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Though it's not a subject many like to discuss, death is something that awaits all of us. Most hope to peacefully fade into the next life in old age. Yet for some, fate or unfortunate accidents bring their lives to an unexpected end.
Death is always a sorrowful event, but history is filled with some truly odd ways to meet one's demise. From freak accidents to instances where it seems like Mother Nature took matters into her own hands, these bizarre deaths—some of which might be more myth than truth—demonstrate that you never know when your time may come.
10. Defenestration
Falling or being thrown from a window isn't an entirely rare cause of death. However, in Prague, defenestration—being hurled out of a window—was used twice as a method of execution. When Bohemian citizens were unhappy with their politicians, they'd literally toss them out the window. Both of these events sparked long-lasting wars.
The first large-scale defenestration took place in 1419 when an enraged mob of Czech citizens stormed the town hall. The judge, burgomaster, and five others were thrown to their deaths onto the town square below. This led to a conflict that would drag on for more than two decades.
In 1618, tensions between Roman Catholic and Protestant factions led to the start of the Thirty Years' War. Protestants threw Catholic regents William Slatava and Jaroslav Martinic, along with their secretary, out of a window from the Prague Castle council room for violating the Letter of Majesty. Despite the defenestrators' intentions, the men who were thrown survived the fall.
9. Death By Tortoise
You might think a tortoise would be one of the least likely animals to cause a fatal injury. Yet, the ancient Greek playwright Aeschylus is said to have met an untimely death from a falling tortoise around 455 BC.
Legend has it that Aeschylus had received a prophecy foretelling that he would die from a falling object. In an attempt to protect himself, the writer worked outdoors, hoping to avoid any falling debris from above.
Sadly, his efforts to avoid fate were in vain. Aeschylus was killed when a large tortoise fell from the sky and struck him on the head. Literary sources suggest that a passing eagle, mistaking his bald head for a rock, dropped the tortoise in an effort to break open the shell and eat its contents, instantly killing Aeschylus.
Birds of prey that feed on tortoises exist in the region where Aeschylus met his end. These powerful birds drop the reptiles onto rocks, then swoop in to feast on the flesh once the shells are shattered.
8. Self-Decapitation
A man decapitating himself while shaving was one of the darkly absurd sketches featured in the Monty Python series. However, one British man truly did decapitate himself as a unique, if ultimately futile, protest against his impending eviction.
David Phyall’s apartment in Bishopstoke was scheduled for demolition in 2008, but he refused the housing authorities’ attempts to relocate him. After several days without communication, his family grew concerned and alerted the authorities. Emergency services then made a grim discovery: Phyall had succeeded in decapitating himself.
Phyllis set up a chainsaw tied to a pool table leg with a timer and allowed it to sever his head. He was reportedly intoxicated at the time of his death. A coroner’s report revealed that this incident was part of a troubling history of suicide attempts made by the mentally ill man.
7. Tennis Ball To The Groin
The 1983 US Open took place in New York City from August 30 to September 11 of that year. On September 10, Richard Wertheim, 60, was officiating a junior boys match. The linesman sat in a chair at the center line.
During a match, one of the players, Stefan Edberg from Sweden, served the ball, but it went wild and hit linesman Richard Wertheim directly in the groin. The excruciating painful blow caused him to fall backward. His head struck the ground with force, rendering him unconscious. He remained unresponsive as he was rushed to the hospital.
Sadly, Mr. Wertheim passed away on September 15. His family sued the US Tennis Association for over $2 million and were awarded $165,000, though an appeals court reversed the decision. Meanwhile, Stefan Edberg went on to win numerous championships throughout his career.
6. Crushed By A Cactus
An Arizona man learned the hard way when he decided to defy the state's strict laws protecting desert plant life. Arizona's saguaro cacti, which take over a century to reach full height, have seen their numbers decline in recent years due to development, illegal trade, and vandalism. These iconic prickly plants are often featured in Western films.
In 1982, a massive cactus fought back against its attacker, taking him down with it. A group of friends had spent the day illegally ‘cactus plugging’ in the Arizona desert. 27-year-old David Grundman had been using a shotgun to target an 8-meter-tall (27 ft) saguaro. Standing about 3 meters (10 ft) from the cactus, he shot it twice—only for its arm to fall and crush him underneath.
5. Strangled By An Automobile
Isadora Duncan, the famed dancer, was a global sensation in the early 20th century. Her untimely death in a bizarre automobile accident in Nice, France, in 1927 shocked the world. Duncan, a passenger in an open-topped car, had her long, flowing scarf caught in the vehicle's wheel. The scarf pulled her from the moving car, dragging her to the ground and causing a fatal neck injury.
This was not the first time Duncan had been involved in a tragic automobile accident. In 1913, in an eerie twist of fate, a car driven by Duncan’s nanny plunged into the Seine River near Paris, tragically claiming the lives of her two children.
4. Pharaoh’s Curse
This next story veers into the realm of legend. George Herbert, a philanthropist, financed Howard Carter’s famous archaeological expedition to Tutankhamun’s tomb in 1922.
The 5th Earl of Carnarvon, Herbert, tragically passed away in Egypt under strange circumstances just six weeks after the tomb was opened. Herbert was bitten by a mosquito, which he later cut while shaving. The resulting wound became infected, leading to his death from blood poisoning.
Herbert’s death is still widely cited as proof of the curse of Tutankhamun. At the time, reports claimed that Tutankhamun’s mummified body had a mosquito bite in the same place as Herbert’s fatal wound. Additionally, twelve people who were present at the opening of the tomb died within months, all under similarly bizarre circumstances—victims, some believe, of King Tut’s curse.
3. Tripping On A Beard
Though it may sound improbable, death from facial hair is not entirely out of the question. A Bavarian man from the Renaissance era tragically met his demise due to his famously long beard.
At St. Stephan’s Church in Braunau am Inn, near the present German-Austrian border, there is a memorial to the former town mayor who perished in an unusual way. Hans Steininger (sometimes spelled Staininger), the town's burgomaster in the 1560s, was famously known as 'the man with the long beard.' He had reportedly never trimmed it, and the remarkable facial hair reached all the way down to his feet. A bas-relief of his beard is displayed on the side of the church and at other sites in the town.
Steininger usually kept his beard neatly rolled up in a special pouch. But in 1567, when a fire broke out in the town, he tried to escape, only to trip on his impossibly long beard, fatally breaking his neck. The 452-year-old beard is now preserved as a curiosity in the town’s museum.
2. Died Laughing
While they say laughter is the best medicine, it wasn’t for Scottish aristocrat and writer Thomas Urquhart. A 17th-century courtier who served both King Charles I and Charles II, Urquhart’s life took a dramatic turn when he was imprisoned in the Tower of London and eventually exiled to Europe. The eccentric Scottish laird allegedly died from 'excessive laughter' after hearing the news in 1660 that Charles II had been restored to the throne.
The idea of death by laughter is not entirely a rarity in history. King Martin of Aragon and the Greek philosopher Chrysippus are also said to have died from uncontrollable fits of laughter. In these cases, assuming the accounts are true, it is believed that the extreme laughter caused either asphyxiation or heart failure.
1. Crushed By A Coffin
Funeral duties are somber affairs, but for one pallbearer in 1872, they became tragically fatal.
Henry Taylor was among the six pallbearers in a funeral procession heading to Kensal Green Cemetery in London. As the pallbearers carefully carried the coffin along a narrow, rain-slicked path, the funeral directors instructed them to turn it around so it could be carried headfirst, in line with tradition.
While repositioning the coffin, Taylor lost his footing and slipped on a stone. The other pallbearers, struggling to adjust, accidentally dropped the coffin, which tragically fell on Taylor, crushing him to death.
