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397 lines
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(word processor parameters LM=8, RM=75, TM=2, BM=2)
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Taken from KeelyNet BBS (214) 324-3501
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Sponsored by Vangard Sciences
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PO BOX 1031
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Mesquite, TX 75150
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There are ABSOLUTELY NO RESTRICTIONS
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on duplicating, publishing or distributing the
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files on KeelyNet!
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June 23, 1991
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SHC2.ASC
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MARY REESER:
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A Case Study in
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Spontaneous Human Combustion
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----------------------------
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The 1951 death of Mrs. Mary Reeser of St. Petersburg, FL, who was
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found reduced to ashes in a practically undamaged apartment, was a
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landmark case of spontaneous human combustion because it was the
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first instance where every possible tool of modern scientific
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investigation was used to determine the cause of this mysterious
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phenomenon. Yet despite the efforts of the FBI, fire officials,
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arson experts, and pathologists, a year after the incident Detective
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Cass Burgess of the St. Petersburg police commented as follows:
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Our investigation has turned up nothing that could
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be singled out as proving, beyond a doubt, what
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actually happened. The case is still open. We are
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still as far from establishing any logical cause
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for the death as we were when we first entered
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Mrs. Reeser's apartment.
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And Dr. Wilton M. Krogman, a physical anthropologist at the
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University of Pennsylvania's School of Medicine and a world-renowned
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expert on the effects of fire on the human body, finally gave up
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trying to figure out what happened. Dr. Krogman said:
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I regard it as the most amazing thing I have ever
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seen. As I review it, the short hairs on my neck
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bristle with vague fear. Were I living in the Middle
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Ages, I'd mutter something about Black Magic.
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Here are the details of the case:
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Mrs. Mary Hardy Reeser, an agreeable, motherly widow of 67, was
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living in St. Petersburg, Florida, to be near her son, Dr.
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Richard Reeser. On the evening of July 1, 1951, she had remained
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in her son's home with one of her grandchildren while the rest
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of the family went to the beach. When they returned, they found
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that Mrs. Reeser had already left for her own apartment. The
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younger Mrs. Reeser drove to her mother-in-law's to see if
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everything was all right.
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According to her testimony, there was nothing in Mrs. Reeser's
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Page 1
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appearance or demeanor to cause any alarm. Dr. Reeser visited
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his mother later that evening.
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She was mildly depressed over the fact that she had not heard
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from two friends who were supposed to rent an apartment for her
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in anticipation of a return trip to Columbia, PA, formerly her
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hometown. His mother told him that she wished to retire early
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and would take two sleeping pills to ensure a good night's rest.
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Dr. Reeser left at about 8:30 PM and returned to his home.
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The last person to see Mrs. Reeser alive was her landlady, Mrs.
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Pansy M. Carpenter, who lived in another apartment in the four-
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unit building (the two units between them were unoccupied).
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Mrs. Carpenter saw Mrs. Reeser briefly at about 9 PM. She was
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wearing her nightgown, a housecoat, and black satin slippers and
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was lounging in a comfortable chair smoking a cigarette. The bed
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covers had been turned back. Mrs. Reeser's last night was a
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typical summer night in Florida: the sky was overcast with
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occasional flashes of heat lightning in the distance.
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When Mrs. Carpenter woke up Monday morning at 5AM, she noticed a
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slight odor of smoke but was not alarmed, since she attributed
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the smell to a water pump in the garage that had been
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overheating lately. She got up, turned off the pump, and settled
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back into bed. When she got up an hour later to collect her
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newspaper outside, she no longer smelled any smoke.
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At 8AM a telegram arrived for Mrs. Reeser. Mrs. Carpenter signed
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the receipt and went to her tenant's apartment to bring her the
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telegram. The doorknob, when she placed her hand on it, was
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hot. Alarmed, she stepped back and shouted for help.
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Two painters working across the street ran over. One of them
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opened the door; as he entered, he felt a blast of hot air.
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Thinking of rescuing Mrs. Reeser, he frantically looked around
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but saw no signs of her. The bed was empty. There was some
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smoke, but the only fire was a small flame on a wooden beam,
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over a partition separating the living room and kitchenette.
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The firemen arrived, put out the small flame with a hand pump.
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and tore away part of the partition. When Assistant Fire Chief
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S. O. Griffith began his inspection of the premises, he could
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not believe his eyes.
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In the middle of the floor there was a charred area roughly four
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feet in diameter, inside of which he found a number of blackened
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chair springs and the ghastly remains of a human body,
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consisting of a charred liver attached to a piece of the spine,
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a shrunken skull, one foot still wearing a black satin slipper,
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and a small pile of ashes.
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Coroner Edward T. Silk arrived to examine the body and survey
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the apartment. Although deeply puzzled, he decided the death
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was accidental and authorized the removal of the remains. The
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scooped-up ashes, the tiny shrunken head, and the slipper-
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encased foot were taken by ambulance to a local hospital.
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The ensuing investigation included police and fire officials as
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Page 2
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well as arson experts. The facts that confronted them seemed
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inexplicable considering the great heat necessary to account for
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Mrs. Reeser's incinerated body.
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Little of the furniture, other than the chair and the end table
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next to it, was badly damaged, but the apartment had suffered
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some peculiar effects. The ceiling, draperies and walls, from a
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point exactly four feet above the floor, were coated with a
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smelly, oily soot. Below this four foot mark there was none.
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The wall paint adjacent to the chair was faintly browned, but
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the carpet where the chair had rested was not even burned
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through. A wall mirror 10 feet away had cracked, probably from
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heat. On a dressing table 12 feet away, two pink wax candles had
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puddled, but their wicks lay undamaged in their holders.
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Plastic wall outlets above the four foot mark were melted, but
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the fuses were not blown and the current was on. The baseboard
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electrical outlets were undamaged. An electric clock plugged
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into one of the outlets had stopped at precisely 4:20, but the
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same clock ran perfectly when plugged into one of the baseboard
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outlets.
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Newspapers nearby on a table and draperies and linens on the
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daybed close at hand - all flammable - were not damaged. And
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though the painters and Mrs. Carpenter had felt a wave of heat
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when they opened the door, no one had noted smoke or burning
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odor and there were no embers or flames in the ashes.
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Faced with such a mystery, the St. Petersburg authorities called in
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the FBI. Laboratory findings showed that Mrs. Reeser's estimated
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weight of 175 lbs. had been reduced to a total of less than 10
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lbs., including the foot and shrunken head.
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The final report concluded that no known chemical agents or other
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accelerants had been involved in starting the fire.
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Dr. Krogman has burned cadavers with gasoline, oil, wood, and all
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kinds of other agents. He has experimented with bones encased in
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flesh or stripped, both moist and dry. His tests have utilized
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combustion apparatus ranging from outdoor pyres to the most modern
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pressurized crematorium equipment.
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He has demonstrated conclusively that it takes extraordinary heat to
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consume a body, and that only at over 3000 degrees Fahrenheit would
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bone become volatile enough to lose its shape and leave only ashes.
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"These are very great heats", he said, "that would sear,
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char, scorch or otherwise mar or effect anything and
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everything within a considerable radius."
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Another mystery was the slippered left foot, which Mrs. Reeser,
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having been in some discomfort, was in the habit of propping up on a
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stool. The foot was left unburned, apparently because it was outside
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the mysterious four-foot radius of incineration.
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Perhaps strangest of all, and unique to this case of SHC, was the
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shrunken skull. Dr. Krogman commented:
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Page 3
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...the head is not left complete in ordinary burning cases.
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Certainly it does NOT shrivel or symmetrically reduce to a
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smaller size. In presence of heat sufficient to destroy soft
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tissues, the skull would literally explode in many pieces.
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I...have never known any exception to this rule.
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____________________________________________________________________
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SEE: Michael Harrison, - "Fire From Heaven"
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Vincent Gaddis, - "Mysterious Fires and Lights"
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Francis Hitching, - "The Mysterious World: An Atlas of the
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Unexplained"
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Frank Edwards, - "Stranger than Science"
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Reader's Digest, - "Mysteries of the Unexplained"
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____________________________________________________________________
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The following conversation took place at 3:17 PM MST on October 16,
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1985, between myself and Captain Jerry Hubbard, Public Information
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Officer for the San Jose Fire Department. In reading the transcript,
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pay special attention to these key elements that seem to crop up in
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_MOST_, but not all, SHC events:
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o The probable ingestion of alcohol
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o The victim is usually a loner type, and/or is alone at time
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of the event.
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o An appendage is left untouched.
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o Surroundings do not catch fire.
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I'm not sure what we're dealing with, but I think it becomes clear
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that it is not a non-event or misobservation. And this does not come
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from the Enquirer.
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____________________________________________________________________
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BEGIN TRANSCRIPT:
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JS Tony Russomano gave me your name.
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JH I know Tony.
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JS You know Tony, OK.
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JH Channel 7.
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JS Right. We've been investigating, sort of as a project,
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Spontaneous Human Combustion.
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JH Ah.
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JS Tony tells me, a couple of years ago, you had a real
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strange one.
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JH We did.
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JS OK, what can you tell me about it, was it...solved, or is
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it still on the strange list?
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JH No, it hasn't been solved. The situation is what we call
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an accidental fire death. It was in a boxcar in a
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Southern Pacific RailRoad yard. We were called
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there, because somebody spotted from a Thrifty
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store....said they saw smoke coming from a
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boxcar...When we got there we had a dead body,
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completely consumed, 100% all over...
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JS Not one thing left?
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JH Not one thing left, well, with the exception of, uh, a
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quarter of an ankle or something, and where the
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victim's head was laying against the boxcar. Now
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the strange thing about this...
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Page 4
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JS Yes?
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JH The only thing that burned was the body!
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JS Uh, what about the clothing?
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JH Oh, and the clothing burned off, yeah, and apparently we
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are assuming that the person was in a sleeping
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bag. That was completely gone.
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JS The sleeping bag was gone.
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JH Yeah. The only thing that was left was kind of a
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skeleton-type thing, uh, burned charred bones, and
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a foot, I believe, was burned off. But the boxcar
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never caught fire.
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JS The boxcar never...was it a wooden-floored boxcar?
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JH Yeah, wooden floor, wooden sides. And, when we had the
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body removed by the coroner's office, all you saw
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strictly that, that was burned, was maybe a
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quarter of an inch of charring. It never caught on
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fire. Now what we're saying could possibly have
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happened was that somebody could have gotten mad,
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as winos or transient people do, could have soaked
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the person in liquid, flammable...we have no
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indication of [flammable liquid] at all. Ok, the
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fire was contained strictly to the body, and the
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sleeping bag, or blanket, whatever it may have
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been. [But] if you had used flammable liquid it
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would have ignited the entire boxcar....that
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didn't occur.
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JS Uh-Huh. Was there any kind of an oily residue on the
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sides or walls of the boxcar?
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JH Ah-hah, see, now you're getting good, that's interesting.
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We'd probably have to look into the fire report on
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that, to see if the fire investigator spotted that
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one at all. Best I can recall is that, I went to
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the scene, got there before the body was removed,
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but the best I can recall is that, we could tell
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it was a male,...
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JS There was no identification made?
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JH No. I don't know if the coroners, from this point on,
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have discovered who it might have been through
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dental charts or something.
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JS Now you said before that there was nothing left, except
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for part of an ankle. OK, now when you say that,
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do you mean that there was nothing left as far as
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skin, or his bones [were consumed] or....
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JS No. He still had a skull intact and chest intact, but he
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was charred completely all over his body. You
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wanted just ashes and a foot, huh? <laughs> Can't
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give that to ya. No, best I can recall is, that I
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remember seeing an ankle and a foot, by itself,
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and the only way that could have happened is that
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that foot was sticking outside of the sack and
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didn't get involved, but it [the fire] stayed
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there and burned him _severely_, so that he wasn't
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recognizable at all.
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END TRANSCRIPT
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Vangard note...
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SHC (spontaneous human combustion) has been an interest here for
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Page 5
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several years now. As a result, we have SHC1, a file indicating
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a relationship between Deuterium Oxide and this mysterious
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burning effect. It has been called the "fire from heaven" in
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ancient times and was believed to have been punishment sent from
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the gods.
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The book and movie Alternative Three mentions the effect as
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something which could be directed to a target using some form of
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unspecified technology.
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There is also the possiblity of it being some mysterious
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combination of foods or other factors which produce a
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tremendously hot and highly localized flame.
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Finally, the work of George Crile led him to postulate the
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existence of what he termed "radiogens". These were miniature
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nuclear furnaces within the cells of all bodies consisting of
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flaming iron suns. Crile estimated the heat from these
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miniature suns as being on the order of 6000 degrees Celsius.
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In addition, the nuclear energy generated in the cell helped the
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body to fulfill the conversion of mass to energy as well as the
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transmutation of one mass to another as in Louis Kervrans'
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"Biological Transmutation".
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The reason why bodies fail to incinerate from these tremendous
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temperatures is due to the nature of the inverse square law. As
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the energy radiates from the central mass, it cools due to
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spreading over successively greater distances.
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If for some reason, these nuclear furnaces "went wild", a
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fissioning process could result leading to the end result of
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"spontaneous human combustion".
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We therefore need to seek the "triggers" which lead to such
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fissioning.
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____________________________________________________________________
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If you have comments or other information relating to such topics
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as this paper covers, please upload to KeelyNet or send to the
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Vangard Sciences address as listed on the first page.
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Thank you for your consideration, interest and support.
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Jerry W. Decker.........Ron Barker...........Chuck Henderson
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Vangard Sciences/KeelyNet
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If we can be of service, you may contact
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Jerry at (214) 324-8741 or Ron at (214) 242-9346
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Page 6
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