0 Eventual DEATH of the "Handcuff King" Due To Amateur's Punch - Harry Houdini, USA

Harry Houdini (born Erik Weisz, later Ehrich Weiss; March 24, 1874 – October 31, 1926) was a Hungarian-born American magician and escapologist, stunt performer, actor and film producer noted for his sensational escape acts. He was also a skeptic who set out to expose frauds purporting to be supernatural phenomena.

Houdini began his magic career in 1891. At the outset, he had little success. He performed in dime museums and sideshows, and even doubled as "The Wild Man" at a circus. Houdini focused initially on traditional card tricks. At one point, he billed himself as the "King of Cards". But he soon began experimenting with escape acts.

In 1893, while performing with his brother "Dash" at Coney Island as "The Houdini Brothers", Harry met fellow performer Wilhelmina Beatrice (Bess) Rahner, whom he married. Bess replaced Dash in the act, which became known as "The Houdinis." For the rest of Houdini's performing career, Bess would work as his stage assistant.

Houdini's "big break" came in 1899 when he met manager Martin Beck in rural Woodstock, Illinois. Impressed by Houdini's handcuffs act, Beck advised him to concentrate on escape acts and booked him on the Orpheum vaudeville circuit. Within months, he was performing at the top vaudeville houses in the country. In 1900, Beck arranged for Houdini to tour Europe. After some days of unsuccessful interviews in London, Houdini managed to interest Dundas Slater, then manager of the Alhambra Theatre. He gave a demonstration of escape from handcuffs at Scotland Yard, and succeeded in baffling the police so effectively that he was booked at the Alhambra for six months.

Houdini became widely known as "The Handcuff King." He toured England, Scotland, the Netherlands, Germany, France, and Russia. In each city, Houdini would challenge local police to restrain him with shackles and lock him in their jails. In many of these challenge escapes, Houdini would first be stripped nude and searched. In Moscow, Houdini escaped from a Siberian prison transport van. Houdini claimed that, had he been unable to free himself, he would have had to travel to Siberia, where the only key was kept.

Houdini and his wife Bess

In 1912, Houdini introduced perhaps his most famous act, the Chinese Water Torture Cell, in which he was suspended upside-down in a locked glass-and-steel cabinet full to overflowing with water. The act required that Houdini hold his breath for more than three minutes. Houdini performed the escape for the rest of his career. Despite two Hollywood movies depicting Houdini dying in the Torture Cell, the act had nothing to do with his death.

Death
Harry Houdini died of peritonitis, secondary to a ruptured appendix. Eyewitnesses to an incident at the Princess Theater in Montreal gave rise to speculation that Houdini's death was caused by a McGill University student, J. Gordon Whitehead, who delivered multiple blows to Houdini's abdomen to test Houdini's claim that he was able to take any blow to the body above the waist without injury.

The eyewitnesses, students named Jacques Price and Sam Smilovitz (sometimes called Jack Price and Sam Smiley), proffered accounts of the incident that generally corroborated one another. The following is Price's description of events:
 

Houdini was reclining on his couch after his performance, having an art student sketch him. When Whitehead came in and asked if it was true that Houdini could take any blow to the stomach, Houdini replied groggily in the affirmative. In this instance, he was hit three times before Houdini could tighten up his stomach muscles to avoid serious injury. Whitehead reportedly continued hitting Houdini several more times and Houdini acted as though he were in some pain.

Houdini reportedly stated that if he had time to prepare himself properly he would have been in a better position to take the blows. He had apparently been suffering from appendicitis for several days prior and yet refused medical treatment. His appendix would likely have burst on its own without the trauma.  Although in serious pain, Houdini continued to travel without seeking medical attention.

When Houdini arrived at the Garrick Theater in Detroit, Michigan on October 24, 1926, for what would be his last performance, he had a fever of 104 °F (40 °C). Despite a diagnosis of acute appendicitis, Houdini took the stage. He was reported to have passed out during the show, but was revived and continued. Afterwards, he was hospitalized at Detroit's Grace Hospital.

Houdini died of peritonitis from a ruptured appendix at 1:26 p.m. in Room 401 on October 31, aged 52.

After taking statements from Price and Smilovitz, Houdini's insurance company concluded that the death was due to the dressing-room incident and paid double indemnity.

Houdini's funeral was held on November 4, 1926, in New York, with more than 2,000 mourners in attendance. He was interred in the Machpelah Cemetery in Queens, New York, with the crest of the Society of American Magicians inscribed on his gravesite. To this day the Society holds a broken wand ceremony at the grave site in November. Houdini's widow, Bess, died on February 11, 1943, aged 67, in Needles, California. She had expressed a wish to be buried next to him but instead was interred at the Gate of Heaven Cemetery in Westchester, New York, as her Catholic family refused to allow her to be buried in a Jewish cemetery.

Video

Remembering Harry Houdini

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0 DEATH of a Luger - Nodar Kumaritashvili, GEORGIA-EASTERN EUROPE

Georgian postal stamp
commemorating Kumaritashvili

Nodar David Kumaritashvili, (November 25, 1988 – February 12, 2010) was a Georgian luger, who suffered a fatal crash during a training run for the 2010 Winter Olympics competition in Vancouver, Canada, on the day of the opening ceremony. He became the fourth athlete to have died during Winter Olympics preparations, after British luger Kazimierz Kay-Skrzypeski, Australian skier Ross Milne (both Innsbruck 1964), and Swiss speed skier Nicolas Bochatay (Albertville 1992), and the sixth athlete to die in either a Summer or Winter Olympic Games.

Kumaritashvili, who first began to luge when he was 13, came from a family of seasoned lugers; a relative of his was the founder of organised sledding Georgia, and his father competed when he was younger. A cousin of Kumaritashvili's father was the head of the Georgian Luge Federation; Kumaritashvili himself began competing in the 2008–09 Luge World Cup, where he finished 55th out of 62 racers. Outside of luge, Kumaritashvili had been a student at the Georgian Technical University, where he earned an economics degree in 2009.
Nodar Kumaritashvili was born in Borjomi, Georgian SSR, present day Georgia, to David and Dodo Kumaritashvili.  He had one younger sister, Mariam, who is four years younger.  The region Kumaritashvili grew up has many ski hills, and he enjoyed several different winter sports.  Kumaritashvili started luge when he was 13 years old.

At the time of his death he was ranked 44th out of 65 competitors in the 2009–10 World Cup season and was regarded as one of the best lugers to come from Georgia. 

Photo credit

Accident and Death

By December 31, 2009, the cut-off date for luge qualifications for the Olympics, Kumaritashvili was ranked 38th overall. As he had also raced in the minimum of five World Cup races over the previous two years, he qualified for the luge men's singles event at the 2010 Winter Olympics, which would be his Olympic debut.  On February 12, 2010, Kumaritashvili was fatally injured in a crash during a training run at the Whistler Sliding Centre when he lost control in the final turn of the course and was thrown off his luge and over the sidewall of the track, striking an unprotected steel support pole at the end of the run.  He was travelling at 143.6 km/h (89.2 mph) at the moment of impact.  At a test event in 2009, a luger had clocked a record 153.937 km/h (95.652 mph) on the same track, prompting Josef Fendt, president of the International Luge Federation (FIL), to comment: "It makes me worry."

Medics were at his side within seconds of the crash. Cardio-pulmonary resuscitation began within one minute, and a plastic breathing tube was inserted into his mouth. He was airlifted to a Whistler hospital, where he died of his injuries.  It was luge's first fatality since December 10, 1975 when an Italian luger was killed.  Kumaritashvili's final run had been his 25th on the Whistler track, and his 13th from the men's start.  Some United Kingdom newspapers blamed the crash on Canada's aggressive Own the Podium program, which had given Canadian athletes more time to train at the Olympic venues to the detriment of Olympians from other countries.

(See video of accident under Real Deaths Captured On Film)


Video

Remembering Nodar David Kumaritashvili

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1 Belly-splashed to DEATH - Malcolm "King Kong" Kirk, UK

Malcolm (Mal) Kirk (18 December 1936 – 24 August 1987) was an English professional wrestler who went by the ring name King Kong Kirk.

His height was 1.86m (6' 1") and his weight ranged between 140 and 160 kg (approximately 22-25 stone, 309-352 lbs.)

Bald and fearsome looking, Kirk was usually cast as the "bad guy" and often tagged with the superheavyweight Giant Haystacks. Kirk's work rose to its prominence in the 1970s and 1980s due to the popularity of televised wrestling in the United Kingdom.

In August 1987, Kirk died after a tragic turn of events during the final moments of the match at the hippodrome circus in Great Yarmouth in Norfolk against British wrestling legend Shirley "Big Daddy" Crabtree. After Big Daddy had delivered his signature belly-splash, Kirk turned an unhealthy colour and was rushed to the James Paget hospital in Gorleston in Norfolk, but was pronounced dead on arrival. The inquest into Kirk's death found that he had a serious heart condition and cleared Crabtree of any responsibility.


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0 The Pitch of DEATH - Ray Chapman, USA

Raymond Johnson Chapman (January 15, 1891 – August 17, 1920) was an American baseball player, spending his entire career as a shortstop for Cleveland.

Chapman was hit in the head by a pitch thrown by Yankees pitcher Carl Mays.

 "Part of every pitcher's job was to dirty up a new ball the moment it was thrown onto the field. By turns, they smeared it with dirt, licorice, tobacco juice; it was deliberately scuffed, sandpapered, scarred, cut, even spiked. The result was a misshapen, earth-colored ball that traveled through the air erratically, tended to soften in the later innings, and as it came over the plate, was very hard to see."

This practice is believed to have contributed to Chapman's death. He was struck by a pitch by Carl Mays on August 16, 1920, in a game against the New York Yankees at the Polo Grounds.  Mays threw with a submarine delivery, and it was the top of the fifth inning, in the late afternoon. Eyewitnesses recounted that Chapman never moved out of the way of the pitch, presumably unable to see the ball. "Chapman didn't react at all," said Rod Nelson of the Society of American Baseball Research. "It was at twilight and it froze him."  The sound of the ball smashing into Chapman's skull was so loud that Mays thought it had hit the end of Chapman's bat, so he fielded the ball and threw to first base.

The book Ray and Me, by Dan Gutman, says that after Mays threw the ball to first, the fielders threw it around the diamond. Chapman then took three or four steps before he collapsed. Mike Sowell's book, The Pitch That Killed, however states that first baseman Wally Pipp caught Mays' throw to first and then realized something was very wrong. Chapman never took any steps, but rather slowly collapsed to his knees and then the ground with blood pouring out of his left ear. The umpire quickly called for doctors in the stands to come to Chapman's aid. Eventually Chapman was able to stand and try to walk off the field, but he could not speak when he tried to do so, but only mumbled. As he was walking off the field his knees buckled and he had to be assisted the rest of the way. Chapman died twelve hours later in a New York City hospital, at about 4:30 A.M.   He was replaced by Harry Lunte for the rest of the game.

His death led Major League Baseball to establish a rule requiring umpires to replace the ball whenever it became dirty. His death was also one of the examples used to emphasize the need for wearing batting helmets (although the rule was not adopted until over thirty years later). His death was partially the reason MLB banned the spitball after the 1920 season.

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0 The HAZING Death That Changed the Law, USA

On February 2, 2005, Matt Carrington died as the direct result of a hazing ritual at Chico State University in Chico, California. In the cold basement of the fraternity house of the unrecognized fraternity Chi Tau (XT), formerly Delta Sigma Phi, Carrington was forced to drink water and do calisthenics with fans blowing on him. This water intoxication ritual, which dates back over 20 years at Chi Tau, caused swelling of his brain, seizures, and heart failure. Members of the fraternity delayed calling for emergency help for over an hour.

Hazing death
21-year old Matthew Carrington transferred to Chico State in fall 2004 from Diablo Valley College. He was studying management information systems, and was asked to pledge Chi Tau by friend Mike Quintana. The two men began pledging that fall.

Toward the end of the pledge process, Carrington indicated to friends that he was tired of pledging and his grades were beginning to suffer from it. Chi Tau forced the pledges to spend the final week, known by the fraternity as "Initiation Week," or more commonly by the pledges as "hell week", in the basement of the fraternity house. The 10 foot by 20 foot basement room was a cold, damp place littered with cigarette butts and writing on the walls, including the phrase "In the basement, no one can hear you scream."

The Kendall (Administration) Hall
of Chico State University
Pic by Wiki user Boricuaeddie

Day one
The week of living in the basement began on January 30, 2005. On that same day, the sewer line in the house had burst, and the basement was flooded with several inches of sewage contaminated water. Pledges were forced to do push-ups and sit-ups in the sewage and sleep in small cubby holes that had been cut into the basement wall.

Day two

"Pledge Olympics" got underway around 11 pm. Pledges were forced to run up and down the stairs and play Wiffleball inside the house. Due to extremely cold conditions, they were allowed to sleep in the main portion of the house instead of the basement.

Day threeThe events of Tuesday, February 1 would last into the early hours of Wednesday morning. Carrington and Quintana were instructed to stand on one foot on a wooden bench, wearing only t-shirts, jeans, and socks, while Chi Tau members quizzed them on fraternity history. If an incorrect answer was given, they were told to drink as much water as possible from a five-gallon Alhambra bottle or do push-ups on the floor. Cold water was also poured on them while being blasted by fans. They had to ask permission to urinate on themselves and were eventually told to take their shirts off with basement temperatures in the 30s. Near 2 a.m., active Chi Tau members, Gabriel Maestretti, John Paul Fickes and Carlos James DeVilla Abrille, arrived at the house after a night of heavy drinking. Maestretti passed out on a couch in the basement, and at around 2:30 am, the pledges, already in poor condition, were told they were done. However, Maestretti woke up and decided he would take over the initiation event instead of allowing the pledges to leave the basement or sleep. Fickes and Abrille joined in on the events that would follow. They ignored other members of the fraternity who came down to the basement on two occasions and told the three to stop. At one point Carrington dropped the five-gallon bottle and spilled water on one of the three actives. He was forced to do more push-ups as punishment.

Carrington collapsed around 3:40 a.m. and went into a seizure that lasted nearly one minute. Chi Tau members changed Carrington out of his wet clothing and laid him on the couch after wrapping him in a sleeping bag. Quintana noticed that Carrington had stopped breathing around 5 am. He performed CPR on Carrington until paramedics arrived and transported him to Enloe Medical Center, where he died soon after arrival. The official cause of death was cardiac dysrhythmia and cerebral edema, or brain-swelling, due to water intoxication. Hypothermia also contributed to the death.


As a result of this incident, Matt's Law was passed in California.  The law allows for felony prosecutions when serious injuries or deaths result from hazing rites. The bill amended the California Education Code and California Penal Code to change charges for some hazing rituals from misdemeanors to felonies, and for the first time gave prosecutors the ability to seek hazing charges against nonstudents.

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0 Wii-erd Water Death, USA

On January 12, 2007, a listener named Jennifer Strange, 28, died of water intoxication hours after taking part in the "Hold Your Wee for a Wii" contest in which KDND promised a Wii video game system for the winner. At the time, the Nintendo console was very popular and sought-after but also near impossible to find in North America.  In the competition, contestants were asked to drink as much water as they could without urinating. The contestant able to hold the most water would be named the winner.

According to contest participants, 17 to 20 contestants took part in the competition in a room at KDND's studios. The contest broadcast during the station's "Morning Rave" program began around 6:15 a.m. as contestants were each handed eight-ounce (240-mL) water bottles to drink at 15-minute intervals. Contestants also said that as the contest progressed, they were given increasingly large quantities of water to drink. Some later remarked on the physical discomfort they suffered during and following the event.

The Sacramento Bee newspaper has released audio clips from the morning show on their website. These clips indicate that the DJs of the show were aware of the death of Matthew Carrington by water intoxication. At one point, a caller who was a co-worker of Nurse Practitioner Judy Linder called the station and informed the DJs that the contest could be dangerous and that someone could die.  The DJs responded by saying "we're aware of that," and joked that the contestants had signed releases and couldn't file a lawsuit. However, according to a contestant, the waivers addressed only publicity issues and made no mention of health or safety concerns. The DJs also joked about Strange's distended belly, joking that she looked three months pregnant.

After the contest, Strange spoke to a co-worker by telephone, indicating she was on her way home and in extreme pain, suffering from what appeared to be an intense headache. The co-worker contacted Strange's mother, who went to her home an hour later to find her daughter dead.

The survivors of Jennifer Strange were eventually awarded the sum of $16,577,118 in monetary damages.

(Source)

3 The Death Burp, ROMANIA

A circus act in Romania ended in tragedy when fire-eater Vlad Cazacu, 43, belched in mid-performance and was blown to bits. Incredibly no one came to his rescue as stunned onlookers assumed this was part of an amazing illusion. Consequently this unfortunate man, who probably could have been saved, was allowed to just lie there and die.

"In the first part of the performance," said fellow circus

performer Nicole Antosu, "Vlad held a flammable cocktail in his mouth to spit fire at a burning torch. Somehow, he must have swallowed some of the liquid, because when he burped he triggered an explosion."

Experts believe fumes exhaled by Vlad ignited and caused an explosion that blasted the 43-year-old man into oblivion.

"It appears Cazacu accidentally swallowed a flammable liquid used in part of his act," said police sources.  "As he put a flaming torch in his mouth to 'eat' the fire, he burped up vapors from his stomach - which were flammable - and exploded."

"It was the most awful thing I've ever see," said one witness.  "He was so graceful and everyone was applauding - then he burped and was blown to bits."  - Bucharest, Romania


(Source(s): The Parrot (Accra, Ghana), Weekly World News, 1997)

0 X-Boxed To Death, UK

Xbox addict, 20, killed by blood clot after 12-hour gaming sessions.

Blood clot victim, Chris Staniforth, 20, died after spending up to 12 hours at a time playing on his Xbox.

The gaming enthusiast suffered a blockage to his lungs when he developed deep vein thrombosis – commonly associated with passengers on long haul flights where they are relatively immobile for hours on end.

Chris, an avid player of popular games such as Halo collapsed after an interview at a JobCentre while telling a friend he’d been experiencing peculiar pains in his chest.
He explained how he was woken in the night by a ‘strange feeling’ in his chest and that his heart rate was incredibly low, although this returned to normal and he fell back to sleep.


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1 DYING to Catch a Ball, USA

A baseball fan died after falling out of a stand while trying to catch a ball.  Texas, USA


The man reached over the railing to catch a ball tossed to him by Texas outfielder Josh Hamilton during the second inning of the match between the Texas Rangers and Oakland at the Rangers Ballpark.

After reaching out to catch the ball, the man’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.

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