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30 Strangest Deaths in History.

Death by Embracing the Reflection of the Moon

Chinese poet Li Po (701-706) is regarded as one of the two greatest poets

in

China's literary history. He was well known for his love of liquor and

often

spouted his greatest poems while drunk.

One night, Li Po fell from his boat and drowned in the Yangtze River while

trying to embrace the reflection of the moon in the water.

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 From Holding a Pee In

Danish nobleman and astronomer Tycho Brahe was one interesting

fellow. He kept a dwarf as a court jester who sat under the table during

dinner. He even had a tame pet moose.

Tycho also lost the tip of his nose in a duel with another Danish nobleman

and had to wear a "dummy" nose made from silver and gold, but that's

another

story.

It was said that Tycho had to hold his pee during one particularly long

banquet in 1601 (getting up in the middle of a dinner was considered

really

rude) that his bladder, strained to its limits, developed an infection

which

later killed him!

Later analyses suggested that Tycho died because of mercury poisoning but

that's not nearly as interesting as the original story.

Death by Conductor's Cane

While conducting the hymnal Te Deum for French King Louis XIV in 1687,

Jean-Baptiste Lully was so focused in keeping the rhythm by banging a

staff

against the floor (this was the method before conductor's baton came into

use), that he struck his toe hard but refused to stop.

The toe developed an abscess, which later turned gangrenous, but Lully

refused to have it amputated. The gangrene spread and killed the stubborn

musician.

Ironically, the hymn he was conducting was in celebration of the recovery

of

Louis XIV from an illness.

Death by Dessert

King Adolf Frederick [wiki] of Sweden loved to eat and died from it too!

The "King Who Ate Himself to Death" died in 1771 at the age of 61 from a

digestive problem after eating a giant meal consisting of lobster, caviar,

saurkraut, cabbage soup, smoked herring, champagne and 14 servings of his

favorite dessert: semla, a bun filled with marzipan and milk.

Death by Jury Demonstration

After the Civil War, controversial Ohio politician Clement Vallandigham

became a highly successful lawyer who rarely lost a case.

In 1871, he defended Thomas McGehan who was accused of shooting one Tom

Myers during a barroom brawl. Vallandigham's defense was that Myers had

accidentally shot himself while drawing his pistol from a kneeling

position.

To convince the jury, Vallandigham decided to demonstrate his theory.

Unfortunately, he grabbed a loaded gun by mistake and ended up shooting

himself!

By dying, Vallandigham succeeded in demonstrating the plausibility of the

accidental shooting and got his client acquitted.

Death from Biting One's Tongue

Allan Pinkerton (1819-1884, famous for creating the Pinkerton

detective agency and developing investigative techniques such as

surveilling

a suspect and doing undercover work, died of an infection after biting his

tongue when he slipped on a sidewalk!

Death from Stubbing One's Toe

Famous Tennessee whiskey distiller Jack Daniel decided to come in to

work early one morning in 1911. He wanted to open his safe but couldn't

remember the combination. In anger, Daniel kicked the safe and injured his

toe, which later developed an infection that killed him!

Moral of the story? Don't go to work early.

Death by Orange Peel

Bobby Leach wasn't afraid to court death: in 1911, he was the second

person in the world to go over Niagara Falls in a barrel. The daredevil

went

on to perform many other death-defying stunts, so his death is especially

ironic.

One day while walking down a street in New Zealand, Leach slipped on a

piece

of orange peel. He broke his leg so badly it had to be amputated. Leach

died

due to complications that developed afterwards.

Death by Overcoat Parachute Failure

In 1911, French tailor Franz Reichelt decided to test his invention, a

combination overcoat and parachute, by jumping off the Eiffel Tower.

Actually, he told the authorities that he would use a dummy, but at the

last

minute decided to test it himself. It was no surprise that he fell to his

death.

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.

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 partialy 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.

Death by Bottle Cap

American playwright Tennessee Williams died in 1983 after he choked

on a bottle cap in his hotel room. Yes, he had been drinking.

Death by Drowning at a Lifeguards' Party.

In 1985, to celebrate their first drowning-free season ever, the

lifeguards

of the New Orleans recreation department decided to throw themselves a

party.

When the party ended, a 31-year-old guest named Jerome Moody was found

dead

on the bottom of the recreation department's pool.

We suppose when it's your time to go, then it's your time to go: there

were

four lifeguards on duty and more than half of the 200 party-goers were

themselves lifeguards!

Death on Stage, While Telling a Joke

Dick Shawn (1924-1987) was a comedian who had a heart attack and died

during

a joke that seemed strangely appropriate:

He was making fun of politicians by saying campaign cliches ending with "I

will not lay down on the job!" Shawn then laid down on the floor face

down.

At first, the audience thought that it was all part of the show, until

some

time later a theater employee checked him for a pulse and began

administering CPR.

The paramedics then arrived, and the audience were told to go home - Dick

Shawn was dead.

Death by Belly Slam.

British pro wrestler Mal "King Kong" Kirk died underneath the big belly of

Shirley "Big Daddy" Crabtree.

In August 1987, during the final moments of the match, Crabtree delivered

his signature "Belly-Splash" move (basically jumping up and down, slamming

his belly onto a guy) on Kirk, who then had a heart attack and died.

Crabtree was cleared after it was revealed that Kirk had a serious heart

condition prior to the match. However, Crabtree blamed himself for Kirk's

death and retired from pro wrestling.

Before the match, Kirk had told his friends: "If I have to go, I hope it

is

in the ring."

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.

Death by Re-creation

In 1991, a 57-year-old Thai woman Yooket Paen was walking in her farm when

she accidentally slipped on a cow dung, grabbed a naked live wire and got

electrocuted to death.

Soon after Paen's funeral, her 52-year-old-sister Yooket Pan was showing

her

neighbors how the accident happened when she herself slipped, grabbed the

same live wire and also got electrocuted to death!

Death by Sheep

In 1999, Betty Stobbs, 67, of Durham, England, took a bale of hay to feed

her flock of sheep on the back of her motorcycle.

Apparently, the sheep were very hungry. About forty of them rushed the hay

and knocked her off a cliff into a 100-feet deep quarry. Stobbs survived

the

fall only to be killed when the motorcycle, which was also knocked off the

cliff, tumbled down after her.

Death by Necklace Bomb

On the afternoon of August 28, 2003, pizza deliveryman Brian Wells

tried to rob a bank with a home-made shotgun disguised as a cane.

When he was caught by the police, Wells revealed that he had been forced

by

some people he delivered pizza to earlier to rob the bank. A necklace with

an explosive device was attached to his neck.

The necklace bomb blew up before the bomb squad could deactivate it

(indeed,

there was controversy whether the police took his story seriously and

delayed calling the bomb squad). Until today, it's unclear whether Wells

was

a victim, a co-conspirator or the lone perpetrator of the robbery and

subsequent death.

Death by Stingray

In 2006, Australian wildlife expert and TV personality Steve "The

Crocodile

Hunter" Irwin died when he was stabbed in the heart by a stingray

spine while filming a documentary Ocean's Deadliest.

Death by Bookcase

Mariesa Weber was reported missing by her family for nearly two weeks

before

they found her in her bedroom, wedged behind a bookcase.

"I'm sleeping in the same house as her for 11 days, looking for her," her

mother, Connie Weber, told the St. Petersburg Times. "And she's right in

the

bedroom."

Both Weber and her sister had previously adjusted the television plug by

standing on a bureau next to the shelf and leaning over the top. Her

family

believes Weber, who was 5-foot-3 and barely 100 pounds, may have fallen

headfirst into the space.

.

I wondered why the baseball was getting bigger. Then it hit me.

The butcher backed up into the meat grinder and got a little

behind in his work.

To write with a broken pencil is pointless.

When fish are in schools they sometimes take debate.

The short fortune-teller who escaped from prison was a

small medium at large.

A thief who stole a calendar got twelve months.

When the smog lifts in Los Angeles, U C L A.

The dead batteries were given out free of charge.

What's the definition of a will? It's a dead giveaway.

.

Operators of the Chunnel, (the underwater tunnel

between England and France,) reported

a loss of $220 million for the first half of the year.

Officials say, stingy commuters, who try to

save money on the toll

by packing several people into the same car,

are to blame for the loss.

It's a condition known as "carpool tunnel syndrome."

.

Subject: Gas Station Attendants

Three gas station owners report for their first day in prison. The

prison guard asks one of them, "What are you in for?" He replies, "The

government says I charged customers more for my gasoline than other gas

stations. I'm in for price gouging."

The guard looks at the second man. "And you?" He answers, "I charged

less for my gasoline than everyone else. I'm in for anti-competitive

pricing."

The guard looks to the third. "And you?" He shrugs. "I charged the

same price for my gasoline as all the other gas stations. I'm in for

collusion."

.

What is the difference between Northern and Southern racism?

A southern racist doesn't mind blacks living nearby, as long as they

don't get "uppity."

A northern racist doesn't mind blacks getting "uppity" as long as they

don't live close.

Issue of the Times;

The DC Gun Ban by Ron Paul

Last Friday a federal appeals court in Washington DC issued a ruling that

hopefully will result in the restoration of 2nd Amendment rights in the

nation's capital. It appears the Court rejected the District of Columbia

's

nonsensical argument that the 2nd Amendment confers only a "collective

right," something gun control advocates have asserted for years.

Of course we should not have too much faith in our federal courts to

protect

gun rights, considering they routinely rubber stamp egregious violations

of

the 1st, 4th, and 5th Amendments, and allow Congress to legislate wildly

outside the bounds of its enumerated powers. Furthermore, the DC case will

be appealed to the Supreme Court with no guarantees. But it is very

important nonetheless for a federal court only one step below the highest

court in the land to recognize that gun rights adhere to the American

people, not to government-sanctioned groups. Rights, by definition, are

individual. "Group rights" is an oxymoron.

Can anyone seriously contend that the Founders, who had just expelled

their

British rulers mostly by use of light arms, did not want the individual

farmer, blacksmith, or merchant to be armed? Those individuals would have

been killed or imprisoned by the King's soldiers if they had relied on a

federal armed force to protect them.

In the 1700s, militias were local groups made up of ordinary citizens.

They

were not under federal control! As a practical matter, many of them were

barely under the control of colonial or state authorities. When the 2nd

Amendment speaks of a "well-regulated militia," it means local groups of

individuals operating to protect their own families, homes, and

communities.

They regulated themselves because it was necessary and in their own

interest

to do so.

The Founders themselves wrote in the Federalist papers about the need for

individuals to be armed. In fact, James Madison argued in Federalist paper

46 that common citizens should be armed to guard against the threat posed

by

the newly proposed standing federal army.

Today, gun control makes people demonstrably less safe - as any honest

examination of criminal statistics reveals. In his book "More Guns, Less

Crime," scholar John Lott demolishes the myth that gun control reduces

crime. On the contrary, Lott shows that cities with strict gun control -

like Washington DC - experience higher rates of murder and violent crime.

It

is no coincidence that violent crime flourishes in the nation's capital,

where the individual's right to defend himself has been most severely

curtailed.

Understand that residents of DC can be convicted of a felony and put in

prison simply for having a gun in their home, even if they live in a very

dangerous neighborhood. The DC gun ban is no joke, and the legal

challenges

to the ban are not simply academic exercises. People's lives and safety

are

at stake.

Gun control historically serves as a gateway to tyranny. Tyrants from

Hitler

to Mao to Stalin have sought to disarm their own citizens, for the simple

reason that unarmed people are easier to control. Our Founders, having

just

expelled the British army, knew that the right to bear arms serves as the

guardian of every other right. This is the principle so often ignored by

both sides in the gun control debate. Only armed citizens can resist

tyrannical government.

March 13, 2007

Dr. Ron Paul is a Republican member of Congress from Texas.

Quote of the Times;

"The Constitution of the United States is a law for rulers and people,

equally in war and in peace, and covers with the shield of its protection

all classes of men, at all times, and under all circumstances. No

doctrine,

involving more pernicious consequences, was ever invented by the wit of

man

than that any of its provisions can be suspended during any of the great

exigencies of government. Such a doctrine leads directly to anarchy or

despotism."

In the case of Ex Parte Milligan in 1866, Supreme Court Justice David

Davis

Link of the Times;

http://astore.amazon.com/theasylumeclecti/detail/006095745X/002-1995472-7064037

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