The bursting blue flames my: medical men and police investigators—the charred flesh gives the ci e labs no answers. This phenomenon can strike anyone, and THE BAFFLING BURNING DEATH W In Otawa, Illinois, « 200-pound woman siting near her sleep- ing husband suddenly burst into flames so intanso they reduced variably it brings... hor body 10 ashes and asphyxiat In St. Petersburg, Florida, a 67-year-old widow was seat in an overstuffed chair when spontoneous fire enveloped her, turning chair and woman to ashes, but not damaging the room. In Pontiac, Michigan, a 30-year-old man was severely burned hile siting in his auto—after having committed suicide—and his clothing wasn't even scorched In counties cll over the world and jin cities throughout the United Stotes, this baffling buming death hos consumed human beings in @ manner wholly incomprehensible, No one knows why i accurs or how often. In more than 100 recorded cases, no ‘common denominator has been established for the victims. Skeptical? | was, 100, at first. This strange malady, the burning death, is certainly not listed in the Standard Nomenclature of Disease or in the World Health Organization's classification of doth causes, But I talked with doctors, firemen, special inves gators who hod had contact with its ghaslly results; | talked with the relatives of its victims; | talked with the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Suddenly the idea of the burning death wasn’ ridiculous, t wasn't @ gag or a hoax or a pipe-dream. Instead, it was @ serious threat made infinitely more tervfying by our very lack of knowledge about it, by our inability even to guess who might be susceptible to it. Only one thing is sure: there will be more victims—possibly you, possibly me. Understendably, you don't believe it yet. What follows may change your mind, Charles Dickens was familiar with the burning doath and bumped off one of his characters in Bloak House with for which he received a storm of criticism, People tend to dis jeve it merely because it sounds so strange, end oven the authorities involved in such cases are inclined to doubt the evidence before them That's the way it was with the cose thet occurred in Honotuly BY ALLAN W. ECKERT in Dece 956, Mrs. Virginia Caget, 1130 Mi sensed something amiss in the next room where o 78-year-old cripple named Young Sik Kim lived. She dashed in to find hin wrapped in blue flames too hot to approach. When firemen got here 1S minutes lator, the victim and his overstuffed chair were cashes. All that remained were Kim's undamaged feet, sill resting on his whoolchair whore he'd propped them. The flammable ins and some clothing hanging nearby wore unharmed, yet the radiant heat from a fire copable of doing such destruct to the man must have been enormous. Investigating officials could ber, inakea Street, give no answer. Similar cases have been noted throughout America since the days of the colonists, but the first to be reported in considerable detail concered the fate of Patrick Rooney and his wife, in Ottawa, Illinois, On the evening of December 27, 1885, the Rooneys and their hired hand, John larson, were drinking frosly al the kitchen table from a jug of Christmas spirits. About mid- night Larson decided he had had enough and staggered upstairs to bed, but his employers were sill at the jug. When Larson came down in the morning to do his chores, his lantern revealed a grisly scene, The kichen reeked of e nauseat- ing odor, and thick, oily soot coated everything. Pat Rooney lay dead on the Noor beside the table. Hefty 200-pound Mrs, Rooney was nowhere in sight. ‘Summoned by Larson, the police investigated, and found the ugly soot had even drifted upstairs, oullining the hired hand's head on the pillow as he slopt. In the kitchon they found @ thros. by-fourfoot hole through the floor, and on the bore ground & couple of feet below, all that remained of the big woman—a burned piece of skull, two charred vertebrae, a few foot bones, @ pile of ashes. No other part of the floor was bumed, and although a comer of the tablecloth hung over the hole, it was only slightly browned Unable to pin the rap on Larson, the authorities finally ruled that Mrs. Rooney had died of bums of unknown origin and thot Pat Rooney had suffocated from the fumes. But no one attempted to explain the minimal damage to the house, despite the fact that 1 fire hot enough to incinerate Mrs. Rooney would have had to reach a temperature of 3,000 to 5,000° F. ‘An even more remarkable lack of damage was found when the burning death touched its lery fingers to Mrs, Thomas Coch- rene of Falkirk, England. Her ashed remains were found in an overstufied chair surrounded by pillows, none damaged beyond 4 light scorching, And near Dover, New Jersey, © hotel owner named Tom Murphy discovered his housekeeper, Lilian Green, lying on the carpet ot the foot of the stairs, horribly charred Only @ small singed outline on the cotton carpet indicated where the body had burned. The burning death has been termed SHC or PC, SHC stands for Spontaneous Human Combustion, @ condition in which oll calls of the body suddenly begin burning simultaneously throug’: can inexplicable sell-combustibilty; PC means Preternatural Com busty, in which the cells reach the critical stage of ignition but need @ spark from on outside [Continued on page 104] 38THE BAFFLING BURNING DEATH [Continued from page 33] source before they will burst into flame. ‘When I checked with Dr. Alfred Soffer, department head of The Journal of the American Medical Association, I learned. that the AMA does not officially recognize SHG/PG, and that the «wo phenomena are not mentioned in various AMA pub- ications of in the organization's bible, Index Medicus. Nonetheless, certain AMA members of high repute, such as Dr. Wilton Marion Krogman ‘and Dr. Lester Adelson, both renowned putholo: gisis, have personally encountered the ‘fleets of SHC/PC and, though mystified by ig, do not deny its existence. While the AMA may not recognize SHC/PC, Northwestern University’s Journal of Criminal Law, Criminology land Police Science is interested. In its ‘March-April, 1952, ise was published a TTepage Scientific paper entitled “Spon- taneous Human Combustion and Pre- ternatural Combustibility,” written. by Dr. Adelson, who is a magna eum lende griduate of Harvard and chief deputy coroner for Cuyahoga County (Cleve. land) , Ohio. ‘ ‘Through the years, particularly in the more recent cases, investigating authori ties have ascribed SHC/PC deaths mainly to such rendily understandable causes as burns resulting from falling asleep while smoking, electrocution, tumbling into a fireplace, and even being deliberately set ‘fie by another person, apparendy hecause these reasons for death are ac- fable within the knowledge of the ferage man, whatever the evidence— and SHG/PG is not. In many of the in- stances I checked out, the authorities showed a marked reluctance to tlk, and in some there was outright refusal. How: cover, in the significant case of Billy Peter son of Pontiac, Michigan, the investiga- tors were perleetly open in their answers. ‘On December 13, 1950, Peterson, 30, left his mother at his unele’s house where they'd’ been visiting and drove home alone. AC T:A5 pan. less than an hour later, a passing motorist saw smoke escap- ing from the car parked in the Peterson garage and put in an alarm, Fire Liew- tenant Richard Luxon and his crew ar- rived and found the right front seat smoldering where the exhaust pipe had been bent to lead into the closed car. Peterson sat in the left front seat & cou ple of feet from the smoldering upliol radioed from his engine for x rescue truck, and Peterson was taken (0 Pontiac General Hospital, where Dr. Donald McCandless pronounced him dead. An autopsy established that Peter son had died of carbor-monoxide poison ing. This fitted right in line with the police findings of apparent suicide, De- Spondent because of an illness that had Kept him from working for months, Billy Peterson had finally given up. Tut McCandless and his aides at Pontiac General couldn't reconcile the suicide ruling with the rest of their find ings. Billy's back, arms and legs were covered with third-degree burns. Yet un singed hairs stuck up through the charred flesh, His nose and mouth were badly seared, almost as if he'd exhaled living, fire, yet eyebrows and head hair were unharmed, Pontiac Fire Chief James White told sme the froneseat fire ($75 damage) had fot touched Peterson. The chiel's only analysis was that perhaps Peterson had een burned after death through a “cooking action” from adjacent heat. “L would not quarrel with the theory concerning Spontaneous Human Com- bustion,” he admitted when he talked with me recently, “T have never had any Knowledge of this, but certainly would not care to say it was impossible.” Dr, John Marra, medical director at Pontiac General, Was more conservative. He chose words’ carefully when he cold ae, “A conclusion vas reached 28 to the ppearance of the burns on Mr. Peter- son's body. It was determined that these wwere caused by intensive heat in his ear which resulted from the exhaust pipe’s being connected to the front seat, clus ing fire in the upholstery. His blue jeans became so heated that superficial thurs of the skin resulted.” “The fact semains that although he was fully dressed when he burned, Peterson's clothing including even his underwear— ‘was in no way damaged. Like the hairs Of his body, the material seemed immune to the heat that had charred his flesh. Olficials finally closed the case as simply “Death by Suicide.” Still, at the time, Detroit newspapers said police and doc [TRUE THE MAN'S MAGAZINEtors were batfled and quoted the doctors as saying: “It’s the strangest thing we've ever seen!” They weren't the frst doctors to say it On September 20, 1988, at Chelmsford, England, a woman in the midst of 2 crowded dance floor burst into intense blue flames seemingly generated from her body. She crumpled silently to the floor, and neither her escort nor other ‘woulitbe rescuers could extinguish the blaze, In minutes she was ashes, unrecog- nirable as a human being. Coroner Leslie Beccles made a thorough investigation, then threw up his hands. “In all my experience,” he said, “I've never come AacToss any case as mysterious as this.” “That was precisely the feling exp ‘enced by the authorities the preceding July 80 at England's Norfolk Broads, when a woman paddling about in a small boat with her husband and children was engulled by fame and guicky reduced 19 mound of ugly ash, The terrified family ‘was unhurt, and the wooden boat undam- aged. "Although medical men who have had no experience with SHC/PG and have never heard of it before are under standably doubctul of its existence, the doctors who have encountered it’ and recognized it as extraordinary, frankly admit thae itis beyond the presene perim- ‘eter of human knowledge. Among this roup is Dr. Wilton Krogman, a out Stinding suthority onthe navure and ‘cause of disease. Dr. Krogman is professor of physical anthropology at the Univer- Sip of Pernaslvania in Philadelphia, He is ‘widely respected for his definitive research on the effects of fire on flesh and bone. Dr. Krogman has burned bones still ‘encased in human flesh, bones stripped fof flesh but not dried out, and dried bones. He has burned cadavers in all sores of fires with combustibles ranging from hickory and oak (which reputeclly make the hottest natural fire) through gasoline, oil, coal and acetylene. He's employed all sorts of burning devices, from outdoor fires to electric furnaces and scientifically constructed pressurized gus crematorium For all these conditions he has observed fn fear hw fh ad bone behave luring burning and how they Took when they cool of He gave this answer to my ation of iow hot a Bre must be to destroy totaly 4 human body “Hine and foremost, i takes sersfc heat 10 completely consume a. human body, "both flesh” and. skeleton. I've watched 2 body in a crematorium bum Br'200° For over eight hours, burn: ing under the bes posible conditions of both heat and combustion, with every- thing controled. Yet atthe end of tht time here wae scary # bane at was fot all present and completely recog. hizable asa buman bone. Iwas calcined (reduced to ts original mats) but i Mis not ash or powder. Only at over 3000". have I seen a bone fuse s0 that it ran and became volatile. These," he Added emphatically, "are very great heats that would feet "anything’ flammable within "a considerable radian of he Blaze’™ Ts ic any wonder, therefore, that cases ere ae ele ele He te olden od ey es ve od meal at Aiea ecards Hie, aed ear dea bande mea ee ate estes i a ae aot we ge mea ea ire ne el ea a rr ean ae acta aetna een ay er em at ote bose galore ae ei es ee ge Se acai eee areas il tye ose cape aig ra sparse Resell zo clare aera ae galeryUntil 1991 “extraordinary” seems to have been the Key word whenever the burning death turned up. The cause of death Hated was usually conventional Gone, but medical and police investigators who were not completely satished some: times added What onesword description. For most victims of ihe burning. death today thi is sll the Hind of decision ected, Hut in 1951 the fist step toward SC auuly of his mysterious malady was made Te wan a very complete step. It was taken ina eae of the burning death, and XE nse of the ost orough ad erent investigation. that. amy. suc death has ever had. It brought in not only local authorities, but Dr. Krogman and {he FB as wel Known is "the case of the cinder woman,” it thiew the city of St. Peters Brg, Florida, into‘ state of terror that Tasted many weeks, and that sil causes nightmares Teburned sell into the front pages of Florida's papers on July , 1961 ins. A Carpenter omer lout apartment. building at." 1200" Chesry Street Northeast, had spent pleasant hour or so the evening before in the one COMING... The ful, factual story of the spectocolar 1958 cssault on the word's highoet peak, AMERICANS ON EVEREST by Jomes Romsey Ullran BONUS 800K CONDENSATION NEXT MONTH IN TRUE. room apartment of her favorite tenant, Mrs. Mary Hardy Reeser, a rather stout, Kindly, 67-year-old widow. Mrs. Reeser had chatted amiably about her beloved Pennsylvania Durch background with, her physician son, his wife, and Mus, Gar penter. She told her son she had taken couple of seconal tablets at 8 pam., as usual, and would probably take two ‘more before going to bed. When the trio left at 9 pam, she was seated in her arm: chair facing one of the two open win- dows, a small wooden end table beside her, She was wearing a rayon nightgown, 2 cotton housecoat and a pair of com: Tortable black satin slippers. She was smoking a cigarette, ‘The next morning, shortly before 8, a Western. Union boy knocked at Mrs. Carpenter's door. “Got a telegram here for Mrs. Mary Reeser,” he told her. "I Knocked on her door but don't get any answer. You take it?" Mrs, Carpenter said she'd deliver the message, but she was concerned, It wasn’t like Mary Reeser, a light sleeper, to miss the sound of a knock. Mrs, Carpenter went to the woman's door and tapped lightly, then harder when there was no answer. Alarmed, she reached to open the door, but jerked her hand back pain, The brass doorknob was so hot it and. two painters working neathy rushed to her aid. ‘They foreed the door and found a macabre scene. Although both windows were open, the room was intlerably hot In front of ome open window was a pile at ashes~the emans ofthe big are the end able. and Ms. Reeser. jhe serie ¢ 807 a.m oiowed ye police. Tt was instandly apparent tat thi was no ordinary accent Only tte severely hesteroded coil springs were Tete of the chair. There wis ho trace of the end table: Of the widow, all that xe mained were few small pieces of charred backbone, a skull whic, stangely, had shrunk uniformly othe sizeof an ora and her wholly Untouched left foot stl seeing Tipp had to be incredible, yet dhe rooms wis It asfected. The ceiling, draperies and walls, from a point exicty Tour fect hove the floor, were coated with silly, iy soot. Below this fourfoot mask tent wat none. The wall psint adjacent to the ‘hair was fancy browned, but the carpet Where the chair hd rested was not even Bumed through. wall minror 10 feet away had cracked, probably fom beat. Ona dressing tale 12 feet away, two pink wax candies had puddled, but thelr Wicks lay undamaged. in. the holders Misti wall ones ove the fourfot mark were melted, but the fate were not blown and the curent was on. The base ‘hoard electrical outlets were undamaged. An electric clock plugged into one of the fated fxtines hatl sipped. at precisely 4:20-tes than three houts before—but the same’ dock "tan perfeetly when plugged into-one of the basebosrd out fest Newspapers nearby on a table and draperies and linens on the daybed close at hand=all flammable-were not dam: aged. And though the painters and Mrs. Carpenter had felt a wave of heat when they opened the door, no-one had noted smoke or burning odor and there were no embers of flames in the ashes Faced with a complete mystery, Police Ghief J. R. Reichert quickly asked for PBL ashstanice. Serapings from the carpet, ‘metal from the chair, and the ashes and mortal remains of Mis. Reeser were sent to the FBI laboratory for microanalysis, ‘The fist report back clarified mothi ut it contained «blockbuster: Mrs Recser hid weighed 175 pounds, yet all that remained of her after the fi ‘duding the shriveled head, the whole foot, the bits of spine and a minute sec- tion’ of tissue tentatively identified as liver-weighed less than 10 pounds! By this time, more than a week alter the widow's death, dhe St. Petersburg, cops were referring ‘to the “cinder woman’ case as "weird, fantastic and un- Delievable,” and even the normally con- servative FL ventured that it was “un tsval and improbable.” The newspapers and. the radio demanded action of Reichert, but he was already seeking what’ competent. help ‘he could. get. Edward Davies, a topnotch arson spe Gialist of the National Board of Under ‘writers, came in on the case. Hard to fool dnd quick to detect evidence of deliber ate burning, he was stumped. “I can only say," he admitted. gly, “the vietim TRUE THE MAN'S MAGAZINE‘ied from fire, with no idea of what caused "Then came a lucky break. Dr. Krog- man was visting his family just across ‘Tampa Bay at Bradenton, and his pres ence became known. Told of the patho! ogists reputation, Reichert prompely aked for hs help. Dr. Keogman age tollook non the exe “The doctor quickly checked the find: ings'of the other authorities who had been ‘consuleed and. began eliminating posites Had lighening struck hers Nor No storms, no lightning, no thunder the night of july 1. Hlving swallowed Sedatives, could she have fallen asleep in her chair, dropped her cigarette, gutted the nighigown and chair aad burned? Hiardiy likely, since such fie couldn't Posibly "have caused the heat~over 000° "F.“necessny. to consume her. Even if an ordinary fire had reached that temperature, the room—oF the. whole building would have been heavily dam. aged. Anyway, though the windows were pen, no-one saw smoke or smelled a burning odor. War Mrs. Reeser burned clsewhere and then placed in the room? Residue in the Yoom and other evidence ruled this concept out, Could an elec Gieal indwetion current have gone through her from faulty wig? Vieuslly imposible without blowing t fuse, And nowshort circuit could have caused such massive destruction ‘Soom Krogmait was left with only the farout iden of the. saguely” reported SHC/PC, or burning death. Fantastic? Yes. ‘Unbelievable? Definitely. Without precedent? Not quite—Krogmin had been digging into those 100 cases pre viously recorded. How many more barn Ing deaths there had veally heen, a tryceable because they hd Been written fff as caused by accidental fire, no one could know. Eventually, even Krogman admitted defeat He told Chief Retehert, "1 have posed the problem to snyself gain and Iyain of why Aire. Recier could have iben so thoroughly destroyed, even to the ones, and yet leave neaiby objects ma tenalyumalfected, I always en up re Jecting icin theory but facing it ap Patent fact” He wat tnable co understind how the vritows body could. have burned 0 completely without someone’ detecting Soke on expecially, the act ev Simeling odor of uraing hasan fish,” [Another major point he wis unable to comprehend’ was. the shilnking of the read "in my experience.” Dr. Keogman asserted, “the head ino let complete inondinary burning’ cases, Certainly does not sitive or symmetrically reduce to's tmuch smaller size. In prevence of Theat stiient to destroy sofe tases, the sul" would: literally explode in: many pies, I have experimented on this Using” cadaver heads, and have never Known an exception co this mle. “Never he concluded, shave T seen a skull so shrunken oF 3 body 40 co pletely consumed by heat. This i com trary to normal experience and 1 regard i's the most amaring thing I've ever seen. As [review ity the short hairs on tn ‘vague fears Were I living in the Middhe Ages, Fd mutter someting Hike black magic! "Xe lst the investigation in the cinder woman ease came to an etd. The FDL ued a final "report whieh, not sit ng, cameo. few “concrete con ‘lusions. Ie told Chief Reichert: "There ismo evidence that any kind of inflamma bie fluids, volatile Higuids, chemicals oF cuher acceleramts bad been use 0 st the widow's body ablaze,” “the chiet sued 2 300-vord. public [Continued on page 112][Continued from page 107] statement on August 8 which labeled the death as“... accidental, due to becom ing drowsy ‘or falling asleep while smoking “and igniting her chair and lothing:” No mention was made of Krogman's aswertion that this would have been impossible. In the absence of any acceptable explanation, however, it was for the chief the only possible report to make ‘There have been a number of instances of SHC/PC since the Reeser case. On March 1, 1958, Waymon Wood, 50, of Greenville, South Carolina, was found crisped black in the front seat of his closed car parked on the side of Bypass Route 201. There was little left of Wood oor the front seat. The heat had made the windshield bubble and sig inward, yet the hall-tank of gas in the cir was un- alflected. In April, a month later, when a Mary- land highway patrol investigated an accl- dent eight miles south of Hanover, the officers found the body of Bernard Hess of Baltimore in his overturned car. Hes, the coroner concluded, had died almost ingcantly of 2 fractured skull and internal njuries. But that wasn't all. Though the victim was fully dressed, two thirds of his body had suffered second- and third: degree burns, without searing his clothes, State patrolmen said he resembled a man who had been tapped in a burning car, But there was mo trace of fre in the wrecked car. Tt was between the Reeser case and these that Dr. Lester Adelson's piece had appeared it. the Northwestern Uni versity’s journal on crime and police work. Since this was the only definitive ‘work written about SHG/PC, T went to see Dr. Adelson in Cleveland. We spent ‘considerable time talking about the burn: ing death and about the ferocious fire that was its core. Not only the phenome. Hw the intensity of the fire had ly impressed Dr. Adelson, “In all my years of pathological work,” hie told me in rapidfire manner, “I have never seen a fire, other than in a crema orium, that could so reduce a human body to ash, bones included. We had a fire here in a Cleveland phint where they manufacture materials for thermite welding, The fire was so hot that it ‘melted the concrete floor. Now you just think . . this was like # voleano! And yet we had recognizable humans, They ‘were badly charred, but you still knew these were human beings. Tho Cleveland pathologist seemed to be in the unusual postion of wanting to believe in SHG/PC, yer painfully aware of the gulf presently separating the ap parent fact from the scientifically tc Ceptable. “I think, if we knew enough about these cases." he ssid. "we could find a reasonable explanation, but right now they're simply too much of a medical He told me that many theories have been advanced to explain the mysterious uurnings. “In every ease so far,” he said "ll the theories have broken down when pat to the test. For instance, it was be- lieved that if person was an alcoholic, this was apt to happen to him when, over u2 4 period of long years of deinking, the tissues. become. so. impregnated with alcohol they became volatile He shook his head. "Tel, they took a rat and immersed it in pure alcohol for over year so the fui saturated the Gisues thoroughly. ‘Them they set it aie Know what happened? Tt burned. fast until the outer skin as curred and then the fie went out, Tide the tstues were nice and pink, damaged.” Equally debunked, Adelson said, was the theory that fa people were more sus. ceptible to. SHC/PC, under the. beliel hit the fatty hiyers beneath the ski would sid combsntion. Geographical lo- Cation seems to make no difference and although most of the burning death cases have involved older people, that's not always true. In the spring of 1959, for example, ¢monshold Rickey Pruitt of Rocklord, Illinois, burst ino fre and burned eo death in his eb. Neither eb nor bedelothing spon which he was lying ‘wis scorched. a AA‘peesliar factor about the malady is that leappears to snesthetize as it burns Only rately have victims cried out, and then only when they actually wt the mes, that the ery was one more-of fear than of pain.” SHG/PC. wualy HHP ALWAYS THERE m= HEP “5. ates in the trunk of the body, par tietany the back and mostly the vim isunaware he is burning. He quickly be comes unconscious and i consumed with fue outer. A recorded case in point ‘occurred in 1788, when a young English Shambermaid began burning vigorously across her back a she swept 2 Kitchet floor, wholly unaware of what was hap ening. Only when her master entered the room and shouted did she tarn her head, Se she flames and stream. She ded despite his efforts to extinguish the ame conflagration oniginates within the body ot the attacked: person, Victims have been found with heir entre Internal mechanison unbelievably burned, while the onter Res was hardly damaged Tn those relatively rane. cass, where SHC/PC burns just the shin, the vit often appears to have been doused with fome volatile Huid and set afr A snap investigation would label any such death murder suicide or accident. A thorough inquiry, however would almost certaitly determine whether the fie hed ‘beet caused by ‘an extemal agent. Where bostes ave been deliberately or acct dentally burned, the volatiles Concerned are generally detectable. without much ates through microanalysis of tes Jn buming.desth cases, obviously such evidence fenboent It_was absent when SHG/PC ap. parently struck at the Laguna Home of the Aged in San Francisco on January 31, 1959. Sylvester Ellis, an ordeily, gave a glass of milk to one of the older patients, imed Jack Larber. After Larber finished. drinking it, Ellis left the room to take the glass back to the kitchen. Five min- utes later he glanced into Larber’s room as he passed and found the old man wrapped in blue flames, The patient died and left authorities with a puzzle, because Larber neither smoked’ nor’ carried matches. A fire official volunteered the theory that someone had drenched the aged gentleman with lighter fluid and set him ablaze, but investigation proved this. The case remains open, Another case where volatiles were sus pected at fist and Tater discounted. oc Eurred April 28, 1956, in Benecls, Cal fomia, Harold Fill, 56, and his landlord, Sam Massena, were chatting in front of II Base F Street, where both lived. Hall said he believed he'd go to ie movies, snd went inside wo change dothes, When hie didn’t come out after half an hour, Massenvi went in to check, Hall lay on the Kitchen floor, his chest, arms and face charred, but although he was sill alive, he was unable to.explain what had happened. Medical help arsived shortly aid his breathing It was not long belore he died: Ar later determined by an au topsy his Tangs had been severely burned: Fite Chiet ‘Thomas Geiels investigated thoroughly and- declared fall that the fre had sot been caused by gas, lighter fluid or ‘nything le he could under stand. "This case, 100, has never been ‘ichaly closed. buming death, Tt dacsnt hold stil long enoligh and sik frequently enough Lor any substantial reseafch to. have. been willing to undergo. the mocking. skep- tcism hae might result from col Jt they took this patently unscientie malady seriously’ and made elton to » How many “careless smoking” fatalities are really atuibutable to the burning each? How can human lisse, made up of over 0 percent. water, become so tritically combustible it burats into spon taneous fre. (SHC) or is touched of by an outside spark (PC)? How can a fie body? How ‘in, this Neat=which, must surely top ',000° Fin order to do the so selective that ie burns only living tissue and harms but slightly, oF not at all those flammable objects actually touch ing the victim or hearby? "These and dlorens:of other: questions. can. be am Ssered only by atalbuting a impossible Seof characteris to the phenomenon of fre as we know fe This baling burniag death isa danger fous malady that is with us today as ft hasbeen for cenvaries. There have been rmany victims in the past and there will bbe more in the future. Who is next? No ane knows for certain. Thats what makes your hackles rise. Tt could be you. —Allan W. Eekert ‘TRUE THE MAN'S MAGAZINETHE MAN'S MAGAZINE STIRLING MOSS BUILDS | THE GREAT GUN GRAB A BACHELOR DREAM PAD | AND HOW TO STOP IT By Ken Purdy By Robert Ruark A Bonus Book Condensation By Tony Saulnier WE FOUND THE LAST STONE-AGE HEADHUNTER ¥ Pf ,