Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1893-01-21
DEAD MEMS HANDS.

Weird and CHASTITY Charms and Implements
Some Criminals Employ.
From the Pail Mall Gazette
One OF the most curious and strange phases
Of superstition relates to the criminal classes
The mystic code which regulates the lives Of
these enemies of society is in many cases a sur
vival OF fetishism of the Oldest kind Believing
tenaciously in the dread efficacy of certain
CHASTITY charms and incantations. the maiefac-
tor boldly enters upon his enterprise, occasion
ally carrying with him ga 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 i'm
PIGMENTS employed by thieves.
Some years ago an attempted robbery was
made by burglars on an estate in the County
Meath, and, to quote a contemporary account
Of the affair, ''they entered the house armed
with q dead mans hand, with q 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 q candle in q dead mans hand
be introduced into house it will prevent those
who may be asleep from awakening. The in
mates, however were alarmed, the robbers fed
leaving the dead hand behind them
Many similar stories are told Of the use of the
dead hand by thieves, one communicated by the
Rev. s. Barring Gould being worthy of notice.
Two men having come to lodge in a public
house with a view to robbing it. asked permits
sion to pass the night by the fire and obtained
it. When the house was quiet, the servant girl.
suspecting mischief, crept down stairs and
looked through the keyhoe, when she saw the
men open q sack and take out dried wIthered
hand They anointed the fingers with some
unguent, and lighted them. Each finger famed
except the thumb, which indicated that one of
the household was not asleep.
Grose gives full account OF this charm as
used by French housebreakers. and a variation
Of the same belief prevailed in Belgium. Not
far from Bailleul, in west Flanders. a thief was
captured on whom was found the foot of q man
who had been hanged, which he used when en-
gagged 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 tho left hand and arm of a woman who
died at the birth of her first child.
Then there is the corpse candle, weird i'm
plement of the robbers trade, which. although
common throughout Europe, seems to have
been moro general in Germany than any other
country. Not 30 long ago it may be remem-
bered how four persons in the south Russian
government of Cursk murdered a girl in order
TO make candles of her body. the notion being
that such a hideous light not only renders the
perpet of robberies invisible, but act,i-
ally throws the victim or victims into state of
somnolency.
In the German criminal codes Of the seven
teenth and eighteenth centuries we find ex-
press mention made of penalties against a
crime the motive of which was the making of
thieves " or ''sleep-producing" candles.
This superstition has figured in many trial,
and seems to be, even at the present day, i'm
piicitly believed in by the criminal classes In
deed. it was suggested that the Whitechapel
murders were instigated by this idea. theory
which the celebrated DIR. Bloch, member Of
the Austrian reichsrath, Was induced to sup
port. An instance Of this piece Of criminal
lore occurred during the trial of the German
thief, Theodore Unger, who was executed at
Magdeburg in 1910, when it was brought out in
evidence that regular traffic existed for the
supply of these grewsome implements Of the
burglars trade. But, instead of making the
criminal invisible, this grim light has more than
once done the reverse, and caused him to be
brought to justice.