Today’s Premature Yet Truly Morbid Fact!
The most famous instance of premature burial involved the soldier François de Civille, who was said to have been thrice declared dead and as many times rescued from the tomb. He had been born by caesarean section to a dead mother exhumed from her coffin. He became an army captain. Later he was severely wounded in the siege of Rouen in 1563 and buried alive in a common grave on the battlefield. His servant, who had wanted to dig his master a more fitting grave, discovered that he was not dead. While François de Civille was recovering from his wound, a troop of hostile soldiers burst into the house and threw the convalescent into a dung heap, where he remained buried for three days until dug out a third time, and nursed back to health. According to a gravestone in Milan, François de Civille was finally buried in the graveyard of that city; he had died at the age of 105, from a chill contracted while “serenading the lady of his heart all night long.”
Culled from: Buried Alive
Car Crash Du Jour!
One of my favorite books is Death Scenes: A Homicide Detective’s Scrapbook. It is exactly what it says it is: a bizarre and oft-disturbing scrapbook collected over the years by Los Angeles area police detective Jack Huddleston, whose career spanned from 1921 to the early 1950’s. This is definitely my favorite image from the book. Such a peaceful looking head!
His friends all began thinking “Vive Francois is all well and good, but Sacre Bleu, this is tres bizarre!” What a spry old dude he was!
So glad to see you back again!
I just asked the mortician about this! I have the same book, and ever since I saw those photos, I’ve wondered if the head lands right-side-up, or if it was placed that way for the picture. Does anyone know?
I was too young back when the picture was taken to remember, unfortunately (having not been born until 1965) but from the peaceful look of the photograph, I would hazard a guess that it was staged for the photo.