One of the three hints for the classic coffin riddle indicates that the person "using" the coffin--the person within it--doesn't know it. This isn't always the case, however. In this episode I explore the long-held fear of premature burial, from real world safety coffins, to the frequent appearance of this horrific fate in Golden Age horror comics.

For episode sources, scripts and more, visit healthyfears.com.

For my publication credits, visit JohnnyCompton.com

The opening theme for Healthy Fears: “Dark Game Background Loop” by Claudiu D. Moga, licensed through Envato.

The closing theme for Healthy Fears: “Hitchcock Thriller” by JBlanks, licensed through Envato.

Other music for this episode: "Grey Smoke" by Mocha Music licensed through Shutterstock

Sources:

• ArteLeonardo School - Florence, Italy, https://www.arteleonardo.com/en/blog/159/the-story-of-ginevra-degli-almieri.

• University of Michigan Library online - A Full and True Relation of a Maid Living in Newgate Street in London Who Was Buried on Saturday the 27 of This Instant December, and Taken up (Supposed to Be Alive) the 30 of the Same, Being Buried near Christ-Church Hospital in the Church-Yard of the Same., https://quod.lib.umich.edu/e/eebo/A40585.0001.001/1:1?rgn=div1%3Bview.

• Angelone, Caitlin. 'To Be Buried Alive Is, beyond Question, the Most Terrible of These Extremes Which Has Ever Fallen to the Lot of Mere Mortality.', 12 Apr. 2016, https://histmed.collegeofphysicians.org/to-be-buried-alive-is-beyond-question/.

• Karswell. THE HORRORS OF IT ALL, http://thehorrorsofitall.blogspot.com/search/label/buried%20alive.

• “Premature Burial.” The British Medical Journal, vol. 1, no. 2250, BMJ, 1904, pp. 386–386, http://www.jstor.org/stable/20279516.

• Sharry. “My Name Is Anna, but Call Me Annie.” A Haunting Legacy: The True Story of Annie Mary Twente, 30 Sept. 2018, https://ahauntinglegacy.wordpress.com/2018/09/26/call-me-anna/.

• “A Young Lady Buried Alive.” Daily Telegraph, 31 Mar. 1884, p. 4.

• “News Notes.” The Dayton Herald, 5 Feb. 1884, p. 3. 

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