They hanged him at Tyburn and took his body straight to the surgeons. William Duell was 17 years old. As they prepared to dissect him he started breathing. Then he opened his eyes. They sat him up. Within two hours he was talking. The surgeons sent him back to prison. The law said he had been hanged. Technically the sentence had been carried out. They couldn’t hang him again. So they put him on a boat and shipped him to America instead. He was never heard from again.
Interesting Fact Duell had been convicted of rape and murder. The victim was a young woman named Sarah Griffin. He went to the gallows maintaining his innocence. Nobody ever found out why he survived.