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Unnamed Woman's Fiery Death
The Legend:
Sometime previous to 1870 (when it was reported in France), a woman was discovered burnt to death in her bedroom just two hours after her husband last saw her. He had noticed that the door to her bedroom was extremely hot, and finally entered through her window; inside, he found his wife with her torso burnt, but her legs undamaged.
Theories
Joe Nickell, in his book Secrets of the Supernatural, gives an account of this event he found in Thomas Stevenson's The Principles and Practices of Medical Jurisprudence (1883); I will find a copy of this text. Nickell adds to the account above that the woman was apparently drunk at the time last seen, that the floor was still smoldering when the body was discovered, and that the woman was found lying partially across the hearth, though there was no fire in it at the time. Stevenson suggests, and Nickell agrees, that "The woman may have had matches about her, and in her intoxiacated state an accident may have easily occurred..."
Sources:
- Now available on Request.
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