9 Odd Ironic Ways To Die

Sharon · #1 ● 03-18-2011, 09:26 PM

9. Death by Storm Drain A Canadian man died after attempting to retrieve his stolen wallet from a storm sewer drain. The wallet was stolen after the 57-year-old man left them at a gas station. He called police before finding the wallet in a nearby sewer drain. He tried unsuccessfully to reach it before the police arrived and cautioned him not to try again. But the man came back later, removed the grate and gave it another try. When an officer investigating the crime noticed the man's truck had returned, he went to check the drain and found the man wedged headfirst several feet below. The victim was still alive at this point and remained so as firefighters used a tow truck to pull him from the drain. He was pronounced dead at the hospital a short time later.

8. Death by Deodorant In 1998, a 16-year-old boy in England passed away from a heart attack after being exposed to too many deodorant fumes. At the time of his death, the BBC claimed that more than 130 people had died after purposely inhaling aerosol deodorant products since 1971, but the boy's death was the only accidental case on record. He was obsessed with smelling fresh, so he'd spray his entire body with deodorant at least two times per day. It got so bad at times that the family of the boy could taste the fumes downstairs. An autopsy revealed that he had 10 times the lethal amount of butane and propane in his bloodstream. It turns out that the boy used the deodorant in a confined space even though warning labels recommend using it in a well-ventilated area.

7. Death by Beard
Austria, mid-1500s. Hans Steininger's beard was4.5 feet long, which lead to his untimely death. Hans would keep his beard rolled up in a leather pouch, but failed to do so one day in 1567. A fire broke out in his town that day and he reportedly tripped on his beard while trying to evacuate. There are conflicting reports as to whether Steininger broke his neck or perished in the fire, but either way it was a very bizarre way to go.

6. Death by Hungry Sheep Sheep are pretty docile creatures. Sadly, in 1999, a woman in England found out that sheep can have an aggressive side as well if they're hungry enough. Betty Stobbs was a farmer's wife and 67 years old at the time of her tragic encounter. She was taking hay to the family's flock of sheep using an all-terrain vehicle (ATV) with a small trailer attached. The sheep were in a field overlooking a quarry. When Stobbs arrived, the hungry herd charged and jumped onto the ATV, knocking her off into the quarry. The sad irony is that she didn't die from the fall itself. She may have even lived through the tumble, but the ATV was knocked off as well and crushed her.

5. Death by Video Game
Activity on the gaming front has led to concerns over video game addiction: in 2005 a young man from South Korea passed away after a long stint playing the online version of game Starcraft. The game is popular in South Korea. The 28-year-old man in this tragedy had been playing the game for nearly 50 hours straight at an Internet café in Taegu, taking only short breaks to nap and use the restroom. He was rushed to a hospital after collapsing, but died shortly thereafter. Police believed that the cause of death was cardiac arrest brought on by severe exhaustion.

4. Death by Molasses This wasn't one death, but 21 deaths -- all from the same bizarre cause. In January 1919, Boston, a large tank containing about 2.5 million gallons of molasses exploded in a neighborhood in the city's North End. The tank was 50 feet high, had a diameter of 90 feet and was situated on the waterfront in an area populated at the time largely by Italian immigrants. Nobody is sure what caused the massive explosion that sent shrapnel flying as far as 200 feet.
Some of the deaths are attributed to the force of the blast itself, and it's impossible to say now exactly how many perished in the aftermath. But we do know that the explosion caused a wall of molasses that was reportedly 25 feet high to flow into the neighborhood at an estimated 35 miles per hour. The sticky wave knocked people over, causing them to drown in the thick, brown liquid.

3. Death by Hollywood Sign Peg Entwistle, a young actress from Wales, had some success on the stage, even Broadway in New York, but she was drawn to the bright lights of Hollywood.
In California, she played a small part in the film "Thirteen Women" but the fame she desired still eluded her. Test screenings of the film meant much of her work was edited out of the final cut. On Sept. 16, 1932, she climbed up to the famous Hollywood sign for her final act. The sign still read "Hollywoodland" and was an advertisement for a new housing development. Entwistle left her belongings, including a suicide note, at the base of the sign and then climbed up and leapt from the top of the letter "H."
Her body lay there for two days before it was spotted and later identified by her uncle. Her suicide note simply said, "I am afraid, I am a coward. I am sorry for everything. If I had done this a long time ago, it would have saved a lot of pain. P.E." In an ironic twist, a letter arrived for Entwistle the day following her death offering her a part in a movie about a woman on the verge on suicide.

2. Death by Junk Pile Langley and Homer Collyer moved to the New York neighborhood of Harlem in 1909 when they were in their twenties. Sons of an upper class family, the brothers became increasingly hermitic over the years and began to hoard items. It's estimated that there were 180 tons (163 metric tons) of "junk" in the apartment. Chandeliers, broken prams, smashed pianos, cracked clocks and furniture was stacked in every corner of their home. Homer went blind in the 1930s and was bedridden because of rheumatism by 1940. His younger brother cared for his every need and even saved hundreds of thousands of newspapers in hopes that Homer would regain his sight.
The home was also booby-trapped in places to prevent intruders. Langley tripped on one of the traps and was buried beneath an avalanche of junk. Unable to help, Homer could only slowly starve to death as his brother lay dead under the pile of refuse. Police reportedly searched Manhattan for weeks before realizing that Langley was buried in his own home.

1. Death by Unexplained Phenomenon What exactly happened to cause the deaths of nine hikers in the Ural Mountains of Russia on Feb. 2, 1959, remains one of the country's unsolved mysteries. On Jan. 28, 10 students set off hiking. One member fell ill and was left behind to rest in a mountain settlement.
The other nine never made it out of the woods, and what investigators found was both frightening and confusing. Their abandoned tent was found ripped open from the inside, half buried in snow, with the shoes and belongings of the students still inside. The first two bodies were found at the edge of the forest, barefoot and dressed in their underwear. The next three bodies were found nearby in similar condition. Two months later, the last of the bodies were found buried in the snow about 250 feet from the first victims.
These four students had massive internal injuries, broken ribs and crushed skulls. One of them was missing her tongue. One thing that perplexed investigators was the fact that there was no sign of struggle and no external wounds. The final four victims were wearing some of the clothes of the others that were found to have high levels of radiation.