Mummified US man finally given proper burial after 128 years on display

Visitors at the Reading funeral home look at Stoneman Willie before his burial. He was buried in a tuxedo with bow tie and red sash. Photograph: Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP/Getty Images

The mummified remains of a petty thief nicknamed Stoneman Willie have been laid to rest in Pennsylvania, concluding a fascinating and somewhat macabre episode stretching back 128 years.

Willie, whose real name was revealed to be James Murphy at his burial in Reading, 60 miles north-west of Philadelphia, on Saturday. He was embalmed shortly after his death in 1895 by a mortician experimenting with new preservation techniques.