- Yeah, and you thought slipping on a banana peel
was just in cartoons.
- [Man] This is--
(woman screams)
- All of us have had clumsy moments,
moments when we aren't exactly at our best
and maybe we fall or stub our toe
or even break something.
Not a good situation to be in
because people are going to laugh at you
but, hey, at least that wasn't the last thing you ever did.
The following are real stories
of a select group of people
who paid the ultimate price
and became eternally locked in legacy of embarrassment.
These are the 10 most embarrassing ways
people have died.
Number one is the clumsy daredevil
On July 25th 1911, Englishman Bobby Leach
became the 2nd person ever to survive going
over Niagara Falls.
Leach accomplished the feat by encasing himself
within a fortified barrel
which protected him as he rushed
over the massive waterfall.
The stunt actually put him in the hospital
for six months with broken kneecaps and a fractured jaw
but, believe it or not, that couldn't keep him down.
Soon after, he was on a world tour
to brag about what he had done.
However, what did keep him down
ended up being an orange peel.
Yep.
While touring New Zealand in February of 1926,
Leach slipped on an orange peel and broke his leg.
His injury became infected
and then became gangrenous
so doctors decided to amputate.
On April 26th 1926, Leach succame
to failing health at 69 years old,
his body unable to handle his recovery.
That's right.
He survived an incredible 187 foot fall
off of a rushing waterfall
only to slip up and get taken out by a piece of fruit.
See, this is why you should always
throw away your banana and orange peels.
You might end up killing someone.
Number two is crushed by stone boobies.
On May 17th 2006, 58 year old Hungarian artist
and sculptor, Mihaly Gubis was crushed by his own
artistic creation in Mundelsheim, Germany.
He and another sculptor
were trying desperately to load
his beautiful 24 foot, 3,300 pound sculpture
into the back of a truck.
The giant artistic expression,
titled Woman With Four Breasts,
was falling to one side when he tried to push it back
with the force of his body.
His attempt to balance the piece
only made the situation worse
when it fell directly on him,
crushing him under the hard excess boobage
and killing him immediately.
Prior to this incident,
he was forced to give up his career as a guitarist
when he accidentally lost a finger
in a print shop accident.
No stranger to accidents, he again misjudged a decision
to throw himself in harm's way
rather than just let his art be destroyed
and ended up paying dearly for it.
I don't think this is what most guys are talking about
when they say they want to be crushed by some boobs.
Y'know what I'm sayin'?
Number three is death by Orgasmatron.
In Malaga, Spain, police found a 65 year old
German electrician named Manfred Lubitz
dead in his apartment.
In a very awkward situation,
Manfred had been hooked up to an electrical device
of his own creation which he
affectionately named the Orgasmatron.
This device consisted of massage pads,
a vibrating mat, and a few electrodes
which were secured to his (clears throat) junk.
While he watched a special movie
that we'll refer to simply as something something nuns,
his pleasure machine worked its magic.
Things were going swell for our pervertedly crafty friend
until the Orgasmatron was hit by the one thing
you would never want such
a device to be hit by, a power surge.
The surge traveled through the device
and hit him right in his junk
which became electrified, ending the poor man's life.
Now that's what you call a sad ending.
But, in a way, I guess he died doing what he loved most.
Testing out his new inventions and himself.
Number four is wound up tight.
On August 11th 1987, 47 year old Paul G. Thomas
co-owner of George Thomas and Sons Textile company
was working on a pinwheel dresser at his wood mill.
The dresser takes yarn from a big spool
and winds it onto a smaller one
with the help of a giant motor.
This was an ordinary Tuesday afternoon at the mill for Paul
until he fell onto the smaller spool
and found himself caught up in a yarn transfer.
Before he knew it, he was being rapidly wrapped up in wool
and it was starting to constrict
and squeeze the air out of him.
By the end of the ordeal, Paul was no longer visible
as he'd become part of a massive 800 foot spool.
When his coworkers finally found him,
he was completely buried in the fabric
and by the time he was unraveled,
he had already suffocated.
Do not underestimate the power of factory machinery
because it will murder you if you do not take
extra care while operating it, baby.
Though Mr. Thomas was successful in his textile business,
it ultimately led to his undoing.
Number five is beaten with his own leg.
In September of 1649,
English military leader Oliver Cromwell
and his forces attacked the town of Drogheda, Ireland.
This attack was part of a conquest of Ireland
during the Wars of the Three Kingdoms
or the British Civil War.
The town was held by Sir Arthur Aston,
a man with only one leg who refused to surrender.
Cromwell had led a successful siege against the town
and soon they had cornered Aston and 200 of his men
in Millmount Fort.
Cromwell then offered them a surrender agreement
that would spare everyone's lives
and Aston had little choice to agree to the terms.
He and his men laid down their arms
and were led to a windmill where,
surprise, surprise, they were massacred
but Aston had his head bashed in by his own wooden false leg
which the soldiers believed was full of gold coins.
Surrendering to a dishonest enemy
who turns around and slaughters you is one thing,
but being beaten to death with your own false limb
is some sort of evil overkill.
Damn, Cromwell.
That's cold, brah.
Number six is died protesting safety.
On July 2nd 2011, 55 year old Philip A. Contos
was riding his 1983 Harley Davidson motorcycle
as he made his way through the town of Onondaga, New York.
A firm believer that motorcycle helmets were unnecessary,
Contos was enjoying the summer wind in his hair
when, around 1:30 p.m., something ahead made him
suddenly hit the brakes.
His bike fishtailed and the force
sent him over the handlebars.
Striking the pavement head first,
he was rushed to the hospital,
but soon after died.
Coincidentally, Contos' tragic accident
was witnessed by many of the over 550 men and women
that he was riding with.
The crazy part is that they were all part
of a group known as American Bikers Aimed
Towards Education or ABATE for sure.
Ironically, the organization was riding through town
in a yearly protest against the New York State law
that mandated the use of helmets while riding,
but Contos' doctor, as well as witnesses to the accident,
claim that if he had worn the very helmet
that he was protesting,
it would have saved his life.
Number seven is the worst stage dive.
On July 20th 2005, rock band Bad Beat Review
had just booked a gig at the last minute
to replace another band at a show in Leeds, England.
During their performance, 29 year old lead singer,
Patrick Sherry, decided to pull a classic rock star move
and leap off the stage into the crowd.
He aimed to jump and grab onto the stage lighting rig
suspended above the crowd before falling,
but the whole act went awry.
He failed to grasp the lighting rig
and instead caused himself to flip upside down
and land head first on
the solid wood floor amongst the crowd.
A victim of his own self confidence
and poor acrobatic skills,
Patrick had just lethally smashed his noggin
while attempting to be an epic rock star.
He was rushed to hospital
where he was pronounced dead the next day.
His older brother, Brenden, compared his stage presence
to a caged animal set free.
Unfortunately, that animal was clearly not a cat
because he did not land on his feet.
Number eight is a man and his chicken.
In 1990, an unnamed 39 year old man in Ourense, Spain,
was hidden amongst some large boulders.
A frequent visitor to the area,
he was enjoying a night of sexual deviancy
that seriously nobody should ever long for.
The man was engaged in some pants down thrusting activity
with, uh, his chicken.
While the man moved his pelvis back and forth,
he managed to shake a massive rock behind him loose
which tipped over and slid forward down onto him
and the poor little emotionally scarred chicken.
Pinned, the man and the chicken both died still connected.
This is quite the visual.
The chick was, quite literally,
stuck between a rock and a hard place.
Poor little clucker.
Number nine is segwayed away.
On September 26th 2010, 62 year old British multimillionaire
and owner of the Segway company, Jimi Heselden,
lost his life due to a combination
of being a nice guy, not watching where he was going,
and, sadly, sucking at controlling his own investment.
Heselden was riding his standing, two-wheeled
electric scooter along a walking trail
above the river wharf in Boston Spa, England
when he found himself on a narrow path
in front of Sean Christie,
another man who was walking his dog.
Being a respectful and courteous man,
Heselden reversed the Segway to give Christie room to pass
but wound up backing right off the cliff.
The businessman fell 42 feet to his death
and his body was soon after found by Christie
floating face down in the river
at the bottom of the cliff.
Think about that.
The man who owned the Segway company
segwayed himself off a cliff.
Heselden's wife and family were left
with a 427 million dollar estate.
And number 10 is testing unbreakable glass.
On July 9th 1993, 38 year old Garry Hoy
accidentally committed suicide
by jumping out of a window on the 24th floor
of the Toronto Dominion Center in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
Hoy was a lawyer for the Holden, Day, Wilson Law Firm
and was entertaining a group of interns
by proving that the glass window in the conference room
was made of unbreakable glass.
Why is that something that you brag about?
Just, who cares about the strength of the window?
But this was not the first time.
In fact, Hoy would regularly try to impress people
by running and jumping onto the window
only to bounce off of it unharmed.
This time, however, the window's frame,
weakened by the various other times Hoy had jumped onto it,
gave out and sent Hoy and the window itself
plummeting towards the street below.
Hoy's death hit the law firm hard since he was such
a well known and respected lawyer in Toronto
and eventually, without Hoy,
the firm actually had to close its doors in 1996.
But ironically, Hoy's point was actually proven true
as the glass did not shatter when he hit it.
Instead, it just came out in one big piece
and he rode it down.
The jury is still out on whether
or not it was worth proving, though.
Here's a suggestion.
It wasn't.
So, those are the 10 most embarrassing ways
that people have died,
but I want to know what you guys think of these stories.
I mean, was it just bad luck
or were these people destined
to end up just dying a terrible death?
Leave a comment below
because I'll be reading through them
and I'll pin the best one to the top.
But, as always, thank you guys so much for coming by today.
Remember to come back tomorrow
and every weekday at exactly 3:00 p.m. Eastern Standard Time
because I'll have a brand new video for you.
I'll see you then.