Poison Dress

A gown used to dress a corpse for a funeral is removed from the body and returned to the store where it was purchased. An unsuspecting customer buys the gown and wears it to a dance, where embalming fluid from the dress seeps into her pores and kills her. The tale known as ‘The Poison Dress’, or ‘Embalmed Alive’ features a dress that has in some way been poisoned. This is a recurring theme throughout legends and folk tales of various cultures, including ancient Greece, Mughal India, and the United States. Although there is no evidence suggesting that the American urban legends are directly linked to the classical tales, they share several common motifs.