how he felt about delivering families the cremated remains of multiple people, he said, 'There's no difference in anybody's cremated ash…people just got to be more in control of their emotions. That's not your loved one anymore, and it never has been. Love them when they're here. Period.' Rofé argues that there's more to Sconce's motivation, telling TIME, 'It was about money.' He recalls a moment during the filming when he was alone with Sconce in a motel room and Sconce asked him what Rofé would do if someone gave him so much money to do a documentary that would make Sconce look bad. 'There was a look in his eye unlike any that I'd seen before,' he says. 'It was just scary.' Giving Sconce a voice in the documentary seemed like the right choice to Rofé, who says it's important to not avoid stories about people who have commited crimes. 'If we were to all walk around pretending that everything in this world is hunky dory, we would be doing a great disservice to humanity,' he says. 'But taking a good, hard look at people like this is vital.'
Los Angeles Times
4 days ago
- Los Angeles Times
‘The Mortician' revisits Pasadena's Lamb Funeral Home and a family's ghoulish crimes
It was the early 1980s when residents of a Pasadena neighborhood noticed something amiss at the nearby crematorium. The facility was suddenly operating round the clock, smoke billowing from its chimney well after business hours. Fellow morticians were also alarmed at the uptick in the number of bodies cremated by the Lamb Funeral Home, a respected, family-run establishment and pillar of the Southern California mortuary business for generations. It wasn't long before allegations of organ harvesting, mass incineration of bodies and murder made the local and national news. A new L.A. crime noir story was born. Premiering Sunday and airing weekly, HBO's three-part docuseries 'The Mortician' chronicles the ghoulish offenses of David Sconce, great-grandson of the mortuary's founder and son of owners Jerry W. Sconce and Laurieanne Lamb Sconce. He was the picture of Southern California affluence and privilege: a blond-haired, blue-eyed high school quarterback with professional football aspirations until his hopes were dashed by a torn ligament. Sconce found his calling running the family's crematorium, where he maximized profits by incinerating multiple bodies in the same chamber. Unsuspecting survivors of the deceased were none the wiser when they scattered the ashes of a loved one at sea, but in fact the cremains were of several different people. And that's just the tip of the macabre in this docuseries from director and producer Joshua Rofé ('Lorena'). Sconce also harvested organs and body parts for profit, pulled teeth to extract the gold from fillings, and was investigated for allegedly contracting a hit on a rival and poisoning another competitor who was trying to expose the crimes at the Lamb funeral home. Sconce eventually pleaded guilty to 21 criminal counts — including for mutilating corpses, holding mass cremations and hiring hit men — and was sentenced in 1989 to five years in prison. However, he was released in 1991 after serving two and a half years, then sentenced to 25 years to life in 2013 after violating probation. He was released on parole in 2023. 'The Mortician' reveals fresh angles into the decades-old case via a bevy of interviews with those who were there. But it's Sconce himself who provides the most insight into his crimes when he alternately denies and then brags about his transgressions (he appears proud of his ability to stuff as many bodies as possible into a crematory chamber, sometimes by breaking bones or cutting off limbs). Now 68, he's speaks at length in the documentary about the events that landed him in jail, appearing more aggrieved than remorseful. 'I don't put any value on anybody after they're gone and dead,' he said of mixing remains. 'As they shouldn't when I'm gone and dead. Love 'em when they're here.' He then justifies his actions as a practical business decision: 'I could cremate one guy in two hours, or you could put 10 of them in there and take two and a half hours. So what would be the difference? There is none.' Also interviewed are former funeral home employees, former L.A. Times journalist Ashley Dunn and former Pasadena Star-News reporter David Geary. Several victims who were duped by Sconce also offer testimonials about the deception. Former law enforcement officials who busted Sconce's second crematory facility in Hesperia — an old ceramics factory replete with kilns — recall the canals installed below the repurposed kiln doors that were used to catch the human fat drippings coming from the packed chambers. 'The Mortician' is not the cable network's first series about a family of undertakers operating a Pasadena funeral home. The dark dramedy 'Six Feet Under' also revolved around a dysfunctional family generations in the embalming business. But all similarities stop there. There is nothing remotely funny about the twisted world of the Lambs, but in 'The Jinx' fashion, Sconce's own words at the end of this docuseries may come back to burn him.
