RIP Stoneman Willie: US mummy to be buried after 128 years

AFP | Washington

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

After more than a century living with a macabre mystery, the US town of Reading, Pennsylvania was finally closing the casket on its oddest-ever resident -- a mummified man set to be buried later yesterday.

Crowds of people have lined up all week to pay their respects, snap photos or gaze with bewildered awe on a scene unlikely to ever be repeated in the United States. “Bye, Stoneman.

God bless you. Rest in peace,” Suzanne Schrum, 74, said as she patted the corpse’s forehead and stroked his copper-colored hair, more than six decades after she first laid eyes on the mummy.

“Stoneman Willie” was the nickname bestowed long ago on an alleged thief who died in 1895 in jail and was taken to the Theo C. Auman Funeral Home when no one claimed the body, before being accidentally mummified by undertakers.

“Fast-forward 128 years and he’s still here,” funeral home director Kyle Blankenbiller said.

The man gave a false name when he was jailed, but his true identity will finally be unveiled during yesterday’s ceremony, a fitting end to his life -- and bizarre afterlife.

“We’re 99 percent certain we know who he is,” Blankenbiller said during funeral preparations which even included Willie’s remains joining a recent parade commemorating Reading’s 275th anniversary.

“We’re doing the right thing, but it’s going to be bittersweet,” he said.

The corpse has eerily laid in an open casket for almost his entire stay at the funeral home. His leathery skin and smooth sunken facial features have been the object of fascination for thousands, including countless curious locals, researchers and, in decades past, schoolchildren on class trips.

Willie has become a quirky fixture of Reading history, “our friend” who is now getting a well-deserved sendoff, Blankenbiller said.

According to Willie’s cellmate, the man arrested for pickpocketing adopted the fictitious name James Penn because he did not want to shame his wealthy Irish father.