The Dead Alive is a novella written in 1874 by Wilkie Collins based on the Boorn Brothers murder case. The first idea of this little story was suggested to the author by a printed account of a trial which actually took place, early in the present century, in the United States... It may not be amiss to add, for the benefit of incredulous readers, that all the &#39;&#39;improbable events&#39;&#39; in the story are matters of fact, taken from the printed narrative. Anything which &#39;&#39;looks like truth&#39;&#39; is, in nine cases out of ten, the invention of the author.<br />A man is sentenced to death for the murder of a person still alive.