I had a dream that I was a historian, looking through an archive of death certificates from the 1600s. I don’t remember why anymore, but I woke up feeling curious about the history of death certificates. Somewhere along the way, I stumbled upon Wikipedia’s list of the most unusual deaths in History. Some of these deaths really caught my attention, so I decided to do more research, and share a few of them.
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Some of these I shared because they were extremely unusual freak accidents. Others I shared, because I learned a few safety tips that I think could save someone else’s life (like properly storing dry ice)!
I don’t like to use Wikipedia, as it is not 100% reliable. But I scoured the sources cited, and they seem credible.
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“Charondas was a Greek lawgiver from Sicily. According to Diodorus Siculus, he issued a law that anyone who brought weapons into the Assembly must be put to death. One day, he arrived at the Assembly seeking help to defeat some brigands in the countryside but with a knife still attached to his belt. In order to uphold his own law, he committed suicide.”
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I think he deserves a major shoutout for integrity!
Link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charondas?wprov=sfti1
Sigurd the Mighty, defeated his enemy, Máel Brigte. When he died, Sigurd cut off his head, and strapped it onto his horse’s saddle. During the ride back to camp, Máel’s teeth nicked Sigurd in the leg. It caused a fatal infection.
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Link: http://www.orkneyjar.com/history/vikingorkney/sigurd.htm
I mentioned the dancing mania incident before. In 1518, several people died of exhaustion and heart attacks after being compelled to dance themselves to death. It was an extremely interesting and unusual form of mass hysteria.
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Hans Staininger was the mayor of “Braunau am Inn”, a city at the banks of the river Inn in Braunau (then Bavaria, now Austria) with an extremely long beard. The beard, which was 4.5 feet (1.4 m) long at the time, and was usually kept in a roll-up pouch. However, a fight broke out of his inn, and he went to break it up. As he did so, he tripped on his beard and snapped his neck.
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Link: https://allthatsinteresting.com/hans-steininger
John Cummings was aboard a ship that had stopped into town. Passengers attended an event where the entertainers pretended to swallow knives for everyone’s amusement. Well, John was drunk, and thought he could do it too. When he got back onto the ship, he began swallowing knives.
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At first, there (miraculously) wasn’t any damage done, but over the years, he kept tempting God. Eventually, he swallowed one too many knives and died.
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Link: https://journal.medizzy.com/john-cummings/
I made sure to use more reliable sources to fact check. However, Wikipedia had the best *written summary* for the incident, so I copied it here:
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“On 17 October 1814, at Meux & Co’s Horse Shoe Brewery, a 22-foot-tall (6.7 m) wooden vat of fermenting porter burst, causing chain reactions and destroyed several large beer barrels. The beer subsequently flooded the nearby slum and killed 8 people.”
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Wikipedia also says that Several people also subsequently died from alcohol poisoning as a result of vaporized liquor, but I have not been able to verify that anywhere else.
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Sir William Payne-Gallwey was a member of parliament (MP) of Thirsk, a market town and civil parish in North Yorkshire, England. Eventually, he retired, and used his extra time to hunt in the countryside. During one of his hunting trips, he tripped and fell on a turnip. The impact caused several fatal internal injuries, and he died four days later.
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In Boston, Massachusetts, On January 15th, 1919, a large tank of Molasses burst open in Boston’s North End.
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Over TWO MILLION GALLONS of Molasses poured out, accumulating into a wave that sped down the road at a whopping speed of 35 miles per hour (56.3kph).
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Twenty-one people were killed and 150 injured in the event. It also caused quite a bit of property damage.
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Link: https://www.history.com/news/great-molasses-flood-science
Frank Hayes was a 22 year old jockey that suddenly had a heart attack mid-race, and collapsed dead on his horse. Despite this horrific obstacle, the horse carried on with the race. He crossed the finish line first, with is dead rider still on his back.
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Is there any doctor or medical scientist reading this that might have an explanation for a healthy 22 year old man suddenly dying of a heart attack like that? I know that anything can technically happen, but this is such a crazy situation.
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Link: https://www.cnn.com/2018/12/10/sport/frank-hayes-sweet-kiss-belmont-park-intl-spt/index.html
Thornton Jones, a lawyer in Bangor, Gwynedd, Wales, woke up to find that he had his throat slit. Motioning for a paper and pencil, he wrote, “I dreamt that I had done it. I awoke to find it true.”
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Poor soul died 80 minutes later. He had done it himself while unconscious. An inquest at Bangor delivered a verdict of “suicide while temporarily insane”.
There’s his obituary
Isadora Duncan was a revolutionary dancer, who added a contemporary twist to the traditional ballet. Sadly, she broke her neck when her long scarf caught on a wheel of the car she was riding in. I feel so terrible for her, and the driver next to her. That must have been horrific. But it’s a cautionary tale to keep long clothing like that close to your body.
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Link: https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/dancer-isadora-duncan-is-killed-in-car-accident
Bulgarian writer and KBG defector, Georgi Markov, was assassinated on a London street when he was injected with a micro-engineered pellet containing ricin. It was fired into his leg from an umbrella, *presumably* wielded by someone associated with the Bulgarian Secret Service. That being said, this has not been confirmed as absolute fact, and the killer has never been caught.
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Link: https://www.pbs.org/wnet/secrets/umbrella-assassin-episode/1543/
Michael Scaglione became frustrated during a round of golf, and smashed his club against the golf-cart. The head broke off, and impaled him in the throat, severing his jugular vein.
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This is a tragic accident that does not happen frequently. However, there is always a chance of serious injury when smashing large and heavy metal objects against another large, and heavy metal object. Sometimes smashing things can be cathartic. I think it was inappropriate in this case, but that’s not the PSA here.
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PSA: HAVE SAFETY MEASURES FOR EVENTS THAT INVOLVE VIOLENTLY DESTROYING THINGS!!! If you are planning a bonfire, or an event where you smash a bunch of printers, or other large, metal objects, please wear protective clothing and keep an emergency aid kit nearby!
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Dick Wertheim was a tennis umpire who tragically died after a ball struck him in the groin and he fell out of his chair. He fell in a way that caused blunt force trauma to the head.
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Link: https://www.nytimes.com/1984/09/06/sports/tennis-group-sued-over-death.html
Jimmy Ferrozzo was a bouncer at the Condor Club in San Francisco (a prominent strip club). One day, he decided to get frisky with his girlfriend, Theresa Hill, on a grand piano that was lowered from the ceiling by a hydraulic motor. The piano was a decorative stage set that the strippers would dance on.
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During Jimmy’s rendezvous, he accidentally activated the lifting mechanism which pinned him against the ceiling leading to his suffocation. Hill survived the accident without major injury.
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PSA: It’s totally okay to get frisky in exotic places, just do a double-check of your surroundings to ensure it’s safe!
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Franco Brun was a 22 year old inmate at the Metro Toronto East Detention Centre in Canada. He also had a psychotic disorder (meaning he experienced psychosis, not that he was a psychopath). During one of his psychotic episodes, he tried to swallow a pocket-sized bible, believing that it would cleanse him of his sins.
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This is why mental health awareness and resources are extremely important. People tend to think that psychotic individuals will pull a “Roommate” or “Fatal Attraction”, becoming obsessed and trying to kill you, your pets, and your loved ones. The common approach to psychotic disorders is “Whatever goes, just as long as they are far away from me/won’t go psycho on me.” Such patients exist. However, it is more likely for a psychotic patient to be a danger to themselves, rather than others. This is what happens when you’re too focused on how the patient will affect you, rather than how the patient is doing.
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Link: http://www.aintnowaytogo.com/bibleEat.htm
Mark Gleeson from Headley Down, Hampshire, had serious snoring problems that were not responding to any of the remedies they had already tried. He and his girlfriend came up with their own “home-remedy”: Taking sleeping pills, and shoving tampons up his nose.
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He suffocated in his sleep. The sleeping pills worsened the situation, as it made it more difficult to breathe. I hate to be a judgmental bitch about a man that actually died, but this NEEDS to be said:
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Folks, tampons are for the vagina – not the nasal cavities.
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Link: https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/12117183.man-dies-in-bid-to-stop-his-snoring/
This has to be the most ironic death I have ever heard of.
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Michael Anderson Godwin was convicted of heinous first-degree murder of a young woman in South Carolina. The crime was so atrocious, he was originally sentenced to death by electric chair. Later on, he had his sentence commuted to life.
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One day, he was sitting on a metal toilet while trying to fix the wires to a television. He bit down on the wires and electrocuted himself. It seems that he truly was destined for an electric chair…
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Link: https://alphahistory.com/pastpeculiar/1989-electric-chair-electric-toilet/
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On July 9th, 1993, Garry Hoy wanted to demonstrate that his windows were unbreakable by throwing himself against one. To his credit, he was correct that it wouldn’t break. Instead, the glass popped out of its frame, and he fell to his death.
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I decided to include the link to the Snopes article because they had the most factual information: https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/window-strength-death/
55 year old Judy Kay Zagorski was in a boat with her family in Florida, when a 75-pound (34 kg) spotted eagle ray leaped out of the water and collided with her. The force of the impact was so strong, she died from blunt force craniocerebral trauma. The force was also powerful enough to kill the stingray as well.
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Experts agree that this was the ultimate freak accident. Spotted eagle stingrays aren’t an aggressive or territorial species, but they do frequently leap out of the water. The ray just happened to leap out of the water right as the boat approached the side, and the two collided.
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Link: https://www.cnn.com/2008/US/03/21/eagleray/index.html
Anthony Hensley, 37, worked at a residential complex in Des Plaines, Illinois warding away geese by tending to the local swan nests.
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One way to ward off geese is to get swans to take up residence nearby. Geese don’t fuck with swans, and swans are extremely even-tempered birds, that don’t attack unless you get too close. Anthony Hensley was taking care of the geese problem by tending to the swan nests nearby, and making sure that the complex had the best environment for more swans.
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However, like all animals, swans are highly protective of their territory. Anthony was kayaking across the lake, when he accidentally got too close to a swan’s nest. The swan attacked him, and threw him out of the kayak.
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Once he was in the water, the bird went for his head, preventing him from being able to keep his head above the surface. He ultimately drowned.
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Link: https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-2012-04-17-ct-met-kayak-swan-death-20120417-story.html
Minas Gerais is a state of Brazil famous for cattle farming and dairy products. In the past few years, cattle farming has skyrocketed. Thus, cattle tend to roam all over the place, and had even managed to climb on a few people’s roofs.
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45 year old João Maria de Souza, was crushed in his bed by a cow falling through the roof of his home in Caratinga. It had climbed on top of the house from a steep hillside behind it. Both the cow, and his wife (who was sleeping next to him) were unharmed.
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It was the third incident of a cow crashing through the roof within three years, but the first one to result in a casualty.
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Link: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-23303998
Randy Llanes was a 47 year old fisherman from Kailua-Kona, Hawaii. One day while fishing, he harpooned a swordfish, and jumped into the water to retrieve it. A struggle ensued, and the swordfish managed to impale him in the chest, killing him.
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Link: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/fisherman-dies-after-tussle-swordfish-hawaii-n367026
Hildegard Whiting, 77, died of suffocation from the carbon dioxide vapors produced by four dry ice coolers in a Dippin’ Dots delivery car. The car belonged to her son, who had lent it to his wife so she could drive Whiting home. The dry ice released a large amount of carbon-dioxide, which rendered both passengers unconscious. The husband/son was able to save his wife, but his mother sadly perished,
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I included this one because I think it is an important cautionary tale about handling dry ice. DRY ICE IS SOLID/FROZEN CARBON-DIOXIDE. IT WILL RELEASE CARBON-DIOXIDE GASES AS IT MELTS. BE EXTRA CAUTIOUS WHEN HANDLING/STORING IT!!!
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On 5 April 2019, Darren Hickey, a 51-year-old wedding planner from Horwich, England, died after eating a scalding-hot fishcake at a wedding. The food literally burned his throat too severely to be able to swallow or breathe.
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“Pathologist Dr Patrick Waugh, who performed Mr Hickey’s post-mortem, said his case is very rare and normally seen in people involved in house fires with inhalation of smoke, which burns the airways.”
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This wasn’t an immediate death, Sam Ballard died from angiostrongyliasis after eating a garden slug as a dare eight years earlier. This is just terrifying. Imagine doing a stupid dare that renders you paralyzed for life, and kills you eight years later.
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Link: https://www.cnn.com/2018/11/05/health/man-dies-after-eating-slug-on-dare/index.html
When I first read the article, I was under the impression that this man died as a result of biting a snake that bit him first. I then learned that the man would have died from the initial bite, but he decided to bring the snake down with him. I included it in this list because it is an extremely unusual death regardless.
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Parvat Gala Baria, a 60-year-old man from Gujarat, India, was working on his farm, when he found a snake. He picked it up, and it bit him on the face in retaliation. Parvat was so enraged, he bit the snake in retaliation. Both he and the snake died after the incident.
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