Up next in 10
Ironic deaths are the stuff of legend when it comes to the craziest deaths imaginable. For starters, the owner of the Segway died in a Segway accident and a Green Party candidate was killed by an SUV. Some of the most ironic deaths of recent memory have been gathered here on this ironic death list.
Show More Show Less View Video Transcript
0:00
Death comes for us all in the end, and it isn't always dignified
0:05
If you've heard of the Darwin Awards, which commemorate the most embarrassing ways people have kicked the bucket
0:10
you might find the following stories of cruelly poetic endings darkly amusing
0:15
because as the saying goes, tragedy plus time equals comedy. So, today, we're getting our last rites from some of the most ironic demises in history
0:26
Alright gang, let's put the fun in funeral. Major General John Sedgwick was the kind of leader men would follow anywhere
0:38
During the Civil War, Sedgwick rose through the ranks of the Union Army thanks to his daring displays of gallantry, bravery, and strategic genius
0:47
He led his troops into some of the war's most significant battles, including Antietam and Gettysburg
0:52
While doing so, he endured multiple battle wounds and near-death experiences. On one occasion, his trusted horse was even blasted right out from under him
1:01
On May 9, 1864, Sedgwick led his men to an impressive position during the Battle of Spotsylvania Courthouse
1:09
While his officers warned him to stay away from a nearby road because they were within range of Confederate guns
1:15
Sedgwick responded, They couldn't hit an elephant at that distance. As you might have guessed, those words were his very last
1:22
as right after he uttered them, a Confederate shot him dead. which must have been a genuinely impressive shot
1:28
because Sedgwick was a much smaller target than an elephant. Michael Anderson Godwin was convicted of murder and assault in 1983
1:40
and sentenced to the electric chair in South Carolina. Then in 1989, his fortune took a turn
1:46
A retrial took place, and he was found not guilty of the assault
1:50
thereby reducing his sentence to life in prison. But Godwin's narrow escape of certain death was short-lived
1:57
That same year, he was sitting on a metal toilet in his prison cell while trying to fix his television set
2:03
and a wire he stuck in his mouth electrocuted him right out of this world
2:07
To paraphrase Jurassic Park, electricity finds a way. In Japan, some adventurous diners choose to eat pufferfish
2:19
Known as fugu, the puffer fish can be a deadly meal since parts of it contain tetrodotoxin a highly poisonous compound that can kill a person in as little as 20 minutes The fish liver an illegal dish is especially notorious for containing the toxin
2:35
like the Simpsons episode. You remember. Renowned Japanese actor Bando Mitsugoro VIII claimed he wasn't scared by the poison
2:47
calling himself immune. In 1975, Mitsugoro visited a restaurant with his friends and insisted on ordering the pufferfish liver. Seven hours later, the actor went belly up
3:00
He was indeed chopped liver. Troy Leon Gregg was hitchhiking in Florida in 1973 when two men, Fred Simmons and Bob Moore
3:13
offered to give him a ride. Hours into the drive, Gregg slew both individuals and stole their
3:19
vehicle. The local police soon tracked him down and arrested him. At his trial, he was convicted
3:24
for his crimes and sentenced to execution. His fate was sealed. Except, Greg was determined to
3:31
find a way out. So, on July 28, 1980, he and three other incarcerated men broke out of George State
3:38
Prison. They sawed their way out of their cells and managed to get a hold of prison guard uniforms
3:43
and simply walked out during a shift change. Bada boom, bada bing
3:48
However, despite doing the impossible and seemingly changing his fate, Greg was apparently unwilling to stop committing violent crimes
3:56
He went to a bar where he tried to assault a woman after she rejected his advances
4:01
A group of bikers came to her defense, which is another way of saying that Greg was fatally injured in a bar fight with bikers
4:08
Later, two of these bikers were charged with Greg's demise, but the charges were dropped due to lack of evidence
4:18
As a former circus performer, Bobby Leach knew how to draw a crowd
4:22
earning a reputation for his feats of wild abandon. In 1911, he made history as the first man to ride over Niagara Falls inside a barrel and survive
4:31
The first person to do it was a performer named Annie Edson Taylor
4:35
But still, just being the second person ever to do something objectively crazy is still
4:40
pretty cool. Just ask Buzz Aldrin. Leach, ever the performer, leaned into his newfound fame and traveled the world, telling
4:47
the story of his harrowing experience. Then on February 26th 1916 Leach and his family were in Auckland New Zealand when he slipped on an orange peel This seemingly simple accident had an outsized effect on the international daredevil
5:03
He broke his leg, which then contracted gangrene, which then had to be amputated
5:08
Leach succumbed to these injuries and infections on April 28th, 1926. Going over Niagara Falls in a tin can? No problem
5:17
But walking down the street? That'll get ya. On July 9, 1993, lawyer Gary Hoy was gearing up to do something most people wouldn't think to do
5:30
Throw his 160-pound body at a window on the 24th floor of a Toronto skyscraper
5:36
Hoy originally studied engineering and wanted to demonstrate how strong the skyscrapers' windows were by slamming himself against them
5:44
In fact, he had taken to doing this as something of a habit. But on this particular day, when Hoy launched himself at the glass to perform his demonstration for a group of students
5:54
the pain popped out of its frame and the 39-year-old plummeted to his death
5:58
In his defense, the window was intact when it came loose, so it didn't technically break
6:04
Just goes to show you, not everything needs to be stress-tested. Sometimes you can let a window on the 24th floor of a skyscraper just mind its own business
6:12
When the Civil War broke out in 1861, lawyer Clement Vallandingham was serving in the House of Representatives for Ohio
6:24
A Southern sympathizer, he bitterly opposed the war. In 1863, President Abraham Lincoln exiled Vallandingham to the Confederacy
6:33
though the embattled representative made his way to Canada instead. Eventually, after the conclusion of the war, the former congressman returned to a career in law
6:42
In 1871, he was defending a man in Lebanon, Ohio, Thomas McGeehan, who was accused of dispatching Tom Myers in a bar brawl
6:51
Vallon-Dingham set out to cast doubt on McGeehan's guilt by suggesting that Myers had accidentally shot himself
6:57
He tested this theory at a hotel in town with Myers' own gun, and in the process, he accidentally shot himself, succumbing to the wound soon after
7:06
Hopefully the stunt was enough to establish reasonable doubt. On July 30, 1985, lifeguards with the New Orleans Recreation Department held a party at one of the city's swimming pools
7:21
The end of the summer swimming season had come and gone and the 100 or so lifeguards in attendance were celebrating a perfect record of zero drownings that year The lifeguards weren the only ones at
7:34
the party, however. They were allowed to bring guests, and one of these guests was 31-year-old
7:39
Jerome Moody. We're betting he wished he RSVP'd no thank you. At the end of the party, the four
7:45
lifeguards who were on duty started cleaning up, only to discover Moody's body at the bottom of
7:50
the pool. But at that point, it was too late to cancel the party. Richard Versaul first performed
8:00
with New York's Metropolitan Opera in 1978. During his time with some of the world's leading opera
8:06
companies, Versaul performed both classic and contemporary works. On January 5, 1996, Versaul
8:13
was part of a metropolitan premier performance of The Macropolis Affair. All was going according
8:19
to plan until Versal appeared on stage scaling a 15-foot ladder. He sang his opening lines
8:25
you can only live so long, and then he suffered a heart attack and fell off the ladder. At first
8:30
the confused audience thought this was part of the performance, and it's hard to blame them
8:34
It basically sounds like Chevy Chase's Gerald Ford sketch on Saturday Night Live
8:40
But when the fire alarm was pulled and the opera star was rushed to the hospital
8:47
they realized something had gone horribly wrong. Versailles was pronounced dead on arrival
8:52
and we hope the EMT sang a beautiful requiem in his honor. Wearing a seatbelt is common sense, but it wasn't always. In fact, we didn't start legally
9:05
mandating that people wear them until the late 1950s. Even then, some states were holding out
9:11
as recently as the mid-90s. These laws had plenty of detractors who believed in personal freedom
9:16
over everything else. One of those people was University of Nebraska student Derek Kuiper
9:22
He penned an argument in the local paper, writing, No law or set of laws has made the government more intrusive and ridiculous than seatbelt
9:31
legislation. You can surely guess where this is all going. In 2005, Kuiper was driving in his
9:37
Ford Explorer when the SUV hit an icy patch of road and flipped over. Two other people were in
9:42
the vehicle, wore seatbelts, and survived. Huh. Kuyper, true to his principles, was not wearing a
9:48
seatbelt and it turned out to be the last decision of his life. And if that's not an effective PSA
9:54
we don't know what is