Thursday, March 23, 2006

When you gotta go...


People who have died in front of an audience.

The Cockpit Voice Recorder Database, which has Cockpit Voice Recorder (CVR a/k/a "Black Box") transcripts of aviation accidents and incidents.

Wikipedia's list of unusual deaths. Here are but a few:
  • 456 BC: Aeschylus, Greek dramatist, according to legend, died when a vulture, mistaking his bald head for a stone, dropped a tortoise on it.

  • 1911: Jack Daniel, founder of the famous Tennessee whiskey distillery, died of blood poisoning due to a toe injury he received after kicking his safe in anger when he could not remember its combination code.

  • 1933: Michael Malloy, a homeless man, was murdered by gassing after surviving multiple poisonings, intentional exposure, and being struck by a car. Malloy was murdered by five men in a plot to collect on life insurance policies they'd purchased.
(Growing up in the 1970s, I was an avid reader of all the Irving Wallace books like The Book of Lists, The People's Almanac, The People's Almanac #2 and so forth. I remember originally reading the Michael Malloy story in one of those books, which seemed to be chock-full of useless information like this.)

  • 2003: Brian Wells, pizza deliveryman, was killed by a time bomb which was fastened around his neck. He was apprehended by the police after robbing a bank, and claimed he had been forced to do it by three people who had put the bomb around his neck and would kill him if he refused. The bomb then exploded killing him.

Technorati tags: ,

No comments: