Hot Maybelle

Nothing is more controversial than the idea of spontaneous human combustion. Over the years, and when I say years I mean like the past hundreds of years, much evidence has been collected for and against this strange phenomena. Many cases have been filed and many suspects acquitted due to this fiery conclusion.

Take Mrs. Mary Reeser, for instance, who was found lounging in an arm chair, burnt and smoldering. All that was found of Mary was her liver which was fused to a lump of her vertebrae. her skull, which had shrunken to the size of a baseball, 10 pounds of ashes, and her left foot still wearing her black satin slipper and fully intact. The walls of her apartment were covered in a greasy substance and the plastic light switches had melted along with two candles, though their wicks were both still intact. Only a small, circular area of her apartment was burned/ashen.

To creamate a body it requires heat of over 2500 degrees.

My personal favorite, as sick as that sounds, concerns Miss Maybelle Andrews. While dancing at a club one night with her boyfriend, flames suddenly erupted from her back, chest, and sholders. Her boyfried was severely burnt while trying to put out the flames, but at least he survived, Maybelle, however, was not so lucky, and died from her injuries on the way to the hospital.

One of the only survivors of the wierd phenomena is Jack Angel, no pun intended. While taking a nap in his trailer home he recalls that he suddenly felt searing pain as he erupted in flames. Examiners said that the damaged extended to a hole in his chest, fused vertebrae, and an arm beyond saving. Nothing within the trail was singed and the only explanation obtained was spontaneous combustion.

This account slightly contradicts that of Peter Jones, who recalls no sensation of heat or burning. He claims that all he saw was smoke and no pain was endured.

Only a few similarities have been found between the many cases . . .

• 80% of the victims are women
• most were overwieght and/or alcoholics
• while the body was badly burned, most items in the room remained untouched
• a yellow, putrid smelling oil was found surrounding the body
• the head and extremities, along with clothing, was all that was ever found intact on the body
• the victim never cried out during their consumption