Number 8 Incident in Lethbridge In 2020, an unnamed female employee at the Coco
Vanilla Galactic Cantina, in Lethbridge, Canada, took part in the promotion of May the 4th, a day
informally dedicated to the Star Wars franchise, by dressing up as a Stormtrooper. While struggling
with pandemic-related restrictions, Brad Whalen, the woman’s boss, had decided on the outfit as an
attempt to boost up sales at the Star Wars-themed restaurant. The female worker wasn’t a fan of the
movies but she happily donned the $1,200 costume. However, as she stood outside the pizzeria,
ready to take photos with passerby, someone called the police mistakenly believing that the plastic
blaster rifle she’d been holding was a real weapon. Local officers arrived at the scene
and a video of the ensuing confrontation was captured by a witness. Law enforcement approached
her with their firearms drawn and ordered her to drop the rifle, which she promptly did. Because
of the restrictive costume, the woman knelt but couldn’t get flat on the ground as quickly as the
officers had commanded her. She tried explaining the situation but was consequently pushed down
and restrained, suffering minor injuries. The woman audibly sobbed through her plastic helmet
while being handcuffed and Whalen was heard telling officers that the weapon was plastic.
The worker was released after the latter aspect was confirmed and many subsequently expressed
their support for her online, including actor William Shatner who criticized the
police’s handling of the situation on Twitter. Before we move on, we’d like to thank today’s
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Number 7 Melissa Turner
Former cosplay model Melissa Turner was found guilty of second degree murder,
in February of 2022, in connection to the 2019 death of her boyfriend, Matthew Trussler, at
their home in Riverview, Florida. On October the 18th, a neighbor’s surveillance system captured an
argument between the two, at around 4:30 am. Over four hours later, Turner called 911. When officers
arrived at the home, they found that Trussler had been stabbed to death. Even though the 25-year-old
also had a knife wound to his back, his girlfriend maintained that she’d acted in self-defense.
According to her version of events, after a day and night of drinking, Trussler had choked her,
thrown her across the kitchen counter and then picked up a knife. Turner tried to take it from
him by grabbing it on the blade and suffered a cut to her hand. After Trussler had allegedly put
down the blade to resume strangling her, Turner picked it up and stabbed him. She later justified
her actions by saying “I thought he was going to kill me”. In the audio captured by the neighbor’s
surveillance system, starting at 4:32, a female voice suspected as Turner’s was heard saying in
sequence and several minutes apart “you stay down”, “die” and “I hate you”. At 4:45 she was
heard saying “What did I do?”, hours before she called the emergency services. Her self-defense
argument ultimately didn’t hold weight in front of a jury and, in March of 2022, the former cosplayer
was sentenced to 20 years in prison. Number 6 Oleg Sokolov
In November of 2019, leading Russian historian and scholar Oleg Sokolov was pulled from the
freezing waters of the Moyka River, in Saint Petersburg. The man, then in his early 60s,
was found carrying a backpack that contained a weapon and a pair of severed human arms which
the authorities later discovered belonged to 24-year-old Anastasia Yeschenko. She’d been
Sokolov’s lover as well as his graduate student at St. Petersburg State University. More of her body
parts were found at the historian’s home while a package with her torso was pulled from the
river on November the 11th. Sokolov admitted to have gunned down and then dismembered his lover.
He claimed that he’d shot her following an argument in which she’d allegedly tried to attack
him with a knife. Other reports indicated that he’d shot Yeschenko four times in the head as
she slept because the young woman had threatened to leave him, after having grown weary of his
controlling behavior. Sokolov was an expert on the Napoleonic era and a prominent figure on Russia’s
historical reenactment scene. A harrowing video of him and Yeschenko dancing together while at
a cosplay function was shared by multiple media outlets reporting on the murder. Sokolov claimed
that, in the aftermath, he wanted to get rid of his lover’s body and then take his own life,
while dressed as Napoleon, in front of the Peter and Paul Fortress. There was further speculation
that he’d also committed the murder and/or dismemberment while cosplaying as the historical
leader. He was intoxicated when he went to dump the body parts and fell in the Moyka,
which consequently led to the murder’s discovery. In the ensuing criminal investigation, Sokolov,
clad in police-issued body armor and other protective equipment, was taken back to his
luxury flat to reenact the murder for detectives. While there and in handcuffs he tried to grab
a Napoleonic sword, in what his defense would later argue had been an attempt to end his life,
but was promptly stopped by police officers. Ultimately, in December 2020, Sokolov was found
guilty of intentional murder and sentenced to 12 and a half years in a high-security prison.
Number 5 Mary Anne Oliver-Snow On January the 17th of 2021,
TikTok cosplayer Mary Anne Oliver-Snow was drinking and smoking in the company
of several friends at her home in Houston, Texas. The young woman had roughly 1.6 million followers
on the social media platform, where she was known as snowthesaltqueen and had gained
attention by costuming herself as characters from movies, video games, anime or other media.
At around 1 am, Oliver-Snow and her friends were watching Gotham, a TV series set in the Batman
universe. Oliver-Snow then started playing with a Glock handgun in what was later reported as an
attempt to emulate the villain Penguin, who also had a weapon in the episode they’d been watching.
The cosplayer pointed the Glock at the head of 18-year-old Helen Rose Hastings,
her friend and fellow TikTok cosplay influencer. According to six people who were at the residence,
the latter told Oliver-Snow to shoot and she replied “Oh, Ok” before pulling the
trigger. A bullet then struck Hastings in the head. Oliver-Snow and the others at the scene
frantically scrambled to help the teenager and reportedly pressed a large stuffed teddy bear
against her gunshot wound before calling 911. Two days after she’d been rushed to a local hospital,
Hastings’ parents took her off life support and she passed away. In her interviews with
the authorities, Oliver-Snow reported that the gun had been left behind by an ex-boyfriend after he’d
moved out and that the man had assured her he’d removed the bullets. Oliver-Snow was arrested and
charged with second-degree felony manslaughter but was released after a few days, on a $20,000 bond,
and ordered not to leave the state. After a hiatus of several weeks, the cosplayer resumed posting
content on her social media, after rebranding as Yandere Freak. In anime culture a yandere
is a seemingly innocent love-struck character whose affection often turns violent. At least
one of the videos featured fake blood splatter and violent themes. Many of her followers and
others in the cosplay community found the content to be in poor taste considering Hastings’ death
and the charges against Oliver-Snow. According to updates from November of 2021, the woman hadn’t
yet entered a plea but had deleted all her social media accounts after receiving repeated backlash.
Number 4 Liu Youling Popular Chinese cosplayer Liu Youling, who
was better known by the nickname Jovie, was taking part in an underwater photo shoot on the western
Pacific island of Saipan, in the fall of 2017. With over 150,000 followers on her Weibo account,
Liu was, at the time, one of the country’s most beloved cosplayers. The woman, from Hangzhou,
dressed up as fantasy or video game characters but also drew inspiration for her costumes from
Chinese history. On September the 25th, Liu was in a swimming pool at Saipan’s Sea Fun Villa along
with two other models. None of them reportedly knew how to swim and began experiencing difficulty
upon drifting into the deeper end of the pool. All three women went down but, while the other
two were rescued sooner, hotel staff pulled 25-year-old Liu from the water after roughly
3 minutes. She was taken to the hospital in a comatose state and pronounced dead two days later,
much to the shock and heartbreak of her many fans who took to social media and paid their respects.
Number 3 Mitch Toohey Australian man Mitch Toohey, from Ballarat,
was taking part in the reenactment of a battle at the Winterfest Sydney Medieval Fair, in the summer
of 2019. According to others participating in the event, 21-year-old Toohey had been fighting with
another man when a third combatant charged and struck him in the helmet with an axe. A witness
reported that Toohey’s "helmet bounced off his shoulder and knocked him out". His opponent
continued hitting him until a referee intervened and the young man was taken off the field. At
around 11 am, a rescue helicopter arrived at the scene and airlifted Toohey to Westmead Hospital,
where he was later pronounced as being in a stable condition. Stephen Slater,
president of the Australian Medieval Combat Federation, later told a media outlet that,
much like with football or MMA, injuries may occur during mock battles. Medieval combat has
been increasing in global popularity since the early 2010s. The International Medieval Combat
Federation, founded in 2013, holds regular events to crowds of thousands. Combatants
wear historically-accurate armor and weapons but the blades and tips are blunted to avoid injuries.
Even so, concussions, cuts, bruises, sprains and even fractures are not uncommon.
Today's topic was requested by Sunset Assassin, Heath Necaise and Bridgidigital. If you have any
other topics you'd like to learn about subscribe & let us know in the comments section below.
Number 2 Sule Ambrose
25-year-old Sule Ambrose was training to become a priest at the Claratian Institute of Philosophy,
in Nekede, Nigeria, and on Good Friday 2022 he took part in a reenactment of Jesus Christ’s
crucifixion. Playing the role of Simon Peter, Ambrose donned a white toga for
the reenactment and the performance eventually reached the biblical scene in which Peter cuts
a soldier’s ear while trying to prevent Jesus’ capture. Ambrose then suddenly collapsed and
members of the audience initially believed it was part of the performance. However,
they soon realized he’d fallen violently ill after the young man started bleeding. He was first taken
to a school hospital and then transferred to Federal Medical Center, where he passed away but
cause of death hasn’t officially been established as of the latest updates on the matter.
Number 1 Peter Allen
In 2007, English man Peter Allen was taking part in the reenactment of a medieval joust for the TV
show Time Team, on Channel 4. Allen, a former teacher, had travelled the country performing
historical reenactments at schools and in shows but neither he nor his unnamed opponent had any
experience jousting. Nevertheless, the two mounted knights charged towards each other at Rockingham
Castle in Northamptonshire. Their 7-foot lances were fitted with balsa wood tips designed to
easily shatter upon making contact with their shields or armors. As the opposing jouster’s lance
impacted Allen’s helmet, a splinter broke off and pierced his eye, coming to a rest
five inches inside his head. The 54-year-old was airlifted to a hospital where he died
a week later from cardio-respiratory failure and a severe brain injury. An inquest concluded in 2011
that his shield had been strapped inadequately to his arm and shoulder, failing to properly
provide protection to his face. The eye slits on his helmet were too wide and designed in such a
way that, unlike those on authentic armor heads from medieval times, they diverted oncoming object
towards the eyes. A coroner recorded a narrative verdict of the man’s death, pointing to his
jousting inexperience and equipment inadequacies as contributing factors. Allen’s widow, Sharon,
also took part in reenactments and she attended the inquest while wearing a medieval cape and
feathered hat. In an effort to offer her comfort, the coroner expressed confidence in the fact that
Allen had met his untimely end while “doing what he absolutely loved”. His tragic death
mirrored that of King Henry II of France. On June the 30th of 1559, he was wounded during a joust
when a shard broke from the lance of his opponent and entered his eye. A week and a half later,
he succumbed to sepsis, subsequently leading to a palpable decrease in the popularity of jousting.
Thanks for watching! Would you rather dress and act like your favorite fictional character for a
month OR have someone else cosplay as yourself? Let us know in the comments section below!