The DEATH Burp, ROMANIA

A circus act in Romania ended in tragedy when fire-eater Vlad Cazacu, 43, belched in mid-performance and was blown to bits. Incredibly no one came to his rescue as stunned onlookers assumed this was part of an amazing illusion. Consequently this unfortunate man, who probably could have been saved, was allowed to just lie there and die.

"In the first part of the performance," said fellow circus performer Nicole Antosu, "Vlad held a flammable cocktail in his mouth to spit fire at a burning torch. Somehow, he must have swallowed some of the liquid, because when he burped he triggered an explosion."

Experts believe fumes exhaled by Vlad ignited and caused an explosion that blasted the 43-year-old man into oblivion. 

"It appears Cazacu accidentally swallowed a flammable liquid used in part of his act," said police sources. "As he put a flaming torch in his mouth to 'eat' the fire, he burped up vapors from his stomach - which were flammable - and exploded."

"It was the most awful thing I've ever see," said one witness. "He was so graceful and everyone was applauding - then he burped and was blown to bits." - Bucharest, Romania

  Via - The Parrot (Accra, Ghana), Weekly World News, 1997

DEATH by Pet (Black Widow) Spider - GERMANY

A reclusive French amateur entomologist and herpetologist is bitten by his black widow spider in a misguided attempt to build an immunity to its venom. Electing to ride out the symptoms of his latrodectism, he suffers a fatal heart attack, knocking over his reptile tanks.

The released animals then feed on his corpse for two weeks before it is found by police.

Mark Voegel, 30, was found dead in his Dortmund, Germany apartment. His body was draped in spider webs and more than 200 spiders, several snakes, thousands of termites, and a gecko were feasting on his corpse.

Proper authorities were alerted when concerned neighbours noticed a horrendous stench emanating from the apartment. His black widow, Bettina, is believed to have administered the deadly bite. Voeger's apartment has been described as both a "zoo" and a "jungle" by authorities. He never let people visit.

A police spokesman said, according to the Sun: “It was like a horror movie. His corpse was over the sofa. Giant webs draped him, spiders were all over him. They were coming out of his nose and his mouth. There was everything there one could imagine in the world of reptiles. Larger pieces of flesh torn off by the lizards were scooped up and taken back to the webs of tarantulas and other bird-eating spiders.”

The spiders and termites managed to escape when the heating elements exploded and opened the lids to their tanks.


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DEATH of an Ancient Wrestler by Wolves - Milo of Croton, GREECE

A man came upon a tree-trunk split with wedges. Testing his strength, he tried to rend it with his bare hands. The wedges fell, trapping his hands in the tree making him unable to defend himself from attacking wolves, which eventually devoured him.

Milo of Croton was a 6th-century BC wrestler from the Magna Graecian city of Croton in southern Italy, who enjoyed a brilliant wrestling career and won many victories in the most important athletic festivals of ancient Greece. In addition to his athletic victories, Milo is credited by the ancient commentator Diodorus Siculus with leading his fellow citizens to military triumph over neighboring Sybaris in 510 BC.

Milo was said to be an associate of Pythagoras. One story tells of the wrestler saving the philosopher's life when a roof was about to collapse upon him and another that Milo may have married the philosopher's daughter Myia. Like other successful athletes of ancient Greece, Milo was the subject of fantastic tales of strength and power, some, perhaps, based upon misinterpretations of his statues. Among other tales, he was said to have carried a bull on his shoulders and to have burst a band about his brow by simply inflating the veins of his temples.

The date of Milo's death is unknown, but he reportedly was attempting to tear a tree apart when his hands became trapped in a crevice in its trunk, and a pack of wolves surprised and devoured him. Milo has been depicted in works of art by Pierre Puget, Étienne-Maurice Falconet and others. In literature, he has been referenced by Rabelais in Gargantua and Pantagruel and by Shakespeare in Troilus and Cressida.

The ancient Greeks typically attributed remarkable deaths to famous persons in keeping with their characters. The date of Milo's death is unknown, but according to Strabo and Pausanias, Milo was walking in a forest when he came upon a tree-trunk split with wedges. In what was probably intended as a display of strength, Milo inserted his hands into the cleft to rend the tree. The wedges fell from the cleft, and the tree closed upon his hands, trapping him. Unable to free himself, the wrestler was devoured by wolves. A modern historian has suggested it is more likely that Milo was traveling alone when attacked by wolves. Unable to escape, he was devoured and his remains found at the foot of a tree.

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DEATH - 3 Hours After Being Cut in Half, USA

A man severed at the waist by an 18-wheeler, lived for more than three hours, as paramedics rushed his torso by air and his lower body by ground to the hospital where he died.

Herbert Lee Grossman, 59, of Quitman, Texas, was crushed about 10 a.m. while walking in a truck stop parking lot. The truck, which was moving at less than 5 mph, was pulling out of a parking space. "We got the call as a signal seven (dead person), and then a few minutes later, I heard (paramedics) saying, "We've got breath,' " said Florida Highway Patrol Trooper Melissa Pestana.

Grossman raised his arms to the paramedics, who airlifted his upper body to West Florida Regional Medical Center by helicopter, while an ambulance carried his lower body. He was pronounced dead at 1:32 p.m. The driver of the truck, Eddie Patterson, 55, of Lake Providence, La., had been talking to Grossman moments before moving his truck. The two had been checking Grossman's truck.

"The driver said he rolled out, looked in his rearview mirror and all he saw was legs," said truck driver Don Leggett, 53. "He just figured there would be a body attached. If you're cut in half, wouldn't you die instantly?"


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Xboxed to DEATH, UK

This is starting to become an all too common thing. Take for instance a 20 year-old  Xbox addict killed by blood clot after a 12-hour gaming session. That's a long time being sedentary! Blood clot victim, Chris Staniforth, 20, died after spending up to 12 hours at a time playing on his Xbox.

The gaming enthusiast suffered a blockage to his lungs when he developed deep vein thrombosis – commonly associated with passengers on long haul flights where they are relatively immobile for hours on end.

Avid gamer: Chris Staniforth was passionate
about computers posting this picture on his
Myspace account three years ago.

Chris, an avid player of popular games such as Halo collapsed after an interview at a JobCentre while telling a friend he’d been experiencing peculiar pains in his chest. He explained how he was woken in the night by a ‘strange feeling’ in his chest and that his heart rate was incredibly low, although this returned to normal and he fell back to sleep.

Chris’ heartbroken father, David told The Sun, ‘As a parent you think playing computer games can’t do them any harm because you know what they are doing. ‘Kids all over the country are playing these games for long periods - they don’t realise it could kill them.’ The serious gamer would play people from all over the world and owned an entire range of consoles including a Playstation.

He had hoped to have a career in computers and was offered a place to study Game Design at Leicester University.

To prevent other parents from suffering the same pain as he is, David has launched a campaign to raise awareness about DVT and computer games.

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DEATH(s) by Orgasm, JAPAN

As the story goes...

A young, shy Japanese couple that had been married for fourteen years were too repressed to even consummate their marriage by making love.

Eventually, one day, after a bottle of plum wine, they tried again, and at which time they succeeded. However, unfortunately for them, their hearts were not physically ready for such a shock, and they both died from cardiac arrest after achieving simultaneous orgasms.

This true story of strange death(s) was based on the deaths of Sachi and Tomio Hidaka from Tokyo, Japan. Not much else seems to be known about this story.

DEATH of the Leaping Lawyer, CANADA

Trying to impress a new workmate, a lawyer runs head-on into a window on the 24th floor of his office to prove it unbreakable, a stunt he had done multiple times without any injury. Unfortunately, the window gave way and he fell to his death.

Garry Hoy (1955 – 9 July 1993) was a lawyer for the law firm of Holden Day Wilson in Toronto. He is best known for the circumstances of his death; in an attempt to prove to a group of his partners at the firm that the glass in the Toronto-Dominion Centre was unbreakable, he threw himself through a glass wall on the 24th story and fell to his death after the window frame gave way. He had apparently performed this stunt many times in the past, having previously bounced harmlessly off the glass.

The event occurred in a small boardroom adjacent to a boardroom where a reception was being held for new articling students. Mr. Hoy was a noted and respected corporate and securities law specialist in Toronto. He was a professional engineer, having completed his engineering degree before studying law. He was a highly respected philanthropic member of the Toronto Asian community. In the words of Toronto Police Service Detective Mike Stowell: "

At this Friday night party, Mr. Hoy did it again and bounced off the glass the first time. However, he did it a second time and this time crashed right through the middle of the glass." In another interview, the firm's spokesman mentioned that the glass in fact did not break, but popped out of its frame, leading to Hoy's fatal plunge. Hoy's death contributed to the closing of Holden Day Wilson in 1996, at the time the largest law firm closure in Canada.

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DYING to Catch a Ball, USA

A baseball fan died after falling out of a stand while trying to catch a ball.

Shannon Stone, a 39-year-old firefighter from Brownwood, was trying to catch a ball thrown by by Texas outfielder Josh Hamilton during the second inning of the match between the Texas Rangers and Oakland at the Rangers Ballpark when he fell.

Though conscious shortly afterward, he later died from the impact.

After reaching out to catch the ball, the Stone’s momentum took him over the railings and he fell approximately 20 feet - head first - to a paved area behind the scoreboard, hitting a metal cross beam on the way down, incurring fatal injuries in the process.

Ronnie Hargis was sitting in the stands next to the victim, who was at the game with his young son. The men were talking to each other before the accident.

"He went straight down. I tried to grab him but I couldn't," Hargis said. "I tried to slow him down a little bit." Although witnesses said the man appeared conscious as he was taken away on a stretcher, officials said he died on the way to the hospital.

"We are deeply saddened that the man who fell has passed away as a result of this tragic accident," Rangers president Nolan Ryan said. "Our thoughts and prayers are with his family."

The accident happens almost one year to the day that another fan fell 30 feet from the second level of the ballpark. Local firefighter Tyler Morris survived with only a fractured skull, broken ankle and broken foot.

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