In this curious tale shared in newspapers in June 1901, a countryman known only as “John Doe” was declared a corpse, then woke up and was promptly placed under arrest.
Found “apparently dead” on a sidewalk in the small town of Hundred, West Virginia, at three in the morning, the unfortunate stranger was examined, pronounced dead by two doctors, and carted off to the local undertaker.
Then the corpse sat up and began to sing.
Rather than apologize for the inconvenience of misdiagnosis, the coroner, who was also the mayor, had the formerly dead man locked up and fined him five dollars for “disturbing the peace by singing uproariously.”
Faking his death or fraud may have been a legitimate cause for punishment, but for John Doe, his only was vitality.
