Unexplained deaths of people. Unusual deaths

Some mysterious deaths cannot be solved by doctors, police, or private detectives. Here are ten fatal cases that still haunt the minds of lovers of secrets and conspiracy theories.

Tom Thomson

On July 8, 1917, the famous Canadian artist Tom Thomson went fishing in a canoe. Two hours later, the boat was washed ashore - empty. Two Thomson spinning rods were also missing. On board, they found only an intact bag of food and one of the two oars.

At first, his disappearance was not given a look - Tom was a creative person and could well go ashore somewhere on a remote island and admire nature all day long.

Three days later, a group of rangers was sent to search for him. On July 16, the body of a 40-year-old painter was found floating on the lake surface 115 meters from land. The examination showed that Tom's body was in the water on the 2nd day of his absence, but there was no water in the lungs. There were no visible signs of drowning, like dried foam around the nostrils.

A narrow 10-centimeter bruise flaunted on the temple of the deceased, and his ankle was wrapped 16 times with a fishing line that had stuck tightly into the skin. The coroner made a seemingly obvious conclusion - an accident. The artist got tangled in gear, slipped and hit his head.

Mark Robinson, a close friend of Thomson and one of the rangers involved in his search, stated that when he cut the line from the leg of the deceased, it did not look like it was accidentally twisted around the leg. He was sure that it was wrapped on purpose - tightly and neatly. Relatives also did not accept the version of accidental death, because Thomson was an experienced fisherman and simply could not get so stupidly entangled in the fishing line.

In addition to the theory of suicide, many other hypotheses were expressed: he could have been killed by runaway laborers or poachers whom Thomson happened to see, or by "enemy spies" hiding in the forest. There was even a version of a local tornado that did not stand up to criticism, which caught the artist by surprise. One way or another, from what Tom Thomson died is unknown to this day.

April 15, 1926 Member of the Australian Parliament Frederick Macdonald disappeared without a trace, leaving a suicide note. His colleague, parliamentarian Thomas John Lee, was suspected of his kidnapping and murder.

Lee, according to other senators, was a scoundrel. In 1925, having recently won a seat in Parliament, he offered MacDonald a bribe of $ 2,000 so that he would refuse to take part in the next election. Frederick "suicided" just before Lee's hearing.

A couple of years after MacDonald's disappearance, Lee's other opponent and MP, Hyman Goldstein, threw himself off a cliff into the sea. Shortly before his death, Goldstein invested in Lee's company, which was soon accused of fraud. Outraged, Goldstein organized a committee to investigate Lee's activities, but ... a couple of days before the first hearing, the body of an honest politician was caught by a fishing trawler.

But there was no direct evidence linking Lee to the two deaths, which looked like suicide, and the senator went unpunished. In 1946, he moved to London, where he again showed his animal nature: he strangled his girlfriend's lover and hid his body at a construction site. He was declared insane and placed in a prison hospital for the insane. After a year of imprisonment, he died, taking to the grave the secret of the death of Frederick MacDonald.

William Briggs

In 1930, someone named Alfred Rose tried to fake his death in order to collect insurance. He found a victim of suitable build, pounded the head with a hammer, put it in a car and set it on fire. Rose was exposed and sentenced to death by hanging. But who was his victim?

For a long time it was believed that the man killed by Rose was William Thomas Briggs, who disappeared at the same time as the arson of the ill-fated car. Plus, he was the size and build of a killer. It was not until 2014 that Briggs' relatives did a DNA test to put an end to this mysterious murder.

When the results returned from the examination, it turned out that the DNA of the relatives did not match the DNA of the person burned in the car. Thus, there were two riddles: where did Briggs disappear and who did burn out in Rose's car?

One of the most mysterious crimes of the past is the murder of Julia Wallace. Historians have called it "a case worthy of the Jack the Ripper mystery."

On January 20, 1931, someone who introduced himself as R.M. called the Liverpool Chess Club. Qualtra, and asked for Julia's husband, the insurer Herbert Wallace. "Tomorrow at 7:30 pm I'll be waiting for you at 25 East Manlove Gardens to get my daughter's insurance..

Delighted by the fallen client, Wallace drove home, and the next day he went to the appointed address. He was in for a surprise: there were three Menlove Gardens in the area: North ("North"), South ("South") and West ("West"). Even the locals have not heard of East Menlove Gardens.

Late in the evening, disappointed, he returned home. When his wife did not open the door for him, he tried to open it with a key, but in vain. The back door was also blocked. Calling the neighbors, he began to break back door when it opened with ease, although it was locked a couple of minutes ago.

In the living room, a terrifying sight met his eyes: the bloodied corpse of his wife lay on the floor in the living room.

During the inspection of the house by the police, curious facts surfaced. £4 had disappeared from the bookshelf, but the family's main savings, stored in a tin on a nearby shelf, were untouched. The criminal went into Julia's boudoir and threw her pillow into the fireplace and turned inside out two handbags and three hats that were stored in the closet, which, like the nightstand and dressing table, turned out to be locked. A fireplace poker, the alleged murder weapon, has gone missing from the living room.

The examination did not find any traces of forced entry on the keyhole of the front door, as well as on the back door lock. The investigation accused Wallace of killing his wife and sentenced him to death penalty through hanging. But later, the court - for the first time in the history of Britain - considered that it was impossible to send a person into a noose without a single piece of evidence, and released Wallace to freedom. In 1932, he told the press that he knew the name of Julia's killer, but for some reason was afraid to divulge it.

Letitia Turo

On a Parisian evening in May 1937 at 6:27 pm, 29-year-old Italian Letizia Norriset Touro boarded the metro at the Porte de Charenton station. She was the only passenger in the first class carriage.

When the doors of the car opened at the next station a couple of minutes later, Turo was still the only passenger, but now she was dead. A dagger protruded from her neck.

The girl's death was mysterious, like her life. In the eyes of society, she was a simple widow, barely making ends meet working in a glue factory. At night, she disguised herself as an informer for the Paris police and spent time in seedy nightclubs in search of information.

She was also alleged to have an affair with prominent right-wing journalist Gabriel Gintet, who was smuggling arms for the influential terrorist group Comite secret d'action revolutionnaire (Secret Revolutionary Committee).

Its members called themselves Cagoule ("hoods") and wore hoods to hide their faces. The Hoods were financed by the pro-government elites in Paris. They accounted for at least seven murders, two terrorist attacks and the creation of an armed militia.

In 1937, two "hoods" got into the police, where they were interrogated with prejudice in the Turo case. Both admitted that the girl was killed by their killer. Later, one of the bandits changed his testimony. The second was beaten half to death by an unknown person and could no longer testify for health reasons.

Some conspiracy theorists say that Letizia Turo was killed because she learned the terrible secrets of Mussolini, because killing with a dagger in the neck was a favorite method of Italian killers.

Harry Oakes

Harry Oakes, the richest man in the Bahamas, was found dead on July 8, 1943. Someone beat him to death with a studded baseball bat, doused him with gasoline, and sprinkled him with pillow feathers. The killer tried to set fire to the corpse, but for some reason the flames did not start.

Oakes made his fortune in gold mines in Canada before fleeing to the Bahamas to avoid paying taxes.

The governor of the islands was a good friend of Oakes, so he hired two private detectives to get to the bottom of the truth. Soon, his son-in-law Alfred de Marini was accused of killing the businessman. Oakes hated his daughter's husband, believing that he was just waiting for his death in order to inherit the fortune and live happily ever after. In addition, Marini's fingerprint was found at the crime scene. A weighty motive - the young man was put on trial.

Later it turned out that the print was slipped by detectives who wanted to say goodbye to the complicated case as soon as possible. Marini was acquitted, and a new suspect appeared in the case, Oakes' business partner, Harold Christie.

Christy owed Oakes a substantial sum. There were witnesses who saw him leaving the house of the deceased at about the time when Oakes' body was supposed to catch fire. Christie himself claimed that he slept all night at his place. The police let him go home.

Lilly Linderstorm

Lilly Lindestorm, a 32-year-old divorcee from Stockholm, lived in a tiny apartment and made a living as a prostitute. On May 1, 1932, she discussed plans for the upcoming May holidays in the kitchen with 35-year-old Minnie Jenson, a neighbor and companion in misfortune.

Neighbors called Lilly “call-girl” (“call girl”), not only because of her profession, but also because she alone had a telephone installed in the whole house. The conversation between two friends was interrupted by a phone call. Lilly got a call from another client, and Minnie retreated to her room. Half an hour later, Lilly stopped by Minnie's to borrow condoms. When, a few hours later, Minnie decided to visit her friend again, no one opened the door. Deciding that the date continues, the woman left.

Three days passed before Minnie decided to call the police. Law enforcement officers broke down the door and saw a completely naked girl lying face down in a pillow. She was killed with three shots to the head. Lilly's clothes were neatly folded into a pile.

There was a completely crazy aspect to this already creepy story. There was a gravy boat stained with blood in the room. As the forensic examination showed, with this gravy boat the killer collected blood from Lilly's wound and drank.

The police interviewed 80 of Minnie's clients, but they were all beyond suspicion. The name of the Atlas vampire is still a mystery.

Mary Money

Late in the evening of September 24, 1905, the mangled remains of a young woman were found on the rails of a tunnel in the southeast of England. At first, the police considered the death a suicide, but further examination showed that she had first been strangled with a scarf. The body found by the railway superintendent was still warm - hardly half an hour had passed since the moment of death. The dead woman, Mary Money, was identified by her brother Robert.

The police tried to reconstruct Mary's last actions. It turned out that around 19:00 she was talking with a friend, telling her that she was going for a walk and would be back soon.

There were two witnesses who saw Mary at the station that evening. There were those who noticed her in the first class carriage in the company of a man. Another witness reported that he saw a man similar to the previous description get out of the first class carriage alone. The train passed through the same tunnel at 22:19. The body was found at 22:55.

The police naturally decided that Mary's lover threw her out of the car at full speed. But having checked all the male environment of the girl, they just shrugged their shoulders - everyone had an irrefutable alibi.

Three relatives of Charles were suspected: his wife Florence, who was tired of the cruel perverted harassment of her husband, her former lover James Gully and maid Miss Cox, who was about to be fired. A version was also put forward that Charles Bravo planned to poison his wife, but mistakenly drank the poison intended for her.

Günther Stoll

The mysterious death of German Gunther Stoll occurred on October 26, 1984. He, still alive, but badly crippled, was found early in the morning in a car, in a ditch near the highway. He died on the way to the hospital without regaining consciousness.

Stoll's wife recalled that on the eve of the murder, he told her: “Now he is in my hands!”, After which he wrote this note, took it with him and left the house.

Per next years two noteworthy versions were expressed that could shed light on the mystery of "YOGTZE". This could be a reference to the TZE additive used in yogurt (Gunther was a food technologist). Or the word used was not the letter G, but the number 6 - YO6TZE, a radio signal used in Romania.
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For several generations of people have grown up with the idea that nature (our mother) should be protected. We cut down virgin forests, kill animals for fun and food - well, what good is that! Organizations like Greenpeace are willing to go to any lengths to kill just to give our little brothers a little more time on this planet.

The funny thing is that none of this is true at all. Nature does not need human protection at all. The planet has lived without us and will continue to live without us, digesting all the toxic and other wastes of civilization in an excellent way. We are fighting for our existence as a species, and to think otherwise is just stupid. Don't believe? Here are just a few terrible opportunities to meet the forefathers, which Nature has carefully prepared for us.

Cassowary attack

Imagine that you suddenly meet a bird slowly emerging from the thickets, more like a modern replica of a dinosaur. She looks at you without looking up and - hell, maybe she should be fed? As if having heard these thoughts, the bird tilts its head to one side and you think that you simply have to throw something tasty to this handsome man. But instead of standing quietly and waiting for handouts, the cassowary (get acquainted, the future dead is a cassowary, the cassowary is your victim) rushes towards you at the speed of a locomotive. Locomotive with claws. A couple of blows are guaranteed to break several major arteries - and now you are already dying peacefully in a pool of your own blood, under the attentive gaze of this feathered velociraptor.

Encounter with a bear

In fact, bears rarely attack people - but it happens. You won’t be able to run away from an angry and hungry beast: he clearly has more strength and agility (there was nothing to spend so much time in front of the TV). The bear crushes you under him, mercilessly peeling off the skin with huge, crooked and blunt claws. You're lucky if the creature thinks to bite your throat right away - a relatively easy death. Otherwise, the animal may well start to bite you, not paying attention to the screams. And you will scream for a long time!

Swimming with an octopus

You decide to touch this cute bluish octopus that you met in the depths. One touch - and then you notice a small drop of blood on your hand. Congratulations, the blue-ringed octopus, with a venom 1,000 times more dangerous than cyanide, has just marked you. Over the next few minutes, your mouth will dry out. Face and tongue become numb. The paramedics can't figure out what's going on. You lose control of the body, but still remain conscious. The neurotoxin causes complete paralysis, but until the throat muscles are convulsed to death, you will have another 15 minutes. Think about eternity. Nothing more.

Walk with a snail

The beach is littered with shells, but you decide to pick the prettiest one - its smoky-rusty cone looks just cool. Put the cone in your pocket and start praying almost immediately. You are lucky to pick up a sea cone - the most poisonous snail on the planet. The sting looks like a bee sting, it's okay. But the leg hurts more and more and ... what is it, blood? Head starts to hurt. Vomiting makes it impossible to breathe. The poison blocks the central nervous system which leads to paralysis. But there is good news: you still have almost a day before death. A day during which consciousness will be locked in a paralyzed body. Days of fear and pain. An eternity of loneliness.

Flying with a bee

Death begins with a quiet hum. Bite, one more. You raise your head - damn it, beehive! Attracted by the pheromones of the first bites, the bees rush to attack. The lethal dose of poison for an adult is only 500 bites. Up to several million bees live in one hive. Hospital. Doctors do their best and - lo and behold! - put you on your feet. End of adventure? Unlikely. In a week, the remnants of the poison will dissolve the blood cells, filling the body with toxins that are usually excreted by the kidneys. But not at this time. Your kidneys simply can't handle the load and you'll die of kidney failure without even realizing what the hell is going on.

Most people go into another world quite prosaically - from illness or old age, a few - tragically.

But sometimes the "old woman with a scythe" mercilessly mocks a person, having prepared for him a cruel and unusual death. The circumstances of the death of such people seem so incredible that it is hard to believe in them. We present a chronological list of the most unusual deaths, from 270 BC to the present day.

In 270 BC, while trying to solve Liar's paradox (this is the so-called liar's paradox formulated by Eubulides), the poet Philetas died of insomnia.

In 207 B.C. e. the philosopher Chrysippus, who lived in Greece, died of laughter while watching a drunken donkey try to eat figs. This is one of the most ridiculous deaths in history.

In 121 BC. for the murder of the Roman commander Gaius Gracchus, a gold reward was promised, the weight of which should be equal to the weight of the head of Gaius. According to Plutarch, one of the participants in the murder, Septimuleius, decapitated Gracchus, removed his brains from his skull and filled the cavity with molten lead. The head was presented to the Roman Senate and weighed. The killers received seventeen pounds of gold.

In 260, the Roman emperor Valerian was defeated in battle with the Persians and was captured. The Persian king Shapur used him as a footstool, and then, in response to a request for release for a ransom, poured molten gold down his throat. But even this was not enough for the king. He skinned Valerian and made a scarecrow, filling it with straw and dung. And only three and a half centuries later, the remains of Valerian were buried.

In 668, the Roman emperor of the Byzantine Empire, Constans II, was killed in a bathhouse by a eunuch, Andreas. According to Theophan the Confessor, a eunuch serving the emperor while washing hit him on the head with a marble soap dish, the stunned Constant fell into the water and choked.

In 1277, Pope John XXI, famous for his scholarship, was mortally wounded by the collapsed roof of his own scientific laboratory.

In 1327, Edward II, the first English heir to the throne, took one of the most cruel and most unusual deaths. Deposed from the throne with the help of his wife Isabella, the king was executed in a sophisticated way - he was stuck in the anus with a red-hot iron.

In 1478 George Plantagenet, Duke of Clarence, was executed in an unusual way. He was drowned in a barrel of table wine, and according to legend, the Duke himself chose such a death. The volume of the barrel in which malvasia was usually stored was 477.3 liters - enough to drown.

In 1514 one of the most martyrdom accepted by György Dozsa, the leader of the peasant uprising in Hungary. He was seated on a white-hot throne, and his associates were forced to eat his flesh.

In 1559, the French king Henry II, participating in a joust at the celebration of his daughter's wedding, was killed. His visor, which had a soft golden lattice, pierced the opponent's spear, which hit exactly in the eye and hit the brain.

In 1573, in the Kingdom of Croatia, after the defeat of the uprising of the peasants, its leader Matja Hubek was captured and subjected to a cruel execution. They put a crown of red-hot iron on his head, and then quartered him.

In 1671 the cook Louis XIV, whose name was Francois Vatel, committed suicide. He could not bear the shame that he did not receive the fish ordered to the king's table in time. The unfortunate cook's body was discovered when his assistant came to report that the order had been delivered. Vatel's name has become a symbol of the chef's professional honor.

In 1791 or 1793, the composer and guitarist František Kotzvara died of asphyxiation while having too much sex with a prostitute. It was not only the most unusual death, but also the most unenviable - it is difficult to inspire respect for such a dead person.

In 1834, the Scottish botanist David Douglas, who studied plants, died from an animal. He fell into a pit-trap, where a bull chasing him fell after him. The animal, of course, attacked the man, and Douglas died from the bull's horns.

In 1850, President of the United States of America Zachary Taylor died from eating too much ice cream after an Independence Day ceremony - it was a very hot day. The President fell ill with indigestion and died five days later. The version of poisoning was not confirmed - in 1991, Taylor's body was exhumed and the doctors did not find poison in it.

In 1884, the famous detective Allan Pinkerton, the prototype of the famous literary hero Nat Pinkerton, "the king of detectives", died of gangrene. He bit his tongue after tripping on the pavement while walking. Antiseptics were not known in those days, and a simple wound caused death.

In 1899, French President Felix Faure died in his office from a stroke that happened to him when a 30-year-old beauty gave him a blowjob. Indeed, in everything you need to know the measure33;

In 1911, Jack Daniel, the founder of the Jack Daniel whiskey brand, died of blood poisoning. This death was on the list of unusual due to the fact that sepsis was caused by a six-year-old injury - once Daniel could not remember the combination of his safe and kicked the iron cabinet in anger.

In 1916, Grigory Rasputin, who was considered a prophet and healer, a friend of the family of Emperor Nicholas II, died. It was indeed the most unusual death: Rasputin was poisoned with potassium cyanide, shot at point-blank range, and then thrown into the hole. And although the details of the murder are still controversial, it is believed that he died from the fact that he suffocated under water.

In 1927, Parry Thomas, an English racing driver, died while trying to break his own record. He was beheaded by a chain that came off his own car. Thomas managed to set a new record posthumously - a car with an already dead racer reached a speed of 171 miles per hour.

In 1927, the famous dancer Isadora Duncan suffered a fractured cervical vertebrae and died of asphyxiation. When she was driving in a car, her scarf accidentally hit the wheel of the car and spun around it, instantly squeezing the woman's neck.

In 1928, the Russian doctor Alexander Bogdanov, the organizer and head of the world's first Institute of Blood Transfusion, while working with causative agents of malaria and tuberculosis, died after an experiment made on himself - infected blood was transfused to him. The life and death of the great Russian scientist and thinker is an example of service to science.

In 1941, the American writer Sherwood Anderson, having gone with his wife on a trip to South America accidentally swallowed a toothpick at a party. The developed peritonitis led to death - it was not possible to carry out a complex surgical operation on the ship.

In 1943, the American military bomber "Lady be Good" veered off course and made an emergency landing in the Libyan desert. The crew members died of dehydration and their mummified remains were found in 1960.

In 1943, the critic Alexander Woolcott died of a heart attack after discussing too temperamentally the personality of Adolf Hitler.

In 1944, the most unusual death befell the inventor Thomas Midgley - he came up with a mechanical bed of a special design, and accidentally strangled himself in this bed. In such cases, they say - "death as the quintessence of life."

In 1960, during the performance of an aria from Verdi's opera, the famous singer Leonard Warren died of a stroke right on stage. Amazingly, but last words there were words from the opera with such a symbolic name for the singer “The Power of Destiny”: “To die? Great honor33;".

In 1981, 25-year-old René Hartevelt, studying in Paris, was invited to lunch by fellow Japanese student Issei Sagawa. As it turned out, as a dish - the man killed her and ate. The killer was sent to Japan, and there he was safely released from custody.

In 1993, Bruce Lee's son Brandon Lee died while filming The Crow. In the pistol, from which, according to the plot, they were supposed to shoot at the hero, there was one combat cartridge among the blank cartridges.

In 2003, 21-year-old American Brandon Vedas died of a drug overdose while participating in a virtual marathon organized by fellow drug addicts. The webcam broadcast the process of taking drugs and their effects, and thousands of people also saw the death of the guy live.

In 2003, American zoologist Timothy Treadwell, who lived in Alaska for thirteen years alone with bears, died. Once, for some reason, the friendship between man and wild animals was broken, and Treadwell suffered the most terrible and unusual death - he was eaten alive by one of these predatory animals.

In 2006, Alexander Litvinenko, a KGB officer who was investigating the murder of Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya, was poisoned. The poison was an extremely rare radioactive element - polonium-210.

In 2007, 28-year-old Jennifer Strange died from water intoxication. She took part in the competition, the prize in which was game console Nintendo Wii. Under the terms of the competition, it was necessary to drink the most water, but it was not allowed to go to the toilet.

Does death have a plan?

Mystical correspondence between the Soviet writer Yevgeny Petrov and the mysterious stranger who foresaw his death

The Soviet writer Yevgeny Petrov - the one who, together with Ilya Ilf, wrote the famous "Twelve Chairs" and "The Golden Calf" - had a very curious hobby. He collected envelopes - but not all in a row, but from his own letters. It would seem that the matter was unthinkable, but Petrov came up with an excellent method: he wrote a letter abroad and invented the whole address - the city, the street, the house, and the name of the addressee. Naturally, after a couple of months, the letter came back, decorated with beautiful postmarks "The addressee is incorrect."

And in the spring of 1939, Evgeny Petrov decided to receive an envelope with New Zealand stamps. He invented the city of Hydeberville, in which the mythical Meryl Eugene Weasley lived in the house number 7 on Reitbeach Street. And, carried away by the game, he put the letter in the envelope: “My dear Meryl! My sincere condolences to you on the passing of your Uncle Pete. Hold on, buddy! And I'm sorry it took me so long to answer you. How is Ingrid doing? Kiss your daughter, she's probably quite big already. I'm waiting for your answer, your Eugene.

A month passed, the second, the third - and the letter did not return. Petrov began to forget about him, but at the end of the summer he unexpectedly received ... an answer from New Zealand. Reading the return address, the writer received a real shock - the envelope read: "Meryl Eugene Weasley, Reitbeach, 7, Hydeberville, New Zealand." There was also a post office stamp confirming the sender. But the most surprising thing was the contents of the envelope.

The text of the received letter was as follows: “Dear Eugene! Thank you for your sympathy! Uncle Pete died absurdly, and this tragedy unsettled our entire family for six months. That's why I haven't written for so long, but Ingrid and I haven't forgotten you and the three days you spent with us. Gloria has really grown half a head, but she still does not part with the Russian bear that you brought her. Your Meryl. But that was not all - Petrov, with trembling hands, took out a photograph from the envelope, in which he himself was captured in an embrace with absolutely by a stranger! Seeing the date in the picture, the writer grabbed his heart - on that day, October 9 last year, he ended up in the hospital with a severe form of pneumonia, and for several days the doctors literally pulled him out of the other world ...

Evgeny Petrov never believed in any mysticism, and therefore immediately wrote to New Zealand again. But he did not wait for an answer - the war began in Europe, and Petrov became a war correspondent for the Informburo from its very first days. By the way, his colleagues claimed that after receiving a strange letter, this eternal joker became gloomy and withdrawn, and stopped joking at all ...

Well, this story didn't end well. In 1942, Yevgeny Petrov flew by plane from Sevastopol to the capital, and this plane was shot down by the Germans in the Rostov region. Mysticism - but on the same day when it became known about the death of the plane, a letter from New Zealand arrived at the writer's home. In this letter, Meryl Weasley admired the Soviet soldiers and worried about Petrov's life. Among other things, the letter contained the following lines: “Remember, Eugene, you told me after swimming in the lake that you were not destined to drown, but destined to crash on an airplane. I beg you - fly as little as possible!

Based on this story, a short film "The Envelope" was shot with Kevin Spacey in the title role, which was shot by Russian director Alexei Nuzhny according to his own script.

Death from exhaustion at the screen. All its unusualness is in surprise.

2005 year. A 28-year-old Korean video game fan collapsed to the floor and died in an Internet bar after playing 50 hours non-stop.

From the claw of a lioness

2007 Oktay Makhmudov, 45, from Azerbaijan, climbed down a rope into a lion's cage at the Kiev Zoo and shouted to the numb visitors:

God save me if he exists!

Seconds later, the lioness pounced on him and severed his artery, killing him. uninvited guest instantly.

The unusual death of a little girl

2008 Seven-year-old Abigail Taylor died after her internal organs were partly sucked in by the powerful swimming pool pump, on which she had the imprudence to sit down. Surgeons replaced her intestines and pancreas with donor organs. The baby died from cancer caused by one of the transplanted organs.

In 207 BC e. Greek philosopher Grisippus died of laughter watching his drunken donkey trying to eat figs.

121 BC, Gaius Gracchus, a Roman general, according to Plutarch, was killed for a reward of gold the weight of his head. One of the conspirators in his murder decapitated Guy, cleaned his skull of brains and filled its cavity with molten lead. When the lead hardened, the head was taken to the Roman Senate and weighed. The killer was rewarded with seventeen pounds of gold.

And you will accept death from the eagle and the tortoise

458 BC Aeschylus was killed... by an eagle! He threw a tortoise on Aeschylus's head, confusing the playwright's bald head with a stone.

The coals are hotter!

42 BC Portia Cato, wife of Marcus Brutus, died by swallowing hot coals after she learned of her husband's death.

1927 died of asphyxiation and a broken neck when her long scarf got caught in the wheel of the car she was chauffeured in. He did not immediately notice that Isadora's body was dragging behind the car (the driving was then terribly noisy). The screams of the crowd helped the driver wake up, but it was too late. Duncan's heart stopped.

The Unusual and Unsightly Death of Herod

4 BC King Herod fell ill with a fever, covered with a rash, fell ill with inflammation abdominal cavity. Herod's genitals rotted. Before his death, convulsions became more frequent and Herod found it difficult to breathe. During his death throes, many worms swarmed in Herod's body, as evidenced by the court healers.

The death of his grandson Herod Agrippa in 44 was surprisingly similar: abdominal pain, worms. This happened shortly after he imprisoned the Apostle Peter.

Crucified upside down

64 - 67 years. The Apostle Peter was crucified on an inverted cross, upside down, because he considered himself unworthy to die like Christ.

Cruel death by shells

415 year. The world has too often been cruel to extraordinary women. The Greek mathematician and philosopher Hepatia was killed by a mob who skinned her alive with sharp shells. All that was left of the unfortunate woman was burned at the stake.

The King "who drank himself to death"

771 years. The King of Sweden, Adolf Fredrik, died of indigestion. He ate for lunch: crayfish, caviar, sauerkraut, smoked herring, drank a lot of champagne. He ate all this with his usual dessert of 14 servings of sweet pie with hot milk. In Sweden, they still call him “the king who drank himself to death.”

Death of an explorer

1928 Doctor Alexander Bogdanov died after one of his experiments, in which the blood of students with malaria and tuberculosis was transfused to him.

1911 Jack Daniel, the founder of whiskey Jack Daniel, died of blood poisoning, six years after suffering a leg injury when he kicked him in anger at having forgotten the combination of the code to the safe.

1916 Grigory Rasputin drowned in a hole under the ice. Although the details of his murder are disputed, he was allegedly drowned in an ice hole after he was poisoned with hydrocyanic acid, beaten, mutilated, and received several gunshot wounds to the head, lungs, and liver. Strange, but he died precisely from the fact that he suffocated under water.

1927 Parry-Thomas, an English race car driver, was beheaded by a chain that flew off his own car. He was trying to beat his own record last year. Despite the fact that he was already dead, he still managed to set a new record - 171 miles per hour!

1943 Critic Alexander Woolcott died of a heart attack while discussing Adolf Hitler.

In some cultures, the already rather bleak process of burying the bodies of the dead is for some reason trying to fill with additional sinister content ...

Self-immolation (or sati) is a ritual that was once widespread in India. The inconsolable widow (voluntarily!) lay next to the body of her deceased husband on the burial bed prepared for burning and burned alive with him.

The sati ritual existed in India for several centuries, until in 1829 the British who occupied the country outlawed it. True, this did not help much - self-immolations continue to this day. Although they were banned at least twice more - in 1956 and 1981.

It is not difficult to guess that widows often changed their minds as soon as the fire got to them and tried to jump out of the heat. Such behavior was regarded as the most terrible dishonor, so the friends and relatives of the deceased who watched the ceremony considered it their sacred duty to drive the widow back into the fire. For this, specially stocked bamboo sticks were used. And when the problem could not be solved with sticks, the women were tied up.

In the 18th century, an incident occurred when a widow jumped out of a flame and plunged into the river, on the banks of which the ceremony was taking place. They caught her and threw her back, having previously broken her arms and legs to be sure.

Once upon a time, Indian widows were at the very bottom of the social ladder. Everything that was connected with the widow was considered unclean - from touch and voice to the very presence of a poor woman. Widows were avoided and despised, so that immediately after death, a woman's life turned into a real hell. Apparently, it was believed that grief from loss loved one not enough.

For some reason, a woman was considered guilty of having survived her husband. And it is not surprising that it occurred to someone first to atone for "guilt" in such a terrible way.

2 Buddhists Mummify Themselves

Self-mummification has been practiced in Japan since the late 1800s. And at the beginning of the 20th century, the Japanese issued a law according to which it was strictly forbidden to mummify oneself, and now you will understand why.

The process of turning oneself into a mummy is quite long - it takes more than two thousand days (i.e. about 5.5 years).

The first step is to rid the body of fat. To do this, a Buddhist who decides to mummify, sits on a diet consisting only of nuts and seeds, and sits on it for a thousand days.

The next task is to drive out as much water as possible. And since the body consists mostly of liquid, then at this stage there is a serious discomfort. During this period, the monk allows himself to chew on some pine bark and roots. Thus another thousand days pass.

Then a special, very poisonous tea is drunk, made from the sap of the lacquer tree (the Pilot company used this sap to produce unique ink; approx. mixstuff.ru).

If tea causes diarrhea and vomiting, then everything is going according to plan. So another part of the liquid comes out of the body, but, which is much more important for the future mummy, the juice of the lacquer tree soaks the insides, as it were, “cements them” and protects against the formation of any larvae.

And the final stage - still alive, but already quite a mummy sits in a lotus position in a tiny room with stone walls where it is sealed. Everything. It remains to meditate and wait for death.

Buddhists believe that if you completely renounce the physical world and thus achieve enlightenment, then in the next life, instead of being born again, you can go straight to Buddhahood.

3. Heavenly burial of Tibetan monks

Before this, too, the Buddhists thought of it. This is a peculiar form of preparation, practiced for some time in Delaware (USA). But this ritual really comes from Tibet.

Buddhists believe that after death the body is just an empty vessel. And than it will decompose uselessly in the ground, it is better to at least feed the birds. This ritual is called "jator", which can be translated as "almsgiving to the birds." The body, wrapped in a white cloth, is brought to a place specially designated for such ceremonies, usually somewhere high in the mountains. The body is unwrapped, cut into small pieces and left for three days for vultures and other carrion-eating birds.

Then the monks return, collect the bones, grind them into flour, mix with flour and make cakes that go to feed other, smaller birds.

According to the Tibetan Book of the Dead, this tradition has existed since the 12th century. It should be noted that it is most widespread in places where the ground is rocky and digging a grave is a real problem. It is possible that this explains everything.

4. Australian aborigines exhibited the bodies of the dead on special elevations

The beliefs of the Australian Aborigines were distinguished by a rare diversity. And they also had a lot of ways to deal with the dead: here is the tradition of burial to the earth, which is familiar to us, and cremation, and mummification, and even cannibalism.

One of the most common rituals consisted of two parts. First, the body was laid on a raised platform and covered with leaves and branches. In this state, it was until the flesh completely decomposed. Which took several months.

Then the bones were taken out and painted with red ocher. After that, they were placed either in a cave or in a cavity hollowed out in a log.

At the same time, the property of the deceased was destroyed, and for some time no one was even allowed to pronounce his name.

The two stages of the ritual were associated with the belief of the natives, who believed that the human soul consists of two parts. And one of them, the ego, can come back and start haunting the living. As we know from horror movies, dealing with ghosts does not bode well. And when you demolish the house of the deceased and refuse to pronounce his name, he must immediately understand that he is not welcome here and go forever to the kingdom of the dead.5. space funeral

Funeral in space is a ritual, as you might guess, completely new. But this does not make it any less creepy, especially considering that the cost of such a ceremony can be comparable to the GDP of a small European country.

Yes, today you can order your own funeral in space, and the cost of the service will vary depending on how far from Earth you want to go after death.

If low Earth orbit suits you, it will cost a modest $695, and the place for the urn with the ashes on the Gemini ship, which will throw it into deep space, is no less than 60,000 greens.

The first space funeral took place in 1997 from an aircraft carrying a modified Pegasus cruise missile and 22 urns containing ashes.

Among the first buried in space are Space Wars star James Doohan and American writer Timothy Leary.