Vance's death was mysterious -- officially ruled an accident, but it
was rumored by some that he died of spontaneous human combustion.
Family members testified that he had a bad habit of falling asleep
while smoking, and the chief medical officer reported that he was
intoxicated with "three plus ethyl alcohol" in his brain at the time of
death. The mysteries surrounding Vance's death include the facts that
his head and torso were very badly burned, yet he suffered few burns
below his waist, though he was wearing no shoes, and that none of the
furniture in the room where he died had caught on fire except for his
chair.
