Decidedly Grim

Today’s Severe Yet Truly Morbid Fact!

Police in Allendale, South Carolina, are investigating whether a funeral home fit a 6-foot, 5-inch man into his coffin by severing his legs. The wife of James Hines reportedly said the funeral home told her that her husband’s coffin was long enough. A former Cave Funeral Services employee has alleged since James Hines’ death from skin cancer in 2004 that Hines was too tall for his coffin and that the funeral home took extreme measures to make him fit. Officials exhumed Hines’ body Tuesday, Allendale County Coroner Hayzen Black said, and a fair amount of “undesirable evidence” was found, although he could not comment further. The coroner’s office handed the case over to law enforcement officials for a criminal investigation. Ruth Hines, widow of the dead man, said that the allegations and exhumation of Hines’ body are difficult for her. “I’m just going through quite a bit,” she said. “It’s like starting all over again, and it’s left me with hurt and numbness. According to the measurements on the casket, and the funeral director, we asked him, ‘Was this suitable for his length?’ and he said, ‘Yes that will be perfect,’” Ruth Hines said.

Culled from: CNN

Okay, so who else hears that ever-so-slightly racist old children’s song “Crazy Old Man From China” in their head when they read this story? You remember it, right?

My mother she told me to put him to bed
Oh gee I don’ wanna
I put him to bed and he chopped off his head
That crazy old man from China

My mother she told me to bury him deep
Oh gee I don’ wanna
I buried him deep and he stuck up his feet
That crazy old man from China

My mother she told me to chop off his feet
Oh gee I don’ wanna
I chopped off his feet, they ran down the street
That crazy old man from China!

Facts