Unusual Deaths of Various People Quiz

Answer: Smothered by cloaks from an appreciative audience

Draco of Athens (650-600 BCE) has been awarded the title of the first legislator in the world of Athens in ancient Greece. He took the very sensible step of replacing the oral laws and blood feuds of the time with a concise and well set out list of written laws. Unfortunately those laws he created were exceptionally harsh, and this has given rise over time to the adjective "draconian" being applied to any exceptionally severe piece of jurisdiction.

Apparently Draco died while attending a theatre production on the island of Aegina, to where some say he had fled in fear of his life from the irate Athenians. When he was recognised by the much more appreciative people of Aegina at this show, they expressed that appreciation by ripping off their hats and shirts and cloaks and hurling them down on top of the unfortunate lawmaker - and he suffocated.

Answer: An entire goose

Martin of Aragon (1356-1410) was the king of that country from 1396 until his death. During his reign, the country was at peace because he worked hard to quell any internal trouble. Worked too hard it would seem. His appetite grew along with his body size and he became very obese, suffering from periodic attacks of chronic indigestion.

A goose is approximately four times the size of a hen. It's really quite alarming, particularly up close, if it's in an aggressive mood. Martin of Aragon had no such fear however. One night, after he ate an enormous goose all by himself - the hog - he suffered the consequences of a severe attack of indigestion. Such was his discomfort that he ordered his jester in to entertain him as a form of distraction therapy. The jester, however, did such a good job that the king began to laugh heartily and uncontrollably, and this, combined with the awful pains in his stomach and chest from the indigestion, caused his collapse and death. What a silly goose.

Answer: Internal injuries from falling on a turnip

English born 2nd Baronet Sir William Payne-Gallwey lived from 1807 until 1881. He was a member of the House of Commons for thirty years and finally stepped down in 1880 to enjoy his retirement. Unfortunately, that didn't last very long.

One day, on the following year, Sir William was out on a shooting excursion, when he tripped and fell on a turnip, sustaining severe internal injuries. Perhaps it was a rutabaga he fell upon instead. Their mature stems can be quite sharp looking. Killed by a turnip seems a rather innocuous way to die. The moral of this tale, however, is that sometimes vegetables aren't really good for your health after all.

Answer: Yes

Frank Hayes was an American jockey who lived from 1908 until 1923. He wasn't so much a jockey as an accomplished horse trainer and stableman, however. In fact, he had never won a race before in his short career. So, when given a chance to ride the outsider, Sweet Kiss, in a steeplechase at Belmont Park, he eagerly leapt into the saddle - but first he had to lose a considerable amount of weight.

This proved to be Frank's undoing, and, combined with his excitement at leading the race all the way, his heart gave out, and he died somewhere along the course. His body stayed in the saddle, however, and Sweet Kiss desperately galloped on, corpse on his back, crossing the finishing line first, and winning by a head. Thank goodness it wasn't a dead heat. Can you imagine the headlines? As it was, because his body didn't fall off the horse, the officials declared Frank was the winner, but hastily decided that he needn't go through the usual post-race weigh in. Poor old Sweet Kiss never raced again though, and instead was referred to Sweet Kiss of Death for the rest of her horsey life.

Answer: One of his practical jokes backfired on him

Born in England in 1897, Nicholas Comper joined the Royal Flying Corps, such as it was, in 1915 during WWI. The Corps had only just been formed in 1912 during a time in history when the ability to take to the skies by men was in its infancy. Posted to France, his major work, as with most early pilots, was reconnaissance. After the Corps became the Royal Air Force in 1918, Comper remained as a member, and only resigned in 1929 to pursue his interest in aircraft design. His most successful achievement in that field was the design of the Comper Swift single seater monoplane.

In 1939, Comper, known for his practical jokes, was killed in Hythe, Kent, as the result of one of his pranks going wrong. When he was stopped in his effort to set off fireworks in a pub, he laughingly went outside, planning to set them off there instead. As he bent down to light a suspicious looking firecracker, a man passing by asked him, probably a little aggressively, what he was doing. Thinking it was a good idea, Comper foolishly replied that he was going to blow up the town hall. The patriotic passerby promptly punched Comper, who fell to the ground and hit his head on the curb. He died in hospital shortly after.

Perhaps a suitable inscription on his headstone could have been "Nobody in here has a sense of humour either".

Answer: A cow fell through his roof and landed on him

Joao Maria de Souza, who was aged 45 at the time of his demise, lived in Minas Garais, Brazil, in a house that backed onto a steep hill. That hill was popular with local bovines because of its tasty grass, and cows were wont to climb as close to Joao's house as they could in order to reach it. The following tragedy took place in 2013 because of this.

While Joao and his wife were sleeping peacefully on the night of his death, the villainess murderess in this tale managed to climb onto the roof of their house in her attempt to reach that irresistible grass. Whether she weighed too much, or simply slipped, she suddenly fell through the roof, landed right on top of the unlucky Joao, and he was crushed to death. Neither his wife, nor the cow were injured in this accident, but it just goes to prove, doesn't it, that the grass really isn't that much greener on the other side of, er, the roof?

Answer: His head got stuck in a rabbit hole

Born in Doncaster, England, Stephen Whinfrey was a man who enjoyed hunting rabbits, and either went by himself to take out a few bunnies, or was accompanied by his dog, or, ferret, to help bring down their fluffy little prey. One day in 2015, however, the rabbits exacted a terrible revenge. While out looking for the little animals to shoot, Stephen, for reasons unknown, chose to stick his head down a rabbit hole. Unfortunately, his head became stuck in the hole, he couldn't back out, and he subsequently suffocated.

The reference to Lewis Carroll (aka Charles Dodgson) in this question is to that English author (1832-1898) and his most famous work "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" in which Alice, following a white rabbit, ends up down a rabbit hole herself, landing in a wonderful place full of many adventures.

Answer: His friend left the body in the car and went to bed

21 year old Francis Brohm of Georgia, USA, had been friends for some years with John Hutcherson. Both boys had attended school together and kept up the friendship afterward, and of course, as fellows do, occasionally drank too much while attending the local watering hole together. One night a tragedy happened.

After a particularly cheerful evening together, Francis was being driven home by the equally highly intoxicated John Hutcherson. Quite oblivious to danger, Francis was having a whale of a time leaning far out of the passenger side window as they drove along, when his friend lost control of the vehicle. It swerved off the road, and sideswiped one of those wires that support telephone poles. Brohm's head sideswiped the wire as well and was instantly removed. Meanwhile, John, quite possibly too intoxicated to notice that part of his passenger was missing, drove on home, left his friend in the car, staggered inside and went to bed. It wasn't until the following morning that one of Hutcherson's shocked neighbours spotted the headless corpse in the car. The newspaper didn't report on the whereabouts of the head - but you could say it really did go on a bender.

Answer: Trapped on top of an ascending piano

Jimmy Ferrozzo worked as a bouncer in a shady nightclub known as the Condor Club in San Francisco. This place was famous for its exotic dancers (what a delightful euphemism for a stripper), and for being the first club to feature a cocktail waitress who danced her way to the top by also being the first entertainer to wear a topless swimsuit in her act. That was in 1964, and a few years later in 1969, the dancers went the whole hog by performing in the altogether. Famous ballet dancer and choreographer, Sir Robert Helpmann, once remarked of this style of performance, "The trouble with nude dancing is that not everything stops when the music stops."

After his shift was over one night in November, 1983, Jimmy Ferrozzo and his exotic dancer girlfriend decided to climb on top of a piano she used in her act for a touch of whatever takes your fancy. At the beginning of her act each performance, that piano was lowered from the roof on cables, but unfortunately, what with Jimmy's enthusiasm on that evening, the pair accidentally engaged the lift mechanism for the piano. It ascended very rapidly to the roof, trapping the pair underneath it. Jimmy, because of his bouncer build, was asphyxiated, but the girlfriend, because she was a lot thinner, survived. The article failed to report on the health of the piano.

Answer: A poodle

Cachy was a poodle that lived with its owner in a 13 storey building in Buenos Aires, Argentina - but how and why it happened to fall off that building one day in 1988, is unknown. What is known, though, is that its death set off a series of bizarre incidents that resulted in the death of three individuals.

Cachy's first victim was a 75 year old woman who was killed by the impact of the poodle. This caused such a commotion that it drew a crowd of people, among whom was another woman, aged 46 - who got in the way of an approaching bus, and was killed instantly. Then, a nearby man, who witnessed the bus incident, had a heart attack from shock - dying shortly afterwards in an ambulance on the way to hospital. And all because a French poodle apparently thought it was a Concorde.