Nothing scarier than being buried alive!

Has been used in a lot of movies and TV shows, but it’s been inspired by real cases of people being buried alive. Some people may be asking how it’s possible to assume someone has died and bury them while they’re still alive. This occurred in more than one way.

The main way was the person was no longer breathing due to asphyxiation, dehydration, starvation or hypothermia. While all of these things can lead to death, they don’t automatically make someone dead. This was such a common occurrence that graves used to be rigged with a small bell that was attached to a string that led into the coffin. It was to let people know in the living world, that the person was in fact not dead. Luckily it isn’t as common occurrence present day.

Coffins used to be built with holes in them, attached to six feet of copper tubing and a bell. The tubing would allow air for victims buried under the mistaken impression they were dead. In a certain small town, Harold, the local gravedigger, upon hearing a bell one night, went to go see if it was children pretending to be spirits. Sometimes it was also the wind. This time, it wasn't either. A voice from below begged and pleaded to be unburied.

"Are you Sarah O'Bannon?" Harold asked.

"Yes!" the muffled voice asserted.

"You were born on September 17, 1827?"

"Yes!"

"The gravestone here says you died on February 20, 1857."

"No, I'm alive, it was a mistake! Dig me up, set me free!"

"Sorry about this, ma'am," Harold said, stepping on the bell to silence it and plugging up the copper tube with dirt. "But this is August. Whatever you are down there, you sure as hell ain't alive no more, and you ain't comin' up."