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.