>><< >NOMINEE #1 [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.
>> >
>> >--------------------------------------------
>> >NOMINEE #2 [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."
>> >--------------------------------------------
>> >NOMINEE #3 [Reuters, Mississauga, Ontario]
>> >
>> >Man slips, falls 23 stories to his death. A man cleaning a bird feeder on
>> >his balcony of his condominium apartment in this Toronto suburb slipped
>> >and fell 23 stories to his death, police said Monday.
>> >
>> >Stefan Macko, 55, was standing on a wheeled chair Sunday when the
>> >accident occurred, said Inspector D'Arcy Honer of the Peel regional
>> >police. "It appears the chair moved and he went over the balcony,"
>> >Honer said. "It's one of those freak accidents. No foul play is
>> >suspected."
>> >--------------------------------------------
>> >NOMINEE #4 [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.
>> >--------------------------------------------
>> >NOMINEE #5 [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
>> >Lauwers, managing partner of the firm Holden Day Wilson, told the
>> >Torontom Sun newspaper that Hoy was "one of the best and brightest"
>> >members of the 200-man association.
>> >--------------------------------------------
>> >NOMINEE #6 [AP, Cairo, Egypt, 31 Aug 1995 CAIRO, Egypt (AP)] Six
>> >people drowned Monday while trying to rescue a chicken that had fallen
>> >into a well in southern Egypt. An 18-year-old farmer was the first to
>> >descend into the 60-foot well. He drowned, apparently after an
>> >undercurrent in the water pulled him down, police said. His sister and
>> >two brothers, none of whom could swim well, went in one by one to
>> >help him, but also drowned. Two elderly farmers then came to help, but
>> >they apparently were pulled by the same undercurrent. The bodies
>> >of the six were later pulled out of the well in the village of Nazlat
>>Imara,
>> >240 miles south of Cairo. The chicken was also pulled out. It survived.
>> >
>> >--------------------------------------------
>> >NOMINEE #7 [Bloomburg 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 from 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. He was ". . . a big man with a huge capacity for
>> >creating [this deadly gas]." Three of the rescuers got sick and one was
>> >hospitalized.
>> >
>> >--------------------------------------------
>> >NOMINEE #9 [18 May 93, San Jose Mercury News]
>> >
>> >A 24-year-old salesman from Hialeah, Fla., was killed near Lantana, Fla.,
>> >in March when his car smashed into a pole in the median strip of
>> >Interstate 95 in the middle of the afternoon. Police said that the man was
>> >traveling at 80 MPH and, judging by the sales manual that was found
>> >open and clutched to his chest, had been busy reading.
>> >--------------------------------------------
>> >NOMINEE #10 [1/29/96 The News of the weird.]
>> >JOINT NOMINEE
>> >
>> >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.
>> >
>> >On Jan. 1, 1997, Laurence Baker, also a convicted murderer once on
>> >death row, but later serving a life sentence at the state prison in
>> >Pittsburgh, Pa., was electrocuted by his homemade earphones as he
>> >watched his small TV while sitting on his metal toilet.
>> >--------------------------------------------
>> >NOMINEE #11["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 muzzleloader 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.
>> >
>> >--------------------------------------------
>> >NOMINEE #12 [AP, Mammoth Lakes]
>> >
>> >A San Anselmo man died yesterday when he hit a lift tower at the
>> >Mammoth Mountain ski area while riding down the slope on a foam pad,
>> >authorities said. Matthew David Hubal, 22, was pronounced dead at
>> >Centinela Mammoth Hospital. The accident occurred about 3 a.m., the
>> >Mono County Sheriff's Department said. Hubal and his friends apparently
>> >had hiked up a ski run called Stump Alley and undid some yellow foam
>> >protectors from the lift towers, said Lieutenant Mike Donnelly of the
>> >Mammoth Lakes Police Department.
>> >
>> >The pads are used to protect skiers who might hit the towers. The group
>> >apparently used the pads to slide down the ski slope and Hubal crashed
>> >into a tower. It was not clear if the tower he hit was one with its pad
>> >removed. "With the cold temperatures, the snow was probably pretty
>> >fast," said Donnelly.
>> >
>> >--------------------------------------------
>> >NOMINEE #13 [Reuters, Warsaw, Poland, 5 May 1995]
>> >
>> >A poacher electrocuting fish in a lake in central Poland fell into the
>>water
>> >and suffered the same fate as his quarry, police said Thursday. The
>> >24-year-old man was one of four who went fishing with a cable, one
>> >end of which they attached to a net and the other to a high-voltage
>> >electricity supply line, the PAP news agency quoted a police official in
>> >Wloclawek as saying. "For a while everything went according to the
>> >poachers' plan and they had fish in their bags. But at a certain moment
>> >the man holding the net tripped and fell into the water," the agency said.
>> >The other poachers tried in vain to revive him, it said.
>> >
>> >--------------------------------------------
>> >NOMINEE #14 [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.
>> >--------------------------------------------
>> >NOMINEE 15 [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.
>> >--------------------------------------------
>> >NOMINEE 16 [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.
>> >``I just can't imagine anyone doing something like that,'' Payne said.
>> >--------------------------------------------
>> >AND FINALLY, NOMINEE #17 [Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 1-1-93] In
>> >December near Mineral Wells, Tex., three men who were attempting to
>> >steal copper wire off live electrical lines for resale were electrocuted.
>> >Copper wiring is a valuable scrap metal in Texas but is usually stolen
>> >from electric cables that are not being used.
>> >
>> >**********************************************************************
>> >Here are
>> >some people that may be future nominees/winners, but still haven't made
>> >it to the "Big Leagues"
>> >
>> >[UPI, Portland, OR]
>> >
>> >Doctors at Portland's University Hospital said Wednesday an Oregon
>> >man shot through the skull by a hunting arrow is lucky to be alive, and
>> >will be released soon from the hospital. Tony Roberts, 25, lost his right
>> >eye last weekend during an initiation into a men's rafting club, Mountain
>> >Men Anonymous, in Grants Pass, Ore. A friend tried to shoot a beer can
>> >off his head, but the arrow entered Roberts' right eye. Doctors said had
>> >the arrow gone 1 millimeter to the left, a major blood vessel would have
>> >cut and Roberts would have died instantly.
>> >
>> >Neurosurgeon Dr. Johnny Delashaw at the University Hospital in
>> >Portland said the arrow went through 8 to 10 inches of brain, with the
>> >tip protruding at the rear of his skill, yet somehow managed to miss all
>> >major blood vessels. Delashaw also said had Robert tried to pull the
>> >arrow out on his own he surely would have killed himself. Roberts
>> >admitted afterwards he and his friends had been drinking that afternoon.
>> >Said Roberts, ``I feel so dumb about this.'' No charges have been filed
>> >but the Josephine County district attorney's office said the initiation
>>stunt
>> >is under investigation.
>> >------------------------------------------
>> >from The Calgary Sun Saturday, December 28, 1996: Low blow for
>> >gunman VANCOUVER (CP) -
>> >
>> >A man arguing over a love triangle accidentally shot himself in the groin,
>> >taking off his testicles and part of his penis. Police said the man was
>> >waving a .357 Magnum revolver around during the shouting match early
>> >yesterday. But when he stuffed it back in his pants the gun went off.
>> >Police were called to the hospital after the man in his 20's was brought
>> >in by friends. Charges are pending against the victim, who is expected
>> >to survive.
>> >
>> >--------------------------------------------
>> >Arkansas Democrat Gazette, July 25, 1996:
>> >
>> >Two Local Men Injured in Freak Truck Accident, Cotton Patch, Ark. 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 nuts 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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