The 1951 death of Mary Hardy Reeser, also known as the Cinder Lady, is described below in an Associated Press brief published in the Minneapolis Star. It is evidently the most famous example of “spontaneous human combustion.”

Cremation Death
Held Due to Body
Burning Own Fat

	Mary Hardy Reeser

ST. PETERSBURG, FLA. – (AP) Police have written the big cremation mystery into the record as a case of a lighted cigaret and a body destroyed by the burning of its own fat.

Police issued a report on the strange death of Mrs. Mary Hardy Reeser, 67, a widow, after receiving a report on the results of FBI laboratory tests.

The FBI said there was no trace in the body ashes or other specimens of any fluid or chemical used to start or accelerate burning.

The mystery of the case was how fire could have burned the body and a big chair so completely without damaging anything else in the room.

All that was found of Mrs. Reeser was a shriveled skull, a part of the backbone and a fragment of foot. The chair was burned to the steel springs.

The theory reached by the police was that Mrs. Reeser took a sedative and fell asleep smoking a cigaret. The cigaret ignited her nightgown, which in turn ignited the fatty tissues of her body.

Monday, Oct. 24, 1908
Minneapolis Tribune

One hundred years ago this week, a lazy headline writer at the Minneapolis Tribune wimped out on on the key assertion of this story – that a dog took his own life – and managed to misspell the poor mutt’s breed.

Despondent Through Illness,
Fox Terrior May Be Suicide

	This photo, taken in about 1908, shows someone named Nettie Green and a dog that may or may not be hers. (Photo courtesy mnhs.org)

Sick, despondent, sad, perhaps, temporarily insane, “Bix,” a year-old fox terrier, killed himself Wednesday night. Bix lived at 613 First avenue north. He was found early Thursday morning in an unused room, hanging by the neck from a curtain cord, lifeless. The lace curtain was torn in shreds, mute evidence of the struggle of the choking animal.

For a week before, the terrier had shown signs of sickness and a veterinarian pronounced it distemper. The dog refused food and was averse to coddling, evincing a desire to be alone and whined pitifully when disturbed. Wednesday night Bix did not answer to the customary bed time call, and the morning explained the reason.

Bix’s body is now at the city laboratory where it may be examined for rabies, the dog having bitten one of the children in the family some days ago. Dr. Elizabeth Woodworth, assistant city bacteriologist, refused to believe that Bix took his own life. She insists that he was trying to jump out through the window, and became entangled very much against his will.

Another in our series of stories on children who narrowly escaped serious injury: 5-year-old Roberta Sandgren of Robbinsdale was watching her mom make a cake when her “flying pigtail” got tangled in the mixer. Thanks to a quick-thinking parent and a patient policeman, no harm was done and the little kitchen aide went on to earn a degree in home economics at the University of Minnesota. Following this report from the Minneapolis Tribune, you’ll find an update based on an e-mail exchange with her and a phone conversation with her mom.

Minneapolis Tribune

ROBERTA SANDGREN, 5, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Robert C. Sandgren, 3659 Halifax avenue, Robbinsdale, was truly unhappy Monday after her flying pigtail became involved with a whirring electric mixer. Roberta was helping her mother mix a cake when her hair got into the recipe. The youngster’s right thumb and left ear also became entangled. Robbinsdale police were called to pry the pigtail from the mixer gears. The cake? It was a mess. But such mishaps are annual with Roberta. She swallowed ant poison at 2, was hit by a car at 3 and swallowed a penny at 4. First aid fixed her up each time.

JULY 2008 UPDATE: Roberta Hemley turned 60 this month. She lives in Germany and works in the marketing department of Innogenetics, a biotechnology company. Her parents, Robert and Violet Sandgren, still live in Robbinsdale. It’s been more than 54 years since the mixer incident, and neither mom nor daughter remembers much about it.

	Roberta Hemley in 2008

“I was baking something, a cake, and you know kids,” Violet said. “She stood on a little chair and was going to help. I had my back turned for a second. Then she leaned over [and got her hair caught].”

Did she cry?

“No, I don’t think so. I doubt it was painful.”

Violet turned off the mixer and called the police for help. She credits the officer who responded with saving her daughter’s locks: “The policeman tried to undo it by twisting hair out of it. If he hadn’t been so patient … I bet another policeman would have just used a scissors to cut it.”

Roberta has lived in Germany since 1971. She and her husband, an Englishman, have two children, Valerie, 26, and Adrian, 24. Roberta is fairly sure her mother was making an angel food cake that day.

“And like most kids,“ she wrote, “I used to stand on a chair and watch her. I must have turned my head abruptly and that’s how my pigtail got entangled in the mixer. Mom said that it took the policeman about half an hour to free the pigtail. After that I didn’t have any more childhood mishaps!”