Restless Corpses (Halloween Special Pt. 3)

When nights grow long and familiar paths suddenly lead you astray; when fog shrouds the coast in deathly gloom and strange lights flicker in empty bogs, that’s the time when ghosts and ghouls explore this new found land.

Welcome to part three of the Strange Truths & Tall Tales Halloween Special.

The Restless Corpse of La Poile

This episode features an old story concerning a corpse in La Poile that seemed to have trouble realizing it was dead. It’s a strange that makes my blood run cold… and warms my heart. It’s based on a story written by ‘R’ and published in the Public Ledger newspaper in 1831.

Nancy Coyle & The Corpse

After La Poile, I’ll move onto St. John’s and the story of Nancy Coyle — a woman who spent her life with the dead and, perhaps, her death with the living.

Coyle provided mortuary care in St. John’s in the 1800s, and was rumoured to have resurrected the dead. While she appears to have been a real, historical figure, she is more famous these days as a ghost story.

Nancy Coyle is rumored to haunt the graveyards of old St. John’s.

Sources & Further Reading

​The Restless Corpse of La Poile, Product of Newfoundland ​The Widow of La Poyle: A Newfoundland Tale, Public Ledge, May 6, 1831 ​Mrs Coyle & The Corpse, Product of Newfoundland ​The Oldest City, Paul O’Neill, 2003 ​Nancy Coyle (1840s), Heritage NL ​Queen of the Dead, Haunted Canada 5, Joel Sutherland ​An Encounter with Nancy, Queen of the Dead, Anecdotage. ​Journal of the NL House of Assembly, 1843