A man who was accidentally mummified in Pennsylvania will finally be laid to rest after 128 years.
The mummified body has been on display inside Auman’s Funeral Home in Reading, Pennsylvania, where the mystery man was only known to locals by the moniker “Stoneman Willie”.
Now, after several decades of historical research, Stoneman Willie’s identity will finally be revealed, ABC 7 reported.
Kyle Blankenbiller, the funeral home’s director, told the station that he can now have a proper memorial service and be laid to rest with a name on his tombstone.
“He’s just been such an icon to our funeral home and a legend,” Mr Blankenbiller said.
“We always greet his casket ‘Hey Willie,’ when we pass it.”
According to historical records found by the funeral home, the man had given a fake name when he was booked into a jail in Pennsylvania for pickpocketing, Reuters reported.
He was arrested hiding under a bed at a boardinghouse with stolen items and was booked under the alias “James Penn”, according to The Washington Post.
However, he died of kidney failure inside the jail and no family members claimed his body.
The only known identifiers of the mysterious man were that he was 37, had a moustache and possibly had roots in Ireland and New York City, the New York Post reported.
The funeral director explained that Stoneman Willie was accidentally mummified through the use of embalming techniques.
Stoneman Willie— (Reuters)
He said that T.C. Auman, the funeral home’s original owner, was embalming the man with unexplored techniques, which prevented his body from completely decomposing.
The corpse preserved his hair, teeth and flesh, with his skin discolouring and turning into a copper colour, Mr Blankenbiller explained.
Auman supposedly did this to keep the body intact for long enough for someone to come and identify him – but no one ever did.
“Mr Auman would petition the state and retain the right to keep him here on the basis to monitor the experiment,” Mr Blankenbiller said, explaining how these petitions were granted up until the 1950s when the state said the body could remain at the funeral home without an end date.
Stoneman Willie’s mummified body was dressed in a dark suit and bowtie with a red sash across its chest and put on display in the funeral home.
He has had many visitors over the years, from school trips to local residents and tourists.
The funeral home staff said they will miss the familiar face they saw daily when they came to work— (Reuters)
Several decades ago, the funeral home managed to whittle his identity down to three potentials as workers tried to give a name to the corpse they considered a “friend”.
It took another 10 years for the funeral staff to find his true identity, after countless hours of historical research and cross referencing of sources.
Now, after almost 13 decades, the funeral home has found a name, which will be revealed on his tombstone when he is buried and laid to rest over the weekend.
“It felt good to finally find his identity,” he said. “We all did it together.”
According to ABC7, the funeral home has been holding special opening hours for people to come visit Stoneman Willie one last time before his burial on Saturday.
Stoneman Willie’s coffin was driven by a hearse as part of Readings 275th anniversary parade— (Reuters)
Stoneman Willie also had one final outing on 1 October when his corpse was driven in a motorcycle hearse as part of Reading’s 275th anniversary parade celebrations.
Mr Blankbiller said that the official funeral will be held on Saturday, including a police escort and a service at the graveyard in Forest Hills Memorial Park where his name will be revealed on the tombstone before his burial.
“This was not going to be a sideshow. This was not going to be a freak show. This is going to be honourable and memorable for him,” he said.
“He’s been gawked at enough as some sort of sideshow. We don’t see him as that.”
The funeral home will miss the familiar face of Stoneman Willie who has been part of their lives for such a long time.
Mr Blankenbiller said: “Our employees never refer to him as a mummy. He’s our friend Willie.”
