COUDERSPORT – Almost 40 years after the elderly Dr. John Irving
Bentley burned to death in his downtown Coudersport home,
investigators remain puzzled over the strange circumstances of his
demise.
Although Bentley’s death was ruled accidental – no one suspects
foul play – some consider the incident of Dec. 5, 1966, to be a
classic case of the phenomenon known as “spontaneous human
combustion.”
This weekend, a film crew from the Pasadena, Calif.-based Mike
Mathis Productions is in Potter County to investigate the case. It
will eventually be featured on “X-Testers,” a paranormal
investigation program aired on The Learning Channel.
“This is a new reality-type show where we try to recreate
mysterious phenomena; kind of an X-files meets Mythbusters,” said
Kirk Durham, coordinating producer. “The tone of the show is fun
and positive. No one is discredited or made to look foolish.”
The crew will film the North Main Street home where Bentley’s
remains were found, as well as his gravesite in Galeton. Durham
said the team has not had much success in tracking down
eyewitnesses or others who are familiar with the incident.
He welcomes information by e-mail at
kirk@mikemathisprods.com.
So, why did Dr. Bentley’s body burst into flames?
Publications as diverse as Discover Magazine and UFO Times have
reported on the incident, as has ABC-TV’s “That’s Incredible”
program and several cable networks. Medical experts and scientists
have studied the evidence. Yet, nobody really knows how it
happened.
Bentley was a family doctor from 1925 to 1953. A hip fracture in
1947 hampered his mobility, and after his retirement Bentley led a
quiet life at his two-story structure located just a block north of
Coudersport’s post office.
Dec. 5, 1966, was a typical day, with temperatures dipping
toward the freezing mark, as North Penn Gas Co. meterman Don
Gosnell began his morning rounds. As he had done dozens of times
before, Gosnell let himself into the Bentley home at about 9 a.m.
and proceeded to the basement to read the meter.
He noticed a pile of ashes as well as a hole in the ceiling,
circled by glowing embers. Perplexed, Gosnell called out for the
92-year-old Dr. Bentley and made his way through the home. A
bluish-gray smoke was evident and Gosnell detected an odor he
described as “sickly, sweetish.”
As he progressed to the bathroom, he encountered a scene of
horror and intrigue. A brown, but not charred, lower leg joint and
slipper-clad foot rested next to a hole, about 2′ by 4′, burned
through the linoleum-covered foot.
Bentley’s walker was tipped against the bathtub, in which the
victim’s partially burned bathrobe could be seen. No other parts of
Dr. Bentley’s body were visible.
Gosnell ran to the North Penn Gas office, just a block away, to
alert his co-workers. The local fire department was summoned, as
were Potter County Deputy Coroner John Dec and a local mortician,
Richard Lindhome.
This was not a typical fire scene. If a human body could erupt
into flames, why didn’t the rest of the house ignite? Such complete
disintegration of a body normally requires temperatures of more
than 2,500 degrees Fahrenheit and several hours. Even with that,
bone segments must be pulverized. Witnesses confirm that there was
little remaining of Bentley’s body, with the exception of the lower
leg and ashes.
Paint on the adjacent bathtub was blackened, but not blistered.
Even more odd was the fact that the rubber tips of Bentley’s walker
did not melt, even though it was positioned directly over his
burning body.
And how did the fire start in the first place? Skeptics of SHC
point to the speculative, albeit brief, report of Deputy Coroner
Dec, now deceased:
“Looks like Doc Bentley was smoking his pipe, the pipe toppled
over and spilled over the tobacco and, in the meantime, he fell
asleep. When he woke up, he was on fire, because some of the
flannel night shirt pieces fell on the floor as he went to the
bathroom.”
Bentley was a frequent smoker and his acquaintances confirmed
that there were burn marks on some of his garments from previous
accidents.
Those who suspect SHC as a cause point out that clothing, when
ignited, does not burn for long and could not possibly generate the
amount of heat required to consume a human body.
Forensic analyst John F. Fischer and technical writer Joe
Nickell studied the Bentley case for a story they authored in the
summer 1987 edition of The Skeptical Inquirer. They said the fact
Bentley shed his robe suggests an external, rather than internal,
source of combustion.
The pair also wrote that materials under a human body – such as
a floor – that is exposed to fire could help retain melted fat that
flows from the body, allowing the fat to volatize, burn, and in
turn yield more liquefied fat.
Another researcher, Larry Arnold, has advanced a “geo-magnetic
flux” theory. Based on readings of the earth’s magnetic forces,
there was a peak in magnetic activities on Dec. 4-5, 1966, which in
his opinion could cause supernatural occurrences such as SHC.
An even more bizarre explanation appeared in the writings of
historian and folklorist Robert Lyman, who studied and reported on
dozens of unusual phenomena in Potter County. At the time of the
incident, Lyman observed, there was an unusually large number of
unidentified flying object sightings in the region, coinciding with
invisible energy lines that may have been emitting particularly
strong power. Could a form of “lightning” have struck Bentley,
causing the intense heat that reduced his body to ashes?
Soon, these theories and perhaps others will be aired to
millions of television viewers on a series that also examines UFOs,
s_ances, poltergeists and other strange phenomena.
Potter County lost a venerable doctor, a man who had brought
hundreds of people into the world, on Dec. 5, 1966, but it gained a
mystery – one that will continue to perplex anyone who ponders the
strange demise of Dr. John Irving Bentley.
