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Interesting Questions, Facts and Information
- There are a total of 80 general entries. We are selecting 30 for display.
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 Interesting Questions, Facts, and Information
 What a Way to Go
| Reported in 'The American Journal of Forensic Medicine and Pathology (1989).' A very healthy forty year old man went fishing in Tharmon Lake Ohio. It was the last time he went fishing but what was it that killed him? | Strange Ways To Die
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a bluegill fish. This poor man was preparing to remove a bluegill from the hook of his fishing line. He held it up to admire it, dropped it and it got lodged in his throat. The scales and the gills were so tightly stuck that it was impossible to remove. He managed to get home but it was too late. He was killed by a kamikaze bluegill!
| Again from 'The American Journal of Forensic Medicine and Pathology (1987).' A fifty eight year old woman died of metal poisoning, but what caused it? | Strange Ways To Die
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she ate coins. When the postmortem was carried out it was found that over the years she had eaten 275 coins and the cause of death was listed as copper poisoning. In total the coins came to {$14.84,} there was 174 pennies, 33 nickels, 37 dimes and 31 quarters.
| As reported in 'The Journal of Forensic Sciences (1984).' In Helsinki, Finland a man who had tried numerous times to commit suicide finally succeeded. What did he use? | Strange Ways To Die
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a chainsaw. This young man had tried several times to commit suicide. Three weeks before he was sucessful he had tried to overdose on tranquilizers but had been resuscitated at the hospital. On the night he was successful he came in to see his mother in law (whom he shared a house with - reason for the suicide perhaps) and she was terrified by the amount of blood on his shirt. He explained that he had tried to stab himself in the chest and that it was alright, he had found a more effective way. He then proceeded to go into the shed in his backgarden and use a chainsaw to rip his chest open. The thing is, it was not the deep slashes in his chest that killed him, it was the vibrations. The vibrations from the chain saw were so intense that they caused some of the tissues in his chest to burst. These were certainly not good vibrations - there's a song in there somewhere I'm sure.
| Another suicide question this one from 'The Journal of Forensic Sciences (1984)' . It involves a man and a car and Long Island but what happened? | Strange Ways To Die
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he leaned out the window and was cut in half by a signpost. Where do people get these ideas. At about 3a.m. on an expressway in Long Island the upper half of a man's body was found 100 yards away from an abandoned Toyota Corolla. Initially the authorities thought it was a particularly grisly murder but after an extensive enquiry found it to be a rather strange suicide. This 35 year old man, who had had self-destructive tendencies for most of his life, managed to keep his car at a steady 25m.p.h. while keeping his upper torso hanging out the window on the passenger side. He hit the EXIT 39N GLEN COVE RD. NORTH road sign and his body was sliced clean in two. The only reason investigators picked up on the fact that this was not a homicide was by the large amount of blood and guts on the roadsign 3 feet away.
| Death by lightning is not that uncommon however, lightning does not kill men and women in the same ratio. What is it? | Strange Ways To Die
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It kills almost 5 times more men than women. Some people use this as a line of reasoning for why God must be female!
| According to a survey published in 1969 in the journal 'Medical Aspects of Human Sexuality', is the following true or false? Of all married men who die during sexual intercourse, the majority of them are with women who are not their wives. | Strange Ways To Die
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t. Could this be another sign that God is a woman? In most cases the death was due to a heart attack. It has been suggested that this is because men who are having affairs are under a lot of stress, they have usually been out for a big meal, have consumed lots of alcohol and that the surroundings are generally unfamiliar. All of these together with physical exertion makes a heart attack more likely.
| Director James Whale killed himself by managing to drown himself, made easier by the fact he couldn't swim. Where did he do it? | Strange Ways To Die
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in his swimming pool. You can just see the headline now 'WHALE FOUND IN SWIMMING POOL!' It has to be said, James Whale directed some great movies in his time. 'Frankenstein' (1931), 'Bride of Frankenstein' (1935) and 'The Invisible Man' (1933). However, after 1936 his career started to go downhill until eventually he wrote a charming suicide note, making sure everyone knew that he wasn't blaming anyone, and jumped head first into the shallow end of his swimming pool thus rendering himself unconsious. He was found dead the next morning.
his blood. In the year 453 Attila the Hun was celebrating his marriage to his young wife Ildico. Wedding parties don't seem to have changed that much over the years, there was lots of eating and drinking and the newlywed Attila got very drunk indeed. He picked up his young wife and carried her to his tent to formally consumate the marriage. He must have been over exherting himself because his nose started to bleed. This is not exactly a life theating thing, but because he was so drunk, the blood rushing down the back of his throat actually choked him to death.
| In 1876, Secret Service agents together with private detectives foiled a plan by two men to steal the body of Abraham Lincoln and hold it for {$200,000} ransom. Is this true or false? | Strange Ways To Die
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t. Someone tipped the Secret Service men off and they caught the two men in the act, just as they were lifting the dead president's casket out of its sarcophagus.
| In World War 2 the three main men who were interested in taking over the world were Adolf Hitler of Germany, Benito Mussolini of Italy and Emperor Hirohito of Japan. Mussolini was murdered, Hitler allegedly killed himself but what about Emperor Hirohito? Was his death natural? | Strange Ways To Die
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Yes. Mussolini was hanged by angry mobs of his own countrymen when the war was ending and his body was dragged through the streets and dismembered. Hitler allegedly either shot or poisoned himself with potassium cyanide in his Berlin bunker in April 1945. But, Emperor Hirohito died of natural causes in 1989.
| As reported in the 'Australian Medical Journal (1997)'. A building site worker from Australia finally made the decision to stop smoking. To ease the withdrawal most normal people eat chocolate, chew gum or something else just as civilised. This man however got through the withdrawal by chewing on electrical cables saying that it was extremely soothing with a 'sweet and pleasant taste'. He got through almost a meter a day for 10 years until being admitted to hospital with stomach pains. The question is - did he die? | More Strange Ways to Die
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no . It turns out that the cables contained lead to make them more flexible. When blood tests were taken it was found that this man's blood lead level was almost 3 times the safety level. However, due to prompt treatment his blood lead level eventually returned to normal. He did not stop smoking.
| As reported in the 'Journal of Forensic Sciences (1982)'. After a rainstorm on March 6 1982 a fifty eight year old man was found lying on a traffic island that contained a light metal pole. What had happened? | More Strange Ways to Die
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He had been electrocuted by the street light.. This was the stangest death by electrocution by a steet lamp that I could find and believe me, there are many! The man had not even touched the street lamp, the electric currents were actually passing through the wet pavement. When the police were arriving a passing car splashed the man and even though he was nowhere near the metal pole or the base he became rigid and started foaming at the mouth. One of the police officers who tried to drag the man away got a sharp shock himself and the poor man was eventually dragged away by his clothing but resucitation was useless.
| Is this true or false? In India there is an ancient (yet ongoing) custom in the Hindu religion which has been given the clinical name 'burnt wife syndrome' where rather than getting a divorce, husbands who are unhappy with their wives set them on fire. | More Strange Ways to Die
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true . Roughly 80 percent of the 700 million population in India are Hindu and the dowry system (the woman's family pay the man to marry their daughter) has encouraged the killing of women who disappoint their new husband and or his family. 'Burnt wife syndrome' is so common that the police generally overlook it. In 1984 an article entitled 'Burnt wife syndrome: A Macabre Problem' was published in 1984 in the 'Journal of the Forensic Sciences Society'. The authors were two indian doctors who said "Hardly a day passes in the life of a forensic pathologist working in a mortuary in one of the Northern Indian states when he is called upon to perform a postmortem examination on the burnt body of a young Hindu woman who has either been killed or driven to end her own life in the flames of fire by her husband and or her in-laws."
| From 'The American Journal of Forensic Medicine and Pathology' (1985): One day a twelve year old boy was walking through his house during a thunderstorm. A particularly big gust of wind shattered one of the windows, the young boy began to stagger, stumbled into the kitchen and collapsed on the floor. There were no obvious marks on his body and the parents panicked and phoned for an ambulance. He was pronounced dead before even getting to the hospital. What had killed him? | More Strange Ways to Die
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a tiny sliver of glass from the shattered window has pierced his heart. No one knew what killed the boy until an autopsy was performed. The medical examiners found that 'a single sharp, slender fragment of glass' that was projected from the shattered window had pierced the boy's heart and killed him. The fragment of glass was so small that it only left the tiniest puncture mark on the boys skin.
| From the 'Computer Fraud and Security Bulletin' (1992): It was reported in a supermarket tabloid that two people were killed by a virus-infected computer in Valparaiso, Chile. Is this true or false? | More Strange Ways to Die
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True . The virus is said to have created a horned demon which decapitated one worker, the other died from a heart attack. Anyone coming within 3 meters of the computer blacked out or started deranged babbling. The best bit, I think, is that the computer was EXORCISED.
30 - 40 percent. There are some strange findings about lightning. Most people who are struck by lightning are struck at the weekend between 9am and 9pm. You are more likely to get struck by lightning between May and September with early June being the most common. You can get struck by lightning even if you are indoors. The majority of people to whom this has happened have been on the phone at the time.
suicide. Even although he was a Nobel prize winning authour, he was often prone to terrible bouts of depresion which could last days or even months. In 1961 his family carted him off to the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota where he was given shock treatments. He only stayed a short while and his wife discovered him one morning sitting in the living room like a zombie with a loaded shotgun in his hands, she once again had him admitted for treatment. He protested forcefully and was finally discharged. Two days after he got home, Hemingway found the keys to his gun cabinet, which his wife had hidden, and picked out a shotgun. Then, standing in his pyjamas, he pointed the gun barrel at his foregead and fired both barrels into his brain, completely taking off the top of his prizewinning head.
| True or False? On January 24 1990, Mother Theresa of Calcutta was being transported in an ambulance when the brakes mysteriously failed. The brakeless ambulance veered out of control and killed two pedestrians. | More Strange Ways to Die
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True . The seveny-nine-year-old Roman Catholic nun was being transported from a hospital run by her Missionaries of Charity to her Home in Calcutta when an unseen force took command of the speeding vehicle and aimed it at the unsuspecting victims. These two poor people were totally unaware that they were going to meet their maker through the intervention of one of his most celebrated agents.
| The Ayatollah Ruholla Khomeini of Iran died in Spring 1989. Shortly afterwards his daughter Mostafavi told the Islamic press that her father had spoken these immortal words before meeting Allah: 'This life is an arduous path. Try not to sin.' However, within hours the last words had changed. To what? | More Strange Ways to Die
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Turn out the lights, I want to sleep. Not a lot of difference between the two reports! When the Ayatollah had his funeral on June 6, hundreds of thousands of people turned out for the funeral. They waited at the cemetery, seized the coffin and ripped his body from the flimsy wooden box and literally killed one another in an attempt to touch the corpse. Eight people were trampled to death in the process.
| The famous welsh poet Dylan Thomas died on November 9, 1953. The postmortem report stated that causes of death were liver damage and pneumonia. However, it could be said that Thomas brought this on himself. A few nights before while in a bar in Manhattan he turned to his mistress and said 'I've had ___ straight whiskies. That's a record.' How many straight whiskies did he have? | More Strange Ways to Die
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18. The next morning he woke up and decided to go for a few beers. However, he really wasn't feeling that well so he went back to the hotel. Once he was there he started throwing up violently and so a doctor was summoned. He was rushed to St. Vincent's hospital in Greenwich village but he slipped into a coma and died. The pathologist said that although the official cause of death was liver damage he had really died from an 'insult to the brain.'
Attila the Hun. Attila was not known for his appetite and tended to eat and drink quite sparingly at banquets. At his wedding banquet, however, he rather over-indulged himself on alcohol. During the night he suffered a nosebleed, but was too drunk to notice, and choked on his own blood. He was found dead the next morning - much to the delight of many of his subject peoples.
| Which famous philosopher and writer died of pneumonia following an attempt to stuff a chicken with snow in order to prove the preservative powers of ice? | What a Way to Go!
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Francis Bacon. Bacon turned his hand to many things during his lifetime. The snow stuffing exercise gave him pneumonia, leading to severe complications, from which he did not recover.
| Which Greek dramatist died as a result of his baldness (at least according to well established legend)? | What a Way to Go!
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Aeschylus. According to old legend, eagles used to pick up tortoises and drop them onto rocks in order to crack their shells and eat them. Apparently one eagle mistook Aeschylus' head for a rock because he was bald, and dropped a tortoise on it, killing him instantly.
Perhaps he should have worn a hat.
Jim Fixx. Jim Fixx wrote a best selling book called "The Complete Book of Running" which was partly responsible for the jogging craze of the 1970s. Out for a run one day, he had only gone a short distance when he was felled by a massive coronary. Despite the fact that he had suffered attacks in the weeks before his death, he ignored the warning signs and paid the ultimate penalty. At the inquest, his coronary arteries were found to be massively blocked.
| This famous playwright choked to death in 1983 when the top of the nasal spray he was using fell into his mouth. Who was he? | What a Way to Go!
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Tennessee Williams. Tennessee Williams died in the Elysée Hotel in New York. Despite his death being declared an accident at the inquest, there are some people who believe he was murdered.
| In 1994 Ramon Barrero died on stage after inhaling and choking on what? | What a Way to Go!
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A harmonica. Mexican musician Ramon Barrero was famous for playing the world's smallest harmonica. During a particularly inspired bit of playing he inhaled the instrument and, sadly, played no more.
| The first victim of an air crash shared his name with which famous London store? | What a Way to Go!
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Selfridges. Thomas Etholen Selfridge was travelling in a plane piloted by Orville Wright in 1908 when a manoeuvre resulted in the wing flexing and the propeller blade snapping off. The plane crashed and Selfridge was killed. Orville Wright survived but was badly injured and was hospitalised for several weeks.
Hanged, drawn and quartered. The punishment known as "hanging, drawing and quartering" is among the most barbaric methods of execution ever prescribed by the laws of a supposedly civilised country. (The official justification for this horrific barbarity was that high treason was a form of sacrilege). The last person to be "hanged, drawn and quartered" was Edward Despard in 1803 for plotting to murder the then king, George III. Despard was, however, allowed to die on the gallows and the rest of the process was performed on his corpse.
| Newspaper headlines were made on August 8, 1969, when a number of people were discovered to have been brutally murdered at the address of 10050 Cielo Drive, in the hills above of Los Angeles, California. Who was NOT one of the victims to lose their life at that location? | They Went That-a-Way!
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Leno LaBianca. Leno LaBianca was murdered two days later at a different location, by the followers of Charles Manson. On August 8th, members of the Manson family invaded the home of actress Sharon Tate, and brutally murdered the actress and four of her houseguests. Also killed that night at the Cielo Drive location were Steven Parent, Abigail Folger, Voytec Frykowski, and Jay Sebring. Parent died of multiple gunshot wounds. The other victims died of multiple stab wounds. At the time of her murder, Tate was eight and a half months pregnant.
Two nights later, the Manson family struck again. This time, they invaded the home of businessman/grocery storeowner Leno LaBianca. Both Leno and his wife Rosemary were repeatedly stabbed by the group of deranged killers. Both victims died from their wounds.
| Product spokesperson Orville Redenbacher became known to many as he pitched his brand of "Gourmet Popping Corn" in television commercials. Redenbacher died on September 19, 1995, at his home in Coronado, California. What was the cause of death for this popcorn-making icon? | They Went That-a-Way!
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Drowning. At the age of 88, Redenbacher died while in the whirlpool tub of his condominium. Redenbacher suffered a massive heart attack while alone at his home, and drowned.
| Many Hollywood entertainers lived to reach a ripe old age. Which of the performers listed had the longest life? | They Went That-a-Way!
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Bob Hope. Bob Hope was born on May 29, 1903, and lived to 100 years and nearly three months. He died on August 27, 2003.
George Burns was born on January 20, 1896, and lived to 100 years and one and a half months. He died on May 26, 1996.
Entertainer Eddie Albert was born on April 22, 1906, and lived to 99-years-old. He died on May 26, 2005.
Comedian Jack Benny was born on February 14, 1894, and lived to 80-years-old. He died on December 26, 1974. Out of the four listed, he led the shortest life.
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