The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1893-02-21
DEAD MEMS HANDS.
Weird and CHASTITY Charms and Implc-
ments Some Criminals Employ.

| Weird and CHASTITY Charms and Impic-
ments Some Criminals Employ.
One of the most curious and strange
| phases of superstition relates to the
| criminal classes. The mystic code
| which regulates the lives of these enc
mics of society is in many eases sur
| vival of fetishism of the Oldest kind.
Believing tenaciously in the dread eff
| icacy of certain ghastly charms and
incantations, the malefactor boldly en-
| ters upon his enterprise, occasionally
carrying with him "a dead mans hand
taken from one who has died a violent
death. Such a charm being supposed
to overpower with sleep those who
come under its influence, it is naturally
an invaluable adjunct to the imple-
ments employed by thieves.
Some years ago an attempted robbery
was made by burglars on an estate in
the county Meath, and, to quote a con-
temporary account of the affair, they
entered the house armed with dead
mans hand, with lighted candle in it,
believing that candle so placed will
not be seen by any but those by whom
it is used; and also that if candle in
dead mans hand be introduced into
house, it viii prevent those who may
be asleep from awakening. The in
mates, however, were alarm ed, the rob-
bers fled, leaving the dead hand behind
them"
Many similar stories are told of the
use of the dead hand by thieves, one
communicated by Rev. S. Baring-Gould
being worthy of notice. Two men hav-
ing come to lodge in a public house
with view to robbing it, asked
permission to pass the night by the
fire and obtained it. When the house
was quiet. the servant girl. sus-
pecting mischief, crept down stairs
and looked through the keyhole, when
she saw the men open sack and take
ont dried withered hand They
anointed the fingers with some un-
guent, and lighted them Each finger
famed except the thumb, which indi-
Gated that one of the household was
not asleep.
Grose gives a full account Of this
charm as used by French housebrealers,
and variation of the same belief pre-
vailed in Belgium. Not far from Bail
leul, in West Flanders, thief was cap
tured, on whom was found the foot OF
a man who had been hanged, which he
used, when engaged in his robberies,
for putting persons TO sleep. Similar
instances are quoted from Spain and
Germany, and it is noteworthy that
Mexican thieves have been known to
carry with them the left hand and arm
of woman who died at the birth Of
her first child.
Then there is the corpse candle, a
weird implement of the robbers trade,
which although common throughout
Europe, seems 10 have been more gen
eral in Germany than any other coun-
try. Not so long ago it may be remem-
bered how four persons in the south
Russian government of Kursk muir
dered a girl in order 20 make candles
of her body, the notion being that such
q hideous light not only renders the
perpetrators of robberies invisible, but
actually throws the victim or victims
into state Of somnolency.
In the German criminal codes OF the
seventeenth and eighteenth centuries
we find express mention made Of pen
alties against a crime the motive Of
which was the making Of thieves" or
'sleep-produeing candles This SUI
perstiti0n has figured in many q
trial, and seems TO be. even At
the present day, implicitly be-
lieved in by the criminal classes In
deed. it was suggested that the White
chapel murders were instigated by this
idea. theory which the celebrated Or.
Bloch, a Emember Of the Austrian
reichs-ath, was induced 20 support An
instance of this piece OF criminal lore
occurred during the trial OF the German
thief. Theodore Unger, who was exc
cuted az Magdeburg in 1910. when i
was brought ont IN evidence that q
regular traffic existed for the supply OF
these Frewsome implements Of the
burglars trade But. instead OF max
ing the criminal invisible. this grim
light has more than once done the re-
verse. and caused him 10 be brought 70
justice Pail Mali Gazette