Gone in flames - Spontaneous Human Combustion

One of the strangest tales is the story of the ghastly death of
Dr. John Irving Bentley of Coudersport, Pa., by spontaneous
human combustion. On the morning of Dec. 5, 1966, Don. E.
Gosnell, a meter reader for the North Penn Gas Company, began
his usual rounds in the small town of Coudersport.

His first stop was at the home of a 92-year-old, retired
physician Dr. John Irving Bentley. Dr. Bentley was a
semi-invalid but able to get around in his home with the aid
of a walker. Gosnell opened the doctor's door and yelled that
he was there to read the meter, but received no answer. He went
down to the basement to read the meter and immediately
encountered a light blue smoke and an unusual odor.

In a corner of the basement floor, Gosnell discovered a mound
of fine ash about 5 inches high and 15 inches wide. With his
foot he kicked and scattered the pile of ash, thinking nothing
further of it. Unknown to him, above his head was a hole 2
feet wide and 4 feet long burned right through the floorboards.

Gosnell read the meter and next went upstairs to check in on
the doctor. Upstairs the blue smoke was thicker and, becoming
alarmed, he called for the doctor but still received no answer.
When Gosnell stuck his head into the bathroom, however, he saw
a ghastly sight which haunted him for the rest of his life.

The doctor's walker was tilted over the large hole burned into
the floor. Alongside the walker was all that remained of the
doctor -- his right leg from the knee down. The leg was browned
but not burned, and the shoe was still intact.

In horror Gosnell ran from the house yelling, "Doctor Bentley
burned up."

Coroner John Dec was summoned to investigate the suspicious
death. One theory proposed was that Bentley had set his robe on
fire while striking a match to light his pipe. When the robe
ignited he used the walker to reach the bathroom for water to
douse on the flames. This theory, however, was quickly discounted
when the doctor's robe -- singed but not burned -- was found in
the nearby bathtub. Even if the robe had caught fire, how would
the fire have been hot enough to consume most of the body?

Another question that arose was that if the fire had started
in the living room, why was there no trace of it? Others asked
how a fire could have been so hot as to almost completely
incinerate a body, but have almost no effect on other objects
in the house.

Coroner Dec's certificate of death gave the cause of death as
"asphyxiation and 90 percent burning" but the questions
surrounding the event remained unanswered. The incident is today
regarded as one of the most unusual occurrences of spontaneous
human combustion.

This story always amazed me to read about what happened
to this Dr. What an awful way to go!!