Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1890-12-18
BURIED ALIVE
The Siekening Story OF a Human Being
Buried Before Life Was Extinct.
An AWFUL SCENE Disclosed on the o?ening OF
the Grave-Ths C'fin Splisin
the Death Struggle.

Special to the Gazette.
DENVER, COL. Dec. IA horrible
story of a man being>burled alive, while
supposed to be dead, is published here.
, On Sunday, November 80, Louis Bren-
ner, thirty FIVE years CT age, an en-
! ploye of the South Park railway shops,
was supposed to have died from over
indulgence in malt stimulants.
His funeral was set for De-
cember 9, under the auspices
OF one Of the local tribes of red men.
There was nothing unusual about the
services until the coffined body was
placed in the hearse. Then for some
reason the horses which had been used
for this purpose for years refused TO go
and became go unruly that they
RAD TO BE CHANGED
fer another team. When the cortege
was ready to move the horses of Henry
Speck, one of the nouruers, positively
refused TO move and he Was obliged to
procure another animal. To add to the
list uncommon and uncanuy events a
runaway team crossed the funeral pro-
cession on the way to the River
side cemetery and collided with
buggy containing two of the
friends of the deceased. The men
escaped injury. but the buggy WAS badly
damaged. Arriving at the cemetery the
coffin was dropped from the hearse by
laundering attendants, TO the disgust of
the mourners. Another and more SILK
euing accident awaited. As the coffin
was being lowered into the grave one of
the ropes broke. and for a moment the
people were horrifed by seeing the coffin
standing on end IN the grave. Accord
ing 10 the burial services of the red men
II is provided for the liberation of dove
from small box
PLACED on THE COFFIN
just as the first handful of dirt is thrown
into the grave. This was finally done.
After the coffin had been properly placed
in the grave, with Il feeling akin to SUI
perstitious terror some OF the mnuruers
saw the dove fiutter from its cage and
alight at the very edge of the
grave. II would not take wings
until frightened away by the
men who piled the dirt over
the narrow home OF the deceased. There
were unusually thoughtful faces in the
procession that wended its way slowly
from the city of the dead. The more SUI
perstitous began to ponder over the
matter, and finally decided TO disinter
the remains. This work was done one
week ago last Sunday, and to their I'M
spenkable horror thev discovered as soon
rs the lid OF the coffin box was raised
that the coffin Itself was split ard the
glass in
THE COVER WAS BROKEN
as If the dead had come TO life aud in the
unutterGhlr agony of Il realization Of his
position had struggled with the mad des-
peraIion Of hopelessness an helplessness
TO free himself from the very grasp of
death whose horrors can he but feebiy
imagined by the living. The coffin lid
was raised and the full horror burst upon
them. The BODY was lying on its face.
The Innings OF the coffin had been torn
to shreds. The hair was pulled
cut of the head. The arms we're bent
and the hands so tightly clenched that
the finger nails had been sunk into the
flesh. The face of the dead was dis
torted from the awful struggle through
which the man had passed, and the
cheeks showed that in his frenzy
the man entombed alive had dug
his nails deep into his flesh. Horror
stricken at the discovery they had made,
the friends first made sure that life was
indeed extinct and then replaced the
lid of the coffin, refiiled the grave and
left the place. &