Esther Dulin's Fiery Death
The Legend:
In May 1953, the remains of 30-year-old Mrs. Esther Dulin of Los Angeles were discovered; although her body and chair had both been virtually consumed by fire, no other rooms or objects in the house were damaged.
Theories
Joe Nickell, in his book Secrets of the Supernatural, gives an account of this event he found in Vincent H. Gaddis' Mysterious Fires and Lights (1967); a copy of which I will find. Nickell says that (according to Gaddis) the armchair was "overstuffed" and that Dulin had "apparently fell asleep" in it. Far from the rest of the house being undamaged, the remains of Dulin and her chair had fallen to the floor below through a hole burned into the floor. Nickell laments over the lack of mention of whether or not Dulin smoked cigarettes, but says "If we adopt this as a hypothesis, we have a plausible explaination of the case..."
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