Saved by the Bell is more than just a 90’s teen television series. It is an expression given to those who were buried alive, and were fortunate enough to have a safety coffin; a coffin with a line that ran up to the surface with a bell attached. When you pulled the line, the bell would ring, and you would be dug up and rescued.
Taphophobia is the official name given to the fear of being buried alive, or the fear of waking up inside of a coffin. While it is not recognized by the American Psychological Association (The APA only recognizes about 100 phobias, however there are more than 500 in existence), it still affects many people, both past and present.
Danish author, Hans Christian Anderson, known for such stories as The Ugly Duckling, and The Little Mermaid suffered from taphophobia. During his final days, he went to stay at the home of his friends Dorothea and Moritz Melchoir and as his end neared, he begged Dorothea to cut his veins after it appeared he had breathed his last breath. Polish composer Frédéric Chopin, famous for such works as Nocturne op.9 no.2 and Fantaisie Impromptu Op.66 suffered from tuberculosis. His last written words (in French) were, “The cough is suffocating. Swear to make them cut me open, so I won’t be buried alive.” Even Edgar Allan Poe was afraid of being buried alive, as made apparent in his 1844 story, “Premature Burial.”
Today, being buried alive isn’t likely, unless you’re under the control of a sadistic killer. However, back in the 1800’s and early 1900’s it happened more than one might think. In 1896, an American funeral director, T. M. Montgomery, reported that “nearly 2% of those exhumed were no doubt victims of suspended animation.” In 1905, the English reformer, William Tebb, collected accounts of premature burial. He found 219 cases of near live burial, 149 actual live burials, 10 cases of live dissection and 2 cases of awakening while being embalmed.
Folklorist Paul Barber has argued that the incidence of burial alive has been overestimated, and that the normal effects of decomposition are mistaken for signs of life. Regardless, people began taking measures to ensure their safety, if they are, in fact, buried alive.
Safety coffins became all the rage. In 1829, Dr. Johann Gottfried Taberger designed a system using a bell that would alert the cemetery nightwatchman. In this system, the deceased would have strings attached to their hands, head, and feet that ran above ground to a bell inside a housing. The nightwatchman could then insert a tube down to the coffin and pump in air to sustain the person until their coffin could be dug up. In 1897, Count Michel de Karnice-Karnicki, chamberlain to the Tsar of Russia, patented his own safety coffin which he called Le Karnice. His design detected movement in the coffin and opened a tube to supply air, while simultaneously raising a flag and ringing a bell.
To ensure someone was around to hear the bell, cemeteries had to hire a person to stand watch overnight. This is where we get the term, “Graveyard Shift.”
One of the most famous cases of “accidental burial” is that of Mary Hart, also known as Midnight Mary. In 1872, at age 48, Mary suddenly dropped to the floor at noon, and is presumed dead. She was hastily buried at midnight that same day at Evergreen Cemetery in New Haven, Connecticut. That night, Mary’s aunt had a dream, and in her dream, she saw Mary, and she was still alive. It takes some work, but her aunt finally convinces the family to exhume the body, and when they open the coffin, they find Mary’s nails bloodied, and the top of the coffin scratched and covered in blood. Her face was that of petrified horror.
Her gravestone reads:
THE PEOPLE SHALL BE TROUBLED AT MIDNIGHT AND PASS AWAY.
AT HIGH NOON JUST FROM, AND ABOUT TO RENEW HER DAILY WORK, IN HER FULL STRENGTH OF BODY AND MIND MARY E. HART HAVING FALLEN PROSTRATE: REMAINED UNCONSCIOUS, UNTIL SHE DIED AT MIDNIGHT, OCTOBER 15, 1872 BORN DECEMBER 16, 1824
How likely is it that someone today would be accidentally buried alive? And what would happen if they were? Well, we have the case of a man in South Africa to tell us that. In 1993, a man was prepared for burial. After two days, he regained consciousness inside his coffin before it was about to be sealed away. He knocked on the box, and luckily an attendant was nearby and heard him. He was let out, and when he returned home to his fiancé, she was so certain that he was a zombie she refused to let him in.
Do you suffer from taphophobia?
Here’s another story we think you’ll like. Mercy Brown: The Last New England Vampire.