What is the orgin of the phrase graveyard shift?

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In the 1800's, medical science wasn't what it is today, and people who were merely in a deep coma were often pronounced dead. When their coffins were dug up ( who knows why....flooding perhaps, or by vandals) they would occasionally find scratch/claw marks on the inside of the coffin lid, indicating that the person had regained consciousness and tried to fight their way out. The practice then became to attach a bell on a long cord to the hand of the supposedly deceased. During the day, the cemetary attendants would listen for bells ringing, but the shift of workers whose sole job was to listen for the bells of the buried but undead, from midnight to dawn, became known as the Graveyard Shift.

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