The _Undertakers’ and Funeral Directors’ Journal_, July 22, 1890.
“A horrible story comes from Majola, Mantua. The body of a woman, named Lavrinia Merli, a peasant, who was supposed to have died from hysterics, was placed in a vault on Thursday, July 3. On Saturday evening it was found that the woman had regained consciousness, torn her grave-clothes in her struggles, had turned completely over in the coffin, and had given birth to a seven-months’-old child. Both mother and child were dead when the coffin was opened for the last time previous to interment.”
“A shocking occurrence is reported from Cesa, a little village near Naples. A woman living at that place was recently seized with sudden illness. A doctor who was called certified that the woman was dead, and the body was consequently placed in a coffin, which was deposited in the watch-house of the local cemetery. Next day an old woman passing close to the cemetery thought she heard smothered cries proceeding from the watch-house. The family was informed, but when the lid of the coffin was forced off a shocking spectacle presented itself to the gaze of the horrified villagers. The wretched woman had turned on her side, and the position of her arm showed that she had made a desperate effort to raise the lid. The eldest son, who was among the persons who broke open the coffin, received such a shock that he died three days later.”--_Undertakers’ Journal, September 22, 1893._
The _Progressive Thinker_, of November 14, 1891, relates that:--
“Farmer George Hefdecker, who lived at Erie, Pa., died very suddenly two weeks ago, of what is supposed to have been heart failure. The body was buried temporarily four days later in a neighbour’s lot in the Erie cemetery pending the purchase of one by his family. The transfer was made in a few days, and when the casket was opened at the request of his family, a horrifying spectacle was presented. The body had turned round, and the face and interior of the casket bore the traces of a terrible struggle with death in its most awful shape. The distorted and blood-covered features bore evidence of the agony endured. The clothing about the head and neck had been torn into shreds, as was likewise the lining of the coffin. Bloody marks of finger nails on the face, throat, and neck, told of the awful despair of the doomed man, who tore his own flesh in his terrible anguish. Several fingers had been entirely bitten off, and the hands torn with the teeth until they scarcely resembled those of a human being.”