Incredible but True Stories
- [San Jose Mercury News] An unidentified man, using a shotgun like a club to break a
former girlfriend's windshield, accidentally shot himself to death when the gun discharged,
blowing a hole in his gut.
- [Kalamazoo Gazette, 4-1-95] James Burns, 34, of Alamo, Mich., was killed in March as he
was trying to repair what police described as a "farm-type truck." Burns got a friend to drive
the truck on a highway while Burns hung underneath so that he could ascertain the source of a
troubling noise. Burns' clothes caught on something, however, and the other man found Burns
"wrapped in the drive shaft."
- [Hickory Daily Record 12/21/92] Ken Charles Barger, 47, accidentally shot himself to
death in December in Newton, N.C., when, awakening to the sound of a ringing telephone beside
his bed, he reached for the phone but grabbed instead a Smith&Wesson .38 Special, which
discharged when he drew it to his ear.
- [UPI, Toronto] Police said a lawyer demonstrating the safety of windows in a downtown
Toronto skyscraper crashed through a pane with his shoulder and plunged 24 floors to his death.
A police spokesman said Garry Hoy, 39, fell into the courtyard of the Toronto Dominion Bank Tower
early Friday evening as he was explaining the strength of the building's windows to visiting
law students. Hoy previously had conducted demonstrations of window strength according to
police reports. Peter Lawyers, managing partner of the firm Holden Day Wilson, told the Toronto
Sun newspaper that Hoy was "one of the best and brightest" members of the 200-man association.
- [Bloomberg News Service, 25 March] A terrible diet and room with no ventilation are being
blamed for the death of a man who was killed by his own gas. There was no mark on his body but
autopsy showed large amounts of methane gas in his system. His diet had consisted primarily of
beans and cabbage (and a couple of other things). It was just the right combination of foods.
It appears that the man died in his sleep from breathing the poisonous cloud that was hanging
over his bed. Had he been outside or had his windows been opened, it wouldn't have been fatal.
But the man was shut up in his near airtight bedroom. According to the article, "He was a big
man with a huge capacity for creating "this deadly gas." Three of the rescuers got sick and
one was hospitalized.
- [1/29/96 The News of the weird.] Michael Anderson Godwin made News of the Weird posthumously
in 1989. He had spent several years awaiting South Carolina's electric chair on a murder conviction
before having his sentence reduced to life in prison. In March 1989, sitting on a metal toilet
in his cell and attempting to fix his small TV set, he bit into a wire and was electrocuted.
- ["The Indianapolis Star", Wed.,Dec.4,1996]. Cigarette lighter may have triggered fatal
explosion Dunkirk, Indiana. A Jay County man using a cigarette lighter to check the barrel of a
muzzle loader was killed Monday night when the weapon discharged in his face, sheriff's investigators
said. Gregory David Pryor, 19, died in his parents' rural Dunkirk home about 11:30 p.m. Investigators
said Pryor was cleaning a .54-caliber muzzleloader that had not been firing properly. He was using
the lighter to look into the barrel when the gunpowder ignited.
- [AP, St. Louis] Robert Puelo, 32, was apparently being disorderly in a St. Louis market.
When the clerk threatened to call police, Puelo grabbed a hot dog, shoved it in his mouth, and
walked out without paying for it. Police found him unconscious in front of the store: paramedics
removed the six-inch wiener from his throat, where it had choked him to death.
- [Unknown] To poacher Marino Malerba, who shot a stag standing above him on an overhanging
rock-and was killed instantly when it fell on him.
- [Associated Press, Kincaid, W. VA] Blasting Cap Explodes in Man's Mouth at Party. A man
at a party popped a blasting cap into his mouth and bit down, triggering an explosion that blew
off his lips, teeth and tongue, state police said Wednesday. Jerry Stromyer, 24, of Kincaid, bit
the blasting cap as a prank during a party late Tuesday night, said Cpl. M.D. Payne. 'Another man
had it in an aquarium, hooked to a battery, and was trying to explode it," Payne said. "It wouldn't
go off and this guy said, 'I'll show you how to set it off."
- [Arkansas Democrat Gazette, July 25,1996] Two local men were seriously injured when their
pick-up truck left the road and struck a tree near Cotton Patch on State Highway 38 early Monday
morning. Woodruff County deputy Dovey Snyder reported the accident shortly after midnight Monday.
Thurston Poole, 33, of Des Arc and Billy Ray Wallis, 38, of Little Rock are listed in serious condition
at Baptist Medical Center. The accident occurred as the two men were returning to Des Arc after
a frog gigging trip. On an overcast Sunday night, Poole's pick-up truck headlights malfunctioned.
The two men concluded that the headlight fuse on the older model truck had burned out. As a
replacement fuse was not available, Wallis noticed that the .22 caliber bullet from his pistol
fit perfectly into the fuse box next to the steering wheel column. Upon inserting the bullet, the
headlights again began to operate properly and the two men proceeded on east-bound toward the
White River bridge. After traveling approximately twenty miles and just before crossing the river,
the bullet apparently overheated, discharged and struck Poole in the right testicle. The vehicle
swerved sharply to the right exiting the pavement and striking a tree. Poole suffered only minor
cuts and abrasions from the accident, but will require surgery to repair the other wound. Wallis
sustained a broken clavicle and was treated and released. "Thank God we weren't on that bridge when
Thurston shot his balls off or we might both be dead" stated Wallis. "I've been a trooper for ten
years in this part of the world, but this is a first for me. I can't believe that those two would
admit how this accident happened", said Snyder. Upon being notified of the wreck, Lavinia, Poole's
wife asked how many frogs the boys had caught and did anyone get them from the truck.
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