The Garden City Telegram
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Oshel: Legend of 'Old Bill'
Published 5/9/2009 in History Page : Columns
By LAURIE OSHEL
"HISTORY NOTES"
Today, no funeral home would ever dream of leaving a body unburied for years, let alone put it on display. But in 1911, at least in Garden City, that was not the case.
Italian immigrant Pedro Rugiero never intended to spend any time in Garden City. In fact, he was dead before his train ever arrived in town.
It was April 29, 1911, near Charleston, when he took his seat inside the passenger car of a westbound Santa Fe train, faced his fellow passengers and announced, "Here goes, boys, here goes." With that, he took a straight edged razor and slit his throat. A few minutes later he was dead.
In Garden City, Rugiero's body was turned over to undertaker and county coroner Alton Clark. Efforts to locate Rugiero's relatives were in vain, so Clark and his young associate, Bryant Garnand, took care of the body, experimenting with a "synthetic" embalming fluid containing a metal compound. It worked as Clark had anticipated, preserving the body in perfect condition.
Realizing that Rugiero was going to be a long-term guest at the funeral home, Clark dressed him in a suit and placed him in the corner covered by a sheet. There, the body slowly mummified.
Nicknamed "Old Bill," Rugiero became a popular attraction. "People used to come to town on Saturday to shop and would come in to see him," said Deidre Garnand, former owner and manager of the Garnand Funeral Home. "Mr. Garnand used to dust off his clothes and shellac him every once in awhile." According to an Aug. 30, 1937, article in The Garden City Telegram, Old Bill was "slated to get his one-in-seven-years bath and a new suit soon."
"Old Bill" was also the occasion for many pranks. "I'll never forget the day Mr. Clark sent a new shoe shine boy over from the barber shop to shine Bill's shoes," Mr. Garnand recalled. "When the boy met Bill, he backed off fast and said he wouldn't do that shine for 'no kind of money.'"
The sheet wasn't always replaced after one of his many public appearances and people were often more than a little surprised to see Old Bill standing in the corner. Eventually, Garnand placed him in a mahogany box to avoid further confusion and trauma. Even then, Bill was reported to have been the cause of some excitement. Legend has it that a man opened the box, not knowing Old Bill was inside, and jumped out of his shoes in fright.
Once Old Bill was given a short vacation when, clad in a new suit and freshly bathed, he made the trip to Dodge City to the state funeral directors convention in 1930.
Old Bill's 25-year reign as southwest Kansas' favorite mummy ended when the Garnand building was destroyed by fire in 1938.
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