50 Grim and Bizarre Deaths That Defy Belief – Part 3

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Death is the one certainty in life, but sometimes, the way it arrives is anything but ordinary. Throughout history, there have been countless tales of people meeting their end in ways so strange, so grim, and so utterly bizarre that they seem almost unbelievable. From freak accidents to ironic twists of fate, these stories remind us that the end can come in the most unexpected forms.

In this article, we delve into 50 of the most bizarre and grim deaths ever recorded—each one a chilling testament to life’s unpredictability. Some will shock you, others might leave you shaking your head, but all of them will linger in your mind long after you’ve read them.

Click here to read Part 1 and Part 2 of this article.

1 Fatal Spaghetti and Bacteria

Fatal Spaghetti and Bacteria

In 2008, a 20-year-old Belgian student died after reheating and eating leftover spaghetti that had been left out on the kitchen counter for five days. The culprit was Bacillus cereus, a bacterium known for causing an extreme type of food poisoning called “Fried Rice Syndrome.”


2. Jón Páll Sigmarsson, a four-time World’s Strongest Man winner, famously declared, “There is no reason to be alive if you can’t do deadlift!” Tragically, he died at age 32 while deadlifting in his gym.


3. During a screening of A Fish Called Wanda, Danish audiologist Ole Bentzen died from heart fibrillation. His heart rate had spiked due to extended laughter, leading newspapers to report that he had “died laughing.” Although writer John Cleese considered using the incident for publicity, he ultimately decided it would be inappropriate.


4. In 2015, Devon Staples-who once worked at Disney World, portraying characters like Gaston and Goofy-died instantly while celebrating the Fourth of July with friends. He tragically attempted to launch a firework off his head, resulting in his immediate death.


5. Robert Shaw, best known for playing Quint in Jaws, died at age 51 while traveling with his wife and son in Ireland. After suddenly feeling ill, he stopped the car, stepped outside, and collapsed on the roadside.


6 Lighthouse Collapse Claims Builder

Lighthouse Collapse Claims Builder

Henry Winstanley, an English engineer who built and took great pride in his lighthouse, insisted on being inside it during “the greatest storm there ever was” to prove its strength. However, the Great Storm of 1703 completely destroyed the lighthouse, trapping Winstanley inside.


7. Sylvester Graham-known for creating the Graham Cracker and advocating for clean eating, vegetarianism, and abstinence from alcohol, meat, and even white bread-died at age 57. Ironically, his death resulted from complications following an opium enema.


8. Between 1997 and 2007, 31 young people tragically died after digging holes in beach sand. The holes collapsed, burying and suffocating them before they could be rescued.


9. Japanese actor Band? Mitsugor? VIII claimed immunity to fugu kimo, the naturally toxic liver of the pufferfish. Defying warnings, he ate four portions in a Kyoto restaurant in 1975. Unfortunately, he died just eight hours later.


10. Amy Carlson, a cult leader who claimed to be God and asserted she had lived past lives as Cleopatra, Jesus, and Harriet Tubman, died in 2021. She also believed she communicated with a council of alien celebrities, including Robin Williams, Tupac, and Carol Burnett. Although she eventually pleaded, “Take me to the hospital,” her cult members refused. Authorities later discovered her mummified body in a makeshift shrine-wrapped in Christmas lights, covered in glitter, missing eyes, and placed in a sleeping bag. The state of decay suggested she had been dead for several weeks.


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11 Hair-Eating Syndrome Turns Fatal

Hair-Eating Syndrome Turns Fatal

In 2017, a 16-year-old girl in the United Kingdom died from complications caused by “Rapunzel Syndrome,” a rare condition involving the compulsive eating of one’s own hair.


12. In 2017, authorities sentenced a wealthy stock trader after a man he hired to dig a secret tunnel to a nuclear bunker died a fiery death. To maintain secrecy, the trader made the man wear blackout glasses, spoofed the Wi-Fi signal, and lowered a bucket for him to relieve himself, keeping him underground for days at a time.


13. Alexander the Great had a Hindu guru who accompanied his army on their return to Persia. After the guru died by self-immolation, the army held a drinking contest in his honor. Tragically, 42 participants died from alcohol poisoning, including the winner, who consumed 13 liters of unmixed wine.


14. In 2022, 68-year-old Maya Murmu was collecting water in India when an elephant attacked and trampled her. She was rushed to the hospital but succumbed to her injuries. Later, during her funeral, a herd of elephants appeared, and one lifted Murmu’s body and threw it into the air.


15. In 1962, a 10-year-old boy in Mexico City discovered a radioactive capsule and unknowingly brought it home, keeping it in a kitchen cabinet. He died 38 days later. His pregnant mother passed away three months after, followed by his two-year-old sister a month later. The father survived, leading authorities to finally uncover the radioactive source.


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16 Color Powder Party Disaster

Color Powder Party Disaster

In 2015, 17 people died and 497 were injured at a water park concert in New Taipei. Organizers held a “color powder party,” but the cloud of colored cornstarch ignited after being fired into the crowd. The resulting fire, caused by deflagration, lasted only 40 seconds but caused devastating harm.


17. In 2019, Karanbir Cheema, a 13-year-old boy allergic to cheese, tragically died in London after a classmate threw a piece of cheese at him.


18. Mike Hughes, a well-known flat-earther, died in 2019 after crash-landing a homemade rocket in the Californian desert. He had built the rocket to prove that the Earth is flat.


19. Zachary Taylor, the 12th President of the United States, died from what was believed to be a cherry overdose. On July 4, 1850, he consumed excessive amounts of cherries and iced milk, which led to his death from cholera morbus.


20. In 2011, Fagilyu Mukhametzyanov collapsed at home from a heart attack and was declared dead. However, days later, she woke up during her own funeral. Horrified to find herself in a casket surrounded by mourners, she screamed and was rushed to the hospital-only to die again 12 minutes later from heart failure.


15 Most Controversial & Costly Blunders in History


21 Epoxy Resin Contraception Tragedy

Epoxy Resin Contraception Tragedy

In 2019, Salman Mirza and his ex-girlfriend, lacking a condom, used epoxy resin as a makeshift seal. His friends later found him unconscious and rushed him to the hospital, where he died from multiple organ failures caused by the faux condom.


22. In 1559, King Henry II of France participated in a jousting tournament to celebrate his daughter’s marriage. A lance splintered on his helmet, driving wood into his eye and brain. He died ten days later, and his death contributed to the decline of jousting in France.


23. In 2011, a Russian would-be suicide bomber died when her mobile phone detonator was accidentally triggered by a spam message wishing her a happy New Year.


24. In 1983, a 23-year-old UK woman died after consuming what is still considered the largest meal ever recorded. She ate 19 pounds of food in just four hours.


25. In 1845, 79 people died in a tragic bridge collapse in England after a large crowd gathered to watch a clown being pulled up a river in a bathtub by four geese.


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22 COMMENTS

  1. RE: Fact #13 (Drinking Contest Turns Deadly) – This is exactly the kind of thing I’d love to see as a high-quality TV series. Imagine a Boardwalk Empire style show about Alexander the Great’s life, season after season. Wow.

    12
  2. RE: Fact #39 (Prophecy Fulfilled by Latrine Death) – A slave hauled his dead body out of the loon at noon. Earlier, he’d dreamt of carrying his master to heaven. So, they buried the slave with the king. Talk about a bad dream.

    13
  3. RE: Fact #41 (Rooster Accidentally Kills Officer) – Seriously, a party over a huge pile of crap, held up by flimsy wood? That’s insane! It’s like something straight out of a cartoon.

    5
    • It wasn’t a party, more like a royal showdown to settle a beef. The place was crammed, not exactly built for a crowd, but hey, if you’re a bigwig or someone important locally, you’re not gonna miss seeing the king – future emperor, even!

      And if I remember right, the cesspit wasn’t directly below them; they were a floor higher.

      3
  4. RE: Fact #10 (Cult Leader’s Mummified Demise) – She said she had cancer, but it was probably the colloidal silver (that she drank for health) and anorexia that killed her. They found her – super skinny, purple, eyes gone, and all wrapped up in a sleeping bag with Christmas lights on it.

    9
  5. RE: Fact #16 (Color Powder Party Disaster) – Two guys killed themselves after the event—one was the dad of a kid who’d been burned, and the other wanted to donate his skin to the victims before he died.

    11
  6. RE: Fact #23 (Spam Message Detonates Bomber) – It’s not hard to write a quick program to check the number, but they probably weren’t worried about spam calls.

    12
    • What code? Probably just hooked the detonator right to the phone’s vibrate thingy – easiest way to do it.

      5
  7. RE: Fact #31 (Rocket Strike Causes Cremation Explosion) – So, why’d they think lightning got him? Seems like he died at home, wouldn’t there be tons of evidence of a lightning strike? Plus, didn’t they see any blood from the wound?

    7
    • Wang Diange was at a wake at home when a boom blew half his roof off, killing him. Since it was stormy, his family and the cops figured lightning did it.

      2
    • Life in rural China is really rough; it’s like a third-world country. Lots of young people head to the cities to try and make something of themselves, while those who stay behind live simple farming lives.

      2
  8. RE: Fact #37 (Jean-Baptiste Lully ) – Some composers died in really weird ways. Like Charles Valentin Alkan, who wrote crazy-hard piano pieces—he got squashed! People first thought a bookshelf fell on him, but a letter showed it was actually a coat rack. And then there’s Anton Webern, the serialist composer. He was shot by a US soldier in Austria because he was outside after curfew, smoking a cigar.

    9
  9. RE: Fact #50 (Dance Camp’s Atomic Fallout Tragedy) – My uncle was with the Army troops sent to Ground Zero after one of those tests. He died of leukemia at 50, and the Army said it wasn’t their fault.

    9
    • I’m not real clear on the tests, but did the army just decide to experiment on its own soldiers? That’s awful, I’m so sorry about your uncle.

      2
    • My grandpa was at Bikini Atoll during the bomb tests. He got brain cancer in the 80s. Later, there was a compensation program, but you needed all sorts of military paperwork. My mom gave everything to my brother, a Navy guy, to keep safe. His house burned down, and poof—gone.

      1
  10. RE: Fact #50 (Dance Camp’s Atomic Fallout Tragedy) – I think there was a small town in New Mexico, maybe 80 miles from the testing site. When the bomb exploded, the people there saw it and thought the world was ending.

    17
    • There’s still a town dealing with the fallout.

      The downwinders are a really important group to learn about when considering the effects.

      The Navajo Nation and Gallup are still hurting because of that huge radioactive spill—the third biggest ever.

      1
    • My great-grandpa was a barber near Alamogordo when they tested the bombs. He said it was like dawn, then the brightest white light imaginable. Crazy thing is, he lived to be almost 90, but died of lung cancer—never smoked a day in his life, but got it all secondhand from cutting the soldiers’ hair.

      2
      • Getting cancer in your 90s seems to happen regardless of how healthy you’ve lived. It’s just bad luck sometimes, after so many years, things can go wrong. I’ve seen it happen to people in their 70s, 80s, and 90s—no bad habits, just age. That sucks. Cancer is awful.

        0
    • The article mentions some whispers that she might have been with a bunch of poachers who killed the baby elephant. Apparently, it walked a hundred miles to get revenge.

      11
      • The article says people online guessed she was in some poaching group. That’s about the worst kind of reporting I’ve ever seen in a newspaper.

        1
  11. RE: Fact #48 (Excessive Soda Consumption Death) – Her teeth were without enamel, probably from all that Coke she drank.

    14
    • Her mother-in-law said that if she ran out, she’d get really shaky and irritable, basically have a total meltdown. Ms. Harris drank Coke all day, every day, and lost her teeth because of it.

      3
      • She’d get the jitters, be all grumpy and irritable, basically. Probably caffeine withdrawal. That stuff’s brutal once you hit a gram a day. I even thought about kicking the bucket when I quit.

        2
      • Man, my teeth aren’t the best, but I can’t believe someone would say *all* my teeth need pulling out because of my cola habit.

        1
  12. RE: Fact #32 (Man Dies Inside Dinosaur Statue) – There is a wiki list of seriously bizarre deaths. Some of those people were just incredibly unlucky—not like they were asking for it or anything. Imagine: going fishing, getting attacked by bees, jumping in a lake to get away, and then drowning and getting eaten by piranhas!

    10
  13. RE: Fact #11 (Hair-Eating Syndrome Turns Fatal) – Gross, picture a giant hairball stuck in your gut. That’s gotta hurt and not move easily.

    8
    • It just sits there, getting bigger and bigger until it’s so huge that anything the cat eats comes right back up. Like, if it drinks a whole litre of water, it throws up a whole litre. I worked in an operating theatre once, and we had to take out one of these from a kid. It took a bunch of the strongest nurses and doctors working together to pull it out! The thing was as thick and long as my forearm.

      4
  14. RE: Fact #32 (Man Dies Inside Dinosaur Statue) – There was guy in Brazil was fishing with buddies when they got attacked by a swarm of bees. They jumped in a lake to get away, but he drowned and some piranhas got to him. His friends made it out okay.

    5
    • Seriously, piranhas aren’t as scary as people think. That guy probably drowned first; the piranhas just cleaned up afterward.

      The whole “killer piranha” thing started when Theodore Roosevelt was in Brazil. The locals rigged a show for him—they kept a bunch of piranhas hungry, then threw a cow in with them so Roosevelt could watch the frenzy.

      Basically, unless you’re dealing with a whole bunch of starved piranhas, you’ve got nothing to worry about beyond a few nips.

      0
  15. RE: Fact #43 (Fishcake Burns Cause Fatal Asphyxiation) – Sounds like the hospital messed up; they sent him home with painkillers, and he suffocated from the swelling back at his place.

    10
    • English hospitals are in a really bad way right now. Funding per person is the lowest it’s ever been, and the government’s just not investing enough in healthcare – it’s shameful.

      10
      • It’s a deliberate plan. The idea is to let the system weaken, then use the bad results to push for complete privatization.

        0
    • My dad went home with vertigo pills three times before a doctor finally ran a test and discovered he’d had a stroke. Early diagnosis would have really helped. Don’t try to self-diagnose – if something feels seriously wrong, push for tests or get another opinion.

      3
      • My uncle died of cancer. They could have treated it if they’d found it sooner. He was at the hospital, should’ve had a scan, but they put it off. By the time they noticed, it was too late – he only had a month, and passed away a week after that.

        3
    • The pathologist who examined Hickey said it was a super rare case. Hickey’s symptoms usually only show up in people who’ve breathed in smoke from house fires. He said the guy could seem fine, chatting away, then suddenly the swelling would start. The pathologist didn’t find anything wrong with the hospital’s care. It’s crazy hard to believe, but this type of injury is extremely unusual—there’s no way the doctor could have predicted it.

      3
    • I was chatting with a friend the other day, and we were talking about how crazy being a doctor back then must have been. Like, someone’s coughing? “Let’s just remove a lung!” Oh, they died? “Guess that was God’s plan.”

      3
    • He probably died from epiglottitis or maybe a peritonsillar abscess—both can kill you if you don’t get help. That sore throat was likely the culprit, and bloodletting definitely didn’t make things better.

      0
      • Epiglottitis is super rare these days, mostly because we have a vaccine for the bacteria that causes it.

        Back in Washington’s time, a peritonsillar abscess could easily kill you. Nowadays, we can treat the strep infection that usually causes them with antibiotics.

        0
  16. RE: Fact #21 (Epoxy Resin Contraception Tragedy) – Yeah, I know people say pullout’s risky, but it seemed like his best bet given the situation.

    6
  17. RE: Fact #15 (Radioactive Capsule Causes Deaths) – This reminds me of a crazy story: A container of Caesium-137 went missing from a sand quarry, wound up in an apartment building’s wall, and several people who lived there died because of it.

    8
    • A bunch of cobalt-60 wound up in a junkyard. Foundries melted it down with other stuff, making around 6,000 tons of contaminated rebar. They found out about it when a truckload accidentally drove into Los Alamos National Lab and triggered the radiation alarms.

      1
    • As a kid, I really wanted to drive a school bus, just like my Aunt Linda. She’d even let me hang out at the bus depot sometimes when I missed school, treating me to super-hot chocolate. But then I saw this wall of crazy, wrecked school bus pictures – seriously messed me up! No more bus driver dreams after that. Those pictures still pop into my head now and then.

      4
    • Yeah, me too. After that crash, bus drivers started stopping before the tracks and opening the doors to listen for trains.

      I recall a couple of kids who thought it’d be funny to make train noises. The driver wasn’t amused and took them straight back to school to see the principal. I think they got a week’s suspension from the bus.

      Edit: Oops, my bad. I talked to my brother about this after reading some responses. The stops at the crossings were already happening, but opening the doors was new after our school’s incident. I learned that our *original* bus driver never stopped at crossings, which is why he was fired a week after the accident—someone reported him. The driver who turned the bus around was the new guy.

      0
  18. RE: Fact #6 (Lighthouse Collapse Claims Builder) – So, in June 1697, Britain and France were fighting, right? A warship was guarding the workers on the reef, but the Plymouth commissioner, this guy St Lo, pulled it away to join the navy—no replacement. A French privateer wrecked the work and even kidnapped Winstanley! But King Louis XIV let him go, saying something like, “We’re at war with England, not with people.” Winstanley went back, they finished building, and the first Eddystone Lighthouse was done by November 1698.

    16
    • Seriously, what’s the point of capturing some random lighthouse keeper? Did they think he knew top-secret lighthouse-building techniques? It’s like, “Hey Captain! We nabbed this guy building a lighthouse all by himself – no guards! Let’s grill him about lighthouse secrets!”

      0
      • It’s probably a ransom.

        Privateers are like pirates, but they’re officially sanctioned by the king – they get to keep some of the treasure in exchange for their service.

        Building lighthouses is a big deal, it takes a lot of money and skill. Lighthouse builders are either rich, or someone rich values them. If I snatch him, maybe I can get a payoff. Cha-ching.

        0
  19. RE: Fact #30 (Writer Dies by Starvation) – “This guy’s refusing to eat – what’s the plan?” “Ever try shoving a bar of soap up his butt?”

    15
  20. RE: Fact #29 (Couple Dies During Car Sex) – That article’s crazy! Check this out: A 35-year-old guy died in Malawi back in 2020 after having sex with a prostitute. The police and a doctor said he died from too many orgasms, which burst blood vessels in his brain. They let the sex worker go because they said she didn’t do anything wrong.

    7
    • My friend was married for ages, things were great between them, and she actually enjoyed their spontaneous nighttime sex. Then, one time, he had a heart attack right after—during, you know. They never talked about it.

      1
  21. RE: Fact #11 (Hair-Eating Syndrome Turns Fatal) – That hairball thing? It’s called a bezoar, but unlike the goat kind, it won’t fix most poisons.

    7
    • The Sandman intro mentions it – definitely in the comics, I’m not sure about the show though. Crazy what you pick up from pop culture!

      7
  22. RE: Fact #15 (Radioactive Capsule Causes Deaths) – Our local vet clinic had an old, busted X-ray machine they couldn’t get rid of ages ago. They just left it outside, and poof—it disappeared. I figured something like that would happen sooner or later.

    2
    • Deadlifting can be rough on your heart, apparently. A Yale study found that intense weightlifting can be dangerous for some people, even deadly. They’ve seen a bunch of cases where people, often younger and healthy, tore their aorta after heavy lifting. A lot of these folks had an enlarged aorta they didn’t know about. The study suggests the pressure from heavy lifting caused the tear. So, if you’re planning on lifting really heavy weights, maybe get checked out first.

      2
  23. RE: Fact #6 (Lighthouse Collapse Claims Builder) – The trouble is, we always name these storms afterward. Wouldn’t it be better to call “The Great Storm of 1703” way back in 1690s and give folks a heads-up?

    6
  24. RE: Fact #37 (Jean-Baptiste Lully ) – That’s a bummer of a story. In 1687, Jean-Baptiste Lully, while conducting a Te Deum, accidentally whacked himself in the foot with his baton. The injury got really bad, but he wouldn’t let them amputate his leg—said he’d rather die than not be able to dance anymore. The infection spread, and he died a couple of months later. Later on, he was even called the “Prince of French musicians”! There’s a bit in the movie *Le Roi Danse* that shows how he died.

    6
  25. RE: Fact #42 (Fatal Pet Cassowary Attack) – Florida man, or just plain clueless about keeping a half-dinosaur as a pet?

    5
    • A 75-year-old Florida man who raised a cassowary got killed by it in April 2019. He apparently fell, and the bird attacked him.

      3
  26. RE: Fact #22 (Jousting Accident Kills King) – It’s kinda like why dueling died out. Too many young officers were getting killed over stupid arguments, and nobody wants their kids to die, so it just stopped being a thing.

    0
    • Pistols got a lot better at hitting their target once they started using rifled barrels and shaped bullets. Before that, with those old flintlocks and round balls, you couldn’t hit the side of a barn.

      0
    • Governments tried to ban it, but it just died out on its own. People finally realized it was silly to die for “honor”.

      2
  27. RE: Fact #26 (Knife Accident During Car Crash) – That’s a weird circular thing. If he hadn’t been messing around with that protein powder and a knife, he wouldn’t have crashed, but then again, he wouldn’t have been in the car in the first place.

    1
  28. RE: Fact #5 (Jaws Actor’s Sudden Passing) – Seriously, I had no idea Quint was only in his forties! He totally nailed that ancient sailor vibe. Amazing acting.

    7
  29. RE: Fact #19 (President’s Fatal Cherry Overdose) – The problem wasn’t so much *what* he ate, but *where* he ate it – a city picnic with exposed sewage. Milk and cherries are fine, but not with a side of poop.

    14
  30. RE: Fact #19 (President’s Fatal Cherry Overdose) – Skip the extra click – cholera morbus was just a catch-all term for stomach problems back then. Nobody knows for sure what killed him.

    3
      • Ever eaten a ton of cherries? They’ll really mess you up, it’s like eating a whole bunch of prunes. Been there, done that, way too many times.

        5
  31. RE: Fact #20 (Woman Dies Twice at Funeral) – I’m curious if they had to issue a new death certificate for her.

    11
  32. RE: Fact #33 (Bonfire Collapse Kills Students) – Man, this’ll probably get buried, but my buddy Chad Powell from high school was one of the victims. He was such an awesome guy—church friend, valedictorian, super smart and ambitious, and just a really kind, fun person. He had his whole life ahead of him.

    Hearing the news in college really hit me hard. I still think about him and his family every year, especially around bonfire time, and whereever the story pops up.

    I always like to share his story when it comes up because he deserves to be remembered. Crazy to think it’s been that long ago.

    Sending love to his family and friends.

    3
    • I knew Chris Breen. He graduated in ’97 and died in the collapse. We worked together one summer, but I knew him for a few years before that. I feel the same way you do—he was a great guy, and I mention him so people remember him.

      2
  33. RE: Fact #26 (Knife Accident During Car Crash) – So many bizarre choices led to that awful conclusion. And to top it off, he even borrowed his friend’s toe knife!

    1
    • Burning to death takes way longer than you’d think—around 45 minutes on average, regardless of how long the fire itself lasts. That’s terrifying, huh?

      2
    • I saw the video. It was straight out of Dante’s Inferno, like, actual hell.

      If you don’t want to see it:

      At first, nothing much. Just techno music and flashing lights. People dancing, having fun. Then you hear the whoosh of those air cannons shooting out colored powder. Bright colors, pretty cool.

      Then, fire starts on the left, and boom, the whole dance floor’s on fire.

      Blurry orange figures heading for the exits. Everything’s burning. You can’t even see a background, it’s just fire. The air itself is on fire. Engulfed doesn’t even begin to cover it; they’re drowning in flames. Weirdly, they’re not running around frantically, just walking quickly toward the exits, like they’re in a hurry, not being burned alive. The cameraman’s totally freaked out—he doesn’t speak English, but he keeps saying “Whoa,” so you get the idea. The music’s still playing, almost drowned out by screams.

      2
  34. RE: Fact #3 (Death by Excessive Laughter) – Michael Palin Centre for Stammering is actually a real thing, helping people in the UK.

    12
    • Scatman John’s famous song “Scatman” was actually about his stutter. It’s pretty weird, but lots of people find they can’t stutter when they sing.

      9
  35. RE: Fact #35 (Bus Stopped on Train Tracks) – I remember this one time, my bus driver backed right onto the train tracks after picking me and my mom up – it was crazy! No lights, no signs, and the driver couldn’t even see if a train was coming because of all the plants. My mom even used old railroad ties to block the road, but the driver had us kids move them so she could back up! She didn’t drive that route again after my mom called the school.

    0
  36. RE: Fact #18 (Flat-Earther Dies Testing Theory) – He died doing his thing, even though he clearly didn’t know much science.

    4
    • Seriously, I can’t wrap my head around flat-earthers. Check out the Netflix doc “Behind the Curve”—they totally disprove themselves, and still believe they’re right!

      0
  37. RE: Fact #30 (Writer Dies by Starvation) – The story goes that he met some whacko priest who convinced him he was a terrible sinner, so he burned his masterpiece and starved himself to try and atone. But some think he actually had pancreatic cancer. It’s tricky, though, because he was a total nervous wreck his whole life—hard to say what was real and what was all in his head. He might even have been a bit crazy, too.

    1
  38. RE: Fact #4 (Firework Stunt Turns Fatal) – He wasn’t rushed to the hospital.

    When I got there, Devon was gone, Cody said.

    Man, that must have been intense.

    2
  39. RE: Fact #35 (Bus Stopped on Train Tracks) – I drove a bus there about five years ago. They showed us a film – this woman pulls up, car’s blocking her, she can’t go anywhere. They basically said, “You’re on a bus, move the cars. Don’t stop near the tracks, period. It’s the company’s problem if there’s damage. You’re driving kids!” I’ll never forget them telling us to just shove other cars aside.

    2
    • Tons of videos show people blocking train tracks with their cars—because another car’s in the way, or something equally dumb. It’s either panic, plain stupidity, or who knows what, but some drivers are seriously clueless around trains.

      0
  40. RE: Fact #18 (Flat-Earther Dies Testing Theory) – He aimed for 5000 feet, and dropped $18,000 on it? Seriously, aren’t there things that go way higher for practically nothing?

    1
    • You can’t really control that stuff. Maybe they’re using trick lenses or showing you a fake version on super-high-def screens.

      0
  41. RE: Fact #8 (Fatal Beach Sand Collapses) – My friend’s little brother died this way in their backyard when we were in middle school. Brutal.

    13
  42. RE: Fact #15 (Radioactive Capsule Causes Deaths) – In one such similar incident it ate a huge hole in some dude’s leg and butt in Peru – he kept it in his pocket all day! He ended up losing his leg and died after a brutal year and a half of treatments. It’s crazy they lost one in Australia after all that. Good thing they found it, but that shouldn’t have happened.

    1
  43. RE: Fact #28 (Wind Lifts and Kills Children) – Six kids died. It was a terrible tragedy that should never have happened. I remember that day, I just cried and cried when I heard the news. End-of-school celebrations should be happy, especially so close to Christmas – it’s heartbreaking for those families. Just awful.

    12
  44. RE: Fact #1 (Fatal Spaghetti and Bacteria) – This Belgian guy got sick after eating some pasta. It tasted weird, but he figured it was just the new tomato sauce he added. He went to play sports afterward, but ended up back home 30 minutes later with a killer headache, stomach ache, and throwing up. He was up all night being sick, then his parents found him dead the next morning because he didn’t wake up for school. Tests showed the pasta had tons of bad bacteria, but the sauce was fine. He was a healthy 20-year-old, so it wasn’t your typical food poisoning.

    11
    • He was sick as a dog for hours and had to run to the bathroom a couple of times — and his parents didn’t know something was wrong?

      1
    • I’ll try it, even if it looks kinda blah. But if it tastes off, it’s going straight in the trash.

      Trust your gut; if something feels wrong, it probably is.

      0
  45. RE: Fact #12 (Tunnel Secret Ends in Tragedy) – Beckwitt went to great lengths to keep the project under wraps. He even tricked Khafra into thinking they were in Virginia, not Maryland, by making him wear special glasses before a long drive.

    Khafra had his phone down there, but Beckwitt faked its location to make it seem like they were in Virginia.

    Khafra spent days at a time in the tunnels, eating, sleeping, and, well, you get the picture, all in that space. The tunnels weren’t exactly rough; they had lights, air, and heat.

    The entrance was a hole in the basement floor leading to a shaft, then tunnels stretching about 200 feet.

    The tunnel slave was another tech guy, a young 21-year-old working on an app for the older, richer tech bro. The older guy offered him extra cash to dig a tunnel. The younger guy, being 21, said yes. He was Black, and his dad called the older guy a racist. The tunnel digger thought the older guy was brilliant, but his notes show he was paranoid about a North Korean nuclear attack. The tunnels even had power outlets and charging stations – the digger used his phone, slept there between work, and kept developing his app. The older guy also lowered down food and stuff. Yeah, they were both into crypto.

    The fire started because of a faulty outlet in the basement.

    So, they only got caught because of the death. Makes you wonder how many other rich tech bros have secret tunnels nobody knows about. And, wow, digging a tunnel under your house is apparently pretty cheap. This guy wasn’t even super-rich, and it only cost him less than $200,000.

    5
  46. RE: Fact #10 (Cult Leader’s Mummified Demise) – When the police got there, they found Carlson’s body all dried up; it looked like she’d been dead for ages. She was in a sleeping bag, all decked out with Christmas lights, glitter on her face, and her eyes were gone – like some kind of weird shrine. Seven people from the group got charged with messing with a dead body and also child abuse because there were kids in the house. A photo from a while back shows Carlson looking super skinny and sick; her hair was falling out, and her skin was all purplish. She only weighed 75 pounds when she died.

    3
    • So, the dad had no idea they’d brought her body home. When he found out, he wanted to get his kids out of there right away, but the cult wouldn’t let them go. He had to snatch his kids and run – straight to the cops.

      2
  47. RE: Fact #12 (Tunnel Secret Ends in Tragedy) – My buddy’s known this guy since he was a kid. From what I heard, Daniel was seriously messed up. Him and his parents were super private, and, get this, he filmed himself torturing animals with a blowtorch. He seemed like the type who could’ve become a mass shooter, except he had money and a good education.

    7
  48. RE: Fact #3 (Death by Excessive Laughter) – Hands down, the funniest movie ever where someone gets squashed by a steamroller.

    6
  49. RE: Fact #1 (Fatal Spaghetti and Bacteria) – Ever been to a buffet? They’re always stirring the food, especially the rice. It’s a health thing—keeps the bacteria from multiplying too fast.

    5
  50. RE: Fact #9 (Toxic Pufferfish Proves Deadly) – Getting drunk to impress friends? Sadly, that’s a really common way to die.

    4
  51. RE: Fact #3 (Death by Excessive Laughter) – We saw it with friends when it first came out, and one of them was pregnant. She laughed so hard and for so long that she went into labor six weeks early – her baby came the next morning!

    13
    • Yeah, I get it. I still scream “assHOLEEE” when I’m behind the wheel. And I’m always apologizing like that guy John Cleese hanging out the window.

      4
  52. RE: Fact #36 (Hide-and-Seek Accident Kills Star) – It was charades. She opened a cellar door and tumbled down the stairs.

    1
    • So, this report says that, for some reason. Everyone else says it was sardines—like, hide-and-seek, but different. Oleg Cassini, who was there, said something like this:

      “After dinner, things quieted down, and someone suggested we play sardines—it’s hide-and-seek in the dark. We were just messing around, maybe getting a little handsy… Anyway, I heard a thump, but didn’t think much of it,” Oleg recalled, “until I started looking around and heard groaning. I found a door, opened it, and nearly fell! It was a lower level, kind of like a garage, cement floor, but that first step was a doozy—much bigger than I expected. The groaning was louder now, and sounded bad. I couldn’t find a light, so I called for Tyrone. He came right away, and there was Primula Niven, sprawled out at the bottom of the stairs. She looked pretty out of it.”

      0
  53. RE: Fact #30 (Writer Dies by Starvation) – Dead Souls, his most famous book, goes on and on about food. Seriously, it’s become a meme how much food is in it.

    6
  54. RE: Fact #42 (Fatal Pet Cassowary Attack) – Cassowaries aren’t big fans of people – they’re known for being aggressive and dangerous to both humans and animals. They can jump high and deliver powerful kicks with their sharp claws. But don’t worry too much, deadly attacks are pretty uncommon; only two human deaths have been recorded since 1900. A study looked at 221 attacks, 150 on people. Most of these (75%) involved birds that had been fed by humans. Usually (71%), the cassowary chased or charged; they kicked in about 15% of the attacks. Most attacks (73%) were about food – either the bird was expecting food or trying to snatch it. A smaller number were about defending their food, themselves, or their young. Only one of those 150 attacks resulted in a human death.

    6
  55. RE: Fact #26 (Knife Accident During Car Crash) – Seriously, who uses a knife to mix protein powder?

    6
  56. RE: Fact #18 (Flat-Earther Dies Testing Theory) – After he died, his publicist said he wasn’t actually a flat-earther; it was just a fundraising gimmick. He was a thrill-seeker who dreamed of flying his own rocket. o7

    3
  57. RE: Fact #2 (Deadlift Champion’s Tragic Death) – Crazy but only 3 winners have died in 47 years! That’s amazing considering how tough it is on the body. Don Reinhoudt was 78 when he passed in 2023, and Geoff Capes just died at 75.

    3
  58. RE: Fact #8 (Fatal Beach Sand Collapses) – Only 15 people died from shark attacks in Australia during that time – wow!

    5
  59. RE: Fact #50 (Dance Camp’s Atomic Fallout Tragedy) – A woman on a farm went blind in one eye – permanently blind – from looking right at a bomb blast. A doorframe saved her other eye. The scientists didn’t bother telling anyone, not even the locals, they were going to set off a bomb, or to get people out of the way.

    8
  60. RE: Fact #49 (Mathematician Killed in Duel) – Galois theory, a whole branch of math, is actually named after him—it’s all tied to his solution of that problem.

    0
  61. RE: Fact #45 (Black Licorice Causes Heart Failure) – I’m weird, I guess. I actually like black licorice, black jelly beans, anchovies, squid, blue cheese, Brussels sprouts, cilantro, raw oysters, and pineapple on pizza—though not all together.

    And I’ve even tried SPAM lately.

    2
  62. RE: Fact #22 (Jousting Accident Kills King) – A helmet visor’s pretty narrow, but splinters can still get through. Most knights lift their chin at the very last second—they can’t see their opponent, but their eyes are safe.

    4
  63. RE: Fact #24 (Death After Record-Breaking Meal) – She weighed 84 pounds and ate 19 pounds of food—that’s over 22% of her body weight!

    9
    • Based on their low weight and how much they eat, it sounds like they might have a binge eating problem. That’s really tough.

      1
  64. RE: Fact #33 (Bonfire Collapse Kills Students) – They still have the bonfire every year, just not through the university.

    4

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