When Tony Kmieck failed to return from a Saturday night fishing trip in 1925, his companions began searching the shores of Iron Lake.
They found the 58-year-old man the following afternoon, dead beside the water and horribly burned by lightning. According to the coroner, the bolt had entered at the back of his neck and traveled through his body before exiting through his left foot.
Even the metal objects in his pockets bore evidence of the strike. His keys and coins were blackened, and each coin had been marked with two strangely uniform nicks.
Investigators believed Kmieck’s wet clothing and metal fishing rod may have helped draw the deadly bolt toward him.
Ironwood Man Was Killed By Lightning
IRONWOOD, Wisconsin. — Tony Kmieck, aged 58, was literally skinned alive by a lightning bolt in the electric storm here Saturday night.
The bolt entered his body at the back of the neck and emerged through the left foot. Flesh, much of it charred, hung from every portion of his body.
Every key, coin and bit of metal on his person showed a black smudge and each was nicked in two places. One of the peculiarities was that each coin was nicked uniformly. Kmieck’s clothes and hat were burned.
The body was found yesterday afternoon at 2 o’clock at Iron Lake by two of Kmieck’s boarding house companions, Aleck Zambon and William Eagleoski. It was on the shore where Kmieck had gone fishing Saturday night.
Kmieck had told his companions previously that he was going fishing and would return in a short while. When boarders discovered yesterday morning that he had not returned, a search was made.
W.J. Johns, Iron County Coroner, who made an examination of the body, stated that he thought Kmieck’s wet clothes and metal fishing rod attracted the lightning.
Source: Eagle River Review. Eagle River, Wis. September 24, 1925.
