Oh the things I find when digging around our collections! It seems the perfect time of year to reshare something I came across a few years ago. It was a broadside (small poster) in our collection for Seaside Park. I’d seen it a thousand times, but what caught my eye was the following first line:
“Slim was buried alive Sat. Aug 13th….”
What I found was that being buried alive (on purpose) was not novel. Apparently, the great Harry Houdini had planned to do it in the mid-1920s, with more of a magician’s flare… but he did not pursue this stunt for long. A few others were doing it here and there across the country, but things really seemed to ramp up in the 1930s.
And yet again, Chesapeake Beach played its part!
Buried Alive Challenges!
I’m not sure who was burying who elsewhere in the country, but in July of 1932, R.L. “Slim” Jones beat the “buried-alive” record of a man named E.C. Castleberry, in Richmond, VA. This led to an intense rivalry between the two. Castleberry sent a telegram that challenged Slim to a buried-alive duel. Castleberry stated that he would only have an electric light, an army blanket and a pillow. This was taking a jab at Slim’s earlier burial where apparently his coffin was quite large, and he had with him the luxuries of a radio, a light, a shaving kit and magazines. Castleberry on the other hand, was hardcore.
Challenge Accepted!
Slim accepted Castleberry’s challenge, and Seaside Park was the lucky location where Slim went to the grave. Castleberry was buried somewhere around Richmond, VA. Slim did address the size of his coffin, and on August 13, 1932, he was buried alive with much fanfare. His coffin was lowered into the ground to a jazzy funeral dirge played by Bernie Jarboe’s Night Hawks (a band that frequented the beach). A small tube was set in place for liquid nourishment to be lowered and allowed people to see and talk with him. Our local doctor, Dr. Ward, visited Slim daily, had a chat to assess his well-being and lowered a thermometer to check his temperature. In one of my Facebook posts about this, someone commented that their grandmother remembered this event and the tube to see him!
It appears that Castleberry might have won this particular battle, but it was far from over. These two men battled on and off for quite a while, going back to the grave over and over again to reclaim their crown.
I followed Slim’s daredevil career in the newspapers from 1932-1934. In 1933, he went 6’ under for over 70 days, having to be exhumed when he became ill. In 1934, he changed gears and went for a different kind of record, but this one didn’t seem to catch on. He had his body frozen in ice and claimed a two-hour “frozen in ice” record.
From here, the last article I found about Slim, was from 1936, when he was a bartender in Pennsylvania, and ironically being sued for an unpaid coffin! How’s that for a fun story!
Curiosities of this ‘Buried Alive’ Phenomenon
There were some logistics that I was curious about, such as the daily needs beyond eating and drinking… but that is a subject for a separate research study. For now, I think it is a fun and oddly, weirdly, morbidly great that Seaside Park was the kick-off point for Slim’s impressive, yet short-lived buried-alive career.
As far as why in the world this would be a thing? Well, the Depression was in full swing, and perhaps a quote from Slim in The Times Dispatch, (Richmond VA 7/9/1932), answers this best:
“… why not? It’s a job and the longer I’m here, the longer I’ll be employed.”