BURIED ALIVE

 
Fear of being buried alive is called taphephobia.  Also known as live burial, premature burial, and vivisepulture, it’s been around forever—and is with us still!  Those buried alive often die of asphyxiation, dehydration, starvation, or hypothermia.  If fresh air is available, the buried person can last days.

 

This guy seems pretty happy about the situation.
Fear of being buried alive reached a peak in 19th century England.  More than 120 books in at least five languages were written about it, as well as methods to distinguish life from death.  (See below.)

 

Harry Clarke’s illustration for Premature Burial by Edgar Allen Poe
A Fine Literary Tradition
 
Consider Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Premature Burial,” The Fall of the House of Usherand Berenice.  More recently, Stephen King’s 1987 novel Misery includes Paul Sheldon’s Misery’s Return, a book within a book.
Farinata and Cavalcante de’ Cavalcanti in Level 6 of the Inferno, painted by Suloni Robertson

Dante’s Inferno references several classes of sinners punished with some form of eternal burial:

  • The Sullen in Level 5 are kept just below the waters of the River Styx, forever near drowning.
  • The Heretics in Level 6 are trapped in flaming tombs.
  • Murderers in Level 7 are covered by a river of boiling blood.
  • In Level 8 (where all types of fraud are punished)
    • Flatterers are encased in human excrement.
    • Simonists are buried head-first while flames burn their feet.
    • Fraudulent Counselors are encased in flames.
  • The Treacherous in Level 9 are buried in ice of varying levels depending on their sin.
Accidental or Unintentional Burial
 
It’s easier to handle if you bring a buddy along.
Reports of being buried alive date back to the fourteenth century.  In spite of hype and hysteria, as late as the 1890s patients have been documented as being declared dead and accidentally sent to a morgue or encased in a steel box, only to “come back to life” when the coffin is dropped, the grave is opened by grave robbers, or embalming  or dissection has begun.

 

“Life preserving coffin in doubtful cases of actual dead,” a safety-coffin model by Christian Eisenbrandt
During centuries when embalming wasn’t common practice, coffins were mostly for the rich, and rapid burial was the norm especially during major pestilences such as cholera, bubonic plague, and smallpox.  In these cases, rapid burial was an attempt to curb the spread of the disease.

 

The Great Plague by Rita Greer
Several medical conditions can contribute to the presumption of death: catalepsy, coma, and hypothermia.

 

How to Know When Someone Is Really Dead

 

Snoring is a pretty good sign. (This is actually the Fourpence Coffin flophouse, the first homeless shelter in London.)
Jan Bondeson, author of Buried Alive, identified methods of verifying death used by 18th and 19th century physicians.  (Personal reaction: shudder!)  The methods were any acts the physician thought would rouse the unconscious patient, virtually all imaginatively painful.
  • Soles of the feet sliced with razors
  • Needles jammed under toenails
  • Bugle fanfares and “hideous Shrieks and excessive Noises”
  • Red hot poke up the rectum
  • Application of nipple pincers
  • A bagpipe type invention to administer tobacco enemas
  • Boiling Spanish wax poured on patients’ foreheads and warm urine poured into the mouth
  • A crawling insect inserted into patient’s ear
  • A sharp pencil up the presumed cadaver’s nose
  • Tongue pulling (manual or mechanical) for at least three hours

 

The traditional Irish wake was (and is) an occasion for family and friends to celebrate the life of the deceased while watching the body for signs of movement.

Most agreed that the most reliable way to be sure someone was dead was to keep an eye on the body for a while.  To that end, waiting at least 72 hours from apparent death to burial was mandated.  In the mid-1800s, Munich had ten “waiting mortuaries” where bodies were stored awaiting putrefaction.  Each body was rigged to bells to summon an attendant should the corpse come back to life.

 

Waiting morgues, like this one in Paris, were often left open to the public for macabre entertainment

We presume that modern science has surpassed this sort of mistake, defining death as brain death.  Even so, earthquakes and other natural disasters often result in people being accidentally buried alive.

 
Victims of the 2018 tsunami in Nepal were not so fortunate.

But Wait: Sometimes People Are Buried Alive on Purpose!

From the Museum of Torture in Venice

Sometimes live burial is a method of execution.  Documented cases exist for China, German tribes, Persia, Rome, Denmark, Faroe Islands, Russia, Netherlands, Ukraine, and Brazil.

Confucian scholars were buried alive while their books were burned in 3rd century BCE
Interestingly, most of the laws demanding live burial as a form of execution were for crimes committed by women.  Men convicted of comparable crimes were more likely to be beheaded.

 

Vestal Virgins were sealed in caves for breaking their vow of chastity, as shown in this painting by Pietro Saja
When death was not enough, often a spike was driven through the body of the person executed by live burial, perhaps as a way to prevent the person from becoming an avenging, undead Wiedergänger.

 

In some parts of the world, live burial is still practiced as a means of execution.  Often, the victim is buried upright with only their head above ground.  In these cases, death is very slow and painful, often the result of dehydration or wounds caused by animal scavengers.

 

And sometimes live burials are another horrific act of war.
Codice Casanatense, a Portugese artist, recorded this scene of a Hindu widow being sent alive to her husband’s grave.

Very rarely people willingly arrange to be buried alive, for any number of reasons.  Sometimes it is to demonstrate their ability to survive it.  The Indian government has made voluntary live burials illegal because the people who try it so often die.  In 2010, a Russian man was buried to try to overcome his fear of death, but was crushed to death by the weight of the earth over him.

Four “lucky” contest winners

There are even performances in which people have an opportunity to be buried alive for fifteen or twenty minutes.  As a publicity stunt for the opening of the 2010 film Buried, a lottery was held for a few fans to have a very unique viewing experience.  Four winners were blindfolded, driven to the middle of nowhere, and buried alive in special coffins equips with screens on which they could watch the film.  (A 2003 episode of “Mythbusters” demonstrated that, even if a person buried alive was able to break out of a coffin, they would be crushed or asphyxiated by the resulting dirt fall.)

There is now a monument to Mick Meaney on Kilburne Street.

Irish barman Mick Meaney remained buried under Kilburne Street in London for 61 days in 1968, mostly to win a bet.  Tubes to the surface allowed air and food to reach him in his temporary, underground prison.

Parents are often unwillingly volunteered for vivisepulture on the beach.
Bottom line for writers: consider a character being buried alive—or being threatened with it—as a way to up the tension. 
 
Live burial isn’t the only attention-worthy aspect of dead bodies.  For more, check out books such as these.

Kidnapping for Writers

I love word origins—so of course I had to check out a word that has nothing to do with baby goats or sleeping toddlers.

“Kid” meaning “child”  first appeared in the 16th century, but only became popular in the 19th century. 

The “nap” in kidnap has nothing to do with sleep. The “kidnap” kind of “nap” is an obscure and now nearly obsolete English word meaning “to seize or steal,” possibly related to the verb “to nab” (as in “Police nab bank robbers”).

According to The Word Detective online:

“…when ‘kidnap’ first appeared in England in the late 1600s, it not only meant ‘to steal and carry off children,’ but very specifically to snatch children and other young people in order to ship them off to the colonies in North America or the Caribbean to serve as servants or laborers. . . . The word ‘kidnap’ itself is thought to be a grisly souvenir of this practice, invented by the criminals who actually stole children from the slums of England to sell into servitude half a world away.”

Tah-dah! Thus we have a direct historical link between kidnapping and today’s human trafficking on the black market—as discussed in last week’s blog.
dictionary

Abduction vs Kidnapping

According to Merriam-Webster, the current Legal Definition of kidnapping is: an act or instance of the crime of seizing, confining, inveigling, abducting, or carrying away a person by force or fraud often with a demand for ransom or in furtherance of another crime.

 

Although this definition includes abduction, some make a distinction between abduction and kidnapping. For these people, abduction is defined as using deceit or force to take a person (child or adult) away from home or relatives. The victim typically knows the abductor. Abductions are especially likely during separations, divorces, and custody battles. Estimates are that family members abduct 1,230 children each year. Kidnapping usually involves demanding money from the employer, government, family, or  victim in order for the victim to be set free. The kidnapper could be anyone, known or unknown, professional or amateur.

Common Kidnap and Ransom Scenarios

According to Universal Safety & Security Solutions (USSS), kidnapping for ransom is an epidemic on a global scale, and escalating. They report estimates of 15,000 to 20,000 incidents each year, with fewer than 20% of these incidents being reported. Common targets include high net worth people, those who work for large companies in the public domain, or companies with an unpopular product or reputation. USSS identifies six common kidnap and ransom scenarios.

ATM card

1—Express Kidnapping. Someone gets into a taxi, the driver takes the victim a few blocks away and picks up the kidnapers. They force the victim to several different ATM or banking locations and force him/her to withdraw the maximum allowable. Victims are held until the kidnappers believe they have all the funds available. Sometimes the victim is released unharmed; more often they are robbed and assaulted; some are held longer if the kidnappers believe they can get more money from family or an employer.

 

2—High Net Worth Individual Kidnapping. These are carried out by experienced or professional gangs. They are strategically planned, requiring surveillance and intelligence gathering to determine habits, security measures, and prime opportunities. The perpetrators demand ransom from the family or company. After the ransom is paid, the captive is typically released.

 

3—Tiger Kidnapping. It’s strategically planned over time. The victim (or sometimes an object) is taken as leverage to force a third party target to commit an illegal act on behalf of the kidnappers (or their employers). These are rarely reported because the target has also committed a criminal act.

 

4—Political/Terrorist Kidnapping. Terrorist organizations target expatriates, national natives, westerners, oil and gas workers, non-governmental mid-level managers, workers, and journalists.These kidnappings  make political statements, force political concessions, force the release of political prisoners, and/or fund their organizations. Many involve military entities.

 

5—Virtual Kidnapping. This isn’t an actual abduction or kidnapping. It’s a scam that turns panic, fear, and urgency into revenue. The perpetrators could be individuals or groups. They call the target, say that a child or loved one has been kidnapped, demand immediate payment. They use scare tactics, such as someone screaming in the background. The goal is to get payment before the victims can learn that their loved one isn’t actually being held. The average payment for a virtual kidnapping was $1000 to $3000.

 

6—Unlawful Detention. There is no ransom demand. It covers a variety of issues, including child custody, illegal imprisonment, prostitution, slave labor, sexual predation, and forced marriages.

 

money in wallet

 

Political/Terrorist Kidnapping

Political/terrorist kidnapping is extremely important worldwide. As best I could determine, the Taliban and Al Qaeda groups have been preeminent in this area, making hundreds of millions of dollars kidnapping hostages and releasing them for a ransom payment. Indeed, the United Nations Security Council urged countries not to pay ransom in order to cut off this source of funding for Al Qaeda.  Nevertheless, the perpetrators aren’t always terrorist groups. According o a report by researchers at Tilburg University in the Netherlands, thousands of children were kidnapped and held for ransom by senior Eritrea military officers. In Eritrea, all students must serve at a military camp in order to graduate high school. The officers kidnapped students, called their victims’ families, and demanded a ransom of $7,500 to release the victim. If not paid, the military sold the children to Bedouin traffickers. 

 

The top 5 countries for kidnapping for ransom

  • Mexico
  • India
  • Nigeria
  • Pakistan
  • Venezuela

35% of all global kidnappings reported were in the Asia Pacific region. You can get specifics by country online.

 
globe
 

Statistics on kidnapping in the United States are difficult to pin down because it isn’t separately recorded in the Uniform Crime Report. One can only assume that motivation and tactics are in line with those outlined above. Unlike the five countries listed above, official U.S. policy is to NOT pay ransom.

The Business of Kidnapping

 

Anja Shortland, a Reader in Political Economics at King’s College, London, is prominent in discussing kidnapping as business. She points out that most kidnappings happen in countries with weak governments and disputed territories. But regardless of venue, what is the right price for a loved one’s life? Shortland’s position is that it’s a negotiation like any other.

 

  • The kidnappers want the maximum payout. If the first demand is agreed to, they will revise the demand upward, assuming the family, company, or government can do better—and will continue to up the ante. Therefore, never agree immediately to a kidnapper’s demands.
  • Also, a generous payout makes other members of the family or company or fellow nationals vulnerable to being targeted. It’s morally responsible to try to limit payments.
  • If the kidnappers agree to the first ransom offer they are given, they’re probably amateurs and already desperate to return the hostage.They might let it go with a couple of ATM passes.

 

Three factors make the “business deal” of kidnapping for ransom especially difficult to close.

  • Kidnappers and payers distrust each other. One-time transactions increase the likelihood of cheating.
  • Agreeing to a ransom is difficult, for the reasons outlined above.
  • Swapping the ransom for the hostage is usually complicated: police intervention, rival gangs or other thieves, leaving a potential witness.

Last But Not Least: 

Kidnapping Oneself

Yep, it happens—and there are two general types.

Police have discovered many “fake” cases of kidnapping for ransom in which people hide themselves for some time because of (1) business problems or (2) family disputes or (3) to extort money from their own families. Some 18 fake cases were reported in Lahore alone last year.

And then there are thrill-seekers who get themselves kidnapped for the excitement of the experience. Several companies that provide such a service advertise online, offering a chance to “feel the rush, the thrill and the fear of a real kidnapping; feel and understand the psychological shock of victims; and grow the reality of kidnapping as you wish by integrating into a larger-than-life scenario.”

BOTTOM LINE FOR WRITERS

Working a kidnapping into your plot could pay off, even if you don’t demand ransom!
 
room and chair, kidnapping

 

Writing Cruelty

Some of us—dare I say most of us?—are not inherently cruel or sadistic. Therefore, when our plots require a scene that involves such behavior, there is a great temptation to fall back on the stereotypes of many TV shows and movies. Don’t. If you need really gruesome, vivid, compelling cruelty, look to reality!

 

historical torture
As you may know, I recently toured northern Italy. In San Gimignano (“of the beautiful towers”) I visited the earliest of the city’s torture museums.
And of course I bought a book.

 

tortura inquisizione
The implements on display were truly horrifying—and thought-provoking!

 

stretching rack
Not long ago, I had a medical procedure that required me to lie absolutely motionless, face-down, arms stretched above my head for 45 minutes. By the end of the procedure, my shoulders ached and muscles twitched, and I wondered how long those condemned to the rack might last before at least passing out.

 

head crusher
My point here is that although many types of torture are intended to cause death eventually, this doesn’t happen immediately. Might writers use a less-than-lethal version? For example, using an implement like a head crusher only to the point of cracking the skull bones.

 

Some mechanisms that I would label instruments of torture had other purposes—at least ostensibly. But besides ensuring a woman’s virtue, consider the discomfort of long-term use, and the humiliation of such an item at all.

 

Immobilizing someone in any way becomes painful after a time.

 

flaying
And many body parts, from skin to fingers and toes, tongues and scalps, can be removed without causing death. Ditto broken bones.

 

It is possible to force someone to drink so much water—or other liquid—that the stomach actually explodes. But short of that? What about a parent pinching a child’s nose shut and forcing her/him to drink milk?

 

punishment necklace
Forcing someone to wear a heavy weight around the neck is tiring, humiliating, and eventually very painful. What about a modern version, that required the wearing of a loaded backpack without relief?

 

My point is that if you need inspiration for a truly cruel and haunting scene, you really don’t need to be able to create it out of thin air. Start with what people are known to have done!

Forensic Nursing: What Writers Need to Know

If your plot involves any sort of violent crime, whether you’re a mystery/crime writer or not, you should know forensic nursing. In broad terms, forensic nursing is where the healthcare system and the legal system intersect.

"Emergency" sign on side of hospital Photo credit: KOMUnews via Visual Hunt / CC BY

Forensic Nurses’ Role

Survivors of violent crimes typically come through the ER, where their medical needs are taken care of—setting broken bones, stitching wounds, etc. Ideally, the patient spends as little time as possible in the controlled chaos and tension of the ER; the goal is no more than 45 minutes.

Then they are escorted to a quiet, comfortable room furnished much like a small living room, but with drinks and snacks as well as TV. Anyone accompanying the patient would typically wait here during the examination. The area is secured, and only people the patient chooses to bring are allowed into the room. These people might be family or, perhaps, a trained volunteer from an organization such as Hanover Safe Place, which supports survivors through what is inevitably a traumatic time at the hospital.

The patient then meets with a forensic nurse. The forensic nurse’s role is to record the details of the crime and collect physical evidence. This process typically takes 3 to 4 hours.

Forensic Nurses’ Work

Background information comes first, including general medical history as well as questions about any injuries, surgeries, diagnostic procedures, or medical treatments that might affect the physical finding. But then come pages of more detailed and focused questions. For example, in cases of sexual assault, not only question about the assault itself and perpetrator(s) but also about the date, time, type, partner’s race, and relationship of last consensual intercourse; and since the assault, whether the patient bathed or showered, douched, brushed teeth, defecated, urinated, vomited, wiped or washed affected area, changed clothes, or had consensual intercourse.

For strangulation cases, they ask how the patient was strangled—one-handed, two-handed, knee, forearm, ligature—how long it lasted, and whether there was more than one incident.

Forms in box, Forms to be completed by forensic nurses and patients
Forms to be completed by forensic nurses and patients

A danger assessment is conducted as well, focusing on whether the violence is escalating in severity or frequency, whether weapons (especially guns) are available and/or used, drug or alcohol use, presence of children, and control of the survivor’s daily activities and social interactions.

Forensic nurse's exam room, hospital exam table, equipment
Exam room

The Physical Exam

Although the verbal data are crucial, the physical exam is central to forensic nursing. Samples of blood, urine, hair, and swabs of orifices are taken. Specialized equipment is available. Photographs are taken. Hair is combed, nails cleaned and clipped. The patient stands on a plastic sheet to remove clothing, to catch any random debris.

Chain of custody box for storage of evidence, clothes in Hefty zipper bag, and a child's toy on a hospital exam table
Chain of custody box, clothes, and a child’s toy

Chain of custody must be carefully controlled and documented.

Children have special treatment as well. They are given a toy that they can keep. They’re also given tablets and pencils or markers to draw pictures that can help in understanding the assault. Sometimes an outline of a person is presented for the child to mark where he or she was touched or hurt.

Improving Forensic Nursing and the Patient’s Experience

Improvements and refinements are always in progress. Once upon a time, a survivor might be asked to detail the crime by a dozen different people. Now recounting the crime waits for the forensic nurse, diminishing the impact of reliving it.

Forensic nurse holding a pair of women's underwear, large, granny panty,
Underwear that had been given to all survivors

When a patient’s clothes are taken in evidence, they are given generic going-home clothes. These are grey sweatpants, t-shirt, and—until recently—the granny panties pictured above, one size for all. A college student survivor said that having to wear those granny panties made her feel violated all over again.

 

Forensic nurse holding a pair of red women's bikini briefs
Survivors can now choose panties to wear home

She organized her sorority sisters to provide hundreds of pairs of new panties in varied colors, styles, and sizes. All of the clothing provided to survivors is donated. Should you or your group want to donate new clothes, new toys, child pillowcases, gas cards, food cards—or money!—here’s your contact. And, by the way, she gives talks about the program.

Business card for Senior Development Officer, Memorial Regional Medical Center, Bon Secours Richmond
Senior Development Officer, Bon Secours Richmond Health Care

History of Forensic Nursing

Forensic nursing is a relatively new medical specialty. In 1992, 72 registered nurses—mostly sexual assault nurse examiners—came together to form the International Association of Forensic Nurses. Since 1993, Bon Secours Forensic Nursing in Richmond has served survivors of sexual assault, child sexual abuse, and domestic violence. Now a team of 10 full-time nurses work with 26 agencies to serve survivors of any type of violent crime.

Bon Secours is atypical. There are over 300 hospitals in Virginia, and many of them have no full-time forensic nurses. Therefore, patients from all over central Virginia can end up at Bon Secours. They assist more than 2,200 patients per year.

Additional Facts For Writers

  • Forensic nurses have from one to three certifications beyond the RN degree, which are essential for presenting expert testimony.
  • Approximately 9% of patients are male.
  • Patients are 50/50 adults and children.
  • In descending order, the busiest days for forensic nurses are Monday, Friday, Wednesday, and Sunday.
  • Rush hour starts at 11:00 a.m.; the slowest times are 2:00 a.m. to 7:00 a.m.
  • Most forensic nurses are recruited from ER nurses, but they need to be “softened up” on the job, not to rush.
  • Patients can choose 1) medical treatment only, 2) anonymous evidence collection, or 3) identified evidence collection.
  • Evidence that must be refrigerated cannot be anonymous; other evidence can be made identifiable later.
  • Although immediate evidence collection is best, kits can be collected up to 5 days after the fact.
  • All patient info is secured in the Forensic Nursing Department; it isn’t part of general medical data bank.
  • Part-time, floating forensic nurses tend to burn out after a couple of years.
  • Perhaps surprisingly, most long-term forensic nurses are married to police officers, firefighters, or EMTs.

Bon Secours is a premier forensic nursing program. For the sake of your story line, you might create more conflict in the story if the characters botch the process. A screw-up could taint evidence or miss it. Insensitive treatment could leave the survivor among the walking wounded.

Support Forensic Nursing

Last but not leastput this worthwhile event on your calendar!

Save-the-date card, "Wine Women & Shoes Benefiting Bon Secours Forensic Nursing, Sunday, October 30, 2016"
Benefit for Bon Secours Forensic Nursing

Wine, Women & Shoes

Benefiting Bon Secours Forensic Nursing

Sunday, October 30, 2016

2:00-5:30 p.m. at Hilton Richmond

Hotel & Spa

Short Pump