It’s impossible to believe today but many historical figures were buried alive on a pretty regular basis back in the day, mostly by accident or due to a lack of medical advancements.
Eleanor Markham
In 1894, this Englishwoman was officially pronounced dead by her doctors after suffering from a long heart illness.
Her family immediately got things in order for her funeral. As her horse drawn coffin was driving to the cemetery, a bizarre noise could be heard.
From inside the coffin, a desperate pounding could be heard. Flustered family members cracked open the lid to find Eleanor breathing. Alive after having witnessed her own funeral.
The Philosopher, John Duns Scotus
This smart medieval philosopher unexpectedly slipped into a coma in 1308.
Convinced of his death, his friends laid him to rest in an incomplete stone coffin situated in Cologne, Germany.
His tomb was opened years later due to repair works and his body was found outside the coffin. His fingers were ground down to the bone and his hands were deeply scratched up. It was proof that he had awakened in the darkness and tried to dig his way to freedom.
The Bishop Nicephorus Glycas
In 1896, a Greek Orthodox Bishop was pronounced dead.
Following the religious customs of that area, his coffin was left open for three days, allowing people to come and pay their respects.
During the final evening of the vigil, the corpse of Bishop Nicephorus Glycas sat bolt upright in front of the congregation. He blinked at the mourners weeping around him, inquired as to what all the commotion was about, and asked someone to fetch him a glass of water.
He had just experienced a cataleptic trance and lived several years after the incident.
Madame Blunden
This wealthy Englishwoman was declared dead in the 1800s after doctors checked her for a pulse and found none.
She was interred in her family’s vault but was buried right next to a school playground. A few days later, kids at school mentioned hearing peculiar groaning sounds emanating from beneath the earth.
Crews hurried to exhume the coffin only to find they were too late. She succumbed to suffocation, her hands bearing the marks of a frantic attempt to escape.
Marjorie McCall
Marjorie was living in Ireland in the 1700’s when she became sick with a fever. Thinking it was contagious, she was buried quickly to prevent the illness from spreading to the people living nearby.
During the night, a group of grave robbers broke into her shallow grave and tried to pry off an expensive gold ring that was caught on her finger. Marjorie’s finger was cut by the thieves, but the pain shot up her arm and woke her out of her sleep like coma.
Marjorie jumped up and started screaming, frightening the thieves off.
Emperor Zeno
Emperor Zeno of the 5th-century Byzantine empire was a noted alcoholic. In 491 AD, a serious illness struck him, rendering him unconscious.
Believing him dead, his political enemies and his wife had him placed into a giant stone coffin within the imperial tomb.
Days later, imperial guards heard ear-splitting screams for aid coming from the tomb that lasted three days. The Empress would not allow the coffin to be opened until the screaming ceased.
Angelo Hays
A 19-year-old Frenchman suffered a brutal motorcycle crash in 1937, leading doctors to pronounce him deceased due to an undetectable pulse.
Two days after Angelo Hays was buried, he was exhumed by order of an insurance company who thought his death may have been faked.
The moment the casket was unsealed, examiners noted that his body hadn’t yet cooled. His brain went into hibernation mode allowing his body to function on minimal oxygen and he miraculously made a full recovery.
Mary Norah Best
This young woman became infected with a horrific disease at the age of seventeen back in 1871. She was then quickly sealed inside the family burial vault, alive.
When the crypt was opened 10 years later by a builder making room for another coffin, he was met with a nightmare. Mary’s remains were found half out of her coffin, her garments shredded and her skull caved in.
It certainly seems she’d woken up in the dark, injuring herself as she frantically tried to get out.
Alice Blunden
In 1674, Alice Blunden, residing in Basingstoke, England, consumed a substantial dose of poppy-seed medication. She seemed to die, and her family (thinking she was dead) placed her in the local churchyard.
Reports of moaning from the grave began a few days later. When her coffin was opened, Blunden’s body was strangely positioned. Plus, it appeared she had awakened after being buried.
She was taken out of her coffin but the trauma had killed her. Alice Blunden succumbed to her injuries, and her story went on to become one of history’s most recognized instances of premature burial.
Arthur Fenwick
They said Arthur Fenwick was an English laborer who passed out on an unbearably hot summer day back in 1901. A local doctor looked him over and decided Arthur had died of heatstroke.
His funeral took place without delay, and he was laid to rest in a simple wooden box. Per tradition in many rural communities at the time, the coffin sat overnight in the church before being buried in the morning.
The undertakers showed up at first light to seal the coffin for the funeral. To their utter disbelief, Arthur was found perched on the coffin’s lid, clad only in his burial shroud. He seemed more annoyed than frightened, allegedly complaining about the cold.
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