POLICE STOP BURIAL

Waikato Times, Volume 107, Issue 17982, 29 March 1930, Page 2 (Supplement)

POLICE STOP BURIAL

Hypnotist Threatened with Arrest if He Carried Out His Intention of Burying a Girl in an Hypnotic Sleep.

When all was ready for a hypnotist to bury a pretty girl alive in a steel coffin, in response to a challenge, a dramatic step was taken by the police at Bilston, Staffs. A dozen uniformed officers appeared on the scene and stopped the proceedings. The challenge was accepted by the hypnotist in the local theatre at which he was appearing. The terms were that he should bury the girl in eight feet of soil, after hypnotising her, and let her remain there for half an hour, or he would pay £2OO to charity. Over 2000 people gathered in the neighbourhood of the theatre at the appointed time, and an excited crowd surged round the plot of waste ground where it was intended to bury the girl. The first thrill occurred when the steel coffin was pushed through the back stage exit of the theatre by stage hands. There was an immediate rush to the end of the building. The girl who was to be buried had already changed into pyjamas in one of the dressing-rooms when a police-sergeant and a body of policemen appeared on the scene. The sergeant asked for the hypnot-

ist and cautioned him that if he carried out the burial the police would have no alternative but to arrest him. Theatre officials appeared, and it was proposed to carry out in the open-air the ordinary theatre act of burying the cofQn containing the girl in a tank of water, but the police prohibited this too. The crowd's excitement grew and women surged round and hooted until the manager of the theatre explained that if the hypnotist gav-e the act outside the show he would have to spend the night in prison and they would not be able to show the act in the theatre for the rest of the week. The manager pointed out that there was apparently an Act of Parliament which-prohibited the illegal burial of anyone, and ultimately the crowd accepted the situation. The hypnotist, addressing the gathering, said, “it seems to me that if I bury her I shall be immediatey arrested, and that I shall have to prove afterwards that the girl was not in any danger. That would take a lot of doing.” The girl declared she was not afraid to stay under eight feet of soil for an hour and a half after being hypnotised.