CAUGHT on Film: Inejiro Asanuma (Politician), JAPAN

Inejiro Asanuma (December 27, 1898 – October 12, 1960) was a Japanese politician, and head of the Japanese Socialist Party. Asanuma was noted for speaking publicly about Socialism and economic and cultural opportunities.

His support of the Chinese Communist Party was criticized both from the right and by his colleagues.

Asanuma was assassinated by 17-year-old Otoya Yamaguchi, an extreme rightist, at a televised rally for the coming Lower-house election. Yamaguchi rushed and fatally stabbed Asanuma, and was subdued moments later.

The entire incident was captured on camera.

The assassin, Otoya Yamaguchi, committed suicide a few weeks later.

CAUGHT on Film: Michael Marin (Millionaire), USA

Michael Marin – a millionaire convicted of burning down his $3.5million mansion for insurance money – seemingly poisoned himself in court.

As the guilty verdict was read out, Michael Marin closed his eyes and held his head in his hands before appearing to slip something into his mouth.  Minutes later, the 53-year-old collapsed to the floor in convulsions and died.  The shocking scenes were caught on camera in Maricopa County Superior Court in Arizona, where Marin had been on trial since May.

The father-of-four torched his mansion in Phoenix on July 5, 2009, because, prosecutors claimed, he could no longer afford the mortgage.  Fire Department investigators concluded that the blaze was started deliberately after finding several points of origin throughout the sprawling 6,600 sq ft home, which boasted four garages.

Marin was found outside the burning property after climbing from a second floor bedroom using a rope ladder and wearing scuba diving gear, according to Fox News.  Marin faced 16 years in prison as the charge of committing arson in an occupied structure holds the same sentence as second-degree murder in Arizona.

Footage from the courtroom yesterday shows a shocked Marin covering his face with his hands before appearing to place something into his mouth.  The grandfather-of-two appears to swallow a number of times before taking a drink from the water bottle on the table in front of him.

Minutes later he appears to be struggling to breathe before collapsing to the ground as others in the court rush over to help.  Marin was taken to a hospital in Arizona where he was pronounced dead.

Toxicology tests will be carried out on the former Wall Street trader’s body and the water bottle he drank from.  MCSO spokesman Jeff Sprong told Fox: “Obviously if you watch the video it looks like he does put something in his mouth.  “We cannot verify that at this point and we’re not going to be able to until the toxicology report comes back.

“We will obviously contact family to see if this is something he hinted at doing, maybe he left a note you know, it just needs to be thoroughly investigated then hopefully we’ll find out why he did it and what he did.”

Did You Know?…

Cyanide salts are sometimes used as fast-acting suicide devices. Cyanide works better with higher stomach acidity.

• In February 1937, the Uruguayan short story writer Horacio Quiroga committed suicide by drinking cyanide in a hospital at Buenos Aires.
• In 1937, the famous polymer chemist, Wallace Carothers, committed suicide by cyanide.
• In the 1943 Operation Gunnerside, to destroy the Vemork Heavy Water Plant in World War II (an attempt to stop/slow German atomic bomb progress), the commandos were given cyanide tablets (cyanide enclosed in rubber) kept in the mouth and were instructed to bite into them in case of German capture. The tablets ensured death within three minutes.
• Cyanide, in the form of pure liquid prussic acid (a historical name for hydrogen cyanide), was the favored suicide agent of the Third Reich. It was used to commit suicide by Erwin Rommel (1944), after being accused of conspiring against Hitler; Adolf Hitler’s wife, Eva Braun (1945); and by Nazi leaders Heinrich Himmler (1945), possibly Martin Bormann (1945), and Hermann Göring (1946).
• It is speculated that, in 1954, Alan Turing used an apple that had been injected with a solution of cyanide to commit suicide after being convicted of having a homosexual relationship—illegal at the time in the UK—and forced to undergo hormonal castration.
• Jonestown, Guyana, was the site of a large mass suicide/murder, in which over 900 members of the Peoples Temple drank potassium cyanide–laced ‘Flavor Aid’ in 1978.
• Members of the Sri Lankan LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, whose insurgency lasted from 1983 to 2009), used to wear cyanide vials around their necks with the intention of committing suicide if captured by the government forces.
• On June 27, 2013, after being found guilty of statutory sodomy of a 14-year-old female, 48-year-old Steve Parsons ingested a cyanide pill and died shortly after in Maryville, MO.

CAUGHT on Film: Bud Dwyer (Politician), USA

Robert Budd Dwyer (November 21, 1939 — January 22, 1987) was an American politician in the state of Pennsylvania. He served from 1971 to 1981 as a member of the Pennsylvania State Senate representing the state’s 50th district. He served as the 30th Treasurer of Pennsylvania from 1981 to 1987.

In the early 1980s, Pennsylvania discovered its state workers had overpaid federal taxes due to errors in state withholding. Many accounting firms competed for a multimillion-dollar contract to determine compensation to each employee. In 1986, Dwyer was convicted of receiving a bribe from a California firm trying to gain the contract. Throughout his trial and after his conviction, he maintained that he was innocent of the charge and that he had been framed.

On the morning of January 22, 1987, he committed suicide with a gun during a televised press conference at his office in Harrisburg, the state capital.

CAUGHT on Film: Nordin Montong (Zoo Keeper), SINGAPORE

Cleaner/Zoo-keeper, Nordin Montong at the Singapore Zoo who jumped into the white tiger enclosure, was killed by the animals as a horrified crowd looked on helplessly.
Malaysian Nordin Montong, 32, was set upon by two of the three big cats in the enclosure at around noon.

Video snapshot

According to eyewitnesses, Mr Nordin, who was seen shouting and flinging items about shortly before the incident, vaulted a low wall and landed in a moat in the enclosure, four metres below.It was said that the tigers, which are nine years old and were brought in from Sumatra in 2001, would not be put down as they had acted naturally.

DEATH with a Twist: DEAD BODY MISTAKEN FOR HALLOWEEN DUMMY, USA

The body of Mostafa Mahmoud Zayed, 75, an apparent suicide, sat decomposing on his Marina del Rey balcony for days because neighbors thought the lifeless figure was a dummy and didn’t call police.

Mostafa Mahmoud Zayed had apparently been dead for days with a single gunshot wound to one eye. He was slumped over a chair on the third-floor balcony of his apartment on Bora Bora Way.

Neighbors said they noticed the body “but didn’t bother calling authorities because it looked like a Halloween dummy”, said cameraman Austin Raishbrook, who owns RMG News and was on the scene Thursday when authorities were alerted to the body.

“The body was in plain view of the entire apartment complex [and] they all didn’t do anything,” Raishbrook said. “It’s very strange. It did look unreal, to be honest.”

An investigator with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department said the case is an “apparent suicide,” and declined to comment further.

“I just knew him to say ‘Hello,’ and he was sweet and gentle,” Patricia Kingery, out for a walk, said of Zayed. “He was always well-dressed and obviously active.”

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DEATH with a Twist: MAN SLEPT NEXT TO DEAD WIFE FOR FIVE YEARS, VIETNAM

A Vietnamese man dug up his wife’s body, molded it with clay into a female figure and put it in his bed so he could hug it every night for the past five years.

Van began by sleeping upon his wife’s grave after she died in 2003. He said that a year and a half later he decided to dig a tunnel next to his wife’s grave so he could sleep beside her away from the rain and wind.
However, neighbors and local authorities found out about the practice and persuaded Van to stop. Subsequently in November 2004 Van returned to the grave, dug up his wife’s corpse and brought it home, where it remains today.

“I’m a person that does things differently. I’m not like normal people,” he was quoted as saying. “My wife’s body only passed away but her spirit still accompanies us. I have no fear when it comes to sleeping with her at all.”

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DEATH with a Twist: VAN TOWED WITH DEAD BODY STILL INSIDE, USA

For one New Yorker, the journey to the Pearly Gates involved a detour to the city’s car pound.

The New York City Police Department towed an illegally parked van carrying a body. The van, parked outside Redden’s Funeral Home on West 14th Street, was to transport the body to Newark for a flight.

But according to the New York Daily News, Paul DeNigris, the funeral director, said he went inside the funeral home to get paperwork and answer a phone call. When he returned, the van was gone — along with the body that was in a white cardboard box, the newspaper said.

“I was just a wreck,” he told the newspaper. “I was frantic. When something like that happens, you go into panic mode.

The corpse was finally rescued after 90 undignified minutes in Manhattan's most miserable locale, trapped amid scofflaws and irate out-of-towners.

DeNigris had parked his silver 2002 Dodge in a "No Parking Anytime" zone outside the funeral home. The body, in a white cardboard box, was headed for Newark Airport and a flight to Miami for cremation.

A funeral van carrying a body was towed from Redden's Funeral Home on West 14th Street. (SMITH FOR NEWS)

DeNigris said he stepped inside to pick up some paperwork, took a phone call, and returned to find ... nothing.

"The car was just gone," he said yesterday.

The NYPD said the van was ticketed at 9:22 a.m. - and then towed nearly three hours later, at 12:07 p.m.

"There was nothing to indicate it was more than just an illegally parked car," said NYPD Deputy Commissioner Paul Browne.

The terrified DeNigris was at the pound within minutes, explaining his improbable plight and showing his funeral home paperwork.

"I tried not to be too loud," he recounted. "I didn't want to scream, 'I'm the guy from the funeral home with the car with the person in the back.'

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DEATH with a Twist: ANOTHER “WEEKEND AT BERNIE’S”?, USA

“Hey! I think my roomate might be dead back at home!” stated one of the the two guys who approached a Denver cop.

In a case reminiscent of the 1989 film “Weekend at Bernie’s,” prosecutors say two men went for a night on the town with their friend dead in the backseat of their car.

The two men, both friends with Jarrett, put his body in the back seat of Mr Rubinson’s car and took it to Teddy T’s and Sam’s No 3 – both bars in Denver – before taking the body back to Jarrett’s home.

At Shotgun Willie’s they also withdrew $400 from Jarrett’s account, although court documents do not make clear whether either of the men knew Jarrett’s PIN number.

The two men stayed at Shotgun Willie’s until closing time, and reported Jarrett’s death to the police at around 04:00 in the morning.

Denver Police Department spokesman Sonny Jackson called the incident a “bizarre and unfortunate crime”.

He added: “This isn’t anything you want to have happen to a loved one. You want them treated with respect in death.”

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DEATH with a Twist: DOGS SURVIVING ON OWNERS’ FLESH, CANADA

A Canadian couple died, man-67, woman-57, in their rural Saskatchewan home of causes unknown.

A few of the dogs who survived

Left behind were 7 of their dogs.

Police concluded that for more than a week the dogs — five Shelties and two mixed breeds — survived by eating the remains of the couple.

The question now is whether the dogs should be put down or given a new home.

Neighbour Margaret-Ann Irving, who knew the dogs' owners, said the animals cannot now be adopted.

"Those dogs need to be put down," she said. "You can't place a dog that's been eating on human flesh for two or three weeks and put it in a home where there might be a child."

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Apparently, there are others...

Similar related stories:

• Starving Dog Fed on Human Remains, UK
• Dog Eats Flesh Of Its Dead Owner Picking His Bones Almost Bare, RUSSIA
• Starving Dog Eats His Owner, AUSTRIA

STUNT Gone WRONG: Ormer Locklear

Leslie 'Lock' Locklear (October 28, 1891 – August 2, 1920) was a daredevil stunt flyer during and immediately after World War I.

Born in Greenville, Texas, Locklear was brought up in Fort Worth, and trained as a carpenter. While still at school he was a daredevil performer of tricks in and on moving vehicles. He worked as a house-builder, and married Ruby Graves in 1915.

Locklear became fascinated by flying, trying to build his own glider, so when World War I involved the US in 1917, he joined the U.S. Army Air Service. He trained in Austin, at Camp Dick and Barron Field, becoming a flying instructor. Locklear was an exponent of wing walking to make aircraft repairs in flight.

A 2nd Lieutenant at the end of the war, he had been assigned to military recruitment when he saw a barnstorming show, and realised his own usual flying exploits were far more impressive. Locklear left the army to join the show with two military colleagues, Milton 'Skeets' Elliott and Shirley Short. They soon obtained aircraft and formed their own show, performing far and wide. This opened the way to a movie career in California, where they performed aerial stunts for the camera.

Locklear and Elliott died in 1920 after an aerial manoeuvre while filming Locklear's second movie, The Skywayman It happened at the De Mille Airfield near Los Angeles. While filming the finale by night, Elliott had to dive the plane, carrying himself and Locklear, towards some oil derricks and appear to crash it. He forewarned the lighting crew to douse their lights when he got near the derricks, so that he could see to pull out of the dive; the lights remained full on, blinding him, and he crashed. The movie showed the crash and its aftermath in gruesome detail.

Viola Dana was in a relationship with Locklear and witnessed the crash. Dana describes Locklear's aerial accident in a profoundly personal way in the documentary called HOLLYWOOD: Hazard of the Game (1980).

Locklear and Elliott were buried in Fort Worth after huge funeral ceremonies, both there and in Los Angeles.

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STUNT Gone WRONG: Jayan

Krishnan Nair (July 25, 1939 – November 16, 1980), better known by his stage name Jayan (Malayalam: ജയന്‍), was an Indian film actor, former sailor, stunt performer and 1970s style icon. He worked in Malayalam cinema, a sector of the Indian movie industry. During his film career, he was primarily an action star and was particularly famous for his macho image and unique style. He was reputed for his chauvinistic appeal, masculine persona and well known for performing stunts of dangerous nature on his own. By late 1970s, he became the most popular lead actor and commercial superstar of malayalam film industry and has been acclaimed as the first action hero of Malayalam cinema.

Jayan was an Indian Navy officer before he came to films and rose to fame as an actor in a very short time, appearing as an action hero in numerous films during the 1970s.

He died at the age of 41, at the peak of his popularity, as a result of an accident while filming a dangerous stunt involving a flying helicopter that crashed while he was hanging on to it.

He has since then become a legendary symbol of daredevilry and masculinity with numerous inspirations, imitations, his unfading popularity being widely used to promote newage movies, actors and brands and an evergrowing fanbase spanning generations.

A film titled Avatharam presently under production, is attempting to bring back his screen persona using advanced technologies. A documentary on Jayan’s life and death Jayan – The Man behind the Legend is nearing completion for release on the occasion of his 31st death anniversary.

Death

On 16 November 1980, Jayan was killed in an accident on the set of the movie Kolilakkam (English: Shockwave). The climax scene of the movie was being filmed in Sholavaram, near Chennai, Tamil Nadu. Jayan always performed his own stunts, and for this movie he was performing a particularly dangerous stunt that involved him climbing aboard a flying helicopter from a moving motorbike. The shot was accepted by the director in the first take; altogether three shots were filmed.

The iconic image of Jayan performing the
helicopter stunt, seconds before the tragedy.

According to the film’s production executive, Jayan insisted on yet another re-take as he was not satisfied with its perfection. During the re-take, the helicopter lost its balance and crashed along with Jayan, who later succumbed to his injuries.

After his death was confirmed, a slide was added during the theatre show of his movie Deepam which was running in packed houses, informing his death to the viewers who witnessed it with absolute shock and disbelief. A large number of his fans burst into tears and ran out of the buildings while many continued to watch the movie, refusing to believe it and taking it for a genius promotion for some upcoming project.

Some conspiracy theories emerged regarding the circumstances of his death, primarily because the pilot and his co-star Balan K. Nair, who was in the helicopter, survived with minor or no injuries. Nevertheless, it has been confirmed as a genuine accident.

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