The largest online newspaper archive
Get access to this page with a Free Trial
A Publisher Extra Newspaper
The Pittsburgh Press from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania · Page 329
The Pittsburgh Press i
ShowHide Page 329 article text (OCR)
Sooner or Later You'll Discover The Unexplained SeDecfiove (SomrDb&osiHioini By George Cunningham-Tee mm liiy'ilHHMKil UNLESS YOU happen to have been born on April 7, 1938, that date will have no significance in the least. But for three men, George Turner, John Greeley and William ten Bruick, it was very important. It was the day they all died. Ten Bruick, alone in his new car, was driving toward the pleasant Dutch town of Nijmegen. It was a fine day, not too many cars on the road, and he was enjoying the journey. Then the incredible happened. He simply and suddenly burst into flame! When investigators discovered him, he was burned beyond recognition, still behind the wheel of the car which was virtually untouched by the fire which had so completely devoured him. There was no clue as to what had caused it. Several hundred miles away from Nijmegen, the SS Ulrich was making steady progress off the coast of Ireland in fine sailing weather. The mate, absorbed in other tasks, gradually became aware that the ship was acting strangely, yawing from its set course. Muttering to himself about "drunken sailors," he made his way to the wheelhouse ready to yell a few choice nautical phrases at the helmsman ... but there was no one at (he helm. The mate was perplexed; where in heaven's name was John Greeley? It was then he noticed the man's shoes in front of the wheel and a heap of smoking gray ashes. There was no sign of fire and nothing, not even the instruments, had been touched by flame. None of the sailors working on deck had heard any shouts or cries, or had been aware of anything that could have caused Greeley's death. But dead he was. Incinerated. George Turner was on the road in his truck near Upton-by-Chester in Cheshire, England, thinking perhaps of a refreshing pint of ale at the end of his working day. But George never got to his local pub. Police found his truck in a ditch and the unfortunate man burned to death in the cab. The police were puzzled. The cushion on which he had been sitting was hardly singed, the fuel tank was intact and there was no evidence of any conflagration. No explanation for Turner's strange death was ever given. Now how can a body be totally and almost instantaneously burned, in a confined area without anything else being consumed? The human body does not burn away easily, in fact it requires a temperature of over 1,000 degrees centigrade (2,500 F.) to do it, and even then It might take a couple of hours to reduce everything to ash. This phenomenon is known as spontaneous combustion. In the three cases related here, there would seem to be nothing to link them except that they all happened on the same day. Admittedly, that in itself is substantial but it could be dismissed as mere coincidence. Nowhere have I been able to find a report regarding these three deaths that has suggested anything to connect them, except for the bizarre way the men perished, and certainly no explanation for their incineration either. Yet I felt there must be a link. And then I found it. I don't know what it means but at the time of their deaths these three had something in common. They were all in control of a vehicle a ship, a truck and a car and they all had their hands on a wheel. Perhaps, again, that could be shrugged off as coincidence. So maybe it was something else . . . maybe the location they were in. With a map of Europe I marked the three areas where the combustions had taken place one in Holland, one in England and one in the Irish Sea. Hundreds of miles apart but . . . they were all in line. I'm not going to put any conclusion to this discovery as I'm still speculating ... but what could travel in a neat straight line, be undetected and have the power or weapon to cause three men to die in an impossible way? 957 S. WASHINGTON ROAD ROUTE 19, 9 MILES SOUTH OF SOUTH HILLS VILLAGE Mon. thru Fri. 10-9 Sat. 9-5 INTERlQI design SOCIETY 561-4011 746-1572 LANE BRYANT "WESTERN" POLYESTER PANTSUIT SIZES 16 TO 32 VALUE! 3-PIECE ONLY M 2 Fall coverage: Western yoke blazer-jacket, sleeveless back-zip tunic top in pretty print. Solid color pull-on pants. Navy or brown. BUDGET PANTSUITS pi ' i tin m m i 1 if I Phone: 391-1600 Order by mail: 335 5th Ave. State 2nd color. Add $1.25 C.O.D. Add 50c on orders $15 or under. DOWNTOWN: Mon. & Thurs. 10-9. WESTMORELAND, NORTH WAY, SOUTH HILLS, MONROEVILLE: Daily 1 0-9:30; OPEN SUNDAY J2-5. DESIGN SOCIETY 21
Get access to Newspapers.com
20,000+ newspapers from the 1700s–2000s
Millions of additional pages added every month
Publisher Extra Newspapers
Exclusive licensed content from premium publishers like the The Pittsburgh Press
Archives through last month
Continually updated
The Pittsburgh Press Details
Pages Available
Years Available