Lived Once, Buried Twice: Margorie McCall, Grave Robbery and Glorious Revolution

Imagine waking up in the dark, cold, confused, in absolute agony and trapped inside a wooden box at the bottom of a six foot hole - you’ve just been buried alive!

​In this episode, we dive into one of history’s most chilling and enduring urban legends: the story of Margorie McCall, the Irish woman whose epitap reads, lived once, buried twice. 

After seemingly succumbing to a fever, Margorie was hastily interred to prevent the spread of disease. But her story didn't end beneath the dirt.

​We trace her fate directly into the dark, underground economy of the Resurrectionists—the notorious grave robbers who made a living digging up fresh corpses to sell to medical schools for anatomical dissection. What happened when these body snatchers tried to slice a valuable ring off Margorie's finger? The answer is a piece of gothic history you have to hear to believe.

​In this episode, we discuss:
​The gruesome history of grave robbing, body snatching, and early medical science.
​The historical context of Lurgan, Ireland and the Glorious Revolution of Mary and William of Orange.
​Did Margorie McCall really survive her own grave?

​Enjoyed the episode? Don't forget to hit the Follow button, leave a 5-star review, and share this episode with a fellow history or true crime lover!

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Transcript

0:15

Imagine sitting in your living room, grieving for your wife who was buried just a few short hours ago when suddenly there's a knock at the door, three sharp raps that stop your heart. You wonder who could be calling at this time of night, but despite not wanting to be disturbed, you creak open the door and let cold air in. To your horror, standing there in the pale moonlight and covered in blood is the very last person you'd ever expect to see. Today we are beginning to terrifying history of grave lovers. Resurrectionists who turn the dead into a highly lucrative business. This isn't just a story about stolen bodies and criminal enterprise. This is the unbelievable legend of how a couple of resurrection men saved the life of Marjorie McColl. Liv once, buried twice. I'm Steve, he's Neil, and this is Honorable Mentions, so it is Honourable Mentions Hello, listener. Thank you for coming back after last week's Shun Balls. A ballied debacle. That's what it was. And he wrote up. Shall we see what he has to say for himself? Shall we get him out of here? Hello, Neil. Hello, Stephen, how are you? I am good, thank you. Are you playing on staying with us for the full podcast this week? Yes, I feel a bit low at the moment. Do you? Yeah. Why do you feel a bit low? I let a lot of people down and have also I I did something really bad today. I throw it on a fig roll. Oh no. Yeah, it's the last one as well. Oh no. Oh no. What are you gonna do? Oh, edit it. Oh well, of course. I mean naturally. But what are you gonna do? Now you're out of fig rolls. I don't know. That's what's getting me down a bit. I imagine it would. I'd have to go to the shop and and load up again. But yes, it was the last one. Oh, that's terrible. I know. How's she been out of fig rolls? I can't imagine. Anyway, I digress and they'll die them purple. I need to apologise to the listeners because I did have some technical issues in the last couple of episodes, really, but Steve's done a fantastic job at editing, but last week I just disappeared. You did disappear. Our inbox has been deluged by an email from the listener. No, it hasn't. It has? No. It says, Dear Stephen. That's me. Stephen. That's you. Why oh why oh why do you persist with that cretin? Well, mum, if I may, you're the one who said if I was going to play with my podcast stuff, I'd take my brother with me. So I pass that back to you there. You send you an email from mum. Bit harsh, look, Neil. Well I didn't say that, I said it's from the listener. Yeah, but then you said well mum. Dol Yes, ignore that it Yeah, it was an anonymous email from the listener. Okay. It wasn't at all mum, was it mum? No. Anyway, bit harsh, Neil. I thought mum was there. Yeah, it was a bit harsh, yeah. So you said it again. You said it again. To cheer you up, we're gonna talk about one of your hobbies. What's that, please? Well, it's not fig rolls, although that is one of your hobbies. Yeah. But before we do, Neil, before we launch into today's podcast, I might ruin your day again because I'd like to wish Mrs. Neil, your good lady wife, a very happy birthday for today. I'm surprised you haven't done that yourself already. Don't you thank me? It's not your birthday. I'm saying it to your love your lovely wife. She is lovely wife. Yes, who you didn't bother to say happy birthday to. I said to her in person. And I know that sometimes she likes to listen when she's sober. So yes, happy birthday to Neil's lovely wife. Anyway, on with the show. Okay. Well, most other people, Neil, you indulge in a spot of the old grave robbery from time to time, body snatching. Plenty plenty on occasion. Yeah. Well, totally on. A little like resurrection when no one was looking. Yeah, yeah. I don't know, I don't do it every weekend, but I like to I like to get stuck in if I can sometimes. When the opportunity presents. Yeah, what it's there, you know, you're walking past them and they ooh, listen to that. Yeah. How much do you know about the game, please, Neil? If you'd like to inform the listener. About the game? Of of your grave robbery, of your resurrectionists. Or do I know about it? Yeah. Should I see an on on the uh internet? Um well you dig until you hear something go clang. And it's not you not name drop in Australia. It's normally where a spade or something hits a piece of wood or something, you think, oh, what's that? And then you know you're at the grave. So you've dug it. Then what do you do? Then put the saw back. I normally do. Oh, so you just do it for the sake of digging down as deep as you can. Yeah, I just like to dig. Okay. So you're you are a genuine hobbyist grave robber or resurrection. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I just like to dig until I hear something. So sometimes I've done it and I've gone through pipes and cables and stuff, but I just carry on with that. I don't bother with them. No. Yeah. Alright. So you're not all the naughty people who get involved in this sort of thing. There isn't naughty people in this world, Stephen. Well, I'll tell you about people in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Right. Why do you think they went to a lot of trouble in raising a stiffy? Perhaps because they had nothing else to do. Well, yes. Yes. Um perhaps they were looking for the cast of the pirates in the Pirates of the Caribbean when they got into the moonlight. Bit niche. But okay. How about the answer being to rob valuable items from said grave? Oh, they could also do it to rob valuable items from said graves. Oh, that's a good idea, yeah. Where'd you get that one from? No, it is. Just come to you. Yeah, just come at me. And because medical researchers and pioneers would pay good money for fresh corpses, they wouldn't ask too many questions either. Where'd you get that from? Yeah, they wouldn't ask questions like that. Why do you think they'd pay good money? So they can hollow them out for canoes. Well, they were hollowing them out, but I don't know whether they were using the leftovers for your canoes. I don't know whether that was part of what. Well they make it were they making a nice mixed grill? No, they weren't making a nice mixed grill, and they weren't manufacturing a series of flesh-coloured cagouls either. The answer is that they would use the dead bodies, this is your medical practitioners and pioneers, would use your dead bodies for experimentation. Because they didn't know lots of things. This is where a lot of our current medical knowledge and know-house and practices come from. That's where they come from. From pioneers and people who were cutting up dead bodies to see how your arteries and your veins worked and how your brain was attached to your kneebone and that sort of stuff. Mm-hmm. Exciting stuff then. So with all that in mind, who were the most famous resurrection men of all? The plane roses. No, see you can't just go shouting out names, I near, because I was still processing the stone roses. But I do see what you did there. I am the resurrection and I am the light. I'm happy if I'm gonna bring myself to hate you as I might. Hmm. That's where you were going. That's where I was going with that, yeah. Yeah, good good shout, but no. Jesus. Jesus. You're going with the resurrection. No. These are naughty people who went round digging up dead people and dead persons. Burke and hare. Burke and Heng. No. Burke as in what you are, and hare, as in a large rabbit. As in a large planet. A large rabbit. Large rabbit. Burke and hare. I've heard of Burke and Hare. Yes, well this is why you've heard of Burke and Hare, Neil. Is it not in Liverpool area? No, you're thinking of Burke and Head. Oh, okay. Fair enough. Do you know what? After half an episode on Byrne, I'm beginning to forget how much hard work this is. Burke and Hare. We're talking about who uh in Edinburgh, Scotland, between 1827 and 1828. It's only about a year then. Only about a year. Only about a minute, really, two minutes. They were grave robbers. So they would be doing this. They'd be going around, they'd dig up bodies, they'd take them to uh medical practitioners and pioneers who would dissect them f and medically experiment upon them. But they for them, it wasn't producing enough money. Because what was the downside in what they were doing, please? Uh getting rid of all the remains and bits and balls. Well, there's the practical side, but also you're reliant on dead people on the on the supply of dead bodies. But then again, you could always kill people, couldn't you? Ah. Now you're on to it because that's what they started doing. They murdered at least fifteen people between 1827 and 1828, just so they could then go and dig up their bodies and sell them for juicy profits. Why don't they just kill them and then take them straight to the the hospital so they've had them go through all the rig ball of burying them and then dig them back up again? That makes sense to me. Because when I said that the medical practitioners were no questions asked. Yeah. That was to a limit. If you think you weren't bringing in like a live person with you and saying, oh well, here it is, and then stabbing them in the back of the head. Because then the medical team would probably think, hang on, there's a little bit of fish here going on here. So they needed to have been buried so they could say where they dug them up from and they could trace the medical history and there was all that there. So if they had to put in some sort of legitimacy. Even if it was very legitimate. Yes. So they were selling them for juicy profits who I think was their she was their landlady. Oh right. Yeah. I just like juicy fruits. Is that a similar thing? Yeah. Okay. She invented juicy fruits. Nice. Um where do you think Burke and Hare came from? Seems they're operating in Edinburgh. Uh Edinburgh. No. Chelsea. No. Somewhere in London. No. If I was to say to you, Broken hair. Broken are the Irish. Oh. Yes, you did it there by stereotypical impersonations. They were Irishmen. And of course, you'd be multilingual can probably speak the Irish. So you you did that, you use that quite nicely. And that leads us quite nicely into today's story, which takes place on the Emerald Isle. The year, Neil. Yes, isn't uh 2026. No, the the the in the story. Okay, sorry. Yeah. Don't break the illusion for the listener. The year I thought it was an interview. The year your first question. The year, Neil. Yeah, I'd have passed, haven't I? The year, Neil, was 1695. 1695. William of Orange sat all alone on the throne of Britain and Ireland following the death of Queen Mary the previous year. And he kept himself busy by thinking up new ways to piss off the Irish Catholics. Make sure that everything's orange. How much do you know about William of Orange? I know that he liked the colour orange and he changed the colour of carrots. Yes. He didn't change them. The Dutch nation changed them in in the honour of the family of Orange. Because they were they That's a bit ridiculous. All the things you could do, what should we do? Should we build a bridge? Should we build a cathedral and name him after him? Blah blah blah. I'll tell you what we'll do. We'll change the colour of carrots. What colour were carrots? Purple. That's right. Yeah. Yeah. So I mean that I would be severely pissed off with that if they've got some sort of ceremony. Oh, what we do? What are we doing? Yes, well, this is the plans for a cathedral. Oh, that's amazing. That'll stand for years and years and years and years and years. No, we're going to change the colour of carrots. Yes, but it was the long game. They were playing the long game because they said if we change the colour of carrots now, in four hundred years' time, Ponzi people go into farmers markets on a Saturday morning and spend twenty pounds over the top of your price of normal carrots just to buy purple heritage carrots. And we'll make money that way. Oh, she gives his money back eventually then. Yeah. I've heard of. Yeah. It was a long game. You heard of uh William of Orange, you've heard of him and his cousin. I've heard of him, yes, yeah. I've heard of his cousin Fanta. That is cousin Terry. No, I don't know him. He invented chocolate. Did he? Yeah. Oh, so he's the inventor of the Terry chocolate orange? Yeah, Terry, yeah, old Tell. Okay, that's fair enough. Alright, Tell, what you got there? Looks like a big hole. It is Mattel, it's chocolate orange. That's what they said. It is Mattel, it's chocolate orange. Were they Welsh, were they? Yeah. Wow, I didn't know Dutch Welsh. King James II, Neil. I'm throwing monarchs at you. Yeah. Keep coming, baby. King James II was the brother of the late Charles II. He was the son of Charles I and had been restored to the throne after Oliver Cromwell. So King James II was the brother of the late Charles II and was the last surviving son of Charles I. He succeeded to the throne because people were reluctant to break the succession so close to Oliver Cromwell and his Commonwealth and go through all that again. But the problem with James he was a Catholic. He was a Catholic, and he was also a firm believer in absolute monarchy and his divine right to rule, which was part of the problem they all had with Charles I in the first place when they cut his head off. Yeah, true. They wouldn't be able to do it after that, would he? Bang on, they're thinking, we can't go back to Catholics on the throne because last time we had problems with Catholics who tried to blow up James I. We've now got James II, who is a Catholic, and he's going round telling everyone to shut up because he's got God's right to rule. And so it wasn't long before he was getting right on Parliament tits, wasn't he? Hello. You said tits. I did, didn't I? But I said it in a historical context. Oh, that's fine, that's okay. Yeah, okay. So can you say penis as well in the historical content, if needed? If needed, but there was no reason to say penis there. He just said it, so that's why I said it. And uh previously I talked about Terry's chocolate orange being a large bowl, but I didn't mention penis for that either. So I'd like you to keep penis out of your mouth for once. So anyway, Neil, what you're gonna do? They invited James's daughter and her husband William to invade Britain. Huh. Well you've got to send him a little letter like for weddings. Quite literally. Oh, what's this? What's this? Oh, it's from Daddy. It wasn't from Daddy. That's the thing. It was from Parliament. They want they wanted me to invade the Glendop. That's French. That was French, but again, totally inappropriate. So Parliament invited James's daughter, who was Mary, and her husband William, who was William of Orange, to invite. Now, William, in true royal family style, was the cousin of Mary. Yeah. William was Mary's cousin and sovereign Prince of Orange, and a stadholder, whatever that means, of the Dutch Republic. But most of the stadholder, yeah. I know what that is. Dear? Would you care to explain to me, Anne Listener? No, I don't want to. Okay. It's Dutch meaning steadholder or a placeholder. A high ranking, medieval, and early modern official in the Low Countries. Well, thank you. And I take that from me and the listener. It's in the back of my mind. You just knew that. It's at the tip of my tongue. Look, see it. Oh, there it is. What's that other thing? Cubes. But most importantly, both William and Mary were Protestants. Protestants. Of your Protestant faith. Today, the province of Orange is part of southern France. And it was under Dutch rule and their royal family, the Dutch royal family, took the name Orange. And as you've rightly pointed out at the beginning, it's the reason Orange has a close association with the Netherlands, such as the football team's colours and that is because of William and his family, the Oranges. Mr. and Mrs. Orange. Clementine. Yeah, who of course later went on to be one-fifth of take that. Yes, it did, yes. Jalen's the second was overthrown in the glorious revolution of 1688, and William and Mary offered the crown as the only joint monarchs with equal power in all of British history. And in 1689, they accepted the Declaration of Rights, which limited the power of the crown. So basically, to some oh, what happened? Parliament wrote over there to get over it and we'll let you be king and queen for now. They said, Oh, okay, then they came over, we just stood to one side, plucked them all the way into Westminster. Yeah. Yeah, and put a crown on their head. And all the time James was looking around saying, say, what? What's going on here? Schmok and a panpick. Well, all of these shenanigans were shenanigans, Neil. I was in Church Place, Lurgan, County Armagh. Yeah, no, it well. In what is present-day Northern Ireland, there lived a doctor by the name of John McCall. Dr. John McCall. John fought for William at the Battle of the Boyne on the 1st of July 1690, which was the last time two crowned kings of England and Scotland and Ireland fought against each other on the battlefield. Excuse me for being thick. How can you have two kings of England, Scotland, and Ireland? Because I've just spent the last twenty minutes explaining it. Because James II was still the king, and they stood aside, they invited William and Mary in as joint rulers with equal powers. That's two countries two kings. Yeah, and three countries. Yes. Well four to include Wales. That's four then. But like two each? At that time England was Wales. Do they have two each? No, they didn't have two each because it wasn't like that. You couldn't just share it. You have England and Scotland during the week, and I'll have them at weekends, and then you can have the Irish that it doesn't Work like that. No, that's just childish way I didn't see him. I'd have thought they'd have just put him in the hat. No, well, what they attempted to do, they went into a big field called the Battle of Boyne, where they just had a slap fight and just slapped each other like this. To see him run off crying first. Yeah, that's a good idea. I just lost my microphone. I'm back now. Feet two one back in the room. Look into my eyes. Into my eyes, look around my eyes, look into my eyes. Honestly. Have you got your technical equipment sorted this week, Neil? Yes, I have. Thank you, Stephen. Now sod off. Anyway, William was victorious over James in this little slap fight they had in the field. And James scampered away to the continent being Europe, while Big Willy Orange established Protestantism in Ireland. Did he now? That didn't go down very well. Fortunately, the battle between the English and Dutch Orange Order and the most the Irish Catholic Jacobites did go quite well and had very little long-term consequences. Apparently so, that's good. Yeah. There's Bonnie Prince Charlie and the Orange matches and Republicans versus Protestants and the IRA and the UDF and bams and bullets and Trabons and the Maze Prison and all that sort of stuff. But you know, it's all promo. It's all minor, isn't it? But it's my turn to die crest now. Not that's what colour because can't be bothered? Well, you just shouldn't really need to ask now because there's only one colour, it can be this week. Orange. Orange. I'm going to Orange Cress, which I've already put in the post to Terry. And asked him if he could invent chocolate press. Could be nice. Wouldn't it? Yeah, it would be nice. Compete with a flake. You can thank me for that. Here, we catch up with Dr. John back at home intending to his wife, Marjorie. I don't think we ought to be disturbing that, do we? And her fever. Oh. Whew. Hey, I thought we were having a bit of a sneaky peek through a window or something. Yeah, they're having a bit of a tight tate, and you're looking through the window, you're dirty person. Right the steam off the window that we shouldn't be watching this. But no, she had a fever. And back then, Neil. Yeah. Hello, Neil. Hello. And back then, fever was a catch all term for many ailments, a lot of which would be curable today. But in sixteen ninety-five, County Armar, a fever could be a death sentence. Oh could also be a song. Really? That was beautiful. And then we have a plinky plonky bit in the background. Yeah, if anyone is listening from ENI or Sony or Virgin and they want to contact us about a record contract email address, there's honourable mentionspod at gmail.com, or you can get us on social media. Oh any any nightclub that's got an out odd Saturday night they've got the thing on. We can come down and do a bit of a duet. Told people's own. Happy to do that sort of thing. Told people's own. Yeah. I was at a cake sale the other day, and I said to this lady, how much is the chocolate cake? And she said, Oh, that's uh slice of that fifty pence. So that's nice. How much is the carrot cake? Slice of that fifty pence. I said, Oh, okay, what about the bakewan tart over there? Slice of that fifty pence, she said. Every cake is fifty pence. And I said, Oh what about that one on the end there? She said, Oh, that's one pound fifty. What? How come? She asked Megira cake. I got asked today when I was at work, some bloke said, Would you like to come in and stretch my cock a spaniel? I wish I'd have chosen spaniel. Anyway, Neil, we were talking before you ruined everything with your inappropriate joke. We were talking about fever. In the morning. The only modern equivalent that we can think of now to the fevers of 1695 would be man flu. Ooh, that's bad. I know. We all know how deadly that can be. That can be deadly. I can knock you off the feet for weeks. Sadly, Neil. Hello, Neil. Yes. Sadly, coming to a sad bit here. Sadly, that's your clue that we're coming to a sad bit. Sadly, despite the devotion of a medically trained husband and all his medical equipment in his big medical bag that he just kept by the bookcase stacked with all his leather-bound medical journals, he just didn't know where to turn for advice about the medical needs of his wife. And in the end, after days of suffering, a poor Marjorie McCall underweight and died. She snuffed it. No. Kicked the bucket. Didn't he not check Google? He ran up. Ran up the choir invisible. Oh no, he didn't Google it. No, he didn't know what to do. Because he didn't know what to do, he was properly distraught. Well, they'd been a happy couple and she was the love of his life, but the fever must not be allowed to spread, he thought. Yes. And so a funeral was hastily arranged. Next day. Or that day. Same day? I don't know, it doesn't say that just as hastily. What would you call hastily? Hastily would be like, oh, she's dead. Uh hello, uh funeral directors? That sort of thing is hastily, isn't it? Uber funerals. Yeah. Something like that. Like a director. Yeah. Is there such a thing? Maybe we don't know. It could be a business out, couldn't it? The McCalls were not an overly wealthy family, and funerals don't come for free even back then. They're not. On Marjorie's swollen dead wedding finger, she wore an expensive ring, which nobody, tries they might, was able to budge. So they couldn't put it off. They couldn't put it off despite what they had tried. And they wanted to get it off with Marjorie's dead corpse because, of course, they could have sold the wedding ring to help pay for a funeral. And as we mentioned at the top of the show, as we say in Show Business Listener, you have these rather dumb nasty people going around town digging up dead bodies and things for the valuables. They should have used some fairy liquid. That's pretty good for getting stuff stuck on your finger, or some lube of some sort. No, you don't know what kind of fever she had that made her she could have had glandular fever, or some sort of fever that made her swell. Despite the fear of grave robbers just itching to act on local gossip and tip-offs. But they were in the trees like that. Didn't they sneak between the trees? Imagine if you were there and you got your sort of wake going on, and one of the people in that very room was secretly a grave robber or a resurrectionist. He was walking with a stiff leg and he had a shovel down his trousers. Shovel down his pants, yeah. Yeah. Marjorie was soon laid to rest in Lurgan Shank Hill Cemetery close to the family home, with that expensive ring firmly and stubbornly wedged onto her wedding finger. But Neil. Yes. But don't call me a but. But Neil. I'm not a butt. But Neil. Stop it. However. Why? However, Neil. Okay. Sure enough, the night of Marjorie's burial, those dirty resurrectionists struck. No, they didn't. They don't they bloody did. I weren't even in the ground for five minutes, dirty pigs. In the days before street lighting, it was darker than modern minds could possibly imagine. The distant hoots of an owl and the soft wind in the trees were the only sounds to break the silence. It's poetic, isn't it? It is poetic. I wonder, Steve, you know, when they when people are buried, why is there a big sort of mound of soil on the top of it? It's not flattened down, is it? Hold on, because you said their bodies swell. Do they flatten it down and then when the bodies swell it pushes the soil up? No. Shall we go into basic rules of volume and and physics? I don't think we should. I think it's a very very I think it's a very good question. It is a good question. It was very well put. I enjoyed it. But you dig your hole six feet down, and let's say something about four feet wide. So you've got six feet. Because six feet under, so deep down you dig your holes for your graves. And then you've got all that soil that you've excavated from your hole. Yeah. Yeah. And then you've obviously got the coffin, which is the same. But they but they but what I'm saying is, Stephen, listen, they fill the hole and flatten it down so it's all filled in back again, then they've got some excess soil, which is fine, they can lose that. But when it's all flattened down, then it seems that when you go the next day there all seems to be a mound of soil there. Am I right in thinking that's because the body's swollen? That's all I was asking. No, of course you're not right in thinking that. Alright, fair enough, that's all I was asking. Carry on. My fault you were some expert in grave robbery and Oh, I thought you were a I'm not even gonna say it. I know where you are. What? Starts with C and ends in Revis. Oh. How many do I get to work this out? If ever I should swear, you're a crevice. Oh you I was doing that, I'd have got there. You dirty sluice. There you go. I'd have got there. Anyway, Neil. What? Back to today's story. The soil I'd have had that. I was close. I've got Revik. Let it go. Let it go, Stephen. The soil was freshly turned. Just let it go. The soil was freshly turned and soft. So they were able to work quickly and quietly moving down with well practised technique, until eventually there came that familiar thud of their spades on a wooden coffin lid. They came across the doctor's wife. Ugh. I know. The pair would have looked at each other with a sly smile, scraped away the remaining layer of dirt, and, as carefully as possible so as not to be heard, forced open the casket with a slow splintering of wood. There they were confronted with the cadaver of Marjorie McCall, peacefully arrest because she'd only been there for a couple of hours. The cadaver of Marjorie McCall. What the cadaver? Right. A cadaver is a dead body. Okay, well, you know, trying to be as positive. We're not politicians here trying to use big words to make everyone think what the hell are you talking about? Why don't we just say they came across the dead body of what's the name, McCall? Because 99.99% of the rest of the human race, at least speaking, would know that what cadaver means. I have doubt that very much. To me, it's a bloody magic trick. I think, sorry, but I'm going to say no chances 99.9% of people knew what that was. I would say 50% most. How's a cadaver like a magic trick? Unless you're mixing it up with a Swedish pop band of the 70s. That's it. Exactly. You say that. I bet cadaver. You've said it three times, and my furniture started to float in the front room. Did it though? Mopy. Anyway, they were confronted with the cadaver of Marjorie McCall. Peace for your resque, because she's only been there for a couple of hours. If they were good Catholic boys, they'd have crossed themselves before deciding who was going to retrieve the wedding ring. Which is what they're after. Yeah, who's going to go and get a ring? Who's going to go and get a ring? Whatever it was, they discovered the same issue as John and anyone else who'd had a good old tug while standing over the ring and his dead wife. Nothing wrong with that sentence. She wasn't giving up that jewellery. No. The grave robbers must have panicked. What should they do? They thought to themselves. But in Irish, if you could if you could do that, as if you were there in your multilingual accent, please. Oh what would he do? Do they take her with them and try again later? Effectively hobbing her body? Do they fetch some lube and try to loosen it? Yeah, I would. So I think lube's quite good for that sort of thing. KY or something like that. Then one of them had the solution. Leave her there. Pardon? I've got an idea. What's that, please? Calper arm off. Not quite as dramatic. Leave her there, but just take her finger away. She might have been wearing a watch. So these two grave robbers, these near do wells, Neil. Yeah, near do wells. They lifted Marjorie's cold, lifeless, unresponsive horrest, took out a pocket knife and sank it deep to the bone. And as they did, Marjorie's eyes immediately flung open wide and she lurched bolt upright, letting out an almighty scream, as if to wake St. Patrick himself. The thieving pair of resurrectionists without the valuable ring and now facing a hefty dry cleaning bill for their trousers. I would have thought so, yeah. I would have paid certainly found myself. Yeah, I think they could not escape fast enough, even though they'd have been pump powered getting out of that cemetery. Masarine McCall. Do you remember her? Yeah, she was breathing heavily, confused and in agony with a blood soaked wedding finger hanging off at a ninety degree angle. Ooch. Somehow, she managed to scramble away out of her own grave, her white burial gown covered in black dirt and thick red blood, as she slowly shuffled in bare feet back to the family home. Pausing only to buy half a dozen eggs and chat with Mrs. McGonagall for a number 42. As you would, wouldn't you, I suppose you'd be saying the way back, wouldn't you? Because she'd be saying, Oh, tell her, Marjorie, I thought you'd been buried today. Yeah, Mrs. McGonagall's always a time walking. Yeah. So back inside church place, the good doctor sat by an open fire, staring into the flames and mourning for the loss of his wife. Yeah, staring into the flames, thinking, Right, now what can I do? Suddenly there is a familiar knock upon the door. Three raps in rhythmic succession. And that's familiar, but most people do it that way, don't they? That's hard, he said to his children. If we hadn't buried her today, I'd swear that was your mother's knock. Could be anybody. She had a doorbell. Most people use that. Unless he's put a note on the door to say, please use four knocks, otherwise I'd think you're my wife. Something like that. That would make sense. Yeah. Yeah. That would make sense. He'd have a code on the piece of paper, postman two knocks, milkman, four knocks. Um Amazon just take it and throw it over next door's fence. Yeah. Amazon Amazon just fling it away at every every don't even bother getting it in the van. Yeah, that kind of stuff. Soon enough, when John opened the door, he was proven right. It was his wife's knock, because there was Marjorie, lightheaded, bloody cold, filthy, but very much alive. I'd imagine very much pissed off as well. Well, let me tell you, it gave John quite the fright. I think it did. I should imagine there was a involved. In the shock of the moment, the story has it that John collapsed to the floor and died there and then of a heart attack. I think it would get you that way, wouldn't it? We can't say for sure. John had probably just fainted, but whatever happened, ultimately, he ended up in the same grave previously vacated by his wife, where you'll still find him today. Well, I can't see his move. Well, he doesn't say much. No. I suppose she I opened the door and she just smacked him straight in the face. Yeah. A straight foot straight punch, straight into the nose. You get a bloody check. So you quit. Yeah, you're supposed to be a doctor. Marjorie, having recovered from what we'd now recognise as a deep coma, went on to live a long life and even gave birth to more children. Marjorie giving birth to more children, of course, lends a bit of weight to the fact that John might have lived beyond his initial reaction on meeting again with his buried wife. Unless he stored a cup in the fridge. Unless, yes, they had a turkey baster. Yeah. He might have just said he might have just said, I've had I've had a bit of fun upstairs. There's a cup in the fridge if you need it. If not, throw it away after a week. Or because Mrs. McGonagall was so regular in taking a dog for a walk, old Marjorie knew precisely when to go round and um see Mr. McGonagall. Yeah, that's true. But you never know. Eventually, of course, Marjorie succumbed to the passage of time and had another goat dying. Right. Only this time doing it properly. Her grave ill grave can be visited in Jank Hills Ergan to this very day where it is marked with a famous epitaph. A famous epitaph? Marjorie McCall lived once, buried twice, it says. We should go and desecrate an historic monument in the town of Lurgan, County Armagh, just to promote our uh podcast. Yeah, why not? I don't see, why not? Yeah. It'd be worth the FF. Yeah. Sticker price. Or just send it over there, just send get a hundred printers and send them over there and the hope that one in one hundred of all stick it on there. Do you know what, Neil? It turns out that many a body has been exhumed with scratch marks found on the inside of the coffin lid. As many people, seemingly, were buried without being properly dead. Ooh, interesting. Eventually it came that some people, not everybody, by any means, but a few people were buried with string tied to their fingers and toes that were attached to a bell on the surface. That'd be no good if they were cremated there, would it? No, that's why I've used the word buried. Yeah, that's good idea. So as well put in there, what a Yeah. If someone saw a person who looked very much like someone they believe to be dead and has been buried, they would refer to them as a dead ringer. That's where we get the term dead ringer from. For someone who looks a bit like somebody else. Looks like someone who's dead. Not necessarily looks like someone who's dead, but somebody who looks like somebody else. Is it called a dead ringer. And Neil to monitor the tingling of cemetery bells. Cemetery Someone had to stand guard when everyone else had left for the day. Because you had to watch what was going on, because even the gentle breeze could have swayed the odd bell or two, and you think, oh no, there's someone in there and he's digging up the little tool. Again, it's just a couple of things. See, Steve, I can s I can see an opportunity here. Why don't they tie the bell bells from the church tower ropes to people's toes? And then if anybody is there, the bells are ringing and everyone would hear it. Hi, thank you. I rest my case. What a cracking idea. Well, not really, because imagine the amount of strength it would take to ring the church bell. You use pulleys, Steve? You only the tiniest little bit of a flick. A bit like a fishing thing. Well, rather sadly, Neil, I think your bell idea is going nowhere. One may call it a bell end. Anyway, to monitor the tinkling of cemetery bells, someone had to stand guard when everyone else had left for the day. You went there, didn't you? Where's that place? You went there. That's fine. And that's where we get the expression to pull graveyard shift. Oh, okay. You put in the graveyard shift, are you? That's where that comes from as well, see? So there's two little things we've learnt there at the end of that. I could tell you where you the saying for no strings attached comes from. Oh, I know that. But go on, tell the listener. Well, it comes from From a tailor. When they used to buy lengths of cloth, sometimes if there was a little pull in the cloth that at the end of the cloth, they'd pile put a little piece of string so then you can go across and see where the pull is. But if you were making something that was spot on and you didn't want anything like that, you'd just say I'd have this length of such and such, no strings attached, which meant it was perfect. That is crap. Yeah, it's true. Well done. Well done, Neil. Well done, Neil. Thank you. Do you think the flat tet you've thrown at us there at the end is enough to salvage the debacle of last week's episode with Roland Garrison? I would imagine so, yes. Just my face will do enough of that. My presence is just enough. Just knowing I'm there. It's like a warm blanket. Well, thank you, Listener, for listening in to another exciting episode. Oh. Oh, honourable mentions. That's very good. Can you enjoy Dutch honourable mentions for Dutch listeners? Honourable mentions, smoke good and pancakes. Okay. Well, thank you very much, Listener. Uh, we do apologise for last week. Hopefully, you're fine this week's. Well, technically competent, shall we say. It's because I'm here now. It's like a warm blanket, Stephen. It's like a warm blanket. It's like a hug from your best friend. You're not wet yourself again, have you? You are? You're not wet yourself again. A little while ago. You can get hold of us on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Spotify, other places where you download your music. And Discord. Don't forget Discord. We're on Discord. I'll say it again because Steve has no idea remembering it. It's Discord. We're on there and it's honorable mentionspod at gmail.com. That's honorable mentionspod at gmail.com. Terms and conditions applies for the calls for child's shape. That was very professionally done. Thank you. Let's hope that you're still on and you haven't cut yourself off halfway through the podcast. Thank you, Listener. We really do appreciate your your time and your support. And I hope you enjoyed that rather spooky and yet amusing, we like to think, tale of Marjorie McCall. And the resurrectionists who ultimately saved her life. I'll just find out choosing the listener out with fever as we go, and then we'll um we'll see you again next week for more. Okay, okay. Ready? Oh, he's done too early. You're ready. One, two, one, two, three, four, eight. Oh, that was beautiful. That was beautiful. It's brought a tear to my eye. I'm actually I'm actually nursing a semi. Hello there. Thank you for listening to honorable mentions and sticking with us until the end. How about all that? Death, digging, dismemberment, and the Dutch. Quite the episode. If you enjoy stories of history's most obscure figures, then please subscribe so you don't miss a future episode. It's entirely up to you. But I'll be watching. And I'll get you, my pretty, and your little soul, too. You know, honorable mentions was researched by Stephen Webb. He's the unfunny one. And it is an Uncover Brothers production. The best bit is the theme tune they have. It was written and performed by Pepe and the Bandits, and you can listen to them wherever you stream your music. It's entirely up to you, but I'll be watching it. I'll picture you. My pretty. And your Dag Nabbit had already done that. Anyway, you get the picture. All proper scary in that. Don't have nightmares now, and the boys will be back next week.