Victorian Urban Legend: The Coffin Trick August 11, 2015
Author: Beach Combing | in : Modern , trackback
This is an absolutely brilliant story, but probably not a very good scam. That suggests that we are dealing here with a nineteenth-century urban legend.
According to the New York Herald, a charitable gentleman his lately been imposed upon in the most shameful manner in Boston. Meeting a woman in one of the streets in great distress he inquired the cause of her grief, and was informed that her husband was dead and that she had no money to bury him. The gentleman, expressing doubts as to the truth of her story, was invited by the woman to come to her house and see the remains of the deceased, which he accordingly did, and found her husband lying in a coffin ready for burial. Ashamed of the doubts he had previously entertained, he removed his gloves and gave her money sufficient for the funeral. On leaving the house he found he had left his gloves behind him; he therefore returned to claim them, and was both grieved and disgusted to find the dead man sitting up in his coffin counting the money received by the woman. The gentleman took his gloves, and, merely remarking that the deceased need not trouble himself to count the money, for it was all right, left the house a sadder and a wiser man. Man Eve News, 16 Sep 1870, 4
So why not trust the story as simple news. (i) It is American and American newspapers are, in the 1800s, better places to find, let’s say, anecdotal material. (ii) No names are given save ‘Boston’. (iii) The narrative is very satisfying with the hook (the crying woman); the trick (the pretend); the comeuppance (the man alive again); and the morale (don’t trust the weeping poor) – the gentleman also gets a stinger in when he leaves. (iv) The trick itself is a bit crooked as by far the most expensive part of a nineteenth-century burial is, of course, is the coffin and, by all accounts, the crooked couple already had that. (v) Urban legends have three main preoccupations (sex, crime and death), and this story manages to squeeze two in; told in a bar it would probably have the beautiful buxom widow etc etc.
Of course, even an urban legend can be true, the real proof of urban legendity is circulation and popularity. Can anyone trace this story anywhere else? Drbeachcombing AT yahoo DOT com And are there any more death swindles.
29 Aug 2015: Chris from Haunted Ohio Books solves ‘this was quite a popular scam to judge by the number of times I’ve seen it in the papers. I stopped collecting variants because they were all virtually the same. Here’s your “beautiful widow,” although buxom is not specified. A name and location is given, but the name would probably be fake. I doubt that the couple had purchased the coffin. The fact that there is crape on the door, suggests that “Mrs Green” contracted with an undertaker for the crape and the coffin, with a promise to pay when the charitable coughed up the cash. There are other accounts of undertakers who tell the bereaved poor that they will wait for their money until burial society/insurance money arrives, so funerals were not always cash in advance.
A CALCULATING CORPSE
He is Caught in the Act of Counting the Money Contributed to Give Him a Christian Burial.
Baltimore, Md., Feb. 23. Several days ago a pretty little woman went to one of the largest Methodist churches in Baltimore and asked for money to bury her dead husband. She gave her name as Hester Green and said she was ashamed to ask the city to bury him. Two worthy women were sent out to investigate the case. They went to a house in Perkin street. There was crape on the door, all the blinds were closed, and the stillness of death brooded over the place. They entered the house. In one corner of a darkened room lay the corpse, and near it was the wife bowed with grief. The visitors looked at the body, and then comforted the bereaved woman. The pathetic story so touched the hearts of the brethren that $17 was raised to give him a Christian burial.
Next day one of the women who had investigated the case went to the house and found the wife a little more “resigned to the will of heaven,” as she expressed it, and the corpse still there. The money was left and the visitor departed with the consciousness of having done a good deed. She found after walking a few squares that she had left her umbrella. She returned to get it, opened the door, and there sat the corpse counting the money, clinking one half dollar against the other to see if it was not counterfeit. The woman was thunderstruck, and although she was “sold,” was determined not to be beaten out of $17. So she compelled the corpse to return the money that had been contributed for the purpose of burying him like a Christian.
Jackson [MI] Citizen 2 March 1886: p. 7
Death-swindles are legion and ingenious. Here’s a delightful one that goes back to the “fake soul come from purgatory” wheeze, with “debts” substituted for “mass payments.”
SHREWD SCHEME BY WHICH A PENNILESS GIRL SECURED HER TROUSSEAU
A most remarkable ghost story has just come to light at Binghamton. N. Y., which were it not for the standing of the person who relates it, would be unworthy of credence. Incredible as it may seem, it can be vouched for. Two years ago Michael Connors, fireman on the Delaware and Hudson Canal Company’s railroad, was killed in the tunnel. Connors was a single man, and lived with his parents in this city. The incidents of his death had passed away from the recollection of all except his most intimate friends and family, but they were vividly recalled a few weeks ago, when it is alleged that a sister of the deceased astonished the family by claiming that the disembodied spirit of the beloved and departed one was nocturnally floating through space, and that on a certain hour it was in communication with her.
It would appear at her chamber window and gently tap on the pane for admission. She claimed that the spirit was very much annoyed on account of debts that Connors owed at the time of his taking off, and she had been importuned to secure the money some way and pay them. She said that it was the spirit’s request that the lantern that her brother carried should be kept burning at the foot of her bed, as it had been his custom when he was here on earth, as he desired to make a spiritual trip to the spot where he met his death.
The young lady was ill at the time, and she insisted that the lantern should be kept burning nights. The family was nearly frightened out of its wits, but she told them to have no fears, as the spirit would not harm her. The story at the time became current among her friends, many of whom called to see her. She told them of the visit of the spirit of the departed and beloved brother, and that she needed money to liquidate his debts. His spirit would never rest in peace until the obligations against him were paid. Her story was generally believed, and her appeals for money were generously responded to, and, as her illness was somewhat protracted, she secured a round sum of the coin of the realm.
For the purpose of removing suspicion and making her story generally believed she sent for the engineer with whom her brother worked. She told him of the spiritual visitation, and stated that it had frequently visited the tunnel and had ridden on the engine. The engineer was not a little exercised after that over the strange story. For weeks after that when he passed through the tunnel he kept a sharp lookout for the strange apparition. It worried him somewhat, but he says that he saw nothing that would in any way suggest the presence of the supernatural.
Soon after the young lady recovered, and it was supposed that she had used the money as the spirit indicated to pay her brother’s debts. A short time after her recovery she was married and her trousseau was one of beauty and richness. It was not until after her marriage that she told some of her most intimate friends how she secured the funds to pay for her wedding outfit. She had no money, and was betrothed; the wedding day was fast approaching; in order to get money to pay for her wedding outfit she conceived of this ghostly tale and she was thereby enabled to fulfill her promise. The couple are living in this city and to all appearances are contented and happy. Cincinnati [OH] Enquirer 4 May 1891: p. 4.
I’ve written before on crape threats. Crape was also used to conceal theft. To judge by the papers, this was quite a common scam.
A Chelsea, Mass., sharper hung crape on the door of his store, and meanwhile carted off the goods he had bought on credit. The Athens [TN] Post 11 December 1868: p. 3
A NEW DODGE
A dry goods dealer, doing business in the “Island Ware,” East Boston, has stepped out, leaving his creditors under the following mournful circumstances. He managed to sell out most of his stock in trade, during the last week or two, collected nearly all the debts due him, sold his household furniture at auction, and then informed his friends that a near relative of his family had died out West. He tied a yard or so of black crape on the door handle, closed up his store, and is among the missing. The shop, on being opened, presented a sad and solemn appearance to his creditors. Boston Herald. Charleston [SC] Mercury 2 April 1858: p. 4
A widow in Baltimore put crape on the door, after the American fashion. The crape remained there about a week before the landlord made bold to interrupt her grief, and when he entered he found nothing there but the house. Her grief was so intense that she had inadvertently removed all the furniture. The debt of nature which had been paid was suppositious. The debt for rent remains uncancelled. And yet they say that women are not calculated for business. Nelson [NZ] Evening Mail, 22 March 1879: p. 2
Now, if you would like a little sex n’ death with that scam, here are a couple of mildly titillating stories. I’ve seen a longer and more explicit version of the last story, but, of course, cannot locate it quickly.
Audacious Attempt to Defraud an Insurance Company.— A Hungarian count, named Enling, found himself lately in New York with a curious household upon his hands, consisting of a wife ten years older than himself, and a handsome mistress, whose position was recognised by Mrs Enling without annoyance. He was also almost destitute, but found money enough to take out a policy for 10,000 dollars upon the life of his mistress, who fortunately soon after fell sick. A doctor who was called in, who seems to have been a very incompetent physician, and after the farce had been played a short while, the girl shammed death, deceived the physician, and successfully lay for inspection by friends for about an hour. Then the coffin came, and full arrangements were made for the funeral. After the obsequies, Enling lost no time in making his claim upon the insurance company. Something in the case, however aroused their suspicions, and they got an order from the Board of Health to exhume the coffin, which, upon inspection, proved to contain nineteen bricks carefully held in place by some slips of board. The undertaker has since confessed to having shared in the business for a bribe of 250 dols, and Enling and the woman have both been arrested. Great interest is shown by the public in the case, and Barnum, whose monster show is to open very soon, has bought the coffinand eighteen surviving bricks for one of the nineteen has been stolen by a curiosity hunter for 1000 dollars.
Star, 27 July 1874: p. 3
A FAITHLESS WIFE
TRAPPED BY HER HUSBAND
Stockholm, April. 10. Karl Peterson, a wealthy merchant, who had only been married a year, became suspicious of his wife, and arranged with a doctor and a solicitor for a mock death. The husband was placed in a coffin, and his will was read, leaving all his property to his wife.
Directly the doctor and solicitor departed, the wife telephoned to her lover the splendid news that her “monstrous husband was dead.” The lover arrived and kissed the wife, and Peterson thereupon leaped out of the coffin and confronted them. The wife fainted and the lover fled. Petersen was subsequently granted a divorce.
Press, Issue 14940, 13 April 1914, Page 7
