Legacy MattersThe fatal cost of gangster fashion
A murderous New York gangster tripped over his own baggy trousers last week and fell to his death. Hector Quinones, 44, was in the middle of an apparently drugs-related killing spree when his low-slung trousers fell down and tripped him up. One of his would-be victims fled on to the fire escape of her apartment block; Quinones yanked up his trousers and struggled after her, but no sooner had he reached the fire escape than they fell down again, and he toppled overboard.
BBC children's TV safari guide killed by charging elephant in Tanzania
A Safari guide who was working on a BBC children's television programme was killed after an elephant charged and trampled over him yesterday.
Anton Turner, 38, was assisting the filming of the CBBC series 'Serious Explorers' which is retracing the footsteps of legendary explorer David Livingstone in Tanzania, Africa.
Mr Turner, a Brit who is a former Army officer and experienced safari ranger, was seriously injured after the elephant attacked him.
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Three children who had been picked by the BBC to travel with the party were present during the fatal charge but both were unhurt.
Professor Malcolm Casadaban, a renowned molecular geneticist at the University of Chicago studied the origins of the Black Death until he died quite quickly from an infection linked to the disease, also called the bubonic plague. He developed intense flu-like symptoms, was admitted to the hospital but died within 12 hours.
New victim of the Black Death: Professor killed by plague bug he studied
Health officials in the city insisted there was no risk to the public but the professor's colleagues, family and friends have been offered antibiotics as a precaution.
'While the death of this individual researcher is terrible and tragic, there is no indication that his illness spread to anyone else,' said a spokesman for the Chicago Department of Public Health.
'There is currently no indication of a threat to public health.'
He was working on a more effective vaccine. What a loss. His family are stunned and shocked. Condolences.
Man killed by shards of glass after hurling girlfriend through shop window
A man bled to death when he was impaled on a large shard of glass after throwing his girlfriend through a shop window in a street row.
The 30-year-old victim was seen arguing with the woman in the Regent Street area of London's West End shortly after 2am today.
Witnesses told police he hurled the woman against the window of a branch of Banana Republic up to three times.
The woman, also 30, was taken to hospital for treatment to multiple cuts, none of which are thought to be life-threatening.
They were so cute the bears that came to her backyard to feast on the dog food, fruit and yoghurt she left out for them.
A wildlife lover, she paid no attention to the protests of her neighbors, phone calls from the sheriff or his certified letters telling her in no uncertain terms to stop feeding the bears
Donna Munson, 74, told her friends that "when the time came, she wanted to go out with the bears."
She got her wish. She was found dead outside her home, being eaten by a bear.
Cabin owner fed bruins for years despite state's pleas.
The night before her death, Munson planned to feed an injured baby bear hard-boiled eggs and yogurt, another former tenant said. And she had planned to swat a large bear that was bothering the baby bear with a broom.
"She didn't have a chance in hell," said Connie Barnes, who lived with Munson for five years and never went outside after dark without a spotlight, her husband and his BB gun.
Munson lived in the cabin, which bordered federal land, with her husband, "Ridgway Jack," until his death about 14 years ago, Barnes said. Jack Munson adopted a baby elk and made their home into an animal sanctuary, even letting a fawn sleep in his bed, Barnes said.
Donna Munson continued caring for animals after her husband's death, leaving a tub of cat food on her picnic table for critters and tossing food in the backyard and out her windows for bears. The elderly woman, who used a walker, bought giant bags of Ol' Roy dog food for the bears and had pallets of grain delivered for elk and deer, Barnes said.
Two women who cleaned Munson's home found her being eaten by a bear Friday, Barnes said.
Motorcycle dealer dies doing what he loves
Bruce Rossmeyer, whose empire of Harley-Davidson dealerships made him the company's largest dealer, was killed in Wyoming in a motorcycle crash, sources confirmed.
Rossmeyer, 66, of Ormond Beach, was traveling with a group of friends on his way to the Sturgis motorcycle rally in South Dakota.
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Around 11 a.m., Rossmeyer was traveling with a pack of other riders on Wyoming Highway 28, between Lander and Farson. He was the last rider of the group and he was struck by an RV, which strayed into his lane, according to witnesses.
Rossmeyer was on his way to the Sturgis motorcycle rally in South Dakota, one of the nation's largest biker rallies.
In Sturgis, news of his death shocked the many attendees who have arrived at the rally, said Woody Woodruff, owner of the Buffalo Chip Campground, a Sturgis landmark.
"His death is going to change the entire motorcycle industry," Woodruff said. "You have movers and shakers and Bruce was definitely a mover and shaker. He made things happen. You lose someone like that and it creates a big void."
Rossmeyer is survived by his wife Sandy, five children, and many grandchildren.
Condolences to his family who must be deeply shocked.
Shopaholic died under her purchases
The body of an elderly shopaholic was found underneath a pile of clothing and other items after she died of natural causes, an inquest heard.
Joan Cunnane's bungalow was so crammed with purchases it took five visits to the house before she was found.
John Bachar, Rock Climber, Dies at 51
John Bachar, a rock climber who inspired awe as a daredevil, condescension as an anachronism and eventually respect as a legend, fell to his death Sunday from a rock formation near his home in California. He was 51.
After years of climbing without protection, sustaining his only major injuries in a car wreck, Bachar was confirmed dead by the sheriff of Mono County, Calif., where he lived in the town of Mammoth Lakes.
Bachar soloing near Guadalajara, Mexico, in 2007.
Photo by: Duane Raleigh
Statement by his family
The Bachar family is deeply and profoundly saddened by John’s death. His passion for climbing and respect for the mountain never ceased. He was know to say that if the mountain took him it would be the way he wanted to go. As sad as his untimely death is, we try to take some solace in that. .....
Shane McConkey, R.I.P. - Forever an Eagle via Book of Joe
Long story — and life — cut unexpectedly short: The iconic ski base jumper (above) died as he lived.
From the Financial Times obit, Daredevil ski base-jumper who flew like a bird
Shane McConkey, the man who found ways to ski off skyscrapers, was able to “slip the surly bonds of earth”, as poet John Magee put it, and enter an exhilarating and giddy world where few mortals could venture.
Having helped pioneer what came to be called ski base-jumping – leaping from mountains or cliffs using a parachute to land safely – he moved on to something even more exotic: wingsuiting. He used a special suit that shaped the body into a human aerofoil with fabric sewn between the legs and under the arms. This enabled him to become a self-powered “birdman” before finally opening a parachute – a technique one observer likened to a “flying squirrel”.
McConkey: ‘It’s so damned fun’
“Wingsuiting blows people away – it blows me away every time I do it,” McConkey said. “There’s no joystick, no bar, no steering wheel – you’re flying your own body. It’s so damned fun. You ski off a cliff, pull your skis off and you’re flying – you’re a bird. You open your wingsuit and you’re off. It’s the greatest feeling ever.”
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McConkey’s death at 39, while filming in the Italian Dolomites, exposed an unexpected danger in a sport already fraught with peril. A mid-air problem getting the bindings of both skis to release before being jettisoned meant that vital seconds were lost between the initial launch and the smooth transition into “birdman” mode. After jumping and carrying out a “routine” double back-flip from a 600-metre cliff near the ski resort of Corvara, he was still desperately grappling to release the second ski when he hit the ground, his wingsuit not yet deployed. The unreleased ski would have flipped him upside down and probably sent him into a spin. Had he tried to use his parachute in this position it would have become tangled around the remaining ski and failed to deploy.
After his death one website noted: “There are 42,500 page results for Shane McConkey. Within those pages you won’t find a bad word uttered about him.” One comment posted was: “It feels like Superman died.”
From the AP, Mexico destroys 'Death Saint' revered by criminals
Officials in Nuevo Laredo have destroyed more than 35 statues dedicated to a "Death Saint" popular with drug traffickers.
The statues, most depicting a robe-covered skeleton resembling the Grim Reaper, lined highways and roads in and around the Mexican city on the border with Texas. One of the statues was located at the base of an international bridge linking Mexico and the U.S.
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The Death Saint is not recognized by the Roman Catholic Church, but has become popular among organized crime figures in Mexico.
Time magazine on Santa Muerte: The New God in Town
Now appearing in New York, Houston and Los Angeles: Santa Muerte. The personage is Mexico's idolatrous form of the Grim Reaper: a skeleton — sometimes male, sometimes female — covered in a white, black or red cape, carrying a scythe, or a globe. For decades, thousands in some of Mexico's poorest neighborhoods have prayed to Santa Muerte for life-saving miracles. Or death to enemies. Mexican authorities have linked Santa Muerte's devotees to prostitution, drugs, kidnappings and homicides. The country's Catholic church has deemed Santa Muerte's followers devil-worshiping cultists.
My apologies for not posing over the holidays and my best wishes to all my readers for a happy, healthy and prosperous New Year.
Now catching up on grave matters, the North East Lincolnshire Council bans mourners from laying artificial flowers on graves because of the health and safety risk.
While the $10M lottery ticket Donald Peters bought just hours before he suffered a fatal heart attack and died stunned his widow who only found she won when she took tickets that had been pinned to a calendar for two months after his death to the local convenience store before throwing them out.
"It's just such a shock," Peters, who has three children and two grandchildren, said. "I still don't believe it. In 20 years, we've won two, maybe three dollars - but never more than that."
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"There's nothing that I really and truly want," Peters said, adding that she already saved up enough to replace her car. "I have a mobile [home] that I love, so I doubt I'll be moving."
Instead of dwelling on what to buy, Charlotte Peters said her thoughts have been on her husband and how grateful she is she decided not to toss his final gift to her. "I had just never handled the lottery tickets," she said. "I'm still surprised that I bothered to have them checked."
The 2008 Darwin awards are out and so far The Balloon Priest is the people's choice, a double Darwin.
In the Gaza Strip, Hamas operated rocket launchers from a cemetery to shoot missles into Israel were destroyed by the IDF. The small bodies of the children of a Hamas leader, a mentor of suicide bombers, one of the top five decision makers in Hamas were paraded around the streets of Gaza to incite 'painful' revenge, in a ghoulish display far worse than waving the bloody shirt.
Nizar Rayan, his four wives and 10 of his children were all killed by in an Israeli air strike on his home after he ignored warnings they should go into hiding.
In grisly scenes, mourners held up the bloodied bodies of the children to the cameras in a clear attempt to blacken Israel's name and highlight its brutality.
There's more Hamas propaganda using obviously fake photos as documented in The Breath of the Beast that appears to have gulled PBS and 3 year old videos dupe many in the liberal blogosphere.
Bell-ringer falls to his death after church wedding.
A bell-ringer plunged 30ft to his death seconds after a bride and groom tied the knot in a romantic church wedding ceremony.
The bride and groom, and their assembled guests were walking out of the church when 80-year-old bell-ringer Jack Sturgeon fell 30ft down a church tower, moments after ringing the bells for the happy occasion.
His devastated wife Beryl, 81, was in church at the time.
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After ringing the bells, he is believed to have climbed a second set of stairs to inspect the clock when he suddenly fell at St Mary's Church in Mildenhall, Suffolk, about 2.15pm on Saturday.
Mr Sturgeon, a bell-ringer of 40 years, suffered a suspected heart attack, however it is still unclear if it caused him to slip off the stairs, or whether the fall triggered the condition.
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Reverend Hodges said Mr Sturgeon was a '100 per cent reliable' bell-ringer.
'All we can say is that at least he died doing what he loved best in our church, a place he loved.'
She said the newlyweds, Mr Keane and Miss Brown, had also been shattered by the tragedy.
'They're local people and they've been left devastated. 'They'll never ever forget what happened on what should have been the happiest day of their lives.'
Five months after disappearing while flying over the Nevada desert, Steve Fossett was declared dead by a Chicago court.
Dozens of planes and helicopters spent more than a month searching 20,000 square miles of the western Nevada mountains, one of the most remote and uninhabited regions of the US.
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Throughout his life Mr Fosset had set more than 90 aviation records in balloons, fixed-wing aircraft, gliders and airships and 23 sailing records. Some 60 still stand.
On his sixth attempt, in 2002, he became the first person to fly solo around the world in a balloon - in one unsuccessful bid he plunged five miles into the sea off Australia.
Three years later made the first solo, non-stop, non-refuelled flight around the globe in the Virgin Atlantic Global Flyer.
He also swam the English Channel, completed the Ironman Triathlon and the Iditarod dog sled race and climbed the Matterhorn in Switzerland and Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania. Everest, however, eluded him.
Mr Fossett, who earned his fortune as a financial trader, broke the round-the-world sailing record by six days in 2004 and even set world records for cross-country skiing.
The Telegraph obituary
Steve Fossett, who has been declared dead aged 63, made his fortune on the Chicago futures exchange and embarked on a dogged campaign to break more world records than any other sportsman in history; he set 116 records in hot air balloons, sailing boats, gliders and powered aircraft, getting into numerous scrapes and surviving several brushes with death.
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He was known in Britain for his friendship with Sir Richard Branson, an erstwhile rival balloonist who became a co-sponsor.
Branson once described Fossett as "a loner: half-Forrest Gump, half android" and suggested that he was not so much interested in sport for its own sake as in testing the limits of his own endurance: "If there's an ocean to swim, he'll choose Christmas Day and it must be snowing and, if possible, the only day in the last decade when the channel ices over," Branson observed. "That's Steve for you."
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At some point in his thirties Fossett typed out a list of his lifetime sporting goals. These included swimming the English Channel, climbing the highest mountains on six continents, establishing eight world records in sailing, and flying non-stop around the world in a balloon. Once his business was firmly established he set out to tick items off the list. He achieved them all - and more. He became a fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and of the Explorers' Club, and in 2002 won the Gold Medal of the Fédération Aeronautique Internationale.
David Monk, 46, went to the Alps for a weekend of skiing with some friends.
But first some drinking when they had the bright idea of sliding down the mountain. They had the bright idea of removing the foam crash barriers around one of the ski-lift supports to use as a makeshift sled.
They walked the piste, laid down their new sled, and barreled down the mountain, picking up speed until they came to a crashing dead stop against the barrier they had just denuded of its safety protection.
David was killed and his two friends gravely injured.
"He hit the post where the mat had been removed and that was it. It's terrible for his wife and two young kids.
"We tried to help him but the impact was too strong. He went into the gap where the padding was and hit his head.
He leaves a grieving wife and two teen-age sons.
How sad and useless.
Suicide bomber falls down stairs
A WOULD-be suicide bomber fell down a flight of stairs and blew himself up as he headed out for an attack in Afghanistan, police say.
It was the second such incident in two days, with another man killing himself and three others on Tuesday when his bomb-filled waistcoat exploded as he was putting it on in the southern town of Lashkar Gah.
Yesterday's blast was in a busy market area of the eastern town of Khost, a deputy provincial police chief said.
The would-be attacker tripped as he was leaving a building apparently to target an opening ceremony for a mosque that was expected to be attended by Afghan and international military officials, said Sakhi Mir.
"Coming down the stairs, he fell down and exploded. Two civilian women and a man were wounded,'' Mir said.
Ace writes Dies of Embarrassment and Bomb Detonation, But Mostly Bomb Detonation
Suicide bomber falls down stairs
A WOULD-be suicide bomber fell down a flight of stairs and blew himself up as he headed out for an attack in Afghanistan, police say.
It was the second such incident in two days, with another man killing himself and three others on Tuesday when his bomb-filled waistcoat exploded as he was putting it on in the southern town of Lashkar Gah.
Yesterday's blast was in a busy market area of the eastern town of Khost, a deputy provincial police chief said.
The would-be attacker tripped as he was leaving a building apparently to target an opening ceremony for a mosque that was expected to be attended by Afghan and international military officials, said Sakhi Mir.
"Coming down the stairs, he fell down and exploded. Two civilian women and a man were wounded,'' Mir said.
Ace writes ; Dies of Embarrassment and Bomb Detonation, But Mostly Bomb Detonation
Secret Funeral for 'Eleanor Rigby' pensioner after public appeal for mourners.
There had been fears that no one would come to Olive Archer's funeral.
But yesterday a small chapel was filled with remembrance and fond feelings as the 83-year-old was laid to rest.
Miss Archer, who died on December 20, never married, had no children, and spent her last five years without a single visitor at the Kington St Michael care home in Chippenham, Wiltshire.
Amid concern that her funeral would be like that of the Beatles' Eleanor Rigby, when "nobody came," church minister Reverend Akasha Lonsdale launched an appeal for friends and family that was highlighted in the Daily Mail.
Dozens of friends, relatives and well-wishers came forward and 16 were chosen to be at the Swindon service.
With societies aging and fewer children, I wouldn't be surprised if more and more funeral mourners are paid.
Such is the case in Taiwan where wailers are for hire to mourn the dead.
Re-enacting grief-stricken daughters, among the most emotive elements of a traditional funeral, professional mourners offer themselves for T$2,000 ($60) to T$3,000 per half day of singing, crying and crawling on the ground.
The phenomenon, which appears to date back to ancient Greek times, is not unique to Taiwan, where mourners for hire emerged in the 1970s largely to give funerals the somber atmosphere that shows the appropriate respect to deceased elders.
Peter Davi, an accomplished surfer, lived for monster waves and died in one off Ghost Trees, a Monterey County surf spot known for its "potent swells and dangerous conditions."
A friend and competitor professional surfer Tyler Smith said
the wave faces were as big as 60 to 70 feet, "almost as big as we've seen out there."
"It's super-sad, man. He was a gentle giant who surfed for his whole life."
Legendary surfer perishes in huge waves.
The Italian mob boss was on the run from the police since 1993.
When Daniele Emanuello, tried to flee a police raid on a farmhouse in Sicily where he had been hiding, he was shot and killed.
But not before he swallowed secret notes with names and telephone numbers.
Italy mob boss swallowed secrets before dying.
What do you make of two clowns shot dead at a circus in Cucuta, Columbia?
The gunman burst into the Circo del Sol de Cali Monday night and shot the clowns in front of an audience of 20 to 50 people, local police chief Jose Humberto Henao told Reuters. One of the clowns was killed instantly and the second died the next day in hospital.
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Local reports say the audience of about 20 people, mostly children, thought the shooting was part of the show before realizing both men had been killed.
It wouldn't be the first time. a clown was killed in Cucuta.
Last year, a prominent circus clown, known as Pepe, was also shot dead by a unknown assailant in Cucuta.
I don't think you'll see any more clowns in Cucuta in the near future.
From a review by Will Blythe entitled Food for the Soul. of Returning to Earth by Jim Harrison.
Note how he records his family's history before he goes, so the memory is not lost.
In Donald’s opening monologue, a rambling family history for the benefit of his children, recorded by Cynthia, his wife and teenage sweetheart, Donald announces, “It seems I’m to leave the earth early but these things happen to people.” His mind remains clear while his body becomes “desiccated road kill,” as K puts it. Barely able to swallow, he must sniff rather than taste a final meal of barbecued pork ribs. However, Donald doesn’t rage against the dying of the light, nor indulge in the deathbed histrionics of Tolstoy’s Ivan Ilyich. Dying seems to strike him as no more an aberration than birds returning to their roost at dusk. His mortality evokes the sense of a man going home at twilight, of — echoing the book’s lovely title — returning to earth. A luminous, sad calm pervades this novel.
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Donald’s dignified death is of a piece with his life (my father, a doctor, once said that in his experience people died as they lived, in character right to the end).
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This regal suicide marks only the halfway point of “Returning to Earth.” The novel’s subject now becomes an absence; Donald’s survivors must learn to negotiate the hole left in them by his departure. ... In treating the raggedy contours of grief, Harrison shows no patience with that banality known as “closure.” “There’s much talk about ‘healing’ these days before the blood is dry on the pavement,” Donald’s brother-in-law, David, complains.
For three years 47-year-old Canadian Robert Case campaigned to have regional officials remove a tree stump from Lake St. Clair calling it a dangerous hazard.
Last Friday he and a friend were driving their snowmobile on the ice of the great lake when Robert reached down to tie off a loose strap on the hood. He didn't see the stump in the snow when he struck it and was killed.
The regional authority said the responsibility over the beds of the Great Lakes was that of the provincial government.
Robert's wife, now a widow after 26 years of marriage, said
"I'm still trying to understand. This is the worst thing in my life. I lost my life.
"We didn't have much but we had each other. I'm so mad at ERCA."
I've set up a new category for particularly fitting deaths, people dying while they were doing what they loved.
Steve Erwin, the Australian conservationist who was fatally pierced by a stingray comes first to mind, so does the Snake king Ali Khan who died from a cobra bite.
Definitely in that category is Atlantic Records founder Ahmet Ertegun who died yesterday following a head injury he got while attending a Rolling Stones concert and 60th birthday party for former president Bill Clinton. He was 83.
From USA Today
By the 1960s, Ertegun was nurturing soul stars such as Aretha Franklin, Roberta Flack and Wilson Pickett. He helped usher in the invasion of such British rockers as the Rolling Stones, Cream and Led Zeppelin, and oversaw an American pop explosion, with acts such as Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, Sonny and Cher, and Bette Midler. And the label is now home to such diverse acts as Missy Elliott, James Blunt, Stone Temple Pilots, Jewel, Death Cab for Cutie and Kid Rock.
Ertegun, who was born in Istanbul in 1923 and was the son of a Turkish diplomat, was a moving force in the founding of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1985 in Cleveland. He was himself inducted two years later, and its main exhibition hall is named for him. He never lost his passion for music. He was still chairman of Atlantic Records when he died.
From an interview he gave to Slate
Slate: What do you want for your legacy?
AE: I'd be happy if people said that I did a little bit to raise the dignity and recognition of the greatness of African-American music.