November 1, 1998
Hrand Arakelian, a Brink's armored car guard in California, was crushed
to death by coins in 1986. He was guarding the back of the truck. The
driver braked suddenly and the load of boxed coins fell on him. (Trivial
Trivia, donated by Fiendish Freya
Harris)
November 2, 1998
In Cairo, Egypt, a woman, weighing 352 pounds, crushed her husband to
death following a dispute over his will. Fawakih Ibrahim Abdel-Latif
killed her husband, Sayed Ahmed, -- who weighed 121 pounds -- Saturday
after discovering he had left more land in his will for his four children
from his first wife than the three he had with her. Abdel-Latif, 32,
pushed her 64-year-old husband to the ground and with his face down and
sat on his head until he stopped struggling. She admitted to releasing her
husband only after she believed he had suffocated. Officials said she then
heard him moan. As he began to awaken she placed her foot on her husband's
head and stepped down with her full weight crushing his skull and killing
him. Ahmed was married to both Abdel-Latif and his first wife. Islam
allows men to have up to four wives at the same time. Police arrested
Abdel-Latif, who confessed to killing her husband. She could face the
death penalty if convicted. (Associated Press, donated by
KC)
November 4, 1998
The streets of Moscow have become a mine field due to decaying
pipes which pump boiling water to heat buildings. When the pipes
leak, hot water can saturate the soil so thoroughly that the weight of a
person walking above is enough to turn the ground into a seething
sinkhole. On March 11, 1998, Marina Yarovov was walking her two dogs in a
field near her apartment when the earth opened beneath her and she fell
into a pit of muddy, boiling water. In agony, she tried to climb out of
the hole as a friend ran for help. But within minutes, the 43-year-old
mother of two was dead -- boiled alive in the water that heats the homes
and shops of her neighborhood through a vast subterranean network of
pipes. Six weeks earlier, Artyom Mkrtumyan, 10, was walking to the store
in his neighborhood when the ground dissolved under his feet and he fell
into a boiling pit. His father, Vladimir, jumped into the 225-degree water
to rescue him, but it was too late. Artyom died 11 days later, his father
-- scalded from the waist down -- two weeks after that. "He was basically
a living, swollen skeleton crying in pain and calling for his mother,
calling for help, calling for someone to ease his intolerable pain," she
said. Referring to the people responsible, she added: "I would not think
twice before throwing them into a pit like we had here. They must feel
what a child boiling alive feels like." City officials bluntly
acknowledge that Moscow has become a "mine field" and predict that without
a sudden infusion of cash to repair the pipes, more people will die in the
same grisly fashion. (The
Philadelphia Enquirer)
November 5, 1998
Miss Jessie Dobson, when she was Recorder of Britain's Royal
College of Surgeons in 1951, stated in the respected medical journal
The Lancet that "the procedure employed in judicial hanging
has been, and maybe still is, an uncertain means of causing
instantaneous death". She described how the bodies of 36 criminals
were dissected after hanging, and how pathologists found that in 10 of
them the heart was still beating. In two cases the heart-beats
continued for five hours; in one case they continued for more than
seven hours. (Crimes And Punishment: The Illustrated Crime
Encyclopedia, Vol. 5)
November 6, 1998
On October 8, 1871 fire broke out in the barn of Patrick and
Catherine O'Leary at 137 De Koven Street, Chicago, and quickly spread
throughout the city, which at that time consisted almost entirely of
wooden structures. The holocaust claimed 300 lives, left 100,000
people homeless, and destroyed 17,500 buildings. (The People's Almanac
#2)
November 7, 1998
In 1728 a woman was hanged in Edinburgh, and her body was taken away
in a cart by relatives. The jolting of the vehicle over the rough
roads was apparently sufficent stimulus to restore her, and by the time
it had gone six miles she was 'almost well'. She was still living in
1753. (Crimes And Punishment: The
Illustrated Crime Encyclopedia, Vol. 5)
November 8, 1998
In just a week in August, 1914 during the first World War, the French
army lost 40,000 men. Some 20,000 British soldiers died on the first day
of the Battle of the Somme on July 1, 1916. Those were the bloodiest
weeks in the history of France and Britain.(The Associated
Press)
Adam Taggart adds:
"Just to let you know, the entire Newfoundland regiment was killed at the
battle of the sommes."
November 9, 1998
A massive, coordinated attack on Jews throughout the German Reich on
the night of November 9, 1938, into the next day, has come to be known as
Kristallnacht or The Night of Broken Glass. The attack came after
Herschel Grynszpan, a 17 year old Jew living in Paris, shot and killed a
member of the German Embassy staff there in retaliation for the poor
treatment his father and his family suffered at the hands of the Nazis in
Germany. On November 9, mob violence broke out as the regular German
police stood by and crowds of spectators watched. Nazi storm troopers
along with members of the SS and Hitler Youth beat and murdered Jews,
broke into and wrecked Jewish homes, and brutalized Jewish women and
children. All over Germany, Austria and other Nazi controlled areas,
Jewish shops and department stores had their windows smashed and contents
destroyed. Synagogues were especially targeted for vandalism, including
desecration of sacred Torah scrolls. Hundreds of synagogues were
systematically burned while local fire departments stood by or simply
prevented the fire from spreading to surrounding buildings. About 25,000
Jewish men were rounded up and later sent to concentration camps where
they were often brutalized by SS guards and in some cases randomly chosen
to be beaten to death. SS leader Reinhard Heydrich reported 7500
businesses destroyed, 267 synagogues burned (with 177 totally destroyed)
and 91 Jews killed. (The
History Place)
November 10, 1998
Singer Jackie Wilson collapsed of a stroke and a heart attack
onstage in 1967 while singing "Lonely Teardrops". He never regained
consciousness and died eight years later. (Unusual
Deaths)
November 11, 1998
On August 24 and 25, 1875, Capt. Matthew Webb, 27, swam the English
Channel from Dover to Calais, the first human to do so without a life
jacket. For 22 hours the hero of Shropshire breaststroked the high
seas. Although Webb lived to tell about it, he was not so lucky on
another occasion eight years later. He drowned trying to swim the
Niagara River below the falls. (The People's Almanac #2)
November 13, 1998
A man who allegedly slashed the throats of at least four homeless
people, killing one, has told police he is a 2,000-year-old vampire who
thrives on drinking blood. Joshua Rudiger, 21, was in custody Wednesday
on charges of slashing the throat of a homeless man in San Francisco's
Chinatown. The victim, who survived the attack, pointed Rudiger out to
police, who arrested him and found a bloody knife stuck in his belt.
Police sources told reporters that Rudiger claimed to be a vampire and in
at least three cases had apparently used his victims' blood to scrawl the
Chinese character for "death" on the pavement near the scenes of the
attacks. "He talked for a long time and said a lot of weird things," one
police source told the San Francisco Examiner, noting that none of the
slashing victims had reported that their attacker attempted to drink their
blood. "We'll never know if he really drank the victims' blood, but we're
sure he's the guy who slashed their throats." Prosecutors have charged
Rudiger with one murder -- that of 48-year-old Shirley Dillahunty, who was
found with her throat slit on Oct. 29. More charges of attempted murder
are expected to be lodged later in the week, and Rudiger is scheduled to
undergo a full psychiatric evaluation. San Francisco Police Chief Fred
Lau said the case, which had sent shivers through the city's large
homeless population, could grow stranger as police continue their
investigation. "It's unique," Lau said. "I'm sure as we gather more
facts we'll probably come up with a lot of information that is probably
going to reveal a lot of things about the suspect." (The
Associated Press, donated by Darren King)
November 14, 1998
In March in Fullerton, California, a man in his early 20's accidentally
shot himself to death in the course of pistol-whipping the manager
of a computer store he was robbing. (News of the Weird)
November 15, 1998
In 1985, James A. Cooley, a cancer patient, was found dead in his home.
Cause of death: 32 blows to the head with a claw hammer. Hobart, Indiana,
police classified the death as suicide. They noted that Cooley had been
despondent because of his illness. (Trivial
Trivia, donated by Freya Harris)
November 16, 1998
A pickup truck driver says his trip to a grocery store for flowers,
candy and a birthday card for his girlfriend accidentally ended with
the death of a woman he offered to drive home. The man told police he
didn't know that the woman had become entangled in the truck's seat
belt after he pushed her out of his cab following an argument. Police
found 39-year-old Faye Smith on Wednesday dumped along a highway in Las
Cruces, New Mexico. She had been dragged nine miles through city streets,
leaving a trail of blood and clothing. Authorities were waiting for the
coroner to determine the cause and time of Smith's death before deciding
on possible charges against the 29-year-old driver. The driver said he
offered to drive Smith home after he was unable to give her money for
a telephone call. Smith told the driver she was drunk and had just
used cocaine, and again asked for money. An argument followed and the
driver shoved her out of the truck, the man told police. The driver
drove to his rural home in nearby Brazito, then panicked when he found
the woman was entangled in the seat belt. He placed her in the
truck's cab, drove a couple of miles from home and dumped her body
along Route 228. (The Associated Press)
November 17, 1998
Peshtigo, Wisconsin, is the site of "America's Most Disastrous Forest
Fire," memorialized in the Peshtigo Fire Museum. Peshtigo was completely
consumed in a fiery hell on October 8, 1871, the same night as the
unrelated and overpublicized Great Chicago Fire. Peshtigo's fire destroyed
every one of the town's 800 buildings and killed 1,200 people. Most fled
toward the river, choking on gases or exploding into pyres. A painted
tryptych in the museum gives before-during-after snapshots of Peshtigo
life- and death-styles. Surviving artifacts could fit into a lunchbox.
Outside is the well-marked mass grave for 350 victims. A garden hose hangs
coiled and ready. (Roadside America, donated by
Andrew Thompson)
November 18, 1998
During the filming of a Mountain Dew commercial on December 14, 1995,
sky surfer Rob Harris' parachute failed to open and he plunged to his
death. Despite rumours to the contrary, though the finished commercial
contains some footage of Harris, none comes from his final jump.(The Urban Legends Reference Pages, donated
by Pete23)
November 19, 1998
63-year-old tenor Richard Versalle died onstage at New York's
Metropolitan Opera immediately after delivering the line: "Too bad you can
only live so long" in Janacek's The Makropulos Case. It was the first
performance and Versalle, who was playing the legal clerk Vitek alongside
Jessye Norman, climbed a 20 ft ladder to file a legal brief, but had a
heart attack and plunged to the ground. Janacek's opera is about the
secret of eternal life. (The Urban Legends
Reference Pages, donated by
Pete23)
November 20, 1998
Lucius Aelius Aurelius Commodus (161-192), Roman emperor, collected all
the dwarfs, cripples, and freaks he could find in the city of Rome and had
them brought to the Coliseum, where they were ordered to fight each other
to the death with meat cleavers. (Trivial Trivia,
donated by Fiendish Freya Harris)
November 21, 1998
In 1879, British colonial forces destroyed the Zulu army in South
Africa at a cost of f5.25 million and over 1,300 in British
casualties. British high commissioner of South Africa, Sir Bartle
Frere, goaded Zulu chief Cetewayo into armed conflict with the
ultimatum that he unilaterally diarm his warriors. The British South
African field force marched into Zululand confident of easy victory
over the spear-throwing natives. They soon learned they had
underestimated their foe. On January 22, when the British force had
been lured far enough away from their camp, over 20,000 Zulus poured
down on the garrison, crying, "Gwas umhlongo! Gwas inglubi!" ("Stab
the white men! Stab the pigs!") This they did in what was one of the
most humiliating defeats in British miltary history. Although the
Zulus also suffered heavy casualties, 52 British officers and 1,277 of
lesser rank were killed and disemboweled. Inevitably, the superior
firepower of the colonial forces prevailed in the end. The Zulu leader
was captured and imprisoned and the Zulu nation was splintered into
tiny principalities, each with their own chief, to ensure subjugation.
(The People's Almanac #2)
November 22, 1998
In 1763, British Captain Simon Ecuyer, serving in the American Colonies
in defense of Fort Pitt, ordered blankets to be distributed to the hostile
Indians who were attacking the fort. The blankets were infested with the
small pox virus and mercilessly wiped out the enemy. [And you thought
germ warfare was a 20th century idea! - FEH] (Trivial
Trivia, donated by Fiendish Freya
Harris)
November 23, 1998
On April 27, 1936, at Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary, convict Joe Bowers
was pulling incinerator duty when he decided to climb the fence. The
Bureau of Prisons believed he was trying to escape. Some prisoners claimed
he was crazy and only trying to feed the birds. Still others suggest he
was depressed and committing suicide. Whatever the reason, the road tower
guard saw him and fired three times. Bowers fell sixty feet from the fence
top to the water's edge. The island's doctor determined that he had died
before he hit the ground. (Alcatraz
Island Circumnavigational Tour)
November 24, 1998
On December 14, 1931, a railroad mechanic near London found what he
thought was the body of a young man near the tracks. When an ambulance
crew arrived they found signs of life, but the injuries were grave
indeed. Some of the man's ribs were broken, and his right leg mangled.
He was rushed to the hospital, where his leg was amputated. By morning,
there was a grave criminal development. A young woman, Margaret Organ,
had reported that she had been attacked by a man while travelling to
Charing Cross in a train leaving Bromley at 6:49 p.m. He went berserk,
opened the carriage door, but she struggled and held on to the frame of
the window until she fainted. William Charles Greensmith was identified
in the hospital by Miss Organ and, when his injuries were healed, faced a
Central Criminal Court jury who found him guilty on two charges. He was
sentenced to four year's penal servitude and a concurrent 15 months' hard
labour. (Crimes And Punishment: The Illustrated Crime
Encyclopedia Vol XXIII)
November 25, 1998
Charles Guiteau shot President James Garfield on July 2, 1881. Garfield
lay dying for 2 months, mostly because surgeons had no way of operating
unless they could find the bullet imbedded in his body. The inventor
Alexander Graham Bell came to the White House with a new machine that he
had developed, a magnetometer. He planned to use the new device to locate
the position of the bullet in the president's body. To Graham's
frustration, however, his new magnetometer yielded bizarre and
inconclusive results and the bullet remained unfound. Unknown to Bell or
the president's physicians, Garfield was also making use of another brand
new invention, a metal-spring mattress! (KC)
November 26, 1998
On August 6th, 1945, the city of Hiroshima was atom bombed. Thousands
of survivors fled the city as individuals or with their families. Many
were horribly wounded, but nonetheless, they tried to reach the homes of
relatives in other cities. A number of these individuals and families
survived the 3-day trek to Nagasaki, where they were atom bombed
again. (KC)
November 27, 1998
A beautiful case of poetic justice:
A man hunting pheasants near Sacramento, California apparently shot a
high-voltage power line that fell into standing water and electrocuted him
Tuesday (11/24/98). He was missing until shortly after midnight
Wednesday, when the voltage also killed a sheriff's search-and-rescue
bloodhound. (The Sacramento
Bee)
November 28, 1998
Many visitors traveled great distances to see the Columbian Exhibition
of 1893 in Chicago. Weary from their train rides, visitors sought the
first affordable room they could find. Because the demand was so great for
accommodation, they often had to accept the first (seemingly) reasonable
offer. The unfortunates who took a room with Dr. H.H. Holmes, just outside
the gates of the Fair, were more than reminded of the risks of city life.
Holmes, born Herman Webster Mudgett, began his career as a medical student
in Michigan. Having been kicked out of the university for "unusual
activities," Holmes moved to Chicago and started a drugstore empire. With
his fortune, he built a one hundred-room mansion, but it was no ordinary
wealthy businessman's manse: he outfitted it with gas chambers, trap
doors, acid vats, lime pits, fake walls, and secret entrances. During the
Fair, he rented rooms to visitors, and killed most of them and then
experimented with their corpses. Some say he killed over 200 people
during his career, before he was caught and hanged in 1896. (The World's
Columbian Exposition: Idea, Experience, Aftermath, donated by
Cedric).
November 29, 1998
Bruce Barron, a 47-year-old lawyer, killed himself by carbon monoxide
poisoning in his garage in 1996. He had just learned that his bank was
foreclosing on his home in Derry because the IRS had placed a lien on it.
In a suicide note, he blamed the IRS and the bank, saying they are "bigger
than me. One sits, does nothing, and watches you die. One needs to clear
its books." (Dead Lawyers)
November 30, 1998
1998 was the deadliest hurricane season in two centuries. The
death toll for Hurricane Mitch alone, which stalled over Honduras and
Nicaragua with torrents of rain which caused severe flooding, storm
surge and mudslides, is estimated to be more than 10,000. (The
Associated Press)
 |
 |
 Vulgarities... |