Let’s just say that that is far too unclear to be listed as a fact.
Randy California – guitarist for Spirit – died while rescuing his son (successfully) from a riptide. He was unable to escape it, and drowned.
Doug Kenney – founder of The National Lampoon and screenwriter for Animal House and Caddyshack – died after he fell off a cliff in Hawaii.
Vivian Stanshall of the Bonzo Dog Band died in an apartment fire. He may have been too drunk to realize what was happening.
A bizarre coincidence: Roger Bowen, who played Col. Henry Blake in the movie version of MAS*H and McLean Stevenson, who played the role on TV, died within 24 hours of each other. The news of Bowen’s death was not released to the media for a week, to avoid people confusing them. Both men died of heart attacks.
The way I read it, the jury of Roscoe’s last trial issued him a written apology, something I don’t think they would have done if they thought he was, um, culpable in any way.
The original lead singer of Norwegian black metal band Mayhem (ironically named “Dead”) killed himself with a shotgun blast to the head. What makes his death bizarre is that his creepy bandmates rearranged the body and took photographs (one of which famously ended up on a bootleg live album), crafted jewelry out of his skull fragments, and reportedly (though it was never proven) ate portions of his brain.
Jeff Porcaro, famous session drummer for Toto, Steely Dan, and countless other bands, fell ill and died shortly after spraying insecticide at his home. However, his official cause of death was attributed to cocaine intoxication, thus robbing him of the distinction of dying in a bizarre gardening accident.
Film director Alan J. Pakula died in a freak car accident – another vehicle kicked up a large chunk of metal, which smashed through his windshield and killed him instantly.
French president Felix Faure died while in the middle of some sex act with a much younger woman. There are many rumors as to what it might be, though a blowjob seems the most common explanation.
And speaking of the Rockefellers, Michael Rockefeller - youngest son of Nelson - disappeared while on an anthropological expedition in Papua, Indonesia, never to be heard or seen again. There is some speculation that he was eaten by cannibals. Barbara Olsen was a right-wing political talking head (basically Ann Coulter) who was killed in the 9/11 attacks. She was a passenger on AA Flight 77 that crashed into the Pentagon. She was on her way to California to appear on Bill Maher’s politically incorrect TV show at the time. During the episodes she was to appear on, Maher and the producers left the chair she would have occupied vacant as a memorial to her.