A 19thC Cornish woman see headless pallbearers carrying a coffin in the farmyard below her window.

Mr Jim Thomas relates that the hamlet of Crane, near Camborne, was formerly much troubled by spirits, and was in consequence greatly feared by the old people after dark. One moonlight night a certain woman looking out of her bedroom window saw four headless men carrying a coffin through the 'townplace' (farmyard) below. So much was she affected by the sight that she wisely determined never to risk such an awful vision again.

There's something very disturbing about headless pallbearers carrying a coffin. This could have been a trick used by smugglers to dress up so and carry their booty in a coffin, counting on superstition to avoid careful scrutiny.