'Burning' question still unanswered:
What killed Doctor Bentley?

Larry E. Arnold, an author and director of ParaScience International in Harrisburg, believes that nothing has emerged to disprove his theory that Dr. Bentley died of spontaneous human combustion.

A quasi-scientific organization studying the strange death of Coudersport's Dr. J. Irving Bentley more than 40 years ago was unable to solve the mystery.

Although Dr. 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" (SHC).

Most recently, a crew from the Learing Channel television series, "XTesters," took a shot at the case. Mixing science with skepticism and a natural curiosity, X-Testers Patrick Denver and Clark James concluded that there was no logical explanation to explain how Dr. Bentley literally burst into flames.

That came as welcome, albeit expected, news to Larry E. Arnold. He's a Harrisburg researcher and writer who has spent decades trying to convince others that SHC is real.

Watchful eye

As a watchdog over the crew's methods, Arnold looked on as the X-Testers conducted various experiments to test theories on the combustibility of human tissue. He also followed them to Coudersport, where they interviewed Coudersport writer Paul W. Heimel and researcher Ernest O. Mosch Jr.

This classic photograph, taken by Bill Fish Jr. after he was summoned to the scene by Deputy Coroner John Dec, shows the scene that confronted investigators summoned to probe Dr. J. Irving Bentley's death in December 1966.

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.

Dr. 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 home on North Main Street.

Temperatures were dipping toward the freezing mark on Dec. 5, 1966, as North Penn Gas Company employee Don Gosnell began his morning rounds. As he had done dozens of times before, Gosnell let himself into the Bentley home at about 9:00 and proceeded to the basement to read the meter.

The Coudersport home of Dr. Bentley as it appears today. A film crew producing an X-Testers program for The Learning Channel visited the home to investigate the case.

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 doctor 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.

Dr. Bentley's walker was tipped against the bathtub, in which the victim's partially burned bathrobe could be seen. No other parts of his body were visible.

Eternal conundrums

Shaken, 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.

The Learning Channel interviewed researcher Ernest O. Mosch Jr. and writer Paul W. Heimel for the XTesters show on the death of Dr. J. Irving Bentley.

From the outset, the responders wondered how a human body could erupt into flames, without the wooden house igniting. 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 Dr. 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 Dr. Bentley's walker did not melt, even though it was positioned directly over his burning body.

To Arnold and other believers, it was a classic case of SHC. Skeptics, however, point to the speculative 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 there were burn marks on some of his garments from previous accidents.

Those who suspect SHC as the 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.

Other theories

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 Dr. 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.

Larry Arnold isn't buying that. Experiments under supervised laboratory conditons fail to support the theory, Arnold said. Furthermore, he argued, a fire from an external source intense enough to consume a human body would spread to the surroundings.

Arnold, author of the book Ablaze!, detailing SHC, has advanced a "geomagnetic 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.

Ernie Mosch doesn't discount an even more bizarre explanation that first appeared in the writings of historian and folklorist Robert Lyman. A chronicler of unusual phenomena in Potter County, Lyman observed that there was an unusually large number of unidentified flying object sightings in the region Dec. 4-5, perhaps tied to energy lines emitting particularly strong power. Could a form of "lightning" have struck Dr. Bentley, causing the intense heat that reduced his body to ashes?

X-Testers Denver and James, confident they could find a more plausible explanation, came away from their study as perplexed as they were coming into it.

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 puzzles anyone who ponders the strange demise of Dr. John Irving Bentley.