- The man was a thief who gave a false name when he was arrested in 1895.
- He died in prison due to kidney disease caused by alcohol.
- READ MORE: ‘Virtual autopsy’ reveals that 17th century mummy was a girl
America’s oldest mummy, displayed inside a Pennsylvania funeral home for 128 years, will receive a proper burial.
The man is only known as ‘Stoneman Willie’, an alcoholic who died of kidney failure in a local jail on November 19, 1895 and was accidentally mummified by a mortician experimenting with new embalming techniques.
The man’s true identity is unknown because he gave a false name when he was arrested more than a century ago for theft.
His body will receive its final rites and He will be taken in procession to nearby Forest Hills Memorial Park for burial on October 7.
The man known only as ‘Stoneman Willie’ has been on display in Pennsylvania since he died in 1895.
His hair and teeth remain intact and his skin has become leathery.
The emaciated man wears a black suit and bow tie as he lies inside a coffin at the funeral home. His hair and teeth remain intact and his skin has become leathery.
Auman’s Funeral Home said it has now identified Stoneman Willie using historical documents and will reveal his name later this week when they bury the body.
Until now not much was known about him beyond his Irish roots.
‘We don’t refer to it as a mummy. We refer to him as our friend Willie,” said Kyle Blankenbiller, funeral director.
“It has become an icon, a historic part of not only Reading’s past but also its present.”
The man’s true identity is unknown because he gave a false name when he was arrested more than a century ago for theft.
He was accidentally mummified by a mortician who was experimenting with new embalming techniques.
Historical documents show that Stoneman Willie was preserved by Theodor Auman, a mortician experimenting with innovative arterial embalming, a technique still relatively new at the end of the 19th century.
Previously, corpses were stored in ice until burial.
The process involves injecting embalming fluid into an artery, which displaces the blood, and a drainage tube facilitates the expulsion of blood from the vein.
Local historian George M. Meiser XI said Washington Post that Auman mixed his own recipe that was laced with formalin, a chemical used in the embalming process.
And the excessive amount petrified the man’s body.
The emaciated man wears a black suit and bow tie as he lies inside a coffin at the funeral home.
His body will receive final rites and be carried in procession to nearby Forest Hills Memorial Park for burial on October 7.
Stoneman Willie gave the fake name James Penn when he was arrested after being found inside a local boarding house with a gold watch, razor and money in his hands, all of which he had stolen.
The 37-year-old man died after fighting gastritis, which worsened into acute uremia or end-stage renal disease.
Historical documents have identified Stoneman Willie’s real name, which will be inscribed at the bottom of his headstone when his body is buried this weekend.
