A DEAD MAN RESTORED.

Tuapeka Times, Volume III, Issue III, 26 May 1870, Page 7

A DEAD MAN RESTORED.

A strange' story is told by the " Louisville Commercial" of the 20th Jan., of the resurrection of an executed criminal. A man named Kriel, in that city, was sentenced to death for murdering his wife, and was accordingly hanged in the middle of that month. The neck was not broken, and General Whittaker, who wai present at the execution, declared that pulsation in the carotid arteries of the neck was discernible after the gaol surgeon aud his assistants declared life to be extinct. After hanging some minutes, Kriel was cut down, and his body placed in a coffin ; " the eyes, that started half-open when the cap was withdrawn, remained closed after a slight touch upon them, and the face assumed an appearance of rest. The red flushing of the cheeks came back to a certain extent, and the dark colouring on the neck under the knotted rope partially disappeared." No one seemed to have any charge of the body, and it was driven away in a hearse to the vault in the cemetery. " Now," says the " Commercial," " comen the closing scene in this strange story. Near midnight a light waggon was driving rapidlly out of Walnut-street, in which were seated three muffled silent figures. In the waggon were a mattress and blankets. The waggon halted near the cemetery fence ; the horse was held by the driver, and two men went to the vault, carrying between them a large sack well filled. In a short time they returned, bearing with them a motionless figure, shrouded in a blanket. The figure was placed on the mattress, and in silence the waggon was driven back to the city. The body was conveyed to the surgery of a skilled and learned surgeon, where some ten or twelve excited and expectant students stood anxiously awaiting the arrival of the strange partj r . The body was p'.aced in a recumbent position on the table, the clothing unloosed, the chest extended, and an incision made in one of the veins of the arms. At first but a small drop of dark-colored blood came forth, but repeated incisions and manipulations of the body caused it at last to trickle more free'y- The galvanic battery was then applied, and in less than fifteen minutes the warm blood commenced to course through the chilled body, and at last the eyes were opened. The students stood appalled, and hardly realised the extent of the demonstration before them. One of them spoke to Kriel,asking him, 'Are you sensible?' The eyes answered expressively, and the lips opened ineffectually, for no speech came forth. Stimulants were poured down the throat of the revived criminal, and in less than one hour after he had been placed in the surgery Kriel sat up and asked them. 'What have you done? Ami alive?' Toe consternation, and yet the professional delight of the spectators were loudly expressed. Steps were immediately taken to save the life thus marvellously restored. Strangers disguised Mr Kriol, furnished him with mean 3, and by day light a man, weak and tottering, but firm and immovable in his demeanor, crossed the river, and was last seen by a watchful silent friend, who kept near him, on the train leaving Seymour Indiana, on his way to an unknown but, it is hoped, a better future."