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30 Strangest Deaths in History

March 14th 2007 18:08
This blog post is worth a read. These are my favorites:

Death by Beard

Austrian Hans Steininger was famous for having the world’s longest beard (it was 4.5 feet or nearly 1.4 m long) and for dying because of it.

One day in 1567, there was a fire in town and in his haste Hans forgot to roll up his beard. He accidentally stepped on his beard, lost balance, stumbled, broke his neck and died!

Death by Suicide During a Live TV News Broadcast


Christine Chubbuck [wiki] was the first and only TV news reporter to commit suicide during a live television broadcast.

On July 15, 1974, eight minutes into the broadcast, the depressed reporter said "In keeping with Channel 40’s policy of bringing you the latest in blood and guts, and in living color, you are going to see another first: an attempted suicide." With that, Chubbuck drew up a revolver and shot herself in the head.

Death by Giant Umbrellas

In 1991, artists Christo and Jeanne-Claude put up an environmental installation art of thousands of giant yellow and blue umbrellas in California and Japan.

The giant umbrellas, which measured about 20 foot (6 m) in height, 28 foot (8.7 m) in diameter and weighed about 500 lb, became a huge tourist attraction.

Less than two months after the installation opened, Lori Rae Keevil-Mathews, a 33-year-old woman drove out to see the umbrellas in California. A wind gust uprooted one of the umbrellas and blew it straight at her, crushing her against a boulder and killing her.

Christo immediately ordered all of the umbrellas taken down. The umbrellas, however, took another life - this time in Japan. Crane operator Masaaki Nakamura was electrocuted when the machine’s arm touched a 65,000-volt high-tension line when removing the umbrellas.


via Skirmisher
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Comments
15 Comments. [ Add A Comment ]

Comment by Damo

March 14th 2007 20:55
Great stuff, very Gothic.

Comment by dementia

March 14th 2007 21:25
Thanks, Damo

Comment by Wendi

March 14th 2007 23:43
The beard one is too weird. At first, I thought it was gonna say something like he accidentally strangled himself with it in his sleep or something. Next, I thought certainly it caught fire... but to trip on it in the fire and break his neck? That's just weird.

I'd heard about that reporter's suicide before, but I can't remember when, where, or why I'd heard it. I'm glad I wasn't around to be watching t.v. at that time - that's totally twisted!

Comment by Lilla

March 15th 2007 00:39
OMG, Dem...

the curse of the bright swirling umbrella's... it sounds like something Bryn would be watching, doesn't it... I think there is potential here for a great horror film of possesed yellow and blue stripes... bizarre... and really tragic.

Great post as always,

Lilla~

Comment by Daressi

March 15th 2007 02:31
I know about man you died urinating to an electric landline.

Comment by Cibbuano

March 15th 2007 03:11

Comment by Daressi

March 15th 2007 03:56
Not landmine ...landLINE (Highlines) ...

English is not my mother tongue , so I don't know more synonyms ...but I hope You understand now...

And he didn't do it with purpose , he did from some overpass , down into dark

Comment by Bryn

March 15th 2007 07:40
I remember reading about a Hungarian (I think) painter who laughed so loud at his own painting of an old hag that be broke a blood vessel and died of internal bleeding .... (kinda gave me the heebie jeebies at the time)

Comment by dementia

March 15th 2007 14:59
great additions, guys!

Comment by Mark Schultz

March 15th 2007 18:22
Just list off the darwin awards...

The guy who kept a revolver on his bedside table... the phone rang early in the morning, waking him up. He answered, but picked up the revolver instead of the receiver, and accidentally shot himself in the head.

The security guiard who worked at a microwave (think big satelliite dishes and actual microWAVES.

He sat on the hill near the plant because it was about 10 degrees warmer (because it was in the path of the waves bouncing off the dishes). One night, no one told him there was a big increase in the amount of waves being transmitted.

They found him the next morning, cooked alive in the chair he took up on to the hill. He'd taken a 6 pack of beer with him, and they'd all exploded from heat on his lap.

Or, the sadistic janitors. They worked at some building, and every night they would take a small rodent to torture in a closet, with acids and shit.

One day they were torturing a hamster by pouring acid onto it in the closet. They stopped hearing movement, so one of them lit a lighter to see if it was still alive.

The fumes from the acid combusted, creatin g an explosion. The only survivor of the blast: the tortured hamster.

Comment by Mark Schultz

March 15th 2007 18:24
And I appologize for the spelloing and grammer... i'm drunk and high and don't know any better.

Don't judge me. =P

Comment by dementia

March 16th 2007 03:35
Mark,

Getting included in the Darwin Awards is one of my fears. I love the one about the microwave and those sadistic janitors deserved it.

Comment by Paul

March 16th 2007 10:44
Very entertaining stuff! I'd heard about the umbrellas, but not their dark side. Many thanks!

Comment by Wendi

March 16th 2007 14:34
The fumes from the acid combusted, creating an explosion. The only survivor of the blast: the tortured hamster.

That's what I call karmic justice! Ha!

Comment by Stanley

March 17th 2007 10:16
oh this post and the darwin awards comment kept me very amused for ages.

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