It drew on an extensive range of sources including medical literature, newspaper archives, case reports, and the publications of nineteenth-century taphophile societies.

For the Essie Dunbar case, Bondeson drew primarily on the 1955 Augusta Chronicle article and on accounts from South Carolina elders who had knowledge of the story.

The specific detail of the three ministers falling into the grave and the shortest suffering broken ribs — detail that the Snopes investigation appears to attribute to Bondeson’s account of the 1955 article — appears in Bondeson’s version with a vividness that gives the scene remarkable concreteness.

Bondeson himself hedges the account with appropriate qualification.