Mary Reeser
YouTubeLeft: Mary Reeser, Right: Mary Reeser’s remains.
The charred and cremated remains of Mary Reeser found in her relatively untouched apartment makes her story one of the most unusual deaths of all time.
Known as the Cinder Woman, Reeser was a 67-year-old widow living in St. Petersburg, Florida at the time of her death.
Reeser’s landlady, Pansy Carpenter, discovered her body on July 2, 1951. She was attempting to deliver a telegram, but Reeser never answered the door. Carpenter found the doorknob to be hot and alerted authorities.
Police entered the apartment and found a grisly scene. Reeser’s body was nearly cremated. The only pieces left were parts of her spine, her skull (which had curiously shrunk), and one of her feet — completely untouched — with a black slipper still on it
According to the St. Petersburg Times, it takes a body three to four hours of constant burning at 2,500 degrees to achieve the level of cremation that Reeser’s body displayed. This greatly puzzled the investigators, because her apartment was relatively free of damage. A stack of newspapers next to the chair Reeser died on was unscorched.
Because of the inexplicable and strange circumstances of her case, it is suspected that Reeser was a victim of spontaneous combustion. In this phenomenon, a person suddenly bursts into flames due to a chemical reaction from within, without ignition by an external heat source.
The F.B.I., after analyzing her remains, concluded that Reeser didn’t spontaneously combust. Instead, they said that a cigarette was to blame for her fiery demise. They believed that Reeser’s own body fat (she weighed around 170 pounds) provided fuel for the fire — which was lit by a smoldering cigarette in her hand as she fell asleep.
But Dr. Wilton M. Krogman, a professor of physical anthropology at the University of Pennsylvania — and an experienced fire researcher — does not accept the F.B.I.’s conclusion. “I cannot conceive of such complete cremation without more burning of the apartment”, he said.
Spontaneous combustion skeptics and believers have hotly debated the true cause of Reeser’s death for nearly 70 years. One thing they can all agree on — the scene where she was discovered is unlike any other. She maintains one of the most unusual deaths history has seen.
