Unusual ways to die

[Pale Rider]

What about Tommy Cooper having a heart attack on stage? People thought it was part of his act and laughed. He seemed to be smiling back.

Sid James 'died' on the stage of the Sunderland Empire.

Northern audiences are known to be harsh, but killing a bad turn is a bit extreme, even for them.

A good tale, but not strictly speaking true.

James did collapse on the stage, but he died later in hospital.

An older mate of mine recalls a cockney singer who played the Empire.

He refused to sing his one big hit, despite calls from the audience to do so.

He then made the mistake of taking on the audience, saying something like 'it's my effin' show and I'll sing what I effin' want to'.

The audience literally pelted him off the stage with rotten fruit and vegetables.

Believe it or not, there was a stall outside the Empire which sold fruit and veg for the purpose.

 

[ColinJ]

It was originally 100 grand, but the police of the day liked to get their cut.

I'm just watching series 7 of Spiral. There was a funny scene in the last episode that I watched...

Spoiler: Plot detail

The police squad had found hundreds of thousands of Euros that had been stolen from a murder scene at a Chinese restaurant involved in illegal drugs. One team member had been sent out to get pizzas for the crew while they counted the money, which had been dumped in a huge pile on a table back at the office. The pizzas arrive and the buyer is trying to sort the money out. He says that one cop owes 5 Euros. The suggestion was made that perhaps he could just take it from the pile of cash. He looks worried... "Really?" The teasing officer shakes his head - "NO!"

There was also the widely reported case of the YouTuber who wanted to prove a paperback book could stop a pistol bullet.

It couldn't, so he shot and killed the bloke holding the book.

Perhaps he should have used War and Peace.

It was the man's pregnant girlfriend who fired the gun, and the book was an encyclopaedia, but it was not enough to stop the bullet! [BBC news article]

 

[gbb]

As a 17 yo in Notts, a friend of a friends dad owned a garage complete with recovery truck.
We went to see the remains of a Lotus Europa that had crested a rise in the dark...and gone straight under a bus coming the other way.
There was nothing left forward of the bulkhead, nothing above the doors. Driver was apparently still alive, wedged under the bus when the emergency services arrived. He died of his injuries shortly after. I'd hate to visualise what it did to him.

 

[byegad]

One Darwin Awards winner was found, along with his wrecked pick-up truck at the foot of some cliffs in an American desert. Police were initially puzzled as to how he got there, as the were no tyre tracks leading to the wreck.
A scar, partway up the cliff was the clue. The idiot had fixed a single J.A.T.O. pack, usually used in pairs to get big aircraft up to flying speed on a short runway, to the back of the pick-up.

 

[ColinJ]

One Darwin Awards winner was found, along with his wrecked pick-up truck at the foot of some cliffs in an American desert. Police were initially puzzled as to how he got there, as the were no tyre tracks leading to the wreck.
A scar, partway up the cliff was the clue. The idiot had fixed a single J.A.T.O. pack, usually used in pairs to get big aircraft up to flying speed on a short runway, to the back of the pick-up.

Apparently, that one was a myth! I had a good laugh at it at the time though...

My favourite verified Darwin Award was an Honorary Mention. The award winner had made a brave effort to remove himself from the human gene pool, but hadn't died in the process...

Spoiler: Not for the squeamish!

Scrotum self-repair!

 

[Cycleops]

I want to go in a manmer that causes maximum paperwork and inconveniemce for the authorities. Fighting terrorist trained tigers in a leaking nuclear reactor, or somesuch.

You've been playing too many PlayStation FPS games.

 

[craigwend]

I want to go in a manmer that causes maximum paperwork and inconveniemce for the authorities. Fighting terrorist trained tigers in a leaking nuclear reactor, or somesuch.

And without the appropriate paperwork / permits...

 

[craigwend]

Sadly remembered a couple of builders who knocked down an Anderson shelter from the inside

 

[DRM]

Horrific when you think he would have died very slowly know his fate.

Like the guy who died stuck in the pot hole In USA and is still buried down there!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nutty_Putty_Cave

https://www.hagdyke.co.uk/
The Scout Hostel at Hag Dyke, on Great Whernside near Kettlewell has a dormitory called the Priestman room, after a caver called David Priestman who was killed by a rockfall in the Dowbergill passage which runs directly under the hostel.
“Hag Dyke claims the highest consecrated ground in England, and Dowbergill Passage runs directly underneath the kitchen at a depth of about 420 feet. There is a room in the hostel named after a caver, David Priestman, who was killed in Dowbergill by a block which simply fell out of the roof. This tragic incident serves to underline that the passage is still a very active place. New rock slippages and falls are a regular occurrence, and prospective visitors should tune into this fact.”
The Scouts would take great delight in scaring each other silly saying he was still trapped there

 

[Cathryn]

View: https://youtu.be/XcCkOJbL6-w

even got their own song

I flipping love that song.

 

[ebikeerwidnes]

Apparently, that one was a myth! I had a good laugh at it at the time though...

My favourite verified Darwin Award was an Honorary Mention. The award winner had made a brave effort to remove himself from the human gene pool, but hadn't died in the process...

Spoiler: Not for the squeamish!

Scrotum self-repair!

YEA GODS!!!!!!!

 

[classic33]

Death By Knife-Wielding Bird

This one might make you feel a bit queasy, in 2011, a man in California died after a cockerel taking part in an illegal cock-fighting match stabbed him in the leg. With what? The knife that had been strapped to it for fighting.

It’s reported that the man, Jose Luis Ochoa, suffered severe injuries when the cockerel, which he may have owned, gashed him in the right calf. Cock fighting is illegal in the U.S., but it’s common practice for fighting birds to be fitted with spurs or knives on their legs. (This has happened before: in the same year, an Indian man supposedly died after a rooster slashed its throat with razor blades, though that sounds suspiciously like murder concealed by chicken.)

Karma’s a bitch.

 

[Profpointy]

How about the 8 people killed in Britain's worst avalanche. Mountaineering up Zero Gully on Ben Nevis you might guess, but no, the unfortunate victims were indoors at home in their cottages in Lewes in Sussex

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lewes_avalanche

There's now a pub on the site, named, in rather poor taste, The Snowdrop Inn

 

[stowie]

A friend of mine is a nurse. Some years ago she was on a long distance flight, and after a while it became apparent to her that the nice old man sitting next to her that she had been chatting to earlier was now dead. She had a quiet word with the cabin crew and explained she was quite happy to carry on sitting next to him for the rest of the flight until everything could be sorted out calmly at the destination.

An old colleague of mine had the person next to him die on a trans-atlantic flight. He was an elderly gentleman travelling with his wife.

The dead man was moved to first class with his wife (presumably not many people in first at the time).

Bit of an extreme way to get an upgrade though.

 

[VelvetUnderpants]

Dimebag Darrell guitarist for Pantera and Damageplan was shot and killed onstage in the US by an ex-marine suffering from paranoid schizophrenia.

Damageplan had just opened the set when 25-year-old Nathan Gale, climbed onstage and proceeded to shoot Dimebag numerous times in the head killing him instantly, he also killed the head of security and a fan who tried to stop him, in the end a police officer took him out with a headshot from his Remington 870 shotgun.