Curious Case of Mary Reeser

On the 2nd of July 1951 in Saint Petersburg, Florida, Mary Hardy Reeser was visited by her son, Dr. Richard Reeser, in the evening in her apartment. Mary told her son that she had taken 2 seconal tablets, a mild sedative commonly used to calm patients before surgery and was possibly planning to take 2 more before bed.

Later that night, Mary would fall asleep in her upholstered chair. The next morning, Mary's landlady reported smelling smoke at around 5 am, but it wasn't until 8 am, when the landlady was on her way to deliver a telegram to Mary that she noted smelling smoke again.

She discovered soot in the hallway, which led to Mary Reeser's apartment, and when she went to open the door, the handle was too hot to touch.

She then asked some neighbours to help her get into the apartment, where she found the cremated remains of Mary Reeser, whose skull had reportedly shrunken to the size of a cup. Parts of her spine also remained, but most disturbingly, was her foot, completely untouched, still in her black satin slipper.

According to cremation experts, Mary's body would have had to burn at 3,000 degrees Fahrenheit for 3 - 4 hours, but apart from the chair Mary sat in, the surrounding area of the apartment was relatively unaffected by the fire.

Near the site of the fire, the wall was un-scorched and showing no signs of cracked paint, and the upper walls were blackened by soot and smoke, but the lower half was not.

The apartments light switches were scorched and melting, but the plug outlets bellow was unaffected, and a stack of newspaper nearby wasn't touched.

Also, none of Mary neighbours heard the fire that night, despite firemen coming on the scene describing the heat as so intense they 'couldn't stand it', but also found no signs of smouldering.

Chief detective Cass Burgess described the case as 'perplexing', and Dr. Wilton Krogman, professor of physical anthropology was 'amazed and baffled' and could not 'conceive of such a complete cremation without more burning of the apartment itself.'

He also stated that in his 30+ fire investigations, he had never seen a skull shrink like Mary's had, as most skulls usually swell or explode.

Investigators sent samples of the chair, rug, debris and smoke to an FBI laboratory for chemical analysis but found no traces of combustibles. They did however find melted fat in the rug.

There have been many speculations as to the cause of the fire. A local mattress company pointed out that the regular chair stuffing would not cause such a fire, and the material would only smoulder for an extended period of time.

Lightning and electrical failure was also ruled out on the scene; however, Mary was reportedly seen smoking a cigarette in that chair the night before.

According to the FBI and police, the fire was most likely started by Mary falling asleep whilst smoking a cigarette, which possibly lead to her lighting her night gown on fire. The FBI have said that 'once the body became ignited, almost complete destruction occurred from its own fatty tissues.'

Another theory is that the fire was started purposefully caused by thermite bombs, kerosene, magnesium and phosphorus and even napalm. However, according to the coroner on the case, all of those chemicals would leave a distinct odour, which weren't detected at the scene.

The final theory is that Mary was a victim of spontaneous human combustion.

There have been roughly 200 cases of spontaneous combustion, with the earliest being in 1470 in Milan, Italy, when Polonus Vorstius burst into flames after a night of drinking. His death was recorded in 1641 by Thomas Bartholin, a mathematician and doctor.

Then in 1745, the countess Cornelia Bandi of Cesena, Italy, was found burnt to a pill of ashes with only her legs intact.

A more modern case is in 1982 when Jean Saffin's family reported seeing her burst into flames in her London home, and in 2010, when a coroner claimed spontaneous human combustion was the cause of death of 76-year-old Irishman Michael Faherty, who was found in his home with none of his surroundings badly burnt.

The spontaneous human combustion process involves the internal fluids turning into gas, and the melted fat burning the organs and bones. Some unproven theories as to how the body will be able to combust so quickly is static electricity, bacteria, stress, obesity and alcohol consumption.

In 2012 in the new scientist magazine, biologist Brian Ford theorises that a large concentration of acetate in the body may contribute to spontaneous combustion. Acetone build-up may come from alcohol intact, variations in diet and diabetes.

A key feature of human combustion cases is the lack of struggle from the victims, which potentially disregards the cigarette theory, however, there is still no definitive proof that Mary Reeser was a victim of spontaneous human combustion.

#HumanConbustion #FBI #Fire #Conspiracy #Science