BIRTH(+)FACT(᙮)DEATH(-)

40th year  -  N° 340                 Saturday, 6 December 2025         Antwerpen		
Only the Lonely
BirthFactDeath (-)
Thursday 24th of December 1885

140 years ago She Was Reduced to Twelve Pounds



Mrs. Patrick Rooney dies of Spontaneous Human Combustion in Seneca, Illinois, United States.


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." It was further stated that her husband had been asphyxiated by the fumes rising from his wife's burning body while sleeping.