When times got tough during the
Great Depression a lot of people improvised extra income by working outside the
normal boundaries of the law and societal norms. Bootlegging was common, but
other crimes also saw an increase in those desperate times. A strange example
of one crime meeting another happened in December of 1932 when two Seattle
grave robbers digging into a fresh grave unearthed a woman who had been buried alive
by her underworld compatriots. She was apparently fine, if somewhat
disoriented. It seems neither party was eager to take the matter to the police.
CK
