12 Bizarre and Wacky Deaths

In 2000, 19 year old Jonathon Burton went crazy and stormed the cockpit door of Southwest Airlines Flight 1763 from Las Vegas to Salt Lake City, Utah. Eight passengers grabbed him and threw him to the floor. An off duty police officer was escorting him to the back of the plane with another man’s help when Burton went crazy again and punched the officer in the mouth. Burton was again thrown to the floor of the airplane and allegedly a large burly man repeatedly slammed himself onto Burton’s chest. Burton was still alive when the plane landed but died soon after of acute asphyxia. No one was ever charged.

Brittanie Cecil 

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In 2002 Brittanie was killed by a hockey puck that flew into the stands during a game between the Columbus Blue Jackets and the Calgary Flames at Nationwide Arena in Columbus, Ohio.

Timothy Treadwell and Amie Huguenard 

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In 2003 the couple were killed and partially consumed by a grizzly bear in Alaska while Treadwell was filming the bears. Treadwell had been going to Alaska for 13 years and living among and filming the bears. The incident was not directly filmed as the camera was facing away but the audio captured the gruesome details. In 2005 film maker Werner Herzog did a documentary film, Grizzly Man, which discusses Treadwell and his death, including the audio clip. Another chilling film.  

Lee Seung Seop 

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In 2005, this 28 year old South Korean died of acute fatigue after playing the video game StarCraft online for over 50 consecutive hours in an Internet cafe.

Jennifer Strange 

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In 2007, this 28 year old appropriately named woman died of water intoxication while trying to win a Wii video game console during a publicity stunt held by Sacramento, California radio station KDND. The “Hold Your Wee for a Wii” contest involved having contestants drinking prodigious amounts of water without going to the bathroom.

Richard Wertheim 

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In 1993, Wertheim was working as a linesman at the US Open when a shot by Stefan Edberg hit him in the groin and knocked him backwards and he fractured his skull on the hard surface and died shortly thereafter in the hospital.

Robert Williams 

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In 1979 at a Ford Motor Company plant in Flint Michigan, Williams became what is believed to be the first human killed by a robot when he was ordered to retrieve a part from a storage bin because the robot assigned to that job was being too slow. As Williams grabbed the part the robot’s arm swung around and hit him in the head killing him instantly. Williams family was awarded $10 million dollars in damages.

Janet Parker 

In 1978 Janet Parker was working as a medical photographer at the University of Birmingham Medical School when a researcher at the lab she was working in accidentally released the smallpox virus into the building and it killed Parker. Smallpox had been wiped out in the wild and only existed in labs at that time. Parker’s death led to the suicide of Professor Henry Bedson who was the head of the microbiology department. Parker is believed to be the last human smallpox fatality in history, at least until another accident or worse happens.

Payne Stewart 

In 1999 the Learjet carrying golf professional Payne Stewart, his two agents, a Jack Nicklaus golf course designer and two pilots lost cabin pressure and all aboard died of hypoxia or lack of oxygen. The incident occurred in mid-flight and the Air Force had to send fighter aircraft to monitor the flight of the pilot-less jet. The Lear’s windows were observed to be clouded over with frost due to the lack of cabin pressure. Reportedly the Air Force was prepared to shoot down the Learjet if it ran out of fuel near any type of populated area. After a few hours of pilot-less flight time the plane ended up running out fuel and crashing in the middle of nowhere in North Dakota. Stewart had won the US Golf Open at Pinehurst just 4 months prior to his death.