Star-Tribune (Minn. & St. Paul), Jan 4, 1988 ANGOLA — Six South African soldiers died of malaria and more than 100 were being treated for the disease after contracting it while stationed in Angola, a South African newspaper reported. The troops were supplied with anti-malaria tablets, but many did not take them because they feared they would keep them from getting a good suntan, the Sunday Times of Johannesburg said.

Associated Press, Jun 16, 2003

ALLENHURST, NJ — A landscaper who kicked a tree branch to force it into wood chipper was fatally injured when his legs got pulled into the shredder.Monmouth County authorities identified the man as Rigoberto Martinez, 20, of Long Branch, an employee of MJR Tree Service in Long Branch.Martinez was feeding branches into the industrial-size chipper outside a private residence at about 10:40 a.m. Saturday when a branch became stuck in the intake chute.

Martinez then kicked the branch, and his right foot somehow became caught in the machine, which also pulled in his left leg, authorities said.

The homeowner, Victor Towil, called police and medics. Robert Honecker, an assistant county prosecutor, said the chipper had been shut off by the time help arrived, but it was too late to save Martinez.

Knight-Ridder, October 19, 1987

GOIANIA, BRAZIL — By day, this fast-growing city of 1.7 million, with its skyscrapers rising like a mirage out of the fertile emerald-green plains of central Brazil, teems with traffic and commerce.

But the night belongs to the trash pickers.

They trudge along the streets of the agricultural centre that oversees distribution of rice, meat and milk to the rest of the country, dragging huge wooden carts behind them.

Such a man was Roberto Santos Alves, 24, who, last month, happened upon a discarded irradiation machine in a weed-strewn lot on a busy street corner not far from the airport.

Santos Alves had no way of knowing that the machine, which seemed to belong to no one, housed a tiny capsule of the highly radioactive isotope cesium 137. He looked at the machine and saw scrap iron.

So he got some friends to help him haul it into his back yard, where they placed it on an old brown rug and smashed it with hammers, unwittingly provoking one of the worst-known accidents involving radioactive waste.

In the wake of the accident, 20 people remain hospitalized, six in critical condition. An additional 15 are under observation by an outpatient clinic. About 125 residents have been forced to leave homes near contaminated sites where Santos Alves and his friends, in their ignorance, carried the cesium.

The government has offered assurances that the scope of the disaster in no way approximates last year's accident at Chernobyl in the Soviet Union. "That was a nuclear accident, and this is a radioactive accident," President Jose Sarney said last week. But many people are worried.

Innocent victims The accident has provoked a national debate over what to do with atomic waste and has set off protest demonstrations across the country. And it has left behind a string of innocent victims who were taken by the almost magical brilliance of a substance that was so deadly.

On Oct. 14, doctors amputated Santos Alves's right forearm. It had been badly ulcerated by radiation burns. He is not expected to live. Nor are at least five others, including 6-year-old Leide Alves Ferreira. All the victims touched the cesium, fascinated by its blue glow. Some, like Leide, ingested it as well.

"They had no idea what it was," said Manoel Ramos, 26, a technician for Brazil's Nuclear Energy Commission, which is in charge of cleaning up 11 sites known to be contaminated by radiation.

"People saw the light of the cesium and thought it was a precious gem," Ramos said.

The New York Times, May 21, 1924

LOS ANGELES, CA — W.T. Ross, a real estate dealer, took his own life today [May 20] in an experiment to determine whether death was merely a transition into another life.

His body was found in his room. He had seated himself on the floor, head propped against a rocking-chair, and had drained a death potion mixed in a glass.

Notes scattered about the floor and inside the covers and on pages of books on the occult, lying on the floor and shelves indicated that Mr. Ross had delved deep into spiritism and the occult, and was seeking an explanation of things which he had read. One of the notes stated that the writer didn't know whether he would return and made the experiment to find out. In another note he directed that all his property and belongings be turned over to his friend, Miss Grace Wilson, parish minister of the Wilshire Congregational Church.

Houston Chronicle, Aug 9, 2002 HOUSTON, TX — It was a strange place to sleep. But for some reason known only to her, a woman who regularly wandered the Ridgemont subdivision in far southwest Houston decided to lie down beneath a pickup outside somebody else's house.

That ill-fated decision cost the woman her life early Thursday. The truck owner, not knowing anyone was under his vehicle, left his driveway to go to work. The truck ran over the woman and dragged her body 12 to 15 feet out into the street.

The homeless woman decided to bed down beneath a pickup truck.

The 44-year-old woman, whose name was not released, was dead by the time she hit the road. She may have been dead before the truck ran over her. An autopsy will have to answer that question.

Residents say little was known about the woman, but her activities were discussed by many.

At one time, she had a home nearby where she died but was leasing that house to someone else while she wandered the streets. Neighbors told police she was homeless and sometimes slept in people's yards.

Houston police were still trying to locate family to tell of the woman's death late Thursday.

"I've seen some strange things, but that was strange," said Fort Bend County Precinct 2 Justice of the Peace Joel Clouser Sr., who pronounced the woman dead.

Before the driver left, he started his truck to warm up the engine and went back into the house to take out the garbage, Clouser said.

But even the sound of the rumbling truck engine didn't stir the slumbering woman.

The justice of the peace said the man looked back and saw the woman stretched out in the middle of the street. He went on to work, but phoned his wife and told her to call 911, Clouser said. The man later returned home when he realized what happened.

"It's the strangest thing, that she didn't wake up when he turned the engine on and was warming up the truck. It could be maybe she was high on drugs or she died from natural causes," Clouser said.

"We don't know what her problem was — if she had mental problems, drug problems or what," he said. "She looked homeless."

The woman had been seen in one neighbor's yard the night before, lying down.

The truck owner and his wife were both shaken by the incident, which will go to a grand jury for review. "It was not intentional," Clouser said.

Philadelphia Daily News, Dec 18, 1999 PHILADELPHIA, PA — The burglar cut a hole big enough to slip through the roof of the Logan market.

Or so she thought.

She slithered down into the building, her arms above her, but as she was about to break through the ceiling, a portion of it collapsed, trapping her by the neck on some pipes, police said.

The fall didn't kill her though.

The woman hung suspended from the ceiling by the neck for days without food or water.

Yesterday the wife of the store owner found her there dead. Her decomposing body was still dangling from the ceiling, police said.

Another attempted theft at the Bellwin Market, at 16th Street and Windrim Avenue, was the reason for the market's closure this week, police said yesterday.

On Dec. 7 owner Dong Woon, 52 of Lansdale, was shot once in the eye after an attempted robbery. That suspect is still at large, police said.

The store had been shut since.

Woon's wife had last checked on the store Dec. 9. She found the would-be burglar about noon yesterday during her latest check.

The victim, who was not identified, was believed to be between the ages of 25 and 30.

New York Daily News, Feb 11, 2004 QUEENS, NY — A Queens teenager was killed yesterday when a subway train slammed into her after she retrieved the new $80 cell phone she had just dropped on the tracks, police said.

Two good Samaritans desperately tried to pull Lina Villegas, 18, to safety as the V train roared around a blind curve into the Grand Ave.-Newtown station in Elmhurst.

But it was too late to save the teen, who was knocked from her would-be rescuers' hands as she was crushed by the Manhattan-bound train.

"I still can't believe the story. I still can't believe it's true," Villegas' heartbroken best friend, Angie Redondo, 24, of Elmhurst, wept last night.

The tragedy unfolded about 2 p.m., when Villegas dropped her prized phone, which she had bought just a month ago with her wages as a worker at Manhattan perfume company.

She climbed onto the tracks and grabbed the phone. But the teen quickly realized she was in trouble and started try to climb back up to the 5-foot-high platform.

"She tried to get up on the platform once or twice with no train coming or anything, and I could see she was going to have a problem," said one good Samaritan, a 56-year-old TV newswriter named Jerry. "She turned around to make one more look or something, and then I could hear the train coming."

He ran toward Villegas while another man was reaching down to grab her hand as the lights of the train lit up the tunnel entrance 40 feet away.

"She immediately tried to get up on the platform," said Jerry, who did not want his last name used. "She had her arms above on the platform and the guy that was there had grabbed hold of her one arm and was trying to pull her up, and at that point you could see the lights on the tracks."

Jerry then grabbed the man and tried to pull him back to help him hoist the teen to safety.

"I was hoping he could hang on to her and I could pull him back and that would pull her out ... but it didn't work," he said. "You could hear the emergency brakes come on, but the train was too close. I think it probably knocked her right out of his hands or he let go just before it hit her."

Jerry said he screamed, "No!" and turned away from the bloody scene.

"I didn't look," he said. "I didn't want to. There was nothing to do."

Friends tried last night to comfort Villegas' mother, Nori Penagos, 45, who immigrated from Colombia seven years ago and brought her daughter here in 2001.

"She's crying," Redondo said of Penagos, who works as a manicurist. "She doesn't believe what happened."

Redondo said Villegas, who dreamed of saving enough money to go to college and become an architect, bought the Sprint cellphone about a month ago.

Villegas' father, Groelfi, and 9-year-old brother, Camillo, still live in Colombia, but had hoped to move to New York someday, friends said.

Gabriel Santos, 49, who rents a room in his Elmhurst apartment to Villegas and her mother, said the girl had the day off from work yesterday and was on her way to do errands in Manhattan.

"She was a very nice girl, very happy, very active. She loved to dance," Santos said of Villegas, who worked at a perfume store near 28th St. and Broadway.

"She was a beautiful lady."

Florida Times-Union, Oct 3, 1998 JACKSONVILLE, FL — Melvyn Nurse came from a world of drugs and guns before finding God and Jacksonville's Livingway Christian Fellowship Church 13 years ago. But even after starting his new life, he never forgot.

Thursday, the youth minister died from injuries resulting from a self-inflicted gunshot wound — an accidental death that came from efforts to educate today's youth that guns kill. It was a powerful message left ringing in the ears of all who attended.

For this, church members are proclaiming him a hero.

"He said, 'I want you to hear it [the discharge]. You single mothers, if somebody's fooling you and somebody has this, your babies could get a hold of it,'" Associate Pastor Michael Cooper recalled of the lecture. "I believe he was in the same mind-frame as I was, that you don't get hurt using blanks."

Nurse had dry-fired the .357-caliber revolver several times after inserting one blank into the chamber and spinning the cylinder. He fired the gun into the ceiling once and put it down on a podium and continued his metaphorical message about weapons, drugs and dangerous games people play — like Russian roulette.

At the end of the 30-minute presentation last week, Nurse grabbed the gun again, this time putting it to his head and squeezing the trigger. His body collapsed behind the podium in front of a congregation of 200, including his wife and four daughters.

"He was out of sight, and everybody was waiting. We thought it was part of the demonstration," Cooper said. "I got up and saw it was real."

Nurse, 35, was taken to University Medical Center, where he remained in critical condition until his death Thursday afternoon.

"He was trying to convey a point that sin leads to death," said Associate Pastor Charlie Freeman. "Brother Nurse is a hero. What makes him a hero is his love for young people and seeing great change in young people and turning them from the direction they're going in."

For this, church members are proclaiming him a hero.

But local gun enthusiasts say Nurse's death was needless, the result of his lack of education.

"Every firearm should be treated as though it's loaded," said Mark Finnell, a salesman at Southside Gun & Pawn. "It was a lack of knowledge in this situation that caused this serious tragedy."

Cooper said Nurse, an apartment complex maintenance supervisor, had visited gun ranges and was aware of the danger. But neither pastor knew that a blank bullet could be just as damaging as the real thing.

The force of the shot shattered Nurse's skull.

"It just doesn't make any sense to put a gun to your head and pull the trigger, whether it's loaded or not," Finnell said. "I would have stopped him if I could have taken the gun out of his hands."

Cooper said Nurse never planned to point the barrel at his head. He planned on firing it over his head, but his aim was off.

Regardless, Cooper said the church and the Nurse family would go on. He said it's not up to anyone to question God's motives.

For now, he said all they can do is stop asking why and focus on the good it accomplished.

"After the demonstration it was 3-D. It was impounded in them, and you will never forget that. There's no way you could ever forget this message," Cooper said. "Guns, as he said, are dangerous no matter who uses them."

Funeral arrangements were unavailable last night. Reuters, Aug 18, 2002

TULSA, OK — A suspected thief, weighed down with more than 50 pounds of stolen cameras and CDs, among other items, drowned as he attempted to evade police by swimming across the Arkansas River, officials said.

The man, identified as Edward McBride, 37, was carrying a duffel bag weighing 50 pounds that contained stolen items and was found Friday with stolen goods also stuffed in his pockets, said Tulsa police spokesman Lucky Lamons.

He was being pursued by Tulsa police who suspected him of robbing a Tulsa home when he jumped into the muddy Arkansas River.

"He got about 40 yards out and yelled for help," Lamons said. "The officers took off their shirts, shoes and belts off and jumped into the river. By the time they reached him, he had gone under."

Lamons said rescue workers retrieved McBride's body about an hour later from about 8 feet to 10 feet of water along with the duffel bag containing stolen goods.

Lethbridge Herald (Alberta), Nov 19, 2003ALBERTA, CANADA — Josh Emard couldn't believe his eyes Tuesday when a local man dove under a slow-moving semi and was crushed to death under its rear wheels. All for a hat.

High morning winds blew the baseball hat off the man's head as he got out of his small white convertible in the parking lot of the UFA Farm Supply Store in the 2900 block of 2 Avenue North.

As the truck rolled forward, Keenan dove under to grab his hat.

The wind carried the well-worn blue-and-white hat underneath a loaded semi trailer just as it started to move.

"The truck was rolling forward, and he dove under to grab the hat. He tried to grab it and wiggle out quickly," said Emard, a fuel delivery driver for UFA.

He wondered at first if what he was seeing might just be a stunt.

"It was just unbelievable that someone would go under a moving semi for a hat."

Derek Keenan, 44, of Lethbridge died at the scene after the truck's rear wheels rolled over his upper body. The truck came to a stop with Keenan's body underneath the flatbed trailer loaded with pre-cast concrete drainage pipe.

Emard wondered at first if what he was seeing might just be a stunt.

Emard watched the incident unfold from next door at the UFA bulk fuel plant where he was preparing to leave on a delivery. He watched as the driver got out of the truck, bent down to look underneath it and then ran into the farm supply store to call for help. Then Emard ran to get help, too.

"(Josh) came running in and said 'I think a guy just got run over by that truck over there'," said Ken Hofman, who called 911 from his cellphone after running to the scene with Emard and another staff member.

"You could see he got ran over by both sets of wheels on the back of the truck," Hofman said, adding the victim didn't appear to be breathing.

Moments later, emergency medical personnel from the Lethbridge fire department arrived and tried unsuccessfully to revive Keenan.

Afterward, the 40-year-old truck driver, looking visibly shaken, was helped into an ambulance and taken to Lethbridge Regional Hospital. He's from Beiseker, located east of Airdrie.

Lethbridge police Sgt. Tom Ascroft said no charges will be laid.

"A very odd set of circumstances led to a very tragic accident," he said.

The Irish Examiner, Mar 21, 2002

DUBLIN, IRELAND — A thief lost his life as he tried to make his escape on a bicycle after stealing a mobile phone, an inquest heard yesterday. Wayne Devoy, 24, cycled at speed straight into rush-hour traffic, hitting a bus and suffering fatal injuries after he had robbed a mobile phone.

The tragic incident happened at the junction of Litton Lane and Bachelor's Walk, one of the main thoroughfares in Dublin city.

Lynott's cell phone was swiped out of his hand by the cyclist.

Gerard Lynott said his mobile was "swiped" out of his hand by Devoy as he was talking outside a hostel on Litton Lane at 5pm on August 23 2001.

"I had to get my phone back and I ran after him, but I didn't call out. There wasn't a hope I was going to catch him," he said.

The thief was not pausing for pedestrians and went straight into the front of a bus.

"I couldn't believe he was cycling at such high speed onto Bachelor's Walk. He was not pausing for pedestrians and went straight into the front of a bus."

Eyewitness Lindsey Murphy told the Dublin City coroner's court that Devoy came out of the lane very fast.

"He didn't bother to look and as he turned right he went into the bus full force."

John Nickson, a passenger on the Number 90 Dublin Bus,said he saw Devoy "flashing out of the lane".

"I recoiled my hands up as I thought he was going to hit where I was seated. It frightened me so much I can't remember the details."

Devoy's mother Rita, sobbed uncontrollably during the hearing, which was also attended by her sons Gary and Jonathan.

Bus driver Dermot Daly said he did not see the crash. He said the deceased hit the bus between the front and middle doors.

Passerby Felix Murray, experienced in first aid, said Devoy was breathing heavily and made an effort to get up, but collapsed before an ambulance arrived.

Garda Brendan O'Sullivan said Devoy could not be identified initially but when they checked his fingerprints his name came up and they contacted the family.

Devoy, from Sean Tracey House flat complex, Buckingham Street, Dublin 1, was first brought to Mater Hospital A&E. He was transferred to the intensive care unit at Beaumont Hospital, where he died eight days later.

The post mortem showed he died from swelling and bruising to the brain as a result of severe head injuries.

The jury returned a verdict of accidental death, which was welcomed by Rita Devoy.

Coroner Dr Brian Farrell described the accident as tragic and expressed his deepest sympathies to the family.

United Press International, Oct 30, 1979BALTIMORE, MD — A man who fled a downtown restaurant to avoid paying a $3.43 check ran into the path of a tractor-trailer and was crushed to death.

Police say the man, who was not immediately identified, ate breakfast at the Bee Hive Restaurant yesterday and walked out the door without paying.

"That will teach him not to eat and run."

When he got outside, they said, he ran several blocks, then darted between two parked cars into the street.

A tractor-trailer driving down the street struck the man and pinned him under its first set of back wheels. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

"That will teach him not to eat and run," a police officer said.

Associated Press, Jan 2, 1996CALCUTTA, INDIA — A tiger killed one man and mauled another at the Calcutta zoo Monday when they tried to put a marigold garland around its neck in a New Year's greeting.

Prakesh Tiwari, the dead man, and Suresh Rai had been drinking before they bought the floral garlands and crossed the moat around the tiger's enclosure, authorities said.

They wanted to put a garland around the neck of a tiger.

The Royal Bengal cat was named "Shiva" — after the Hindu god of destruction.

"I was shocked to see the two young men weaving about in front of a tiger with garlands in their hands," said Rakesh Banerjee, who witnessed the attack that triggered panic and a near stampede in the zoo.

The men, both in their 20s, were trying to put the garland on a 13-year-old male Royal Bengal tiger named "Shiva" after the Hindu god of destruction.

When Rai threw the garland around Shiva's neck, the tiger attacked him. His friend Tiwari intervened, kicking the tiger in the face. The tiger released Rai and attacked and killed Tiwari.

"I saw it all; the tiger turned and jumped on the other young man and put its head on the man's neck and within moments the man was apparently dead, his head dangling," Banerjee said.

About 1,000 people witnessed the attack. They threw stones at the tiger who left Tiwari's body and returned to an iron enclosure. A zookeeper locked him inside.

Rai was in stable condition in a hospital with cuts and torn muscles.

Philadelphia Inquirer, Aug 21, 1992SHANGHAI, CHINA — Call him unreliable, call him undependable, but don't call Mr. Wei indestructible or, for that matter, much of a mystic.

The late Mr. Wei of Shanghai, that is.

At the all-knowing age of 22, Mr. Wei believed he had mastered the mystical art of qi gong,or supernatural powers.

Full of himself, as 22-year-olds often are, and perhaps not much impressed with the world his elders had created through their own obviously fallible power, Mr. Wei decided to demonstrate to his mother the wonders he could work through qi gong.

To test his mystic power, Wei took his mother, as witness, to a railway and laid on the tracks.

To test his powers, Mr. Wei took his mother, as witness, to a railway outside of the city, and there he lay himself on the tracks, in the path of an oncoming train. Qi gong, he believed, would empower him to stop the locomotive.

"His family believed he was just talking idly. They never thought he'd really lie down on the tracks," said the newspaper Liberation Daily.

"But the train didn't stop and the man was crushed beneath the cow-catcher in front of the train wheels," the newspaper said.

And Mr. Wei was going, going, gong.

Reuters, Jul 17, 1987MANILA, PHILIPPINES — Two men were shot dead when they argued that the chicken came before the egg, a Philippine newspaper reported.

The large-circulation Philippine Daily Inquirer, quoting investigators, said four proponents for the egg coming first took out their pistols and shot the men after one of them, thinking his view had won, made an obscene gesture.

Associated Press, Oct 27, 1998ST PETERSBURG, FL — A man apparently bent on revenge tried to set a neighbor's house on fire, then died when his getaway truck burst into flames, authorities said.

Eldon "Sonny" Green died Sunday night at Tampa General Hospital.

Green, while driving his truck early Sunday, lighted a plastic bottle filled with gasoline and hurled it at the home of Joseph Carnesi, police said. He tried to drive away but crashed into a tree about 40 feet away, and the truck burst into flames.

He tried to drive away but crashed into a tree. The truck burst into flames.

Witnesses found Green's body engulfed in flames.

"His entire body was on fire. It was awful," said neighbor Scott Rollins, who looked outside when he heard screams.

There had been animosity between Green and Carnesi for months, police said.

Carnesi was charged with sexual assault in June on a relative of Green's, but pleaded no contest to a reduced charge of battery, court records show. Since the case's settlement, Carnesi said Green and others had threatened him.

Green's apparent arson attempt caused only minor damage to the roof of Carnesi's home.

St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Oct 12, 1994ST. LOUIS, MO — A man stole a hot dog from a 7-Eleven store and choked to death when he tried to eat the evidence, St. Louis police said Tuesday.

Paramedics said the man, Robert Puelo, 32, of the 3400 block of Chippewa Street, had a six-inch piece of hot dog in his throat Monday night when they tried to revive him.

When the clerk called the cops, Puelo stuffed a hot dog into his mouth and took off.

Three additional chunks of hot dog also were lodged in his throat, authorities said.

Sgt. James Cox said Puelo and a man identified as his brother, Mark Vogel, 28, of St. Charles, entered the 7-Eleven at 3346 Gravois Avenue about 8:20 p.m. Monday and started talking loud and cursing.

When the clerk told them she was calling the police, Puelo stuffed a hot dog into his mouth and left the store. He collapsed outside.

Cox said that when he arrived, he saw the man's fingertips turning blue. Puelo was pronounced dead at St. Louis University Hospital.

Associated Press, Oct 13, 1998

NORIAS, TX — For many Mexican immigrants seeking a better life in Texas and beyond, the path is familiar. So are its myths.

The route traverses the world's largest privately held ranch, the 825,000-acre King Ranch south of Corpus Christi, where 50,000 cattle graze among cotton, grain, scrub brush and oil derricks. The dangers are well documented — nine illegal immigrants died in searing heat this summer.

There is a misbelief that if you sleep between the tracks, snakes won't get you.

Copperheads, corals, rattlers and other venomous snakes also infest the range, and authorities say that may explain why six men were sleeping in the path of a Union Pacific freight train that crushed them to death early Monday.

Unfortunately, trains will.

"There is a great (misbelief) that if you sleep between the railroad tracks, snakes won't get you," Union Pacific spokesman Mark Davis said. "Unfortunately, trains will."

The six unidentified men, believed to be undocumented immigrants from Mexico, were killed around 3:15 a.m. by a 105-car train carrying mixed freight on its way to Brownsville from Houston.

Train engineers said they never had a chance to avoid the men.

"The train crew saw some debris on the tracks," said Letty Garza of the U.S. Border Patrol. "That next split second, they saw heads raise up and then six people were killed instantly."

An agent happened to be working near the accident.

"He heard the train, then all of a sudden he heard something — he described it as a loud slapping," she said.

The train was traveling about 45 mph and took a half-mile and several minutes to stop, Garza said. No cars derailed.

Even after authorities cleaned up the site, pieces of bloody human tissue remained between the tracks, with crushed cans of beans, packages of tortillas and a roll of toilet paper — provisions for the journey — strewn about.

Investigators will try to identify the men through fingerprints and dental records, said Kenedy County Sheriff Rafael Cuellar Jr. One man was carrying an identification card.

The sheriff said similar train accidents have happened in his county, but none involving so many men. Union Pacific is working with the Border Patrol to discourage immigrants and transients from seeking refuge on the tracks.

Associated Press, Oct 26, 1998

MOREHEAD CITY, NC — A 20-year-old man died after swallowing dozens of over-the-counter caffeine pills on a dare from a fellow community college student.

Jason Warren Allen had swallowed most of a 90-pill bottle, which would be the equivalent to drinking as many as 250 cups of coffee, authorities said.

The 90-pill bottle was equal to 250 cups of coffee.

"It's a terrible, terrible story," said Morehead City police Major Wrenn Johnson. "No one suspects caffeine to be deadly."

Allen was taking general education development classes at Cateret Community College. He collapsed outside the college during a break from class Oct. 20. It wasn't known when he took the pills.

A security guard found him and called the rescue squad, which took him to Carteret General Hospital, where he died Wednesday.

Authorities said it appeared that Allen died of heart rhythm irregularities associated with the high dose of caffeine, which is a central nervous system stimulant.

Prosecutor David McFayden said he wouldn't decide whether to pursue charges until the police complete interviews and toxicology tests are in. Reuters, Oct 16, 1997AMMAN, JORDAN — Five men drowned in northern Jordan on Thursday after one of them jumped into a well to recover his car keys and the rest plunged in one after the other to try to save him, the official Petra news agency reported.

It said the first man dropped his keys into the stone well, dived in to get them back, but rapidly lost consciousness.

His brother tried to save him, then the third, the fourth, the fifth ...

"The other tried to save him, then the third and the fourth and the fifth," the agency said. They were taken to hospital in Deir Abi Saeed, near the northern city of Irbid, but all died.

The agency named the five victims as brothers Qassem, Hamdan and Musleh Saleh, all in their 20s, and brothers Rateb and Firas Khalil.

A sixth man who jumped in the well, Taha Mohammad, survived, Petra said.

Philadelphia Inquirer, Oct 14, 1993BORDENTOWN, NJ — After drinking heavily with friends Tuesday night, Marco Birkhimer, an up-and-coming handyman, left the house and walked onto a busy highway.

Then, on a dare — and in a scene resembling one in the new movie, The Program — Birkhimer sat down on the white dividing line. Palms flat, he leaned back on his arms and stared into the headlights speeding north on Route 206 at the Carmen Avenue jughandle in Bordentown.

Soon, as friends and passers-by watched, Birkhimer, 24, of Bordentown City was dead.

He sat down on the white dividing line, leaned back on his arms and stared into the headlights.

Township police said yesterday that Birkhimer was killed instantly when struck by a vehicle whose driver fled the scene about 10 p.m. A second vehicle also hit Birkhimer, and his body ended up 40 to 50 feet away.

Yesterday, police said they were aware of the similarities between Birkhimer's act and those of five college football players in The Program, which portrays a college football team's battle for a championship. The movie is playing in area tbeaters, and the scene on the road has been used in television previews. In the movie, the players had been to a bar, but were not drunk.

Police said neither Birkhimer's friends nor other witnesses made a connection between Birkhimer and the movie.

Police dismissed the stunt's similarity to scenes in The Program, a college movie playing in area theaters. "We wouldn't make that link," Police Chief George Moyer said. "We have no concern with that movie. We deal in facts."

Movie or no movie, "It's pretty stupid, if you asked me," said Police Sgt. Danny S. Kiernan, who is leading the investigation. He declined to release the names of witnesses, a couple of whom had swerved their vehicles to avoid hitting Birkhimer, he said.

Kiernan said he cared less about whether Birkhimer lost his life trying to imitate art than he did about finding the driver of the first vehicle, which stopped on the highway shoulder 500 feet past the point of impact and then drove off.

"It's a red vehicle, whatever it was," Kiernan said. The driver will not face criminal charges — Birkhimer was "sitting in a roadway," Kiernan pointed out — if he comes forward promptly.

"He more than likely knows that he killed somebody," the sergeant said. "I've been in this business 14 years. You hit somebody and you don't stop — that's crazy."

If police are forced to track down the driver, the Burlington County Prosecutor's Office could charge him with death by auto, or manslaughter.

The driver of the second car, Angela L. Russo, 18, stayed at the scene until police arrived and will not face charges, Kiernan said.

"I don't think there's anything unlawful about daring somebody to do something and then they get killed."

Russo could not be reached for comment yesterday, but Kiernan said she had just left her job at the nearby Bradlees department store and was heading to her home in Trenton when her car struck Birkhimer.

As for the man who made the dare, Kiernan said he, faces no charges either.

"I don't think there's anything unlawful about daring somebody to do something and then they get killed," Kiernan said.

Meanwhile, Birkhimer's family, friends and neighbors living and working in downtown Bordentown City were struggling yesterday to understand the senseless death.

A man and woman who answered the door at Birkhimer's home said his family had no comment.

Orange County Register, Nov 2, 1990FRESNO, CA — Joseph W. "Amazing Joe" Burrus thought he had it figured out: how to be "the next Houdini and Greater."

But his death-defying escape from the grave ended Wednesday night in Fresno with death the victor — exactly 64 Halloweens from the day the Great Houdini died.

Burrus died under 3 feet of dirt topped by about 6,000 pounds of wet concrete. The combined weight, estimated at about 7 tons, crushed a clear plastic coffin in which Burrus attempted to perform his trick.

Burrus, 32, had set everything up. Although friends, associates, a radio station and even adoring children said his plan meant certain death, he had himself chained and handcuffed inside the coffin and buried in a 7-foot grave at Blackbeard's Family Fun Center. His plan was simple, but an above-ground trial run showed the outcome probably would be fatal.

His plan was simple, but an above-ground trial run showed the outcome probably would be fatal.

He tried it at Pumpkin King, a Halloween pumpkin lot at Blackstone and Shaw avenues, where Burrus entertained children with tricks for two weeks. Derrick Scelzi allowed him to place the clear coffin on a wooden platform near several haystacks.

Pumpkin King's David Byrd said Burrus told him he would have to get out of his chains, handcuffs and the coffin in one minute, before the concrete covered him. But by the time he emerged from the clear coffin, covered by an orange drape on the wooden platform, five minutes had passed.

Not only that, Byrd said when he closed the coffin lid, he heard a crack.

People at Pumpkin King asked Burrus, "You sure your equipment's all right?"

Burrus said he didn't know. He'd get the thing fixed.

He sought endorsement from radio station KTHT-FM but didn't get it. Randy Rahe, the station's general manager, said Burrus placed the station's call letters on his "Buried Alive" posters without permission.

The station thought it was too dangerous and ordered him to remove the call letters.

The night of his death, Burrus took a shower, changed into a white tuxedo and slipped on white patent-leather shoes. He meditated. Then he got into a white limousine.

The audience of 150 people included children 5 years and older. His own children, Joey and Joshua, 13 and 10, were also in the audience. Burrus did magic tricks before climbing into the coffin.

A camera projected the burial onto a large video screen. Assistants lowered the plastic glass coffin and then shoveled dirt. Burrus made a signal, and the crew opened a window in the dirt. Burrus adjusted his chains, and the crew poured the heavy concrete.

It took 10 minutes to fill the hole to a point one foot from ground level. One attendant said, "Stop. That's enough."

Another said, "No, he wants it all the way to the top."

They kept pouring until the concrete suddenly dropped two feet. It was obvious that the plastic coffin had collapsed.

The audience crowded around. Something had gone wrong.

After workmen pulled Burrus out of the hole, paramedics tried to revive him, but he was dead.

Burrus' assistant said details frequently got lost in his grandiose plans. The Fresno County Coroner's Office said Thursday that the cause of death was asphyxia. It was uncertain whether Burrus had died because dirt and concrete filled in his available air pocket or because the weight pressed so heavily on his chest that he couldn't breathe.

J.D. Bristow, the stuntman's assistant on the fatal night, said details frequently got lost in Burrus' grandiose plans.

Bristow said Burrus made no attempt to calculate the weight of the dirt and wet concrete and tested the strength of the plastic coffin simply by jumping on it.

Although Burrus worked as a tree trimmer, he never lost sight of his dream to be famous. He carried the coffin and promotional placards on a truck as he traveled throughout Fresno.

Associated Press, Feb 18, 1993

ATLANTA, GA — A man has been charged with manslaughter in the death of a transsexual who died while getting a silicone injection to make his buttocks fuller, authorities said.

Police charged Fred Kennedy Glenn with involuntary manslaughter Monday in the death last November of Sophia Pastel. He faces a maximum 10-year prison sentence. The silicone came from an automobile supply store.

Pastel, 33, of Norfolk, Va., died in a hotel room moments after receiving a silicone injection in his buttocks, police said. Police said the silicone came from an automobile supply store. Injections of liquid silicone are not approved in this country. Numerous medical studies have found that it can migrate to other parts of the body with harmful and possibly fatal effects.

Associated Press, July 5, 1984

CHICAGO, IL — Two men who had "just a friendly argument" about the Olympics tried to settle it by racing down a hallway at their law firm, and one crashed through a 39th-floor window and fell to his death.

Hundreds of people watched in horror on the street outside the Prudential Building as Reginald Tucker, 29, a litigation lawyer with the firm of Schuyler, Roche, and Zwirner, plunged to the pavement.

"He was running down the hall and apparently lost his perspective."

"It was just a friendly argument," said James Allison, controller for the firm. "They were arguing about the Olympics. And, like silly people, they decided to settle it with a race."

Tucker, who had poor eyesight, sprinted directly into the full-length plate-glass window at the west end of the corridor Tuesday night, police said. He was not wearing his contact lenses at the time because of a scratched cornea.

"He was running down the hall and he apparently lost his perspective," said Michael B. Roche, one of the law firm's partners.

Toronto Star, June 16, 1987

ONTARIO, CANADA — George Kindler wanted to teach his childen how electricity works — but his home experiment failed and a surge of power killed him.

Kindler, 37, hooked a light blub to his truck battery and held on to a battery charger in an attempt to get the bulb to light up for Tracy, 15, and Crystl, 10.

"He was showing his kids how his body could carry an electrical charge," said Staff Sgt. Ray Brooks.

But the battery charger was not grounded — Kindler had taken the ground plug off. No inquest will be held, because Kindler had not followed the battery charger instructions. Inquests are held only to determine whether precautions should be taken in the future.

"He wasn't using his better judgment," said coroner Dr. David Collins. "I've never heard of someone trying to get a light bulb to light up by holding up a battery charge."

Philadelphia Inquirer, Dec 4, 1991

TRENTON, NJ — A Trenton man playing a late-night prank on a friend by donning a mask and staging a mugging was fatally stabbed by the unsuspecting friend as his young wife watched in horror from a window, police said.

The friend was charged with the killing.

Police said Carlos Rodriguez, 22, wanted to fool Miguel Perez, 18, into thwarting a mugging. Just before midnight Monday, he called Perez and told him that two masked men were attacking their friend Daniel Barreto in an alley near their homes. Perez said he would be right out. They put on stocking masks, posed as muggers and waited. The plan was to frighten Perez and have a good laugh.

Then Rodriguez and Barreto, 22, put on stocking masks, posed as the muggers and waited. The plan was to frighten Perez, then pull off the masks and have a good laugh, Barreto told police.

But when Perez encountered the masked men in the rainy darkness, he pulled a knife and stabbed one of them in the chest.

It was Rodriguez. But Perez didn't know until the bleeding man pulled off his mask, looked into his friend's eyes and cried out, "You stabbed me."

"I didn't know this was a joke," Perez cried in response, witnesses told police.

He and Barreto tried to help Rodriguez back to his apartment, but he collapsed. They rushed him to Mercer Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead just after midnight.

At first, police said, the friends told them that masked muggers had stabbed Rodriguez. But when questioned in detail, they revealed the prank.

Police charged Perez with aggravated manslaughter and unlawful possession of a weapon. He was held last night in the Mercer County Youth Detention Center.

Associated Press, Oct 31, 1988CHICAGO, IL — Two jilted men died in separate accidents in which they fell from apartment buildings while trying to climb in to see their girlfriends, police said yesterday.

Dale Moll, 33, a North Side businessman, fell 16 stories Saturday morning while attempting to use television cables on the roof of a high-rise to rappel to the window of his girlfriend's 15th-floor apartment, Det. Tom Johnson said. She wasn't home at the time.

Less than a half-hour later, Robert Harris, 25, fell from an eighth-story ledge while trying to get into his apartment after his girlfriend locked him out after an argument, Patrolman Joseph Mescall said. "I don't think any girl is worth it to climb that high," Mescall said.

"I don't think any girl is worth it to climb that high," Mescall said.

"Their relationship had been in an estranged state for some time and she hadn't been seeing him," Johnson said.

Moll went to the roof of the high-rise and tried to climb down television cables to gain access to his girlfriend's apartment.

Police said Moll stopped at a 16th-floor apartment and swung away when a woman inside screamed, and then the cable snapped.

"It appears that he was trying to climb down hand over hand and rappel, but the cable snapped because it was not made to support that weight."

In the second accident, Harris' girlfriend kicked him out of his apartment at a West Side housing complex run by the Chicago Housing Authority, Mescall said.

Harris then went next door to a vacant apartment and climbed out on the window ledge, then fell while trying to get into his apartment, Mescall said.

Philadelphia Daily News, June 6, 1990

NIAGARA FALLS, NY — A Tennessee stunt man was missing yesterday after going over Niagara Falls in a kayak, Canadian police said.

"It's just solid rock down there. People don't realize that." The red kayak was recovered below Horseshoe Falls on the Canadian side. "All in one piece ... in fairly good condition, all things considered," said Maureen Quinn, a constable with the Niagara Parks Police.

But she said authorities "found nothing else, just the kayak. No body's been found."

The Canadian falls, the world's largest by volume, are 181 feet high, or about as tall as a 13-story building.

Another constable, Kim Davis, said the 28-year-old man was trying to complete a stunt that had been planned for about 10 years. Police said nobody had ever tried to kayak over the falls.

"Barrels, yes," said Quinn of other attempts to go over the falls in enclosed capsules and live. But she said, "it doesn't seem plausible he could do it [and survive]."

Quinn said police received a call that the stunt man had entered the water about a half-mile above the falls but "by the time we responded it was too late ... [He] actually went over the brink."

The man, whose identity was not disclosed pending notification of next of kin, was last seen about 1:45 p.m. EDT, Quinn said.

At a press conference later yesterday, police showed reporters a videotape a tourist made of the incident.

The film shows a man in a kayak successfully negotiating the rapids of the Niagara River just before the falls. Then, he disappears.

"It's beyond me why anyone would attempt this," said George Bailey of the Niagara Parks Commission. "He obviously doesn't know our falls."

Dave Mundy, who went over the falls in a steel barrel three years ago, said people who try such stunts are usually not aware of the dangers of the falls.

"A lot of people underestimate what's at the bottom," he said. "I did myself. It's just solid rock down there. People don't realize that."

AFTERWORD:

Our stuntman's estimate of his own capabilities must have been supreme indeed, because, as shown in the videotape mentioned in the article, which was aired on national television, he hadn't even bothered wearing a life-vest. For those unfamiliar with kayaks, they are small, one-man canoes of Eskimo origin, completely covered except for a small central opening in which the kayaker sits. The kayaker propells the craft with a double-bladed paddle.

It seems quite strange that, after an entire decade of planning, the stuntman hadn't figured out that surviving a stunt like his is irrefutably impossible. This oddity, considered with the fact that he hadn't even donned a life-vest, forces me to conclude that the man really wanted to commit suicide. Either that, or we all could be the victims of some bizarre hoax. After all, his body has yet to be recovered.

Submitted on 11/28/2009

Submitted by: Aaron
Reference:

Copyright © 2009 DarwinAwards.com

Candi said:
Definitely Toss: Other
Sorry, Aaron, but we need such stories submitted separately. This is far too long. And in mult-story submissions such as this, if one doesn't make it, we have to toss the whole thing. Thanks anyway, and please resubmit each story individually so we can judge each on its own worth.

James said:
Definitely Toss: Other
As Candi said! Do send them individually!

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