Bizarre Death Stories
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Bizarre Death Stories

Important Note: All Stories listed below were copied in 2000 from a web site in England
that has since been discontinued


FORWARD
Rick Archer
2008


These stories are not my work.

The stories below were listed on a United Kingdom web site back in the year 2000.  An email directed me to visit.  I was full of morbid fascination.  The website was VERY GOTHIC and graphic.  At the time I copied the most interesting stories and published them on my own website with an offer to direct anyone who was curious to the original location.  In 2006, that website disappeared and I have no idea where it went to.  You have my word on that.


Death of course can happen at any time.  No one could function if they spent their time worrying about it.   Hence we learn to ignore this ugly possibility as much as possible.  However, accidental death usually occurs out of nowhere.  The following stories include some the most unusual ways of dying imaginable.

Some incidents were just plain bad luck and others were the result of incredible stupidity.  Several of the incidents sound like scenes from an over-imaginative script writer, but in one bizarre twist, a movie scene actually inspired several young men to try a dangerous stunt.

VALIDITY

Some of these events are reminiscent of the "Darwin Awards" given out to people who die through their own stupidity. The problem with the Darwin Awards is that I have found them to be totally false.  I believe these stories taken from the English web site were researched and are true.  I know for a fact that at least two incidents listed below are absolutely trueI am fairly sure several more are true as well.  However, I might add that a couple stories are too far-fetched even for me. 

Decide for yourself.

Bad Night at the Ski Resort

Stratton, VT – In a tragic case of bad luck, two college students spending a night outdoors were killed in the collapse of their snow cave, apparently after a piece of heavy machinery dumped snow their shelter while they slept. Jake Shumway, 19, and Robert Carr, 18, freshmen on spring break from Plymouth State College in New Hampshire were found buried in the collapsed cave by friends early Saturday morning at the Stratton Mountain ski resort. 

Avid outdoorsmen, Carr and Shumway had gone to Stratton to watch the US Open Snowboarding competition. To save money, they dug a cave at the edge of their parking lot while the rest of their group spent the night in cars, campers, and a motel. 

Dan Davis, a county official, said the tragedy was caused when a bucket-loader dumped snow directly on top of the cave. Crews from the ski resort had been sanding the parking lot and moving snow around trying to clear the area for more parking spaces.  

Bad Day at the Circus

A circus act in Romania ended in tragedy on 23 January when fire-eater Vlad Cazacu, 43, belched in mid-performance and was blown to bits. Incredibly no one came to his rescue as stunned onlookers assumed this was part of an amazing illusion. Consequently this unfortunate man, who probably could have been saved, was allowed to just lie there and die.

"In the first part of the performance," said fellow circus performer Nicole Antosu, "Vlad held a flammable cocktail in his mouth to spit fire at a burning torch. Somehow, he must have swallowed some of the liquid, because when he burped he triggered an explosion." The Parrot (Accra, Ghana) - 2-8 June 1998

Bad Day in the Forest

Khandal Tripura, 35, of Chinchharipara village in Ramgararh district, Bangaldesh, caught a cobra on 20 July and started playing with it. The snake bit him on the hand, and in his anger he bit the snake's head. He died in hospital the next day. The snake also died. No word on whether they were buried together. Independant - 22 July 1998

Bad Day of Scuba Diving  (Note: This story is false according to Snopes)

Arroyo Grande, CA - Fire Authorities in California found a corpse in a burned-out section of forest while assessing the damage done by a forest fire in the Los Padres National Forest. The deceased male was dressed in a full wet suit, complete with a dive tank, flippers, and face mask.  A post mortem examination revealed that the person died not from burns but from massive internal injuries. 

Dental records provided a positive identification of Henry Williams from nearby Santa Barbara. Investigators then set about determining how a fully-clad diver ended up in the middle of a forest fire.

It was revealed that, on the day of the fire, Mr. Williams went for a diving trip off the Pacific coast - some 20 miles away from the forest. At the same time, firefighters seeking to control the fire as quickly as possible had called in a fleet of helicopters with very large buckets. 

The buckets were dropped into the ocean for rapid filling, then flown to the forest fire and emptied.  Apparently one helicopter, against regulations, fetched its water too close to the shoreline. 

Bad Day at the Zoo

Paderborn, Germany - Zookeeper Friedrich Riesfeldt fed his constipated elephant 22 doses of animal laxative and more than a bushel of berries, figs and prunes. The plugged-up pachyderm finally let fly. Standing next to his elephant, Mr. Riesfeldt suffocated under 200 pounds of elephant manure. Investigators say Riesfeldt, 46, was attempting to give the ailing elephant an enema when the beast unloaded on him. 

“The sheer force of the elephant’s unexpected defecation knocked Mr. Riesfeldt to the ground, where he struck his head on a rock and lay unconscious as the elephant continued to evacuate his bowels on top of him,” said flabbergasted police detective Erik Dern.  With no one there to help him, he lay under all that dung for at least an hour before a watchman came along, and during that time he suffocated.  It seems to be just one of those freak accidents. 

Bad Day at the Zoo, Part Two

Bordeaux, France - A French zoo director was crushed to death on 1 November by a frightened hippopotamus. Jean Ducing was cycling around the park in Pessac, near Bordeaux, when Komir, a seven-year-old male hippo, charged through an electrified fence after an employee driving a tractor stopped to distribute food. M Ducing, aged in his 60s, had trained Komir. Posters for the zoo feature a picture of Komir with M Ducing's head in his mouth. Investigators concluded the animal had fled to Ducing for protection. AFP – 2 November; International Herald tribune - 3 November

Bad Day on the Road

Detroit, MI – A 41-year-old man got stuck and drowned in two feet of water after squeezing headfirst through an 18-inch-wide sewer grate to retrieve his car keys. Unable to remove his head, the man drowned when the continuous downfall eventually raised the water level in the sewer.

Bad Day at the Junkyard

A German couple in their 50s took their old car to a scrap yard. They parked, completed the paperwork, but got back in the car to shelter from a sudden squall of rain. "The driver of the crane was told to process their car", said a police investigator. "He did so without realizing that the couple were sitting inside again." The car was grabbed by the crane's steel claws and dropped in the crusher, which normally reduces cars to a small cube. It was stopped when the crane driver heard the woman's screams, but it was too late to save her husband. The crane driver was hospitalized for shock, but was expected to be charged with "negligent manslaughter". Daily Mail – 14 April 1997

Bad Day for Stripping

Consenza, Italy - Stag party friends were curious when a stripper failed to jump out of a huge cake. Assuming she was no longer in there, they received a nasty surprise when they found her dead inside it. Gina Lalapola, 23, had suffocated after waiting for an hour inside the sealed cake. Daily Record - 30 August 1997

Bad Day at the Pyramid

Cairo, Egypt - Adam Gotz, 34, from Baden Wurttemberg, Germany, threw himself to his death off the 613ft (187m) Cairo Tower on 28 July to demonstrate to his friend, Sarah Klimer, his Pharaonic belief that the dead return to life. Gotz, a student of Egyptology, the study of ancient Egyptian history, had told her he was a "spiritual psychiatrist" who believed the Giza pyramids provided spiritual energy to enable believers to transcend humanity. Ms Klimer has not reported any further contact to date. Reuters, Associated Press - 31 July 1998

Bad Day at the Ice Pond  (Note: This story is false according to Snopes)

Akeley, Minnesota – Jerry, a Labrador Retriever, died in a freak accident that also cost Harry Jenkins his new Ford truck. It seems Mr. Jenkins and his two buddies went ice fishing one day at nearby Ten Mile Lake which was completely iced over. In an attempt to create a large hole for fishing quickly, Mr. Jenkins first lit, then tossed a stick of illegally obtained dynamite across the ice. To his horror, his pet dog raced across the ice in an attempt to retrieve the dynamite. The dog fetched the dynamite despite screams from the men to come back, but then they realized they were in worse danger than they thought when the dog began to return to them with the stick in his mouth. Now the three men began to run in the opposite direction for their lives with the dog chasing them. The men narrowly escaped death in this way, but the explosion damaged the ice near the truck, which then plunged to the bottom of the lake. In addition to losing his dog, Mr. Jenkins was a double loser when the insurance company refused to pay on his claim for the sunken truck.  

Bad Day at the Magic Charm School

Abidjan, Ivory Coast - Pascal Gbah,49, a colonel and electronics engineer in the Ivory Coast army, was fatally wounded by gunfire on 24 August as he tested a "magic" belt supposedly with powers to protect him from bullets. He died on the spot near the western town of Aboisso after being hit by a bullet fired from his own service pistol by a 20-year-old son of the magic belt's maker. Gbah's cousin Andre Gondo, who made the belt, insisted that its protective powers were real, provided one abstained from sex while wearing it. Gbah is survived by a wife and six children. An army spokesman said Gondo had been arrested, but that his son was on the run. Reuters - 26 August 1998.

Bad Day at the Military Academy

Dahonega, GA - According to police, ROTC cadet Jeffrey Hoffman, 23, fatally stabbed to death fellow cadet Nick Berrena, 20, in a tragic accident. In a case of very poor judgment, Berrena died when he dared his roommate to stab him in an attempt to prove that a knife could not penetrate the Kevlar flak vest that Berrena had just purchased from a mail-order catalogue. According to the catalogue, the flak jacket guaranteed complete safety from bullets, knives, and hand grenade fragments. No mention whether it was manufactured in the Ivory Coast.

Bad Day for Messages

Johannesburg, South Africa - A young Saudi man, camping with two friends on top of a mountain, was killed instantly when he took a call from a friend on his mobile phone during a storm and the phone was struck by lightning. Johannesburg Citizen – 4 September 1998

Bad Night at the Beach  (Editor's Note: this story is TRUE)

Darwin, Australia - Christopher Pane, 34, and an un-named woman of 25 drank 11 bottles of beer and then went on a sexual romp in the sea near Darwin in Australia. They had intercourse in the water when the woman decided to go underwater for a different activity. Pane became excited, put his hands on her head and kept her submerged. Micheal Carey, prosecuting at Payne's trial in the Northern Territories Supreme Court a year later, said Pane told police that when the woman stopped sucking, he wondered what was going on, so he let her up. She had not tried to get up and wasn't kicking or splashing. When he realized she was dead, he "freaked out", dressed and drove away. He was arrested two days later and during his year in prison had constant nightmares and was treated 12 times for outbreaks of boils. Pane's counsel pointed out that the woman might have passed out from drink: she had consumed six times the legal driving limit. Sydney Daily Telegraph - 3 October 1997

Bad Day Watching the TV Football Game

St Louis, Missouri - James Shivers, 60, fired a pistol at his 26-year-old son Tony for standing in front of the television during a Holiday Bowl football game between the University of Missouri and Colorado State. He missed (later he told police he did not mean to hit his son), but the son grabbed the pistol and began beating his father until the gun broke apart. The elder Shivers then got a shotgun from a cupboard and fired twice into his son, killing him. Reuters - 30 December 1997

Bad Day in the Back Yard

Los Angeles, CA. Ani Saduki, 33, and his brother decided to remove a bees’ nest from a shed on their property with the aid of a “pineapple grenade”. A “pineapple” is an illegal firecracker which is the explosive equivalent of one-half stick of dynamite.  They ignited the fuse and retreated to watch from inside their home, behind a window some 10 feet away from the hive/shed.  The concussion of the explosion shattered the window inwards, seriously lacerating Ani.  Deciding Mr. Saduki needed stitches, the brothers headed out to go to a nearby hospital.  While walking towards their car, Ani was stung three times by the surviving bees. Unbeknownst to either brother, Ani was allergic to bee venom, and died of suffocation en-route to the hospital.

Bad Day at the Amusement Park

Santa Clara, California - A 25-year-old man died on 7 September after being struck on the head by a woman’s outstretched foot as she whizzed by on a roller coaster at Paramount's Great America Theme Park. He jumped over a fence into a resticted area to retrieve a hat blown off his wife's head while she was riding "Top Gun". A woman accidentally kicked the man when her car passed him and was treated for leg injuries. The man was initially identified as Hector     Mendoza, 25; but it later appeared that he had taken over the identity of the real Hector Mendoza, who was alive in Mexico, and whose driver's license and social security number had apparently been stolen. The dead man's identity was a mystery. Associated Press - 7 September; San Francisco Chronicle - 12 September 1998.
 

Bad Day on the Gondola  (Editor's Note: Probably true)

2007 or 2008 - A 33 year old man from the north of France fell 25 meters from the Planpraz cable car in Chamonix, France. The man was with 3 friends who were descending around 5pm. A window from the cable car gave way for a reason yet to be determined. The state prosecutor has opened an inquiry. The man's friends have been interviewed by the police. The cable car is currently off limits until the technical inquiry is completed.

Four men from the Somme were taking the cable car down due to poor (ie non-existent) snow cover on the home piste.

The men had skied in the morning then spent the afternoon in a mountain restaurant. The three snowboarders and a skier then took the cable car down.

A side window opposite the door gave way at 2/3rds distance.  When the cabin arrived at the bottom station the men got out.  Two of them climbed up the slope under the pylons while the third called the rescue services.

The three men, aged 33-35, were arrested by the police, given alcohol tests then charged with manslaughter.  Other theories have not been ruled out but some damage to the man's ski gear had lead the police to think the man was pushed violently against the window which then gave way under his weight.  According to the lift company CMB the window should be able to withstand such a shock.

Bad Day at Suicide Rock

Normandy, France - Jacques LeFevrier left nothing to chance when he decided to commit suicide.  He stood at the top of a tall cliff and tied a noose around his neck.  He tied the other end of the rope to a large rock. He drank some poison and set fire to his clothes.  He even tried to shoot himself at the last moment.  He jumped and fired the pistol.  The bullet missed him completely, but cut through the hanging rope instead.  Freed of the threat of hanging, Mr. LeFevrier plunged into the sea.  The sudden plunge into the freezing waters extinguished the flames and apparently made him vomit the poison as well. He was dragged out of the water by witnesses on the beach below the cliff and was taken to a hospital, where he died of hypothermia. 

Bad Day in the Bed

Newton, NC - Kenneth Charles Barger, 47, accidentally shot himself to death during the night.  Awakening to the sudden sound of a ringing telephone beside his bed, he reached for the phone but grabbed instead his Smith & Wesson .38 Special which he kept on the bedside table next to the phone. The gun apparently discharged as he drew it to his ear thinking it was the phone.

Bad Day at Seaworld  (Editor's Note: Definitely a true story)

The naked body of Daniel O Dukes, a 27-year-old drifter from South Carolina, was found draped across the back of a killer whale in a tank behind Shamu Stadium at Seaworld Orlando on the morning of 6 July. He had apparently hidden in the Florida theme park after closing time and drowned in the cold, salty water of the 26ft (8m) tank.

The 14-year-old whale, named Tillikum after the Chinook Indian word for friend, and at 11,000lbs (4,990kg) the largest in captivity, may have played with Dukes' 180lb (82kg) body as if it were a toy. The post mortem showed one bite - in Dukes' groin - which occurred after death when Tillikum ripped of his green shorts. The shorts were found at the bottom of the tank. Killer whales, also called orcas, are not naturally aggressive to humans. Reuters - 6 July; AP, Knight Ridder - 8 July 1999 

Killer Whale Lawsuit Dropped  

Orlando, Florida - The parents of a man found naked and dead on the back of a killer whale at Sea World Orlando have dropped a lawsuit alleging Sea World caused his death by portraying the dangerous orca as safe and huggable. 

“They voluntarily dismissed the lawsuit,” Sea World executive vice president and general manager Vic Abbey said. “This was a very tragic accident that occurred, but as we’ve said all along we felt the lawsuit had no merit.”

Patricia and Michael Dukes of Columbia, South Carolina, had filed suit on September 10 seeking several million dollars fro pain and suffering at the loss of their only son, Daniel, 27, a drifter who was found drowned to death in July in the whale tank. Heavy intoxication apparently contributed to this untimely event. Tuesday, October 5, 1999

Bad Day at Law School

Toronto, Canada - 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 many times according to police reports. Peter Lauwers, managing partner of the firm Holden Day Wilson, told the Toronto Sun newspaper that Hoy was “one of the best and brightest” members in the 200-man association.

Bad Day Imitating William Tell  (Not Quite Dead, but Close Enough)

 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 during an initiation into a men’s rafting club, Mountain Men Anonymous, in Grants Pass, OR.  A friend tried to shoot a beer can off  his head, but the arrow entered Roberts’ right eye instead. 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 skull, yet somehow managed to miss all major blood vessels. Delashaw also said that if Robert had tried to pull the arrow out 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.” 

Bad Day at the River

Kiev, Ukraine - A fisherman in Kiev, Ukraine, electrocuted himself while fishing in the river Tereblya. The 43-year-old man connected cables to the main power supply of his home, and trailed the end into the river. The electric shock killed the fish, which floated belly-up to the top of the water. The man then waded in to collect his catch, neglecting to remove the live wire, and tragically suffered the same fate as the fish. In an ironic twist, the man was fishing for a mourning meal to commemorate the first anniversary of his mother-in-law's death.

 Bad Night at the Ski Run

Mammoth Lakes, CA - A San Anselmo man died early yesterday morning (at 3am) when he hit a lift tower at the Mammoth Mountain ski area while riding down the slope on a makeshift sledge of yellow foam. 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. The lift towers are meant to be cushioned by this foam, and the tower he hit was discovered to be the same one from which he had stolen his sledge. As the report said "There's a moral in there somewhere". The Guardian - 6 February 1998

Bad Day at Church

Melvyn Nurse, 35, a clergyman, used a .357 calibre Magnum revolver loaded with one blank round to dramatize his sermon before a packed congregation at Livingway Christian Fellowship Church International in Jacksonville, Florida on 26 September. He illustrated each of the seven deadly sins by playing Russian roulette, spinning the chamber and holding the gun to his head. After one spin, the gun fired and the cardboard wadding in the blank pierced his temple, inflicting fatal brain injuries.

He fell out of sight and the congregation of 250, including his wife Debra and their four daughters, waited, thinking Mr Nurse would resume his sermon. He was eventually rushed to University Medical Center, where he died five days later. Blanks contain a hard cardboard-like wad that shoots several feet from the barrel when fired. It seemed likely that Nurse didn't realize they could cause injury. AP, Reuters - 2 October, Daily Telegraph - 3 October 1998

Bad Day at the Homemade Bungee Jump

Reston, VA - A 22 year old Reston man, Jeff Lucas, was found dead after he tried to use Occy straps (those stretchy ropes with hooks on each end) to bungee jump off a 70 foot railroad trestle. Fairfax, VA police said Eric A. Barcia, a fast food worker, taped a bunch of these straps together, wrapped an end around one foot, anchored the other end to the trestle, jumped and hit the pavement.  

 Bad Day at the Movies

Harrisburg, PA – Apparently inspired by a scene from the movie “The Program”, which contained a famous scene where three drunk college athletes lie prostrate on a major highway in order to prove their manliness, two high school freshman were seriously injured and a third was killed when an 18-wheeler ran them over. In the movie, the truck was able to veer off and narrowly miss injuring anyone, but in real life two of the boys had their legs amputated while the unlucky third boy was unable to move fast enough to avoid being crushed to death. The driver said he never even saw the boys. After this tragic event, the scene was removed from the movie. Director David Ward said he never dreamed anyone would have trouble distinguishing fantasy from reality.

Beware the Barking Dog : Bad Night for Walking the Dog

A Russian woman took her dog for a walk after it started barking late at night and then apparently left it in her yard tied to a post, still barking. Annoyed neighbors called the police. According to Izvestia, the Russian daily: "The policemen, without any reason, decided to shot the dog."

The first nine shots from their pistols missed, bit one of them broke the leash, sending the animal running frantically around the yard. "The policemen ran after the dog, shooting at the silhoutte in the dark. The 13th bullet hit the owner, who was trying to catch the animal, in the heart." This incompetent manslaughter landed them in Yekaterinburg court. Reuter - 27 May 1998

 Bad Days at the Dance Studio

Lisbon, Portugal - Dance teacher Alberto Fargo tangoed to his death straight out of a fifth-floor window. Police in Lisbon said Fargo was showing his dance class how to keep the head high by looking at the ceiling.  Sunday Independant (Dublin) - 15 November 1998

Barcelona, Spain – Rogelio Pena died in a fall from Mr. Pena’s third-floor dance studio. Other instructors said Mr. Pena was demonstrating a difficult Pasa Doble maneuver to his student Francesca Olivera and never even noticed the open window.

Bad Day on the Island

Gumilid Lantod was alone in the jungle catching bats on Mindoro Island in the Philippines when a 23ft (7m) python bit him on the foot and squeezed him to death. Pythons can tell when their victims are dead when they can no longer feel a pulse. Then the monster swallowed the 154lb (60kg) man. Friends later found the snake and slit it open, finding the father of six already half digested. Express (Germany) 3 April; [AFP] 7 April 1998

 Bad Day for the Terrorists

Hebron, Israel – A switch away from daylight savings time turned the tables on a group of Palestinian terrorists who had neglected to note that Israel had made a premature switch from daylight savings time to standard time due to a religious holiday.

The bombs had been prepared in a Palestine-controlled area by explosives experts and set on Daylight Savings time. The drivers in Israel had already switched their watches to standard time and failed to note the time difference. They were in their car still en-route to their destination when the explosives detonated an hour earlier than they expected.

Death Really Stinks

Jonathan Capewell, 16, was so obsessed with smelling fresh that he would cover his entire body with deodorant at least twice a day. When his parents told him he was using too much and they could taste the stuff downstairs in the kitchen, he laughed it off. He was found dead after spraying himself with anti-perspirant in his bedroom in Oldham, Greater Manchester. Three empty deodorant canisters were found. A post mortem showed that his body contained 0.37mg of butane per litre of blood and a similar amount of propane. Only 0.1mg of either gas can kill. It is believed the gases built up in his body after six months of intensive spraying. The death was thought to be the first from accidental inhalation in the country and there was no evidence to suggest that he was a solvent abuser. Manchester Eve. News - 28 October; Guardian, Daily Telegraph, Independant, Northern Echo - 29 October 1998
 

Watch out for the RV!

-----Original Message-----
From: Michael Myer
Sent: Monday, March 03, 2008 4:10 PM
Subject: Strange death page contribution

I recently read your collection of bizarre deaths and enjoyed it very much, the one about the diver found in the incinerated forest was particularly entertaining.

Another story you might want to add involves my uncle Wade L. Risner of Elkhart, Indiana.

He was killed last July when he was ran over by a recreational vehicle that was piloted by one of his best friends.  What makes it ironic if that Wade was an avid RV'er most of his life, so much so that among my family his name is synonymous with the great big things.  More gruesome is the fact that Wade was killed not by the gigantic class one motor home, but he sustained massive trauma from the Chevy Malibu that the RV was towing.

All the proper information that you need can be obtained by a simple Google search.

Sincerely, Michael M. Myer

 

British Family Protests Bizarre Death on Island of Rhodes  (Editor's Note: Probably true)

Fatal Fall in Faliraki has Unexpected Repercussions. 

In a tale that sounds like a lurid tabloid headline, the British family of Christopher Rochester, killed in an accidental fall from an apartment balcony in Rhodes last year, is threatening legal action against Greece because their son's body was returned
minus a kidney.

The Chester-Le-Street Advertiser, the newspaper in Rochester's home town in England, reports that Rochester was in Rhodes with his brother Keith, a disc jockey at the popular resort town of Faliraki.  He was working as a bar manager when he was killed on June 11th, 2000, just four days after arriving in Rhodes.

Though he was injured in the 40-foot fall, British medical tests indicate that the wounds should not have been fatal.  Attending paramedics told the still-conscious Rochester that he had just received a "bad bang" on the head for which he later received several stitches. 

But less than three hours later, he was dead.

When the missing kidney was reported to Greek medical authorities, a kidney was sent to Britain several months later.  However, DNA testing showed that the kidney received was not Rochester's.

At the hospital in Rhodes, Rochester's brother Keith was initially asked to identify someone else's body.  All of his brother's clothes were missing, and he was told a kidney had been removed for a toxicology test.

Chester-le-Street Minister of Parliament Giles Radice is calling for a full inquiry by the pertinent Greek authorities.  While some are asking if the "missing" kidney somehow fell into the hands of black market organ dealers, there is no evidence that it was removed for anything but the toxicology testing.


A Lousy Way to Celebrate New Years Eve

-----Original Message-----
From: Mark
Sent: Sunday, April 13, 2008 8:55 PM
Subject: bizarre death

Hi, My name is Mark.  Here's one I would to share.

My
Uncle died in a strange death back on 31st December 1990.

He was quite drunk.  He had just been to the toilet.  Afterwards he tried to go down stairs as it was nearly midnight but tripped and fell down them. H e was unconscious when he hit the floor but a couple of minutes after he fell a firework came through the roof and exploded near him. (it had just struck midnight on New Year's Eve.)

An autopsy confirmed that he would not have died from the fall down the stairs and it was the firework that killed him!
 

Bizarre death of Church Man  (Editor's Note: Definitely a true story)

Apr 27 2007
Evening Gazette

A church organist was found dead at his Teesside home naked inside a giant plastic bag.

Ian Kemp, 48, from Stockton, was found alone in his house bound by his wrists and shins, an inquest heard.

A vacuum cleaner was also connected to the bag and it is believed Mr Kemp died after the machine had sucked all the air out of the bag.

The inquest heard there were no suspicious circumstances but Teesside Coroner Michael Sheffield said such incidents were sometimes connected to sexual gratification.


Attempted Suicide Results in Death 
(Editor's Note: Definitely a true story)

February 1, 2008

SAN DIEGO -- Homicide detectives are investigating the bizarre death of a San Diego man after his suicide attempt turned into a fight with his girlfriend.

According to police, Sevan Kevorkian's girlfriend found him hanging from a closet rod in his apartment on Hamilton Street in North Park last Saturday.  Investigators said that after she cut him down and revived him, Kevorkian, 36, became enraged. He started pulling her around the room by her hair.

Police said the altercation was noticed by a man and woman who were pulling up in a vehicle in the neighborhood. The man climbed through a window to stop the assault and put Kevorkian in a carotid restraint, sometimes called a sleeper hold.

Kevorkian lost consciousness and was taken to the hospital.  Officials said he died a little before midnight on Thursday.

The man who allegedly assisted Kevorkian's girlfriend was questioned by police and released.

Officials said that after detectives complete their investigation, the district attorney's office will review the facts of the case.

 

 

AND NOW A NOTE FROM THE EDITOR OF THIS PAGE, RICK ARCHER

Thank you for reading this far.  Before we go any further, I have one simple piece of advice for all of you:

DO NOT - REPEAT - DO NOT BELIEVE ANYTHING YOU READ OR SEE ON THE INTERNET (and that includes my page!!)

I am fairly sure most of you have already learned this lesson the hard way, but in case you are three years old and have just learned to read, the sooner you learn this lesson, the better.

LYING ON THE INTERNET IS A VERY EASY THING TO DO.

You don't have to trust me on that one.  If you hang around the Internet long enough, you will come to the same conclusion soon enough. 

In case you are an Internet Babe in the Woods, the fabled Darwin Awards will serve as a good place to begin learning to curb your naivety.

ABOUT THE DARWIN AWARDS
Written by Rick Archer

The Darwin Awards are named in honor of Charles Darwin, the father of Evolution.  The Darwin Awards commemorate those who improve our gene pool by removing themselves from it.   In simple terms, people who do stupid things which result in their own death are candidates for Darwin Awards.  They make the human race stronger by eliminating themselves.

Since the Darwin Award events are basically the same thing as my 'Bizarre Death' page, people send me stories taken from the Darwin Awards all the time. 

Unfortunately, I have found the Darwin Awards to be very unreliable.

Take as an example the famous JATO Death Story.  This story was once voted the most popular Darwin Award tale of all time.  It was fun to read and more fun to believe.  Too bad this clever tale turned out to be fake.  


THE JATO DEATH (
Jet Assisted Take-Off)

1995 Darwin Awards Winner!

The Arizona Highway Patrol were mystified when they came upon a pile of smoldering wreckage embedded in the side of a cliff rising above the road at the apex of a curve. The metal debris resembled the site of an airplane crash, but it turned out to be the vaporized remains of an automobile. The make of the vehicle was unidentifiable at the scene.

The folks in the lab finally figured out what it was, and pieced together the events that led up to its demise.

It seems that a former Air Force sergeant had somehow got hold of a JATO (Jet Assisted Take-Off) unit. JATO units are solid fuel rockets used to give heavy military transport airplanes an extra push for take-off from short airfields.

Dried desert lakebeds are the location of choice for breaking the world ground vehicle speed record. The sergeant took the JATO unit into the Arizona desert and found a long, straight stretch of road. He attached the JATO unit to his car, jumped in, accelerated to a high speed, and fired off the rocket.

The facts, as best as could be determined, are as follows:

The operator was driving a 1967 Chevy Impala. He ignited the JATO unit approximately 3.9 miles from the crash site. This was established by the location of a prominently scorched and melted strip of asphalt. The vehicle quickly reached a speed of between 250 and 300 mph and continued at that speed, under full power, for an additional 20-25 seconds. The soon-to-be pilot experienced G-forces usually reserved for dog-fighting F-14 jocks under full afterburners.

The Chevy remained on the straight highway for approximately 2.6 miles (15-20 seconds) before the driver applied the brakes, completely melting them, blowing the tires, and leaving thick rubber marks on the road surface. The vehicle then became airborne for an additional 1.3 miles, impacted the cliff face at a height of 125 feet, and left a blackened crater 3 feet deep in the rock.

Most of the driver's remains were not recovered; however, small fragments of bone, teeth, and hair were extracted from the crater, and fingernail and bone shards were removed from a piece of debris believed to be a portion of the steering wheel.


RICK ARCHER'S NOTE:  As I mentioned, the story of the JATO DEATH was once voted the most popular DARWIN AWARD WINNER of all time.  Imagine the sorrow throughout Darwin Nation when they learned that this story was complete bullshit.

Here is an article debunking the story reprinted from one of the many Darwin Award websites:

The JATO DEATH Darwin Award is the most popular of all time.  Considered true for years, it was later debunked as an Urban Legend by the Arizona Department of Public Safety.  The story fooled the judges in 1995, and JATO has been grandfathered in as a Darwin Award Winner.

Officer Bob Stein of the Arizona Department of Public Safety receives "inquiries several times a day about accidents, drug busts, investigations we are conducting. Two years ago, I picked up the phone and researched the answer to what has become an Arizona myth. Even after all this time, I still receive about five calls a month from people wanting to know, did it really happen?" 

The answer is "No. This accident never happened!"

Here are three sources that debunk the JATO story:

Darwin Award Site
Snopes
Wikipedia

Wikipedia: The JATO legend was again convincingly debunked in 2003 on the pilot episode of the Discovery Channel show MythBusters, titled "Jet Assisted Chevy, Pop Rocks and Soda". They replicated the scene and the thrust of the JATO with several commercially-available amateur rocket motors. The car did go very fast, but nowhere near the 300 mph (500 km/h) reported in the original story, and failed to become airborne.

And what is Rick Archer's point?  The truth may be out there, but sometimes you have work hard to find it.  There are lies all over the Internet (including, sorry to say, my own page!  I have no way to verify many of the stories sent to me).

For starters, don't believe any Darwin Award story until you check it out yourself.  As 'Urban Legends' go, the Darwin Awards have a poor reputation for reliability on the Internet.  Too many of these stories are so vague (no names, no dates, no locations) they become impossible to substantiate on the Internet.


 


More
About This Strange Page...

So why would I tell you there are lies on my very own page?  Here are the reasons.

One, I tell the truth (as I know it to be). 
Two, I printed the majority of the stories on this page without substantiating them.
Three, I have since discovered some of the stories given to me are true and some aren't.
Four, I don't know which of the rest are true and which ones are false. 

So I suggest you tread lightly with every story you read on my page.  Nothing has been substantiated on this page unless I tell you it has. 

My Bizarre Death P
age is not my original work.  Most of these stories were drawn from an English website that I visited back in 1999.  This site was dedicated strictly to chronicling reports of bizarre deaths.  Just so you understand, I run a dance studio in Houston, Texas.  I really could not care less about collecting "bizarre death tales" on a daily basis.  However, I did find the stories interesting, so I copied them and published them on my own site along with the promise to refer anyone to the original page who asked.  Unfortunately, in 2006, the link to the original page no longer worked.  Nor do I have any idea how to find this page.  This is the truth, by the way.  I do not know what happened to it or where it went.  Please forgive.

From time to time, people would send me more bizarre death stories to add to the list.  Furthermore, in the early days of my web site (1998-2000) people loved to send me emails listing the famous Darwin Awards.  These are legendary stories about idiots whose own stupidity gratefully eliminates them from the gene pool.  The stories are so much fun that YOU WANT TO BELIEVE THEM.  As they say, never let the truth get in the way of a good story.  I loved reading the Darwin Awards!

 So why would I deliberately put false stories in with authentic ones?  

Not only did I read these Darwin Award stories back in the era before I realized that most of them are total nonsense, I went ahead and published these stories as well on this page.  Imagine my embarrassment when I did finally discover years later that most of the Darwin Award tales are totally made up. I was very upset that I had been passing on these stories as 'authentic' for all these years.

 As a result, I am sorry to admit that many of the stories on my own web page are quite unsubstantiated.  

A good example would be the false story about the dog and the stick of dynamite above (Bad Day at the Ice Pond).  Another story that I am positive is false is the one about the scuba diver found burned to death in a forest (
Bad Day of Scuba Diving).  Both stories were originally sent to me as Darwin Award winners.

Today I would never deliberately add in a false story.  Like I said, I mixed stories from the English website with stories from a "Darwin Award" email back in 1999 at a time when I was not aware how many lies fly across the Internet.  Today I have no idea which stories are true and which ones aren't.  I will say that whenever I learn the truth about a story, I go back and update it. 

As I have repeatedly stated, I certainly do not claim any authorship of the stories above.  Unless I have direct experience with a story, I will not vouch for its authenticity.   Perhaps visitors to this web page can help with this effort.  If you know the truth or falsehood of a particular story above, please let me know.

Since the original English website no longer exists, for several years now people have gravitated to this web page via Google hits and so on.  One offshoot of the continued interest in this web page is that people have begun to contribute sad tales that they have run across in their own travels.  I believe they send these stories to me as a sad tribute to people they cared about who met a tragic end to their lives.  I am flattered that people trust a stranger like me with these sensitive stories.  I am more than willing to post these stories with no questions asked.

I do have one favor to ask - send me stories you know are real, not just some stupid make-believe Darwin story that ended up in your Inbox.  In other words, don't be as gullible as I was ten years ago.

Naturally your comments and contributions (stories, not money, thank you very much) are always appreciated. The email address is dance@ssqq.com

Thank you for visiting.
Rick Archer 
April 2008

2008 Update

-----Original Message-----
From: Caroline S
Sent: Sunday, March 04, 2007 10:17 PM
To: dance@ssqq.com
Subject: bizarre death page

Hi…I’m a TV producer in Sydney, Australia and I’m working on a series telling extraordinary stories of chance and coincidence…surviving through an absolute fluke or just plain old bizarre stories that the chances of it having occurring are tiny…your site leads me to believe that you may have something that could on my show! The stories on your site are just plain amazing – nothing that fits my editorial brief completely, but I thought you were definitely worth an email…it would be so appreciated if you could get back to me with any leads whatsoever…thanks so much…Caroline


-----Original Message-----
From: Rick Archer
Sent: Monday, March 05, 2007 6:09 AM
To: Caroline S
Subject: RE: bizarre death stories

As you will notice, most of these stories are dated in the Nineties.  There is a reason for this. Someone sent me the stories in an email.  I simply cut and pasted the email onto my web site.  I personally did no research whatsoever and deserve no credit.

I did a little digging around on the Internet.  It appears the bizarre death stories in that email were 'borrowed' from another web site located in England in the year 2000.
 
Since then, the site disappeared from the Internet sometime around 2006.   Perhaps a google search on some of the stories above might pick up the trail.

Unfortunately I have no original information to share nor any way of telling you those stories are even real.  In 2008 a relative of one of the victims did contact me regarding a request to remove it due to the embarrassment involved.  For that reason, I believe at least several of these stories are real, possibly all of them.

Rick Archer

 


The Offensive Page
March 2008



-----Original Message-----
From: Pauline P
Sent: Sunday, March 16, 2008 6:03 AM
To: dance@ssqq.com
Subject:

Isn't it about time you dispensed with this page?


----- Original Message -----
From: Rick Archer
To: Pauline P
Sent: Tuesday, March 18, 2008 3:45 AM
Subject: RE:

What page?  If you are going to criticize, at least tell me what you are objecting to.

 

-----Original Message-----
From: Pauline P
Sent: Tuesday, March 18, 2008 1:50 AM
To: Rick Archer
Subject: Re:

Bizarre Death Stories.  For obvious reasons I find this offensive
 

----- Original Message -----
From: Rick Archer
To: Pauline P
Sent: Wednesday, March 19, 2008 7:23 AM
Subject: RE:

So you find it offensive and want me to remove it from the internet so your sensibilities are not affected?


-----Original Message-----
From: Pauline P
Sent: Tuesday, March 18, 2008 9:59 PM
To: Rick Archer
Subject: Re:

Yes
 

----- Original Message -----
From: Rick Archer
To: Pauline P
Sent: Thursday, March 20, 2008 7:54 AM
Subject: RE:

And it never dawned on you that you could simply avoid opening that page again?


-----Original Message-----
From: Pauline P
Sent: Wednesday, March 19, 2008 5:30 PM
To: Rick Archer
Subject: Re:

That doesn't prevent other people from opening the page.

 

----- Original Message -----
From: Rick Archer
To: Pauline P
Sent: Thursday, March 20, 2008 10:35 AM
Subject: RE:

But you are the only one who objects, Pauline.

 

-----Original Message-----
From: Pauline P
Sent: Wednesday, March 19, 2008 9:56 PM
To: Rick Archer
Subject: Re:

I am one of very few with a relative on your page.

 

-----Original Message-----
From: Rick Archer
Sent: Friday, March 21, 2008 11:07 AM
To: Pauline Payne
Subject: RE:

I had no idea you were related to someone on my page.  

If you review our correspondence, you will realize I had no way of knowing what you were talking about or where you were coming from.  

I understand how this would cause you embarrassment, so I have voluntarily respelled your relative's last name.  It no longer matches yours.

 


WARNING!!

There are pictures below that should be considered Gruesome, Horrible and Graphic.

The pictures concern a fatal motorcycle accident. 

I imagine most people will continue on, but i
f you intend to take a look, first take a deep breath and brace yourself.

The pictures are very disturbing.   Some people would say they have no business even being posted and I would agree they have a point.

Please forgive me if you are offended.

Here is what I wrote on my Newsletter in May 2008 after deciding to post these pictures:


STORY THIRTEEN: MYSTERY OF THE GRUESOME MOTORCYCLE ACCIDENT
Written by Rick Archer, SSQQ Dance Studio in Houston, Texas

When it comes to Newsletter material, I generally pride myself on traipsing along the fine line somewhere between naughty and nice. Naughty but not too naughty, Nice but not so sweet you get tooth decay reading my stories. When it comes to Naughty, I realize my material crosses the line at times and gets my web site banned at work for a lot of you, but in the secrecy of your home you can laugh away to your heart's content.

For this article I openly admit I have crossed the line of bad taste. I have published ten pictures of the most horrible motorcycle accident I have ever seen. I held onto these pictures for about six months because they were too terrible to be added to my web site.

But one day I ran across a story on the Internet questioning whether the pictures were fake or not. Curious, I went back for another look. Again I was horrified at what I saw. After my revulsion faded, I took a more detached look at the pictures. At that point, I realized I was agreeing with many people on the Internet who claimed the pictures had been staged. There were all kinds of questions being raised.

That changed things for me. Everyone loves a good mystery. After all, CSI did not become one of the top shows on television by accident. I realized I did NOT want to be hoodwinked. I also realized that I didn't have enough knowledge to guess the truth of the situation.

So I was unable to decide whether the pictures were real or false. I am leaning in one direction, but my mind still isn't made up. I decided to ask the rest of you what you think on one condition - don't be angry with me for posting the pictures.

We are all big boys and big girls here. These pictures are horrible.  They are as bad as any gruesome picture you have ever seen of a war casualty, probably even worse. The word "gruesome" was developed for pictures like these.

So I am warning you with all sincerity to avoid looking unless you are sure this is something you want to do.
 
If you want to help solve the mystery, go visit and have a look. After you read the responses, email me back to tell me what you think.  I will keep your identity a secret. I just hope someone with more medical training than I have can give me some answers.

Just don't fuss at me when you find you are disgusted out of your wits.  Okay?

Okay, you all have been warned.  Here goes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


The Mystery of the Gruesome Motorcycle Accident
March 2008

The following pictures are unquestionably among the most horrifying pictures imaginable. 

However there is great controversy surrounding these pictures. 

There is a distinct possibility the pictures are fake. 
 

No one has been able to identify the incident despite the powerful tools of Google and other search engines.   Furthermore urban legend pages such as snopes cannot verify the story either.

The pictures certainly look real, but the biggest question is why isn't there more blood?   The seeming lack of blood is the main reason that many people have concluded the pictures were staged.  

By the way, if you expect the correct answer to appear at the bottom, don't bother. 

To date no one has made a conclusive argument for real or false.  The only thing people agree on is that the pictures are horrible. 

One more thing - the comments under the pictures are mine (RA)

As you see, there is minimal damage to the bike.  The rear wheel guard was broken off.  
But there are no scratches. Whatever threw the rider didn't damage the bike itself.

 

Unless you are an EMT or you have been in battle, it is unlikely to have ever seen a more gruesome picture.  Notice there are small blood stains on the street which suggest the torso slid into this final position.

 

Does that blood look real to you?

Also take note of the mysterious line on the neck under the chin.

 

The architecture and style of the vehicle suggests Europe.  Some people have suggested Eastern Europe.  If you look at this picture very carefully, you will see the word ambulance spelled backwards on the vehicle.   This suggests the event occurred in England unless perhaps this English word is also used on emergency vehicles in other European countries.

This is an important picture.  Do you see the skid marks on the sidewalk?   The skid marks suggest the accident took place on the sidewalk and the bike came to rest a hundred yards further down the road.   Notice there is a piece of wheel frame sitting next to the tire of the ambulance.   Also take note that the bike came to rest quite a distance further down the road.  Perhaps when the accident occurred, the bike landed on its wheels and kept going.

This picture raises three questions.   First, did this accident involve only the rider?  There is no second vehicle in any picture. 

Second, what exists in the picture to explain why a body would be severed in two? 
Answer: Nothing!  What caused this accident?  Fortunately another picture exists to give us a clue.

Third, why does the number 202 exist on the emergency vehicle in the correct direction while the word ambulance is spelled backwards The backwards word suggests the picture was reversed,
but then why didn't
202 get reversed?  This curiosity makes no sense. 

Answer to "Ambulance spelled backwards" Question:

-----Original Message-----
From: Trevor M
Sent: Sunday, March 23, 2008 8:16 AM
To: Rick Archer
Subject: Gruesome motorcycle accident

I can comment on the reversed "Ambulance" - it is common practice in Australia (at least) to have this on the front of an ambulance, so that if a driver sees it in his rear-view mirror, the text appears the right way around.  By the way, that emergency vehicle appears to be the real thing if that helps any.

ciao, Trevor M

Earlier I said the bike appeared to skid off the sidewalk.   If you look at the sidewalk in the picture above, you will notice a light post further down.  Was this what caused the accident?

It is difficult to understand how a little bike like this could get going fast enough to cause such a terrible accident.  Does anyone know how fast this bike can go?

 
 

Have you ever seen anything more gruesome?  It certainly looks legitimate.

But where is the blood?!   Was this an elaborate set up?   Perhaps a medical person can offer an explanation for the seeming absence of more blood.

 
 
 

Aha.  This picture suggests the pole was involved somehow.  There are some bike parts on the sidewalk plus the previously-mentioned skid marks.   There is also a stain to suggest the rider was thrown against the pole and cut in two.  That is a very thick pole... you wouldn't think something that thick could sever a human body so cleanly.

This picture has several emergency personnel in the background. 
If this event was staged as has been suggested, someone certainly went to a lot of trouble.

Here is what one man had to say about this picture:

In this photo, it looks like the rider hit the pole, splitting himself in two.  It's very possible this picture is real.  I see nothing to indicate Photoshop or anything. Some might say it's staged because there is no license plate on the bike, but it is an off-road bike, as evidenced by no brake light or turn signals, so it wouldn't have a plate.  The bike also looks quite new, so rider is either an inexperienced rider or the bike being stolen are possibilities.

 
Here is another bike accident for some comparison.

I placed these pictures here to compare to the pictures of the severed biker.  Note how messy this accident scene was.  There is lots of debris as opposed to the relatively clean mystery pictures.  It also appears there was a lot of blood covered by the sand.  The mystery scene had very little blood. 


DIALOGUE FROM A BIKER'S CLUB

The following dialogue lists some of the questions raised about this accident.  These comments were made on a motorcycle page that posted the same pictures above.

1.  Does anyone know what happened here?

2.  Don't know the particulars other than dude had better days...

3.  where's all the blood?

4.  I was thinking the same thing. I was also looking for the scattered bike parts...

5.  Looks like he was riding a bicycle to me, not a motorcycle. Bummer.

6.  I see enough of this sh*t at work. I don't get the purpose of this thread.  We all know ours is a risky hobby.

7.  FAKE!

8.  Re Fake...  Yeah...... Thinking the same thing. Not to be gross for the week at heart, but you just dont get cut in half and have a few light splatters of blood like that pictures. You know how many liters of blood the human body holds.................. Real nice for someone to spend that amount of time to try and re-enforce the allready negatives we get for our hobbies. Maybe next time he can e-mail it to all the major insurance groups out there so our rates can double or something.

9.  It's obviously fake. Not enough blood, there's not an emergency vehicle in sight. (Rick Archer's note: there were definitely emergency vehicles. Maybe all the pictures weren't posted on the other site)  
For a person to be cut in half in that manner the cut wouldn't have been quite so clean as that one appears to be if an accident involving a vehicle would have happened.  Speaking of the vehicle; Where is it?

10.  I hate it when I have to agree with you.....

11.  Since I'm curious, I checked out the www.ogrish.com website. Where the pic is from/hosted. Can't say for sure if this picture is real or not, But they definitely have some sick **** listed in the archives of the site. Some are without a doubt real.

12.  What would an emergency vehicle have to do there? There's no emergency at all.

13.  That is very true. If that had been a real accident the emergency would have been long over. By the way, if it was real then there would be bodily fluids extending to and around the entrails of the deceased.

14.  Roughly 5 liters for a full grown adult  (5 1/3 gallons)

15.  Im not an expert, but it looks a bit fake to me as well... Although even if it was real, I think we need to occasionally see things of that nature to make us realise that we aren't immortal

16.  No blood at all...... For sure it's a fake for me....
Wether it's a fake or not at least it's make us think be more careful when we ride....

17.  I wouldn’t say manipulated, but it is interesting when you attempt to consider what sort of forces would be required to rip a biker in half like that.  how fast would you have to hit a pole that thick to split yourself in half? And can a little bike like that attain those speeds?

The bike is in pretty good condition – the sort of speed that you imagine would have reduced that bike to a mangled wreck, but if he lost the bike smoothly at speed trying to corner and the bike skidded one way and he the other (and hit that pole just above the hips) who knows?

One’s thing for sure, I’ve seen accidents a lot more horrific. The gore in itself is unremarkable for an RTA.


FURTHER
DIALOGUE


18. Sally B (from South Africa)
Sent: Friday, March 28, 2008 7:54 AM

Hey there - just had the "pleasure" of viewing the bike pics but must admit that the comments held far more interest for me.  It seems that almost everyone was totally fixated on the lack of blood. I am not a medical expert (in fact I can't stand the sight of blood) but it's pretty common knowledge that the minute the heart stops beating there is very little blood flow so... it would be my understanding from the lack of blood that death was instantaneous in which case the "little splatters of blood" and not the bloodbath that people would expect to accompany such a grizzly scene would be about right.

Just my humble opinion and not necessarily correct.


19. Eric
Sent: Thursday, April 10, 2008 10:16 PM

I think the pictures are real.  Here are my observations:

1. I agree with the poster that said if the heart stops instantaneously there would be less (no) blood flow. The body was totally severed so the torso would have no pressure. I have seen other pictures that were similar with startlingly low showing of blood.

2. I have seen "Ambulance" spelled backwards to be viewed in a rear view mirror, but the 202 vehicle number to discern which vehicle it is in the fleet would not need to be printed backwards.

3. I agree with one observation that the rider was banking and the bike missed the pole and he hit it on a lean and mid torso and just the mass of him moving split him in half as he wrapped around the pole.

4. The 'entrails' as they were, I believe, "landed" there after being freed mid air. I don't think they slid there, therefore would not have to be accompanied by blood or a pool of blood. I think when he hit the pole, he was airborne and being torn in half so fast a lot of the blood was also airborne.
 

20. Tim
Sent: Monday, April 14, 2008 6:26 PM

Just a small thought, I'm not arguing one way or the other, but here in Canada, every once in awhile firefighters, ambulance paramedics etc, hold training exercises.

They are called "mock disasters". I personally have been involved in 2 of them. One was a tornado wreck, the other a car accident. People play parts (dead, or various injuries) and the participating units (firefighters/paramedics) treat you as someone with real injuries.

They do all sorts of accidents, and make them as realistic as possible, worst case scenarios etc. all for trying... the emergency personnel would show up at the scene believing it was real, then be told "how would you deal with this situation?" and then they go to it.


21.
Frank
Sent: Tuesday, April 15, 2008 10:16 PM

Fake.  There's no way it's real.  Torn in half and hardly a drop of blood on the ground?  Unless he was cut in half with a blowtorch or something else to seal him up(doubtful,seeing his intestines), I highly doubt it's real.  I've seen lost limbs, and there's WAAAAAY more blood than that.

And I read on another site this is Budapest, Hungary.

 

22.  Chris in New Zealand
Sent: Saturday, April 19, 2008 07:36 PM

You've been had.  It's a Fake.

1. A body roughly and suddenly split in two would leave a blood splatter at the site of the split. We're supposed to believe the pole did it. It's pretty damned clean.

2. A severed limb, when flying from the body, leaves a blood trail along the entire course. There is not sufficient blood trail here, especially with the upper half, which apparently bled fairly well once settled where it is.

3. I can see a curved trail leading from the pole to the legs. Objects in motion do not go on a curve without an outside force, eg on a rope. Even if his legs were "flung" around the pole when he snapped, once they left the pole, they'd be going in a straight line tangent from the arc of going round the pole.
 

23. Jane
Sent: Monday,
04-21-08, 10:03 AM

I'm leaning towards fake, here is why,

1) The legs are all bloody and bruised with missing skin while the top half is totally intact. There are no scrapes, no cuts, not even any blood except for where he was supposedly severed. Even if the top half of him didn't tumble I would think there would have to be some sign of scrapping along his arms or the back of his neck, but there isn't any.

2) Look closely at the chin, there appears to be a gap where the neck and chin meet, suggesting a hinge like you would see on a CPR dummy.


24. Rick K
Sent: Monday, May 05, 2008 5:40 PM
Subject: Fake accident

This is why i think this is fake...

If he got ripped apart by a pole, he should have been driving on that bicycle extremely fast, which means he should have a lot of adrenaline at that time. Adrenaline make's your blood flow fast, why isn't there any sign of blood at the stage?

If it was real, why would they allow someone to make these photos?   Normally this isn't allowed, and also there should have been lines around the scene for people, so they can't come close, why aren't these lines here? ( the red/white striped line)

Someone told something about a mark under the chin.  He might be very right about this.

Also why does his face still have a living color?  If you are dead for a while you should become more white.

Finally, why are his eyes covered?  The eyes could have shown us if it is a dummy or a real person.

(Rick Archer's Note:  The conspiracy theorists suggest the eyes were concealed to disguise the fake eyes.  On the other hand, if the pictures are legit, whoever originally posted the pictures probably blurred the eyes out of respect for the victim.

As for the mark under the chin, if these pictures ARE FAKE, whoever blurred the eyes could have easily removed that mark under the chin with Photoshop tools.  I did it myself to prove my point (took me less than a minute).

In other words, if someone has the skill to blur the eyes using a computer, they can also remove whatever else it is they don't want seen in the pictures.

By the way, you have my absolute word I didn't alter these pictures.  I am simply saying I have enough experience to know how easy it is to fake things using computers.  These mystery pictures don't seem to be altered.  On the other hand, I noticed while I was touching up that line under his chin, the line did seem to be unnatural.  I do not have any idea what might have caused the line assuming the pictures are legit.)


Original Picture

Touched up by Rick
Archer

25. Larry W from California
Sent: Tuesday, May 13, 2008 6:38 PM
Subject: motorcycle Accident

I believe the pictures are real.

When I turned 18 I could not afford a car so I went out to buy a little motorcycle.  While I was test riding a Moto Guzzi a gang of cruisers (that's we called gang bangers in the 60s) tried to run me off the road.

They succeeded.  However, I was only going a few mph. I was able to avoid hitting a telephone pole with the bike, but I did hit the pole solid. Since I was going so slow all I ended up with were scratches and bruises on my arms, legs and face.

In the mystery accident, I believe the rider was going extremely fast .  For some reason he was forced toward the pole. The bike barely missed the pole as did mine and just slid down the street. That explains the little damage to the bike.

Now looking at the pictures it appears the spinal cord is protruding above the buttocks by several inches. I believe he hit the pole at very high speed, wrapped himself around the pole and snapped himself in half.  I believe the inertia at that speed could produce such a result.


26. Emrys H from California
Sent: Tuesday, May 13, 2008 1:13 AM
Subject: This is a real motorcycle accident!

What I don't understand here is why all of the people here have posted responses without giving very much insight into the accident.  They all say it's a fake! It has to be!  Not enough blood!  Bloods the wrong color! Not a clean enough cut!

Well, I believe these pictures to be real.  Here's a little insight.

My mom worked as a nurse for 16 years at some of the biggest hospitals in Southern California and she has drilled into my brain how some things may turn out different than one might think when you are dealing with a biological body.

To answer the most disputed point of the pictures, the lack of blood, blood flow stops, as another postee has said. . Instant death halts of all bodily functions, and therefore blood is sustained in the body.

But this completely rules out death by pole!  This is either a hit and run victim or the victim of a cruel prank.

To elaborate on the fact that the pole is NOT the culprit, the blunt force impact would not have stopped the heart.  He would not have been killed instantaneously. blood would have continued to flow for at least a few seconds and therefore leave blood spatter.

Another reason why the pole can't be what split the man in half is the fact that there is no reason whatsoever for him to be leaning the bike towards traffic. If you look carefully, the road he was traveling on is a lakeside road. The curve in front of him as gradual. The eighth picture in sequence on this site shows the direction the man came from: NO 90 degree turn. The turn would need to be sharp for him to be cut clean like he was. If he came out a turn leaning at a 45 degree angle, the impact of his ribs on the pole would have slowed him down too much for him to be split in half as his body's momentum carried him perpendicular to the pole.

The final reason I have to rule out the pole is his bike relative to the pole.  He would have need to be speeding in excess of 90 miles per hour to achieve his gruesome fate.  This speed is very possible on the bike he was riding; a two stroke ktm 250. I worked at a motocross track in northern California for years and saw many wrecks (people being run over, split helmets on rocks, loop out and be crushed by the bike). I have also seen the power of the off-road motorcycle.  Uphill, the average racer is doing 55+. The experienced and pro racers are 5th or 6th gear pinned (differing trannys) at 70-80mph. This is FAST. Some of the bikes were capable of doing 110-120 on the straight parts of the dirt track. But the bike upon wrecking at these speeds was launched
several HUNDRED yards at times.

I have never seen a high speed wreck leave the bike even remotely close to the impact site. The bikes usually slide 50 yards before stopping in the dirt. This is with the drag of the dirt piling up in front of the bike.

So this was a slow speed wreck, resulting in instant death. This leans my thinking towards a prank. When I was little, we were told to be very careful when riding our bikes at any time. This was because there were three or four incidents of someone stretching a wire across trees or telephone poles or what have you and someone was killed by it
  (Rick Archer's Note: there was a scene in The Great Escape where Steve McQueen stole a Nazi's bike using this trick by stretching rope across a road).  A 25 mph encounter with this wire could decapitate you. 15 mph was enough. If this man was traveling at 30-45 mph, his bike would have been able to stop quickly, especially if he saw the problem at the last second and tried to brake.  The concrete that was left on his rear tire indicates our victim tried to stop.

I think we could be looking at a crime scene.

We have a slow speed instant death, with little blood and a victim who tried to stop. I believe he was originally biking on the sidewalk
(he is riding an off-road bike, where on-road is illegal but sidewalk isn't). 

A wire strung across the pole and fastened to the wall would have been almost impossible to see until about three feet away, giving him just enough time to hit the brakes before he was sliced in half in a perpendicular fashion.  His braking caused the bike to swerve toward the street  and at the pole. His body would not have left the bike until collision with the pole.  His legs are still straddling the seat and his hands are still on the handlebars.  He isn't dead yet, and is most likely going into shock, where the body closes off the capillaries and arteries to try to keep the fluids in the body. He is still conscious and is only just beginning to realize what happened. Notice the blood lines down the mans legs. How is this possible if he hit the pole sideways and landed sideways? It's not. He had to be upright for at least a second for the blood to run down. But not much longer because a lot of blood would be there.

Now the man's upper torso hits the pole, where the blunt force trauma kills him instantly. Someone made the comment that there was a seam under his chin. If he hit the pole face first, his lower jaw would have been shattered and lacerated, explaining your "hinge".  Remember, he wasn't leaning over other than at the last second, so his whole upper body would hit the pole at the same time, leaving a blood stain and killing him.  The closed arteries from his shock hold back the now still blood flow. Notice how there is no blood trail. There isn't enough momentum for it to slide because of the pole. His body is somewhat deflected but still travels in the same trajectory toward the road. He hits the ground rolls once and is now in his present position. There is no thought in my mind that indicates a rotation of the body horizontally. Most of his blood lost on hitting the pole would be carried with him to his resting spot and be splattered past him. Not so much in front of him.

Now his legs are still on the bike. The bike is veering toward the road and falling over. It will fall faster now without the added balance of the rider atop it. As the bike leans past its 45 degree angle, the man's legs would slide off the bike. Upon impact, there would be more drag on the upper half of the legs than the lower half. So they would move in a curving pattern. As the legs rotated, the intestines would now spill out and have more momentum than the rest, due to centrifugal force. The legs would rotate one time before stopping, as the intestines traveled past and stopped near the feet.

Now as the man's body rests, the blood outside of the blood vessels would begin to seep out. Someone said there is 5 1/3 gallons of blood in the human body. That's interesting... 5 liters... 1 liter = 1.02 quarts. There is 1 gallon and 1 quart of blood in the average human body. Not a whole lot of blood. The force of hitting the pole would have crushed and separated many of the tissues in the upper chest. If you have ever been lucky enough to see an animal at slaughter, the first thing you notice after the butcher slits the animals throat to be bleed it out is very light colored blood. This "foamy" appearing liquid is from the inside of the lungs. It is oxygen rich and is lighter than the rest of the blood. Notice the two colors of blood surrounding the body. This man's lungs were collapsed and burst. No sign of fake blood to me.

To bring fact to some of the surroundings, the emergency vehicles are usually painted in the way showed in the pictures. Ambulance is printed backwards so in the rearview mirrors of cars, it appears the right way. You don't usually need to know that the number on the vehicle is 202 when it is against the law to not yield to an emergency vehicle. Someone mentioned that the accident took place in Budapest Hungary. The bridge behind the ambulance is the margit bridge between buda and pest.

Why would anyone want to stage this unless to show the unsafe traffic of Hungary, or to publicize the building in the background. There would have been no time to set up a stage for this event. The road they are on is widely used to get into and out of the parlament building. You can look up the pictures for yourself to make sure. This picture was taken on the Buda side of the Danube River. If someone did stage this, someone important would have seen it. Buda is the noble part of Budapest. The real story would have been out in days, if not hours after the release of this one.

So there you have it. My explanation. If you don't believe it, please feel free to dispute what you think I may have misconstrued.


Rick Archer's Comments on Emry's Scenario: 

I never expected an email suggesting this death might be a crime scene.  That is very bizarre idea. 

Is it possible the rider's death was caused by a wire stretched across a sidewalk?

Before we discuss this idea, let me share a personal experience.  When my daughter was eight, I took her with me to a local print shop.  It turned out there were three other kids her age who were the children of the print shop owner.  I started playing with the four kids outside while I was waiting for the print job to be completed.  Pretending to be a monster, I chased them around the back of the shop.  They were screaming and having fun. 

Unbeknownst to me, someone had strung a metal wire between the fence and the building six feet off the ground.  The kids were short enough to go right under the wire, so I never suspected it was there. I ran right into the wire at full force.  The wire caught me right on my mustache, snapped my head back, and cut the tip of my nose off!   Considering I could have been killed, I figured I got off lucky.  And lucky I was.  My nose tip was reattached with stitches.  Three months later the new skin grew in and no one knew the difference. 

I tell you this story for a reason.  Whoever put that wire in a back alley between the fence and the wall never dreamed it might cause an accident.   But it did.

The bizarre scenario suggested by Emrys is therefore believable.  It is indeed possible there was some obstacle stretched across the sidewalk that could have caused the accident.   For example, when I take a morning run, there is some work being done on my nearby sidewalk.  They have a yellow ribbon stretched across the sidewalk as a warning not to step in the hole below.  

In this case of the motorcycle accident, someone might have put tape there on the sidewalk as a prank or more likely for some innocent reason never dreaming it could cause an accident! 

Do you get my point?  Emry's scenario isn't likely, but IT IS POSSIBLE!!

Let's take another look at the pole.  Previously I have looked at the mysterious tape on the pole and wondered what it is and why it is there. 

Was there a tape stretched across the sidewalk? It is located at the correct height.

Now if you look down at the sidewalk, you see all sorts of mysterious debris.  This looks like the spot of the accident.  I had always assumed the rider wrapped around that pole, but maybe some kind of tape stretched across the sidewalk is the solution. 

On the other hand, I see no tattered or frayed ends to the tape on the pole.  Nor do I see any tape remnants in any other picture.  Also, wouldn't you expect at least one picture of the tape to explain the accident? 

That said, we are in debt to Emrys for providing a fascinating explanation.  Thank you!


Let me conclude by saying Emry's idea is quite a story.  Never would I have imagined this possibility, but Emry made it sound plausible. 

We will probably never know if Emry is correct or not.   But if I were Emry, I would take that story straight to the writers of CSI.  They would have a field day writing a script for this scenario!


27. Laura B
Sent: Wednesday, May 14, 2008 10:34 AM
Subject: Fake bike accident

Firstly, I'd like to say that I hope it's not real, as whoever the guy is would be easily recognized by his family and friends despite the fairly feeble attempt to disguise his face. I certainly wouldn't want someone I knew plastered all over the internet in that situation.

Believe it or not, I knew someone who was killed in similar circumstances. He came off his bike and was wrapped around a bollard. He wasn't travelling very fast - and we don't know how fast this guy was travelling - but he certainly wasn't torn in two. He didn't really have any visible injuries apart from some bruising, but he died from internal bleeding.

I'm in two minds. The legs certainly look very realistic, but the fact that there's no damage at all to the head seems a bit strange. 
But what makes me feel it's probably staged is the fact that the torso looks like it's sticking out of the ground - in other words as if the guy's lower body and legs are in a hole in the tarmac and he's leaning back at an angle. In fact both halves of the body look to be in a "staged" position. Also, it seems strange that no blood has soaked up into his shirt.

As someone's said previously, it could well be a training exercise.

Anyway, interesting site you have there, although I can't remember how I got here!


28. Mitch
Sent: Saturday, May 17, 2008 2:20 PM
Subject: Regarding the Motorcycle Accident Photos

Well. This stuff is like
Final Destination or something.  Really, how often do you hear of a man wiping out, and being severed by a telephone pole?  Not very often, but the whole severance thing is nothing new.  In the Six Flags theme park, a young girl had both her legs severed off by a loose wire on a roller coaster that hadn't had its maintenance check.  How about the loose wire on that ferry-boat that cut through over 10 people?  

If all this is possible, why isn't this motorcycle accident?

First of all, I don't really agree with the word "severed". If you've seen a lot of gory movies, this shouldn't be too hard to picture in your head. An inexperienced motorcycle rider begins to skid, and the bike is still moving at a high speed, but is tilted to the side. Then, CRACK!  He slams against a telephone pole, the bikes slides out from under him, and he is SPLIT into two pieces. One lands without much sliding, the other lands, slides slightly, and some intestine that has flailed out slaps onto the ground. That pretty much covers this picture. In my opinion, this is real.

An act of Death, perhaps? Obviously.

In this day and age, with people dying every 30 seconds, or less, many people have concluded that Death has a clear list of who has to die. The movie
Final Destination suggests that if a death is intervened with by another person, or ones self, they will not die, and neither will the people after them, unless a fluctuation has occurred, and Death has to tie up all the loose ends by working backwards, skipping a life, or something else.  fluctuation

This man seems pretty young, and far too young to die. So in my opinion, something must have happened with Deaths list and made him die, so Death could get to another person. Young deaths occur a lot, even though they shouldn't.

With all the fake and real in this world, why wouldn't you think these pictures would be fake?  It's obvious anyone would wonder at first. After some close analysis, I found these pictures lack a few things that most "crime" scenes have. First of all, the bike; it has no damage or blood on it. There is only a little wheel protector broken off. This has already been listed.

Also, there is hardly any blood spill or splatter? This is confusing. Usually when people are, you know, split in two, there is a lot of blood.  I would think below the pole would have PUDDLES of blood.  There is not.  Which gets me thinking even more.  
If someone can fake a torn apart body, an emergency crew, and an intestine, why couldn't they fake a bit of blood?   (Good point!)

Anyway, I'm not the one to judge if these pictures are fake, but I will check up on the site later.  If you have posted any replies to this comment, I will gladly respond.


(Rick Archer's Note: I happen to completely agree with Mitch.  If someone can go to the trouble of faking a highly-realistic body split in two, arrange for several emergency vehicles to be on hand, and provide the highly convincing (and completely gross) intestines, you would think adding a decent pool of blood would be within their powers as well.  I would imagine 'a pool of blood' would be easier to fake than that torn-up body.)  
 

29. Emily C
Sent: Sunday, June 15, 2008 6:24 PM
Subject: lack of blood motorcycle accident

Recently at my internship I asked an experienced nurse if dead bodies can still bleed.

She replied yes and no. They don't gush blood like a normal person would, but they sure do leak the blood.

In her experience with a bleeding dead person she removed an IV and because of how low the arm was, the blood just kept leaking out.

Seeing the picture of your motorcyclist, there should be more blood.
 

30. Llanden G of the United Kingdom
Sent: Friday, September 04, 2009 3:12 PM
To: dance@ssqq.com
Subject: motorbike crash

I am a police officer so I have some knowledge about scenes like this, and it is completely fake.

First of all, the intestines have travelled further than the top half and the bottom half of the body.... this wouldn't happen. They are in completley the wrong place. Also they would not detach so cleanly. The intestines connect directly to (and become) your anus. Even if your intestines fell out of your body due to a severance like this, the end would still be connected to your arse ..... because that is what your arse is.

Secondly, there are not nearly enough emergency service personnel at the scene, and I don't care what country it's meant to be in, there would be a cordon ... which there isn't.

Thirdly, if you look at the photo of the legs, there are drips of blood on the left leg. The blood drip pattern indicates that the source of this blood was directly above the leg. Again this wouldn't happen, the only source for any blood at the scene and on the body would be the only visible wound, ie the point of severance. Any blood drips should originate there. Also, since the heart is not pumping this blood, it would only be acted upon by gravity, which as we all know goes straight down .... it's physically impossible for the blood to run down legs that are horizontal. Also if you look at the shin, there appears to be dried blood which has run almost perfectly down the leg, this would only happen if the person was standing up.

Fourthly, in the close up pic of the front of the motorbike you can see scratches on the tarmac that line up with parts of the bike. Again this wouldn't happen. Any damage like this to the tarmac would be caused closer to the point of crash, not near the point of stopping. The force required to cause these scratches is huge. The biggest point of force in this crash would be where the bike FIRST impacts the tarmac, not where it comes to a rest. When it comes to a rest it's because there is no more force being exerted. Therefore the point of rest has the lowest force point (zero). Whoever put these scratches in was confusing surface scratches for tire skid marks. Tire skid marks are different because the longer a foot is on the brake, the more force is exerted on the tires, ie the force builds which is why tyre skid marks fade in, not out.

Fifthly, the tyre skid marks on the side walk show that the vehicle was skidded almost horizontal to the road. Therefore the bike should have stopped at the crash barrier in front of the ambulance .... not 100 yards down the road.

Sixthly, the torso is al wrong. You can see his diaphram, which means that either the guy is incredibly skinny (which does not fit with his pectal area) or it is a photo of someone laying backwards arching their back. Whoever took it obviously wanted you think that the slope from his rib cage to the ground along the guys frame is because he is missing his intestines, but the slope is too gradual for that and it would NOT cause his diaphram to be visible in that way.

Seventhly, the guys mouth would be open wider. Things like closing your eyes and keeping your mouth closed require muscles to tense. We don't notice in our day to day lives because we're used to that tension so we don't feel it. But a dead person CANNOT maintain tense muscles. In order for his mouth to be that closed, his head would have to be at a much steeper angle backward in order for gravity to act upon the jaw and keep it closed.  

Although I would expect more blood, I wouldn't expect the vast amounts that most people seem to expect. The heart stops pumping ... people stop bleeding. Fact. The blood in the body may leak out of the wound, but most would simply pool within your body at the bottom. You should see a distinct difference in skin tone between the flesh furtherst from the pavement and the flesh making contact with the pavement where the blood is pooling at the lowest part of your body. The flesh tone in these pictures is far too even.

And lastly, although this had no scientific backing, I've seen enough dead bodies to know when I'm NOT looking at one .... and this guy is not dead. I can't back that up anymore than I have with the science bits, it's just an experience thing.

Hope that helps.
 

31. From: Pedro
Sent: Thursday, September 10, 2009 10:59 PM
To: dance@ssqq.com
Subject: motorcycle accident

Hi Rick!

As usual you come up with interesting material..."the motorcycle accident" is quite controversial...but I believe is a fake...why?

a) The guy doesn't look dead.
b) No blood traces or splits anywhere...not even some to trace the body parts to their final positions.
c) It is hard to believe that the intestines went farther than the legs...if so, they will be all spread, not neatly togehter...
d) The blood along the legs are not explainable by gravity or else.
e) If he was cut in half by a wire, he still would sustain some head and body damage during the fall and the friction of the pavement during the drag caused by the inertia...the upper body looks almost intact. If he was going fast enough to be cut in half, you will expect other damages due to the speed...including some to the motorcycle.

I might not be able to explain in detail why I believe it is a fake, but something in my mind, instinct or common sense, tells me that it is a fake. But I am not 100% sure. I might be wrong, since nature and reality sometimes defy logic and reason...
 

32. From: Matt
Sent: Tuesday, October 20, 2009 12:35 AM
To: dance@ssqq.com
Subject: Mystery Bike Accident

I would like to point a few things out. I live in Las Vegas, and a few years ago a famous boxer was killed in a motorcycle accident close to my house. The accident happened in the street in front a Starbucks I was at. After a loud crash, I noticed many people crowding around the curb of the parking lot. I walked over to see what all the fuss was about, and couldn't believe my eyes. There was a motorcycle crash. The boxer, Diego Corrales, was was dead on the street. The blood was minimal, and there were still body parts on the road.

I have seen bad motorcycle accidents where the bike remained in tact. In this photo, I would say the man was traveling at a high rate of speed, lost control, and the bike ended up sliding on its side. A number of things could have happened. He may have hit something else. I could guess (just off the top of my head) a cord/ wire/ power line was close to the ground for whatever reason, he drove into it, bike sliding out from under him. Just an idea. As for the "Ambulance" being spelled backwards, they do that in the United States as well.

33. From: Tommy in the UK
Sent: Saturday, November 06, 2010 9:58 PM
To: dance@ssqq.com
Subject: bike accident

I don't know how I got to a picture of a bike accident, was looking for how to sue insurance companies, but the real verdict is fake.

No blood- the heart still beats after a horrific death, so there should have been blood on the floor and on the persons clothes. tour his is a fact, ask a biologist or a person in the hospital "if I pull your heart out, will it beat for at least a further 30 seconds at least?"
Also the blood from the legs would also spill.

Physics - If the person hit the pole at such a high speed the bike would have needed time to stop, even if it was sliding. When you press the breaks at 40MPH or 60KPH it takes you a lot longer to stop. The position of the body parts seem too odd, they seem placed rather then landing in 2 diffrent parts, or 1 part bouncing off the wall, which ever way it seems more likley the person should have ended up on the side unless he hit the lamp post before.

Authority- the ambulance can be called and they would put a cord in the road until forensic arrive.

A lot of headache for a fake.

It seems like you were in with it, otherwise why would you make a website that has a verdict against everyone even tho you said 2-1 in favour for fake.
 

Rick Archer's reply:

I hope you are right about the accident being a fake.

Otherwise you have not only accused an innocent person (me) of lying on his website and admitted you are looking to cheat an insurance company, but you have also dishonored a young man who died horribly.

For the record, I do not know the identity of the young man who died.  I do not know for certain whether the accident was faked or real.  The only thing I am certain of is that I am not playing any games, I am not running a scam, and I tell the truth as I know it.

 

34. From: Amanda H
Sent: Friday, July 29, 2011 3:36 PM
To: dance@ssqq.com
Subject: Motorcycle accident - real or fake

The mark under his chin would be from his helmet strap. Hence no obvious head injury. Helmet may have been removed or not strapped on tightly so it flung off during the accident. I have seen it before but luckily my friend lived. I believe it is real and that the lack of written info is because perhaps there were a pile of pics for the accident and somehow a non investigator type person happened across some discarded or lost ones. Or some police officer took a few of them to show his kids or kid brother to put them off playing silly buggers with fast things. Either way if only one person is put off from riding above their and their bikes abilities then the pics were all worth it.

 

35. From: Wael H
Sent: Wednesday, February 22, 2012 2:47 PM
To: dance@ssqq.com
Subject: Biker Accident

I just saw and read most of the comments but I could come up with one theory that can be suggested to make this accident a legit one…

The biker was going down the road at like 80 - 100 km/h… I think he tried a stunt which led to his death later on… He was trying to disembark and slide along the bike while it was moving at this speed… And looks like when he tried that… the bike got out of control and went towards the pole… That's when he held it as strong as he can (may be froze and probably that explains the marks under the chin as his chin was so pushing down the brakes or whatever when the bike went over the curb)… So when the bike got over the curb, his body was between the bike and the pole so it's not his mass only that severed him… it's the bike's mass plus speed too… So as he was trying to pass the pole, the bike hit his torse against the pole at a high speed (shattering the rear end of the bike and throwing his lower limbs far away) and the upper torso kept holding for moments after the incident that's why the torso appears to be lying closer than the lower limbs… After the bike cut his lower part, the dead biker held on for moments while the bike was still moving (the pole straighten it's direction plus the weight of the torso also)till his grip failed and was thrown at that particular position while the bike continued till it stopped at that location.

If it helps to imagine… try imagining the biker doing his stunt from the left.


36. From: JB
Sent: Monday, June 11, 2012 3:52 AM
To: dance@ssqq.com
Subject: Motor Cycle Mystery - Real/Fake

I cannot help but to point out

1) The rim on the motorbike is bent where he hit the concrete curb at speed.

Who would think to do that if they were faking it?

2) His boot should be closer to his legs (if it was loose enough to come off).

This indicated to me the cause.

Someone should send this article to Mythbusters.

Just My $0.02


37. From: Jaclyn
Sent: Tuesday, October 30, 2012 6:45 PM
To: dance@ssqq.com
Subject: The Mystery of The Gruesome Motorcycle Accident


Hi, I'm not a police officer and I've never ever been seen a dead human body, but I grew up on a farm and being on a farm I've seen my fare share of dead things. I have also started studying to be a doctor. And because of all that I truly believe that the pictures are real, here are my reasons.
1. The ambulance, like some of the other people have said it costs a lot of money to fake that, and the reason the word on it is backwards is so you can see it in the rear view mirror, as for the number not being backwards it didn't need to be it is not important.
2. The body, I don't mean to be grouse or boring but, mathematically speaking, taking the speed and the angle that the motorcycle was traveling the parts of the body could end up there.
3. The torso, everyone else that has commented on this has mentioned the torso being almost vertical, am I the only one that noticed the backpack.
4. The motorcycle itself, OK so there isn't much damage on the motorcycle where the pictures show but what about the side we can't see. What if the motorcycle kept going on the tires until it lost speed and fell over possibly sliding a little and damaging the side we can't see.
5. The markings on the chin, like someone else said it could have been a helmet, and isn't that water over on the far side of the street? Could the helmet gone over the side?
6. The scooter off to the side, could have belonged to photographer.
To sum it all up I don't think it is fake but if it is someone went through unnecessary trouble and money to make it look that real.
 

 

CONCLUSION - So what does Rick Archer think?  

I think the accident is REAL... but I could be wrong.

Over the course of time since I first posted the pictures, the email votes have run about 2-1 in favor of FAKE.   A few people said it was real, but the vast majority have disagreed.

I think the very fact that so many people are confused about the photographic evidence is what makes this mystery so compelling.   Whatever the truth is, it is definitely not "obvious".   These pictures really do force us to wonder and wish we had more evidence to go on. 

Besides, our well-deserved distrust of anything we read or see on the Internet further heightens our suspicion.  I have been tricked by things I have seen on the Internet and I am sure our readers have as well... and we are all determined not to let it happen again (incidentally, you have my word I have not altered these pictures in any way).

Before I continue, I would like you to read my favorite letter.  I saw it posted on another web site.  I do not know who wrote it, but this letter speaks to my sentiments exactly.

"Hello, is this the Budapest Emergency Services?  Good to get you on the line!

I'd like to stage a fake motorcycle accident and I am looking for your participation in this great scam.  We will need your ambulance vehicles and uniformed personnel to be on the scene in order to make the photos look real.  We've got a realistic but phony body that is broken in half, along with fake blood and sheep intestines on hand to fool everybody on the internet.  But we will need your help to stop traffic for a long time while we take our pictures.  Plus your vehicles will provide an excellent finishing touch to the pictures.  I hope that will not be a big problem.  Please advise of your availability to carry out this endeavor."

"Oh but of course, buddy!  The Budapest emergency personnel love to be involved in stupid internet scams.  Fooling the public is our specialty.  We don't worry about losing our jobs since our supervisor doesn't care if we waste our time.  Real accidents practically never occur while we are busy filming fake accidents.  Nor does he care if pictures of our vehicles with license plate numbers in full display get posted on the Internet.  We love doing stuff like this every chance we get!  What is the time and location of your scam so we can put it on our schedule?"

"Great!  This is best scam ever.  This will be too much fun.  We will make you guys famous.  See you tomorrow at about 3:00 pm.  We are a little short on fake blood, but wait till you see the guts!  OMG.  You are really going to be impressed.  Thanks so much!"


I think the pictures are REAL for two reasons.

Issue One - Presence of Authentic Emergency Vehicles

The first reason is related to the sarcastic letter above.  How do you get the emergency vehicles and personnel involved in a scam as gruesome as this?   The answer is:  You don't.

Now it is true that a legitimate film company might be able to arrange something like this for a movie.  But these kind of movies cost MILLIONS of dollars.  In other words, the only kind of people able to fake a scene like this would have to be professional movie makers. 

These pictures have been on the Internet since early 2007.  Has this scene appeared in any movie?  No. 

Was this scene deleted from a Final Destination-type movie?  Perhaps.  But why would it be cut?  As horrible as this poor man's fate is, there is plenty of material in modern horror films that is equally disturbing (the Halloween remake, for example, or many scenes from Saw). 

As the explanations for 'fake' start to get more and more far-fetched, the more likely explanation becomes that the pictures are real.


Issue Two - Absence of Blood

I agree the absence of blood is curious.  That has been a real issue for many people.

As you will read later, there are some medical people who have written in to suggest the seeming lack of blood has a medical explanation.   Whether you believe these letters, of course, is up to you.  

Let me add I ran these pictures past a policeman friend of mine.  His conclusion was the scene is real.   He said those sidewalk skid marks would be difficult to stage so realistically.  He added that perhaps the blood had time to coagulate underneath the torso due to its unusual upright position. 

On the other hand, the policeman raised some interesting questions - 

1. Why didn't this set of photographs include a picture to explain what caused the accident? 
2. How did a pole that thick cut a body in half so cleanly? 
3. Why wasn't there any written explanation in the email to accompany the pictures? 
4. Where did the pictures come from and why doesn't anybody claim them?
6. Why can't anybody find any explanation on the Internet to accompany the pictures? After all, the words 'motorcycle accident' or 'cycle death' should generate some kind of hit.

Oddly enough, at the end of our conversation, it seemed to me my policeman friend was starting to change his mind... like everyone else, he grew less confident the more he studied the pictures.  It really is a mystery.

THEREFORE, THE JURY IS STILL OUT...
 

You have seen the pictures and read the comments. 
So what do you think?  Fake or Real?
If you wish to add your thoughts, I will publish them with your full name and email address omitted. 

 dance@ssqq.com


July 9, 2008
SPECIAL NOTE - THE JURY IS NOW IN.
WE NOW HAVE A VERDICT
 

 Bizarre Death Stories  Motorcycle Accident Pictures  Solution to the Accident

 

 
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