"The Spontaneous Human Combustion Of Mary Reeser" is a video made by Ryan Bergara and Shane Madej, uploaded onto YouTube on May 19, 2017. It is the seventh episode of the second season of BuzzFeed Unsolved: Supernatural, and the twenty-sixth episode overall. You can watch it here.
Description[]
What caused this woman to burst into flames?
Background[]
On July 2, 1951 in st. Petersburg, Florida, Mary Hardy Reeser was visited by her son in the evening at her apartment. Mary told her son that she had taken two seconal tablets, a drug commonly used to calm patients before surgery, and was possibly planning on taking two more before bed.
Later that night, Mary would fall asleep sitting in her upholstered chair for the last time, as Mary would become the victim of an apparent house fire. The next morning, Mary's landlady would report smelling smoke at 5:00 a.m., but it wasn't until 8 a.m. when the landlady was on her way to deliver a telegram to Mary that she noticed the smell of smoke again. She discovered soot in the hallway that led to Mary Reeser's apartment. When she went to touch the door handle, it was too hot for her to grab, so the landlady enlisted the help of nearby house painters, who made their way into the apartment.
What they discovered would simultaneously horrify and confound the Tampa Bay Area. Inside the apartment, they found the cremated remains of Mary Reeser: a skull had reportedly shrunk to the size of a cup. Parts of Reeser's spine also remained. But perhaps the most gruesome was Reeser's left foot, still in its black satin slipper, the skin unburned. The rest of Mary's remains had been completely cremated.
However, what makes this case bizarre is the condition of Mary's surroundings. According to cremation experts, for Mary's body to be cremated, the body would have to burn at 3,000 degrees Fahrenheit for three to four hours. Yet somehow, other than the chair that Mary sat in, the surrounding area, as well as the apartment in general, seemed relatively unaffected by a fire that was at least 3,000 degrees. In the corner where the fire occurred, the nearby walls were not damaged, showing no signs of scorching or cracked paint. The upper walls and ceiling were blackened from soot and smoke, but the lower half of the apartment was not. Light switches were melted, but outlets below were intact and functioning. Candles on a nearby windowsill had melted, but their wick stood upright. A stack of newspapers in close proximity were undamaged. Neighbors to Mary's apartment were also somehow unaware of this fire. Firemen who came on the scene found the heat so intense that they "couldn't stand it," but also found no signs of smoldering.
Detective Chief Cass Burgess described the case as "perplexing". Dr. Wilton M. Krogman, professor of physical anthropology at the University of Pennsylvania was "amazed and baffled" as he cannot "conceive of such a complete cremation without more burning of the apartment itself." Dr. Krogman also stated that in his 30+ fire investigations, he had never seen a skull shrink like Mary's had. The skulls normally become swollen or explode. Investigators sent samples of the chair, rug, debris, and smoke to an FBI laboratory for chemical analysis. However, the investigation did not find traces of combustibles. What they did find was melted fat in the rug.
All this leads us to perhaps the most mysterious detail of the case: the cause of the fire. A local mattress company pointed out the regular chair stuffing would not cause such a fire, the material would merely smolder for a prolonged period. Lightning or electrical failure was also ruled out on the scene. However, the night before, Mary was reportedly seen smoking a cigarette in that chair. With that in mind, the FBI and police believe that the fire most likely started because Mary fell asleep while smoking a cigarette, which possibly led to her lighting her nightgown on fire. This would enact something known as the wick effect, where clothes act as a wick, setting fire to the body. The FBI felt that "once the body became ignited, almost complete destruction occurred from its own fatty tissues." At the time, Mary weighed about a 170 pounds.
Theories[]
- Detective Burgess received a letter addressed to the chief of detectives that said "a ball of fire came through the open window and hit her. I seen it happen."
- The fire was started purposefully, some suggest that the fire could have been caused by thermite bombs, kerosene, magnesium and phosphorus and napalm.
- But according to the coroner of the case, all of those would leave a distinct odor, none of which were detected at the scene.
- Mary was a victim of spontaneous human combustion. Allegedly, there have been roughly 200 recorded cases of spontaneous combustion.
- The earliest case of spontaneous human combustion dates back to 1470 in Milan, Italy, when Polonius Vorstius died by bursting into flames after a night of drinking. His gruesome death was recorded in 1641 by Thomas Bartholin, a Danish mathematician and doctor. In 1745, the countess Cornelia Bandi of Cesena, Italy was found burnt to a pile of ashes with only her legs intact. Skipping forward to modern times, in 1982, the family of Jean Saffin claimed they saw her burst into flames in her London home. In 2010, a coroner claimed spontaneous human combustion to be the cause of death of 76 year old Irishman Michael Faherty who was found in his home with none of his surroundings badly tarnished. And of course, Mary Reeser, who many believe is a victim of spontaneous human combustion.
- The human combustion process involves internal fluids turning into gas, and the melted fat of the body further burning organs and bones. If you recall, fat was found in the rug at the scene of Mary Reeser's death. Some considered the possibility of spontaneous human combustion to be questionable, since the body is made up of up to 70% of water, though there are components of the body that are flammable, such as body fat and methane gas. Unproven theories as to why the body would ignite so easily include static electricity, bacteria, stress, obesity, and alcohol consumption. Some also believe that human cells may reach a heightened state of vulnerability to ignite. In 2012, in an issue of New Scientist magazine biologist Brian J. Ford theorizes that a large concentration of acetate in the body may contribute to spontaneous combustion. Acetone build-up could result from alcohol intake, variations in diet, and diabetes. Cases of spontaneous combustion typically contain these three characteristics: surroundings of the site of the fire are not drastically damaged, there is no visible source of the fire, and finally, parts of the body are left intact and adjacent to the ashes. All of these were present in Mary Reeser's case.
- Another perplexing detail is why Mary, along with other suspected victims of spontaneous human combustion, do not try and escape their death, or in any way indicate that they are on fire. The lack of evidence of fighting for one's life is potentially damning in regards to the cigarette theory.
- Dr. Krogman is quoted as saying about the case: "they say truth is stranger than fiction and this case apparently proves it. I've never heard of anything like it."