This (IMHO) has to be the most ironic death. Bobby Leach on July 25, 1911 went over Niagara Falls in a barrel. He suffered many broken bones but he survived. In 1925 while touring New Zealand, he slipped on an orange peel, skinning his knee which later became infected and eventually led to the amputation of the leg. Despite this drastic surgery, he still contracted gangrene which led to his death.
The Cocoanut Grove fire in Boston on November 28, 1942 claimed 492 lives. A true hero of that fire was Clifford Johnson a 21 year old Coast Guardsman. He kept re-enetering the night club (5 or 6 times) to rescue people. His heroics resulted in 55 per cent of his body being burned. In spite of the massive burns, he survived although he needed 2 years recovery in hospitals.
He went back to his native Missouri and got a job delivering fuel oil. On Dec 20, 1956, his truck skidded off of a road and he burned to death in the cab of his truck. http://www.boston.com/news/daily/21/archives_cocoanut_052592.htm
Park Ranger Roy Sullivan was struck by lightning on seven different occassions (from 1942 to 1977) and lived. This is the most that anyone has ever been struck by lightning. (Yes, he’s in “Guinness”). Dejected by a broken romance, he died in Sept 1983 by a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
Well “Dopers”, I was wondering if you can come up any other stories such as these.
During a 1970 interview with Dick Cavett, J. I. Rodale, founder of Prevention Magazine, said that he fully expected to live to be 100 in light of healthy regimen. Later in the same program–which was never aired–he slumped over dead from a heart attack.
The singer for Drowning Pool was found dead on the floor of his tour bus, apparent drug O.D. Their first big single was “Let the Bodies Hit the Floor”.
wolf_meister, since you’re looking for dopers to share similar stories with you, rather than answer a question with a factual answer, I’m moving this to MPSIMS.
Please keep in mind forum descriptions when you post your next question. Thank you.
Some guy was driving his friends down a mountain road. His brakes blew, and instead of telling his friends or trying to get control, jumped out of the van, whereupon he died falling over the side of the mountain and his friends were able to gain control of the van and managed to pull it over with no injuries whatsoever.
A guy I worked with smoked nasty, disgusting, smelly cigars. He never smoked in the office, but he smelled and rasped, coughed, and sneezed all the time (from his allergies, you understand). I always told him cigars would kill him. He denied that smoking ever killed anyone.
One day he threw a lit cigar out his car window, and it came in the back window and burned up the car while he was in it. He died from having 75% of his body covered with third degree burns.
Double checking, I see there seems to be some dispute as to what, exactly, Rodale said in his interview with Cavett.
He had told The New York Times the day before that he expected to live to be 100. Snopes.com notes this and does address what he may have said on the show.
The way I remember it (which may well be mistaken), Cavett has said in interviews that Rodale repeated his prediction about living to be 100.
Anecdotage.com says that he predicted he would live to be 100 while on the show but is silent about the NYT interview.
TVAcres.com says that he in fact said he told Cavett he believed he would live “on and on”.
In the film The Road to Wellville, Dr. John Harvey Kellogg, the inventor of corn flakes and the electric blanket, is shown telling a group of reporters that he believes he will never die as he prepares to give a diving exhibition. He then jumps and is dead before he hits the water. I don’t know if this is supposed to have really happened.
About 30 years ago, Jacques Cousteau devoted an entire hour show to a self-employed French Coral Diver. This diver (whose name escapes me) was an incredible risk-taker. Since all the coral in his area had been “cleaned out” by other divers, he decided to dive to greater depths where there was plenty of coral.
Why was there plenty of coral at this depth? Well, this guy had to dive to about 200 feet or greater which is very dangerous. (That’s why nobody else did it !!) They said that some parts of this diver’s arms and legs were partially paralyzed due to his having several mild cases of “the bends”.
Another danger he faced was that diving to this depth requires a lot of air in the SCUBA tanks. Due to Boyle’s law, the greater the depth, the more air you will require at that depth AND the more you’ll need to have enough time to decompress on the ascent. In order to get more air in the tanks he “overfilled” them. SCUBA tanks have safety plugs which are supposed to pop if dangerous pressures are reached while they are being refilled. I believe this guy fused these safety plugs to the tank so that they would never pop! (Safety valve? Shmafety valve !!) He showed Jacques Cousteau an old SCUBA tank which did not survive an overfilled pressure. This tank was literally blown inside out ! I believe the diver was nowhere near that tank while it was being “overfilled” or that might have been the end of him.
Since this diver could always find a good supply of coral, he made a very good living for himself. Anyway, in the final minute of the program, Jacques Cousteu sadly announced that this diver had passed away. What happened ? He got into a heated argument with a neighbor concerning a garden hose and the diver ended up being killed by the neighbor !
Truth can be stranger than fiction huh ?
I think this comes close to rivalling the very first posting (read about Bobby Leach).
