Pickled builders find pickled body in barrel of rum

'Special taste' Jamaican tipple

A group of Hungarian builders who availed themselves of the contents of a 300-litre barrel of rum left in a house they were renovating eventually found out what gave the tipple its "special taste".

Having drained the cask - in the process decanting a few bottles for home consumption - they tried to shift it, but found it "surprisingly heavy", according to Hungarian police website www.zsaru.hu, as reported by stuff.co.nz.

And no wonder, because in the bottom was the body of a poor chap whose wife had 20 years previously shipped him back from Jamaica to Szeged in the barrel "to avoid the cost and paperwork of an official return"*.

The bloke's unsentimental missus had since died and he was finally given a decent, alcohol-free burial. ®

Urban mythology?

Ah, the old ones are always the best. Try this link suggested by several readers to more "bodies in barrels" stories.

Bootnote

*We believe this fee-dodging spirit barrel corpse ruse is known as the "Admiral Nelson" down at HM Customs.