At a packed funeral with thousands weeping, the guest of honor suddenly stood up alive—then shocked everyone by caning his wife for not showing enough sorrow.
This was the peculiar doing of Timothy Dexter, an eccentric American businessman in an era of new beginnings, the late 1700s and early 1800s.
Dexter wasn’t actually dead. He had staged the entire event, right down to instructing his own family on how to act.
His goal was rather unusual: to see who truly mourned him and perhaps how much.
Thousands of people, reportedly around 3,000, gathered to “pay their respects,” unaware of the charade.
When Dexter revealed himself to the crowd, he apparently wasn’t pleased with his wife’s performance of grief.
So, in a moment that would cement his bizarre legacy, he took a cane to her for not crying enough.
This shocking stunt only added to Dexter’s reputation as an odd and unpredictable figure in New England society.
He had amassed a fortune often through what seemed like sheer luck or decisions so strange they somehow paid off.
His self-published book, “A Pickle for the Knowing Ones,” filled with peculiar grammar and no punctuation, further highlighted his unique character.
The staged funeral of Timothy Dexter remains one of history’s stranger episodes.
