Death is either premeditated, expected, or a complete surprise. When it is the latter, it can come in several forms: a sudden attack, while in a deep sleep, or due to an accident. Some are spectacular, full of tragedy, or even bizarre. Unusual deaths are remembered for the improbability of the situation, but this is where their popularity lies: in the impossibility of imagining a tragicomedy ending.
These are some of the most bizarre deaths that have occurred throughout history.
Calchas
Calchas was a powerful fortune-teller from Greek mythology to whom Apollo gave the gift of prophecy. Among other things, he predicted that the Trojan War would last 10 years. While he was planting vineyards in his house, a neighbor prophesied his death, even before he could drink the wine from those grapes.
When the fruit was ripe, Calchas invited the neighbor to witness how he drank the wine. When Calchas got ready to drink from the glass, the neighbor repeated what he had said earlier, causing the Greek fortune-teller to laugh out loud until he died from being without breathing for several minutes.
Harry Houdini
Houdini was a Hungarian illusionist and escapist of Jewish origin who, in the last years of his life, dedicated himself to the exploration of spiritism. He left the world of the living because of a mortal blow inflicted by a university student. In 1926, some students challenged the magician to receive blows to the abdomen to test his physical resistance. Houdini accepted and, it is said, stood his ground, enduring constant punches until one burst his appendix and led to peritonitis, which meant his death a couple of days later.
Franz Reichelt
The Franco-Austrian tailor was acknowledged when he designed a model of a parachute. He decided to test his invention. First, with a doll, which he launched from the Eiffel Tower, the tallest construction in the world at that time. The doll fell and crashed to the ground, but Reichelt said that this had happened because the toy couldn’t open its arms.
Thus, the tailor decided that he should be the one to test the parachute, so he obtained permission from the authorities to perform such a feat. On February 4, 1912, Reichelt was launched from the French monument. His fate was embedded in the pavement.
Jack Daniel
The famous American distiller and founder of the whiskey brand of the same name died of a toe infection. It’s said that one day in the morning when Jack was preparing to leave early for work, he tried to open his safe but didn’t remember the combination. Enraged by the incident, he kicked the box hard with his foot until he injured his finger. The wound led to an infection, and he died of blood poisoning in 1911.
Bobby Leach
Famous for diving into Niagara Falls in a barrel, Bobby Leach enjoyed touring circuses, theaters, and conference halls, recounting his brave feat as well as posing for countless photos next to his barrel. His death came on one of his tours of New Zealand. While walking, he slipped on the peel of an orange. His leg was broken and infected to the point that it had to be amputated until he finally died.
Isadora Duncan
Considered the creator of modern dance, Isadora Duncan is recognized for establishing a unique style in dance, moving away from the prevailing classical patterns, and adding to her technique the artistic expressions from classical Greece. She turned dance into a staging that had free movements and a particular aesthetic in which she was seen barefoot, wearing vaporous tunics (which exposed her body), and her hair down. These actions represented a rupture with classical dance from the surface.
One night, in September 1927, death surprised the dancer when the scarf she wore around her neck got caught in the tire of her car while she was driving.
Tennessee Williams
Famous for works such as A Streetcar Named Desire, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, or The Rose Tattoo, the American playwright died when trying to open a bottle of pills with his mouth. The lid got stuck in his throat and suffocated him.
Antoni Gaudí
On June 7, 1926, when the Catalan architect Antoni Gaudí was on his way to the construction of the Expiatory Temple of the Sagrada Familia, an iconic landmark in Barcelona and Gaudí’s masterpiece, he was run over by a tram that, it’s said, was circulating at a rather slow speed. Due to his careless appearance, he was mistaken for a beggar. It wasn’t until days later that they recognized the famous architect, whose destiny ended by saying goodbye to the world from a hospital bed.
Allan Pinkerton
The founder of the Pinkerton Agency, the first detective agency in the world, died when one day when he slipped, he bit his tongue, which became infected and took him to the grave.
Hans Steininger
The Austrian was renowned for having the longest beard in the world (almost one and a half meters). He died in a fire. While fleeing, he forgot to roll his beard, stepped on it, tripped, and broke his neck.
Translated by Gaby Flores
Photos from Wikimedia Commons
