Old Mike

The mystery that I am going to be telling you about is a story I’ve heard about a couple of times. It is somewhat like my last post, but this is a little odder. Each time I have heard the story, I am amazed that anyone would do this let alone an entire town. The story I am talking about is the mysterious case about Old Mike.

Old Mike’s story is taken place in Prescott, Arkansas. Old Mike was the name the town of Prescott gave a traveling salesman. Mike was his first name but the added Old because well, he was old. Old Mike used to visit the town of Prescott once a month to sell paper, pens, and threads. He was a door to door kind of salesman who got to know everyone, and everyone got to know him. He showed up on doorsteps and in businesses and apparently business was good or else he wouldn’t have gone back. He would stay in town for just one night and after doing his rounds he would leave the next day.

He seemed to enjoy the town and on April 11, 1911, people believed he went to an outdoor revival in the city park. The reason they believe this is because Mike’s body was found beneath a tree in the park. It was thought that he had passed away from a stroke or heart attack.

His body was taken to the Cornish Funeral Home and there it was embalmed. He never told anyone his last name, so they looked in his belongings but unfortunately found no form of identification. People knew that he was forty-five years old, spoke English without much of an accent (he was thought of as possibly Italian), he had developed some injury to his right arm and left leg, however, those injuries could’ve been from a stroke. He also apparently had elaborated dental work done.

Since Old Mike was a beloved passerby in the town, Prescott decided that the best thing to do was to put him on display at the funeral home, in case someone might be able to identify him. Years had passed and still, Old Mike was never claimed. After such a long period of time had passed, people started to believe he would never be recognized. At some point, Old Mike became a tourist attraction. People from other places traveled to Prescott just to see his body. In 1975, almost 64 years after his death, Arkansas Attorney General’s Office told Cornish Funeral Home to bury Old Mike. The funeral home buried him on May 12, 1975, a small ceremony was held at the DeAnn Cemetery. To this day we still don’t know who exactly Old Mike was.