When you gotta go, you gotta go

Skin diving with gas tanks you stole from a dentist.
Renting a basement apartment in Venice.

Wearing clown shoes while walking through a mine field at night.
Getting a life-size tatoo of someone your height.

(from Paul Gilmartin's brilliant audio poem "Undignified Ways To Die")

Thanks to growabrain for cluing me in to the fascinatingly tragic/tragically fascinating Unusual Death. Take this tidbit culled from a Melbourne, Australia newspaper:

A dwarf nicknamed Od has died in a circus accident in northern Thailand. According to the Pattaya Mail, he "bounced sideways from a trampoline and was swallowed by a yawning hippopotamus which was waiting to appear in the next act. Vets on the scene said Hilda the Hippo had a gag reflex that automatically caused her to swallow." The vet said it was the first time the hefty vegetarian had ever eaten a circus performer. "Unfortunately, the 1,000-plus spectators continued to applaud widely until common-sense dictated that there had been a tragic mistake". (Melbourne Herald Sun - July 16th, 1999)

Another one would be the bizarre incident in the summer of 2003 involving the pizza delivery man who robbed an Erie, PA bank wearing a bomb collared around his neck. He told police at the scene he had been lured to a remote site under the guise of a pizza delivery, abducted by a group of strangers and was forced to commit the robbery or else they would explode the device. The bomb exploded shortly thereafter, just minutes before the bomb squad arrived.

I recalled hearing about this when it happened three years ago and am not exactly surprised to hear that the case remains unsolved. Additionally, you can also read this much more in-depth article on what has been dubbed The Erie Collar Bomber case. I see that America's Most Wanted also ran a profile on the case and provides some further info, pics and video. Worth a look.

Technorati tags: unusual deaths, Brian Wells