BURIED ALIVE.

Otago Witness, Issue 3334, 6 February 1918, Page 55

BURIED ALIVE.

"PROFESSOR" CHARGED. An astonishing story of a young compositor who was hypnotised and practically buried alive by a self-styled professor is disclosed in the latest West Indian newspapers to reach London. " Professor " Talbert Seaton (says the Daily Express) was recently arrested at Bridgetown, Island of Barbadoes, on a charge preferred by Lance-corporal W. C. Wharton, of " unlawfully and feloniously killing and slaying" Randolph Soden, aged 20, a compositor, in Queen's Park, Bridgetown, on September 16. It appears that the professor, who is a native of Trinidad, and has for some years been touring the West Indie's giving displays as a hypnotist and - illusionist, announced, with the usual fanfare, that he would hypnotise and bury a woman in a frave sft deep in Queen's Park, bringing er back to life after an interval of three days. At the last moment, however, the woman begged to be excused, and Soden, a coloured man, volunteered to take her place. A crowd of 300 spectators was admitted at 6d a head to witness the new twentieth century "miracle." Soden, according to the evidence at the inquest, mounted and sat on a canvascovered table when the burial moment arrived, removed a portion of his clothing, and donned a sleeping suit handed to him by the professor, who in turn attired himself in a red-flowered ceremonial robe. The professor than proceeded to make the familiar "passes" with his hands over Soden's faco and forehead, the young man's eyes slowly closing and his body gradually becoming rigid under the treatment. Soden's body was now pla-ced in the coffin, which had a glass panel m the lid at the head, and the coffin was lowered and covered with earth, a wooden shaft or periscope running from above the glass panel to 3ft above the ground. The spectators were thus able to see the neck and shoulders of the hypnotised man. Tho next day was Sunday, and as the authorities refused to permit the professor to charge admission on that day, he decided to disinter Soden after 17 hours' burial, when it was quickly seen that the youth's condition was hopeless. Dr T. G. Williams, senior resident physician at the General Hospital, and other doctors testified at the inquest that the disinterred man was pulseless and roasting hot, his nails and lips were purple, a vein in his arm refused to bleed when opened, and particles of sand were lodged in his eye. Various drugs were vainly injected in an effort to save his life. Ho died two hours after entering the hospital without recovering ness. Further evidence showed that the sliding glass covering on the lid at the head of tho coffin could be left partially opened, the professor apparently relying on tins camouflage to permit the patient to obtain air, but at the same time to deceive the

spectators, to whom the arrangement was invisible. The medical evidence, none the less, showed that Soden's death was due to asphyxiation caused oy imperfect ventilation, although the jury brought in a verdict of death due to misadventure. Seaton left the court amid loud cheers from a large crowd. Curiously enough, on October 26, 1906 il years before almost to a day—the Daily Express reported from Kingston, Jamaica, the case or " Professor " W. A. Barclay, a coloured hypnotist, who hypnotised his white wife and kept her " buried " for 104 hours in a coffin equipped with two air shafts under Bft of earth at Rockport Gardens, Kingston. Mrs Barclay, however, was in perfect health when disinterred, although she had lost 81b in weight.