More than 128 years after he died in a Reading, Pennsylvania, jail, a man who was accidentally mummified and left at a funeral home without any identification will finally get his long-awaited burial. Read more: 6abc.com/penns...
His name is James Murphy. Most people in this gentleman’s situation historically speaking would’ve been tossed in a large communal hole, unmarked, likely, with a bunch of other unfortunates. This gentleman spent decades in a relatively nice, free coffin, awaiting something better. His price was the occasional viewing by curious individuals. Now, on the cities dime, he got a parade, his own grave, a tombstone, and a very nice funeral. Anybody clutching pearls must be out of their mind.
@@BORN-to-Run If there was only some way to look up things easily like a library but maybe much easier to find things, it could be electronically stored and people could use magical electrical machines to retrieve the information form anywhere say a terminal in their home or maybe even a hand held device! Im going to invent this i shall call this the Intarwebz!
It's hard to know if he would have been alright with any of this. I am sure any protests from his family would have fell on deaf ears. I am glad that they finally came to the decision to afford him the decency and respect for a funeral.
Because of the results if the experimental embalming technique...so they kept it around as a trade skill display for funeral homes I imagine. The beginning of the Elmer McCurdy story is similar... preserved so good they put him on display.
At the same time I'm amazed how the person was perfectly held together all these 100s of years, but his skin was a little bit darker which I don't understand but at least his hair was there, like he's well perfectly preserved and will be able to sleep in peace, in a nice burial ground as respect now! ❤
@@stevencorrea8032 Oh that just depends on what chemicals they use when embalming people, I don't even know if they used chemicals on this guy or not but yeah! 👍
The oldest person to ever live was a French woman who died at 122 in 1997, so he’s not only older than anyone alive now, he’s older than anyone who EVER lived.
Where do y'all think skeletons come from? Dead people who no longer have flesh, tissue, and organs. This isn't any worse. Most unidentified, unclaimed, or indigent people were buried in potter's fields at that time. Which is an unmarked grave with a pine box.
As another poster (@cutthegrass_yt)pointed out -- it wasn't horrible treatment. Especially in the beginning...1890s...a black man, pick pocket...would have just been namelessly tossed into a pit and it would be like he never existed. But instead, his body has been preserved, placed into a maybe more than a few decent caskets over the past 125 years or so, and he's had public viewings. Lenin, in Russia was on permanent display, as are some Catholic saints, and there is also a man up in Nederland, Alaska who is literally on ice...that they hold a festival called Frozen Dead Guy Days for every year. This is done with the consent of the family. So it's not unheard of, nor considered disrespectful by some people, cultures. And Now...with time, and research, they found out who he is...and are going to give him services, a funeral, a burial and all in a nice casket, with a Stone headstone. This is far more than most black criminals could have expected in the late 1800s.
@@peachy75019 Thanks for the correction... I probably shouldn't type things from memory....and looked it up. I remember hearing about it like 8 years or so ago. Not sure why I thought it was in Alaska. Colorado now gets an extra point for weird things. lol.
@@StormyPeak LOL --- I might not have known at all except that I grew up in Nederland, Texas and I knew about the Nederland in Colorado too. I wanted to clarify because it's much closer to most of us in the US in the event anyone wants to see it.
Всем привет из Сибири ! Этот человек и подумать не мог, что через 128 лет, его тело увидит весь мир! Мне интересно, кем был этот человек и как выглядел он при жизни ?
That is amazing! Thank you so much for your comment, I bet he would be tickled pink to know someone in Siberia cared about him so much! Maybe someone has used AI to recreate his appearance? I'm going to look for that! Sending you love, peace and prayers, friend. From Pine Log Mountain, Georgia 💚🙏🕊
He was identified after 128 years but how long did he actually live?!! I actually knew people who were born in the 1800s and I was actually related to some of them. If you were born in 1967 it was very easy to know people who were born in the 1800s and on top of that we also knew people who were older than their own uncles--if they came from large families. I am only five generations removed from American Chattel Slavery.
Before you get your shorts in a bunch about poor willie..read the story about him in full and also remember..it was a different time and things were done differently.
Don't know who is more sick those who came by to view him or those who kept him preserved ...human dignity my ass he should have been laid to rest over a century ago
This is horrific and would never have been tolerated for this long if he was blk. Everyone involved in treating him like a spectacle should be ashamed.
How do u automatically go to "if he was black"? Like that's has nothing at all to do with the video. It's like yall are obsessed, it must be miserable whittling every little thing down to race. Jeez.
So they kept this man from resting in actual peace until they decided because they wanted to test imbalming methods and also what did the funeral home do pass him down from generation to generation sad 🙏🙏❤️
The poor soul, regardless of his crime, long ago paid his debt to society, should finally be allowed to rest in piece, and not be some sort of a sideshow or tourist attraction, because he was a man once. Hopefully, his descendents, if he has any, have been contacted and have been notified he is going to be put to rest finally!
Pathetic . To keep human body that should have been done after his passing . Some funeral director and funeral home just out of the blue never been investigated for their extended circus show cadaver ? This is corruption all the way from the police , the funeral supervisor , the funeral home for their association and involvement in the freak show they contributed too . And yes the public what a disrespect .
Pathetic? Had he been buried when he actually died he would have been thrown into a pit, with other men who had also broken laws. Multiple people discarded like a landfill. But this, he had a decent coffin⚰, now a headstone🪦, and a permanent place of rest? That's pathetic? Had he been tossed aside like garbage into a pit THAT is pathetic, degrading, and cruel. Social Justice, ah what a joke!
Say the whole name. Coward. Clearly ashamed of your own thoughts. No one would even know who "George" was if it were not for the even BIGGER criminals masquerading as law enforcement officers who made him famous.
