Strangest Deaths in History, 11 - 20

"Strangest Deaths in History"

'Death by ???'

1) Poison, 2) Gunshot Wound (4x),
3) Beating by Clubs, 4) Drowning.

According to legends, Russian mystic Grigori
Rasputin (1869-1916) was first poisoned with
enough cyanide to kill ten men, but he wasn't affected.

So his killers shot him in the back with a revolver.
Rasputin fell but later revived. So, he was shot
again three more times, but Rasputin still lived.
He was then clubbed, and for good measure
thrown into the icy Neva River.

Rasputin was finally dead for good.

Because the cause of death was actually
drowning, Rasputin could not be declared a
Saint by the Zsarist family who desperately
desired to do so.

'Death by Baseball'

Cleveland Indians shortstop Ray Chapman was
the only man ever killed by a baseball pitch.

At that time, baseball pitchers dirtied up a ball
before it was thrown at the batter to make it harder
to see. On August 6, 1920 in a game against the
New York Yankees, Carl Mays pitched such a ball
towards Chapman that fatally hit his skull.

'Death by Scarf'

"Mother of modern dance" Isadora Duncan was killed
in 1927 by her trademark scarf she loved to wear:

As the New York Times noted in its obituary of the
dancer on 15 September 1927, "The automobile
was going at full speed when the scarf of strong
silk began winding around the wheel and with
terrific force dragged Miss Duncan, around whom
it was securely wrapped, bodily over the side of the
car, precipitating her with violence against the
cobblestone street. She was dragged for several
yards before the chauffeur halted, attracted by her
cries in the street. Medical aid was summoned, but
it was stated that she had been strangled and killed instantly."

'Death by Garbage'

Homer and Langley Collyer were compulsive hoarders.
The two brothers had a fear of throwing anything away
and obsessively collected newspapers and other junk
in their house. They even set up booby-traps in corridors
and doorways to protect against intruders.

In 1947, an anonymous tip called that there was a
dead body in the Collyer house, and after much initial
difficulty getting in, the police found Homer Collyer
dead and Langley no where to be found. About two
weeks later, after removing nearly 100 tons of garbage
from the house, workers found Langley Collyer's
partially decomposed (and rat-chewed) body just
10 feet away from where they had found his brother.

Apparently, Langley had been crawling through tunnels
of newspapers to bring food to his paralyzed brother
when he set off one of his own booby-traps. Homer
died several days later from starvation.

'Death at a Talk Show'

Jerome Irving Rodale was a proponent of healthy
eating. He was an early advocate for organic
farming and sustainable agriculture, founder of
Organic Farming and Gardening magazine and Rodale Press.

After bragging that he would "live to 100, unless
I'm run down by a a sugar-crazy taxi driver," Rodale
died of a heart attack while being interviewed on
the Dick Cavett Show in 1971.

Appearing fast asleep, Dick Cavett joked, "Are
we boring you, Mr. Rodale?" before discovering
that his 72-year-old guest had indeed died.
The show was never aired.

'Death by Suicide During a Live TV News Broadcast'

Christine Chubbuck 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 on the Toilet'

There are several examples of death on the toilet,
but that of Elvis Presley (1935 - 1977) was the most famous.

The King of Rock 'n Roll was found lying on the
floor of his Graceland mansion's bathroom after
throwing up while being seated on the toilet,
taking care of business.

Doctors attributed his death to a heart attack
from weight gain and taking too many prescription drugs.

'Death by Robot'

Robert Williams was the first man ever killed
by a robot. On January 25, 1979, Williams
climbed into a storage rack at the Ford Motor's
Flat Rock casting plant to retrieve a part because
the parts-retrieval robot malfunctioned. Suddenly,
the robot reactivated and slammed its arm into
Williams' head, killing him instantly.

The second death by robot happened just a couple
of years afterwards in 1981. Kenji Urada, a
37-year-old Japanese maintenance engineer
was working on a broken robot at a Kawasaki
plant when he failed to turn it off. The robot's
mechanical arm accidentally pushed him into
a grinding machine.

'Death by Decapitation by Helicopter Rotor Blades'

Actor Vic Morrow died on the set of Twilight Zone:
The Movie when a helicopter spun out of control
due to special effect explosions, crashed, and
decapitated him with its rotor blades.

Two other child actors also died at the event, which
triggered a massive reform in US child labor laws
and safety regulations on movie sets.

'Death by Cactus'

In 1982, 27-year-old David Grundman and a roommate
decided to do a little "cactus plugging," by shooting
the desert plant with a shotgun.

The first one, a small cactus, went off without a hitch
and Grundman was encouraged to try a larger prey:
a 26-foot-tall Saguaro cactus, probably a 100-year-
old plant. Unfortunately, Grundman blasted off a
large chuck of the cactus that fell on him and
crushed him to death!

To date, this was probably the only known instance
of revenge killing by a plant.
Received on Tue Aug 28 07:04:04 2007