Three Cambodians were killed when they set off an antitank mine during a drunken game in a provincial restaurant. A local militiaman, a tax collector and another civilian were drinking in a restaurant in the southeastern province of Svay Rieng when the militiaman placed the 25-year-old mine under the table and they started playing with it with their feet and stepping on it. Other diners and villagers fled and the mine exploded with a thunderous roar minutes later, killing the three men instantly. After decades of armed conflict, Cambodia remains strewn with landmines and unexploded ordnance. Accidents are common despite warnings by the authorities not to tamper with the devices. Reuters - March 18, 1999.
Peg Entwistle was a Broadway actress who had a hard time finding work in Hollywood. She got depressed about that and climbed up a maintenance ladder to the top of the "H" of the HOLLYWOODLAND sign (as it read at the time) and jumped off. The date was September 18th, 1932. Ironically, there was a note in the mail from a community stage group - the Beverly Hills Playhouse - offering her a role in its next production about a young girl driven to suicide. She was 24. Her ex-husband, actor Robert Keith, had a son from a previous marriage. He was actor Brian Keith who was in many movies but is best remembered for his role as "Uncle Bill" on the TV show Family Affair. He also committed suicide (1997).
Lantod Gumiliu, 32, a member of the Mangyan tribe on the island of Midoro in the Philippines left his home to catch bats - a local delicacy - on January 1. His wife said she heard him shouting for help but could not locate him. Many days later fellow tribal members found a huge, bloated python, fast asleep. They killed the python, cut open its stomach and found Gumiliu's body inside. South China Morning Post - January 16, 1998.
Melvyn Nurse - clergyman, 35. Used a .357 caliber revolver loaded with a blank round to dramatize his sermon before a packed congregation at Livingway Christian Fellowship Church in Jacksonville, Florida. Nurse had dry-fired the gun several times after inserting one blank into the chamber and spinning the cylinder. He put it down on the podium and continued his metaphorical message about weapons, drugs and the dangerous games people play - comparing those activities to Russian roulette. At the end of the 30-minute presentation he grabbed the gun again, put it to his head and squeezed the trigger. It went off and he collapsed behind the podium in front of the congregation of over 200, which included his wife and four daughters. He was taken to University Medical Center, where he remained in critical condition until his death five days later. AFTERWORD: Contrary to popular belief, as evidenced above, blank ammunition can kill at close range. When discharged, a hard cardboard-like wad shoots several feet from the barrel. Blanks are by far most often used on Hollywood movie sets, the settings for two of the prop's most famous fatalities. On October 12, 1984, model-actor Jon-Erik Hexum playfully put a blank-loaded pistol to his head on the set of the TV spy show Cover Up. The concussion forced fragments of his skull into his brain, and he died six days later. More notably, on March 31, 1993, Brandon Lee, son of 70's martial arts star Bruce Lee, was killed during the filming of The Crow. Unbeknownst to the propmaster, the stunt gun that killed Lee had misfired during a previous scene, lodging a slug in the barrel. The gun was reloaded with blanks and fired at Lee. The blank charge was enough to deliver the waiting slug. Lee died 13 hours later. Almost predictably, these circumstances, coupled with the strange event of his famous father's untimely death, have some of Lee's fans suspecting murder. Florida Times-Union - October 3, 1998.
Leon Resnick, 31, and a friend worked at a company that sold personalized watercraft. Mr. Resnick was operating one on a lake in the Fort Lauderdale suburb of Deerfield Beach while his friend watched from shore. After the friend turned to get a radar gun to check the vessel's speed he noticed that Mr. Resnick was missing. Investigators concluded he was knocked from the craft by a duck which struck him in the face. He was taken to a hospital and pronounced dead - the cause listed as blunt trauma to the head and drowning. The duck died as well. Mr. Resnick is believed to have been traveling about 55 mph when the accident occurred. Associated Press - November 20, 2001.
Hermann Roag, a German tourist, somehow survived a fall from the window of his 8th floor hotel room in Lausanne, Switzerland with no more than a broken ankle; but on the way to the hospital he fell out of the ambulance and was run over by a bus. The Guardian - November 23, 2000.
They Died for Lack of a Head Scarf This is part of an article that was published in The Washington Post, March 19, 2002 - by Mona Eltahawy:
Lt. Thomas E. Selfridge died on September 17, 1908, at the age of 26. He has the dubious distinction of being the first casualty of recorded aviation history. He was a passenger during a demonstration flight at Fort Myer, Virginia when one of the propellers seperated and sliced the wires bracing the rudder. The plane nose-dived about 75 feet into the ground. The pilot, Orville Wright, suffered a broken leg, smashed pelvis and broken and cracked ribs.
