Christmas Mysteries: Spontaneous Combustion

So as we jump into the festive season of Christmas with the red, green and white colors blaring merry wishes, there lies some head turning, brain cracking mysteries behind the cheers of Christmas, of which I am going to be sharing with you.

First off, this one is crazy and I doubt the combustion stuff because I'd rather think she was hugged by a burning demon or something - no offense to the dead - but then if you were on fire would you actually stand rooted to a spot??

But then science would not believe in anything they can't prove, so yea, combustion works fine.

Spontaneous Combustion Of Matilda Rooney

A farmhand named John Larson spent Christmas 1885 with his employers, Patrick and Matilda Rooney, an elderly couple who lived just outside of Seneca, Illinois. They shared several drinks before Larson retired for the evening and went upstairs to bed. Sometime during the night, he underwent a coughing fit and had trouble breathing, but soon drifted back to sleep.

When Larson woke up on Christmas morning, traces of soot were on his pillow. Larson went downstairs and was shocked to find Mr. Rooney lying dead on the floor next to his bed. The bedroom was next to the kitchen, and the door was ajar. Matilda was nowhere to be found.

Later that day, Larson wandered into the kitchen and found a large blackened hole in the floor. It rested alongside what appeared to be the charred remains of a human foot. A pile of ash was inside the hole. Larson alerted neighbors that something was wrong in the house, he himself had been nearly asphyxiated by the smoke inside, so the horror within was not fully explored until a doctor from Port Huron, Michigan, Dr. Floyd Clendenin arrived to perform an inquest.

In the kitchen, a partly burned candle stood on the table... and next to the table was a hole burned through the floor measuring two and a half feet by three feet, through which the ground under the house could be seen. In that hole was a heap of ashes, which was found to also contain a skull, a cervical bone, some dorsal vertebrae and part of an ilium -- the vertebrae and ilium were nearly reduced to a cinder -- six inches of the right femur, and two human feet, still in their shoes... and both charcoaled. In all, Mrs. Rooney's formerly one-hundred and sixty pound body had been reduced to just twelve pounds worth of remains. Nothing else in the kitchen was damaged by fire directly, but most of the house's interior walls and furniture were coated with a "dirty, greasy, sooty substance." This was all that was left of Matilda Rooney.

It seemed that Matilda was the victim of spontaneous human combustion, a situation in which it is believed the human body somehow ignites itself and reduces to ashes in a very short time, which caused her entire body to catch fire and burn to ashes. The estimated temperature of the fire that consumed her was 1,400 degrees Celsius (2,500 °F), but there were no other signs of fire damage other than that spot.

It was further stated that her husband had been asphyxiated by the fumes rising from his wife's burning body while sleeping off the drinks. Patrick had died of smoke inhalation. This explained Larson’s coughing fit during the night. He was spared from death because he slept behind a closed door on the second floor.

Even though there was speculation that Larson could have murdered Matilda, it seemed impossible for him to have started such a blazing fire without damaging the rest of the house. 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, proving he had slept through the strange event.

Larson probably survived the night because he slept on the second floor and his door was shut, and so he was reasonably protected from the main source of smoke and soot. However, he died two weeks after the event, apparently due to the effects of inhaling the smoke and grease in the air of the house that night.

It’s possible that excessive alcohol consumption caused Matilda Rooney to spontaneously combust. A prominent local legend was that she suffered divine retribution for daring to drink so much on Christmas Eve. It was duly noted that both of the Rooneys were "addicted to the excessive use of whisky," as this fit the then-current belief about spontaneous combustion effecting drunkards... on the other hand, Mr. Rooney had not combusted, and the effect of the drinks was to simply render him incapable of responding to the threat.

At least this one teaches us one thing, don't be so overly addicted to alcohol or you might burn. And come to think of it, it does give that burning sensation when gulped down!

I guess it'll remain a mystery till the end.

Merry Christmas🎅☃️🎁