Net Notables

A teenage runaway was finally buried recently, but not before his mummified body had become a local fixture in the backroom of a local funeral parlor for the past 80 years.

The specific details of his death are not known. Because his body was found near the railroad tracks in Calvert, Texas, it was assumed that he fell or was pushed from a passing train. Before authorities were able to discover that the body was a fifteen-year-old runaway, the local funeral director embalmed him and placed him in a pine coffin. For some reason, the mortician did not seal the coffin; instead, he covered it with a wire screen.

When the boy’s family was finally contacted, they were told that they owed the funeral director $108 for his services. The family was quite poor and stunned by the bill. According to a local newspaper reporter, they told the director, “Well, for $108, you can keep him.”

For the next 80 years, the boy’s body was kept in a back room. No one knows exactly why the boy’s body did not decay (after all, embalming is said to be a temporary preservation process), but if the fluids were well-drained from the body and air circulated around the body (because of the screen cover), natural mummification could have occurred.

Every so often, the back room was the site for poker and domino games. Since the mummified boy looked as if he was smiling, many of the gamblers thought that he brought them good luck. They called the boy “Mojo,” meaning good luck, and he became the small town’s unofficial mascot.

Although the funeral parlor was sold a number of times over the 80 years, Mojo stayed in the back room, until the most recent owner decided to lay the body to rest. Approximately 60 people attended Mojo’s funeral.–Mummytombs.com

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