Anomalies Article: Mrs. Patrick Rooney's Fiery Death

Mrs. Patrick Rooney's Fiery Death

The Legend:
In December 1885, Mr. and Mrs. Patrick Rooney were found dead in their kitchen by their hired hand, John Larson, and their son, John Rooney, at their home in Illinois; the last time the two of them had been seen alive was the evening before, when they had shared a few 'Christmas drinks' with Larson and their son. The following morning, Larson discovered Mr. Rooney slumped and dead in the chair he had occupied the night before; Mrs. Rooney was found later, after Larson had raced to their son's farm for help. Her remains were at the botton of a three-by-four foot hole in the floor of the kitchen; her two-hundred pound body had been reduced to a burned piece of skull, two charred vertebrae, and a foot in a pile of ashes. Nothing else in the kitchen was damaged.
Investigation by the police and coroner led to the conclusion that Mrs. Rooney was a victim of spontaneous human combustion, and that her husband had been asphyxiated by the fumes rising from his wife's burning body. John Larson was cleared of the suspicion of murder because rising soot from the fire had left an outline of his head on his pillow, proveing he had slept through the strange event.

Theories
Joe Nickell, in his book Secrets of the Supernatural, gives an account of this event he compiled from two sources: Allan W. Eckert's article "The Baffling Burning Death," published in True of May 1964, and Vincent H. Gaddis' Mysterious Fires and Lights (1967); I will locate a copy of each. According to Nickell, sources differ on what is believed to be the date of the event. Nickell describes Larson as "sick and vomiting" when he got up the morning of the discovery, and that in the kitchen everything was covered by "a black, greasy soot." Accounts differ on where Mr. Rooney's body was found -- either at or near the table in the kitchen, or in a first floor bedroom. Nickell describes Mrs. Rooney's remains as "a few bones and a mound of ashes." Nickell suggests that, although there is no mention of whether or not the stove was lit at the time Mrs. Rooney caught fire, that she may have accidently ignited herself trying to light it.

Sources:
Charles Berlitz's World of the Incredible but True, Charles Berlitz, 1991 Ballantine Books.
Secrets of the Supernatural, Joe Nickell (with John F. Fischer), 1988 Prometheus Books.