Reading, Pennsylvania: Stone Willie - Funeral Home Dead Guy - In Storage

A mysteriously mummified corpse that has freaked-out the youth of Reading for generations.

My understanding is that Stone "Man" Willy was a prisoner...used for an experimmental embalming process. The result was, as revealed because of a unique preservation process, an ongoing growth of both hair and fingernails. The discoloration of skin was attributed to a moisture reduction due to his death.

Oddly, everyone who has heard and retold this mystery has had not one photo and continuously reports of his known existence to be in a different area of the funeral home. My true statement is a result of an undisclosed and private source who is in fact a mortician that found a need to reveal this story 3 hours before he too passed, stating this is why he'd rather be cremated. Go figure. [Johnny Howresko, 06/07/2011]

My mom used to tell me about Stone Man Willie when I was growing up. When she was a teen her and friends used to go visit him (when he was on a slab in the basement).

About 15 years ago we went to go see him. At the time when we called the funeral home said that not to many people called and/or knew about him. When I went to see him he was in the casket upstairs. They asked us not to take any pictures and we didn't (not sure why you would want a pic of this anyway, kind of creepy). He was a brown color and at the time they said they had to remember to keep the shades down or the casket shut because he was getting sort of a tan from the sunlight.

I'm not sure why the funeral home continues to keep him if they don't want people seeing him. They should hand him over to the Reading Museum. [Kristy, 09/19/2009]

I saw the comments about Stone Willy at the Auman Funeral Home. I was just there, and they showed me Willy. He's in a casket (not laid out on a slab), and on the top floor of the building in a back room. The stories are true -- there really is a Stone Willy. [Paul Schwartz, 03/18/2009]

[RA: You were very fortunate, Paul! We talked with Gary Doubble at the funeral home, and he told us that requests to see Willie are usually turned down.]

As a child, I remember seeing Stone Willie in the basement of the funeral home at 3rd and Penn. The story I was told by my great-great grandmother was that Stone Willie had an affair with a woman that was not permissible at the time. He was taken to the hills of Reading (City Park, before it was City Park) and hanged (lynched).

When you saw him in person at the funeral home, he was hard as marble or bronze. His complexion was bronze. It was said that they had to cut his nails and hair because they continued to grow. What I never understood is why did they change his pajamas according to the seasons?

About 10-15 years later I saw on the news that the funeral home moved his body. My boyfriend at the time thought I was crazy when I use to talk about it. My kids thought I was crazy or telling them a lie. The person who wrote the tip about Stone Willie knew a lot! Did we grow up together? [Scotty, 02/20/2005]