Tall corpse's legs cut off to fit casket

ALLENDALE, S.C. - James Hines was a giant - a 6-foot-7, 300-pound preacher and funk musician so big that after he died in 2004, a macabre rumor began circulating in this small town that the undertaker had to cut off his legs to fit him in the coffin.

This week, after years of whispers, Hines' body was exhumed, and the gruesome story appeared to be all too true.

The coroner's office said only that it had found "undesirable evidence," and a criminal investigation has been opened. But Hines' widow said investigators told her that his legs had been cut off between the ankle and calf, and his feet had been placed inside the casket.

"It's just like pulling the scab off an old sore. I was kind of like smoothing things out. But now it's like starting all over again," Ann Hines said Thursday.

Under South Carolina law, destroying or desecrating human remains is punishable by one to 10 years in prison.

Reached this week, a man who identified himself as the owner of Cave Funeral Home, which handled the funeral, declined to comment.

The allegations were so startling that funeral directors around the country are talking about the case.

At his funeral, several people, including one of Hines' five children, said the casket looked too small. Hines was about 79 inches tall in his bare feet, according to his family.

After the funeral, the rumors began - started, some say, by a former funeral home worker - and it seemed as if all 3,700 people in town were talking about the burial.

Eventually, someone called the South Carolina Board of Funeral Service, and the coroner and an investigator with the agency received the widow's permission to dig up the grave.