Charles "Speedy" Atkins

Charles Henry "Speedy" Atkins
Personal details
Born	1875 Tennessee
Died	May 27, 1928 Paducah, Kentucky

Charles "Speedy" Atkins is an American folk figure. Not much is known about his life. He was born in Tennessee and moved to Kentucky to find work. He settled in downtown Paducah, Kentucky as an hourly employee at a plant with ties to the tobacco industry. He gained the nickname "Speedy" because of his speed at working in tobacco, and was also said to be a womanizer. He was single without known relatives and befriended funeral home attendant A. Z. Hamock, who, at the time, owned the city's only African-American funeral home.

In May 1928, Speedy went fishing and fell into the Ohio River along with his line, where he drowned. His body was turned over to Hamock's Funeral Home for a pauper's burial, but Hamock had a better idea. He had created a powerful preservative and decided to experiment on Speedy's body with it. It turned Speedy's body into a wooden-like statue, and turned his black skin a reddish color. It also preserved his facial features, and he still remained recognizable.^[1] Rather than bury Speedy, Hamock put him on display at the funeral home. The body was only away from the funeral home one time: when it washed away during the Paducah flood of 1937, and was returned to the funeral home as a flood victim.

Hamock died in 1949, and his wife Velma took over custody of the body. Mrs. Hamock had originally planned to bury the mummy in 1991 on her late husband's 100th birthday, but waited until May 1994.^[2][3][4][5] "Speedy" Atkins has been featured in Ripley's Believe It Or Not, the TV program That's Incredible, and the National Enquirer^[6] His story was also told on the Discovery Channel.

Atkins is buried in Maplelawn Cemetery, in Paducah, Kentucky

References

1. ^ [1] "Quigley, Christine, "Modern Mummies." McFarland, 1998, pages 94-96. ISBN 0786404922, 9780786404926. Retrieved April 17, 2009.
2. ^ [2] "Man to be buried in '91." Washington Post, July 16, 1987.
3. ^ "66-tear-old corpse to be laid to rest in Paducah." Lexington Herald, June 26, 1994.
4. ^ "TV show to feature Paducah corpse." Lexington Herald, January 4, 2003.
5. ^ "Black man who died 66 years ago is finally buried." Jet. August 29, 1994.
6. ^ Sceurman, Mark, "Weird Kentucky," Sterling Publishing Company, 2008. Page 220. ISBN 1402754388, 9781402754388 Retrieved April 17, 2009.

Persondata
Name	Atkins, Charles
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	1875
Place of birth	Tennessee
Date of death	May 27, 1928
Place of death	Paducah, Kentucky