STUNT Gone WRONG: Jim 'Bullet' Bailey, USA

It happened on Wednesday 1 April 1981, in Hawaii, killing Aussie stuntman Jim Bailey.

Australian stuntman Jim Bailey, known as ''The Human Torpedo,'' fell 500 feet to his death from an airplane while making a film for television, authorities said. Initially, authorities said Baily was performing for ABC-TV's ''That's Incredible,'' but the show's producer denied having any connection with the accident.

Witnesses, including members of the Maui Fire Department and the rescue unit, said Bailey, a resident of Brisbane, Australia, was suspended underneath a single-engine Ballanca by a strap and belt when the belt broke. He hung onto the strap for a few seconds before falling.
Officials said the stunt called for Bailey to hang on under the plane during takeoff and slide to a landing when the plane made a ''touch-and-go'' on the strip.

Bailey had appeared twice on ''That's Incredible.'' In an episode televised Jan. 26, he was dragged behind a car and crashed head-first through a flaming wall.

On Dec. 8, 1980, an episode showed Bailey being dragged behind another car at 165 mph and then skidding 1,300 feet along the pavement. But Alan Landsburg, producer of the ABC show, said there was no connection between Bailey's death and ''That's Incredible.'' ''We have nothing going in Hawaii, we're not working there,'' Landsburg said from his Los Angeles office. ''We've been on hiatus for about three and one-half weeks.

We finished our season and we don't start shooting until June. ''The accident obviously shocks us, but there's no way it could have been our crew filming. I tell you it was not our shoot. The accident was not even remotely connected with ''That's Incredible.'' Landsburg said it was possible the accident involving Bailey was being filmed by a private company and Bailey later planned to sell the film to ''That's Incredible.'' Landsburg said accidents have occurred during previous filming for the show, prompting safeguards.

''We've set absolute limits on what we'll buy due to the accident factor,'' the producer said. ''We've had a few accidents and we didn't want any others. We made it very clear that we wouldn't consider that type of outside purchase.''

A Teenager Was Decapitated By a Roller Coaster He Wasn’t Even Riding On | PIN THAT!

Asia LeeShawn Ferguson

On June 28, 2008, 17-year-old Asia LeeShawn Ferguson, a South Carolina teenager, was decapitated after being struck by the Batman roller coaster at Six Flags Over Georgia.

While on a trip at the park with his church’s youth group, the teen along with a friend, scaled a pair of fences into a restricted area and walked into the ride’s path.

Witnesses stated he was trying to retrieve his hat.


The Ride:

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The Dive of DEATH to Save Dog From Hot Springs – David Allen Kirwan, USA

A sad but classic story of man being selfless in the face of danger – a powerful instinct embedded in our psyche which disallows us to sometimes think rationally and results more often than not, in our death.

Heedless of the danger, saving his dog was the only thing on this man’s mind before jumping into the hot springs…

The hot springs found in abundance throughout Yellowstone National Park’s thermal areas are bubbling cauldrons of steam and boiling water, most of them hotter than 150° F, and many of the in the 185° – 205°F range. (Due to the elevation, water boils at about 198° in Yellowstone.)

DEATH By Flowing Scarf – Isadora Duncan, USA

“Affectations can be dangerous.” – Gertrude Stein

Unrelated Image (altered)

Isadora Duncan (May 27, 1877 – September 14, 1927) was a dancer considered by many as a mother of modern dance who defied the current social and dance ideals. She favoured barefeet, flowing clothing, loose hair, and free form movements to the conventional ways. Her communist leanings and unconventional – some might say scandalous– love life made her a controversial figure as she was headlined in many a front pages.
She was bisexual, and alluded to her Communism during her last United States tour, in 1922–23; Duncan waved a red scarf and bared her breast on stage in Boston, proclaiming, “This is red! So am I!”

Born in the United States, she lived in Western Europe and the Soviet Union from the age of 22 until her death at age 50. She has since appeared in pop culture, including a 1968 film entitled Isadora, in which she was portrayed by Vanessa Redgrave.

She performed to acclaim throughout Europe. Duncan’s fondness for flowing scarves was the cause of her death in an automobile accident in Nice, France, on the night of September 14, 1927. The scarf was hand-painted silk from the Russian-born artist Roman Chatov. The accident gave rise to Gertrude Stein’s mordant remark that “affectations can be dangerous.”

Isadora Duncan dancing | Source

Hypoxia and Eventual Plane Crash Led to DEATHS – Golf Pro Payne Stewart et al, USA

Learjet 35 N47BA Prior to crash | Source

This true story involves the deaths of six people who perished aboard a plane – two crew members and four passengers, including two-time U.S. Open golf champ Payne Stewart. Plane crashes are nothing new but the way these people died – lack of oxygen which eventually led to the crash of an ‘unmanned’ plane running out of fuel, and with Stewart being at probably the most satisfying time of his career, made this story all the more intriguing and touching…

It was on that last Monday of October when Stewart boarded the private plane — Registration No. N47BA — at Orlando International Airport along with his agents Robert Fraley, 46, and Van Ardan, 45, golf course designer Bruce Borland, 40, pilot Michael Kling, 42, and co-pilot Stephanie Bellegarrigue, 27, for a two-hour flight to Love Field in Dallas.

But 14 minutes after takeoff, approximately 37,000 feet above northwestern Florida, Jacksonville Air Traffic Control lost contact with N47BA, setting off a chain of events that included three separate military responses by F-16 fighter jets. The National Transportation Safety Board released a 31-page report on the crash Nov. 28, 2000 and investigators concluded that the probable cause was “incapacitation of the flight crewmembers as a result of their failure to receive supplemental oxygen following a loss of cabin pressurization, for undetermined reasons.”

Payne Stewart Jumps Payne Stewart at the 1989 Open
Championship at Royal Troon by Lawrence Levy
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William Payne Stewart (January 30, 1957 – October 25, 1999) was an American professional golfer who won eleven PGA Tour events, including three major championships in his career, the last of which occurred only months before he died in an airplane accident at the age of 42.

Stewart was born in Springfield, Missouri, and attended Greenwood Laboratory School, a K-12 school, on the campus of Missouri State University. He graduated from Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas, where he was a member of Phi Gamma Delta. He was always popular with fans, especially for his distinctive clothing, and was reputed to have the biggest wardrobe of all professional golfers.

He was a favorite of photographers because of his flamboyant attire of ivy caps and patterned pants, which were a cross between plus fours (trousers that extend 4 inches (10 cm) below the knee (and thus four inches longer than traditional knickerbockers, hence the name)) and knickerbockers, a throwback to the once-commonplace golf “uniform.” Stewart was also admired for having one of the most gracefully fluid and stylish golf swings of the modern era.

Skydiver Saved Girl's Life By Acting As HUMAN SHIELD | PIN THAT!

The father of an Australian woman has described the final act of a heroic young skydiving instructor, who calmly told his daughter their plane would crash and embraced her to protect her from the impact.

The instructor and five other people died when their plane hit a power pole and nosedived into a tree soon after take-off from an airport near St Louis, in the US state of Missouri, on Saturday.

Investigators believe the plane had engine failure. A witness reported seeing its right engine in flames moments after take-off.

Two people, including Australian tourist Kimberley Dear, 21, were seriously injured and remain in a US hospital.

Kim Dear with her father William at her overseas send-off, and the wreck of the plane after it nosedived into a suburban backyard. Photo: Supplied/AP | Source

Her father, Bill, of Sydenham in Melbourne’s north-west, spoke to the media at the time and explained the final moments of the life of the brave skydiving instructor.

DEATH Of An Engineer by Horse Sex - Kenneth Pinyan, USA

It's not the most pleasant way to die. It's not even the most pleasant thing to think of. But Kenneth Pinyan, the man who died after having sex with his horse, would change the bestiality law in Washington state making bestiality a Class C felony, punishable by a maximum of five years in a state prison or a $10,000 fine, or both.

In 2005, Kenneth Pinyan (June 22, 1960 – July 2, 2005), an American Boeing engineer residing in Gig Harbor, died from injuries received during anal sex with a stallion at a farm in an unincorporated area in King County, Washington, near the city of Enumclaw. With a population of 10,669 people, Enumclaw is a horse town near the base of Mt. Rainier.

EATEN By Grizzly Bear – Timothy Treadwell and Girlfriend Amie Huguenard, USA (2 Videos)

Timothy Treadwell (April 29, 1957 – October 5, 2003) was an American bear enthusiast, environmentalist, amateur naturalist, eco-warrior and documentary film maker. He lived among the coastal grizzly bears of Katmai National Park in Alaska, USA, for approximately 13 summers. At the end of his 13th summer in the park in 2003, he and his girlfriend Amie Huguenard were killed and eaten by a grizzly bear.   Treadwell’s life, work and death were the subject of the 2005 documentary film by Werner Herzog titled Grizzly Man, (see the docudrama video at the end.)

Timothy Treadwell. Video snapshot

According to Treadwell's book, Among Grizzlies: Living with Wild Bears in Alaska, his mission to protect bears began after he survived a near-fatal heroin overdose in the late 1980s. He confesses in his book that his drug addiction grew from his alcoholism and after that experience, he knew he needed to do something with his life that was meaningful.
A lover of all animals since he was a child, he traveled to Alaska to watch bears at the urging of a close friend. Treadwell writes that after his first encounter with a wild bear, he knew he had found his calling in life. Treadwell attributed his recovery from drug and alcohol addictions entirely to his relationship with bears.

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.

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.”

Source

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 - 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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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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