64 lines
3.5 KiB
Plaintext
64 lines
3.5 KiB
Plaintext
|
|
|||
|
|
MARY REESER:
|
|||
|
|
A Case Study in
|
|||
|
|
Spontaneous Human Combustion
|
|||
|
|
----------------------------
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
The 1951 death of Mrs. Mary Reeser of St. Petersburg, FL, who was found reduced
|
|||
|
|
to ashes in a practically undamaged apartment, was a landmark case of
|
|||
|
|
spontaneous human combustion because it was the first instance where every
|
|||
|
|
possible tool of modern scientific investigation was used to determine the
|
|||
|
|
cause of this mysterious phenomenon. Yet despite the efforts of the FBI, fire
|
|||
|
|
officials, arson experts, and pathologists, a year after the incident Detective
|
|||
|
|
Cass Burgess of the St. Petersburg police commented as follows:
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Our investigation has turned up nothing that could
|
|||
|
|
be singled out as proving, beyond a doubt, what
|
|||
|
|
actually happened. The case is still open. We are
|
|||
|
|
still as far from establishing any logical cause
|
|||
|
|
for the death as we were when we first entered
|
|||
|
|
Mrs. Reeser's apartment.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
And Dr. Wilton M. Krogman, a physical anthropologist at the University of
|
|||
|
|
Pennsylvania's School of Medicine and a world-renowned expert on the effects of
|
|||
|
|
fire on the human body, finally gave up trying to figure out what happened. Dr.
|
|||
|
|
Krogman said:
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
I regard it as the most amazing thing I have ever
|
|||
|
|
seen. As I review it, the short hairs on my neck
|
|||
|
|
bristle with vague fear. Were I living in the Middle
|
|||
|
|
Ages, I'd mutter something about Black Magic.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Here are the details of the case:
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Mrs. Mary Hardy Reeser, an agreeable, motherly widow of 67, was living in St.
|
|||
|
|
Petersburg, Florida, to be near her son, Dr. Richard Reeser. On the evening of
|
|||
|
|
July 1, 1951, she had remained in her son's home with one of her grandchildren
|
|||
|
|
while the rest of the family went to the beach. When they returned, they found
|
|||
|
|
that Mrs. Reeser had already left for her own apartment. The younger Mrs.
|
|||
|
|
Reeser drove to her mother-in-law's to see if everything was all right.
|
|||
|
|
According to her testimony, there was nothing in Mrs. Reeser's appearance or
|
|||
|
|
demeanor to cause any alarm. Dr. Reeser visited his mother later that evening.
|
|||
|
|
She was mildly depressed over the fact that she had not heard from two friends
|
|||
|
|
who were supposed to rent an apartment for her in anticipation of a return trip
|
|||
|
|
to Columbia, PA, formerly her hometown. His mother told him that she wished to
|
|||
|
|
retire early and would take two sleeping pills to ensure a good night's rest.
|
|||
|
|
Dr. Reeser left at about 8:30 PM and returned to his home.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
The last person to see Mrs. Reeser alive was her landlady, Mrs. Pansy M.
|
|||
|
|
Carpenter, who lived in another apartment in the four-unit building (the two
|
|||
|
|
units between them were unoccupied). Mrs. Carpenter saw Mrs. Reeser briefly at
|
|||
|
|
about 9 PM. She was wearing her nightgown, a housecoat, and black satin
|
|||
|
|
slippers and was lounging in a comfortable chair smoking a cigarette. The bed
|
|||
|
|
covers had been turned back. Mrs. Reeser's last night was a typical summer
|
|||
|
|
night in Florida: the sky was overcast with occasional flashes of heat
|
|||
|
|
lightning in the distance.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
When Mrs. Carpenter woke up Monday morning at 5AM, she noticed a slight odor of
|
|||
|
|
smoke but was not alarmed, since she attributed the smell to a water pump in
|
|||
|
|
the garage that had been overheating lately. She got up, turned off the pump,
|
|||
|
|
and settled back into bed. When she got up an hour later to collect her
|
|||
|
|
newspaper outside, she no longer smelled any smoke.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
[CONTINUED IN SHC2.TXT]
|
|||
|
|
|