“The greatest horror that the human mind can picture is that of being buried alive,” read an article in the 1896 San Francisco Examiner. “The agony, of course, would be of short duration, but, even though it lasted only two minutes, it would, in its intensity, contain a world of misery and anguish too horrible to contemplate.”
Historical newspapers are full of bone-chilling tales of people being mistaken for dead and buried alive. Some of these stories are likely embellished or altogether fictional, while others have a ring of truth that make them all the more terrifying.
We’ve selected 6 of these “buried alive” stories from the papers on Newspapers.com. Decide for yourself if they’re true or not. If you’re brave enough to read them.
The excerpts below are just a taste of the full stories. Follow the links to read the jaw-dropping newspaper accounts in their entirety.
From 1729
From 1836
From 1845
From 1849
From 1850
From 1883
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