Monday 6th of December 1943 (-) — Madge Knight dies of Spontaneous Human Combustion On the night of 18 November 18 Knight's screams woke her husband and sister in their home. They discovered Knight writhing in pain in her bed with her skin peeling off her back under her bedclothes. A doctor that was called identified the wounds as some form of burn and gave Knight morphine. She died from toxaemia.