MFDJ 01/30/24: Plague Pits

Today’s Fetid Yet Truly Morbid Fact!

In the seventeenth-century, many physicians were aware of the risk of fatal errors in declaring people dead during plague or cholera epidemics. The epidemics of the time usually caused mayhem: the carnage of victims was almost unbelievable, and the authorities often tried to limit the spread of the diseases by burying the victims quickly. These conditions did not allow for any careful scrutiny of each dead (or perhaps not so dead) body that was hurled into the mass graves. The chronicles of Simon Goulart tell that when the town of Dijon was ravaged by the plague in 1558, people died so quickly that they had to be buried in plague pits instead of individual graves. The supposedly dead body of a woman named Nicole Tentillet was thrown into one of these pits. She revived the morning after and made efforts to climb out, but the weight of the corpses above her held her down. Four days later, the gravediggers brought more corpses and fortunately observed Mme Tentillet’s predicament; she was taken back to her own house, where she recovered completely. The influential papal physician Paolo Zacchia saw a young man who had twice been believed dead from the plague in Rome in 1656, but both times recovered. Zacchia presumed that several people had been erroneously buried alive during this epidemic. He recommended that initial decomposition and a fetid smell, heralding initial putrefaction, should be awaited before burial in doubtful cases. In his treatise on the plague, the Dutch physician Isbrand van Diemerbroeck agreed. He  had once seen a peasant named Pierre Petit, from the village of Bommel, not far from Nijmegen, who had been declared dead in a plague epidemic, but revived after several days of deathlike stupor. Van Diemerbroeck wrote that it was very likely that people had been buried alive in plague epidemics, particularly because it was customary to bury people just a few hours after death.

Plague Pit – that’s gotta be the name of a black metal band, right?

Culled from: Buried Alive

Vintage Crook Du Jour!

1886 Professional Criminals of America by Inspector Thomas Byrnes is a collection of information, mug shots, and bios of America’s most infamous petty criminals from that time.  I find the descriptions of the criminals most amusing and thought I’d share the occasional bio.  Here’s today’s crook – criminal #1!

RUFUS MINOR
alias RUFE PINE.
BANK SNEAK.

DESCRIPTION.

Forty-eight years old in 1886. Born in United States. Married. No trade. Stout build. Height, 5 feet 5 1/2 inches. Weight, 160 pounds. Brown hair, gray eyes, round face, dark complexion. Very bald. Has a clerical appearance at times. [Like, all the time? – DeSpair] Can grow a heavy beard (dark brown) in a short time; generally wears it when committing crime, and removes it shortly after. Has a dot of India ink on the back of left hand.

RECORD.

Rufe Minor, alias Pine, is no doubt one of the smartest bank sneaks in America. His associates are Georgie Carson (criminal #3), Horace Hovan (25), Johnny Jourdan (83), Billy Burke, alias “Billy The Kid” (162), Johnny Carroll, alias “The Kid” (192), Emanuel Marks, alias Minnie Marks (187), Big Rice (12), Mollie Matches (11), Billy Flynn, Big Jim Burns (165), Charley Cummisky, George Howard, alias Killoran and other clever men. He is a very gentlemanly and intelligent man, and is known in a number of the principal cities. He is no doubt one of the best generals in his line; he comes of a good family, and it is a pity he is a thief.

Minor was arrested on March 23, 1878, at Petersburg, Va., in company of Georgie Carson, Horace Hovan, and Charlotte Dougherty (Horace’s wife), charged with the larceny of $200,000, in bonds and securities, from the office of James H. Young, No. 49 Nassau Street, New York City, on January 2, 1878. They were all brought north, on a requisition, but no case was made out against them, and they were discharged. He was arrested again in New York City on November 14, 1880, with Johnny Jourdan and Georgie Carson, charged with the larceny of a tin box containing $8,500 in money and $56,000 in bonds from the vault of the Middletown Savings Bank, at Middletown, Conn., on July 27, 1880. Horace Hovan, who was previously arrested in this case, was taken to Connecticut. Minor, who was not identified, was held in New York City, charged with being the party who stole $28,000 in bonds from a safe in the office of Merritt Trimbal, in the Coal and Iron Exchange Building on Courtlandt Street, New York, on October 15, 1879. The bonds were found in possession of the Third National Bank of New York City, having been hypothecated by a notorious bond negotiator and insurance agent. No case was made out against Minor, and he was discharged. Rufe Minor and Billy Burke are credited with obtaining $17,000 from the Commercial National Bank of Cleveland, O., in the fall of 1881. Burke was arrested in this case in Buffalo, N.Y., but Minor escaped. Minor was no doubt the principal man in the following robberies: the First National Bank of Detroit, Mich., $3,200; the Middletown National Bank of Connecticut, $73,500; Bank of Cohoes, N. Y. (attempt), $100,000; Brooklyn (N. Y.) Post-office robbery, $3,000; Providence (R. I.) Gas Company robbery, $4,000; Guarantee Trust and Safe Deposit Company’s vaults, at Philadelphia, Pa., $71,000; Rufus Rose Insurance Agent’s safe, at the Bank of Baltimore, Md. (bonds), $12,000. Minor was also credited with sneaking $114,000 in bonds from the Erie County (N. Y.) Savings Bank, on April 30, 1882. The bonds were returned to the bank by a well known Baltimore lawyer, who received $25,000 for them.

He was arrested again in New York City on June 25, 1883, and delivered to Marshal Frey, of Baltimore, for the larceny of $12,000 in bonds from the Bank of Baltimore, on September 25, 1882. For this he was tried and acquitted by a jury on November 1, 1883. Minor and Johnny Price were arrested in Boston, Mass., on February 1, 1884, and given one hour to leave the city. He was arrested again in New York City on June 28, 1884, for the authorities of Augusta, Ga. Minor, Price and Billy Coleman sneaked a package containing $2,700 in money from a bank safe in Augusta, Ga. Billy Coleman and Price were arrested two days afterward, tried, convicted, and sentenced to seven years each in State prison, on May 7, 1884. Minor was taken to Augusta and discharged, as he could not be identified as the third party in the robbery.

He was arrested again in New York City on January 12, 1886, charged with the larceny of $130 from the pocket of one Samuel Henze, in the office of the “Evening Journal,” in Jersey City, N. J. He gave the name of William Jackson, and was taken to New Jersey by requisition on January 17, 1886. In this case he was tried in the Hudson County (N. J.) Court, and acquitted on April 21, 1886. Minor’s defense was an alibi.

Rufe Minor’s picture is an excellent one.

Rufe has to be one of the hardest working crooks I’ve ever encountered!  I’d say he’s EARNED that money! – DeSpair

Culled from: 1886 Professional Criminals of America

Andersonville Prisoner Diary Entry Du Jour!

This is the continuation of the 1864 diary of Andersonville prisoner Private George A. Hitchcock (see the archived version for all entries up until now).

Here’s today’s entry:

October 19th. Shep. sick with diarrhea. Rations of rice and molasses.

Culled from: Andersonville: Giving Up the Ghost