Stoneman Willie. The Mummified Man. Kept at the Funeral Home for 128-Years

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James Murphy, (Stoneman Willie) at rest.

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Hello! I'm Mr. Ed

Blog Created: 12-14-2023

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FROM:

Mummified Pennsylvania man identified and buried after 128 years on display

By Julio-cesar Chavez and Rich Mckay, October 7, 2023, 8:15 PM EDT

READING, Pennsylvania, Oct 7 (Reuters) - A leather-skinned mummified man lying in an open coffin in Reading, Pennsylvania, known only as "Stoneman Willie” to the public got two things Saturday he went without for 128 years - a burial and his real name.

Dressed in a period tuxedo, his generations-long public afterlife as the stuff of city lore and ghost stories ended when he was introduced to the world as James Murphy of New York at a funeral in Reading.

A group of funeral home employees and well-wishers, said in unison, "Rest in peace, James," as they unveiled his tombstone, with his real name in small letters below large type reading, "Stoneman Willie."

His send-off included a colorful procession with a motorcycle hearse carrying his casket.

Murphy was of Irish descent, an alcoholic, and was in Reading at a firefighters' convention when he died in the local jailhouse of kidney failure on Nov. 19, 1895, said Kyle Blankenbiller, the director of the Theo C. Auman Inc. Funeral Home where Murphy's remains had resided.

Blankenbiller said at the funeral that Murphy’s real name was known to the original Theo Auman, director of the funeral home in 1895. Murphy’s real name had been passed down within the funeral home over the past 128 years, but it was not until the latest decision to give him a proper burial that the research was done to conclusively confirm his identity as James Murphy.

The once unidentified man was in jail accused of being a thief, and he was accidentally mummified by a mortician experimenting with new embalming techniques.

Local officials were unable to locate relatives, said local historian George Meiser.

"Weeks passed, months passed, years passed and no one claimed the remains," Meiser said at the service.

It took some historic sleuthing by local historians to unearth his real name through records from the prison, funeral home and other documents to find the truth.

The funeral home was eventually granted permission by the state to keep the body instead of burying it to monitor the experimental embalming process.

He got his nickname Stoneman from his hard-as-stone leathery skin.

Pastor Robert Whitmire told the gatherers that to those who may have known him, "Stoneman Willie...at one time may have been a beloved friend and family member."

Reporting by Julio-Cesar Chavez in Reading, Pennsylvania, writing and additional reporting by Rich McKay in Atlanta; editing by Diane Craft

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FROM:

Mysterious mummy "Stoneman Willie" finally identified and buried in Pennsylvania after 128-years

OCTOBER 9, 2023 / 7:56 AM EDT / AFP

After more than a century living with a macabre mystery, the city of Reading, Pennsylvania, closed the casket Saturday on its oddest-ever resident — a mummified man who was finally buried.

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

"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.

After more than a century living with a macabre mystery, the city of Reading, Pennsylvania, closed the casket Saturday on its oddest-ever resident — a mummified man who was finally buried.

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

"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.

He was revealed to have been named James Murphy as his gravestone was unveiled at the climax of funeral events — which also included his remains joining a recent parade commemorating Reading's 275th anniversary.

Both names are etched on his tombstone, though his real name is only in small print at the bottom.

"He's been gawked at enough"

The corpse has been in an open casket for almost his entire stay at the funeral home, until being loaded into a motorcycle-drawn hearse Saturday.

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 had become a quirky fixture of Reading history, "our friend" who now got 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.

On his death, no next of kin were located and the body was sent to Auman's.

With embalming still an emerging science, Blankenbiller said, Auman experimented with a new formula.

"The intensity of the concoction that he used" led to Stoneman Willie's mummification, a moisture removal process that forestalls decomposition.

Now, "he's been gawked at enough," Blankenbiller said. Burying Stoneman Willie during anniversary commemorations for the city was the "reverent, respectful thing to do."

Among those saying goodbye in recent days was Berks County resident Michael Klein, who was fascinated by the "mystery of who this guy really was," he told AFP.

Stoneman Willie was buried in a vintage black tuxedo, fittingly from the 1890s.

"Everyone comes to America to live the American dream. Nobody comes to die in a prison unknown," Klein said.