So Supernatural - THE UNKNOWN: Spontaneous Human Combustion

Episode Date: May 19, 2021

What makes a human body burst into flames? Victims leave behind nothing but a pile of ashes and questions. From dark magic and holy fire to unbelievable coincidences, the answers are surprising.

There's nothing quite like a good campfire, and spending a cool evening by a warm fireplace is like heaven on earth. Fire helps us cook food, light our way, and heat our homes. It's even a symbol of rebirth and power. But what happens when fire defies the laws of science and people just burst into flames. One moment they're alive, the next they're a pile of ash. This is called spontaneous human combustion, and there are hundreds of cases throughout history. For the most part, the victims leave behind nothing but a pile of ashes and a slew of questions, including the biggest

question of all, is it even possible? This is Supernatural. I'm your host, Ashley Flowers. This week, I'm looking into spontaneous human combustion. The first documented deaths emerged in the 1700s, but the phenomenon still seems to appear today, and nobody is sure why. From divine wrath to witchcraft to alcoholism, there have been countless theories about what causes spontaneous human combustion. And the sheer number of explanations reveal a terrifying truth. There's no way to know when someone might burst into flames. All that and more is coming up. Stay with us. Let's get the obvious out of the way. Spontaneous human combustion sounds impossible. After all,

our bodies are around 60% water and thick with muscles, fat, and bones. It takes a lot for us to burn, let alone burst into flames for no apparent reason without a spark or source of ignition. But the thing is, spontaneous combustion happens in the natural world all the time. Ask any rural firefighter and they'll tell you hay bales are a well-known source of spontaneous fires. And it's not just hay. Manure piles, compost bins, and oily rags can all catch fire on their own. And while spontaneous human combustion doesn't happen as often as hay fires, believe it or not, there are plenty of

documented cases in history. Enough that I couldn't cover them all if I tried. So I handpicked some of the strangest and most terrifying ones. Like, in the spring of 1725, at the time, the Golden Lion Hotel was one of the best places to stay in Reims, France, which is basically the capital of Champagne country. There are wine shops and vineyards, and the owners of the Golden Lion, Jean Millet and his wife Nicole, usually have their hotel fully booked. But it's not all champagne and roses. Nicole's a notorious drunk. Poor Jean basically runs the hotel himself while Nicole drinks the night away. So one night, when Jean wakes up at 2.30 a.m. and Nicole isn't in bed, he doesn't think much of

it. He assumes that she's maybe drinking in the hotel's kitchen. But then he smells something burning. Now the hotels wouldn't, and this is long before fire alarms and sprinklers, so an uncontrolled fire is going to burn fast. Jean knows this too, so he doesn't bother looking for his wife or the fire. He just rushes to wake up his guests and get them outside. Soon, Jean is out on the street with a crowd of bleary-eyed guests in their pajamas. Everyone's alarmed, but they're not sure why. Because, I mean, it smells like smoke, but nobody can actually see flames. But Jean's cautious, and when the police arrive, he takes them inside to assess the damage.

Luckily, there's no fire, just a bit of smoke. And one dead body. It's Nicole. Her charred corpse is slumped into a leather chair. And I say corpse, like there's not much left of her, just her skull and feet neatly burned off at the ankle. The rest of her body is a pile of ashes and bone fragments. The cops are astonished, and they should be. Even when people are cremated on purpose, they don't burn like Nicole.

In modern funeral homes with cutting-edge technology, the cremation process takes hours with temperatures near 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit, and there are always bones left over. But not here. Most of Nicole is just gone. It's unclear how much time passed between Jean smelling the smoke and Nicole's body being found, but it definitely wasn't ours. And there is no trace

of heat. Nothing nearby seems even remotely burned. The chair she was sitting in is barely scorched. The cops immediately suspect Jean murdered his wife. After all, in the majority of domestic crimes, it's usually the spouse who did it. So they're like, it's pretty obvious what happened. Man kills his wife, burns the body to cover it up, case closed, let's go home. But as they're putting Jean in shackles, hotel guests are trickling back into the hotel to stare at the body. One of them, a surgeon named Claude, suddenly speaks up in Jean's defense. He says there's no way Jean could have killed Nicole. Claude's been looking carefully at the burned body, the chair, and the whole scene, and he has a few

questions. First, how could Jean have started the fire? There's no sign of alcohol or any other flammable liquid, and the fireplace in the room isn't lit. And second, if he lit the fire somewhere else, how could John have moved Nicole's body while it was still burning before it disintegrated? There is still faint smoke in the air, and the chair around Nicole is singed. She was obviously burned where she was found. And her remains are unlike any burn victim the good doctor has ever seen. Judging by the hands and feet left behind, it looks like Nicole burned from the inside out. Not to mention, Jean called for help. In light of that, Claude is convinced that whatever happened to Nicole, it was not murder. It was something unnatural. Thanks to Claude's testimony,

the police let Jean go, but they're still baffled. If Jean didn't kill his wife, then how did she die? It couldn't have been an accident because there's no sign of panic. I mean, I don't know about you, but I think any rational person would freak out if they realized they were suddenly on fire. At the very least, stop, drop, and roll. But there's nothing that would indicate movement. In fact, everything in the room points to a bizarre, terrifying reality. Nicole sat calmly in the chair as the fire consumed her. With no other logical explanation, the good doctor suggests the fire was a visitation from God. As in, God must have burned Nicole for her sins, either aggression or alcoholism, or

really anything considered unsavory behavior for women at the time. Now, given that this was 1725, this explanation made sense, and not just because of sexism. At the time, more people interpreted the Bible as the absolute word of God. And burning bushes, flaming idols, and fire from heaven aren't exactly hard to find in the Old Testament. So people were basically like, divine wrath? Seems as good an explanation as any. Of course, the coroner couldn't write smote by God on an official death certificate. Nonetheless, people go on believing that spontaneous combustion is caused by holy fire until an Italian countess disappears in a cloud of smoke.

Her name is Cornelia di Bondi. One morning in 1731, Cornelia's chambermaid goes to wake her up as usual, but she finds Cornelia's bedroom filled with smoke. When the maid realizes the countess isn't in her bed, she goes to look for her and screams as she slips on a yellowish, greasy puddle. Just past the puddle, the maid sees Cornelia's charred head. It's lying in a pile of ashes that used to be her body. Nearby are Cornelia's legs, which are totally unburned. The whole thing just doesn't make sense. Apparently, Cornelia was burned, but clearly not all of her. And nothing around her is burned, not the bed, not the floor, and not the socks still on her feet. So basically, Cornelia's remains look similar to Nicole's. Nothing but ashes, the head and

extremities. Once again, the fire seems to have started in the middle of her body. And just like in France, there's no clear source of the fire, just an oil lamp that's tipped over nearby. But the lamp's empty and cold, no oil in sight, and the countess's ashes are literally still smoking. So in other words, the lamp almost certainly couldn't have caused the fire. Now, while there's no sign of flames, the room does show signs of incredible heat. That greasy puddle the maid stepped in? It's actually Cornelia's melted body fat. All the candles in the room are melted too, but only the wax.

For some bizarre reason, the wicks are completely unburned. As in, the only part that's supposed to catch fire, for some reason, didn't. Naturally, the maid is terrified. To her, it basically looks like some otherworldly force has incinerated her boss. But here's the twist. Cornelia? She's an incredibly pious and well-known churchgoer. She says her prayers for hours every night. Nobody believes the fire would have come from God. So that's when other possibilities are thrown around, including one that suggests it was the exact opposite of God. It was unholy, a satanic force of evil.

This theory really gains traction a few years later, when the incinerated corpse of an English housewife is found in her kitchen, and the body is weirdly glowing. Some of her neighbors are convinced it's a sign of dark magic, and they have proof. Coming up, whispers of witchcraft. Now back to the story. By the mid-1700s, most people in Europe believed spontaneous human combustion is real and it's a divine punishment for sin. But other theories pop up too, darker theories. In April 1744, Grace Pett's daughter discovers her mom's charred body, and the corpse is glowing

red, likely from heat. When she dumps a bucket of water on the body, a horrible gas fills the room. Grace's daughter doesn't know what to make of it, but she interprets the vapors as some kind of terrible omen, which is only confirmed when, a few weeks later, a neighbor and sheep farmer named Mrs. Garnham says she has information that may help solve Grace's mysterious death. And she tells this absolutely bonkers story. In the weeks leading up to Grace's death, the Garnhams found that their flock of sheep was getting sick, like rotting, diseased livestock are piling up fast. They've never seen this kind of illness before. They're instantly suspicious and also superstitious.

Mrs. Garnham becomes convinced that the illness is caused by some sort of witchcraft or curse. So she visits a self-proclaimed magician who prescribes a remedy. He tells her to take one of the six sheep and burn it alive to break the spell. Now, whether or not the Garnhams fully believe in this magic, I don't know, but it's kind of beside the point. The Garnhams rely on these animals to feed and support their family. They are desperate enough to try anything. So they take one of the six sheep, tie its legs together, and toss it into their fireplace where the poor thing burns to death. And according to Mrs. Garnham, the night she burns the sheep is the same night Grace's pet

spontaneously burns to a crisp, which can only mean one thing. Grace was the witch who cursed Mrs. Garnham's flock. Okay, so on one hand, that is kind of creepy. But on the other, it sort of sounds like a sheep wasn't the only thing Mrs. Garnham was smoking, right? Like if Grace could actually harness the power of Satan, of all things, why were the Garnham's sheep her target? And wouldn't someone else have noticed if they had a practicing witch for a neighbor? As it turns out, investigators are just as wary about Mrs. Garnham's story. In their mind, witchcraft is no better than wrath of God as far as official stories go.

Grace's fiery death is ruled an accident. Still, the witchcraft rumor lives on as a possible explanation for Grace's demise, but it's not the leading theory by any means. It's also not the only gossip going around town. Apparently, Grace had been a bit of a lush, with a particular fondness for gin. This detail becomes important. In the next few years, three more cases of spontaneous combustion occur in France and England, and the victims all share one common trait. They're all heavy drinkers. It's a revelation. After the new cases hit the newspapers, a French researcher named Jonas Dupont dives into older cases and notices a trend.

A lot of spontaneous human combustion victims were notorious alcoholics. For the most part, this checks out with the cases I've covered. As I said, Jean's wife Nicole and Grace both loved the bottle. The only case where the victim didn't imbibe is Countess Cornelia, but just because she wasn't a drinker doesn't mean she never used alcohol. It's a little weird, but apparently Cornelia bathed in wine? Like she would rub it all over her face, her hands, and her legs like some kind of boozy lotion. Anyway, the evidence is compelling enough for the researcher DuPont to pose a new theory. He thinks that after decades of drinking or bathing in booze,

people essentially become human alcohol sponges ready to burst into flame like a Molotov cocktail. He doesn't explain the science behind it, but DuPont does publish a pretty popular book on the subject. The moral basically being, alcoholics should tread carefully around fireplaces. The only problem is, the science doesn't add up. By 1851, the number of reported cases of spontaneous human combustion tops 50. The phenomenon isn't going away. So a chemist named Baron von Liebig decides to investigate. He's got doubts about DuPont's flammable alcoholics theory, and he wants some real fact-based answers. After all, there are

plenty of drunks who never inexplicably burst into flames. Now, the Baron experiments on live rats. So, fair warning for my fellow animal lovers, this is long before PETA. Basically, he injects them with alcohol and then lights them on fire. The Baron tries various levels of intoxication. Sober rats, tipsy rats, wildly drunk rats. But he learns that the amount of alcohol makes no difference in how they burn. Contrary to DuPont's theory, flesh just doesn't retain alcohol. So the Baron theorizes that alcoholics may be more likely to stumble into a fireplace, but they're not more likely to burn. And just like that, it's back to square one.

There's no more working theories out there. Which becomes a problem when mysterious fire deaths really start piling up in the late 1800s. And the cases are even weirder. In January 1899, a horrific story emerges from a town in England. It centers on two young sisters, Alice and Amy Kirby. After their parents split up, five-year-old Alice went to live with her father, while four-year-old Amy stayed with her mother. The distance between each house isn't much, only about a mile, but it's still

a big deal. I mean, this is the tail end of the 19th century. Divorce isn't exactly common, but the Kirbys barely have time to settle into their new lives before two more life-changing events happen. One day, Amy's mother apparently goes to get some water from their well. It's cold and rainy, so she leaves Amy inside where it's dry. When she comes back to the house, just minutes later, Amy is on fire. Seriously, talk about whiplash. Like, this is a horror film come to life. And we're talking more than just a pile of ashes here. There are three-foot flames shooting out from her four-year-old daughter's

body. Amy's screaming as flames consume her, and her screams bring the neighbors running. They manage to put out the fire, and Amy's mother runs up the street to her ex-husband's house for help. But she's stopped along the way by a neighbor who was coming to find her. This neighbor tells Mrs. Kirby that her other daughter, Alice, has been badly burned. Her grandmother found her completely engulfed in flames with no sign of matches or any other source. By far the most chilling part is the timing. Both sisters burst into flames at exactly 11 a.m. over a mile apart. Later that day, both Alice and Amy die at the hospital. And once again, despite so many unanswered questions, the coroner lists their deaths as accidents. By now, you've probably noticed the running theme. Cases of suspected supernatural human combustion

are almost always filed away as accidents, as if the victims tripped down a flight of stairs and didn't suddenly erupt into flames. And this continues well into the 20th century, even with one of the most well-documented cases ever. In July 1951, Mary Reeser is living her best life in St. Petersburg, Florida. The 67-year-old spends her days smoking, listening to music, and relaxing with family. she is living that peak 1950s retirement lifestyle. On the night of July 1st, Mary's son Richard swings by her place at around 8 p.m. By the time he arrives, Mary's in

her favorite comfy chair, smoking a cigarette by the radio. She's already in her nightgown and has taken her usual two nightly sleeping pills, aka she's about to hit the sack, so Richard doesn't stay long. He gives his mom a kiss and leaves. 45 minutes later, a neighbor comes by to see Mary, but the lights and radio are off, which she takes as a sign that Mary's asleep. The next morning at around 8 a.m., the same neighbor wakes up expecting to hear Mary's radio. Mary's always up at six. But for some reason, her apartment is still silent. So the neighbor heads over and knocks on Mary's door, and she notices it's hot to the touch. Now, even school kids know that this is a sign there's probably a fire in Mary's apartment.

The neighbor shouts for help and some house painters come running. They open the door and smoke comes pouring out. You'd think it's a massive fire, but it's not. It's pretty contained. A quick blast from a fire extinguisher puts it out. But regardless, the scene that they walk into is shocking. Because the fire is on the ceiling, and underneath the ceiling fire is a pile of ashes exactly where Mary's favorite chair used to be. All that's left of the chair and Mary is a single, slippered foot. At this point,

you get the picture. It's a lot like the other stories. A woman turned to ash, no clear ignition source, lots of smoke, and almost no fire. Like with Jean Millet, the cops try to accuse Mary's son Richard of murder, despite him having an airtight alibi. But Mary's case is entirely unique for one important reason. It's the first case of suspected spontaneous human combustion in history with forensic evidence. Amidst Mary's ashes, investigators find these shards of metal and glass that nobody can identify. So the cops decide to send everything off to the lab. Now remember, this is St. Petersburg, Florida in the 50s. They don't have state-of-the-art facilities to say the least, but the FBI does. Without any explanation for Mary's death, the lead detective writes a letter to FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover, pleading for help,

and Hoover agrees. Mary's ashes are transported across the country, and the top forensic lab in the world starts taking a look at the mystery of spontaneous human combustion. Coming up, inexplicable fires meet the latest in forensic technology. Now back to the story. By mid-July 1951, the FBI is looking for evidence that might explain the fire that killed Mary Reeser. And by evidence, I mean scientific evidence. They're convinced nothing supernatural happened. But after testing Mary's ashes, their chemical report indicates no sign of flammable liquids, no gasoline, no alcohol, nothing else that might, you know, actually start a fire. So they move on to the fragments of glass and metal found in the ashes. Turns out the pieces once belonged to Mary's cigarette lighter, which is weird because these things should have melted in the fire. I mean,

Mary herself more than melted. There was basically nothing left of her but ash and a puddle of melted fat. Remember, funeral cremations require temperatures of 2,000 degrees, and even then there are always bones left over. Glass would easily melt at a lower 1,200 degrees Fahrenheit. The results appear to defy the laws of physics, but Hoover still doesn't consider spontaneous human combustion a reasonable explanation. He calls it an outdated superstition and writes, quote, there is absolutely no evidence in any of these cases on record to show that burning of this nature occurs, end quote. In other words, Hoover basically prohibits the FBI from looking for anything other than a scientific explanation. And eventually, they find it in Mary's puddle of melted fat.

The FBI concludes that Mary burned like a human candle, and her fat was her wax. Seriously, this is real. It's called the wick effect. Basically, when a fire burns hot enough to melt body fat, that melted fat becomes fuel for the fire, just like candle wax. Clothes and fabrics like carpet or upholstery serve as wicks, pulling the fat into the smoldering flame. This way, the fire burns low and very hot, which is what keeps nearby items from catching fire while still allowing the person to burn for hours. Of course, it's strange that sometimes only a foot or head is left behind, but according

to the science, there is a reasonable enough explanation. Most fat in the human body is concentrated in the torso. The least fat is typically found in the extremities, so there's less fuel there to burn. The fire dies out before it can consume the hands or feet, leaving them unburned. Think of a campfire. When the fire is done, there are usually some bits of logs left over at the outside edges. Hands and feet and even heads are like the outside edges of the body, so to speak. The thing is, the wick effect only works if the victim doesn't move. And you'd think that if someone was on fire,

they'd panic and run for help. But Mary apparently just sat there as she burned. Well, the FBI had an explanation for that as well. Those sleeping pills. As I mentioned, Mary had taken two the night before. And according to Richard, she planned to take two more, which naturally would have knocked her out. While DuPont may have missed the mark with his alcohol theory, he wasn't entirely off base. In every case of spontaneous human combustion, the victims would need to be unconscious. For Mary, it was sleeping pills. But Nicole and Grace likely drank themselves into a drunken stupor. It's unfortunate, but true. Okay, so that answers how fires can reduce people to ash, but it doesn't explain how they start. After all, the strangest thing about spontaneous

combustion is that there's never any source of ignition, or no apparent source of ignition. You may have noticed most of these scenes actually did have a source of fire in the room, like a fireplace. In Mary's case, it was her cigarette. Nicole Millet apparently smoked a pipe on occasion and was known to pass out before finishing it. And Grace Pett was found near a fireplace. As for Holy Countess Cornelia, the best guess is she had a heart attack and collapsed while holding the oil lamp which lit her dead body on fire. Each of them burned longer than the sources of the fire because their bodies had more fat fuel, if you will, than the cigarette pipe, fireplace, or lamp had actual fuel. By the time investigators arrived, the fire sources were cold,

though the bodies were still hot. Which means the only real link between cases of suspected spontaneous human combustion may be unconsciousness. It's as simple as that. People catch fire while they're passed out or already dead. It's not that they don't move, it's that they can't. In the end, with all things considered, the Wick theory is enough for the FBI to close the case on Mary Reeser. And as they do, they essentially close on all cases of spontaneous human combustion. It's widely considered a false

superstition. But there are those who believe it shouldn't be, and that investigators are being too hasty to rule out the possibility of something more supernatural. After all, there are documented cases that don't add up, where the wick effect doesn't apply. Like the two Kirby sisters' incredible simultaneous burning, or more recently, the case of Helen Conway. In November 1964, Helen is found burned to death in her Pennsylvania bedroom. Her body is a pile of ash, except for her legs, which are undamaged and propped up against the armchair she'd been sitting in. It's the same old story with one huge catch. According to her grandchildren and a neighbor, they'd just seen her. The local simply no way she could have burned that fast unless it was miraculous

and spontaneous. Thanks for listening. I'll be back next week with another episode. To hear more stories hosted by me, check out Crime Junkie and all Audiochuck originals.