Human mail

Human mail is the transportation of a person through the postal system, usually as a stowaway. While rare, there have been some reported cases of people attempting to travel through the mail. This form of travel is both illegal and highly dangerous, with cases leading to prosecution and serious injury.

More common, at least in popular fiction, is the mailing of a part of a person, often a kidnap victim.

Real occurrences

*Henry Box Brown, an African-American slave from Virginia, successfully escaped in a shipping box sent north to the free state of Pennsylvania.ref|boxbrown
*Charles McKinley shipped himself from New York to Dallas, Texas in a box. He was attempting to visit his parents and wanted to save on the air fare by charging the shipping fees to his former employer. However, he was discovered during the final leg of his journey having successfully travelled by plane.ref|usdoj

Occurrences in popular culture

*"Flat Stanley", a 1964 children's book by Jeff Brown, sees the eponymous main character squashed flat in an accident and subsequently sent via air mail.
*A British television advertisement for Tennents lager has a man pretending to have stowed away in a large shipping crate in order to be deported back to the country he claims to have come from.
*The plot of one episode of "Beavis and Butthead" includes the pair trying to mail themselves.ref|straightdope
*The Velvet Underground song "The Gift" from the album "White Light/White Heat" has a grisly take on the perils of human mail.
*The music video for "If I Only Had a Brain" by MC 900 Ft. Jesus follows the rapper as he attempts to mail himself to an address in a magazine advertisement.
* In the movie "George of the Jungle", George ships himself via UPS back to the jungle from San Francisco.
* At the end of the "Simpsons" episode Bart on the Road, the boys return home hidden in a shipment couriered by Bart.
*Noodle of the Cartoon band Gorillaz arrived at Kong Studios in a FedEx crate, and, once, travelled back to Japan by mail.
*In the Richard Brautigan book "Trout Fishing in America", the narrator proposes that a legless wino named "Trout Fishing In America Shorty" should be shipped via mail to writer Nelson Algren.
* In the TV series Malcolm in The Middle, Reese attempts to ship himself to China, but is instead sent on a bogus journey by his brother without leaving the garage.
* In the TV series "Firefly", during the episode The Message, a former compatriot of Mal and Zoe mails himself to them so they would protect him from people he owed money to.
* In the episode The Chimes of Big Ben of the TV series "The Prisoner", Number Six's escape attempt includes being shipped in a wooden box from Poland to London.
* In Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's "The Adventure of the Cardboard Box", two ears are posted as proof of a murder to the victim's family.
* In the TV series Garfield and Friends, Garfield often attempts to mail his nuisance Nermal to Abu Dhabi.

ee also

*Freighthopping

References

# [http://docsouth.unc.edu/brownbox/menu.html Henry Box Brown, b. 1816 Narrative of the Life of Henry Box Brown, Written by Himself] – full text of the Narrative. Accessed 3 January 2006.
# (10 September 2003) " [http://web.archive.org/web/20050525225332/http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/txn/PressRel03/mckinley_complaint_pr.html Federal charge filed against man who shipped himself in crate] " at the U.S. Department of Justice. Accessed 3 January 2006.
# Adams, Cecil (30 December 2005) " [http://www.straightdope.com/columns/051230.html Special Delivery: Can a live person be packed in a shipping crate and mailed?] " at Straight Dope. Accessed 3 January 2006.

External links

* [http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_2170307.html Prisoner posts himself to freedom] at Ananova, 23 January 2007