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 4^th 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.