Pioneering scientific analysis
Some early pathologists theorised that spontaneous human combustion was in certain circumstances caused by the body producing gases that combusted or `caught fire’ on exposure to quantities of oxygen.
The distinguished scientist Baron Karl von Reichenbach wrote of the ‘miasma of putrefaction’ of human bodies, for instance. But Liebig could find no evidence of such a gas, ‘in health, in disease, nay not even in the putrefaction of dead bodies.’
`Spontaneous combustion’ of a corpse
Dixon Mann and W. A. Brend, in their Forensic medicine and toxicology (1914) give the case of an overweight man who died two hours after admission to Guy’s Hospital, London, England, in 1885.
The following day his corpse was found bloated, the skin distended all over and filled with gas, although there was no sign of decomposition.
They stated: ‘When punctures were made in the skin, the gas escaped and burnt with a flame like that of carburetted hydrogen; as many as a dozen flames were burning at the same time.’
If the man had died at home near a fire, another case of ’spontaneous human combustion’ would have been reported, which would have confused researchers even further.
However, gases within the body tissues of the sort suggested would be fatally toxic, and the victim would have been gravely ill or dead. And generally there are no such symptoms: victims have often been seen alive shortly before their flaming. Nor does this theory account for the observed fact of clothes that are left unburnt on a charred corpse.
The bodily malfunction theory
As an alternative to the disease theory, we might consider organic or mechanical malfunctions of normal processes within the body. Ivan Sanderson and, before him, Vincent Gaddis, speculated about the build-up of phosphagens in muscle tissue, particularly the vitamin BIO, vital to normal energy supplies.
A technical paper in AppliedTrophology (December 1957) included this relevant paragraph:
`Phosphagen is a compound like nitro-glycerine, of endothermic formation. It is no doubt so highly developed in certain sedentary persons as to make their bodies actually combustible, subject to ignition, burning like wet gun-powder under some circumstances.’
This may explain the readiness of some bodies to blaze, but we still have to identify the source of ignition - the factor that actually causes spontaneous human combustion.
Suspected black magic
Workmen are seen here clearing away the remains of the chair in which a suspected spontaneous human combustion victim died.
Mrs Mary Reeser, a widow of 67, of St Petersburg, Florida, died on a pillar of fire, during the night of i July 1951. Damage to the surroundings was minimal. The overstuffed chair was burned down to its springs, there was a patch of soot on the ceiling above and a small circle of carpet was charred around the chair, but a pile of papers nearby was unscorched.
Dr Wilton Krogman, a forensic scientist who specialised in fire deaths, was visiting in the area and joined the investigation.
He said:”I cannot conceive of such complete cremation without more burning of the apartment itself. In fact the apartment and everything in it should have been consumed. Never have I seen a human skull shrunk by intense heat.
The opposite has always been true; the skulls have been either abnormally swollen or have virtually exploded into hundreds of pieces … 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.”
Police considered every likely theory, and a few unasked-for ideas from cranky members of the public: suicide by petrol, ignition of methane gas in her body, murder by flame-thrower, ‘atomic pill’ (whatever that meant), magnesium, phosphorus and napalm substances . . . and even a ‘ball of fire’ which one anonymous letter-writer claimed to see.
In the end the coroner accepted the FBI theory, that she had fallen asleep while smoking and set her clothes alight.
Dr Krogman himself proffered the idea that Mrs Reeser had been burned elsewhere by someone with access to crematorium-type equipment or materials, then was carried back to the apartment, where the mystery assailant had added the finishing touches, like heat-buckled plastic objects, and a doorknob that was still hot in the morning.
A year later, the police confessed the case was still open.
Early `reliable’ report
Probably the earliest reliable report of spontaneous human combustion was reported in Verona, Italy, in the 18th. century.
According to a statement by Bianchini, a prebendary (clergyman) of Verona, dated 4 April 1731, the 62-year-old Countess Cornelia Bandi had been put to bed after supper, and fell asleep after several hours’ conversation with her maid.
In the morning the maid returned to wake her and found a grisly scene. The `Gentlemen’s Magazine’ reported: ‘The floor of the chamber was thick-smear’d with a gluish moisture, not easily got off . . . and from the lower part of the window trickl’d down a greasy, loathsome, yellowish liquor with an unusual stink.’
Specks of soot hung in the air and covered all the surfaces in the room, and the smell had penetrated adjoining rooms. The bed was undamaged, the sheets turned back, indicating the Countess had got out of bed.
Four feet [1 .3 metres] from the bed was a heap of ashes, two legs untouch’d, stockings on, ‘between which lay the head, the brains, half of the back-part of the skull and the whole chin burn’d to ashes, among which were found three fingers blacken’d.
All the rest was ashes which had this quality - that they left in the hand a greasy and stinking moisture.
In photo: an unidentified spontaneous human combustion victim
A newspaper stand during the American civil war or War Between the States
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