After 128 years on display at a funeral home in Reading, Pennsylvania, a mummified man known as Stoneman Willie is about to receive a decent burial.
On November 19, 1889, the alcoholic guy passed away in a nearby jail from kidney failure.
According to Auman’s Funeral Home, a mortician experimenting with new embalming methods unintentionally mummified the guy, whose name is unknown but who is known in death as Stoneman Willie.
Stoneman Willie was incarcerated in Berks County Prison at the time of his demise on suspicion of petty stealing.
According to the website Berks Nostalgia, Stoneman Willie identified himself as “Jams Penn” at the time of his arrest.
Pennsylvania authorities gave Auman’s Funeral Home the permission to keep Stoneman Willie’s body, rather than burying it, in order to keep monitoring the effects of the embalming technique.
Over a century later, Stoneman Willie remained at Auman’s Funeral Home on display.
Stoneman Willie disclosed to the prison doctor that his real identity was not James Penn and that he had given a false name to protect his siblings’ reputations as he was on the verge of passing away, according to Berks Nostalgia.
In the months following his death, several leads on his genuine identity fell through.
Authorities were unable to locate family members to retrieve the man’s body because they did not know his identify.
Pennsylvania authorities gave Auman’s Funeral Home the permission to keep Stoneman Willie’s body, rather than burying it, in order to keep monitoring the effects of the embalming technique.
Over a century later, Stoneman Willie remained at Auman’s Funeral Home on display.
“We don’t refer to him as a mummy. We refer to him as our friend Willie,” said Kyle Blankenbiller, funeral director at Auman’s Funeral Home, according to Reuters.
“He has just been become such an icon, such a storied part of not only Reading’s past but certainly its present,” he said
Earlier in 2023, Auman’s Funeral Home announced that Stoneman Willie finally would be laid to rest — and that his real name finally had been discovered through careful combing of historical documents.
The day before the viewing began, on Oct. 1, a hearse carrying Stoneman Willie was part of the Reading’s 275th anniversary parade.
A mummified man known as Stoneman Willie is set to receive a proper burial after being on display at a funeral home in Reading, Pennsylvania, for 128 years.
The man was an alcoholic who died of kidney failure in a local jail on Nov. 19, 1895.
According to Auman’s Funeral Home, the man whose identity remains unknown but known in death as Stoneman Willie was accidentally mummified by a mortician experimenting with new embalming techniques,
At the time of his death, Stoneman Willie was imprisoned at Berks County Prison on petty theft charges.
When he was arrested, Stoneman Willie gave his name as “Jams Penn,” said the website Berks Nostalgia.
As he neared death, Stoneman Willie revealed to the prison doctor that his name was not actually James Penn — and that he had provided a fake name in order to spare his brother’s and sister’s reputations, said Berks Nostalgia.
Several leads on his true identity did not pan out in the months after his death.
As authorities did not know the man’s identity, they were unable to find family members to take his body.
Pennsylvania authorities gave Auman’s Funeral Home the permission to keep Stoneman Willie’s body, rather than burying it, in order to keep monitoring the effects of the embalming technique.
Over a century later, Stoneman Willie remained at Auman’s Funeral Home on display.
His teeth and hair are intact, said Reuters, and his skin has a hard, leathery appearance.
“We don’t refer to him as a mummy. We refer to him as our friend Willie,” said Kyle Blankenbiller, funeral director at Auman’s Funeral Home, according to Reuters.
“He has just been become such an icon, such a storied part of not only Reading’s past but certainly its present,” he said
Earlier in 2023, Auman’s Funeral Home announced that Stoneman Willie finally would be laid to rest — and that his real name finally had been discovered through careful combing of historical documents.
The day before the viewing began, on Oct. 1, a hearse carrying Stoneman Willie was part of the Reading’s 275th anniversary parade.
“It was nice to have our hometown hero and see him one last time,” Mark May of Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania, said to local media outlet WFMZ.