The Ghost Hand of a Seattle Brakeman
After a gruesome industrial accident, a local railroad worker claimed his severed hand was 'following' him, leading to a strange and macabre search by local undertakers.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
Frank Burkhart, a brakeman on the Central Railroad in New Jersey, lost his hand in a car coupling accident a week ago. Since the injury, he has complained of a constant pain in the missing limb. He suffered so much that he finally had the hand dug up and arranged to have it shipped to him at his home in Seattle. Frank claimed that his hand had been part of him and, in his frenzied state, he insisted on having it. Even though separated from him, Burkhart felt the hand needed treatment. After his hand was burned, Burkhart felt that the undertaker had not done it properly, and he insisted upon having the site searched for the bones. He felt agonizing sensations in his arm and felt that the bones in the buried target were the cause of his suffering, as they had been improperly handled. The undertaker finally dug up the grave, and sure enough, the little bones were there, much to the satisfaction of Burkhart. The undertaker then carefully cleaned the bones, and they are in his hands now.
“Frank claimed that his hand had been part of him and, in his frenzied state, he insisted on having it.”
This bizarre story, while clearly reflecting a period of extreme physical trauma and psychological distress, echoes modern concerns about bodily autonomy and the 'phantom limb' phenomenon. It captures a moment where the frontier medical reality of the 1880s met a desperate, superstitious search for closure in a rapidly growing Seattle.
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