Taphophobia, or the fear of being buried alive, is one of the most common human phobias. And there are quite good reasons for this. Due to the mistakes of doctors or the illiteracy of ordinary people, such cases occurred quite often before the normal development of medicine, and sometimes happen in our time. This article contains 10 incredible but absolutely real stories of people buried alive who still managed to survive.

Janet Philomel.

The story of a 24-year-old French woman named Janet Philomel is most typical of most such cases. In 1867, she fell ill with cholera and died a few days later, as everyone thought. The girl was given the funeral service by the local priest according to all the rules; her body was placed in a coffin and buried in the cemetery. Nothing unusual.

Strange things began when, a few hours later, the cemetery worker was finishing the burial. Suddenly he heard a knock coming from underground. They began to dig up the coffin, simultaneously sending for a doctor. The doctor who arrived actually discovered a weak heartbeat and breathing in the girl, raised from her own grave. And on her hands there were fresh abrasions received from the fact that she was trying to get out. True, this story ended tragically. A few days later, the girl died for real. Most likely due to cholera. But perhaps also because of the nightmare she experienced. This time the doctors and priests tried to carefully make sure that she was really dead.

Unknown from Sao Paulo.

In 2013, a woman living in Sao Paulo, visiting her family gravestone at the cemetery, witnessed a truly horrifying picture. Nearby, she noticed a man who was desperately trying to get out of the grave. He did this with difficulty. The man had already freed one arm and head by the time local workers arrived to him.

After the unfortunate man was completely dug up, he was taken to the hospital, where it turned out that he was an employee of the city hall. It is not known for certain how it happened that the man was buried alive. It is believed that he was the victim of a fight or attack, after which he was considered dead and buried to get rid of evidence. Relatives claimed that after the incident, the man suffered from mental disorders.

Baby from Dongdong province.

In a remote Chinese village in Dongdong province, there lived a pregnant girl named Lu Xiaoyan. The medical situation in the village was very bad: there were no doctors, the nearest hospital was several kilometers away. Naturally, no one monitored the girl’s pregnancy. Around the fourth month, Lu suddenly felt contractions. Everyone expected the baby to be stillborn. And so it happened: the baby that was born showed no signs of life.

After giving birth, the girl’s husband realized that she would most likely need professional medical help, so he called an ambulance. While Lu was being taken to the nearest hospital by car, her mother was burying the child in a field. However, at the hospital it turned out that the girl was not in her fourth, but in her sixth month of pregnancy, and the doctors, assuming that the child could survive, demanded to bring him. Lu's husband returned, dug up the tiny girl and brought her to the hospital. Surprisingly, the girl managed to get out.

Mike Mainey.

Mike Mainey is a famous Irish bartender who asked to be buried alive to set a kind of world record. In 1968, in London, Mike was placed in a special coffin equipped with a hole through which air entered. With the help of the same hole, food and drink were passed to the man. It's hard to believe, but total Mike was buried for 61 days. Since then, many have tried to break this record, but no one has succeeded.

Anthony Britton.

Another magician who voluntarily allowed himself to be buried in the ground in order to get out of the grave on his own. However, unlike Mike, he was buried without a coffin, at a standard depth of 2 meters. In addition, his hands were handcuffed. As planned, Anthony was supposed to repeat Houdini's trick, but things didn't go according to plan.

The magician spent almost nine minutes underground. For the rescuers on duty above, this was the extreme threshold for starting active actions. They quickly dug up the poor fellow, who was in a half-dead state. They managed to pump Britton out. He subsequently said in various interviews that he was unable to complete his stunt because his hands were pinned to the ground. But worst of all, after each exhalation, the earth continued to squeeze his chest more and more, not allowing him to breathe.

Baby from Compton.

Just recently, in November 2015, two women were walking in a park in Compton, a small city in California. Suddenly, while walking, they heard a strange child's cry, coming as if from underground. Frightened, they immediately called the police.

Arriving law enforcement officers dug up the bike path completely under the asphalt small child, no more than two days old. Fortunately, the police quickly took the little girl to the hospital and her life was saved. Interestingly, the baby was wrapped in a hospital blanket, which allowed detectives to quickly determine when and where she was born, as well as identify the mother. A warrant was immediately issued for her arrest. She is now accused of attempted murder and child endangerment.

Tom Guerin.

The Irish potato famine of 1845-1849 led to a huge number deaths. Gravediggers in those days had a lot of work, and there wasn’t enough space to bury everyone. They had to bury many people and, naturally, sometimes mistakes happened. Such, for example, as with Tom Guerin, a 13-year-old boy who was mistakenly taken for dead and buried alive.

The boy was declared dead, brought to the cemetery, like many others, and began to be buried, in the process accidentally breaking his legs with shovels. It’s amazing, but the boy not only survived, but also managed to get out of the grave with broken legs. Witnesses claim that Tom Guerin subsequently limped on both legs for the rest of his life.

Child from Tian Dong.

Horrifying story occurred in May 2015 in one of the southern Chinese provinces. A woman who was collecting herbs near the cemetery suddenly heard the barely audible cry of a child. Frightened, she called the police, who discovered a baby buried alive in the cemetery. The baby was quickly taken to the hospital, where he soon recovered.

During the investigation, it turned out that the parents, who did not want to raise a child born with a cleft lip, put the baby in cardboard box and carried it to the cemetery. After several days, the relatives came to the cemetery and, thinking that the child was already dead, buried him at a shallow depth of several centimeters. As a result, the boy spent 8 days underground and survived only because oxygen and water penetrated the layer of mud. According to police, when the boy was dug up, the child was literally coughing up dirty water.

Natalya Pasternak.

A terrible incident occurred in May last year in the city of Tynda. Two local residents, Natalya Pasternak and her friend Valentina Gorodetskaya, traditionally collected birch sap near the city. At this time, a four-year-old bear came out of the forest towards Natalya, who, considering the woman her prey, attacked her.

The bear partially scalped her and left her deep wound in the hip, seriously injured her neck. Fortunately, Valentina managed to call rescuers. By the time they arrived, the bear had already buried Natalya, who was in a state of shock, as they usually do with their victims, in order to leave it for later. Rescuers had to shoot the animal. Natalya was dug up and taken to the hospital. Since then, she has undergone many operations, and her recovery is still ongoing.

Essie Dunbar.

30-year-old Essie died in 1915 from a severe attack of epilepsy. At least that's what the doctors said. The girl was declared dead and funeral preparations began. Sister Essie really wanted to be present at the ceremony and categorically forbade the burial to begin until she personally said goodbye to the deceased. The priests delayed the service as much as they could.

The coffin had already been lowered into the grave when Sister Essie finally arrived. She insisted that the coffin be lifted and opened so she could say goodbye to her sister. However, as soon as the coffin lid opened, Essie stood up and smiled at her sister. Those present at the funeral rushed out of there in panic, believing that the girl's spirit had risen from the dead. Even many years later, some townspeople believed that she was a walking corpse. Essie lived until 1962.

Whether you believe it or not, there have been many cases recorded around the world where people were mistakenly buried alive. If until now you have not been afraid of finding yourself in a similar situation, then after reading this article, fear may well take possession of you.

In the late 1800s, the town of Pikeville, Kentucky, was plagued by an unknown disease, and the most tragic case in its history occurred with Octavia Smith Hatcher, at the very beginning. After her little son Jacob died in January 1891, Octavia fell into deep depression, as a result of which she found herself bedridden. Over time, she became worse and worse and fell into a coma. On May 2 of the same year she was considered dead.

At that time, embalming was not yet practiced, and therefore Octavia was very quickly buried on local cemetery due to the sweltering heat. Just a week after her funeral, many townspeople fell into a similar comatose state. But after some time, the townspeople began to wake up. Octavia's husband began to fear the worst. He was concerned that he had prematurely buried his wife, who most likely suffered from the same illness. He decided to carry out an exhumation, which only confirmed his fears. Lining on inside The coffin was scratched and torn into pieces, Octavia's nails were covered in blood, and her face was distorted with fear and horror. She died only after being buried alive.

Octavia was reburied, and her husband erected a delightful monument to his beloved wife over her burial place. It still stands there today. Doctors later suggested that the mysterious illness was caused by the bite of a tsetse fly, an African insect that can cause a disease known as “sleeping sickness.”

9. Mina el Howary

As a rule, when you go on a first date with stranger, You often wonder what will happen in the end. And even though you prepare yourself for all sorts of surprises, no one could ever imagine that he would be buried alive immediately after dessert. But just such a terrible story happened in May 2014. A 25-year-old French woman named Mina El Houary had been chatting online with her crush for several months before she decided to travel to Morocco to meet him on a real first date. On May 19, she arrived at her hotel in Fez, Morocco, to meet the man of her dreams.

Mina met him and they spent a wonderful evening together, but unexpectedly for everyone, she collapsed on the floor in the middle of the date. Instead of calling the police or an ambulance, the man assumed Mina had died on the spot and made a hasty decision to bury her in a shallow grave in his garden. The problem was that Mina didn't actually die. As it turned out later, she suffered from diabetes, which she had not yet been diagnosed with, and simply fell into a diabetic coma, which is why she was buried alive. Several days passed before Mina's family reported her missing and flew to Morocco to try to find her. Moroccan police were eventually able to track down her “killer” and raided his home. They discovered him dirty clothes and a second-hand shovel before the horrific scene was discovered in his garden. The man confessed to his crime (that he buried the girl because he was scared), but was accused of murder, which he most likely did not commit.

8. Mrs. Boger

In July 1893, a farmer named Charles Boger and his wife were living in White Haven, Pennsylvania, when Mrs. Boger died suddenly of unknown causes. Doctors confirmed her death and she was quickly buried. This should have been the end of the story, but some time after her death, a friend of Charles told him that his wife had suffered from hysteria before Charles met her, and it was possible that she was not actually dead. The thought that Mrs. Boger was buried alive haunted Charles until the thought overcame his consciousness.

Unable to live with the thought that his wife had died in her coffin, he asked friends to help him exhume her body to confirm or refute this guess. What he discovered shocked everyone. Mrs. Boger's body was turned over. Her shroud and robe were torn to pieces, and glass from the lid of her coffin was scattered all over the body of the deceased. Her skin was bloody and scratched, while her fingers were... or rather, non-existent. It is assumed that she ate them entirely in an attempt to somehow delay her death. No one knows what happened to Charles Boger after such a horrific discovery.

7. Angelo Hayes

Some of the most scary stories about premature burial are incredibly horrific because their victims miraculously managed to survive such an ordeal. This is what happened to Angelo Hayes. In 1937, Angelo was a carefree 19-year-old boy living in the town of Saint-Quentin de Chalet, France. One day, Angelo was riding his motorcycle through the village when he suddenly fell off and hit his head on a brick wall. Without hesitation, doctors declared Angelo dead, and he was buried three days after the accident. An insurance company in the nearby city of Bordeaux began to suspect something was wrong after learning that Angelo's father had recently insured his son's life for 200,000 francs, so they sent an inspector to sort out all the claims.

The inspector had Angelo's body exhumed two days after his funeral to confirm the cause of death, and as a result he discovered a most surprising answer to all his questions. Angelo wasn't actually dead! When the doctor removed his clothes, he found that Angelo's body was still warm and his heart was barely beating. He was immediately taken to the hospital, where he underwent several operations and underwent extensive rehabilitation before he was able to fully regain his health.

It turns out that he was simply unconscious due to a severe head injury. Subsequently, Angelo began to invent special coffins with all sorts of bells and whistles to ensure the survival of all those who find themselves buried alive. He toured with his invention and became something of a celebrity in France.

6. Mr. Cornish

John Snart published The Encyclopedia of Terror in 1817. In it he remembers terrible story about a premature funeral involving a man named Mr. Cornish. Cornish was a beloved mayor of Bath who died of a fever-like illness aged 80 or so. As was customary at the time, Cornish's body was buried fairly quickly after his death was pronounced. The gravedigger had partially completed his work when he stopped to have a quick drink with some cemetery visitors passing by. While talking, they suddenly heard muffled groans coming from the direction of Mr. Cornish's half-buried grave.

It dawned on them that he was buried alive, and they hurried to the grave before the oxygen in his coffin ran out. But by the time they removed the soil and were able to open the coffin lid, it was too late. Mr Cornish suffocated in own coffin, and to prove it, his knees and elbows were bloodied and beaten. This story so frightened Cornish's half-sister that she ordered her relatives to behead her when they expected her to be dead, so that she would not suffer the same fate.

5. The 6-year-old who survived

The thought of being buried alive is very scary, but it becomes unimaginably terrifying when the victim is a child. In August 2014, that's exactly what happened to a six-year-old girl in Uttar Pradesh, India. According to this girl's uncle, married couple, who lived near the victim, told the girl that they would like the child to accompany them to a fair located several villages away from their village. No one saw anything wrong with this proposal. Tragedy struck when they reached an open sugar cane field, where, for unknown reasons, the neighbors decided to strangle the child and bury him on the spot.

Fortunately, several villagers working in the field saw how people came there with a child and left without him. This aroused their suspicions, so they followed the tracks and found the lifeless body of the girl lying in a shallow grave that had just been dug in the middle of the field. They managed to bring her to the hospital at the earliest last moment, and when she came to her senses, she was able to identify her captors. Fortunately, the girl does not remember that she was buried alive. Despite how horrific this incident was, fortunately it did not end tragic death.

4. Buried alive by at will

As long as the human race continues to exist, there will always be brave souls who will challenge fate. Now you can find out what to do if you are buried in a grave without a single opportunity to get out of there. Indeed, today people even go so far as to voluntarily agree to be buried alive, trying to find out if they can avoid death. In 2011, a 35-year-old Russian did just that, only to die tragic death and become a candidate for the Darwin Award. For some unimaginable reason, this man believed that being buried alive and unearthed within 24 hours would make him happy for the rest of his life. With the help of a friend, he dug a grave outside the city of Blagoveshchensk and lay down in a makeshift coffin, complete with an air line, one bottle of water and a cell phone.

After he closed himself inside the coffin, his friend buried him almost half a meter deep in the ground and left him alone. The man only called his friend once to tell him he was okay, but when he returned the next morning wanting to get him out of there, he was already dead. Apparently last night's rain had clogged his air duct, leaving the man suffocating in his own coffin. As they say, he deserved the Darwin Award.

3. Lawrence Cawthorne

One scary story about being buried alive comes to us from a collection called "The Saddest and Most Sad Incidents," which are more like legends than anything else. This is the story of a London butcher named Laurence Cawthorne, who had the misfortune of becoming fatally ill in 1661. Lawrence's landlady wanted him dead so she could inherit his property, so she saw to it that he was quickly declared dead without a doctor's report and buried in a nearby chapel.

Shortly after his burial, mourners attending the funeral heard screams and screams coming from his grave. They rushed to dig up Cawthorne's coffin, but it was too late. The man's shroud was completely torn. His eyes were swollen shut and his head was bloodied beyond recognition, apparently from slamming it against his coffin in an attempt to get out. The butcher's landlady was later blamed for Cawthorne's premature burial, and the story became one of the many myths and legends that have been told for hundreds of years.

2. Sipho William Mdletshi

In 1993, a 24-year-old South African man named Sipho William Mdletshi and his fiancee were caught in car accident. Although Sipho's fiancée survived, he himself was so seriously injured that rescuers who arrived at the scene of the accident immediately considered him dead. Sipho's body was taken to a Johannesburg mortuary and placed in a metal box for burial. But Sipho wasn't actually dead, he was just knocked unconscious by the accident. For two days and nights he remained in the box until he woke up and, in incredible amazement, began to call for help.

Fortunately, one of the morgue workers was nearby and immediately released him, thanks to which he was able to survive this difficult ordeal. But the most unfortunate part of the story came when Sipho tried to return home to his fiancée, only to be kicked out because she thought he was a zombie (as if being buried alive wasn't a bad enough experience).

1. Stefan Small

In 1987, an Illinois publisher and heir to a media empire named Stefan Small was kidnapped and buried alive in a makeshift wooden box near Kankakee. His captors, a 30-year-old man named Danny Edwards and his 26-year-old girlfriend Nancy Risch, hatched a plan in which they would kidnap him and bury him in order to demand a $1 million ransom from his family if they wanted him. he survived. The criminals were able to provide 39-year-old Mr. Small minimum quantity air, water and light, which were transmitted into the coffin through small tubes, but they did not take into account that he was buried at a depth of 1 meter in sandy soil. Ultimately, the unfortunate man suffocated after his breathing tube became clogged.

Police were able to find Mr Small only because they were able to identify his maroon Mercedes, which was parked near the burial site. After Edwards and Risch were convicted, arguments were held over whether the two criminals planned to kill Mr. Small in that coffin. Either way, it was a horrific crime with tragic consequences, and Edwards and Risch will likely remain behind bars for another 27 years.

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Is this what you were looking for? Perhaps this is something you couldn’t find for so long?

Probably each of us remembers from our school days the frightening stories of literature teachers about Gogol, buried alive, who suffered from periodic falls into lethargic sleep.

And there were so many mysteries, rumors and other fables around this terrible story that it is not completely known whether it was true, or whether the historians embellished it a little. But today we will tell you far from the sad fate of Gogol. We'll tell you real stories people who experienced the horror of a confined space under the lid of a coffin. You wouldn't wish this on anyone. Creepy is not the right word!

1. Octavia Smith Hatcher

At the end of the 19th century, an outbreak of an unknown disease occurred in Kentucky that claimed many lives. But the most tragic incident happened to Octavia Hatcher. Her infant son Jacob died in January 1891 of unknown causes. Octavia then became depressed, spending all her time lying down in bed. Time passed, but the depressive state only worsened, and, in the end, Octavia fell into a coma. On May 2, 1891, doctors officially declared her dead, without specifying the cause of death.

Embalming was not practiced at that time, so Octavia was quickly buried in a local cemetery due to the sweltering heat. Just a week after the funeral, an outbreak of the same unknown disease was recorded in the city, and many townspeople fell into a coma. But with only one difference - after some time they woke up. Octavia's husband began to fear the worst and worried that he had buried his wife too early, while she was still breathing. He had the body exhumed, and his fears were confirmed. The top lid of the coffin was scratched and the fabric was torn to shreds. Octavia's fingers were bloody and raw, and her face was twisted in horror. The poor woman died conscious in a coffin many meters deep.

Octavia's husband reburied his wife and erected a majestic monument over her grave, which still stands today. Doctors later suggested that this comatose state was caused by the bite of the Tsetse fly and is known as sleeping sickness.

2. Mina El Khouari

When a person goes on a date, he always thinks about how it could all end. It's great to be prepared for the unexpected, but no one prepares to be buried alive. A similar story happened in May 2014 with Mina El Houari from France. The 25-year-old girl corresponded online with her lover for many months before she decided to go to him in Morocco for a personal meeting. She arrived at a hotel in Fez on May 19 to meet the man of her dreams, but her plans were not destined to come true.

Mina, of course, met her lover, but suddenly she felt bad and lost consciousness. The young man, instead of calling the police or an ambulance, made a hasty decision to bury his beloved in a small grave in the garden. The only problem was that Mina wasn't actually dead. As is often the case, Mina had undiagnosed diabetes, which causes episodes of diabetic coma. Several days passed before her family filed a missing person report for their daughter. They flew to Morocco to try to find her.

Moroccan police tracked down the would-be groom and broke into his house. They found soiled clothing and a used shovel before discovering a horrific burial in the garden. The man confessed to his crime and was convicted of manslaughter.

3. Mrs. Boger

In July 1893, tragedy struck Charles Boger's family: his beloved wife, Mrs. Boger, died suddenly of unknown causes. Doctors confirmed her death, so the burial took place very quickly. This could have put an end to this story if Charles’s friend had not told him that before meeting him, Mrs. Boger suffered from hysteria. And this could be the reason for her sudden “death”.

The obsessive thought of burying his wife alive did not leave Charles, and he asked his friends to help him exhume the body. What Charles saw in the coffin shocked him. Mrs. Boger's body was turned face down. Her clothes were torn to shreds, the glass lid of the coffin was broken, and shards were scattered all over her body. The skin was bloody and covered with scratches, and the fingers were completely missing. Supposedly, Mrs. Boger chewed off her fingers in a hysterical fit, trying to free herself. What happened next to Charles Boger is unknown.

4. Angelo Hayes

Some of the worst stories of premature burial are those in which the buried victim miraculously manages to survive. This is what happened to Angel Hayes. In 1937, a carefree 19-year-old boy, Angelo, was riding his motorcycle. Suddenly, he lost control and crashed into a brick wall, hitting his head.

The guy was buried 3 days after the accident. If it weren't for the insurance company's suspicions, no one would have known the real truth. A few weeks before the accident, Angelo's father insured his son's life for £200,000. The insurance company filed a complaint and an inspector began an investigation.

An inspector exhumed Angelo's body to determine the real reason death of the boy. And imagine the surprise of the inspector and doctors when, under the shroud, they discovered the warm body of a boy with a barely perceptible heartbeat. At the same moment, Angelo was taken to the hospital, several operations and the necessary resuscitation were performed to put the guy on his feet. All this time, Angelo was unconscious due to a serious head injury. After a rehabilitation course, the boy began to produce coffins from which one could easily escape in case of premature burial. He toured with his invention and became something of a celebrity in France.

5. Mr. Cornish

Cornish was the beloved mayor of Bath, who died of fever 80 years before the publication of Snart's work. As was customary at that time, the body of the deceased was quickly buried. When the gravedigger had almost finished his work, he decided to take a short break and have a drink with friends passing by. While they were talking, suddenly there were heartbreaking groans coming from the newly filled grave.

The gravedigger realized that he had buried a man alive and tried to save him before the oxygen supply in the coffin ran out. But by the time the gravedigger dug the coffin out from under the buried soil, it was too late. Mr Cornish's elbows and knees were bloodied and abraded. This story terribly frightened Cornish's half-sister, so she asked to be beheaded after her death so that she would not suffer the same fate.

6. Surviving 6-year-old child

The very thought of a premature burial seems terrible, let alone burying a child who is still alive. In August 2014, a little 6-year-old girl found herself in such a situation in the small Indian village of Uttar Pradash. According to the girl's uncle, the neighbor's married couple told the child that her mother asked to bring the girl to a neighboring village for a fair. On the way, the couple, for an unknown reason, decided to strangle the girl and bury her right there.

Fortunately, local residents who were working in the fields at the time became suspicious when the couple emerged from the bush without the child. They found the spot where they found the girl's lifeless body in a shallow grave. The girl was immediately taken to the hospital, where, thanks to a miracle, she woke up and was able to tell about her kidnappers.

The girl did not remember that she was buried alive. Police do not know the reasons why the couple wanted to kill the child. Moreover, the suspects have not yet been caught. It is a great blessing that this story did not end in tragedy.

7. Buried alive of his own free will

Humanity knows of cases when people tried to deceive fate and even challenge it. Today you can even buy practical guides to help you get out of your grave if you were buried alive.

Moreover, many people like to tickle their nerves, believing that after this they will be happy for the rest of their days. In 2011, a 35-year-old Russian man decided to play with death, but tragically died.

After asking a friend for help, the man dug himself a grave outside Blagoveshchensk, where he placed a homemade coffin, a piece of water pipe, a bottle of water and a mobile phone.

After the man lay down in the coffin, his friend covered the coffin with earth and left. A few hours later, the deceased called a friend and said that he felt great. But when the friend returned in the morning, he found a corpse in the grave. It probably rained at night, which blocked the supply of oxygen, and the man simply suffocated. Despite the tragedy of the situation, such “entertainment” was popular in Russia at one time, and it is unknown how many people died this way.

8. Lawrence Cawthorne

There are many stories of premature burials that seem to be nothing more than a legend that is difficult to believe. A similar story is about a London butcher named Lawrence Cawthorne, who was terminally ill in 1661. The owner of the land where Lawrence worked expected his early death because of the large inheritance that she wanted to receive. She made every effort to have him declared dead and quickly buried in a small chapel.

After the funeral, mourners heard screams and moans from the newly buried grave. They rushed to tear up Cawthorne's grave, but it was too late. Lawrence's clothes were torn, his eyes were swollen, and his head was bloody. The woman was accused of premeditated murder of a person, and the story was passed on from generation to generation for a long time.

9. Sipho William Mdletshe

In 1993, a 24-year-old South African man and his fiancee were involved in a serious car accident. His fiancee survived, but Sipho, who suffered extensive injuries, was pronounced dead. The guy's body was taken to the Johannesburg mortuary, where it was placed in a metal container for burial. But in fact, Sipho was not dead, he was only unconscious. Two days later he woke up in captivity. Confused, he began screaming for help.

Fortunately, the morgue workers were nearby and were able to help the guy get out of captivity. Having escaped the horror of the death chamber, Sipho went to his bride. But she decided that Sipho was a zombie and drove him away. Not only was the guy buried alive, but the girl also rejected him. Bad luck for the poor guy((

10. Stephen Small

In 1987, wealthy media heir Stephen Small was kidnapped and buried alive in a makeshift coffin near Kankakee. 30-year-old Denny Edwards and 26-year-old Nancy Risch planned to kidnap Steven, bury him underground and demand a ransom of $1 million from his relatives. The kidnappers took care of Steven's minimal needs for air, water and light using pipes. But despite this, the man suffocated.

Police were able to locate Mr. Small from his burgundy Mercedes, which had been left near the burial site. Despite the fact that Denny and Nancy were convicted, there were discussions for a long time about whether this was a premeditated murder or not. In any case, this crime is terrible, and the kidnappers will spend another 27 long years behind bars.

Imagine for a moment a creepy situation in which you wake up in a coffin a couple of meters underground. Are you there in complete darkness, where in the silence of the grave, suffocating from fear and lack of air, you scream in horror, but no one will hear the screams. Being buried alive, a phenomenon known as being buried prematurely, seems like the worst thing that can happen to a person.

The fear of being buried alive and waking up in a coffin is called taphophobia. In our time, this is an extremely exceptional case (if there are any), but the society of previous eras turned the prospect of going to the grave alive into a large and popular wave of horror. And people had a reason to be afraid.

Until standard medical procedures were developed, some people were mistakenly declared dead. They were probably in a coma or lethargic sleep, and were buried while still alive. This frightening fact was later discovered by various reasons to exhume the body.

THE BURIED ALIVE TRIED TO LEAVE THE GRAVE.

Probably the first recorded episode is the Scottish philosopher John Dans Scotus (1266-1308). At some point after his death, the grave was opened, and people shied away in fear when they saw the corpse halfway out of the coffin.

The dead man's hands were bloody from trying to escape from his place of eternal rest (by the way, similar stories gave rise to rumors about). The philosopher did not have enough air to reach the surface and return to the world of the living.

Bloody fingers are common feature buried alive. Often, when coffins were opened after someone's "death", the body was found in a twisted position with scratches all over the coffin, as well as broken nails in a failed attempt to escape the grave.

However, not all those buried alive were the result of an accident. For example, placing living people in graves was a savage method of execution in China and the Khmer Rouge.

One legend says that in the 6th century, a monk now known as Saint Oran was volunteered to be buried alive as a sacrifice to ensure the successful construction of a church on the Scottish coast island of Iona.

The funeral took place, and after a while the coffin was taken out of the grave, freeing the barely alive Oran. The distraught monk reported sad news for the entire Christian community: afterlife there was no hell or heaven.

SPECIAL COFFINS FOR TAPHOPHOBIA.

Fear is a good product, businessmen decided, and taking advantage of the phobia they brought special coffins to the market. The concept of a "safe coffin" was developed to calm the fear of being buried alive. There are many expensive and "statement" coffin designs with bells on the market.

In 1791, a certain minister was buried in a coffin with a glass window, which allowed the cemetery guard to check and see that the minister was not asking to go home. Another design consisted of a coffin with air pipes and keys to the coffin and tomb in case the revived one needed to escape from the grave.

An 18th-century coffin had a string that could be used to ring a bell or raise a flag above the ground if the person buried was accidentally placed in the grave.

Coffins with rescue tools were significantly improved in the 1990s.

For example, a patent was submitted for the construction of a coffin with alarm, lighting and medical equipment. The amazing design should keep the person alive in good comfort while the body is dug up. True, there were no reports of those buried using a safe coffin.

The topic of premature burial is not limited to medical or commercial activities. As a result of widespread fear, the story of Edgar Allan Poe appeared in 1844. The author's story was about a man suffering from deep taphophobia as a result of a cataleptic state. He was worried that people would consider him dead during one of his attacks and bury the unfortunate man alive.

The fear of being buried alive had a profound impact on society. There are many films with people waking up in the grave. Some reflected Edgar's ideas on this matter. Even today, reading 100-year-old works, a shiver runs down your spine when you read detailed descriptions the unfortunate victims desperately trying to find a way out of the coffins.

CASES OF PEOPLE BURIED ALIVE.

For the next three people, a safe coffin could definitely be extremely useful. These are real stories of people buried alive who woke up in their graves. True, only one of them was lucky to return to people

Angelo Hayes- a famous French inventor and lover of motorcycle racing, spent two days in the grave, being a living dead (in 1937). Angelo was thrown from his motorcycle when he hit a curb and hit his head hard on a brick wall.

At the age of 19, he was pronounced dead from massive head trauma. His face was so disfigured that his parents could not see their son. The doctor pronounced Angelo Hayes dead and thus he was buried.

However, an insurance policy issue arose, and the insurance company agents, having some suspicions, requested the exhumation of the body two days after the funeral. Once the body was exhumed and freed from grave clothes, Hayes was found warm with a weak heartbeat. After a miraculous “resurrection” and complete recovery, Angelo became a celebrity in France, with people coming from all over the country to talk to him.

Virginia MacDonald - New York (1851 case)
After a long illness, Virginia MacDonald succumbed to illness and died quietly. She was buried in Greenwood Cemetery in Brooklyn. However, Virginia's mother insisted that her daughter was not dead. Relatives tried to console the mother and urged her to come to terms with the loss, but the woman was firm in her conviction.

Finally, the family agreed to exhume the body and show the dead body to the mother. When the top lid was removed from the coffin, they saw the horror of what had happened - Virginia’s body was lying on its side. The girl's hands were torn into blood, showing signs of Virginia MacDonald's struggle to get out of the coffin! She was actually alive when she was buried.

Mary Nora - Calcutta (17th century).
Seventeen-year-old Mary Nora Best succumbed to an outbreak of cholera. Due to the heat and the spread of the disease, the family decided to bury dead girl fast. The doctor signed the death certificate, and relatives buried the body in the old French cemetery. She was buried in a pine coffin, leaving her body in the ground for a dozen years, although some had questions about her death.

Ten years later, the family tomb was opened to place the body of the deceased brother in the crypt. At this sad moment, it became clear that the lid of Mary’s coffin was badly damaged—literally torn. The skeleton itself lay half out of the coffin. It was later believed that the doctor who signed the death certificate actually poisoned the girl, also trying to kill her mother.

These are wild deaths, but for every one of them, there are many other people who were found dead in their graves, trying to escape from the coffin. It’s a terrible thing, but there are probably still poor souls who, having woken up in coffins, tried to leave the grave, but were not discovered.

Horror stories about how some person buried alive, have existed since the Middle Ages, if not earlier. And then they didn't, but they were real facts. The level of development of medicine was too low and such cases could well have happened. There are rumors that a similar terrible situation happened to the great writer Nikolai Gogol, and not only to him.

As for our time, there are chances to be buried alive practically none. The fact is that for some reason curious doctors are extremely fond of clarifying why this or that person died, and to do this they open him up, examine his organs and, when finished, carefully stitch him up. You understand that in this situation it will not be possible to wake up in a coffin; rather, the pathologist’s report will contain the line “The autopsy showed that death occurred as a result of an autopsy.”

OK. Let's say your relatives are categorically against an autopsy for religious or other reasons. This sometimes happens in our country too. In this case, the chance that you buried alive, appears. Then there are two options - either a cheap coffin, which is broken by two and a half meters of earth, or a metal coffin, expensive and reinforced. But even here it is not a fact that he will survive.

At one time there was a wonderful program on the Discovery Channel - “MythBusters”. There, two special effects engineers/masters reproduced popular myths and stories, testing in practice whether it was possible. And in one episode they finally got there buried alive. Actually, a high-quality metal coffin, controlled conditions - the ability to remove the wall holding two meters of earth with one click, a camera, a microphone, rescuers on the site. They began to slowly cover the coffin with earth. They didn’t fall asleep until the end - the tester lost his nerves, as the metal coffin began to DEFORM. So, alas, even with expensive coffins you may be out of luck.

The second option is you buried alive evil bandits, CIA agents, reptilians from the planet Nibiru. But these gentlemen certainly won’t spend money on a coffin, but will bury you without it. But okay, let’s say these gentlemen were generous and provided you with the necessary containers. Most likely - a cheap one, which means it will stupidly break under the weight of the earth, you will not have a supply of oxygen and there is nothing further to talk about.

Okay, let’s say you were buried very, very shallow, which in itself is unlikely, since there are rules in this regard, for violation of which gravediggers are punished. And at the same time they put you in a coffin, which by some miracle withstood the load and did not fall apart to hell. What then?

« First of all, don't panic". Brilliant. You come to your senses, it’s dark around, you can move, but you can’t straighten your arm, besides, only a person who is in a REALLY bad state can be mistaken for dead, and this also affects the psyche. And the realization has not yet come that there are two meters of earth above you. Don't panic. Yeah, of course. Everyone knows how to easily pull themselves together. Plus, consider the fact that you will PROBABLY be very stuffy, because there is a chance that you will come to your senses immediately after buried alive- minimal. And a significant part of the oxygen will already be spent.

« Check if you can call". Yes, some are already being buried with mobile phones. But, damn it, many people don’t get a connection even in the subway! And here we are talking about two meters of earth, which become a wonderful obstacle to any signal. Plus, you still need to think, fumble for the phone, see that there is still charge left in it... In short, the chances are minimal.

« Lift the shirt over your head, almost turning it inside out, and tie it to make a bag.". The width of the coffin is from 50 to 70 centimeters. Are you sure that such manipulations can be carried out in such a limited space? It will be difficult to say the least. And if you take into account the confusion due to previous factors and lack of oxygen, then it’s completely unrealistic.

« Use your feet to make a hole in the middle of the coffin. Or use a belt buckle". The height of the coffin is from 30 to 50 cm, depending on the dimensions of the “dead”. You simply won't be able to swing normally. Although no, I saw in the movies how the heroine of Uma Thurman, who buried alive, I was able to repeat this trick. But here’s the problem: she had previously been specially trained by a malicious Chinese so that she could deliver crushing blows without swinging. And you probably didn’t have such a teacher. The situation with your legs is no better - you can hardly even bend them at the knees. Again, while you are intensively trying to break the lid, oxygen is consumed more. And I’m generally silent about the expensive metal coffin.

Total. So that you can come to your senses after you buried alive, you need a confluence of extremely unlikely circumstances. But even if this suddenly happens, you have absolutely no chance of getting out. Unless a miracle happens. On the other hand, the phobia is common enough that you can theoretically prepare for this situation. I know for sure that in the USA they specially produce coffins from which you can report if suddenly their occupant is tired of lying there. A properly drawn up will and money will provide you with such a coffin. And also banal tactical knife, which will seriously increase your chances in the fight against the lid.

This is the difference between a normal survivalist and ordinary person- he has a plan of action even for such incredible cases. And such preparation can really save a life, or even more than one.