Wednesday 15 April 2015

THE CASE OF "OLD MIKE"


 August 21st, 1911: Prescott, Nevada country:
“Old Mike” the mortuary staff christened him, after all, nobody had any idea who this John Doe was.
Some people claimed that the nameless man was a travelling salesman, selling small items like thread and pencils; others said he was a travelling hobo.

Old Mike was found in Prescott city park, slumped up against an oak tree with eighty cents and a silver spoon in his pocket and no clues to his identity what so ever.
He was a 40 something Caucasian man, standing at 5”4, short and stocky, with a moustache, two gold teeth and crutches.
Despite photos of the unknown man being published, nobody came forward to identify him. He was embalmed and put on display at a local funeral home, in the hopes that someone would recognize him, take him home and lay him to rest.


The original intention was to have him displayed for around a week, but days passed, and months passed, and eventually 64 years had passed before it was decided ol’ Mike deserved retirement. He was finally buried on May 4th 1975.

For 62 years people came to gawp at the embalmed body of old mike, a man famous for dying without ID and having his eyeballs eerily painted onto his eye lids.
He was somebody to someone, but who was he?
I guess we'll never know.



1 comment:

  1. Back in 1911, why didn't the funeral home simply have him cremated & buried? Who waits 64 years to lay the dead to rest, regardless of their ID? This was stupid from the get-go.

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