MORE IRONIC DEATHS

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2011, Fagilyu Mukhametzyanov

Fagilyu Mukhametzyanov, 49, collapsed at her home with chest pains. Doctors at a hospital in Kazan, Russia, told her husband Fagill, 51, that she'd suffered a massive heart attack, and was dead. The family gathered for her funeral two days later, and, as grieving relatives filed past the open casket, the "dead" woman's eyes fluttered, and opened. She heard mourners praying for her soul to go to heaven. RealiSing where she was, she started screaming. According to her widowered husband, "We immediately rushed her back to the hospital but she only lived for another 12 minutes in intensive care before she died again, this time for good."

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1998, Eugene Aserinsky

Eugene Aserinsky (1921 – 1998) was a pioneer in sleep research who discovered REM sleep after hours spent studying the eyelids of sleeping subjects. It was determined that this "rapid-eye movement" was correlated with dreaming and a general increase in brain activity. Aserinsky pioneered procedures that have now been used with thousands of volunteers using the electroencephalograph. Because of these discoveries, Aserinsky and his colleague Kleitman are generally considered the founders of modern sleep research. Aserinsky died in 1998 when his car hit a tree north of San Diego as a result of his falling asleep at the wheel.

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1984, James Fixx

James Fixx (1932 – 1984) was an American who wrote the 1977 best-selling book The Complete Book of Running. He is credited with helping start America's fitness revolution by popularising the sport of running and demonstrating the health benefits of regular jogging. He died of a heart attack while jogging at 52 years of age; his genetic predisposition for heart problems and other previous lifestyle factors may have caused his heart attack.

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2005, Derek Kieper

Despite the vital role automobile seat belts have played in saving thousands and thousands of lives over the last several decades, there is still a group of drivers and passengers who are determined not to wear them, for any number of reasons: because they find them too uncomfortable or confining, because they don't believe in their efficacy, because they've heard that wearing seat belts might actually cost them their lives in certain types of accidents, or because they resent as an unwarranted intrusion of government into private life the plethora of laws now requiring motorists to buckle up. Derek Kieper was one, who had written "Uncle Sam is not here to regulate every facet of life no matter the consequences," and that "Democrats and Republicans alike should stand together to stop these laws that are incongruous with the ideals of both parties. As laws become increasingly strict for seat belts, fewer people will respond positively by buckling up in response to the laws. There seems to be a die-hard group of non-wearers out there who simply do not wish to buckle up no matter what the government does. I belong to this group.” Kieper died in 2005 when he was ejected from a vehicle that rolled. The other occupants in the car, who were wearing seatbelts, survived; Kieper, who was not wearing a seatbelt, would also have survived if he had worn one.

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2011, Philip Contos

In 2011 Philip Contos was participating in a ride with 550 other motorcyclists to protest the New York State's mandatory helmet law. The ride was organised by American Bikers Aimed Toward Education, known as ABATE, a group of motorcycling enthusiasts who lobby for motorcycle awareness and freedom. The Onondaga chapter of ABATE has sponsored the helmet protest ride for the past 11 years every July 4 weekend. Police said Contos, 55, hit his brakes and his motorcycle fishtailed. Contos was sent over the handlebars of his 1983 Harley Davidson and hit his head on the pavement. He was pronounced dead at the hospital. The medical expert who pronounced him deceased stated that he would have no doubt survived the accident had he been wearing a helmet.

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1980, Troy Leon Gregg

Troy Leon Gregg (1948 – 1980) was the first condemned individual whose death sentence was upheld by the United States Supreme Court after the Court's decision in Furman v. Georgia invalidated all previous capital punishment laws in the United States. In 1980 Gregg escaped, together with three other condemned murderers, fromGeorgia State Prison in the first death row breakout in Georgia history. The four had altered their prison clothing to resemble the uniforms worn by correctional officers, then sawed through the bars of their cells and a window and walked along a ledge to a fire escape. They subsequently drove off in a car which had been left in the visitors' parking lot by one of the escapees' aunts. Their escape was not discovered until Gregg telephoned a newspaper to explain their reasons for doing so. The same night as the escape, Gregg was drinking in a North Carolina bar. He ended up in a fight with local bikers and was beaten to death.

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2006, Steve Irwin

Steve Irwin (1962 – 2006), known as "The Crocodile Hunter", was an Australian zookeeper, conservationist, television personality, wildlife educator, and environmentalist. Irwin grew up around crocodiles and other types of reptiles and was educated regarding them by his father, Bob. He achieved international fame in the late 1990s from the television series The Crocodile Hunter, an internationally broadcast wildlife documentary series that he co-hosted with his wife, Terri. In 2006 while filming an episode of Ocean’s Deadliest in the Great Barrier Reef, a large stingray struck him on his chest with its tail spine, piercing his heart and he bled to death.

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1871, Clement Vallandigham

Clement Vallandigham (1820 – 1871) was an American lawyer and politician who served as the leader of the Copperhead faction of anti-war Democrats during the American Civil War. In 1871 he defended a man named Thomas McGehan on murder charges. Vallandigham’s theory was that the victim had actually shot himself while in a kneeling position. To demonstrate that this was physically possible, Vallandigham recreated the event in the courtroom using a pistol he thought was unloaded. To his extremely brief dismay, it was loaded, and he accidentally shot himself to death, proving his legal theory and leading to his client’s acquittal. (McGehan was shot to death four years later in his saloon).

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1993, Garry Hoy

Garry Hoy was a corporate and securities law specialist for the law firm of Holden Day Wilson in Toronto. While giving a tour of the Toronto-Dominion Centre to a group of articling students, he attempted to demonstrate the strength of the structure's window glass by slamming himself into a window. He had apparently performed this stunt many times in the past, having previously bounced harmlessly off the glass. After one attempt which saw the glass hold up, Hoy tried once more. In this instance, the force of Hoy slamming into the window removed the window from its frame, causing the entire intact window and Hoy to fall to his death from the building. Structural engineer Bob Greer was quoted by the Toronto Star as saying, "I don't know of any building code in the world that would allow a 160-pound [73 kg] man to run up against a glass and withstand it."

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1794, Captain John Kendrick

John Kendrick (1740–1794) was a Cape Cod sea captain who lived an adventure-filled life commanding whaling ships in peacetime and war ships during the American Revolution. In 1794, Kendrick's ship, Lady Washington, was in Fair Haven (now known as Honolulu) where he and his crew came to the aid of the local Hawaiian chief named Kalanikupule. An invading chief named Kaeo was trying to drive Kalanikupule out, but Kendrick teamed up with a British vessel, The Jackal, and together they helped Kalanikupule's warriors kill Kaeo and his men. The next day Kendrick ordered his crew to celebrate the victory by offering a 13-gun salute. The Jackal returned the salute with a cannon volley of its own but tragically one of its guns was still loaded with real grapeshot. It struck and killed Kendrick along with several of his officers as they ate breakfast on the deck of the Lady Washington.

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1940, Marcus Garvey

Marcus Garvey (1887 – 1940) was a political activist and a pioneering black nationalist with a penchant for wearing extremely complicated hats. Following a stroke which left him largely paralysed, many newspapers published premature obituaries in late May 1940. many of which he read. Reading a negatively slanted premature obituary of himself in the Chicago Defender which claimed that Garvey had died “broke, alone, and unpopular,” he had a further stroke and died.

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1976, Keith Relf

Keith Relf (1943 – 1976) was an English musician, best known as the lead vocalist and harmonica player for rock band the Yardbirds, which spawned the legendary guitarists Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, and Jimmy Page. Relf died in the basement of his home in 1976 at age 33 from electrocution while playing an ungrounded electric guitar.