George Leigh Mallory

George Herbert Leigh Mallory

George Herbert Leigh Mallory was an English mountaineer born in Mobberley, Cheshire, England on June 18, 1886. During Mallory’s 3rd expedition to Everest in 1924 he, along with his climbing partner, Andrew “Sandy” Irvine went missing and never returned.

George Mallory (right) and Andrew Irvine

In 1999, a team of climbers searched Mount Everest for the bodies of the two lost explorers who may have in fact been the first people to have ever reached the mountain’s peak. During this expedition, the team discovered the remains of George Mallory on May 1st with a rope, which would have at one time connected Mallory and Irvine to one another, still tied around his waist.

Mallory’s body as it was discovered on Mount Everest. The team who went in search of him buried Mallory after documenting evidence of his identity.

He was discovered at 27,000 feet (8,230 meters), in the Death Zone and only 800 feet (150 meters) short of the summit. He was found to be mummified by the consistent subzero temperatures on Mount Everest and his body was fused to the mountain itself. He was identified by a tag inside his clothing with the name “G. Mallory” sewn onto it. It is possible that the body, believed to be Mallory’s, is actually that of Andrew Irvine who perhaps borrowed his climbing partner’s shirt on the day of his fatal climb. However, experts are nearly certain the body does belong to George Mallory. The guiding rope found tied around Mallory’s waist appeared as though it had been cut off with a knife. This piece of evidence led the team to believe Mallory had suffered a fatal fall while tied to Irvine.

Angulated fracture observed by the team who discovered Mallory’s body

Andrew Irvine was able to sever the rope which connected them and continue on the journey. Of course, Irvine perished on the mountain as well, though his remains have never been discovered. Unfortunately, neither was discovered the camera Mallory and Irvine had taken on their 1924 expedition. It is believed this camera, if found, could contain evidence that at least Irvine, or perhaps both men, had reached the peak before their demise. Although Mallory had explored the mountain on two previous occasions, the expedition in 1924 was his first attempt at summiting the mountain. Mallory, who was 37 at the time of his death, believed the 1924 expedition would be the last to the mountain, citing he was becoming too old; He confidentially proclaimed he and Irvine would reach the peak. Mallory was quite a popular man in the early 20th century, Lytton Strachey, a friend of Mallory’s (who seemingly had a steaming hot bromance with him) wrote in 1909, “Mondieu! -George Mallory! …He’s six foot high, with the body of an athlete by Praxiteles, and a face- of incredible- the mystery of Botticelli, the refinement and delicacy of a Chinese print, the youth and piquancy of an unimaginable English boy.” In 1914, ten years before his death, George Mallory married Ruth Turner and together had three children. When he died, he left behind his wife along with their two daughters, aged 9 and 7, and a 4-year-old boy. Mallory was well-remembered for his courage, a memorial to Mallory and Irvine at the Chester Cathedral in Chester, England reads, “To remember two valiant men of Cheshire, George Leigh Mallory and Andrew Corman Irvine who among the snows of Mount Everest adventured their lives even into death ‘Ascensiones in corde suo disposuit'” (translates to “Ascensions in his own heart” in Latin). George Leigh Mallory is believed to have died on the 8th or 9th of June in 1924.
The following is an excerpt from a documentary on the 1999 Mallory and Irvine expedition. Watch the team discover George Mallory’s body 75 years after he went missing on Mount Everest and give him a  long-awaited “Death Zone” burial.

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If you enjoyed this article, you might also like The Death Zone, Pray the Decay Away: Incorruptible Corpses and Other Forms of Postmortem Preservation, The Seven Stages of Decomposition, Nepal Earthquake, Burying the Dead is Killing the Planet, Germanwings Crash: Andreas Lubitz Suicide was a Mere Side Effect to the Murder of 149 People and Possible Relatives: Tina Enghoff Photographs Homes of the Recently Deceased

The Genesee Hotel Suicide

 On May 7, 1942 Russell Sorgi, a photographer for the Buffalo Courier Express in Buffalo, New York was on his way back to the office from an assignment. Having taken a different route than usual, Sorgi was passed by police cars when he decided to follow them. The cars pulled up to the Genesee Hotel at 530 Main Street where Russell Sorgi noticed a woman “sitting on a ledge outside an eighth-floor window” on the corner of Gennesee and Pearl Street. Sorgi’s recalled, “I snatched my camera from the car and took two quick shots as [the woman] seemed to hesitate… As quickly as possible I shoved the exposed film into the case and reached for a fresh holder. I no sooner had pulled the slide out and got set for another shot than she waved to the crowd below and pushed herself into space. Screams and shouts burst from the horrified onlookers as her body plummeted toward the street. I took a firm grip on myself, waited until the woman passed the second or third story, and then shot.”. The woman who committed suicide from jumping out the eighth-story window that day was thirty-five year old Mary Miller.

The body of Mary Miller, surrounded by investigators. “She waved to the crowd below… her body plummeted toward the street.”. Photo courtesy of Cultural Ghosts.

Ms. Miller checked into the hotel under the name “M. Miller” and claimed she was from Chicago. She immediately went into the hotel’s communal women’s restroom, locked the door, and stepped out onto the ledge through the window. Mary Miller was a resident of Buffalo who lived with her sister and had checked into the Genesee Hotel after telling her sister she was traveling to Indiana to visit relatives. Although there is not much information on Mary Miller available, what is known is that her sister was absolutely shocked by Mary’s suicide. The photo, which was titled “The Despondent Divorcee”, has no basis in fact as Mary Miller was not, nor was she ever, married. What makes her case so disturbing is that there is no known motive behind the suicide, no note was ever discovered and she waved to the crowd immediately before ending her life.

Postcard of the Genesee Hotel showing the window from which Mary Miller jumped. Photo courtesy of Cultural Ghosts.

In addition to The Buffalo Courier Express, the photo was published the next day in the May 8, 1942 edition of the New York Times and later, LIFE magazine. In the photo, a police woman can be seen entering the hotel in what was most likely an attempt to reach Mary Miller before she could kill herself; Perhaps seeing the officer enter the building prompted Mary to jump when she did, before she could be deterred. The photo is not only intriguing due to the suicide in progress captured; In 1942 most men were fighting in World War II and women had only just begun to join the workforce. The police woman seen running inside the Genessee Hotel was most likely one of the first woman to work in law enforcement in Buffalo. Two men in the coffee shop, seemingly unaware of the panic occurring on the street outside are seen next to a World War II propaganda sign displayed in the window which reads, “Give till it hurts Hitler”.

 The sign hanging from the side of the building advertises room rates at the Genese Hotel as “$1.00 and up” per night (but you have to share a bathroom, of course) and sandwiches at the coffee shop downstairs only cost customers 10 cents in 1942. The Genesee Hotel was erected in 1882, but this historic building has since been demolished.

Genesee Hotel in 1978, abandoned and boarded up for demolition. Photo courtesy of Cultural Ghosts.

The famous photo, generally referred to as “The Despondent Divorcee” but more correctly referred to as “The Genesee Hotel Suicide” was used in a psychological study. It was found that 96% of participants in the study did not notice Mary Miller falling to her death upon first examination of the photo.

Former site of the Genesee Hotel as it appears today. Photos courtesy of Cultural Ghosts.

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Photos courtesy Cultural Ghosts
From the same demented mind that brought you The Post-Mortem Post: FREAK
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Life Before Death: Overcoming the Fear of Death Through Postmortem Photography

 German photographer Walter Schels and journalist Beate Lakotta set out to dispell their shared fear of death by photographing terminally ill people perimortem and postmortem in the series “Life Before Death”. Beate Lakotta and Walter Schel have been married for over twenty years; Schel is 30 years her senior. The two are well-aware Schels will most likely die long before Lakotta, an event which they both fear. Walter Schels grew up near Munich, Germany during the final years of World War II; His own home was bombed as a child and he saw many victims of the air raids. He said the horrors he witnessed in childhood caused him to spawn a deep fear of death, “I was afraid of death and coffins my whole life and I avoided seeing any dead bodies, even those of my parents.”. In order to find subjects willing to participate in the project, the couple visited hospices in Hamburg and Berlin. Surprisingly, many patients near death wanted to participate in the project, eager to speak about their prognosis with someone outside of friends and family. Both subjects and loved ones had to agree upon participating, and only a small few chose to back out of the project. In the end, Schels and Lakotte interviewed and photographed 26 people who were severely ill and near death. For an entire year as the project was underway, the two were unable to work on any additional projects; They were on-call 24/7, ready to complete the postmortem photography portion in the event one of the subjects passed. Schels had previously worked on a series depicting birth, stating his fear of death was so intense all he could think was, “At the end of this birth will always be death.”. Although the series has had a deep reaction with many people, Schels insists he wasn’t trying to get across any message with the touching photos, only trying to “selfishly” rid himself of his fear, stating, “I hoped to lose my fear by doing this project where I had to confront myself with death. I am old enough to think about my own death so it was obvious to for me to close the circle between birth and death by doing this project.”. The powerful black and white portraits have been published into a book; The artist chose to use black and white photography to focus more on form and color. Lakotta said of the series, “Its like cement. That cold, that hard, and that heavy.”. According to Schels, “We both cried during this time more than ever before. It was impossible for either of us to deal with the physical death and, even more, the mental pressure on our own. Even now we still have to fight against tears when we get touched at certain points [in the series].”. Although the fear of death may still remain for the two, now Schels knows, “Death is ruthless. It is better to be prepared.”.

Elly Genthe, 83

First Photographed December 31, 2002
Elly Genthe was a tough, resilient woman who had always managed on her own. She often said that if she couldn’t take care of herself, she’d rather be dead. When I met her for the first time, she was facing death and seemed undaunted: she was full of praise for the hospice staff and the quality of her care. But, when I visited again a few days later, she seemed to sense her strength was ebbing away. Sometimes during those last weeks she would sleep all day: at other times, she saw little men crawling out of the flower pots who she believed had come to kill her. “Get me out of here”, she whispered as soon as anyone held her hand. “My heart will stop beating if I stay here. This is an emergency! I don’t want to die!”
Died January 11, 2003
Gerda Strech, 68

First Photographed January 5, 2003
Gerda couldn’t believe that cancer was cheating her of her hard-earned retirement. “My whole life was nothing but work, work, work,” she told me. She had worked on the assembly line in a soap factory, and had brought up her children single-handedly. “Does it really have to happen now? Can’t death wait?” she sobbed. On one visit Gerda said, “It won’t be long now”, and was panic-stricken. Her daughter tried to console her, saying: “Mummy, we’ll all be together again one day.” “That’s impossible,’ Gerda replied. “Either you’re eaten by worms or burned to ashes.” “But what about your soul?” her daughter pleaded. “Oh, don’t talk to me about souls”, said her mother in an accusing tone. “Where is God now?”
Died January 14, 2003

Michael Lauermann, 56 

First Photographed January 11, 2003
Michael Lauermann was a manager. A workaholic. One day he just keeled over. At the hospital they said: “Brain tumour, inoperable.” That was six weeks ago. Lauermann doesn’t want to talk about death, he’d rather talk about his life. How he managed to escape the narrow confines of his native Swabia and go to Paris. Studies at the Sorbonne. Baudelaire, street riots, revolution, women. “I really loved life,” says Lauermann. “Now it’s over. I’m not afraid of what’s coming.” There is no one by his side, that’s his choice. That’s not the way his life was. But he has no regrets. He even derives a certain enjoyment from this advanced stage of the illness. Free and easy, a kind of weightlessness. He feels as if his body were fading away. He is not in pain. “I will soon die”, Lauermann says. Three days later there is a candle burning outside the door of his room. It indicates he has passed away.
Died January 14, 2003

Michael Föge, 50

First Photographed January 8, 2003
Michael was left part-paralysed and unable to speak by a brain tumour. His wife communicated with him by squeezing arm: “I could feel his vitality. We had fun,” she said.
Died February 12, 2003
Roswitha Pacholleck, 47
  
First Photographed December 31, 2002
“It’s absurd really. It’s only now that I have cancer that, for the first time ever, I really want to live,” Roswitha told me on one of my visits, a few weeks after she had been admitted to the hospice. “They’re really good people here,” she said. “I enjoy every day that I’m still here. Before this my life wasn’t a happy one.” but she didn’t blame anyone. Not even herself. She had made peace with everyone, she said. She appreciated the respect and compassion she experienced in the hospice. “I know in my mind that I am going to die, but who knows? There may still be a miracle.” She vowed that if she were to survive she would work in the hospice as a volunteer.
Died March 6, 2002  Barbara Gröne, 51
  
First Photographed November 11, 2003
All her life, Barbara had been plagued by the idea that she has no right to be alive. She had been an unwanted baby: soon after her birth, her mother had put her into a home. But she had a strong survival instinct, and became very focused, she said, very disciplined in the way she lived. After much hard work, it seemed that life was at last delivering her a better hand. But then the cancer struck: an ovarian tumour, which had already spread to her back and pelvis. Nothing could be done. Abruptly her old fears returned: the familiar sense of worthlessness and sadness. At the end of her life, Barbara told me that she was overwhelmed by these feelings. “All my efforts were in vain”, she said. “It is as though I am being rejected by life itself”.
Died November 22, 2003
Heiner Schmitz, 52
First Photographed November 19 2003
Heiner was a fast talker, highly articulate, quick-witted, but not without depth. He worked in advertising. When he saw the affected area on the MRI scan of his brain he had grasped the situation very quickly: he had realised he didn’t have much time left. Heiner’s friends clearly didn’t want him to be sad and were trying to take his mind off things. They watched football with him just like they used to do: they brought in beers, cigarettes, had a bit of a party in the room. “Some of them even say ‘get well soon’ as they’re leaving; ‘hope you’re soon back on track, mate!’” says Heiner, wryly. “But no one asks me how I feel. Don’t they get it? I’m going to die!”
Died December 14, 2003
 Peter Kelling, 64
  
First Photographed November 29, 2003
Peter Kelling had never been seriously ill in his life. He was a civil servant working for the health and safety executive, and didn’t allow himself any vices. And yet one day he was diagnosed with bowel cancer. By the time I met him, the cancer had spread to his lungs, his liver and his brain. “I’m only 64,” he muttered. “I shouldn’t be wasting away like this”. At night he was restless, he told me, and kept turning things over in his mind. He cried a lot. But he didn’t talk about what was troubling him. In fact he hardly talked at all and his silence felt like a reproach to those around him. But there was one thing that Peter Kelling followed to the very last and that was the fortunes of the local football team. Until the day he died, every game was recorded on the chart on the door of his room.
Died December 22, 2003 Edelgard Clavey, 67
First Photographed December 5, 2003
Edelgard was divorced in the early eighties, and lived on her own from then on; she had no children. From her early teens she was an active member of the Protestant church. She contracted cancer about a year before she died, and towards the end she was bed-bound. Once she was very ill she felt she was a burden to society and really wanted to die. “Death is a test of one’s maturity. Everyone has got to get through it on their own. I want very much to die. I want to become part of that vast extraordinary light. But dying is hard work. Death is in control of the process, I cannot influence its course. All I can do is wait. I was given my life, I had to live it, and now I am giving it back”.
Died January 4, 2004Jannik Boehmfeld, 6 
First Photographed January 10, 2004
Jannik was only four years old when doctors detected a rare type of brain tumour. Four months later his mother, Silke was diagnosed with breast cancer. She was determined to stay strong for the sake of Jannik and his little brother Niklas, but her prognosis was bleak; She survived her son who died just 25 days after his 6th birthday.
Died January 11, 2004    Wolfgang Kotzahn, 57
Fist Photographed January 15, 2004

There are colorful tulips brightening up the night table. The nurse has prepared a tray with champagne glasses and a cake. It’s Wolfgang Kotzahn’s birthday today. “I’ll be 57 today. I never thought of myself growing old, but nor did I ever think I’d die when I was still so young. But death strikes at any age.”. Six months ago the reclusive accountant had been stunned by the diagnosis: bronchial carcinoma, inoperable. “It came as a real shock. I had never contemplated death at all, only life,” says Herr Kotzahn. “I’m surprised that I have come to terms with it fairly easily. Now I’m lying here waiting to die. But each day that I have I savor, experiencing life to the full. I never paid any attention to clouds before. Now I see everything from a totally different perspective: every cloud outside my window, every flower in the vase. Suddenly, everything matters.”

Died February 4, 2004 Maria Hai-Anh Tuyet Cao, 52

First Photographed December 5, 2003
“Death is nothing,” says Maria. “I embrace death. It is not eternal. Afterwards, when we meet God, we become beautiful. We are only called back to earth if we are still attached to another human being in the final seconds.”. Maria’s thoughts on death are permeated with her belief in the teachings of her spiritual guru, Supreme Mistress Ching Hai; She believes she has already visited the afterlife in meditation. What Maria hopes is that she can achieve a sense of total detachment at the moment of death: she spends most of her time in the days leading up to her death preparing mentally for this
Died February 15, 2004   Klara Behrens, 83
  First Photographed February 6, 2004
Klara Behrens knows she hasn’t got much longer to live. “Sometimes, I do still hope that I’ll get better,” she says. “But then when I’m feeling really nauseous, I don’t want to carry on living. And I’d only just bought myself a new fridge-freezer! If I’d only known! I wonder if it’s possible to have a second chance at life? I don’t think so. I’m not afraid of death — I’ll just be one of the million, billion grains of sand in the desert…”
Died March 3, 2004

  Beate Taube, 44 

First Photographed January 16, 2004
Beate had been receiving treatment for breast cancer for four years, but by the time we met she had had her final course of chemotherapy, and knew she was going to die. She had even been to see the grave where she was to be buried. Beate felt that leaving her husband and children behind would be too difficult and painful if they were with her. At the moment of her death she was entirely alone — her husband was in the kitchen making a cup of coffee. He told me later that he was disappointed that he couldn’t be with her, holding her hand, but he knew this is what she had always said, that dying alone would be easier for her.
Died March 10, 2004  Elmira Sang Bastian
  First Photographed January 14, 2004
Elmira Sang Bastian was most likely born with the tumour that, by the age of 17 months, had taken over almost her entire brain. Her mother, Fatemah, refused to give up hope. She prayed: “Dear God, now it is in your hands. If it be your will, let a miracle happen. Or is it selfish of me to want to keep my daughter? Was it your plan that she wouldn’t remain with us for long?”
Died March 23, 2004  Rita Schoffler, 62

First Photographed February 17, 2004
Rita and her husband had divorced 17 years before she became terminally ill with cancer. But when she was given her death sentence, she realised what she wanted to do: she wanted to speak to him again. It had been so long, and it had been such an acrimonious divorce: she had denied him access to their child, and the wounds ran deep. When she called him and told him she was dying, he said he’d come straight over. It had been nearly 20 years since they’d exchanged a word, but he said he’d be there. “I shouldn’t have waited nearly so long to forgive and forget. I’m still fond of him despite everything.” For weeks, all she’d wanted to do was die. But, she said, “now I’d love to be able to participate in life one last time…”
Died May 10, 2004

 Jan Anderston, 27

 First Photographed April 8, 2005

Jan Andersen was 19 when he discovered that he was HIV-positive. On his 27th birthday he was told that he didn’t have much time left: cancer, a rare form, triggered by the HIV-infection. He did not complain. He put up a short, fierce fight – then he seemed to accept his destiny. His friends helped him to personalize his room in the hospice. He wanted Iris, his nurse, to tell him precisely what would happen when he died. When the woman in the room next to him died, he went to have a look at her. Seeing her allayed his fears. He said he wasn’t afraid of death. “You’re still here?”, he said to his mother, puzzled, the night he died. “You’re not that well,” she replied. “I thought I’d better stay.” In the final stages, the slightest physical contact had caused him pain. Now he wants her to hold him in her arms, until the very end. “I’m glad that you stayed.”

  Died June 14, 2005

 More Photos from ‘Life Before Death’
-No Information Available At This Time-

 

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Photos and descriptions courtesy Walter Schels, Beate Lakotta, The Wellcome Collection and BBC, The Guardian and Feature Shoot
From the same demented mind that brought you The Post-Mortem Post: FREAK
If you enjoyed this article, you might also like Possible Relatives: Tina Enghoff Photographs Homes of the Recently Deceased, The Genesee Hotel Suicide, The Most Beautiful Suicide, The Seven Stages of Decomposition, Everybody Poops: The Postmortem Edition and Burying the Dead is Killing the Planet

Thich Quang Duc: Monk on Fire

The Self-Immolation of Thich Quang Duc

On June 11, 1963 amidst what became known as the “Buddhist Crisis” a Vietnamese Mahayana Buddhist monk known as Thich Quang Duc self-immolated (committed sacrificial suicide) at a busy intersection in Saigon. While Malcolm Browne’s Pulitzer Prize winning photo of Thich Quang Duc during self-immolation is one of the most famous and powerful photographs to this day, many people do not know what led the monk to end his life in protest.

Thich Quang Duc

Thich Quang Duc was born as “Lam Van Tac” in 1897 in Hoi Khan in the Van Ninh District, Khanh Hou province of Vietnam to Lam Huu Ung and Nguyen Thi Nuong. One of several children, Thich Quang Duc left his family at the age of eight to begin studying Buddhism under his uncle and spiritual master, Hoa Thuong Thich Hoang Tham, who raised him as though he were his own son. When Thich Quang Duc was fifteen, he took his Samanera (novice) vows and changed his name to Nguyen Van Khiet. At twenty he became an ordained monk and was given the name “Thich Quang Duc”. “Thich” (short for “Thich Ca”) is the surname given to all Mahayana Vietnamese Buddhist monks and nuns. The name means “Sakya” and indicates they are “sons of Sakyamuni the Buddha”. “Quang Duc” is a Dharma name which is traditionally chosen by one’s spiritual leader and is descriptive of the person’s admirable attributes. Once he became an ordained monk, Thich Quang Duc chose to travel to a mountain near Ninh Hoa to live in solitude; Afterwards, he opened the Thien Loc pagoda near the mountain on which he had spent three years as a hermit. In 1932 Thich Quang Duc was appointed as an inspector of monks for the Buddhist Association in Ninh Hoa, later being appointed as inspector to his home province of Khanh Hoa. Duc devoted two years to studying the traditions of Theravada Buddhism in Cambodia. He spent much of his life spreading the teachings of Buddhism throughout southern Vietnam and in his lifetime, was responsible for the construction of 31 Buddhist temples; One of them being the Quan The Am pagoda in the outskirts of Saigon. The street the temple sits on is now named after Thich Quang Duc in honor of his work and the sacrifice he made for the Buddhist population through self-immolation.

Vietnamese President Ngo Dinh Diem

Vietnam’s first President, Ngo Dinh Diem was a devout Roman Catholic who took office in 1955. While the Roman Catholic minority had long been favored by French colonists in the area, Diem was well-known for severely persecuting the Buddhist population within the country. At the time, 70%-90% of the population was Buddhist and had been suffering mass discrimination during Diem’s presidency. Many Roman Catholic priests had formed their own armies which were instructed to brutalize the Buddhist population and force them to convert their religion under threat. The government refused to intervene while Buddhist pagodas were being looted and destroyed by these Catholic troops. The Buddhist flag had been banned in Vietnam and on May 8, 1963 during a protest regarding the ban, nine unarmed Buddhist protestors were shot and killed by government guards in the city of Hue. While Ngo Dinh Diem blamed communist terrorists, it was perfectly clear he had a hand in the shootings. On June 10 a spokesperson for the Vietnamese Buddhist population quietly informed a U.S. journalist covering the Buddhist Crisis that “something important” would happen the next day on the road outside the Cambodian Embassy in the city of Saigon. Three-hundred and fifty Buddhist monks and nuns carrying protest banners marched down the street that day while Thich Quang Duc and two other monks rode in a car.

The car Thich Quang Duc rode in to his June 11, 1963 self-immolation.

Once they were near the busy Saigon intersection, Thich Quang Duc and his companions exited the car as the protesters surrounded them in a protective circle. One monk placed a cushion in the road for Thich Quang Duc to sit on. He sat on the cushion in the lotus position before taking out his wooden holy beads and chanting, “Nam mo A di da Phat”, a prayer to Amida Buddha.

 One of the monks accompanying him retrieved a 5 gallon petrol can from the vehicle and began to douse Thich Quang Duc in petroleum. After the prayer was finished, Thich Quang Duc self-immolated with the aid of another monk who lit the match.

 David Halberstam, who witnessed the event wrote, “I was to see that sight again, but once was enough. Flames were coming from a human being; his body was slowly withering and shriveling up, his head blackening and charring.

 In the air was the smell of human flesh; human beings burn surprisingly quickly. Behind me I could hear the sobbing of the Vietnamese who were now gathering. I was too shocked to cry, too confused to take notes or ask questions, too bewildered to even think…

 As he burned he never moved a muscle, never uttered a sound, his outward composure in sharp contrast to the wailing people around him.”.

It took approximately 10 minutes for the 66-year-old monk to completely self-immolate. Once the fire that had consumed Thich Quang Duc began to burn out, monks covered his smoldering body in yellow robes and placed his corpse inside a wooden coffin. The monks were unable to straighten his charred body; One arm protruded from the coffin as his remains were carried to the Xa Loi pagoda.

 Astoundingly, despite being “re-cremated” at his funeral, the heart of Thich Quang Duc remained unscathed and was placed in a glass chalice where it, along with his ashes, remained at the Xa Loi pagoda. Photos of Thich Quang Duc’s self-immolation circulated the world, putting more pressure on President Ngo Dinh Diem to reform his policies as he had previously promised the citizens of Vietnam.

  American President John F. Kennedy commented on the photo saying, “No news picture in history has generated so much emotion around the world as that one.” Still, the Buddhist Crisis of Vietnam continued. In August of 1963 Diem arrested over 1,000 Buddhists in the cities of Hue and Saigon and conducted massive raids on Buddhist pagodas including Xu Loi. During the raid, two monks managed to escape with the urn containing the martyred monk’s ashes. Unfortunately, Duc’s heart was confiscated by government forces. Many Buddhist monks across Vietnam were killed, others chose to join Duc in self-immolation to ensure their death would matter. Finally, on November 2, 1963 a coup was staged on President Ngo Dinh Diem and his brother/advisor, Ngo Dinh Nhu, who many believe may have been behind most of the anti-Buddhist policies across Vietnam.  After being arrested and promised safety in return for their surrender, Diem and Nhu were assassinated in the back of a truck while being transported to military headquarters. It began when Nhu was stabbed with a bayonet 15-20 times by one of the arresting officers (who Nhu had been insulting during transport) while the truck was stopped at a train crossing.

Body of President Ngo Dinh Diem after his assassination.

Diem was then shot in the head with a revolver at point-blank range. When it was noticed Nhu was still barely clinging to life, he too was shot in the head and killed. The assassinations of President Diem and his brother, Nhu, proved to be a huge turning point in the Vietnam War. Before his self-immolation, Thich Quang Duc documented his final thoughts in a letter, “Before closing my eyes and moving towards the vision of the Buddha, I respectfully plead to President Ngo Dinh Diem to take a mind of compassion towards the people of the nation and implement religious equality to maintain the strength of the homeland eternally. I call the venerables, reverends, members of the sangha [meaning “association”/”community” in Sanskrit and usually referring to ordained monks and nuns] and the lay Buddhists to organize in solidarity to make sacrifices to protect Buddhism.”.

The heart of Thich Quang Duc

Thich Quang Duc’s heart was recovered and is now kept in the Reserve Bank of Vietnam; It is considered to be a holy relic. Due in part to the miraculous preservation of Thich Quang Duc’s heart, he was deemed a Bodhisattva, “Enlightened Being”.

The following is news footage of the Buddhist Crisis in Vietnam and the self-immolation of Thich Quang Duc on June 11, 1963 in Saigon. If you only wish to watch the self-immolation, skip to 6:00 minutes.

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If you enjoyed this article, you might also like Pray the Decay Away: Incorruptible Corpses and Other Forms of Natural Postmortem Preservation, Rasputin’s Pickled Penis on Public Display, Life Before Death: Overcoming the Fear of Death Through Postmortem Photography, THE WALKING DEAD: Indonesia, The Most Beautiful Suicide, The Genesee Hotel Suicide, Pasqualita: How Much is that Corpse Bride in the Window?, Joshiah: We Are the Creators of Our Universe and Victims of Terror: Children Who Remember Dying in Terrorist Attacks

Cause of Death: Spontaneous Human Combustion & Other Stories of SHC

The body of Robert Francis Bailey

Robert Francis Bailey

At 5:19am on September 13, 1967 emergency services were called when a concerned citizen walking to work noticed a bright light coming from inside an abandoned home at 49 Auckland Street in Lambeth, South London. When the fire department arrived at 5:24am they discovered the burning body of Robert Francis Bailey, a local homeless alcoholic. One of the responding firefighters reported, “When we entered the building he [Robert Francis Baily] was lying on the bottom of the stairs half-turned on his left side and his knees were drawn up as though he was trying to bend the pain from his stomach”. Baily had been conscious as he burned to death and there was evidence to suggest he had been convulsing in agony as the fire consumed him. He had bitten into the post on the stairs which was made of solid mahogany and his teeth were embedded so deeply into the wood that his mouth had to be pried open by the fire department in order to remove his body. The firefighter described what he had witnessed, “There was about a four inch slit in his stomach and the flame was emanating from that four inch slit like a blow torch. It was a blue flame. The flame was actually coming from the body itself. From inside the body. He was burning literally from the inside out. And it was definitely under preassure. And it was impinging on the timber flooring below the body, so much so that the heat from the flame was charred into the woodwork.”. The only fire damage in the house was on the floor, directly below where the body had been burning. Aside from the abdomen where the fire had originated, Robert Francis Bailey’s clothes were intact and unaffected by the fire. The fire department put out the flames almost immediately, originally believing Bailey may still have been alive; The job required the use of several fire extinguishers and was incredibly difficult. Robert Francis Bailey’s original cause of death was determined to be “asphyxia due to inhalation of fire fumes” but after reviewing the case further his death was deemed to have been due to “unknown causes”.

Michael Faherty

The home of Michael Faherty

Seventy-six year old MichaelFaherty was found dead in his home in Clareview Park, Ballybane, Galway, Ireland on December 22, 2010 after his neighbor, Mr.Mannion was awoken by a fire alarm and noticed smoke coming from Faherty’s house. The official cause of death for Michael Faherty was “spontaneous combustion.”. Quite frankly, of all claims of SHC I find it very odd that this is the one investigators chose to officially name as a real case of spontaneous human combustion.

The body of Michael Faherty

While no accelerants were found and the fire that consumed Mr. Faherty had only damaged the floor directly beneath and the ceiling directly above the body, he was found with his head next to an open and active fireplace. A lead official working on the case stated, “The fire was thoroughly investigated and I’m left with the conclusion that this fits into the category of spontaneous human combustion for which there is no adequate explanation.”.

Dr. John Irving Bentley

From 1925-1953 John Irving Bentley had worked as a family physician in Coudersport, Pennsylvania. He had suffered a fractured hip in 1947 which affected his mobility and had caused him to be infirm in his senior years. Dr. Bentley remained in Coudersport where he was friendly with many residents which he had served as physician to before his retirement. On December 4, 1966, ninety-two year old John Irving Bentley received visitors who left at around 9pm that evening.

The home of Dr. John Irving Bentley

The following morning, Don Gosnell, meter reader with the North Penn Gas Company arrived at Dr. Bentley’s two-story home on Main Street and let himself in, as usual due to the ninety-two year old’s immobility. When he entered the house, Don Gosnell noticed a light blue smoke and a strange smell which was “somewhat sweet, like starting up a new oil-burning system.”. After going into the basement to read the meter he saw there was a pile of ash on the floor. Concerned about the strange conditions in which he found the home, he set off to search for Dr. Bentley. Don Gosnell found the upstairs bedroom filled with smoke and in the bathroom he discovered the doctor’s remains.

The body of Dr. John Irving Bentley

All that was left of John Irving Bentley was the lower half of his right leg, still wearing a slipper and his walker on top of a 2 1/2 by 4 foot hole burned into the floor. Dr. Bentley’s ashes had fallen through this hole and into the basement. Terrified, Don Gosnell ran back to the gas company screaming, “Doctor Bentley’s burned up!” and coworkers later said, “He [Don Gosnell] looked as white as a sheet.”. Aside from the hole burned into the floor, there were few signs of fire damage. The nearby tub was nearly unscathed and the rubber tips on Dr. Bentley’s walker were intact. Found inside the bathtub was Dr. Bentley’s burned robe and in the toilet were the remnants of “what was apparently a water pitcher.”. The official cause of death was recorded as “death by asphyxiation and 90 percent burning of the body”. It is theorized that Dr. Bentley had set fire to himself in his bedroom with his pipe and went into the bathroom in an attempt to extinguish the flames, becoming unconscious before he could do so. While this theory is plausible considering Dr. Bentley was an avid pipe smoker and his robe showed signs of multiple previous accidents with hot ash, his pipe was found sitting neatly in its stand by his bedside as though it had not been used anytime recently. The fire which consumed Dr. Bentley is estimated to have burned at 2,500 degrees Fahrenheit, a common element of supposed cases of spontaneous human combustion.

Helen Conway
On the evening of November 7, 1964 Helen Conway was babysitting the two children of her daughter and son-in-law overnight at her home in Upper Darby, Pennsylvania. The following morning at 8:42am Helen Conway’s granddaughter, Stephanie delivered a book of matches to her invalid grandmother upstairs upon request. Very shortly thereafter, Helen Conway’s neighbor who was leaving for church noticed an odd glow coming from inside the upstairs window of 527 Argyll Road and came to the house to investigate. The heat was so intense she was unable to make it upstairs and called the fire department. As firefighters searched the smoke-filled room at 8:48am one of them stuck his hand “into something greasy” which tuned out to be the remains of Helen Conway.

The body of Helen Conway

All that was left of her were her legs from the knee-down. Her lower legs and feet were unburnt but blistered. Two blisters broke on her leg during examination; they were wet but did not leak fluid. This is a clear indication that the 51-year-old widow was alive as she burned. Her left arm, which had burned down to the bone still had a bracelet eerily dangling from it. The only major signs of fire damage was on the chair Helen Conway sat in as she burned to death. A telephone sitting on a nearby table had begun to melt but a pack of cigarettes on the same table were not affected. Sheets on the bed in the adjoining bedroom were spotless but the television set sitting on a dresser had melted while a highly flammable doll sitting next to the TV was nearly untouched. Helen Conway was a very heavy smoker and was a bit careless with her cigarettes. Multiple cigarette burns were found on furniture in her bedroom. One theory suggests Helen Conway lit herself on fire while smoking. As the chair she sat in became progressively charred the top broke off and fell backwards, taking the upper portion of Helen Conway’s body with it. Investigators believed “The Wick Effect” was the cause of her death. The Wick Effect is a commonly use to explain potential spontaneous human combustion. Under this theory, the human body is basically an inside out candle with clothing acting as the wick and human fat as the ignition. While it has been proven to be an explanation for some believed cases of SHC, it takes seven hours to destroy a human body. Obviously, this explanation would be highly feasible if it weren’t for one teeny tiny little detail… The fire that consumed the majority of Helen Conway’s body and burned at 2,500 degrees Fahrenheit began and ended in six minutes. No accelerants were used; Her death was originally considered to be foul play due to the rate and intensity at which the fire burned.

Mary Reeser
Around 8am on July 2, 1951 Pansy Carpenter went to deliver a telegram and a cup of coffee to her tenant Mary Reeser. After discovering the doorknob to her home was burning hot, Pansy asked for the help of two painters working nearby to assist in opening the door. When they finally entered, the three were met with a gust of hot air. The home showed some signs of fire but Mrs. Reeser was nowhere to be found. There was a bit of a bit of smoke and a small fire still burning on a beam which separated the bedroom from the kitchenette. Emergency services were called and discovered the body of Mary Reeser. All that remained of her was her left foot still wearing a black satin slipper, a charred liver fused to a fragment of vertebrae and a shrunken skull which was approximately the size of a teacup.

The remains of Mary Reeser

The 170lb. woman had been reduced to a pile of remains weighing less that 10lbs. Dr. Wilton Krogman, the leading American forensic expert on the subject of death by fire at that time was called in to study the case. In 25 years of working in his field, Dr. Krogman was baffled by the shrunken skull. In deaths by burning, the skull expands from the heat and literally explodes. While it is not uncommon for the skull to shrink in claims of SHC (one of many elements that makes these cases so intriguing), it is absolutely unheard of in any burning deaths outside of these rare phenomena. The chair Mary Reeser was sitting in at the time of her death had been burned until all that was left of it was some coils from its interior but a nearby pile of newspapers was untouched by the fire. A mirror on the wall had cracked due to the intense heat and many appliances in the home had melted; Otherwise, the home was generally unaffected by the fire which is estimated to have burned at 3,000 degrees Fahrenheit. Local investigators in St. Petersburg, Florida were so stumped by the case that Police Chief J.R. Reichert sent a box of evidence to J. Edgar Hoover containing glass fragments found in the ashes, a section of carpet, the unburnt shoe from Mrs. Reeser’s remaining foot and six “small objects thought to be teeth” along with a note which read, “We request any information or theories that could explain how a human body could be so destroyed and the fire confined to such a small area and so little damage done to the structure of the building and furniture in the room not even scorched or damaged by smoke.”. The case of Mary Reeser was so astounding J. Edgar Hoover even discussed the case with President Harry S. Truman before replying to the St. Petersburg Police. On August 8, the FBI ruled Mary Reeser’s death to have been due to “The Wick Effect” saying that Mrs. Reeser had taken her regular dose of sleeping pills and fell asleep while smoking a cigarette in her armchair. They claimed the rayon nightgown, robe and bedroom slippers she was last seen alive in the previous evening by her son and a neighbor acted as a wick and her body fat kept the fire going until she had been completely consumed. Those who worked on the case up-close-and-personal strongly disagreed with the FBI’s explanation. Experts asserted there is no way a fire started by a cigarette could create a blaze of that intensity. Dr. Wilton Krogman vehemently protested the FBI’s theory and said throughout his life that the case, particularly the shrunken skull, haunted him. As previously mentioned, the Wick Effect takes seven hours to consume a body. While there is no way to know for sure when the fire that killed Mary Reeser began, we get a pretty good idea from a clock in the room which stopped at 2:26am, presumably due to the heat from the fire. Pansy Carpenter, Mrs. Reeser’s landlady said she awoke that morning to the smell of smoke at around 5:00am. She believed it to be caused by the water pump in the garage overheating again. She got up, turned it off, and returned to bed. If the fire began shortly before 2:26am and raged on until just before Pansy Carpenter entered Mrs. Reeser’s apartment, that would be approximately seven hours; However, the FBI’s theory doesn’t quite add up. If Mary Reeser took sleeping pills on a regular basis, one would assume she took them quite a bit earlier in the evening.

Mary Reeser

Remember, this was a 67-year-old woman in 1951 whose landlady delivered coffee to at 8am. Unfortunately, there are no records of what time Mrs. Reeser’s son and neighbor left her home that evening, but the details given by Pansy Carpenter imply that Mary Reeser was up and out of bed by 8am every morning. For that to be possible when using medication to sleep, Mrs. Reeser would have to take her pills by midnight each evening, no later. If she had, in fact, taken the pills at her usual time and fallen asleep while smoking it would mean the ember which supposedly fell into her clothes remained inactive for about two hours before starting a fire which grew to 3,000 degrees Fahrenheit. Some put the time of the clock stopping between 4:00am and 4:20am (we’re going with 2:26 because that time is cited in books and I trust books more that the internet) and if that is the case, there certainly would not have been enough time for Mary Reeser’s body to be destroyed to the point it was by way of the Wick Effect. More bizarrely, why would J. Edgar Hoover consult the President on the matter, not simply inform him of it. All these little details that don’t quite make sense in addition to the fact that no one working on the case outside of the FBI agreed with the Wick Effect theory in the case of Mary Reeser makes it one of the most intriguing examples of SHC to this day. One theory considered in an attempt to “logically” explain her death was that Mary Reeser was murdered… using cremation equipment; However, that theory was let go when it left no explanation for the melted appliances.
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Chilling Photo Delivered to Parents One Year After Their Children Go Missing

On Monday December 13, 1920 Jason and Jimmy Garret were playing outside when they discovered a treasure map pinned to a tree with a knife. The brothers rushed inside to notify their parents of the discovery. Mr. and Mrs. Garret believed their sons were telling a tall tale and sent them back outside; The Garret brothers did not return home. After their disappearance, family and investigators were unable to find this “treasure map” the young boys claimed to have found the last time they were seen. It is believed Jimmy and Jason went off in search of the treasure on their own but instead of leading them to riches, it lead them to a twisted killer who had left the map in hopes of luring children to their deaths. Although Jason and Jimmy Garret were never seen again, one year after their disappearance, a photo of the two boys lying in a grave with a skeleton was slipped under the front door of their former home. This terrifying tale, which has made its rounds on the internet, most likely has no truth behind it. Whether the story is a false or not, the photograph leads one to wonder the real reasons behind the capture of this fascinating photo.

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If you enjoyed this article, you might also like Mummified Corpses of Little Girls Transformed Into Russian Dolls, Scared to Death: An April Fool’s Day Fatality, George Leigh Mallory, Amarjeet Sada: The World’s Youngest Serial Killer, Laura Belle Devlin, The Genesee Hotel Suicide, Herb Baumeister and the Horrors of Fox Hollow, The Most Beautiful Suicide, Stories of Spontaneous Human Combustion: Part One and Part Two, Thich Quang Duc: Monk on Fire, Turbine Inferno, Imaginary Murders on the Rise, John Wilkes Booth’s Disturbing Artwork and Possible Relatives: Tina Enghoff Photographs Homes of the Recently Deceased for New Exhibition

Fire Escape Collapse

‘Fire Escape Collapse’ July 22, 1975 Diana Bryant and Tiare Jones falling from a fire escape in Boston, Massachusetts

 

 

On July 22, 1975 a fire raged in one of the apartment buildings on Marlborough Street in Boston, Massachusetts. Nineteen-year old Diana Bryant and her two-year-old goddaughter, Tiare Jones were trapped and awaiting rescue on a fire escape.

One firefighter, Robert O’Neil, was shielding Bryant and Jones from the flames as a ladder approached, ready to lower them to safety. O’Neil would be the first to step onto the ladder and instructed Diana Bryant to pass Tiare Jones to him once he was in place. Robert O’Neil had just begun to pull himself onto the ladder when the fire escape collapsed, taking Diana and Tiare down along with it.

 Diana Bryant died from her injuries but Tiare, who had fallen on Diana’a body survived the fall. ‘Fire Escape Collapse’ is one in a series of photos taken by Stanley Forman, photographer for the Boston Herald, at the scene of the fire. When the photo was originally released in his publication there was an overwhelmingly hostile reaction from the public. As the pictures quickly spread around the world, media was accused of pandering to sensationalism and invading Diana Bryant’s privacy. Despite the controversy surrounding the photo, the series by Stanley Forman was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Spot News Photography in 1976 and additionally, was named The World Press Photo of The Year. It also prompted the city of Boston, as well as many other cities across the United States, to revise laws on fire escape safety. Today, the photo is still used by fire safety groups to promote their efforts. In 2005, photographer Stanley Forman gave his account of the tragic events he witnessed on that day in an interview with BBC:
“It was 22 July 1975. I was about to leave the offices of the Boston Herald for the day. A call came in about a fire in one of the city’s older sections of Victorian row houses. I rushed to the house and followed one of the engines to the fire. I ran to the back of the building, because on the way there they kept yelling for a ladder truck because there were people trapped in the building on the fire escape.
I ran to the back of the building and when I looked up there was a woman and a child on the fire escape and they were basically leaning at the furthest point from the building because of the heat of the fire behind them. In the meantime, a firefighter called Bob [Robert] O’Neil had climbed on to the front of the building on the roof and saw the pair on the fire escape. He lowered himself on to the fire escape to rescue them.
I took a position where I could photograph what I thought was an impending routine rescue. The ladder went up to pick them up – they were about 50ft (15m) up. Mr O’Neill had just told Diana Bryant that he was going to step onto the ladder and asked her to hand the baby to him. Mr O’Neil was reaching out for the ladder when suddenly the fire escape gave way.

I was shooting pictures as they were falling – then I turned away. It dawned on me what was happening and I didn’t want to see them hit the ground. I can still remember turning around and shaking.
It transpired that I wouldn’t have seen them hit the ground as they fell behind a fence where the bins were. When I did turn around I didn’t see them but I saw the firefighter still clinging onto the ladder with one arm, like a monkey, with all his gear. He hoisted himself back up the fire escape to safety. They say the woman broke the child’s fall. The woman died later that night.

I was shooting pictures as they were falling – then I turned away. It dawned on me what was happening and I didn’t want to see them hit the ground. I can still remember turning around and shaking.
It transpired that I wouldn’t have seen them hit the ground as they fell behind a fence where the bins were. When I did turn around I didn’t see them but I saw the firefighter still clinging onto the ladder with one arm, like a monkey, with all his gear. He hoisted himself back up the fire escape to safety.

Any time there are stories about fire safety issues or issues such as those people went through with the hurricane in New Orleans, it wakes people up

They say the woman broke the child’s fall. The woman died later that night.
At the time, I didn’t know that the picture was going to be so big or have such an impact. When I started looking at the negatives I was looking at the rescue picture, where they were holding on to each other. I didn’t even look at the next frame, I didn’t know exactly what I’d got. I knew I had shot them coming down, I didn’t realise how dramatic it was until I had developed the film.The picture was first published in the Boston Herald and then picked up and published in newspapers all over the world. There was much debate about showing such a horrific picture.
I was never bothered by the controversy. When you think about it, I don’t think it was that horrific. The woman at the time was not deceased; we didn’t show a dead person on the front page. She did die, which is a horrible thing. I didn’t think it was that bad, but then I am the photographer, so I’m biased.
Any time there are stories about fire safety issues or issues such as those people went through with the hurricane in New Orleans, it wakes people up.
My photograph prompted people to go out and check their fire escapes and ushered in a law that meant that the owner of the property is responsible for fire-escape safety. It was also used in many fire-safety pamphlets for many years.
Thirty years later it’s nice to know that I did the right thing. I haven’t seen anything like it since. I’ve seen pictures that I wish I’d made but I haven’t seen anything as dramatic as that, and I’ve seen some pretty good pictures.When you say a picture tells a thousand words, this one certainly told 10,000.”

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If you enjoyed this article, you might also like The Most Beautiful Suicide, Genesee Hotel Suicide, Turbine Inferno, Life Before Death: Overcoming the Fear of Death through Postmortem Photography, Photographer Captures Couple’s Jump into Yangtze River, Karl Wallenda’s Fatal Tightrope Fall, Last Photo of Mother & Child Taken on Doomed Malaysian Airlines Flight, Possible Relatives: Tina Enghoff Photographs Homes of the Recently Deceased, Thich Quang Duc: Monk on Fire and Victims of Terror 

Survivors of Spontaneous Human Combustion

In 2013 a 9-day-old infant, “Baby Rahul”, made headlines when his mother, Rajeshwari Karnan admitted him to a local hospital in India to seek treatment for his burns which she claimed were caused by spontaneous combustion. Rahul was discovered lying in his bed, on fire, by a neighbor who heard the child’s screams. Professor R. Jayachandran, Rahul Karnan’s pediatrician believed his burns may have been caused by gasses expelling through his skin and theorized it may be a genetic condition. Twenty-five year old Rajeshwari has an older daughter, Narmatha, who has never suffered a believed instance of SHC. Since Rahul’s initial incident, Rajeshwari claims her son has spontaneously ignited on three other occasions. In January 2015 Rajeshwari Karnan admitted Rahul’s 10-day-old baby brother to Kilpauk Hospital in India after his feet supposedly caught fire while she was in the bath. The unnamed baby’s had burns covering 10% of his feet and had to spend over one month in the hospital recovering. The hospital was incredibly reluctant to release the newborn from the believing one of the parents, most likely Rajeshwari, was suffering from Munchausen by proxy syndrome and had set fire to her own children for attention. “Munchausen Moms”, mothers who harm their children to gain attention and sympathy (usually by way of slowly poisoning their children) have gained infamy in the past few decades as this mental illness which can affect either parent, but usually the mother, has seemingly become more widespread. Hospital dean Narayana Babu stated, “All tests reveal he [unnamed Baby Karnan] is completely normal. The parents went through psychiatric counselling and were found to be normal.”. The Karnans told reporters their community has ostracized them after the repeated burnings of their two children.

Frank Baker claims he has survived repeated instances of “partial spontaneous combustion” which he was diagnosed by a doctor. The doctor who supposedly diagnosed Frank with “partial spontaneous combustion” has never come forward or been mentioned by name. The first time Frank burst into flames, it was witnessed by a close friend. Frank claims he has spontaneously combusted three times since the initial incident. For several years, Frank Baker has been soliciting money for “Spontaneous Combustion Research”. I am not convinced, but here is his story in his own words.

Jack Angel is probably the most well-known survivor of SHC when in fact, he never experienced spontaneous combustion nor did he claim to. On November 12, 1974 Jack Angel was taking a shower in his mobile home in Savannah, Georgia when the water suddenly stopped flowing. When he went to check the water pressure, he was sprayed with scalding hot water. Jack Angel filed a civil-action suit in the Fulton County Superior Court over the burns which he received after being sprayed by the faulty water tank. Somehow, the accounts of this run-of-the-mill lawsuit has morphed into a wildly false story of surviving spontaneous human combustion. Today, people claim Jack Angel fell asleep on a water mattress and awoke to find a hole burnt in his stomach but his clothing intact. During the lawsuit with the water mattress company a doctor confirmed at the trial that Jack Angel had burned from the inside out.
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If you enjoyed this article, you might also like Evidence Suggests Spontaneous Human Combustion is a Reality, A Witness to Spontaneous Human Combustion and Other Stories of SHC, Cause of Death: Spontaneous Human Combustion and Other Stories of SHC and Children Who Remember Dying in Terrorist Attacks in their Past-Life

Turbine Inferno

A 19 and 21 year old moments away from death embrace atop a turbine engulfed in flames. One man jumped to escape the fire, the other burned alive in an attempt to reach the staircase.

In the afternoon of October 29, 2013 at the Deltawinds Piet de Wit Wind Farm in Ooltgensplaat, Holland, a fire broke out inside the engine room of a 220 foot (67 meter) high wind turbine. A crew of four were performing regular maintenance on the 1.75 megawatt Vestas V-66 at the time. Two of the workers, who were older and more experienced, managed to escape by jumping through the flames, reaching the staircase just before it became entirely engulfed. Unfortunately due to fear, lack of experience, or the false hope that someone would rescue them, a 19 and a 21-year-old worker perished that day. According to The Netherlands Times, “because of the height, the fire department initially had trouble extinguishing the fire in the engine room.” The fire, believed to have been caused by a short fuse, was not extinguished until that evening when specialty firefighters equipt to handle such a situation arrived. Turbines are built with what is known as a ‘Constant Rate Descender’ which is essentially a cord workers can attach themselves to in the event of an emergency and use to repel down the turbine. It slows the descent to 6.5 feet per second (2 meters/second) which is slower than one would land after hopping up on one foot. Unfortunately, the repelling equipment was located on the opposite side of the turbine and the two young men were blocked from it by the flames. Eventually, one of the remaining engineers chose to jump from the turbine rather than wait to burn to death. His body was immediately discovered in the field beneath the machine. The second chose to remain and seemingly made a final attempt to escape by walking through flames to reach the staircase. His charred body was discovered inside the turbine by firefighters later that evening. Although their names are unknown, their outlined image has been burned into the minds of those who have viewed it.

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Possible Relatives: Tina Enghoff Photographs Homes of the Recently Deceased for New Exhibition

Tina Enghoff is a Danish visual artist who, in her exhibition entitled ‘Possible Relatives’, explores loneliness in society by way of death. Inspiration for this otherworldly series came from newspaper articles searching for relatives of the recently departed. Enghoff collected over a hundred of these articles over the years and displayed them with her photos in her exhibit at the Nikolaj, Copenhagen Contemporary Art Center. These individuals who died alone in their homes with no known next of kin are remembered through Tina Enghoff’s photos of the empty apartments which they once inhabited. Although the viewer will never know who lived and died in the still-furnished rooms, though viewing the series one certainly experiences how the person was feeling at the time of their death: Alone. States of the living environments range, some sparse of material objects and tidy, others reveal signs of hoarding lingering in the background. Everyday object such as shoes, left just as they were at the time of their owner’s death, can be seen in the homes of the unknown deceased. More eerily, in many photos there is a dark residue on the furniture or floor. This is known as “body stain” and is left behind on surfaces where a body has been decomposing. Sadly, it is a tell-tale sign that the body of the deceased had remained in the location of death for quite some time before being discovered and removed.
The artist explains her series as:

“A documentation of a part of human life that few are seldom witness to – death in the shape of traces left by people who have passed away alone. Possible Relatives is a project about rejection, loneliness and invisibility –about the poverty of social contact in our otherwise economically developed welfare system.

“ We who only see the empty rooms, know nothing about the people who have left them. But we can surmise that most of those who have departed from earthly life in these apartments without calling for help, have given up all hope to be liked and have abandoned all role play long ago.””

View the entire series ‘Possible Relatives’ here
Learn more about Tina Enghoff’s work on her website: http://www.tinaenghoff.com/
To learn more about the Nikolaj, Copenhagen Contemporary Art Center visit: www.kunsthallennikolaj.dk

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