# Tragedies that were overshadowed by other tragedies **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [April 21, 2013, 3:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tragedies-that-were-overshadowed-by-other-tragedies/656282 "2013-04-21T03:02:31Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![joebuck20](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/74df32/32.png) [@joebuck20](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/joebuck20)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2013, 3:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tragedies-that-were-overshadowed-by-other-tragedies/656282/1 "2013-04-21T03:02:31Z")
I’m thinking about the explosion in West, Texas, which killed at least 12 people and injured about 200, not to mention leveling a good chunk of the town. Obama did mention it in his news conference last night about the Boston Marathon suspect being caught, but it hasn’t really been getting a lot of media attention compared to the Boston bombing. Another example is the Peshtigo Fire in Wisconsin which occurred the same night as the Great Chicago Fire of 1871, and killed a couple of times as many people. But few people today know about it. So what are some other examples? ---
**Author:** ![billfish678](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7bcc69/32.png) [@billfish678](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/billfish678)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2013, 3:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tragedies-that-were-overshadowed-by-other-tragedies/656282/2 "2013-04-21T03:14:34Z")
Somewhat related but I can’t recall the other posters exact post or place. But they said something to the effect that of “that you know its been a fucked up week when an Elvis impersonator mailing anthrax to the President gets buried in other news stories”. ---
**Author:** ![Alice\_The\_Goon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ed8c4c/32.png) [@Alice\_The\_Goon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alice_The_Goon)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2013, 3:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tragedies-that-were-overshadowed-by-other-tragedies/656282/3 "2013-04-21T03:17:08Z")
In late summer of 2001, the disappearance and presumed murder of Chandra Levy was all over the news, all the time. And then, all of a sudden, it was “Chandra who?” ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2013, 4:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tragedies-that-were-overshadowed-by-other-tragedies/656282/4 "2013-04-21T04:08:44Z")
Didn’t something happen at the same time as the BP oil spill? I was thinking it was the trapped miners, but it looks like that happened right afterwards. The only thing I can think of is that several people were killed on the actual rig, but we spent all our time concentrating on the spill. Was there something else going on somewhere else in the country? An earthquake maybe? ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2013, 4:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tragedies-that-were-overshadowed-by-other-tragedies/656282/5 "2013-04-21T04:35:00Z")
> [@billfish678](#): > > Somewhat related but I can’t recall the other posters exact post or place. > > But they said something to the effect that of “that you know its been a fucked up week when an Elvis impersonator mailing anthrax to the President gets buried in other news stories”. Ricin. Which just goes to show you. Remember when Lady Di died and then a somewhat controversial yet beloved by many people woman in India? ---
**Author:** ![RandMcnally](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b782af/32.png) [@RandMcnally](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RandMcnally)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2013, 5:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tragedies-that-were-overshadowed-by-other-tragedies/656282/6 "2013-04-21T05:14:12Z")
> [@billfish678](#): > > Somewhat related but I can’t recall the other posters exact post or place. > > But they said something to the effect that of “that you know its been a fucked up week when an Elvis impersonator mailing anthrax to the President gets buried in other news stories”. I stole it from a friend. “You know its a fucked up week when a bipolar Elvis impersonator that tries to poison the President is the least interesting story” ---
**Author:** ![StGermain](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stgermain/32/2868_2.png) [@StGermain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StGermain)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2013, 5:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tragedies-that-were-overshadowed-by-other-tragedies/656282/7 "2013-04-21T05:25:47Z")
> [@Joey\_P](#): > > Didn’t something happen at the same time as the BP oil spill? I was thinking it was the trapped miners, but it looks like that happened right afterwards. > > The only thing I can think of is that several people were killed on the actual rig, but we spent all our time concentrating on the spill. Was there something else going on somewhere else in the country? An earthquake maybe? At the same time, [Nashville had a record flood](http://isearch.avg.com/images?s=sideNav&q=nashville+flood+news&sap=dsp&lang=en&mid=44d04fd03d4547d09ec5b5d01b1a301f-0c97eb3fcc716ea2a9439338bd3f8572ccaeafc4&cid=%7BA011DECB-4759-4CB1-8F81-F2BB3449A4A8%7D&v=14.2.0.1&ds=ft011&d=9%2f30%2f2012+3%3a41%3a12+PM&pr=sa&snd=hdr&pid=avg). 28 people were killed. [The news services barely picked it up](http://isearch.avg.com/images?s=sideNav&q=nashville+flood+news&sap=dsp&lang=en&mid=44d04fd03d4547d09ec5b5d01b1a301f-0c97eb3fcc716ea2a9439338bd3f8572ccaeafc4&cid=%7BA011DECB-4759-4CB1-8F81-F2BB3449A4A8%7D&v=14.2.0.1&ds=ft011&d=9%2f30%2f2012+3%3a41%3a12+PM&pr=sa&snd=hdr&pid=avg). That same week there was a bombing attempt in Times Square that didn’t go off. StG ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2013, 5:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tragedies-that-were-overshadowed-by-other-tragedies/656282/8 "2013-04-21T05:43:07Z")
Hardly anyone noted Pat Summerall’s passing. He wasn’t some huge star, but it would have receieved more notice in a different week. Sucks to die on a big news day. I think Farrah Fawcett bit the dust the same day Michael Jackson died. But the worst tragedy which got no attention was the David Hasselhoff concert that was on the same night as OJ’s low speed chase. ---
**Author:** ![joebuck20](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/74df32/32.png) [@joebuck20](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/joebuck20)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2013, 5:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tragedies-that-were-overshadowed-by-other-tragedies/656282/9 "2013-04-21T05:56:52Z")
Right after Sept. 11 there was a [bridge collapse](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queen_Isabella_Causeway) in South Padre Island, Texas. Eight people died, but it barely merited any attention outside Texas. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2013, 6:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tragedies-that-were-overshadowed-by-other-tragedies/656282/10 "2013-04-21T06:40:28Z")
Jonestown Massacre, November 18, 1978. 900+ mass suicides at People’s Temple compound in Guyana. San Francisco Mayor George Moscone, assassinated in his office on November 27, 1978. Big news nationwide, and especially around the Bay Area. Somehow, I’m remembering that the Moscone assassination happened first, and was big news for a week or so, then was eclipsed by the sensational Jonestown story. I’m thinking now that, although Jonestown happened first, it took a while for the news to filter out of the jungle, and a while for anybody to realize what had really happened, before the story took over the news. (Anybody remember that chronology any clearer than I do?) Additional thought: The Jonestown story got really big in the news media a while after the fact, as the bodies were being brought out. This was a process that involved a major recovery expedition, and went on for several days. There were new headlines every day with the latest body counts. I’m thinking that was happening after the Moscone story. ---
**Author:** ![Donnerwetter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b2d939/32.png) [@Donnerwetter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Donnerwetter)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2013, 7:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tragedies-that-were-overshadowed-by-other-tragedies/656282/11 "2013-04-21T07:19:37Z")
The worst mining disaster in German history occurred on Febr. 20th, 1946 in Bergkamen. 405 miners lost their lives, however, the tragedy is largely forgotten, probably because WW II had ended just 9 months before and there were few German media outlets. People had other things on their mind and this was an unusually harsh winter. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2013, 9:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tragedies-that-were-overshadowed-by-other-tragedies/656282/12 "2013-04-21T09:28:01Z")
A classic example is Aldous Huxley and C.S. Lewis both dying on November 22, 1963. Their deaths were completely overshadowed by President Kennedy’s assassination. And Orville Wright died on January 30, 1948, the day Gandhi was assassinated. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2013, 10:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tragedies-that-were-overshadowed-by-other-tragedies/656282/13 "2013-04-21T10:00:38Z")
> [@Donnerwetter](#): > > The worst mining disaster in German history occurred on Febr. 20th, 1946 in Bergkamen. 405 miners lost their lives, however, the tragedy is largely forgotten, probably because WW II had ended just 9 months before and there were few German media outlets. People had other things on their mind and this was an unusually harsh winter. A similar example would be the sinking of the Wilhelm Gustloff. 9400 people died and it was the worst maritime disaster in history. (For comparison, 1532 died on the Titanic.) But the Gustloff was sank by a submarine on January 30, 1945 (it was evacuating Germans from East Prussia). So many other people were dying around the same place and time that the sinking of the ship went almost unnoticed. ---
**Author:** ![Nobody](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/94ad74/32.png) [@Nobody](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nobody)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2013, 10:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tragedies-that-were-overshadowed-by-other-tragedies/656282/14 "2013-04-21T10:22:05Z")
December 11, 2012 - Clackamas Town Center shooting. Two dead and the shooter committed suicide. December 14, 2012 - Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting. 28 deaths and the shooter committed suicide. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2013, 11:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tragedies-that-were-overshadowed-by-other-tragedies/656282/15 "2013-04-21T11:56:06Z")
> [@Alice\_The\_Goon](#): > > In late summer of 2001, the disappearance and presumed murder of Chandra Levy was all over the news, all the time. And then, all of a sudden, it was “Chandra who?” Gary Condit really got screwed over by this. When Levy disappeared there was a lot of speculation that Condit was involved. Then the 9/11 attacks drove the Levy story out of media attention. So what a lot of people never heard was that Levy’s killer was arrested and convicted. It was a mugger named Ingmar Guandique. Condit had been completely innocent all along. But because the story had been dropped most people never heard this and probably have a lingering belief that he was somehow guilty of something. ---
**Author:** ![EmilyG](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/emilyg/32/364_2.png) [@EmilyG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EmilyG)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2013, 12:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tragedies-that-were-overshadowed-by-other-tragedies/656282/16 "2013-04-21T12:06:04Z")
This isn’t a “disaster”, but hardly anyone seems to recognize the anniversary of James Brown’s death, since it happened on Christmas day. ---
**Author:** ![joebuck20](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/74df32/32.png) [@joebuck20](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/joebuck20)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2013, 2:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tragedies-that-were-overshadowed-by-other-tragedies/656282/17 "2013-04-21T14:33:42Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > Gary Condit really got screwed over by this. When Levy disappeared there was a lot of speculation that Condit was involved. Then the 9/11 attacks drove the Levy story out of media attention. > > So what a lot of people never heard was that Levy’s killer was arrested and convicted. It was a mugger named Ingmar Guandique. Condit had been completely innocent all along. But because the story had been dropped most people never heard this and probably have a lingering belief that he was somehow guilty of something. Well, he was guilty of fooling around with her and initially denying it to police. Not on the same level as killing her, of course, but his hands weren’t completely clean here. ---
**Author:** ![Precambrianmollusc](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/precambrianmollusc/32/63_2.png) [@Precambrianmollusc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Precambrianmollusc)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2013, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tragedies-that-were-overshadowed-by-other-tragedies/656282/18 "2013-04-21T15:48:26Z")
> [@Joey\_P](#): > > Didn’t something happen at the same time as the BP oil spill? I was thinking it was the trapped miners, but it looks like that happened right afterwards. > > The only thing I can think of is that several people were killed on the actual rig, but we spent all our time concentrating on the spill. Was there something else going on somewhere else in the country? An earthquake maybe? The Chilean miners in the Copiapo were trapped the day after the Macondo well was capped with the static kill on August 4th. 11 workers were killed on the 20th april and that was in the news a lot but that fell off as the leak carried until the beginning of july when the temporary cap installation largely halted the leak. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2013, 5:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tragedies-that-were-overshadowed-by-other-tragedies/656282/19 "2013-04-22T05:12:38Z")
> [@joebuck20](#): > > Well, he [Gary Condit] was guilty of fooling around with her [Chandra Levy] and initially denying it to police. Not on the same level as killing her, of course, but his hands weren’t completely clean here. There was more to the story, for those who were paying attention. (I live in Condit’s district, but I didn’t back then.) Levy had been a campaign worker for Condit back in their home district, so they knew each other from there. He was having an affair with her. But he was also going to extensive (some would say extreme) contrived lengths to keep hidden the fact that he was catting around. He had been one of the first (THE first?) of the conservative Blue Dog Democrats to call on Clinton to fess up during the “Monicagate” scandal. He refused to step into an elevator with a female worker, to “prove” he was never up to something. All the usual sorts of holier-and-above-reproach overly self-righteous kind of stuff. But there was another side too: All the sensational news stories said he was playing around with one of his staff assistants. SHE WASN’T WORKING IN CONDIT’S OFFICE! She was an assistant in some office at the Pentagon. Condit no doubt got her the job there, as a typical patronage thing. But she wasn’t working for him in his office. And wasn’t it a long long time later (like, a year or more) that Guandique got arrested for it? Condit did get screwed over by that affair, but I guess he mostly had it coming. ---
**Author:** ![Accidental\_Martyr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ce7236/32.png) [@Accidental\_Martyr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Accidental_Martyr)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2013, 6:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tragedies-that-were-overshadowed-by-other-tragedies/656282/20 "2013-04-22T06:35:51Z")
Thirteen miners died in an explosion in Brookwood, Alabama on September 23, 2001. It didn’t get much coverage outside of the local area. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tragedies-that-were-overshadowed-by-other-tragedies/656282.md?page=2)