# This is a crappy list of "bizarre" celebrity deaths - we can do better! **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 6, 2013, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-is-a-crappy-list-of-bizarre-celebrity-deaths-we-can-do-better/662795 "2013-07-06T16:49:24Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 11
**Author:** ![Malthus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@Malthus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malthus)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2013, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-is-a-crappy-list-of-bizarre-celebrity-deaths-we-can-do-better/662795/201 "2013-07-18T15:07:09Z")
> [@aruvqan](#): > > Makes me wonder exactly how much of Jeremy Bentham is inside that wax shell … remember that poor woman in Florida? She got preserved and wax coated by someone who was much less talented as an artist and his wax effort looked horrific. > > [article,](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Tanzler) not really a grody picture. > > [grody pictures](http://www.angelfire.com/magic/scotlass/voncosel.html), really, don’t click if you are grossed out. Oh, man, the details in the second article … ! :eek: ---
**Author:** ![Tess](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e480ec/32.png) [@Tess](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tess)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2013, 1:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-is-a-crappy-list-of-bizarre-celebrity-deaths-we-can-do-better/662795/202 "2013-07-19T01:55:53Z")
After surviving World War II, General Patton was considering taking retirement after his upcoming Christmas leave. Two days before that leave was supposed to start, he was in a low-speed auto accident. Everyone else apparently walked away unharmed, but Patton hit his head, causing dislocated and compressed vertebrae. He was paralyzed and died about two weeks later. ---
**Author:** ![Celyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9dc877/32.png) [@Celyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Celyn)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2013, 4:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-is-a-crappy-list-of-bizarre-celebrity-deaths-we-can-do-better/662795/203 "2013-07-19T04:46:35Z")
> [@ralph124c](#): > > While strange this is, the fate of Thomas Paine (American Revolutionary theorist) is even stranger. After his death and burial. his remains (bones) were gathered up, and placed in a closet for safekeeping. > They later vanished. There’s an interesting book about the quest for Tom Paine’s bones: _The Trouble With Tom: The Strange Afterlife and Times of Thomas Paine_ by Paul Collins, published by Bloomsbury in 2006. > **[Observer review: The Trouble With Tom by Paul Collins](https://www.theguardian.com/books/2006/feb/12/biography.features1)** > > Tom Paine's dismembered cadaver is the unlikely starting point for Paul Collins's ingenious life of the great libertarian, The Trouble With Tom, says Alex Butterworth. No, nobody finds Tom Paine, but it’s a really good read. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2013, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-is-a-crappy-list-of-bizarre-celebrity-deaths-we-can-do-better/662795/204 "2013-07-19T15:51:04Z")
> [@Shodan](#): > > IIRC the ex-con she hired killed her when she wouldn’t reveal the stash of gold coins they thought she had. > > She was notoriously abusive, and hired ex-cons because they would put up with it in order to stay employed. > > Regards, > Shodan Her son and granddaughter too. Interestingly, even though they were such prominent citizens, their disappearance was basically ignored for about a year. The gold coins were kept in a storage locker, and were stolen by some people who were looking for TVs and scrap metal. They were caught, because they were flashing their loot, but I have never found out what happened to them. I too read that the American Atheist center’s staffers were pretty much the only people who were willing to work for minimum wage, no benefits, and an abusive boss. Most people who donated money, often large sums of it, to the center did not know this. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2013, 2:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-is-a-crappy-list-of-bizarre-celebrity-deaths-we-can-do-better/662795/205 "2013-07-20T02:29:31Z")
Next weekend, the Quad Cities will have the Bix Festival, in celebration of the life of jazz cornetist Bix Beiderbecke (1903-1931), a man who narrowly missed being the first member of Club 27. His official cause of death was pneumonia, but it’s common knowledge that he was a severe alcoholic and many people believe that was the main reason why he died. ---
**Author:** ![Superdude](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/superdude/32/13450_2.png) [@Superdude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superdude)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2013, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-is-a-crappy-list-of-bizarre-celebrity-deaths-we-can-do-better/662795/206 "2013-07-21T19:01:55Z")
Chris Henry, a professional football player, died after striking his head on the pavement. He was standing in the back of a pick-up truck, arguing with his girlfriend, when the vehicle’s inertia caused him to fall. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Miskatonic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mr.miskatonic/32/310_2.png) [@Mr.Miskatonic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Miskatonic)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2013, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-is-a-crappy-list-of-bizarre-celebrity-deaths-we-can-do-better/662795/207 "2013-07-21T19:32:10Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > Important story point: Someone (I think it was JD LaRue) suspected that Howard was contemplating suicide because of a scandal that had come to light and substituted blanks for his live rounds while he was in the showers at the station. (Howard apparently never bothered to check his pistol and couldn’t tell its difference in weight.) > > Hexum may have gotten the wrong impression from that rather dumb episode. Yes indeed, a blank round is powerful enough to kill you, especially if the gun is pointing at your head! HST was hardly unique in this display, and at least they showed powder burns. Most movies and shows tended to show blanks as completely harmless. Two examples come right to mind (but there are probably hundreds): Repo Man where Lite fires a blank loaded gun at Otto’s feet to demonstrate that he is using blanks. Its probably far enough away to avoid harm but close enough that Otto’s shoes would be warm Another would be a movie based on Muhammad Ali that actually had Ali playing himself. In once scene Ali and his buddies harass George Foreman at a fancy dinner and give him all kinds of grief until he pulls out a pistol and fires it in the air. Ali & co flee and to demonstrate that it is harmless the fires the gun into his chest which would be potentially lethal or at least would burn his Tux. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Miskatonic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mr.miskatonic/32/310_2.png) [@Mr.Miskatonic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Miskatonic)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2013, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-is-a-crappy-list-of-bizarre-celebrity-deaths-we-can-do-better/662795/208 "2013-07-21T19:38:41Z")
While not strange, [Redd Foxx](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Redd_Foxx)’s death by heart attack had at least a small delay in treatment since faking heart attacks was such a part of his TV act. Most folks thought he was hamming it up. The delay probably did not delay treatment critically , however. ---
**Author:** ![TBG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c89c15/32.png) [@TBG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TBG)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2013, 12:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-is-a-crappy-list-of-bizarre-celebrity-deaths-we-can-do-better/662795/209 "2013-07-22T00:28:27Z")
Jayne Mansfield reportedly was decapitated in a car vs truck accident, but apparently that’s not the case. Not that having a crushed skull isn’t terrible enough, but I guess not nearly as bizarre. Maybe slightly bizarre is that while the three adults in the car were killed, three of her children (including Mariska Hargitay, from one of those Law and Order spinoffs) were in the car and survived. The incident is why trailers now have that bar hanging down in the back so in event of an accident the front of the car gets smashed instead of the roof (and passengers’ heads). > [@Annie-Xmas](#): > > Tragically, it appeared that [Eva Peron’s] body had been damaged during its transport and storage, such as compressions to her face and disfigurement of one of her feet due to the body having been left in an upright position. Tragically? What’s so tragic about a corpse being damaged over a decade after the person dies? These things are supposed to rot away and turn to dust, after all. Also, it appears the bulk of your post comes verbatim from wikipedia, without mentioning that fact. Unless you also wrote those sections (and for all I know you did, and if so I apologize in advance), you’re plagiarizing. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-is-a-crappy-list-of-bizarre-celebrity-deaths-we-can-do-better/662795.md?page=10)