Spontaneous Combustion? The Curious Case of Mary Reeser 

Pictured: Very little was burned in Reeser’s Old Northeast apartment. Officials sent a box of evidence to the FBI.

Every year for our September-October issue, the Northeast Journal likes to get a little spooky. We’ve peeked into haunted spaces, marveled at glowing orbs, and shivered with otherworldly sensations, but this year I thought we’d examine something different: Spontaneous Human Combustion. A word of caution, however: tales of SHC are not for the faint of heart. (Seriously, content warning: gory details ahead!)

Spontaneous human combustion is the term applied to mysterious, often fatal, fires that appear to originate from the victims themselves. There have been approximately 300 cases of SHC documented over the past 200 years, with the first introduction of the term dating to 1746. Studies of this strange malady took place in the Victorian Era, with additional research done in the 1930s and the 1980s. These studies indicated a series of markers, including involvement with alcohol (though this may be due to Victorian-era prohibitionary tendencies), elderly females, bodies reduced to soot with extremities left untouched, little physical damage to items in direct contact with the body, a greasy soot residue, and contact with external accelerants. Victims were often last known to be asleep before discovery. 

The first reported case was that of Countess Cornelia Bandi. As a noblewoman in Italy, she died on March 15, 1731, after she had her customary brandy at dinner, rubbed some of the alcohol on her body to alleviate a few aches, and hosted a three-hour prayer session with her attendant. The maid left the countess asleep, but when she did not come out the next morning, went to check on her. She discovered a room full of soot, though nothing, including the bed, had been burned, and the body of her mistress reduced to a 3-by-3-foot pile of ash with lower legs, three fingers, and the front of the skull intact. 

While other gruesome accounts exist, perhaps the most famous case of suspected spontaneous human combustion happened right here in St. Petersburg – in our very own Old Northeast neighborhood. 

As a child, I remember reading about this special case of SHC, which gripped the world’s interest. Imagine my surprise when I learned as a paranormal investigator that I was in direct contact with people who had been a part of that story – the story of Mary Reeser who lived on Cherry Street. 

I was doing a Halloween-themed art show when a friend of my mother’s, Nancy Reeser, approached my table. She saw my book, Supernatural Saint Petersburg and Paranormal Pinellas, and mentioned that I probably had a chapter about her grandmother in there. It took me a moment to realize that standing before me was a living link to the case that I had long known. I talked with her about doing an interview for an upcoming expansion of my text and she agreed.  

Nancy was one of the last people to see her grandmother alive during a family visit on July 1, 1951. Mary Reeser had moved to St. Petersburg from Pennsylvania to be closer to her son, a local doctor named Richard Reeser (d. 1998), and his family. He had three daughters: Mary (d. 2005), Nancy (d. 2021), and Martha (d. 2008) who, along with his wife, had been there the night before her death.  

Mary missed her friends in Pennsylvania and hoped to move back to the state. She had scouted for property and found a place that she liked. A telegram arrived for her on July 2, and her landlady, Pansy Carpenter, stopped by to deliver the note. It was good news: They had found an available property. But, as the landlady reached for the door, she felt a radiating heat; the knob was too hot to touch. 

Pansy called police who brought fire rescue, and inside they soon discovered Mary. Or, what was left of her: ashes, a shrunken skull, her backbone, and her left foot, still clad in its slipper. Soot surrounded the area, but only her chair, a side table, and a portion of the wall had been burned. Plastic objects near her had been softened. A clock sat intact, stopped at 4:20 a.m. Thus started the saga of the “cinder lady,” as she came to be known, along with the burning question: What could reduce a body to ash without burning down the apartment?

Nancy told me that the question haunted her family for decades. Her father believed that his mother had taken a sleeping pill and fell asleep, lit cigarette in hand. The cigarette fell, ignited her polyester nightgown, and transformed his mother into a living candle. She was seated in a chair on a concrete floor, which may have further contained the blaze. But other theories abounded. Nancy remembered people telling her that it was a freak encounter with ball lightning – or that the devil had appeared and incinerated Mary.  

St. Petersburg Police Chief J. R. Reichert sent a box of evidence to the FBI for analysis. They agreed with her son: Mary had died due to the “wick effect” of an external heat source doing a slow burn fueled by her own body fat. Regardless, this odd case put St. Petersburg on the supernatural map. And though most agree that Mary’s tragic death was caused by an unfortunate set of circumstances, wild theories still abound.  

While the case is largely considered closed, it is interesting to note that the wick effect remains a hypothesis. SHC is still debated within the darkest corners of paranormal investigation, leaving a bit of remaining mystery to what may be an unknown natural phenomenon. A lingering memory of my own study recalls that one or two individuals were lucky enough to survive a mysterious ignition – with the blue flames that emerged from their bodies patted out by people nearby. Sparks from an unknown accelerant…or something more sinister? 

No matter your theory, be sure to keep your cool out there. And Happy Halloween!