DAVID ADAMS provides a round-up of some stories on the odder side of life…
104-year-old Dorothy Hoffner on her world record attempt. PICTURE: Screenshot via Reuters.
• A Chicago woman may soon see her name in the Guinness Book of World Records as the oldest skydiver in the world. Dorothy Hoffner, 104, left her walker behind as she did a 4,100 metre tandem leap from an airplane on Sunday at Skydive Chicago in Ottawa, Illinois. “It’s really a wonderful feeling to feel the earth under you,” said Hoffner. “When you feel good, you can do these things. Sometimes, you have a fear or scare of doing it, but if you feel good, do it.” Hoffner was met with a huge round of applause once her feet returned to solid ground, even though the centenarian herself doesn’t see what all the fuss is about. “It was wonderful, I enjoyed it and I couldn’t understand why those people were there,” said Hoffner. “But as I say, all I did was get older. I’m not old, just older.” Lucky for Hoffner, her friend was able to provide some insight as to why he’s impressed. “I think a lot of people that were sitting and watching it or maybe are watching this may be thinking, ‘God, if she can do it, why can’t I?'” said Les Moore. The Guinness World Record for oldest skydiver was set back in May 2022 by 103-year-old Linnéa Ingegärd Larsson from Sweden. Hoffner is still waiting for her record to be certified. The Chicagoan is set to turn 105 in December and says she’d like to take things easy next summer by going on a hot air balloon ride. – Reuters
The university city of Oxford. PICTURE: Sidharth Bhatia/Unsplash
• Fourteenth century Oxford had a homicide rate about 50 times that of modern English cities, according to new research. Scholars at University of Cambridge say students at the rival University of Oxford made the city the murder capital of England during the period, with the university city recording four to five times as many murders as larger cities like London and York during the same period. The research – which forms part of the Medieval Murder Maps project – found that of those perpetrators whose identity was known, 75 per cent were identified by the coroner as “clericus” as were 72 per cent of all victims. ‘Clericus’, according to the researchers, is most likely to refer to a student or member of the early university. Professor Manuel Eisner, murder map investigator and director of Cambridge’s Institute of Criminology, said in a statement that Oxford “had a deadly mix of conditions”. “Oxford students were all male and typically aged between fourteen and twenty-one, the peak for violence and risk-taking. These were young men freed from tight controls of family, parish or guild, and thrust into an environment full of weapons, with ample access to alehouses and sex workers.” – DAVID ADAMS
A motorcycle hearse carries Stoneman Willie through the streets of Reading, Pennsylvania. PICTURE: Screenshot via Reuters/Alexa Freyman/Berks Nostalgia
• For 128 years, one of the US’s oldest mummies has been on display at a local funeral home in the small city of Reading, Pennsylvania. But that will soon change, as the funeral home prepares a proper send-off and burial for the unidentified man, known to locals as ‘Stoneman Willie’. Since his death on 19th November, 1895, Auman’s Funeral Home has displayed the remains of a petty thief who died of kidney failure in a local jail and was accidentally mummified by a mortician experimenting with new embalming techniques. Because he gave authorities a fictitious name upon his arrest, Stoneman Willie’s true identity remained hidden and local officials were unable to locate relatives. The funeral home, that had initially tried to embalm him while they searched for a next of kin, eventually petitioned the state for permission to keep the body instead of burying it, saying they wanted to monitor the experimental embalming process. Over 100 years later and with the aid of technology and a thorough search of historic documents, the funeral home says it finally believes it has identified Stoneman Willie, and will reveal his name graveside later this week. But first, it has joined with the city of Reading to memorialise the man who has been part of the city’s folklore and folksy identity for generations. On Sunday, local residents filed onto the streets to celebrate the 275th anniversary of Reading’s charter with a colourful parade that included a motorcycle hearse carrying Willie’s casket. All this week, Willie is display for final good-byes from the public at Auman’s Funeral Home. On Saturday (7th October), he will make his final journey through the streets of Reading and will be buried at a local cemetery, where his real name will finally be inscribed on his tombstone. – Reuters
