Just to add more pre-Rawlings history, I did a usenet groups search, and one of the very earliest mentions of 'hand of glory' is this posting from 1992:
J. E. Shum
Feb 10 1992, 9:26 pm
Newsgroups: alt.horror
From: j...@mitre.org (J. E. Shum)
Date: 10 Feb 92 18:30:35 GMT
Local: Mon, Feb 10 1992 7:30 pm
Subject: Information concerning "Hand of Glory"
From _Brewer's Dictionary Of Phrase And Fable_, Centenary Edition, Revised;
Copyright 1959, 1963, 1970, 1981 by Cassell Ltd.; Library of Congress
Number - 81-47407; Edited by Ivor H. Evans:
Page 485
Glory. Hand of Glory. In folk-lore, a dead
man's hand, preferably one cut from the
body of a man who has been hanged, soaked
in oil, and used as a magic torch by
thieves. Roberts Graves points out that
the _Hand of Glory_ is a translation of
the French _main de gloire_, a corruption
of _mandragore_, the plant _mandragora_
(mandrake), whose roots had a similar magic
value to thieves. Cp. DEAD MAN'S HAND
Page 317
Dead Man's Hand. In the western states of
U.S.A., a combination of aces and eights in
poker, so called because when Sheriff Wild
Bill Hickock was shot in the back at
Deadwoods, S. Dakota, he held such cards in
his hand.
It is said that carrying a dead man's
hand will provide a dead sleep. Another
superstition is that a lighted candle
placed in the hand of a dead man gives no
light to anyone but him who carries the
hand. See HAND OF GLORY under GLORY.
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