Severed hands were found on streets, bobbing along river banks, and found on trains in the early 1900s. In fact, severed hand stories were published rather regularly in the early 20th century, and many times the hand’s owner was never discovered.
1. Not a Wax Hand
When two men first saw the hand in the water in Richmond County, New York, 1913, they were pretty certain it was part of a wax figure. Being curious about the find, the men managed to rope the hand and bring it up onto the ferry boat. That was when they realized that the hand was actually real human flesh.
The coroner was called to the scene. According to him,
“The hand had been severed about one inch above the wrist joint by some person who knew nothing of surgery and who used a dull edged instrument to cut it off. There were jagged cuts, showing that more than one blow had been struck before the flesh and bones were severed.”
Who the hand originally belonged to was unknown. [1]
2. Dismissed as a Practical Joke
A rather strange severed hand news report came out of Northern Ireland back in 1907. Apparently a pedestrian was walking around Prehen Wood when he discovered something wrapped in brown paper. He picked it up and opened it, revealing the severed left hand of a woman. A note was attached to the hand, and it read:
“The deed is done, and well done. A month has passed in perfect silence. They think he has gone, and so he has, but not to the same place. I will meet you where we met on the night we saw each other last. This hand is a sign; so you see now I was not talking without meaning what I said. Bury this thing.”
The matter was brought to the police who, after making inquiries and getting nowhere, took the hand to a doctor. After examining the hand, the doctor said that the hand had come from some hospital and had been sealed with wax at the wrist. It also appeared that the hand had been “preserved in spirits” previous to its discovery.
Satisfied with the doctor’s explanation, the police announced the whole affair as a practical joke, dropped the case, and the note’s author remained unknown. [2]
3. Bomb Making is Dangerous
The three New York City men were labeled as anarchists because they stood against John D. Rockefeller, Jr. and his treatment of the striking Colorado miners. Then, in 1914, an explosion happened inside an apartment building where they had rented a room.
When police arrived, they found “inflammatory” literature, a small printing press, and bomb making materials inside what was left of the apartment. All three men were dead and a woman living in the apartment next to them was also killed in the blast.
As the police searched amongst the mess, they found the most damning bit of evidence against the anarchists: a severed hand. Belonging to one of the men, it still clutched two pieces of wire “made ready for connections.” [3]
4. Struck by Flying Hand
There was a terrible dynamite explosion in May of 1901 in Milbank, South Dakota. As one of the victims was blown apart, his body parts went flying through the air and his severed hand hit another man to the side of his chest. The injured man was checked out by a local doctor and, after passing a quick look over, was sent on his merry way.
Three months later, the injured man was still suffering from the effects of the flying hand. He went to see another doctor to complain about swelling in his arm that had also occurred after the incident.
After a thorough examination that led to quite a bit of probing, the new doctor managed to pull out a finger bone that had lodged itself inside the man’s arm. Not only had the flying hand hit the man with a tremendous amount of force, a finger had also shattered off the hand and lodged itself into the injured man’s flesh. [4]
5. Yet Another Joke
In 1911, a severed hand and foot were found inside a box on a street in New York City. The discovery put the neighborhood on edge and people naturally believed there was another killer roaming the streets. However, the police felt differently and announced that the finding was nothing more than a prank put on, possibly, by medical students.
However, no one was called out for committing the prank and the investigation was dropped. [5]
6. A Religious Act
Sanford Engleman of Kentucky, 1906, felt that he needed to remove his right hand. After all, in the Bible it says that “If thy right hand offend thee, cut it off and cast it from you.”
Taking the words literally, the young man went into the woods with an axe and some rope. Upon finding a sapling and a tree stump, he improvised a sort of guillotine with the axe tied to the sapling. After he finished making his elaborate hand chopper, he
“deliberately laid his arm on the flat surface of the top of the stump and pulled the wire which released the weight, and the axe came down with true aim, severing the hand at the wrist.”
After he lopped off his hand, he applied a compress and walked a half mile to a neighbor’s house. The neighbor wrapped up his wound and sent him to walk the mile back to his home.
When he arrived at his house, his parents were shocked to find out that their son had chopped off his own hand. They described the young man as a religious enthusiast and said that he had been acting rather strange for the past few weeks.
When asked what he had done to his hand, the young man would only say that he had cast it from himself. A search was conducted in the area where he had done the chopping, but the hand was never found. [6]
