So, it turns out that the story published a couple of weeks ago about Hungarian workers who drank from a rum barrel that was later found to contain a dead body is 10 years old and impossible to substantiate. Reuters, one of the many news services that picked up the story from a police Web site in Hungary, has withdrawn it, reports MSNBC..
Meanwhile, the Budapest Times followed up on the initial report by contacting its author, Imola Knáb, who stood by the story. "After our investigation we saw no reason to doubt the story's credibility and we revealed the name and face of the Szeged police officer involved," he said. The police officer allegedly involved in the case refused to comment, however, and a spokesman for the Hungarian Foreign Ministry openly scoffed at the idea that the corpse in question, that of a diplomat, wouldn't have been properly shipped home from Jamaica by the embassy itself. In reality, he told the Times, it would have been much harder to bring a 300-litre rum barrel into the country than a dead body.
Meanwhile, the Budapest Times followed up on the initial report by contacting its author, Imola Knáb, who stood by the story. "After our investigation we saw no reason to doubt the story's credibility and we revealed the name and face of the Szeged police officer involved," he said. The police officer allegedly involved in the case refused to comment, however, and a spokesman for the Hungarian Foreign Ministry openly scoffed at the idea that the corpse in question, that of a diplomat, wouldn't have been properly shipped home from Jamaica by the embassy itself. In reality, he told the Times, it would have been much harder to bring a 300-litre rum barrel into the country than a dead body.
Comments
This sounds very much like an old story/myth that says that when Admiral Nelson died at sea he was preserved in a full barrel of rum. The story goes that for years later there were bottles of “Nelson Rum” or some such name that came from that barrel.
Nice try.