Death is an inevitable part of life, but sometimes the circumstances surrounding it are so bizarre they seem almost unbelievable.
From accidents to pranks gone wrong, history is filled with strange, ironic, and downright unusual ways people have met their end.
In this post, we’ll look at some of the strangest deaths ever recorded, stories that are unbelievable, and a reminder of just how unpredictable life can be.
Tameka Hargrave passed away while cheating on her husband with her car mechanic. Tameka and the mechanic were engaging in intimate relations in a closed garage while the car was running, they both passed out from the fumes and died. They were later found by her husband.
In 2022, personal trainer Tom Mansfield accidentally overdosed on caffeine after he miscalculated the amount of powder he was meant to use on his kitchen scales. He drank the equivalent of 200 cups of coffee in one cup.
In 1923, jockey Frank Hayes passed away of a heart attack during a race, but his body remained in the saddle as his horse, “Sweet Kiss,” crossed the finish line first, winning the race. It was Hayes’ first and only victory.
Veteran skydiver Ivan McGuire was filming a parachuting lesson at 10,000ft in the air. Excited to film, He grabbed his camera and jumped from the plane. He forgot his parachute.
Terry Kath, lead singer of the band Chicago, passed away in 1978 after he picked up a 9mm pistol, said “Don’t worry about it…Look, the clip’s not even in it,” then held it to his head and pulled the trigger. There was a bullet in the chamber.
In 2019, Steven Weber swam to his girlfriend who was inside their underwater hotel room while on vacation in Tanzania, and proposed to her with a note and a ring seen here. He died before he could resurface from the water in this picture.
In April 2018, 16-year-old Kyle Plush passed away after being crushed by the seat in his minivan in Ohio. Despite making multiple 911 calls, he wasn’t found until his family used the Find My iPhone app to locate him. This image shows the position in which he was trapped.
King Adolf Frederick of Sweden lost his life after he overate and his body failed to digest a giant meal. He passed away after eating lobster, sauerkraut, kippers, champagne, caviar, and 14 servings of dessert in 1771.
In 2012, Jose Melena was at work loading pallets of canned tuna into a 35-foot-long pressure cooker when a coworker filled it up with 12,000 pounds of tuna and turned it on for 2 hours while Jose was still inside. He didn’t survive.
Diagnosed with polio at age 3, Dianne Odell had spent nearly 60 years encased in a 750-pound iron lung, only to die when a power outage shut down the machine that was keeping her alive.
On August 25, 2010, a plane crashed near Bandundu Airport in the DRC after passengers panicked over a smuggled crocodile, causing a loss of balance. Twenty of the 21 on board perished. The crocodile survived the crash but was later killed with a machete.
In 2004, Gayle Grinds, from Florida, passed away in hospital after surgeons spent six desperate hours trying to separate her fused skin from her couch, after spending six years sat down. Her home was a filthy mess because she had become too large to even get up and use the bathroom.
In 2007, 28-year-old Jennifer Strange passed away after entering a Sacramento radio contest called “Hold Your Wee for a Wii”, where participants had to drink large amounts of water without urinating to win a Nintendo Wii. She consumed about two gallons in three hours, developed acute water intoxication.
In 2004, Reverend Dwayne Long, a 45-year-old Pentecostal preacher in Virginia, passed away after being bitten by a rattlesnake during a serpent-handling sermon. He refused medical treatment, believing it was the Lord’s will.
During the filming of Gladiator, Oliver Reed (who played Proximo) died in a bar after challenging a group of sailors to a drinking contest. Some of his scenes had to be made with CGI. Reed consumed 8 pints of beer, 12 shots of rum, half a bottle of whisky, and shots of cognac.
Actor Anton Yelchin, known for his role in the “Star Trek” reboot series, passed away in June 2016 after his Jeep Grand Cherokee rolled backward down his driveway, pinning him against a brick pillar and a security fence. The incident prompted a recall of the vehicle model due to gear-shifting issues.
In 2008, Brazilian catholic priest, Adelir Antônio de Carli, tied himself to thousands of helium-balloons in order to raise money. Unfortunately, he passed away as a result.
On Christmas Day in Germany in 2015, a 29-year-old man passed away after attempting to rob a condom vending machine. The device he used detonated, sending a shard of metal into his head.
In 2010, Jim Heselden, 62, owner of the Segway company, passed away after accidentally riding a Segway off a 30-foot cliff into the River Wharfe near his estate in northern England.
In 2013, Brad Davis gave his 58-year-old stepfather, Denver Lee St Clair, an ‘atomic wedgie’ by pulling his underwear over his head during a fight. The elastic underwear band strangled St Clair who sadly passed away as a result.
In 2005, a 28-year-old South Korean man named Lee Seung Seop passed away after playing the online multiplayer game Starcraft for nearly 50 hours straight in an internet café.
Aaron Henderson was a father and landfill worker from Florida. He died after a coworker ran him over with a bulldozer while he was using a porta potty.
70 year old Jeanette Shields broke her hip while she was in the hospital. After having surgery to fix her hip, the doctors told her husband that “unfortunately they dropped her off the operating table after surgery.” She later died.
In 1988, in Buenos Aires, a poodle named Cachi fell from a building, landing on a woman, ending them both instantly. As the events unfolded, another woman, distracted and confused by the scene, was fatally struck by a passing bus. A man also passed from a heart attack.
In October 2015, 24-year-old Chelsea Ake-Salvacion passed away after being locked inside a cryotherapy chamber for over 10 hours at a spa in Las Vegas.
In 2014, Peter Biaksangzuala tragically passed away following a celebratory somersault after scoring a goal. His landing was awkward, resulting in a severe spinal injury. Despite being rushed to the hospital and placed into an intensive care unit, he ultimately succumbed to his injuries.
In 2021, a man passed away after his rooster, armed with a knife for an illegal chicken fight, cut him and caused him to bleed to death. The animal was held at a police station before being transferred to a farm.
In 2013, 19-year-old model airplane enthusiast Roman Pirozek, Jr. had his life cut short by the blade of his radio-controlled helicopter while performing aerobatic maneuvers in Calvert Vaux Park in Brooklyn, New York. His death is thought to be only the second ever from a toy remote control helicopter in the US.
Colin Scott and his sister Sable were travelling through a prohibited area of Yellowstone National Park when Colin accidentally fell into a hot spring, which not only ended his life but dissolved his entire body. An effort to retrieve his remains was called off because there was nothing to recover.
Following doctors’ prognosis that her husband Lloyd Curtis had only three months left to live, 72-year-old Lillian Curtis, along with her daughter, picked him up from the hospital. As they pulled into a Denny’s parking lot, a powerful gust of wind caused the Denny’s sign to shatter and fall onto their car, crushing Lillian beneath it.
In 2012, 37-year-old Anthony Hensley was in his kayak when he went to go check on a swan that became aggressive towards him causing him to fall out of kayak. As Anthony tried swimming back to shore the swan kept attacking him causing him to drown and lose his life.
In 1993, Canadian lawyer Garry Hoy tried to prove his office windows were unbreakable by throwing himself at one. On his second attempt, the window didn’t smash, but it popped from its frame, and he fell 24 floors to his death.
In 2017, farmer Derek Meade was crushed by his own forklift after leaving it running with his dog inside. It is thought the dog may have jumped up to see where David was, and hit the lever, putting the vehicle into motion and pinning Derek against a gate fracturing his vertebrae.
Waco, Texas pastor Kyle Lake died after being electrocuted while performing a baptism in front of 800 people. As he stepped into the baptism pool he reached out to adjust the microphone and was electrocuted.
13-year-old hockey fan Brittanie Cecil was sitting in the stands watching a hockey game when a player deflected the hockey puck, sent it over the glass behind the net, and struck her in the temple, fracturing her skull. She died just two days before her 14th birthday.
On the night of September 8, 2017, Kenneka Jenkins went out to attend a hotel party with friends. A few hours later she was caught on camera walking through a hallway appearing to be intoxicated. She was later found dead inside a latched freezer.
A Brazilian man died after a cow fell through his corrugated roof and crushed him while he slept. 45-year-old Joao Maria de Souza, initially only suffered a fractured leg but later died of internal bleeding while waiting to see a doctor.
While working on the 50th floor, a construction worker in New Jersey accidentally dropped his tape measure, tragically striking Gary Anderson on the head and causing his death. According to reports, Gary uttered the words “God is good” moments before the fatal incident occurred.
In 1992, Greg Austin Gingrich lost his life in the Grand Canyon after pretending to fall to his death. In the middle of the joke he lost his footing and actually fell.
Jon-Erik Hexum passed away from a self-inflicted gunshot wound while filming “Cover Up”. During a delay, he jokingly fired a blank-loaded .44 Magnum, causing a skull fracture and fatal brain injury. He was declared dead six days later.
In 1987, Franco Brun, a 22-year-old inmate at the Metro Toronto East Detention Centre in Canada died trying to swallow a pocket-size Bible.
In 1989, Dr. Ole Bentzen, a 56-year-old Danish audiologist in reportedly good health, died while watching the comedy A Fish Called Wanda. During a scene where Michael Palin’s character has French fries shoved up his nose, Bentzen laughed so hard that his heart rate spiked to an estimated 250–500 beats per minute, triggering a fatal heart attack.
On January 18, 1977, Luciano Re Cecconi, a 28-year-old Lazio and Italy footballer, was fatally shot while jokingly pretending to rob a friend’s jewelry shop in Rome, when the owner mistook the prank for a real threat.
Kurt Gödel, an Austrian-American logician, was paranoid of being poisoned and would only eat after his wife tested his food first. He passed away from starvation when his wife was hospitalized. He refused to eat food prepared by anyone else out of fear of being poisoned.
On 25 January 1979, Robert Williams was struck in the head by the arm of a 1-ton production-line robot in a Ford Motor Company casting plant in Flat Rock, Michigan, USA, becoming the first fatal casualty of a robot.
A diagram of how John Edward Jones was stuck for 27 hours in nutty putty cave before passing away.
In 1900, American physician Jesse William Lazear sought to demonstrate the mosquito’s role in transmitting Yellow Fever by allowing infected mosquitoes to bite him. Tragically, he contracted the disease and ultimately succumbed to it, confirming his hypothesis.
In 1912, French inventor Franz Reichelt made a homemade parachute and chose to test it out in front of a crowd at the Eiffel Tower in Paris. Unfortunately, the parachute failed to deploy, leading to a fall from a height of 57 meters (187 ft). He didn’t survive.
On August 16, 1920, Cleveland Indians shortstop Ray Chapman was struck in the head by a pitch from Carl Mays, leading to his death the next day. He remains the only MLB player to die from an in-game injury.
Bobby Leach, a British daredevil, gained fame for being one of the first to go over Niagara Falls in a barrel on July 25, 1911. Despite breaking both knee caps and fracturing his jaw, he survived. However, his life ended oddly in 1926 when he slipped on an orange peel during a publicity tour in New Zealand.
In 1927, dancer Isadora Duncan was learning to drive her brand-new convertible. She leaned back and her scarf got tangled in her real hubcaps, tightening around her neck, fatally strangling her and dragging her from her seat onto the road.
In 1601, astronomer Tycho Brahe was reportedly drinking profusely at a royal banquet and refused to go to the bathroom because he’d rather die than be impolite. He got his wish, he lost his life after his bladder burst.
In 1998, two-year-old Harrison Johnson was stung 432 times after bumping a yellow jacket nest while visiting Tampa. His evangelical parents, who viewed medicine as sorcery, prayed but delayed medical help for over seven hours. He didn’t survive.
In 1966, Croatian woman Hedviga Golik died of unknown natural causes alone in her apartment; her body remained undisturbed for 42 years until it was discovered sitting in front of her TV in 2008. It’s thought that the isolated position of the place allowed the decomposition to go unnoticed until mummification set in.
In 2013 a French businessman died of a heart attack while having intimate relations with a stranger while on a business trip. A French court subsequently ruled that this was an industrial accident and that his wife and family were entitled to compensation.
Indonesian pop singer Irma Bule passed away after being bitten by a king cobra during a live performance in April 2016. She was known for using live snakes as part of her act. Despite being bitten, she continued performing for 45 minutes before collapsing.
In 1999, Jon Desborough, a sports teacher at Liverpool College, passed away after slipping and falling onto the blunt end of a javelin he was retrieving. The javelin penetrated his eye socket and caused severe brain damage, leaving him in a coma. He passed away a month later.
In 1994, 16-year-old golfer Jeremy Brenno from Gloversville, New York, tragically died when he threw his golf club in frustration. The shaft broke upon hitting a bench, and a fragment bounced back, piercing his heart.
Leave a comment