Brief Reports in Chronological Order
Date: 1860
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Mrs. Pulley's Fiery Death
The Legend:
In 1860, a Mrs. Pulley was found burnt to death; from her shoulders downward, the oak floor had been burned through and, though parts of her clothing and body had been destroyed by fire, her legs were undamaged.
Theories
Joe Nickell, in his book Secrets of the Supernatural, gives an account of this event he got from Thomas Stevenson's The Principles and Practices of Medical Jurisprudence (1883); I will track down a copy of this book. Nickell says that Mrs. Pulley's head was lying on the hearth, and that while there was no fire in the grate, there was a brass candlestick lying between her left arm and torso, "the top of the candlestick being inclined toward it [the torso]." Nickell also says that, upon further investigation, Mrs. Pulley's death was determined to be "a deliberate murder by strangulation," with it supposed that the murderer had set the body afire to conceal the crime.
Sources:
- Now available on Request.
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